{"id":84597,"date":"2006-07-14T01:41:33","date_gmt":"2006-07-13T16:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/?p=84597"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:40:59","slug":"benji-and-chiba-and-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/20060714\/everyday-events\/benji-and-chiba-and-all-that","title":{"rendered":"Benji and Chiba and All That"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

It’s hot in Tokyo! We’re heading into the scorching Obon season\u2014and we’re all set here at Decoboco!
\nToday I headed to Shibuya AX to catch Benji, aka Kenichi Asai, for the first time in ages.
\nIt’s been a while since I’ve been to a proper live show, so I was pretty nervous.
\nTakuma and I arrived on the two-wheeler in the rain.
\nIt was a tag-team format with four artists, and I figured Benji would obviously be the closer, but…
\n1. Miki Furkawa 2. 8 (otto) 3. Teruru 4. Kenichi Asai
\nI missed the start of number one, which was a shame! Miki Furkawa is actually really good\u2014she brought this crystalline quality that reminded me of Supercar,
\nand I was moved by that whole world she created. Really good!
\nNext up was number two, “8”! The intro alone gave me chills. The guitar and bass were both incredibly tight, and the balance across everything was perfect!
\nAnd here’s something unusual\u2014the drummer was also the vocalist! I’d never seen that before!
\nAnd that vocalist’s voice was really lovely and memorable. They seem to be based mostly in Osaka,
\nso I definitely want to catch them again, and I’ve decided I’m buying their CD for sure.
\nNumber three kind of got lost in the mix with these other artists\u2014which is a shame, because they’re not bad at all. But to borrow someone else’s words,
\nthere was an undeniable “oldies” and “cheesy” vibe to it.
\nIn the context of tonight’s crowd, it landed in a pretty different world.
\nNumber four! The closer was Benji, aka Kenichi Asai! How long has it been since I’ve seen Benji?
\nThis was Benji’s first solo outing, so I was a mix of excited and nervous. Takuma and I squeezed our way up to the front-center area
\nto see what was what.
\nIt was amazing! He mixed in Blankey Jet City songs too, and I was bouncing up and down the whole time, sweating buckets like I hadn’t in ages.
\nOn the way out I forgot to buy a t-shirt, so I waited for Takuma, but he’d already grabbed a cute “8” t-shirt
\n\u2014though they only had size S, so oh well!
\nMan, Benji’s whole world really is something! Morbidly brilliant! Pure ear candy!
\nNext month I’m hitting up Zepp Tokyo’s blacklist\u2014that’s Chiba and Q-chan!!
\nThis time I’m definitely buying a t-shirt!
\nI really want to catch Benji at the outdoor venue too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hot in Tokyo! We’re heading into the scorching Obon season\u2014and we’re all set here at Decoboco! Today I headed to Shibuya AX to catch Benji, aka Kenichi Asai, for the first time in ages. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a proper live show, so I was pretty nervous. Takuma and I arrived on the two-wheeler in the rain. It was a tag-team format with four artists, and I figured Benji would obviously be the closer, but… 1. Miki Furkawa 2. 8 (otto) 3. Teruru 4. Kenichi Asai I missed the start of number one, which was a shame! Miki Furkawa is actually really good\u2014she brought this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pochipp_cv_data":"","swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1924],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-84597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyday-events","tag-old-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}