There are rare occasions when it's refreshing to do something just a little bit crazy, take a chance and just see if it works, just because you can and life is short.
After two months back in Australia, we got back to our Taipei life for a week and a half, meeting our new colleagues and kids, greeting old friends and settling in before we flew to Japan for the weekend! Friday afternoon dash to the airport straight from school and back home again on Sunday evening...what a blast!
We seem to be ticking off items on "dream lists" as we go through life and one of the ones which had surely been missed was to see Queen in concert. Cassy has always wanted to see her favourite band live and although we had a chance decades ago we baulked at the ticket prices and the dream was unfulfilled...until now! I spotted Queen were doing a world tour with Adam Lambert, but the Australian dates were after we'd left. As chance would have it they were playing shows in Japan and Korea before Australia and North America, and they would be the headline performers on day one of the Summer Sonic music festival in Osaka, Japan. The irony, of course, is that the weekend was just a tad more expensive than those tickets years ago would have been!
Anyway, new airline Peach whisked us back and forth between countries and the whisper efficient Japanese transport network ferried us to and from the airport and around the city so crisply for the couple of days. Our hotel was right at the end of the airport railway link and we went straight from train to room on the 31st floor with a panoramic view of the city. I was a little surprised to be able to launch straight into the vernacular so easily...even though my vocabulary is terribly rusty, it makes life so much easier to converse in the local language. The sights and sounds and smells of Japan were delightful and "natsukashi" (nostalgic) for me and Cassy just delights in everything Japanese: "I think Japan really suits me, I could live here". We shopped at tiny stores, ate in cafes and station curry houses, all the while marveling again and again at Japanese efficiency, politeness and cleanliness.
The task of arriving at the concert grounds was akin to a military operation. We got from hotel to Sakurajima station via two trains, then walked, shuttled bussed and walked again to arrive. We were given a "not to be replaced" wristband in exchange for our paper tickets and then had carte blanche to explore the entire vast estate of rock. Five different stages and an "Oasis" of food and drink in the middle was the recipe for a musical smorgasbord that we feasted upon for the next 10 hours or so. We bopped along to Japanese boy bands and enjoyed the ethereal alternatives like Banks on the Mountain Stage. At the Sonic Stage we enjoyed bands like English Charlie xcx and the electronic funk monkeys Metronomy. We wandered in and around venues, eating and drinking in between and soaking up a myriad of sights and sounds in the hours leading up to the main events. Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi fame was an engaging and talented artist on the main stage and shared a symbiotic partnership with his co-headliner, the Australian female guitar sensation, Orianthi. Let's rock!
The super cute and energetic Avril Lavigne was the warm-up act for Queen and she was a hard act to follow. Cass actually saw her here in Taipei a few years ago, and I was kinda keen to duck her so we could see Kasabian up on the mountain. In the end we had to lock in our positions to get a good spot for the headliners, so we had to stay and well, check this out! Well and truly in the mood, the crowd went ballistic when Queen appeared with all the pomp and ceremony befitting their name and their exalted status in the annuls of classic rock gods. Adam Lambert was magnificently camp as front man and uncannily like the late great Mercury. His soaring vocals were quite surreal and he had many moments, including a seamless duet with the real Freddie, appearing on the screens surrounding the stage. The original superstars, however, stole the show. Taylor's vocal accompaniments were solid and his drumming brilliant. Brian May engaged the crowd in Japanese and caressed his guitar with that soulful, signature bleat that only he can manage. During the set, it started to pour raining, yet it just seemed to add to the special atmosphere that was being created. A succession of clever, slightly lesser known song choices led into some classic anthems, the show closing with Radio Ga Ga, We will Rock You and We Are The Champions. What a night!!!
Somehow, we also managed to squeeze in an adventure out to Osaka Castle on Sunday, again negotiating the trains, this time a couple of subway lines. It was blazing hot and we were thankful that our daylight hours on Saturday had been cooled by cloud cover and the occasional drifiting shower. We sizzled in the summer sun, but the grounds were delightful and the fortifications quite mind-blowing (see photos above). A seamless return of subway, rapid train, airplane and limousine delivered us back to our own lounge room and the attentive ministrations of Virg'n Mary before 8 p.m. Sunday evening. Not only did we check something off a dream list, but we proved that we could do an international adventure in the confines of a regular weekend. Suffice to say, we had a ball: Cassy is still sporting her Sonic wristband today and the memories will linger.....