The Fuji Rock Festival kicks off tomorrow with its dependable mixture of ageing rockers from abroad, a handful of predictably chosen Japanese acts, and just a smattering of blogged-about buzz bands. This year in particular, the joy I felt upon the demise of Oasis has been replaced with the dread of the hydralike horror of two separate Gallagher-fronted bands as headlining acts on two successive days.
For those punters seeking a festival experience that doesn't hang off the bloated egos of such up-and-coming dadrockers, though, an alternative would be checking out some new artists on the Rookie A Go-Go stage.
Rookie A Go-Go tends to be something of a lost corner of the massive festival, located outside the main gates, running from 11:30 p.m. till 3:30 a.m., and featuring almost entirely unknown bands. As a number of stages in the main festival arena expand to accommodate the typical music fan's increasingly fragmented taste, Rookie A Go-Go risks becoming irrelevant.