On 3rd March 2023, at Rossi Musik Fatmawati I experienced one of the best live music experiences. I watched Ichiko Aoba, live.
The vibe was magical, to say the least. All the concert-goers were sitting down, and feeling the moment together.
I listen to music almost all the time. I blast them on my bookshelf speaker in my rented room, I wear my headphones all the time I walk, and I set the volume to the max my ears can handle at the office when no one needs me to listen. I love my active noise canceling headphones which with it I can mute the world and listen to my favorite bands like Fugazi, Blink-182, and Turnstile or dance a little bit to K-Pop jams from New Jeans, BigBang, and Red Velvet. From that, I realized that I listen to primarily noisy punk rock tracks or multi-layered produced pop albums. In the middle of it all, I sometimes found myself getting my head too clouded and can’t turn itself off.
Mindless scrolling has been quite a bit of a bad habit for me. It is harder to sit down and read books or watch full-length movies nowadays. My brain is addicted to a quick dopamine shot of the 15-secs videos on TikTok. From the trendy dances, food recommendations, or the latest internet beef, TikTok got me in its grasp and I just can’t stop scrolling and scrolling and ended up wasting most of my time (a topic I would love to write and contemplate in another story). One of the TikTok niches I am really into is the wholesome “a day in my life” type content. That is when I coincidentally heard my first Ichiko Aoba song — bouquet. It was one of the top sounds on the app, and you can probably tell the reason why if you listen to the song. It is such an easy to listen to song and anyone can enjoy it on a whim. (listen also to Asleep Among Andives, another… Ichiko Aoba’s song that is heavily featured on TikTok)
あなたが舞う — You are dancing in the wind;
この世界は — This world
かかえきれぬ — can’t hold you
花束のよう — just like a bouquet;
いかなる日も — On ordinary days
ご褒美の日も — and also rewarding days;
あすのための — For the sake of the tommorows
切符よ — this is the ticket;
生きて — So, live.
The word 舞う — mau is novel to me, it means “to dance in whirling motion (most probably caused by the wind)” which is directed to the flowers in her previous verse that she sings with an ethereal tone and melody. Lotus, peony, daisy, plumeria, lupinus, laurier, lily, wisteria.
As I looked it up on the dictionary I started to get my own understanding of the song, talking about flowers and how it turns into a beautiful bouquet. The bouquet can symbolize anything and be used by us humans to celebrate life.
Such a simple concept for a song really, but a beautiful one. It all got intensified with Ichiko Aoba’s out-of-this-world vocal. I feel like I am transported to a different world in which I am one with nature and just embrace its beauty. Crazy, right? Coming from a random TikTok sound I found while mindlessly scrolling trying to find a spark of joy in my mundane daily life. (In a way it did gave me a new spark in life)
I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of Ichiko Aoba (青葉市子), a Japanese folk singer/songwriter who started her career in 2010, after learning how to play classical guitar when she was 17. Now, with her own label hermine she has released several albums and contributed to some soundtracks for movies and games.
What really captivates me is how her songwriting is inspired by her dreams and nature. With guitar, piano, clarinet, accordion, and flute as her musical instruments of disposal, her sound is like those coming straight out of Studio Ghibli and Disney movies which are also her inspiration.
My personal favorite album of Ichiko Aoba’s discography is the album “0” with いきのこり●ぼくら — ikinokori●bokura (The survivors, we) as my favorite track which is also the first track of the album. I found the dreamy settings of ikinokori●bokura to be charming. And how the rhythm was mostly upbeat on the whole track and then there’s some sort of breakdown-ish rhythm in the middle with the lyrics basically on its climax.
I also played many of her bootlegs/covers compilation on YouTube, and even downloaded them on my YouTube app. Other releases I would recommend are qp, 剃刀乙女 — kamisari otome, the live album gift, and her latest Windswept Adan.
In the midst of all the noises in my life, I found comfort in Ichiko Aoba’s discography. The most prevalent case is in my routine of taking a shuttle bus from Jakarta, where I work to Bandung where my family lives. Taking a ride in a shuttle bus can be tiring because of the bumpy toll roads in this country and how noisy the friction of the tires against the asphalt are.
I would just put on my headphone and take myself on a journey of Ichiko Aoba’s world of dreams. Through a 2-hour ride or a 5-hour one (usually happened after a long weekend in which the road will be totally congested). I can just close my eyes and let the sound of her nylon strings take me to all sorts of stories.
I was at work when I see this poster on my timeline.
I do not want to miss another chance (still regret the fact I could not attend lamp’s show in Rossi Musik a few years back). So I went to the Store Front website immediately and grab a ticket for one. I was so lucky to have one of my Twitter friends also attending the concert. We decided to meet up at the venue.
March 3rd was a Friday. I took my Honda moped through the hustling traffic jam of Jakarta after-work rush hours (got lost a few times, I was still fairly new in the city at that time). And there I am in the run-down building of Rossi Musik Fatmawati. It was a vibe.
To my surprise, I met my Bandung high school friend there. I did not expect that the reach of Ichiko Aoba is far and wide. Those that came to the concert dressed immaculately. I can immediately judge those edgy Japanese culture-loving kids. Pretty sure they are listening to Duvet by Bôa in the queue while waiting (lmao). Or maybe some obscure breakcore playlist with anime girls as its visual from YouTube. I felt so underdressed wearing my work attire with a big backpack carrying my laptop and documents inside. Yet, I see those in the same boat as I am, with sweat on their face after what I presume is a long ride from their respective offices to watch this live music here in Fatmawati.
We got into the hall and everyone was told to sit down on the floor. I was just past my Post-Concert-Depression (PCD) from DPR Regime Tour (it was also awesome), and boy oh boy… I was not ready for an even bigger PCD from acoustic live music with a very minimalistic set of instruments.
Hara, was the opening act. This is also my chance to get to know Rara Sekar’s newest project. I used to listen to Banda Neira and Daramuda back in high school and college. But in this story, I will be much more focused on Ichiko Aoba’s set.
Everyone was already sitting down, and when Aoba-san got up on the stage, she put down a rose in a glass vase and picked up her guitar. テリフリアメ was the first song. I can feel the anticipation up in the air when she is playing the intro. And the next track is so familiar to my ears, it’s いきのこり●ぼくら. What really gets me is how people are singing or humming along to the melodies. The acoustic of Rossi Musik is perfect for this kind of situation. I feel like I was sharing this beautiful experience with the whole crowd and it was a different kind of feeling than a hip-hop concert in which people are dancing and screaming. This was new to me (been only to a hip-hop or rock music festival before).
A Spotify user is compiling all the songs in the Jakarta set, see down below:
I was left with my mouth open when the concert ended with how wholesome it was. I did not expect to feel like this from an acoustic set, and I would be more than glad to have something just like this in the future! The high school friend that I stumbled across told me, about how she and her boyfriend are looking for an intimate concert just like this one. I see that there are charms within the Japanese pop culture to the “normies” so to say. We associate Japanese-related niches with anime and otaku culture. But there is more in the spectrum of the weaboos in the scene.
As a train-loving, Yoshida Porter-wearing, hating-on-other-weaboos weaboo, I hope that more Japanese musicians got more exposure in Indonesia and can have their tours here in Jakarta. We see the current trends with Japanese IPs and franchises distributed legally in Indonesia. More anime and movies showing in the cinema and J-Pop acts touring here. This is a good time to be alive for all the weebs out there.
PS: please don’t ruin it by being a weird fan and keep supporting the official releases and events *wink*
