59th Kohaku Uta Gassen

Fabio’s favorites Pabo performed, but unfortunately, paired with some old guys. Perfume got to do a solo, but they were pretty terrible with the synthesized Cher-o-phonic distortion thing going, but they still weren’t as bad as show opener Hamasaki Ayumi. I wonder how long it will take people in Japan to wake up and realize that she really sucks jagged kidney stones? Speaking of suck, NHK resurrected the dead with a performance by washed-up has-beens,Speed. Last year it was TMR who got a chance to reprise his youthful days as a top-selling artist. This year, Speed went on to prove that time and a mediocre wine yield an old, mediocre wine. They were still as bad as they were when they were on the Oricon charts, with flat notes and voices strained on the high-pitched edge of cracking in the same places they have always been. Mikawa Kenichi’s performance was somewhat rudely intruded upon by some gangly tall transvestite. I guess recently, they have felt the need to have something on the shocking side – last year it was that naked fitness dude, and the year before that it was HG. Probably the best performances of the night were the operatic tenor dude and Jero (Jerome Charles White, Jr.). Angela Aki, Aoyama Thelma, and Hirai Ken performed well, although I am not a big fan of their genre of pop. Needless to say ,there was no good rock. There have been rock acts in the past, but nothing harder than L’arc en Ciel. They really needed Krauser II and DMC! Here’s the official site if you’re interested.