Report by Sujin L.

All Photos On This Page Property Of Sujin L.
Used By Permission

On October, 2nd, 1999, at the 9:30 club in DC, Cibo Matto made history for me again. I have been lucky enough to see Sean Lennon everytime I went to his concerts or Cibo Matto concerts and I was lucky this time, too!

I was standing in a line before the door opened and Sean Lennon, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda came out from the front door of the venue and were walking down the street. At first, I didn't know that they were Cibo Matto, but when I realized who they were, I followed them and called Sean's name. He looked back and said,"Hey, how are you doing?" Some other people followed them like I did and all of them were Sean's fans. He seems to be recognized more and more not only as a solo artist but also as a member of Cibo Matto.

I gave him a birthday card and a present. He kept thanking me for the present and I kept thanking him for being so nice. He was super nice as always. Some people asked him for his autograph and he was kind to everyone. I got him to sign his autograph on my "Stereo*type A" CD. He wrote "Thank you very much! love, Sean Lennon" on it. He said he would come out after the show to meet his fans and he would be able to talk to me again, so I happily went back to the line.

Sean always watches the opening band playing and he often cheers them up by shouting "Yeah!" or clapping his hands. When this opening band called 'Solex' played on the stage, he even jumped up and down in the balcony to cheer them on. After about a 30 minute break, Cibo Matto finally appeared on the stage. They were welcomed with audience cheers and applause.

As far as I remember, in the middle of the song "Know your Chicken" and one other song, Sean did some kind of stop-motion movements and he didn't even blink at all while he was doing it. He was so cute and people loved it.

Here is the list of all the songs they sang on that night.

1.Sunday
(Yuka, Miho and Sean spun around on their
spot once in the middle of this song,
much to the delight of the audience.)

2.Spoon
(Miho introduced this song and said "Let's do some dance.")

3.Working for Vacation

4.King of Silence

5.Flowers

6.Speechless

7.Moonchild
(Miho's singing ability was apparent on this song.)

8.Beefjerky
A lady from the audience gave Miho a carrot when
she was singing the part "Let's eat carrots together..."
Miho raised it high to show to the audience and with
a smile, said,"Carrot!"

9.Blue Train
(This song started with every member's head banging. It was an awesome heavy metal number.)

*Miho introduced every member of the band to the audience. When Sean was introduced, he did the stop-motion thing again and it made everyone smile.

Yuka did some kind of karate poses and after that Timo Ellis on drums and Duma Love on percussions were also introduced and at last, Yuka introduced Miho herself.

10.Know Your Chicken
(For this song, Cibo Matto invited Solex members to the stage and asked the audience to sing along. Miho and Yuka did their 'chicken' dance. They left the stage saying "Thank you" and Sean shouted on the mike,"Cibo Matto 1999!"

ENCORE-

11.Sugarwater

12.Sci-fi Wasabi
(Miho said "How are you doing? I know you guys feel like dancing." and asked the audience to dance with them right and left on the chorus.)

13.Earththreat
(For this song, Duma Love came out to the front and rapped.)

14.Birthday Cake
(This was the last encore song. The Solex members came out to the stage again and joined Cibo Matto.)

After the show, I waited for Sean to come out since he said he would. A few minutes later, he kept his promise. Some people asked him about his next album. Sean said he is writing his own songs but it comes slowly since he is doing a lot of stuff with others. He said it would be next year when his second album comes out. He said "hi" to me and thanked me again for the present. He was just so sweet. I got him to sign his autograph on my Cibo Matto poster again.( pretty greedy, huh?) He drew a sunflower face below his autograph and it was very sweet of him to remember that I always give him sunflowers. We hugged and he said "It's nice to see you again." Then we said goodbyes.

Happy Birthday, Sean. Thank you for being in this world with us. You are so sweet, nice and respectful to everyone and most of all, you are a great musician. I love you so much.

All Photos © Copyright 1999 By Sujin L.

Top: Sean Lennon
Second: Miho Hatori
Third and Fourth: Sean Lennon
Bottom: Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori