Yoshida Brothers rock!

May 19 ’09

I rarely post about music, but I just got back from an awesome concert, and I thought I'd share.

The Yoshida Brothers are brothers from Hokkaido (northern Japan) who are just over 30 years old and have been playing the shamisen since they were five. They are truly masters of the instrument.

They play some traditional Tsugaru shamisen, but they also use their shamisen as rock instruments, sometimes with guitars, keyboards or DJs as accompaniment. Try this on for size:

Given the punch that the video packs, you would wonder about their show — it was the two of them and a drummer. Well, it's possible to rock with just three people, let me assure you. They opened with a track similar to "Rising" played over the sound system for which they provided lead "guitars." The rest of the show moved between more traditional pieces and modern syncretic work like "Rising." Their traditional pieces show off their skills better: they're playing synchronized at such high speed that any mistake will be easily heard. But there are none to hear.

The modern work draws from jazz, blues, latin, rock and traditional Japanese music to provide the kind of explosive blend that only Japan seems to do. It's sometimes hard to follow exactly what's going on, so you stop trying and go along for the ride.

I can't recommend the Yoshida Brothers enough. They're touring the west coast for a few more days only (Seattle and then Vancouver) before heading back to Japan; I just hope that they'll be back.