Nippon Budokan in 2023

The likes of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Queen have all played at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo but for me it was Blur’s Japan-only release ‘Live at the Budokan‘ (1996) which brought the place to my attention back when such foreign import CDs were a big deal for music fans. It was one of the first CDs I bought not long after landing down in Japan years later as an ignorant foreigner with very little knowledge about the country.

Scottish indie-rock band Franz Ferdinand were a band I was really into in those early days in Japan and back in February 2006 they came to Japan to play four concerts over five days across three cities. The tour began at Zepp Nagoya on the 8th followed by two dates in the capital at Zepp Tokyo (9th) and Nippon Budokan (10th). The final date was at Zepp Osaka on the 12th.

I assume my girlfriend of the time bought us the tickets as I would have no doubt been incapable of doing such a thing back then! It’s still not the easiest of tasks! On the day of their appearance at the Budokan I met up with her for some mid-afternoon tempura before going on to meet my colleague Richard (we’d only worked together a few times at this point) having found out three days before that he also had a ticket. We agreed to meet up beforehand at British pub chain Hub at 5:00pm for a couple of pre-gig gin & tonics.

Just in case you didn’t know what a G&T looked like!! Imagine this picture was taken in 2006!

It was on to Kudanshita after that which is the closest station to the Budokan and the controversial Yasukuni Shrine is just a stones throw away too.

Yasukuni Shrine! Well I’ve gotta fill this post with some pictures as there are very few of the actual Budokan concert!!

Nippon Budokan is a 14,471 seat indoor arena in Chiyoda Ward which was built in 1964 ready to host judo at the Tokyo Olympics that same year. Its primary use is supposedly for martial arts but it has perhaps gained more fame for its use as a musical performance venue since then.

Support came from The Magic Numbers who were a band I was listening to a lot back then so that was another reason for attending this gig. I can’t remember too much about their set but I do recall singer Romeo had learned a few short Japanese sentences which always goes well down with the locals. Then again, they’re often just happy to hear arigatou even though that does become slighly tedious after you’ve heard it for the tenth time!

Franz Ferdinand came on after that and bashed their way energetically through the best of their two albums in a fast-paced 14 song set before leaving the stage prior to the inevitable encore. I still don’t understand why bands always do this other than just needing a bit of a rest and to (hopefully) build anticipation for their final few songs! They actually came back on for five more songs rather than the usual two or three.

Just believe me that Franz Ferdinand are on stage in this picture!

Setlist: This Boy; Come On Home; The Dark Of The Matinee; Auf Achse; What You Meant; Take Me Out; Walk Away; Eleanor Put Your Boots On; Darts Of Pleasure; The Fallen; Do You Want To; Van Tango; 40; Michael; Jacqueline; Evil And A Heaven; You Could Have It So Much Better; Outsiders; This Fire.

The band are still together and have now been around for just over two decades but have not been able to match the commercial success of the first two albums. I don’t know what their sets have been like since early 2006 but I remember being quite staggered that they played their signature tune ‘Take Me Out‘ so early on. There is of course far more to the band than that tune and those two albums are packed full of really great songs.

I’ve passed by the Nippon Budokan a few times in the proceeding years (where I just happened to have a Franz Ferdinand CD on me!) but have not been back inside as there just haven’t been any artists playing there that I really wanted to see. Given the wide variety of sports I’ve watched recently there’s probably more chance of returning to this venue for martial arts rather than live music!

Bonus: Six years later I was back at the Budokan when Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds were playing their first concert in Japan. However, I didn’t actually have a ticket but was just close by during a break from work. I took a photo and posted it on social media in the name of fooling people into believing I was there. It worked but in hindsight seems a little bit sad!!

What a prankster!! I said prankster, not w*nker!!

Click here to read ‘It’s Taken 25 Years Longer Than Expected But I Have Finally Seen Ash Live In Concert!’

Click here to read ‘TF Flashback: Watching Oasis At Summer Sonic ’05 (2005)’

Click here to read ‘Summer Sonic 2006’

Click here to read ‘2006: Looking Back At The Last 12 Months’