NHK's SONGS Screen Caps and (some) Video!

Thanks to a reader named rachael, I'm finally able to bring you some screen grabs and a little video from Puffy's recent appearance on NHK's SONGS in Japan. As you can probably guess, the whole video is out there... but I'm doing my best to keep what I post on this blog within the nebulous realm of fair use. So I'm neither going to link to it nor repost it in its entirety, but hey, I can't stop you from doing whatever you're gonna do if you decide to look for it. If there was a store somewhere selling this video, I'd encourage you to go and buy it. Still, I can bring you some pics and one video to give you a taste of it.

What is SONGS and why should you care? Well, it's a concert/performance show that also mixes in bio info and interviews. It's sort of a retrospective show, but with a live performance as the centerpiece. Nice thing is it's narrated by the band itself - in this case, both Ami and Yumi. Pretty neat if you're a fan.

I posted it earlier, but here's the set list:

Electric Beach Fever
Hi Hi

Special Medley:
Kore ga Watashi no Ikirumichi
Kuchibiru Motion
Circuit no Musume

Ajia no Junshin
Oriental Diamond

The audience is obviously small and controlled, and the stage and lights are all NHK's - so believe me, this is not what a real Puffy show feels like. But it's close enough, and it's national TV - great seeing them get the exposure. Some pics, with video at the bottom:

One strange but kinda nice thing about Japanese music shows is that they always put the lyrics on the bottom of the screen as the band sings them.

There was a section about Puffy's success in the United States, going all the way back to the SXSW show in 2000. I wish I could have understood more of what they were saying here.

The aforementioned SXSW show...


Yumi in an interview segment


A little of the crowd...


The trademark Puffy concert banter


Yumi's harmonica solo during "Kore ga Watashi no Ikirumichi"


Puffy perform "Kuchibiru Motion"
(I can actually read and understand all of those lyrics! Maybe I know a little more of the language than I thought...)


One of the retrospective segments.
Yumi looked and sounded completely different in those days. She's changed a lot.
And Ami looked tiny!


There's obviously a lot of talk in the show about Tamio Okuda.
The odd thing is both the photo and the way they talk about him makes it sound like he's dead! (He very much isn't.)


Ami in an interview segment. She always looks so serene these days.


Yumi during "Ajia no Junshin".


"Ajia no Junshin" (1996)


Ami near the end of the show

And here you go, "Ajia no Junshin" in action: