Music History

Japanese band plays a 20-hour set and still doesn’t break any records

Over the weekend, Japan’s TsuShiMaMiRe played a set that ran for 20 hours, streaming the whole thing on YouTube as a way to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Bizarrely, though, they didn’t set any records by doing this.

Sure, they made artists like The Grateful Dead, Springsteen, The Pixies, and the Cure look like amateurs–all of them have logged shows longer than four hours–but that’s nothing compared to TsuShiMaMiRe achievement.

The world record for the longest gig by a single artist seems to belong to Canada’s very own Chilly Gonzales who ran through more than 300 songs between a Saturday night and a Monday morning in Paris back in 2009. By the time he finished, he’d been playing for 27 hours and three minutes.

But even that’s barely a tenth of the length of a DJ set from DJ Obi in July 2016 when he stood at the decks in Lagos, Nigeria, for ten straight days. Not surprisingly, he suffered from hallucinations.

As for the longest concert ever, that’s another Canadian record set by the people at the Earl of Whitchurch Pub in Stouffville, Ontario. The gig, featuring more than 400 performers, went on for 18 days.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37974 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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