Last night popular local band elements played a superb show to a packed house at Urbanguild. And I’m absolutely gutted that the first time I get to see them is also the last! Sadly their original drummer Sanjyo Toru passed away last January, and I believe another member is now based in Tokyo, so last night was their way of celebrating and saying goodbye to all their fans and friends. I only recorded one video this time as I wanted to enjoy myself – and besides most of the time all I could see was this:

Fortunately, fellow Kyoto blogger Nils Ferry was there helping to film the whole event with some proper equipment. Later on elements will be producing a DVD, and you can email them at contactelements@wildmail.com if you’d like a copy of that. Anyway, I had a great time dancing about and headbanging like a loon to their music. It was a rare kind of awesome. It’s certainly a pity they are splitting up – but max tells me that the remaining members will still continue making music together in one form or another. I look forward to hearing more about that! Here are a few more pictures of the night that I managed to take between the flailing arms and sweaty bodies:
And here’s that one wee video. I don’t know what this song is called. Perhaps max or ryotaro can tell us in the comments.
Related: RAW elements @ Alphabet Ave.
Hi Michael,
Great to finally meet you, too. I really appreciate all that you are doing with Deep Kyoto to keep Kyotoites aware of what’s going on. What an amazing show that was!
Editing is under way. It was a 2-cam shoot with John Wells, so there is a lot of footage to get through, as well as syncing with the audio recordings. The awesome 2-song final encore with max’s great ending is finished; I wish I could post it here, but it hasn’t been reviewed yet, so watch http://www.planetkyoto.com for teasers coming up. Also, there is a page for DVD details at http://www.planetkyoto.com/elements/
Thank you for joining us in deep Kiyamachi for our last gig together, Michael.
The song you recorded is from a mini-album we released in the late 90’s called Let’s Dance.
Some of us will play together in units from time to time and hopefully all of us will keep playing.
I’ve seen some of the footage Nils and John shot. If only someone had made us look so good a few years ago…
Your site is super impressive, by the way.
max
Thanks max! Keep us informed of your future ventures!