Two sold-out nights at Koenji HIGH. A reunion with Motokatsu that closed three decades of unfinished business. PIG returned to Japan in June 2026 — and for an artist who sings about crumbs, deceit, and division, Raymond Watts’ real aim was to hand the audience the whole damn loaf. They took it. Every last piece.
Raymond Watts first arrived in Tokyo in 1981. Nineteen years old, carrying almost nothing. What grew from that visit — the friendships, the collaborations, the strange attraction and durable love between an English musician and a city that never quite let him go — is something he has spoken about at length, including in these pages (interview).
When we spoke back in March, ahead of the release of the new album Hurt People Hurt, Raymond Watts was sitting in London with his Cocker Spaniel, Wally, occasionally popping into the frame. We were chatting about a Tokyo spring that hadn’t fully arrived yet, announcing a pair of summer shows at Koenji HIGH that felt like a distant, highly anticipated milestone. During the conversation, Raymond reflected deeply on his 45-year relationship with Japan, the creative clarity born from a decade of sobriety, and the bittersweet ghosts of a subculture history left unfinished. His eyes lit up and voice tone filled with nostalgic joy when mentioning drummer Miyagami Motokatsu (THE MAD CAPSULE MARKETS), promising a show that would be like a return to where everything began — almost like returning home.
Fast forward to June 25 and 26 (2026). In the middle of the rainy season, in a drenched and humid Tokyo, Japan. Koenji HIGH, an intimate venue, the kind of room that doesn’t lie. The sound lands close, faces are visible, and there is nowhere to hide. If something isn’t working, you know immediately; if something is, you feel it somewhere deep below the sternum. Tickets of both shows sold out in the blink of an eye. The venue was packed to the rafters with fans wearing PIG, SCHWEIN, and SCHAFT t-shirts. Anticipation, much like the venue’s name, was riding incredibly high on both sides. Twenty years had passed since his last proper landing. At 19:30 sharp, that promised return finally materialized.
To deafening applause and screams, the trio took the stage. The set opened both nights with Tosca’s Kiss. The Puccini reference, the trapped soprano who turns the tables on her abuser, delivering a kiss with a blade — is so perfectly PIG. The track bled right into the snapping, venomous riff of Crumbs, Chaos & Lies. For an artist who sings about crumbs, deceit, division, tonight’s actual aim was to give the audience the whole damn loaf to unite them in love. When the iconic Juke-Joint Jezebel kicked in, it was driven by a hyper-kinetic drum performance that had the entire room dancing. Watching drummer Motokatsu play alongside Raymond Watts was to witness a full-circle musical history. As Motokatsu previously shared with us, it was his 1994 collaboration with Raymond in SCHAFT that first introduced him to playing live alongside synchronization equipment, a breakthrough that fundamentally shaped the pioneering electronic-metal sound of THE MAD CAPSULE MARKETS. Onstage, Motokatsu was hyper-focused, delivering cold, sharp, brutal beats like a machine. Driven by an incredible sense of discipline behind the scenes, he faced an incredibly tight window to lock down the new material from Hurt People Hurt. Flanking him was Jim Davies, looking sharp in a suit. Famous for being the live and studio guitarist for the iconic British band The Prodigy, as well as a core member and primary songwriter for industrial rock heavyweights Pitchshifter, Jim has stood alongside Raymond for a long time. Having co-written, recorded, and heavily contributed to the latest PIG albums, including Red Room (2024) and Hurt People Hurt (2026), he knew these intricate tracks inside out, weaving heavy, slamming guitar work that kept the crowd headbanging.
And then, Raymond of course. On stage, he is pure, magnetic charisma — teasing, dancing, warm, and slightly dangerous, like charm hiding a knife. He completely commanded the room, reaching out to lock hands with the front row and thrusting the microphone forward to let fans scream the lyrics back at him. He made real eye contact, the kind that makes you wonder if you’re the only person in the building. He hugged some, high-fived others. He moved through the set like someone who was exactly where he wanted to be, which is its own form of generosity toward an audience.
The set was brilliantly paced, mixing brand-new tracks with lesser-known gems from his vast catalogue that had never been played live in Japan. The two nights diverged at song nine: Painiac on the 25th, and Rock n Roll Refugee on the 26th. Before the main set closed, Raymond paused, pulled out his phone, and delivered a heartfelt speech entirely in Japanese. He expressed his deep gratitude to be back in Tokyo, calling it the place he always wanted to return to, and shared how profoundly happy he was. From there, the massive Prey & Obey, Ruins, Secret Skin, Sex & Suicide, a mesmerizing performance of Wrecked, and Raymond Watts’ personal favorite album track Dum Dum Bullet. The encore broke it back open with the dark, cabaret-theatre styling of The Sick, before finally concluding with Arbor Vitae, which Motokatsu confided was his favorite to play.
The nights went by too fast. After the curtains dropped, the band spent generous time with fans inside the venue, signing autographs and taking photos. For an industrial scene often stereotyped as dark and exclusionary, the vibe inside Koenji HIGH was overwhelmingly friendly, warm, and tightly knit. It felt less like a rock show and more like a massive, joyful family gathering — a Christmas dinner where, miraculously, there was no weird uncle in sight. The appetite for PIG’s return to Tokyo was nothing short of a phenomenon. When the initial date was announced, tickets were snapped up instantly, selling out so fast that an additional show on June 25th had to be rapidly tacked on to meet the demand. Those sold-out nights were proof that the hunger for Raymond Watts’ art in Japan is more passionate than ever. We can only hope that this monumental success marks the beginning of a brilliant new chapter for PIG in Japan. The Lord of Lard is back in his second family, and the future looks beautifully filthy.
⩺ PHOTOSHOOT GALLERY | HERE
────────────────
PIG | Setlist @ Koenji HIGH [JP] (2026)
01- Tosca’s Kiss
02- Crumbs Chaos & Lies
03- Juke Joint Jezebel
04- Suffer no More
05- Leather PIG
06- Hurt People Hurt
07- The Chosen Few
08- Monkey see monkey Do
09- Painiac (day 1) | Rock n Roll Refugee (day 2)
10- Prey & Obey
11- Ruins
12- Secret Skin
13- Sex & suicide
14- Wrecked
15- Dum Dum Bullet
– EN –
16- The Sick
17- Arbor Vitate
⩺ FULL LIVE GALLERY | HERE
Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
─────────────
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL FACEBOOK | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE | HERE
