I went to Noise May-Day in 2009 when I was living in Japan. I think the line-up was Crossbred, BusRatch Solmania, Jojo, and Masonna. But correct me if I'm wrong as I think I lost the flyer long ago.
I remember Crossbreed being relatively chill synth stuff and a strangely unexciting way to start the night. I might enjoy it more now but at the time it seemed uninteresting.
BusRatch were fucking awesome! Total turntable and record destruction at least 10 if not closer to 20 records were utterly destroyed, flung into the crowd, pieces scattered. I have pieces of some of those records. The sound was extremely jagged, damaged and ripping. I've never seen anything like that again.
This next part is from a thread I started a while back about best lives shows:
Solmania & Jojo Hiroshige @ Noise May Day 2009, Osaka, 5-09 - now I can't remember if JoJo Hiroshige played with Solmania or after... I think it was after, but I was in a very frenzied and drunken state. What I remember is an endless wall of brain melting noise from Solmania, so completely crushing and massive I could barely move and then at some point Jojo came out into the crowd swinging a cinderblock around and then the next thing I knew I was holding on to the other end spinning in a circle with him until we threw it into a wall. it was fucking nuts. I still have a piece of that cinderblock too. and I think this was all before Masonna closed the night out with a 45 second set. But Solmania's performance made me fall in love with them forever and Jojo's reckless disregard for human safety crowned him "noise king" in my mind.
And to give a little more detail on Masonna's set. I was in the dead-center front when he came out and he immediately kicked a mic stand directly into my nuts so I spent the set hunched over in excruciating pain. he jumped and flipped all around the stage with his shaker while delivering a rapid fire explosive barrage of noise. it was like a single segment of any of his mid '90s albums played at maximum volume with maximum force. awe inspiring and literally testicular bashing.
I remember this all more from telling the stories about it over and over than as actual memory because I was drinking a lot throughout, but I think it's fairly accurate. I think I was probably the only honky at the show or one of the only. I attempted to talk to a lot of people with varying levels of success and made one friend who I still talk to today, not including the friend I went with. That night is one of my fondest memories.
