Live Shower Fishmans

***Live Shower Fishmans*** was a two-hour-long concert/studio footage film, documenting most of a performance by Japanese dub/rock group Fishmans. The video contains the large majority of what was performed at their concert on December 12, 1997 @Shinjuku Liquid Room, interspersed occasionally with studio footage of the band performing along to the music. The film is split into five parts. The studio and live footage was directed by band director Kensuke Kawamura and first broadcasted on February 22, 1998 on Space Shower TV. To fit a two-hour-long timeslot, the concert footage excludes several songs from the night's performance, these being いい言葉ちょうだい, 忘れちゃうひととき, 気分, Go Go Round This World!, すばらしくてNice Choice and Daydream, none of which have been made available elsewhere.

A later re-airing of the performance was recorded onto a home recording device, then digitized and uploaded onto the internet sometime before 2015. In 2015, the full video was uploaded to YouTube before it was taken down by Universal Music Group in 2018. The full video has never been distributed physically, although a portion of it can be found on In Space Shower TV Episode.3, as well as audio from the concert appearing on 8月の現状 and いかれたBaby / 感謝(驚) / Weather Report.

## Content

*Live Shower Fishmans* contains the majority of the Fishmans concert performed on December 12, 1997, interspersed with studio footage of the band performing. At its beginning, the concert's live performance of Weather Report is played on top of studio footage of Fishmans performing on a white background. The film's title card appears, and the concert begins shortly after.

### Part 1

The concert footage which follows is drenched in colors and atypical edits, making rapid jump cuts between cameras and sometimes featuring two angles at once in an attempt to replicate stereoscopic vision. This is mostly absent from its opener, Oh! Crime, which features an atypically dark stage. なんてったの contains many interspersed clips of a studio session of the band, where Shinji Sato sings close to the camera while band mates Kin-Ichi Motegi and Yuzuru Kashiwabara are visible dancing in the background, also performing. 静かな朝 is performed as usual, dark red lights are used. 土曜日の夜 contains many low-framerate shots of the concert's attendees, as well as hastened footage of street traffic and footage of Sato singing the song in public, himself within a crowd of uninvolved people walking past him. This particular scene later became inspiration for the cover of fan bootleg 1997.12.12 Live in Liquid Room, chronicling the performance in audio format. *土曜日の夜* as it is performed here also prominently contains a sample from electronic musician Aphex Twin, particularly his own song "Peek 824545201."

### Part 2

The film's second part begins with its' title card placed at the center of an orange-and-teal game of Ping Pong. The 8月の現状 version of ずっと前 is performed as usual, featuring green lighting. バックビートにのっかって is performed, allowing a large yellow foglight to bathe the concert in light. After it is performed, close-up footage of a pinball machine is shown. During this footage, the band's then-upcoming tour 低音バッシュ is advertised, showing all concerts involved in the tour. Here, it is titled "低音バッシュ '98." The footage also advertises an unnamed live album to be released in 1998, this later materializing as 8月の現状. After a commercial break the concert begins again, now performing Sunny Blue. The concert film divides the song's performance into two cuts, both broadcasted simultaneously next to each other. The left is labeled "Sunny Blue 1," the right "Sunny Blue 2." Both are edited differently in several sections, the concert's lighting regularly changing.

### Part 3

After a short bumper featuring more footage of the same pinball machine from before, the finale of *Sunny Blue* is broadcasted a second time. Walking in the Rhythm is performed, featuring the same drone sound effect the band had, in years passed, used for すばらしくてNice Choice's introduction and would later use again for the intro to ゆらめき In The Air. This performance of *Walking in the Rhythm* is entirely lit with red lights. After it, Weather Report is performed, featuring more of the same studio footage presented in the film's introduction. The footage is used more extensively, also interspersing footage of clouds rapidly passing over a city. This footage is weaved in with the concert's footage. Surreal imagery is used, such as the band's three members superimposed into a glass of water being filled. After the song's conclusion, more footage of Ping Pong is shown, this time colored purple and green. As it plays, the band's reissue series Fishmans Reissue-Series is advertised. It also advertises the possible reissue of their first three albums on vinyl analog records, ending with the text "5.20 ON SALE, Maybe."

### Part 4

After a commercial break ends, 夜の想い is performed. Blue and red lights are used. いかれたBaby is performed next, also using the same lighting. The band walks off of stage.

### Part 5 (Encore)

The band appears back on stage, lit by overhead lights. They quickly fade as Sato begins a performance of Season on acoustic guitar. The band joins him soon after, heavy white lights shining down on those in the frontmost portion of the stage. After this, チャンス is performed, Sato on cornet. Lights during this song are mostly yellow. Toward the song's end, credits roll. The film ends at the song's conclusion as a Space Shower TV logo fills the bottom half of the screen.

## Performers

* Shinji Sato (lead actor, vocals, guitar, cornet)
* Kin-Ichi Motegi (actor, drums, sampler, vocals)
* Yuzuru Kashiwabara (actor, bass)
* Honzi (keyboard, sampler, violin)
* Michio "Darts" Sekiguchi (guitar)

## Staff

* Kensuke Kawamura (director)
* Ichizo Nishikawa (recording engineer)
* Mitsuaki Takada (mixing engineer)
* Kuniaki Tanabe (mixing engineer; credited as "audio sweetener")
* GOIS (co-producer)
* Space Shower TV (co-producer)
* Takahiro Kobashi (visual coordinator)
* Ichiro Chaen (visual editor)
* Hiroyuki Howa (camera)
* Takuro Iwagami (camera)
* Hideaki Imamoto (camera)
* Hisashi Ogawa (camera)
* Hideo Kawatani (camera)
* Kazuyoshi Kojima (camera)
* Susumu Takata (camera)