Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2010

The rugged appearance and sugary sweet voice are a combination that has Japanese women falling for filmmaker, artist and musician Vincent Gallo. The American auteur performed six shows over three nights at the Blue Note in Minami-Aoyama, his first-ever live dates in the city, and more than a few female fans went every evening. Guitarist Woody Jackson and drummer Nico Turner accompanied Gallo in recreating the meditative, atmospheric sounds from his latest film, Promises Written in Water, along with favorites from albums When and Recordings of Music for Film.

While the trio remained somewhat aloof—Gallo spent most of the show with his back turned to the audience and only spoke once—their music drew listeners in. The band could be seen whispering to each other and chortling as they selected the next song to play, or swapped guitars for basses and drums for keyboards. Fans of Gallo’s more keening vocal numbers will have been disappointed: the singer claimed that his voice couldn’t handle the strain tonight, having spoken too much the night before (ahem). This was apparent in ‘Yes, I’m Lonely,’ where Turner had to fill in for the parts that Gallo couldn’t manage—though fortunately her voice was more than up to the task.

Despite all this, fans seemed content just to have seen Gallo do his rock star thing. A shaggy beard and head-to-toe in leather go a long way, apparently.