Wow. I really didn’t know what to expect from the September 5th “Summer Vacation ver. Extra” show at Yoyogi’s Zher the Zoo. The only band playing that I had heard of before was Paifuku. The only thing I knew about the others (Strut Berry, Perunanguraata, and Fuzz Float) was that their names were really weird.

Not many people at Zher the Zoo tonight; probably less than 20. Nothing makes a show lose its energy faster than no audience. And the crowd tonight didn’t really seem into anything other than the one band they had come to see. Perunaguraata (ペルナングラータ) was up first. They were OK, but there was hardly any crowd interaction. And when the singer did speak, he did it really softly. I did feel bad for them though: even though he kept mentioning the band name throughout the set, when he asked the sparse crowd if anyone remembered their name…NO ONE SAID A WORD (me either, but hell that name is a a mass of katakana gibberish!)

Paifuku was second and they were pretty damn energetic. Jumps in the air, jumps off of the amps, swinging from the pipes overhead, they did everything. Well OK, they didn’t really do any of that besides happily bounce around a lot but it was still fun. They played a new song that I didn’t catch the title of but it was really nice with a good matsuri/festival sound. If you’re a geek for that kind of music (as I am! Nothing better than a festival and a glass of beer!) you’d like the track.

Fuzz Float came on third. From the time they came on stage, I didn’t know WTF was going to happen. All of the guys were older than the “norm” (and by that I mean 30s probably), and the lead singer had this bowl haircut that was long in the back. It kinda reminded me of a bowl-cut mullet, if mullets were washed with a lot of Panteen. But when the music started, I knew that THIS WAS THE MOST POWERFUL ROCK BAND IN JAPAN!!!!11 The singer was all over the place, jumping around the stage, striking sentai-esque poses and doing other random shit. The music, mostly rock with some punkish/ska-punk tunes didn’t really prepare me for his between-song banter. This guy talked like a baby! Imagine babies speaking English, transplant them to Japan and give them Japanese accents and you had a close approximation of this guy. It was funny as hell! I couldn’t stop laughing and when I laughed, it made Sayaka from Paifuku laugh. Which caused those near us to laugh. It was like the Fuzz Float guy was related to the Joker and had laughing gas spewing forth from his mouth or something. And, not only was the music pretty decent with a charismatic, funny lead, but the final bit that made me love this band was his announcement at the end of the set: “Does anyone want any CDs? They’re FREE! And see these t-shirts we’re wearing? Those are FREE TOO!” Free CD-Rs I’ve seen before, but giving away free t-shirts? In JAPAN? NEVER! Yes, my love and respect can be bought, and the price is “free shit”.

Strut Berry was last and they were OK. Pretty good technically but I was all pumped up from watching Fuzz Float play and wasn’t very entertained. Sorry guys!

If you get a chance, go see Fuzz Float! The singer might try to Ultraman your ass and then talk baby-smack to you, but you’ll damn well enjoy it!

Technorati Tags: Fuzz Flout, live, PAIFUKU, Perunaguraata, Strut Berry, Tokyo, Yoyogi, Yoyogi ZHER the ZOO, ファズフロウト, ペルナングラータ

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

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.

After surviving three weeks back in the States feasting on Mexican, Italian, and cheap Chinese food, I found myself back in the Tokyo Metropolitan area after yet another rough eighteen hours on a number of airplanes. Immediately after touching down, I sent off an e-mail to my fellow Japanese rock loving friend, Antony (blog; gig report), who’s been spending a couple of months in Japan studying the language and attending as many live shows as he can. He mentioned that there would be a show the following day down in Koenji. I’d never heard of any of the bands playing that night, but since he and I share the same taste in music I thought I’d head down there and give it a try.

Club UFO is near Higashi Koenji Station on the Marunouchi Subway Line. My first impression of the club was good: dark lighting before the show begins with a deep red light that permeates the small floor. The club is often run as a DJ bar, and a booth is setup on the left side of the room, this night spewing forth the sounds of Madonna and other 80’s pop.

Antony wasn’t there yet, so I settled down with a beer to wait, but I was soon approached by one of the girls swaying to the pre-show tunes. Turns out that she is one of the DJs at the club and it was her 20th birthday (a pretty important year, since it’s the year you’re now considered an adult in Japan, and can legally drink and smoke), and that this show was, in effect, her birthday party. She introduced herself, but due to the loud music and the beer I have no idea what it was…

First up was Chitose Hirotaka, whose stage act consisted of him, a guitar, and a harmonica (which he later switched out for a kazoo), singing songs about growing up and his dog. He was a pretty personable guy, though you’d really have to understand Japanese decently to fully appreciate his show. Between songs he told some pretty funny stories about the amateur baseball team he plays on, which actually won a few games in a tournament recently and would be playing at Tokyo Dome in the final rounds. He said anyone could show up at the game and get in for free, and even go out onto the field and sit in the dugout with the team, though you’d have to be there at 6 a.m. on a Saturday for the first game.

Next was Rodeo Cats, playing their style of Tokyo rockabilly. I don’t really know anything about this style of music, but it was a welcome change of pace after all of the punk shows I’ve been going to recently. Two things about them stuck in my head: one being the fact that the drummer never sat down, and the other that the bassist had a good enough sense of balance to actually climb up onto his large slap bass and play while perched up there. Like I said, I don’t really know much about this type of thing, so maybe that’s a pretty easy feat to accomplish. 

Third was the band Antony and I had come to see, The A.V.A. (Adult Video Animals). How best to describe them? Before they came on stage, I asked the singer what their sound was like and even he didn’t know! His reply was something along the lines of “melodic punk,” though that doesn’t really describe it aptly. Besides the standard bass, guitar, and drums, they also had a sax player with a Mohawk and a shy-looking accordion player, who got all genkied up at the end of the show and started wrapping himself in duct tape. Midway through the set, the bassist and accordion guy became living birthday candles for the birthday girl when the singer stabbed them in the forehead with toothpicks and then lit them on fire. She quickly game up on stage and blew them out, luckily saving us from the smell of burnt hair. This was my first time to see The A.V.A., but they were genki and fun, with some wacky antics. If I get a chance, I’ll definitely check them out again.

Lastly, the “headliners” Jet Jive Cats came on. Well, you can’t really call them headliners since they only played three or four songs and then left. They were another rockabilly/swing band, with the birthday girl singing and playing brief guitar pieces and the three members of Rodeo Cats backing her up. At the start of the third song the singer girl said something to the effect of, “I know it’s over soon, but this will be our last song” to which everyone in the crowd said “Ehhhh?” in unison. At first I thought that they just didn’t know many songs, but then she chimed in with, “This is our last song because I know that everyone wants to hurry up and go drink at the after-party!” It was good to see that her priorities were straight and that she wanted to celebrate her birthday right!  Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the party since my first day of work for the 2nd semester was the next day, and thus I needed to catch the last train home. Antony went, however, and his comment about the party was, “Thank god it was short!” He’d been in Osaka the previous day checking out Red Bacteria Vacuum, and had plans to go to Sendai the following day to see another band, and he wasn’t really up for another all-night drinking adventure with the bands.

Make sure to check out the image gallery for some pictures of the night, including men with flaming toothpicks stuck into their heads. (Coming Soon!)