By Brooklynn Wong
Kaoru Ishibashi, known from the stage as Kishi Bashi, is a Berklee College of Music-trained violinist who has toured with Regina Spektor and others, and late last week he made a stop in Orange County.
Chapman University’s beautiful Musco Center for the Arts played host to the innovative artist and his unique show on Feb. 28. Ishibashi had been on campus for a couple days, first giving a talk the night prior, about the filming of his forthcoming film “Omoiyari,” the product of Ishibashi visiting Japanese-American internment camp sites and researching the era, then teaching a master class to Chapman students the day of the performance.
Richard T. Bryant, executive director of Musco Center, said he discovered Kishi Bashi just over a year ago at a New York City pub and knew instantly that he needed to reach out to him to get him to work with Chapman students and perform in its concert hall.
Ishibashi is hard to label, as at any given moment during his concerts, he could be playing the violin, the piano, singing, using a synthesizer or directing the string quartet that backs him up.
This time, Ishibashi had an LA-based string quartet join him, as well as Mike Savino, an artist who performs on his own under the moniker “Tall Tall Trees,” singing backup and playing various stringed instruments, including some rather amazing and innovative banjo work.
Ishibashi studied composition for film at Berklee, which shows in his theatrical music, which tends to be either dramatic and sweeping or poppy and catchy, and has been featured in some television shows and films, as well as commercials for Microsoft and Sony.
Kishi Bashi released his first album in 2012, and three have followed, with the most recent being “String Quartet Live!” in 2015.
In addition to playing some of his most popular tracks like the lovely “This Must Be the Place,” the solemn “I Am the Antichrist to You,” and others from previous albums, Ishibashi spent about half of the evening playing songs that will be on his forthcoming album coming out this June, which will accompany the film. Ishibashi spoke from the stage about the importance of his Japanese heritage to him, and his recent desire to delve into the history of the Japanese-American experience in the United States.
Through a crowd-funding campaign, Ishibashi raised over $100,000 to share the story of World War II internment camps along the west coast.
“Summer of ’42,” one of the songs from the new album, was one of the highlights of the evening, a beautiful and moving song.
The whole experience of taking in Ishibashi’s show was a good one, as he beautifully wed a full string quartet with his own voice and instruments and electronics, and Savino’s powerful, innovative, primal banjo.
Kishi Bashi’s personality from the stage too is a delightful complement to his loud, eclectic music. His quiet, personable, endearingly awkward humor added to the experience.
One could liken him to Sufjan Stevens, with the combination of instruments and electronics, frequent use of falsetto, and eccentric song themes and titles—some of Kishi Bashi’s titles include “Philosophize in It! Chemicalize With It!,” “Chester’s Burst Over the Hamptons,” and “The Ballad of Mr. Steak.”
He brought a diverse crowd out to Musco Center, ranging from parents with young kids to college students to elderly patrons of the arts.
The crowd was seated, letting those onstage be the spectacle, for most of the show, but Ishibashi saved a few of his more upbeat tunes for the tail-end of the show, when the Musco Center was transformed into a dance hall, with most of the crowd up and moving around.
And the evening was topped off with an encore that involved the musicians coming out to the crowd and sitting in empty seats, with those who had stuck around gathered around them.
Kishi Bashi is an eccentric delight, and the Orange County crowd loved it.
Learn more at kishibashi.com.
