98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare
98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare is the third live album by Japanese neo-psychedelic dream pop band Fishmans. It documents the band's final live performance with frontman Shinji Sato. The show was recorded and filmed at Akasaka Blitz on December 28, 1998, and was first released on September 29, 1999, by Polydor Records in Japan. The album title roughly translates to "A Farewell of Men: December 28th, 1998", a reference to the tour name, and to bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara's departure from the band and the end of the band's three-piece era. The performance was released on DVD under the name Otokotachi no Wakare 98.12.28 @ Akasaka Blitz in 2005.
Background
On December 28, 1998, the last day of the Otokotachi no Wakare tour, Fishmans would perform their final concert at Akasaka Blitz. While initially intended as a farewell to bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara, who was departing from the band, it ultimately served as a farewell to frontman Shinji Sato and to Fishmans as a whole, as Sato suddenly died within months, more or less ending the band as they did not release any new music and only performed reunion shows from then on.Performance
Fishmans performed a multitude of their most beloved songs and singles, including "Hikōki", "Ikareta Baby", "Night Cruising", "Melody", "Walking in the Rhythm", and "Yurameki in the Air". As a finale, they played an extended adaptation of the entirety of their sixth studio album Long Season. The concert encapsulated the band's progression stylistically from music heavily influenced by reggae and dub, to dream pop and neo-psychedelia at the end of their career.Reception
In a review for The Michigan Daily, Sayan Ghosh wrote the album is "a triumph", specifically praising Sato's powerful and passionate voice and the embellishments on "Long Season" that "add new dimensions to the music". The album is listed as the highest rated live album of all time on both the Rate Your Music and Album of the Year websites.Personnel
Fishmans- Shinji Sato – vocals, guitar
- Yuzuru Kashiwabara – bass guitar, chorus
- Kin-ichi Motegi – drums, chorus, sampler
- Honzi – keyboards, violin, chorus
- Michio "Darts" Sekiguchi – guitar, chorus
- ZAK
- 午前中
- Hiroto Sasaki
- Shige Sasaki
- Ichizo Nishikawa
- Katsuhiko Kamimura
- Yoji Joko
- Tomoyuki Abe
- Kenji Fujii
- Makoto Nagahama
- Kazuhiro Hirayama
- Masato Kihara
- Yuka Koizumi
- Mariko Miyashita
- Yujiro Saito
- Michinori Sato
- Kouta Kiryu
- Takahisa Ishida
- Toshiya Sano
- Masaki Morimoto
- Naoto Yoshida
- Kyoko Teradate
- Akiko Ueta
- Moog Yamamoto
- Mariko Yamamoto
- Phonic
- Gen Inaba
- Kensuke Kawamura
- Hiroyuki Howa
- Takuro Iwagami
- Kazuhiko Tanaka
- Chiaki Momose
- Yoshiaki Uchiyama
- Yumi Haga
- Ichiro Asatsuma
- Yoshiyuki Okuda
- Ikuzo Orita
- Susumu Machida
- Akira Watanabe