From rioting with Iggy to bopping with The Chemical Brothers, JT writers mixed it up among the thousands at Naeba to bring you the highs — and lows — of Fuji Rock '07
Rain! Rain! Rain! Mud! Mud! Mud! NO!!! Not this year. The sustained watery descent from the heavens that often afflicts Fuji Rock didn't happen. So instead of fans slogging knee-deep in the brown, FRF '07 saw sunburned, half-naked boys and girls (around 37,000 people per day over three days) with smiles on their faces, some of them even swimming in Naeba Ski Resort's mountain streams. Friday and Saturday were scorchers, and by the time Sunday's brief rainstorm hit, nobody cared. The great weather and mix of party-centric bands made this one of the most fun Fuji Rocks to date. (Simon Bartz)
There's something undeniably thrilling in the fusion of the cold outdoors at night, warm sake, tens of thousands of happy people and a big, loud spectacle that brings out the best in an act such as Sunday-night headliners The Chemical Brothers. And in contrast to The Cure's solid but sullen Friday-night slot and the Beastie Boys' Saturday-night insistence on playing the dull instrumentals that make up their new album, the Chems' Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons cranked out 90 minutes of block-rockin' beats from throughout their nearly two-decade-long career.