rockinjapan.com

The Wild Rover (Shibuya, March 25th) – Irish music in Shibuya

Kevin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:53:48 +0000

On March 25, 2012, Shibuya will play host to one of Japan’s largest Irish rock/punk/folk festivals, “The Wild Rover”.

Established in 2005 with an inaugural show at Shinjuku’s Club Doctor, the event has grown to encompass 4 live houses and 35 acts. Once you receive a wristband, you’re free to travel between venues at will, so getting a bite to eat between shows is possible…as is making any number of required “conbini runs”.

Venues this year include Club Asia, Vuenos, Glad, and Lounge Neo.

I’ve been to this event for the past few years, and it is seriously one of the best events of the year in Tokyo.

Bands for this year’s event include:

OVERGROUND ACOUSTIC UNDERGROUND
JUNIOR
COOL WISE MAN
ONE TRACK MIND
Little Fats & Swingin’ hot shot party
MOHIKAN FAMILY’S
OINK
CABALLERO POLKERS
MoDERN B beard
THE AUTOCRATICS
the rich
THE MAGNIFICENTZ
BANQUET ROVER
???????
AA&TO?$OX
Hi-HOPES
ALLY BAND
THE DROPS
THE RODEOS
???????????
T??s
CUBELICKS
Cave Gaze World
??????
GYPSY VAGABONZ
Ballad Shot
Pinch of Snuff
The Hot Shots
MOONSTOMPERS
with a performance by the Bagpipe Blastos.

The in-between sets by the various DJs are also awesome, with most people in the crowd getting up and dancing/drinking along to the music.

DJs this time include:

the WILD ROVER
(HIDETO / KAKEI / KIRK )

GUEST DJ
Dr.IHARA (CLUB SKA)
ISHIKAWA (DISK UNION/a.k.a.TIGER HOLE)
MICCYAN (FRANTIC BROWN BEAT!)
???? (Elequesta Of Tabla)
FUMINN (Drink ‘em All)
NAKANO (Drink ‘em All)
DJ UNCLEOWEN
YAGI (PLEASURE SPACE)
BU$HI (PLEASURE SPACE)
??? (????????)
INAMI (?????????)
??? (ROCKET LAUNCHER)
??
KAZZxxx (Groovy Times / ex Pike’s Peak)

Check out more information on this awesome show at the Official Site.

Traditional Drank Live at Kita Urawa Kyara (2011-11-21)

Kevin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:15:46 +0000

Saitama band Traditional Drank played a show at Kita Urawa Kyara this past Monday, injecting some much-needed cheer with their Irish-styled punk into the somewhat dark livehouse. There have been a few member changes over the past few months, but everything seems to have pretty much stabilized, though they are still using a support bassist.

For some pictures from the show, check out the gallery on either:

Flickr
or
Facebook

Zakurero Tour Final

Kevin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:04:32 +0000

Last night was Zakurero’s Tour Final at Nakano Moon Step. Here are some shots from the show. The lineup was:

Jersey Devil
49Ball
Igirisujin
AxTxS
The Shut Up
Revelers United
Zakurero

It was a great show, and the after-party was awesome as well. Otsukaresama, guys!

Zakurero Tour Final

Quake charity show – Rock the Quake

Kevin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:26:37 +0000

Heard about this show a few days ago. Looks to be a pretty good lineup, and definitely for a good cause. It was written up in the Daily Yomiuri the other day as well, so hopefully there’ll be a good turnout.

Revelers United reforming

Kevin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:20:26 +0000

After a break of over 1.5 years, one of my most favorite bands in Japan, Revelers United (formerly Ping Pong Dash!!), are finally getting back together. Well, technically it’s still Daichi on guitar with J on bass plus a “support drummer”, but I’ll take what I can get.

Daichi recently sent out a mail saying that he couldn’t stand not playing in Revelers any longer, and while they don’t have a permanent drummer yet, they’re going to start playing shows again.

Their first show back will be on 2011/7/23 at Sangenjaya Heaven’s Door. It’ll be a Stackers record release event, so the lineup should be pretty good. I’ll definitely be going, and I hope to see you there!

The re-re-re-rebirth of this site

Kevin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:19:51 +0000

For quite possibly the 5th time, I’ve rebooted this site. I promise that it will grow from now on. ^^ Don’t mind the layout just yet; I’ll try my best to make it look presentable.

Lots of great live shows coming up; more on those later, along with links to a bunch of great bands, dingy (but awesome) live houses, as well as information on places to enjoy yourself both before and after shows (and by that, of course I mean bars).

So, let’s meet up at a show, or over a beer, and talk about all of the great bands Japan has to offer!