A Japanese rock band called ‘Luna Sea’ broken up one month ago had a last concert and it was totally unusual, though I only saw it on TV. Performers’ sentimental words for their fans and the audience were excited at those words. They both looked really strange. It’s far from the deep emotion we have when we experience excellent music and performance. It’s a temporary hysteria within an exclusive circle. But when it becomes a business, most of live concerts become no more than an amusement show.

Nevertheless, this solo concert of Hirasawa is a kind of amusement show entitled ‘Interactive Live Show’. He started P-Model at the dawn of the New Wave Age in 80’s and had continued his activities as an artist. It seems he has pursued the possibility of music and technology consistently. With the made-up nature of rock music stars and the current casual technologies such as video games and the internet as motives, he played the charismatic fool on the stage. Honestly, it made the outside audience including me (not really a fan of Hirasawa) laugh. But on the other hand, I couldn’t help feeling a fear for the depiction of technologic environment taking the current state into consideration as a show.

An originator of techno-pop, out-and-out Amiga handler, his own style as an interactive live, collaboration through the net, aggressive web development, attempt for a music distribution through the net since its early stage, etc… While he keeps attracting his old fans, he has involved in new type of fans including animation fans, game fans and CG manias. It’s like a monster eats bizarre foods. The circle looks like being close, but it’s diffusing at the core.

Toward the end of the live performance, there was a girl shouting at the top of her voice near my seat. She was rising from her seat alone and dancing wildly with disheveled hair, and it was the girl wearing the pleated one-piece dress of Issey Miyake who I saw on subway.

Susumu Hirasawa Interactive Live Show 2000
Date: December 18th, 2000
Place: Mielparque Hall
Address: 2-5−20 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://susumuhirasawa.com