JQ Magazine: Yoko Kanno with Seatbelts, Creepy Nuts, Paul Gilbert
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02). Justin has written about Japanese arts and entertainment for JETAA since 2005. For more of his articles, click here.
Spring has sprung in the Big Apple, and that means one thing: a new season of sounds, colors, and spectacular performing arts to match the blossoming sakura trees throughout the city.
This month’s highlights include:
Courtesy of ATG Entertainment
Friday, April 10, 8:00 p.m.
Kings Theatre, 1027 Flatbush Avenue (Brooklyn)
From $99.59
Legendary Cowboy Bebop composer Yoko Kanno takes New York in a pair of spectacular performances presented by Mammoth Live! First, fasten your seatbelts–the original crew is on board. For decades, the music of Seatbelts crossed borders without ever crossing the ocean. Heard, shared, and woven into the lives of listeners around the world, their sound reshaped the very idea of what anime music could be. Raw, unbound by genre, and free, the music continues to live on as the soundtrack to countless lives. Now, at last, Seatbelts arrives in the United States for the very first time, performed as it was meant to be by the original members who created it. This is Seatbelts as it truly is. The guest vocalist is the original voice himself, Steve Conte, an essential part of the Seatbelts legacy. The songs that defined an era will be performed by the very musicians who brought them into existence. This is not a tribute. This is the night the real thing finally lands in America. No destination, just the real sound.
Courtesy of Thetownhall.org
Saturday, April 11, 8:00 p.m.
The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street
From $59.50
As a lyricist, songwriter, arranger, music producer, Yoko Kanno has composed music for movies, TV dramas, commercials, animations, and video games, as well as produced and written for various artists. Her notable works include Cowboy Bebop, Genesis of Aquarion, Macross Frontier, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the film Our Little Sister, and the NHK historical drama Naotora: The Lady Warlord, among others. She also composed the recovery support song for the Great East Japan Earthquake (Flowers Will Bloom – Hana wa Saku), creating several arrangements for it. In the first year of the Reiwa era, she composed Ray of Water, a celebratory piece for the Japanese Emperor’s enthronement, which was performed in honor of the Emperor and Empress at the Imperial Palace. Her recent work includes the music for the Netflix adaptation of Cowboy Bebop and The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House. At Expo 2025 in Osaka, she composed the music for a large fountain art installation. In addition, she also contributed to other pavilion projects at the Expo, including an XR (Extended Reality) production that combined immersive digital visuals with live performance elements, and a haptics-based installation utilizing advanced touch-feedback technology to create new sensory experiences.
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
Monday, April 13, 8:00 p.m.
Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th Street
From $107.33
Japanese hip-hop powerhouse Creepy Nuts — the duo made up of three-time national rap battle champion R-Shitei and world-champion DJ DJ Matsunaga — announce their first-ever North American tour including their debut performances at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2026! Their breakthrough has been driven by craft rather than trend: R-Shitei’s battle-forged lyricism and DJ Matsunaga’s virtuosic turntablism, paired with productions that fluidly bridge hip-hop, pop, and electronic energy. Their 2024 smash “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” went Top 10 on Billboard’s Global 200 chart and ranked prominently on Apple Music’s global charts, while “Otonoke” became the most-streamed Japanese song abroad in 2025 and “Mirage” gained traction on Spotify’s Global Viral chart. Creepy Nuts are no longer just Japan’s leading hip-hop act; they are among the most compelling artists to emerge on the global stage in recent years.
© Sam Gehrke
April 29-May 1, 8:30 p.m.
The Iridium, 1650 Broadway
$50 general seating, $55 preferred seating
Paul Gilbert’s new album WROC is a bold, genre-defying concept record inspired by George Washington’s Rules of Civility, marking his first vocal album since 2016’s I Can Destroy. Rather than waxing a straightforward blues-rock release, Gilbert (of Mr. Big and Racer X fame) challenged himself to transform 16th-century etiquette guidelines into melodic, musically adventurous songs—many using the original text word for word—creating what he calls one of his most listenable and melody-driven works to date. Recorded live in just four days with Nick D’Virgilio, Doug Rappoport, and Timmer Blakely, the 13-track album blends classic rock, metal, pop sophistication, odd time signatures, and vintage influences ranging from AC/DC and Black Sabbath to Burt Bacharach and the Beatles. Sparked by inspiration following Mr. Big’s recent farewell tour (which wrapped at Tokyo’s Budokan last year), WROC finds Gilbert expanding his songwriting horizons, prioritizing melody over guitar flash, and embracing unpredictability in a project he describes as deeply personal, musically ambitious, and creatively liberating.
For more JQ articles, click here.