First Live at Shiroten (April 28, 2024)

This article has 4267 characters. (Estimated reading time: about 5 minutes and 30 seconds)

Google Gemini translated this article from Japanese to English.

Prologue

Tsukasa Minami: Live Report

Tsukasa Minami here, a singer-songwriter based in the vibrant city of Osaka.

My first live performance of the season was supposed to be at Shiroten Street Live in Osaka Castle Park on March 17th. However, both Shiroten events in March were canceled due to unfortunate weather conditions, making April 28th the true opening night of my season for me.

Here's a report on that live performance.

Here We Go Again!

About a month after the end of last season, I lost my mother and was unable to sing.

『My beloved mother passed away on 11/26/2023.』This article has 7568 characters. (Estimated reading time: about 7 minutes and …

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I had a lot of trouble until the start of this season.

For a while, I thought I would never be able to do music again, but somehow I managed to come back to this place, Osaka Castle Park, this year as well.

The familiar grand staircase leading from JR Osaka Castle Park Station to the live venue, Osaka Castle Park, felt surprisingly fresh for some reason.

Grand staircase to the left upon exiting JR Osaka Castle Park Station

As soon as I stood in this place, Miranda Otsuji's singing voice reached my ears.

ホーム | Miranda Otsuji

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She is a vibrant singer-songwriter who always cheers people up.

I always get energy from her.＾＾

My New Secret Weapon: The Carry Cart

First, I headed to the artist's lounge tent.

This year, I'm introducing my new secret weapon: a carry cart.

I loaded my acoustic guitar onto the cart, secured a tripod and music stand with rubber bands, and gave it a try.

Compared to last season, transporting my equipment was a breeze.

Acoustic guitar, stands, and other items on a carry cart. Remaining items.

No more sinking feeling in my feet, fading grip strength, and the weight of my gear digging into my shoulders.

I'm done with that feeling from last year's concert.

The Roots of Street Music

Last season, I always performed in flashy costumes, but this season, I decided to go back to the roots of street music.

I decided to perform without stage costumes and just in my everyday clothes. That's all there is to it.

20240428：Shiroten Street Live（Tsukasa Minami）1

20240428：Shiroten Street Live（Tsukasa Minami）2

I've always felt that many artists' still images posted on X (formerly Twitter) look out of place when it comes to street performances if they wear special costumes.

But looking at the photos of my recent street performance in my everyday clothes, I can definitely see that I blend in with the surroundings better than I did in my stage costumes last year.

I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll wear a costume for my future street performances.

Setlist

１）Depression and Psychedelic Daily Life

（『せっかくだから、少しでもいい音で音楽を楽しんで欲しい。』）

２）Yodo Big River Blues

（『せっかくだから、少しでもいい音で音楽を楽しんで欲しい。』）

３）An Unpleasant Woman (1993)

（『せっかくだから、少しでもいい音で音楽を楽しんで欲しい。』）

４）Gas Light

※This song hasn't been released yet.

This song is one that I wrote and scrapped many years ago.

This song was completed, but I decided not to release it because the lyrics became absurdly surreal and difficult to understand when I combined old-fashioned phrases, situations, and words with new expressions on a melody that sounded like a mix of post-war Showa kayō and mood kayō from the 1960s and 1970s.

While it might sound surreal, the simple truth is that the song just turned out weird, so I scrapped it.

However, I recently came across this song again by chance and thought, "Hey, this song might actually be good!"

So I tried performing it at my recent live show, and one person on X (formerly Twitter) praised it as a "masterpiece."

So I'm thinking maybe I should properly record and release it.

In the first place, lyrics are not always meant to be easily understood.

Some lyrics take a long time to decipher, while others remain forever cryptic. And still others require specialized knowledge to be fully understood.

In fact, some lyrics are nothing more than wordplay with no inherent meaning.

So, while the lyrics themselves ended up being surreal, I decided that it was okay for them to be difficult to understand.