A-T marketing director Gary Boss continues his recap of the unique Summer Sonic music festival. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. Day one was a blur of bands, crazy Japanese teenagers and microphones. Many of the Audio-Technica Summer Sonic 2015bands playing used a wide assortment of A-T mics, including AT4050, AE2500, ATM450 and ATM350. We were also able to catch up with some old friends, including Bruce Danz, monitor engineer for Marilyn Manson. Bruce is no stranger to Summer Sonic, having come here numerous times, most recently last year with Avenged Sevenfold, another A-T-heavy band. I know Bruce struggles horribly with being away from his family, but I do think he likes touring in Japan. Marilyn Manson was set to perform three shows in three days. When we caught the show Saturday night, it felt like the PA was really dialed in and Marilyn swaggered around the stage with his typical “don’t give a f%^$” attitude. He appeared to be having fun (I hope my saying that doesn’t ruin his street cred). The band sounded great with A-T mics performing the following duties: ATM250 – bass cabinet; AT4050 – overheads, guitar cabinets; ATM450 – hi-hat, snare bottom; AE6100 – backing vocals. Day Two started off much the same as day one. There was so much to take in, it all began to blur together into one wonderful medley of sights, sounds and cool friends. Audio-Technica Summer Sonic 2015We began by catching some of the Japanese bands that endorse our products. Two of these bands (My First Story and Man with a Mission), in addition to being super cool, use our brand new System 10 wireless for instrument duties. The most interesting thing was that the Makuhari Messe, a convention center where there were five stages in addition to all the dressing rooms, offices, food stands and manufacturer booths, was a sea of WiFi networks. I counted three pages of available networks when I looked on my phone. Crazy. This is a screen capture of the first page that I took while attending the show of My First Story, which had flawless guitar and bass wireless performance. We then had an opportunity to catch up with Dani (FOH) and Matthew (MON), engineers for MAGIC! This band is on fire now with their hit “Rude.” We had some time to talk microphones (just about my favorite thing in the world to talk about, next to my family). They were able to try some A-T mics they had never used before and I got the impression they were very pleased. After that we were able to catch the set of Walk the Moon. I especially wanted to see this show as they are fellow Ohioans and I felt they could use some support. Boy was I wrong, as they packed the second largest stage at the festival, and despite my relatively enormous size in Japan, I made no impact. We trucked on over to the Chiba Marine Stadium to catch Pharrell Williams’ high-energy, festival-closing performance. It was packed with songs old and new, and at one point about 30 people up from the audience were on stage shaking what their mama-san gave them.

Audio-Technica Summer Sonic 2015My most excellent hosts (Ueno and Yoshi)

The night was capped off with a traditional after Summer Sonic glutton fest at a shabu-shabu restaurant. After bonding with Ueno and Yoshi over a few beers and tray after tray of beef, I got a good night’s sleep before preparing for a long trip home. I will miss the food, music and culture, but most of all the great people I met along the way. To read our Summer Sonic 2014 recap, please click here.