It was my freshman year when I first heard Lamp.
My friends and I have constantly exchanged the weirdest, or most niche, music we could find. Between Swedish sludge metal and 35 minute orchestral progressive songs, sometimes I’ll find something to remember — something like Lamp.
Being an avid listener of niche music, Lamp’s smooth style of music and light vocals from each band member has always been something that’s stuck with me. When Lamp announced its first tour in North America, I knew I had to go.
The concert took place at The Factory in Deep Ellum, where there was one big pit for everyone to stand in. The pit was spacious and the stage was fully visible, even when trapped in a sea of people.
The lighting was definitely intriguing; however, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. The venue switched between only two color schemes — dark blue, which was basic but enjoyable, and yellow-green and purple, which I found distracting. The vibe of Lamp feels like it should be more along the lines of dark, calming colors, and it quickly became clear that they definitely should not have used a color scheme straight out of Beetlejuice.
Regardless, the audio quality was great and the more uncommon instruments known in Lamp were easy to pick up. Instruments like sand shakers, trumpets and especially Kaori Sakakibara’s iconic flute were all great to hear live.
Setlist/Performance
The setlist was perfect. The band, consisting of the trio as well as four additional backup artists, started out with one of its most iconic songs, “ 二十歳の恋” (20 Year Old Love). The hype in the crowd was immense and kept up throughout the show, as the band continued to deliver its most well-known and liked songs.
My personal favorite songs are all from the EP “Soyokaze Apartment room 201.” To hear songs from that album made the concert feel more personal. Being a huge fan of the bass, it was a little surprising to see a backup play it really quiet as opposed to Yusuke Nagai, who plays it in Lamp’s discography. Nagai still performed amazingly, using the acoustic guitar and synth instead. This had the third and final band member, Taiyo Sumeya, on the electric guitar as usual. Some of the most impressive pieces of music I’ve ever seen live were Sakakibara’s flute solos. Seeing her effortlessly play the flute was stunning and was met with cheering from everyone in the pit.
Closing
The band’s sign off was something I’ve never seen before in a concert.
As the band members bowed and exited stage right, they slowly came back for an encore. After spending some time finding the group I came with, we immediately dissolved back into the pit as Lamp performed one of my favorite songs of all time, “Last Train At 25 O’clock.” As an absolute shocker, the band had everyone jamming out to an awesome song, one last time.
