The sun had just set when Okamoto's took the stage at the CAMA Festival in Hanoi. We opened with "The 'M' Song" and about halfway through, I could see the crowd getting into it. By the end of the set, I had them speaking Japanese.
This was the fifth CAMA (Club for Art and Music Appreciation) Festival, and this year's event was organized in part with the conservation group Flora & Fauna International. With all profit from the all-day event going to FFI, the festival raised more than $12,000 to help the cao vit gibbon and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, two types of endangered primates living in the north of the country.
It was great playing for such a good cause, but I have to admit it was also really cool to play in a country that doesn't have the same kind of rock 'n' roll tradition that either Japan or the West has. Bob Dylan played in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City a month earlier, so it felt good to be kind of following in his footsteps.