Knotfest Japan 2014

Like Loud Park last year, this was the second time for me to make a trip up north for a 2 day metal concert with my friend Akira. After learning from the last time, I felt much more prepared to deal with the exhaustion that was about to ensue and took precautions.

This year, it wasn’t only Akira and I. Our friend Shinya also came along which made me feel less guilty about sleeping some in the car. Shinya could also drive which helped take some of the load off Akira.

We left around 9 pm on Friday night after we were all off of work. This time the concert was at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture. Loud Park was in Saitama. Therefore, it was a little closer this time, I think. It still took a solid 7+ hours, though. A fun part was that we got to drive right through downtown Tokyo. We could see Tokyo Disneyland and the castle, Tokyo Tower, the Sky Tree, and Odaiba. We drove right over the Rainbow Bridge! That was the peak of our excitement during the drive. We were blasting my favorite metal bad, Asking Alexandria, as we entered Tokyo while singing along.

The crew.

The Tokyo Sky Tree off in the distance.

By the time we got there, scoped out where the venue, a bathhouse, and a manga-kissa was and brushed our teeth at a konbini, it was about 5 or 6 am. We slept in the car for about 3 hours before waking up to go to the concert. It was really cold and uncomfortable in the car, so that’s why we looked for a manga-kissa for the following night. Luckily, I had taken a nap before the trip and slept a bit in the car, so I was able to get through the day just fine.

The first day of the concert had the best bands. I didn’t know this beforehand, but this was the first Knotfest to take place overseas. The bands were really pumped about it. The concert was completely sold out, and there were soooooo many people! This was the first time I’ve seen a crowd as crazy as the ones in America since I came to Japan. People were moshing and crowd surfing all over the place! It was intense! I thought my ribs were gona break a couple times from being smashed by people. That’s the price you pay for being up front, though. The lineup for the first day was Henlee, Crystal Lake, Coldrain, Miss May I, Meaning, Bring Me the Horizon, Crossfaith, Lamb of God, Sim, Papa Roach, One Ok Rock, Limp Bizkit, and Slipknot. It was kind of cool to see some Japanese heavy metal bands. It was my first time to see several of the bands, so I was pretty excited. Plus, even the bands I had seen before were really good ones like Bring Me the Horizon, Lamb of God, and Slipknot. My favorite performance of the day and probably the whole festival was Limp Bizkit. He was so great! It really brought me back to my junior high school days lol!

Picture from Five Finger Death Punch's Instagram. Soooo
many people!

Miss May I.

Bring Me the Horizon.

Lamb of God.

After the concert, we headed to the bathhouse, ate dinner, and got cleaned up. After that, we were able to sleep well in the manga-kissa for a long time. It was my first time to go to a manga-kissa, and I was actually equally excited for that as I was the concert itself! Please read my previous post to learn about manga-kissa and my experience staying at one.

The next morning, we lined up to get t-shirts before grabbing some breakfast. We didn’t have much interest in the morning bands, so we kind of took it easy. We sat down and watched from afar. The lineup for the second day was as follows: Silhouette from the Skylit, Make My Day, AA=, Amon Amarth, Knock Out Monkey, Wagdug Futuristic Unity, Five Finger Death Punch, In Flames, Man with a Mission, Trivium, Korn, and Slipknot. I was most excited to see Five Finger Death Punch and Korn although I had seen them both before. Five Finger Death Punch put on an amazing show by really interacting with the crowd. He pulled two people up on stage, went into the crowd, and talked with us. Korn played all their best songs and were amazing. Since we had to drive home throughout the whole night and had already seen Slipknot the previous night, we decided to skip watching them again and get an early start home. Plus Akira had work the next day. Technically so did I, but I took it off.

My Knotfest t-shirt.

On the way home, I slept most of the time…except for when we almost got into an accident. I had been wearing my seatbelt the whole trip except at one point when we took a break at a rest stop. I was sleeping when we got there, woke up for a slight instant, took off my seat belt to get into a more comfortable position, and immediately fell back asleep before re-buckling up. Later, some person in front of us changed lanes quickly and cut us off, forcing us to slam on our breaks. I was in a dead sleep, and before I knew it, I was on the floor between the back and front seats, and my elbow hurt really badly. I had hit it on a plastic part of the front seat. When I got home, I iced it the next few days, and it ended up being ok, just a little swollen and purple. Seatbelt safety people! Bad things can happen to anyone! If you are the driver, check to see if you passengers are buckled up. I would’ve appreciated if someone noticed I wasn’t.

We made it home at about 5 in the morning, and I slept all day. Overall, the trip went a lot more smoothly, in my opinion, than last year. The lineup was really good! I’m excited to see which bands the next Knotfest will bring!

Knotfest success!