Ichiko Aoba (青葉市子) is a Japanese artist who found her way to my ear in late 2020, when
Windswept Adan made the rounds late in the year and impacting a few best-of lists. She visited Portland last night as part of her first ever tour in North America. Her performance showcased her divine vocal prowess, and her otherworldly classical guitar talent. Smitten by her, truly. I will be thinking about last night's concert for years to come.
I got to the venue about 40min before doors to ensure a nice seat...and I was the first one there! After entering, I got a seat directly in front of the lone chair on the stage where Aoba would sit in for the entirety of the show. Very minimal stage equipment/instruments.
I got seated for about half an hour before deciding to check out merch, which had $40 signed copies of
Windswept Adan, some T-shirts (of XL sizes and above only), story booklets of
Windswept Adan, and signed posters. I had brought my own
Windswept Adan jacket from home hoping to get it signed. Upon overhearing that someone asked a merch attendant if Aoba would be signing merch after the show, he was told that she did at some stops and not at others. I panicked upon hearing this and decided to buy a signed copy (which was at dangerously low stock) at the table, as well as a poster. Headed back to my seat to await the show.
Charlie Martin
Again with another solid opener. Perhaps some of you know of his music on this forum? His name sounds oddly familiar.
Singer/songwriter artist with a bit of twang. Enjoyable, and will add him to my backlog.
Ichiko Aoba (青葉市子)
She drew everyone's eyes from the moment she stepped onto the stage. Her traditional clothing, graceful and polite speech in a room so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and her classical guitar were transfixing. By the time she finished the second song in the setlist (the extravagant "Pilgrimage"), I completely forgot that there were people next to me in a packed, seated venue.
She played 12 songs, mostly from
Windswept Adan but a few from
0 and others as well. Set time went for just under ~70min, including encore.
In between songs, she occasionally used her humming as a vehicle to create a short story, much like how the Katakana alphabet can be used to mimic sound effects. In one incredibly cute instance, she used her humming to create the onomatopoeic sound to a small insect landing on her mic stand, using her right index+middle fingers to symbolize the insect itself, oscillated her pitch in tandem with moving her fingers along the stand up to the microphone, then up to the element, and then a quick sharp gobble as her fingers landed on the microphone element.
Not only was this a top10 show for the year, it's one of my top10 all time. I have no doubt in my mind. I was so moved and captivated by what I had the honor to have witnessed and hear.
This song, "機械仕掛乃宇宙" from Aoba's excellent
0 features so many twists and turns, and changing time signatures to go along with a heartfelt vocal performance. This song is actually over 12min long, but I only captured the last 8min of it.
This one titled "太陽さん" as well, a quick and delightful closer before the encore:
Post-Show
After stretching and chatting briefly with the nearby people in the front, I waited around in the main stage area if others were thinking about the same. I ended up heading down to merch area and had a chat with a pair of gentlemen while waiting in line for ~5min, which I entered the conversation after hearing one of them mentioning MP as a record store that he liked. Small world!
After I got near to the front of the merch table, Aoba appeared just a minute later. She was signing booklets and records that some people brought from home. I asked her in Japanese to request in signing mine that I brought with me, which has a slightly different signature to the one I bought at the table (it has the same fish and name scribble, but also with "18 Oct 2022" symbolizing the concert day
). Also got a photo with her!
I thanked her for the beautiful concert and wished her well for the rest of tour, hoping that she makes a return to Portland someday.
With the second signed
Windswept Adan, I'll figure out what to do with it eventually. NO, this does not count towards my no-buy month, which I have honored.
I'm still smitten.
EDIT: Corrected Ichiko's first name; used incorrect kanji in bolded subheader.
EDIT 2: Found the song title for the closer in the second video, "太陽さん." It can be interpreted as "Mr./Mrs. Sun" like giving the sun personification. Very appropriate given the cheeriness of the music.
