My Juno Reactor Live Experience Part 2 (San Francisco '08)

This next blog post will cover my experience at the Juno Reactor Live show in San Francisco on September 23, 2008.  When I first heard about Juno Reactor coming over to do shows in N. America, I was really excited about attending a live show again.  I first thought that Juno might be doing a show in Seattle, which is pretty close to where I am from.  Unfortunately, Seattle did not make the list of cities Juno Reactor was going to be at.  My next nearest place for the Juno show was in San Francisco so I decided to make plans to attend that show.  Juno Reactor was also going to do shows in Colorado, Los Angeles, Chicago and in New York for their N. American tour.  I also knew that Mikey (SLK from ReactorLeak) was also going to attend the show in San Fran so I knew I wasn't the only mega fan of Juno going.  I think Joe (Unseung from ReactorLeak) was considering going as well but he only went to the Los Angeles show.

When I arrived at the San Fran airport, I was going to get a taxi, to drive me to my hotel.  On the way to getting a taxi, someone noticed my t-shirt (my Juno Reactor t-shirt) and asked if I was going to the show later that day.  It was a bit weird to me since I didn't think anyone would notice that I had a Juno Reactor shirt on. We chatted a bit before I left to get a taxi to go to my hotel.  The live show was on the day that I arrived so I didn't have much time to go sight seeing that day (although I stayed in San Fran for a couple of days more after the live show).  I went to the theater pretty early since I wanted to try and get in and see the band but unfortunately they didn't let anyone in early.  Since I had a time to kill, I found a Japanese restaurant near by and ate my dinner there.  After dinner, I lined up with other Juno Reactor fans.  Fortunately, Mikey was already there and he noticed me and told me that we were going to see Ben after the show.  There was a pretty good mix of fans at this show.  There were many young people (some of those were Sugizo fans) and some older folks as well.  People were coming from all over the place (I was from Canada, met someone from Utah).

The venue where the live show was pretty small but it was pretty packed with fans (maybe a hundred or so).  The set list and Juno Reactor lineup was pretty much the same as the Fuji Rock show.  The lineup consisted of Ben, Taz (vocals), Ghetto Priest (vocals), Amampondo (percussion), Greg Ellis (drums) and Sugizo (guitar).  I bought a Juno Reactor poster there (it is now hanging in my computer room, I almost lost it when I was travelling back home).  One new song that Juno Reactor performed was "Earthquake in the heart of Rome" (it never was released as a single or in an album).  Another song that was performed at the San Fran show and not at the Fuji Rock show was "Inca Steppa".  Some of my favourite songs that were performed were Biot Messiah (both Sugizo and Ben were excellent on the guitars), Pistolero (always a favourite live song), and Angels and Men (Taz did an excellent job singing on this one).  The absolutely favourite moment that I will remember for as long as I live is when Mabi Thobejane did his drum solo.  It was the most incredible performance that I ever saw.  It is one thing to be able to see greatness in a video but it is a whole another thing to witness something great live.  I wish I could describe what he was able to do but I don't think I can accurately describe what Mabi did.

After the show (it was a pretty long show, I was feeling exhausted but real happy), me and Mikey met Ben backstage.  I got my photo taken with Ben and I also got to talk with other members of the band.

I was real happy with this experience since I never got the chance to do it when I went to Japan to attend the Fuji Rock concert.  To compare this experience with Fuji Rock is kind of complicated since these were two different shows.  Having my first Juno show outdoors with a massive crowd was pretty spectacular but I prefer a more intimate setting since it feels as though you are really connected with the band.  After the show, I stayed in San Fran for a couple days and went sight seeing.  San Francisco reminds of Victoria for some reason (they both have a wax museum and other similar sight seeing sights).  I did go see Alcatraz, went on the trolley and the infamous curved street.  I really had a great time in San Fran and I hope one day Juno Reactor will have another N. American tour soon.