Ping Pong Dash is quite possibly the friendliest, most personable punk band around. I’ve really liked them ever since I heard their first album, Sing! Shout! Angry! Laugh!, at a Tower Records Shibuya listening station. They play fast, fun punk rock, songs you can sing along with. When I finally got to see them live for the first time (in August down in Shinjuku, opening up for The Sanyons), I was really surprised and impressed at how nice these guys were. Some bands are kind of quiet and keep to themselves or pretty much just talk to their existing fans/friends during a show. But these guys never hesitated to chat with me or anyone else who stopped by their table.

On August 8th, the band released their second album, Sing Along or Drinkin’, and they’ve been touring all over Japan in support of it. September 21st saw them show up in Northern Saitama at Kumagaya Vogue. Vogue is a wonderful club that I’m lucky to have relatively close to me. Not only do smaller and local bands play there, but more popular rock acts like Brahman, Ken Yokoyama, Hawaiian6, and Highway61 come through quite frequently. The sound quality of the club is also excellent. The main problem with Vogue is the crowd. Or rather, the lack of it on most days. When the larger acts come through, the club is often packed and the energy is wonderful. The past few times I’ve been there, however, the crowds have been far, far less.

Well, that was the type of crowd that showed up to greet Ping Pong Dash on their first trip up to Kumagaya. When I showed up at the club a little after the show started, I saw that the foyer was deserted as usual, except for a few random band members who were hanging out at their merchandise table. PPD member DxMx (Vo/Gu) gave me a loud and friendly, “Hey Kevin! You made it!” when he saw me, then I headed on over to the box office to get a ticket. Yamaty (Ba/Cho) stopped me though when he saw me going for my wallet and instead talked to the Vogue people and got me in for free on the guest list, saving me 1700 yen. While I chatted some more with the band, two more PPD fans/friends showed up. I overheard Yamaty tell one that the crowd was good tonight, maybe 60 people. This I couldn’t believe, knowing Vogue, so I was like “Really?!” He then confessed that he was only joking and that the actual tally was maybe a tenth of that. Sure enough, when I headed downstairs to the stage area there were maybe 10 people scattered about the floor, including the bar girl, and the others were probably friends of one of the other bands.

I came in towards the end of second band’s set, one called Pink Beast. Yamaty and I both felt sorry for them since they had come all the way from Kanazawa to play before a crowd like this. Hopefully their other shows were in front of a few more people! They played some pretty decent rock, something along the lines of a GO!GO!7188 or fra-foa sound. I wasn’t totally into their set that night, but I really enjoyed their last song. They had 500 yen CD-Rs for sale at the show so I picked one up.

PPD came on second to last, which surprised me a bit since I thought they would be the main band due to their tour and album release (instead that honor went to either The Nice Fight or No Comprye, I’m not sure which one. They showed up close to the end of the show with their friends in tow, all of whom only came to see their buddies play and didn’t check out any of the other acts). Despite the small crowd they put on a good show, full of energy and fun. Compared to the previous Sanyons show, this set was a bit longer, filled mostly with songs from the new album. I would have liked to have heard a few more older songs, specifically “Iro,” but I guess I should have gone to show last year to hear those. Suck Ryo (Dr/Cho) was supremely genki as usual, never content to stay seated behind the drums. Two or three times he ran out to the front of the stage, beating on his chest and screaming somewhat-incomprehensibly (at least to me) to get the crowd livened up and into the show.

Though the club was practically empty and the atmosphere suffered because of it, the guys did a good job. Yamaty told me that the final stop on the tour, September 23rd at Shimokitazawa’s Basement Bar, would be far cooler, since it was a PPD-planned event with 5 other bands joining them, all of whom he assured me would be cool. I put in a request to DxMx to play “Iro” at this show, but he regretfully told me that the band has only played it live two or three times, and that they probably weren’t going to start playing it anytime soon.

Usually after these shows I have to crash in an internet cafe (the Manboo across from Kumagaya Station practically knows me by name), but luckily the evening finished early enough and I was able to head back home on the last train. It felt pretty good to sleep in my own bed after a show for a change!

For pictures from the show, check out the gallery:

2004.09.21 Ping Pong Dash!!

After a bit of a break, The BABYS have been quite busy in the past few weeks. On September 15, they released their first CD single (untitled), and played a show in Takadanobaba, with a show in Shimokitazawa coming up this week. On September 19, they played a show in Kichijoji at Planet K.

Consisting of Shunsuke (vocals and guitar), Haruna (bass), and Rie (drums), The BABYS’ sound is quite different from the band that Haruna and Rie came from (SOFTBALL), more along the lines of “groovy rock” than any kind of punk sound. Whether this is due to Haruna and Rie wanting to try something different, or the influence of Shunsuke (ex-member of Zoophillia), I’m not sure. Since forming early this year, they still haven’t played very many shows, probably less than 10 overall. This was evident in their earlier live shows that I went to, with something about the sound not being quite “right.” Tonight, however, everything was spot-on. From their show opener “Kibun ga Yokute, Nani ga Warui” it was evident that they feel more confident playing together. They played around six songs or so tonight, including the other two songs on the single, “NO NO FUTURE” and “Kimi no Yoru, Boku ni Dake Kurenai ka” (my personal favorite, with Haruna and Rie providing backing cooing noises).

They still don’t have much interaction with the crowd, which I think is a requirement for them to get better crowd response. Shunsuke does most of the talking between certain songs, which isn’t very often. That coupled with the fact that he took two or three breaks to change the tuning of his guitar for the next song made for some very silent, uncomfortable periods. I’ve never heard a live house so quiet before. During one of his tuning breaks, he playfully asked Haruna to talk about their next live show (September 23 in Shimokitazawa) and it was cute but painful to watch her stutter out the information after telling the crowd that talking is her weak-point.

At the show I happened to run into Tadashi, this guy I met up in Sendai last year at SOFTBALL’s last concert at Club Junkbox. He’s a huge SOFTBALL fan, and like me keeps up with what everyone from the band is doing. Unlike me, though, he traveled all the way to Tokyo from Gifu Prefecture to make it to this show.
Afterwards, Tadashi and Rie were headed into Shimokitazawa to check out this all-night CLASH event at some club there, but I was too exhausted from being in Tokyo the night before and had to pass it up.

Four other bands played, but none of them except for a Hakata-based band named Bo-Peep made any sort of impression on me. Bo-Peep is a 3-piece girl group with a heavy sound. Their website describes themselves as “3 pieces rockn’roll monsters!!! Legendaly girl’s band in “Hakata,”" and I have to agree! Unfortuantely I didn’t get to the club early enough to check out their full set, but what I saw was good enough for me to buy their newest CD, “0×3.” I’ll definitely have to check them out again if they come back to the Tokyo-area.

The BABYS’ next show is September 23 at Shimokitazawa GARAGE. I’ll be in Shimokitazawa that night to check out the Ping Pong Dash!! show, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get away from there to catch them again.