Ok, “destroy” might be a bit too strong of a word, but it’s a fact that the boys from Detroit tore the place apart on Saturday night.

I’d wanted to head down to the show (part of a 5-date tour through Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Osaka) with a few of my friends, but the drawing power of TSM and the other opening bands sold out all three Tokyo and Yokohama dates. I’ve been to a number of shows by myself here in Japan, but it’s always nicer to have someone to talk to, especially during the dead time between acts. Luckily, when I got into the club I ran into Hiro, who is the lead singer of another Tokyo band, Mugwumps. We’d talked before during a show they played down in Hachioji with Sarcastic+Zookeeper, so it was good to catch up with him and pass the time. Also, Dan from TSM was out and about in the crowd often, chatting with everyone (even throwing in a bit of “Hajimemashite” when he could!) and I talked with him a bit about Michigan and seeing them back at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit back in 1998.

The lineup this night consisted of The Cherry Coke$, Fuck You Heroes, Niagara 33, Coquettish, and finally The Suicide Machines. The Cherry Coke$ I’ve seen many times before, and I love their style of Irish rock. They seemed to really appreciate the chance to open up tonight and really played their hearts out tonight. Bassist Hiro especially was throwing himself all about the stage like I’ve never seen him do before. The band has recently opened up for Flogging Molly and were scheduled to open up for The Dropkick Murpheys (though unfortunately the shows have been postponed). They’ll be releasing their 2nd album in either November or December, and with this further exposure I wouldn’t be surprised if a CD gets picked up for release in a foreign market sometime soon.

As for the Fuck You Heroes and Niagara 33, I hadn’t known anything at all about them except for their names. At first I was a bit disappointed in the music, but later they really got the crowd into it with the energy they generated on stage. The Fuck You Heroes especially had everyone thrashing about, and the guitarist even climbed up onto one of the side speakers and played while lying up there on his stomach. It was cooler to see that it sounds, trust me.

Niagara 33

Coquettish took the stage next. I first saw them when they opened up for Mike Park and the lead singer, Hizde, is a pretty nice guy. I have an album of theirs lying around in my house, and I’ll really have to get around to listening to it because their music was pretty good and they put on quite an energetic show.

After Coquettish finished up, the wait began for The Suicide Machines. Bands from the States always seem to take far longer to do their soundcheck than Japanese punk/rock bands, and with the band right on stage tuning up in front of everyone, only a few feet away from the people in the front, the tension started to thicken noticibly.

After a while the lights finally went out and the band came out to explosive cheers. Fellow concert-goer Doug Poland tells me that they started off with “17% 18 To 25″. Early on into the set, Jason introduced “War Profiteering Is Killing Us All” by giving the finger and saying “Fuck George Bush!” Everyone in the crowd screamed in agreement, but I wondered if they had any idea what he was talking about…

Jason from The Suicide Machines

The Suicide Machines’ set as a whole is pretty much a blur to me, due to the sheer power of the show and the cheap beer ACB was serving. A bulk of the songs were from the new album, but there were a fair amount from “Destruction By Definition” also. And I’m sure mixed in there were some from the middle three albums, but I had never really listened to those and didn’t recognize the songs.

Jason and Dan

After the show I chatted with the bassist, Rich, a bit about Japan and playing shows here. He said he was really surprised at how small the places were but how many people they said could fit into them. The previous night’s show in Shimokitazawa, for example, was sold out with 400 tickets sold. But Rich said he didn’t think anymore than 150 people could fit into the place if the show was back home. He asked me if I wanted to go to the show the next day down in Yokohama (which they were playing with Kemuri and was already long sold out), but unfortunately I had to tell him that I couldn’t due to prior commitments.

Rich from TSM

After a bit, pretty much everyone cleared out and I headed over to Koenji to catch the last bit of Ping Pong Dash!!’s set at Koenji Gear. Their set was as good as anyone’s over in Shinjuku and it’s a shame that they couldn’t have gotten on the bill with TSM. After they finished up, we all headed over to a nearby izakaya to pass the night away with snack food and beer. The night got weird later on, when a guy with a cane wanted to attack me, but I guess it’s all a part of punk rock bar culture, haha.

I’d asked Dan earlier at the show if he would mind if I took some pictures and he didn’t care at all. Check out these links for some videos:

Video 1 (14.3 megs)

S.O.S. (15.6 megs)

Vans (22.6 megs)

Pictures from the show are up in a shoddy image gallery: HERE

Technorati Tags: Coquettish, Fuck You Heroes, live, Niagara 33, punk, The Cherry Coke$, The Suicide Machines