Rolling down the mountain

If there's a paradise in Japan, it's the Fuji Rock Festival.

For three days in the misty mountains of Niigata four-hours north of Tokyo, about 40,000 music lovers can forget about record unemployment, exports cut in half, and five decades of one-party rule. Instead, we pitch our tents on the slopes, form orderly queues for showers and toilets, and lose our minds to the best bands in the world.

Seeing Oasis on Friday night was almost a religious experience. Torrential rain, which killed a dozen people in landslides during the week, turned the valley into a sea of mud. Soaked to the bone and shivering, many of the 20,000 diehards recalled the first Fuji Rock in 1997, when a typhoon nearly blew people off the side of the 3,776-metre volcano, forcing organisers to cancel the next day's programme and move the event to its present site, the Naeba ski resort in Niigata.

With no place to sit, I stood for hours at various stages watching energetic sets from Patti Smith, Lilly Allen and Peaches - all women proving they can go deeper and darker than men. By contrast Paul Weller, my teenage idol and leader of UK mod legends The Jam, seemed mellow and almost sorry to make people brave "the awful conditions" to see him.

During the soundcheck for Oasis, the organisers announced the cancellation of an all-night rave, featuring Ken Ishii, Asano Tadanobu and Towa Tei, due to a swollen river and a damaged bridge. The festival seemed doomed, and I was thinking of hiking to the Prince Hotel to prevent death by hypothermia.

But then, out came Noel and Liam Gallagher, only 30 metres in front of me. They didn't bother trying to promote untested new material, as Paul Weller unfortunately did. Oasis rolled out the anthems: "Rock 'n' Roll Star", "Roll With It", "Morning Glory", "Supersonic", and some newer hits like "Shock of Lightning". The Japanese fans, often too shy to speak English elsewhere, sang along word for word. People cried tears of joy. This was a historic concert worth braving the cold temperatures for.

Forget the Beatles. Oasis is the biggest band ever in Asia, and this is why. Working-class lads from industrial Manchester, they are just like ordinary Asians: honest, humble and hard-working, with an ear for good melodies. They didn't try to impress us with stage antics (like the "new" new-wave buzz-band Franz Ferdinand on Saturday night), or their knowledge of Japanese (as Weezer did on Sunday). And they don't waste time indulging themselves with sonic inventions or polemics (step forward Public Enemy on Saturday night). They simply get down to work, give us what we want, and live up to our expectations.

For many fans, the Oasis show alone was worth the 16,000-yen (Bt5,600) ticket price (or ¥40,000 for a three-day pass). But other bands that caught my ear were American acts Ben Harper, Dinosaur Jr, Funeral Party, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the Melvins (one-time favourites of Kurt Cobain). Other standout acts were Seun Kuti from Nigeria, Altan Urag from Mongolia, Rafven from Sweden, and Upendra from Nepal; and Japanese outfits the Birthday, UA, Brahman, Friction (with mad animal drummer Tatsuya Nakamura), and his former band-mate Asai Kenichi of Blankey Jet City and The Sherbets.

To top it off, on Sunday morning, unsure of what to see next, I heard an awesome guitar riff in the distance. "Sounds something like Rage Against the Machine," I said to myself. With many fans still asleep, it was easy to approach the stage. Oh my God: The guitarist was indeed Tom Morello from Rage, now playing with his new band, Street Sweeper Social Club. The Jimi Hendrix of my generation, playing right in front of me, on a sunny morning in the fresh mountain air! In Japan, it doesn't get better than this.

But maybe it does. I still had the Summer Sonic festival in Tokyo and Osaka on August 7,8, 9, with bands including Kasabian, Placebo, Mogwai, Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Limp Bizkit, Elvis Costello, Sonic Youth, Gogol Bordello, and Japanese acts Boomboom Satellites, Dragon Ash, B'z and Ryukyu Disco.

Okay, so maybe paradise is at Summersonic too.

Former Nation staffer Christopher Johnson (www.Myspace.com/cjinasia) is author of "Siamese Dreams", published by Bangkok Books.