TOKYO JAPAN TOUR 2006
DAY ELEVEN

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Friday, Feb 17th, 2006

Up around 10. It’s gloomy outside but not as cold as yesterday. Matt was already gone. He had Tomo pick him up early and take him to rent a Marshall somewhere. He really does’nt want to play out of a Roland Jazz amp for these last two shows. Ate my last banana, and my last granola bar. All signs of the prophecy!! Watched TV, which is never really a good idea…but there is nothing else to do in here.

Tomo was by at noon, and we loaded stuff in the van. Now there is a big freakin’ Marshall anvil case in the back. We have a two hour drive today to Hachioji, down south somewhere. Wonder if they all have southern accents? Never seemed to leave the city somehow, more rural stuff though, and every now and then a glimpse of the mountains with snow on them. Tried not to talk at all today. I’ve been eating these throat lozenge things ( hey, spelled it right that time!) Maikee got me last night almost constantly. They’re kinda habit forming, wonder if the FDA put sugar in them. Arrived at Club Havana in an area that reminded me of Shinjuku without all the tall buildings. Unloaded stuff, of course it was downstairs but this place had an elevator…thank God. This Marshall case weighs a ton. Also has a converter for power that must weigh 30 pounds by itself. Me and Tomo wheeled the cabs in, we were the last ones in there. Place was covered with stuff that reminded me of the old Way Out Club…or even the new one for that matter. There was Halloween props like skeletons, lotsa movie and band posters, a Gemmy dancing Snoopy, all kinds of junk. I like it! Hauled guitars into a little dressing room off to the side. There’s a group of kids giggling like girl scouts at a table when we walked in. Could’nt figure them out. Freakin’….like floor steps all over the place again!

We had missed our sound check by five minutes. This enabled Fair Play (the gigglers when we walked in), to go up and check in front of us. Took the time to walk around the place and check things out. Had to move our guitars out of that little dressing room and into an enclosed area behind the merch tables on the other side. Sat down for a while on the couches that lined the hallway when you walked in. Matt made out song lists. The sound board here is gigantic for a club.

We got to go on and check after Fair Play, who managed to keep giggling all the way through their soundcheck. Helped lug Matt’s Marshall on the stage, I’m playing out of a JCM 900 again. Cool! My monitors sounded okay, I only need to hear my own vocals really, but Matt could’nt hear his vocals at all…and when the sound guy asked him to turn down, Matt got upset…and our soundcheck was over. I was kinda wondering why the guy needed a board that big if we could’nt play as loud as all the other shows.

So now we all go outside, all kinda quiet cuz Matt is upset…what fun this is sometimes! I asked Tomo where a good place to eat would be, and he temporarily seemed to forget how to speak English. So….I just started walking into somewhere crowded, half-expecting everyone just to split up and go eat wherever the hell they wanted. I was surprised to find us all together still when I stopped somewhere. I found one of those Peppersteak places we had eaten at before earlier this week, and I went in there. Thought for sure Base would follow Matt somewhere, but we all ate there. I ate the same thing again, it was pretty good…steak and rice with bean sprouts.

Afterwards, everyone seemed to split up. Base and Matt took off, Tomo wandered off, and Dave and I stopped in a few shops. Went into a guitar store, nothing much. Went into a T-shirt shop, but when he wanted to go into a department store I was done. Went back to the club by myself. Sat on the couches inside and watched some of the soundchecks a while. Was out of cough drops, so I walked down the street in search of a convenience mart. Wha’dya know… a block away! Found those lozenge things I had and bought two more. On the way back to the club, I passed a guy from one of the bands, his name was Futoshi from Pinhead. Real friendly guy and we tried to talk a bit. He asked me if I like the Ramones. I showed him the Too Tough To Die button on my jacket and he yelled out “ Yeaahhhhhh!”

Back in the club, sat down and ate more lozenge things. I’m starting to get sick of them now. Dave was in there making copies of the song list. Base walked up with a handful of free stuff from Pinhead, which made me jealous so I went up to trade an Iron Giant pin for some stuff. Futoshi ended up giving me a couple of cd’s, some stickers, and even a rubber ball with some writing on it. Not sure what that was for, but I said thanks, and it actually kept me occupied for quite a while. Would bounce off on me sometimes and I would have to dig through peoples stuff to get it. Asked Tomo if he was busy, and we went to this cosmetics place across the street looking for some white base stuff Steph wanted me to look for. Nothing there, went to another drug store, nothing there either, so we walked back. Did’nt feel like sitting there, so I went walking by myself for a while. There is ALWAYS something interesting to freakin’ see while walking aound anywhere in Tokyo. Went a ways up the street, lots of little shops and stuff, then walked back trying not to get lost as it got dark.

Walked back in…I actually fell down the last section of steps trying to hit the ceiling when I was walking down…something I do a lot, yeah…dumb, I know…just did’nt noticed the stairs angling to the right instead of flat. Hurt a bit. Went in, and Fair Play was on. They were pretty good, especially for being as young as they were…promising anyway. Good and forgettable stuff, and they kept their giggling to a minimum.

Next band was called Ass Tribe. BaseAmp has been looking forward to these guys all week, but they were’nt much good. I did like their drummer though, who looked like he was’nt having too much fun…played the whole set with this blank expression on his face. Maybe it was because he was in a band called Ass Tribe.

The next band was called Lucky-Strikers. Thought they were going to be all show at first cuz they did the cool rock-star walk back into the dressing room through the crowd when they were set up, and they hopped back. But these guys turned out to be pretty good, and I liked a lot of their songs. The bands tonight at least are more punk and energetic than that shit we had to set through last night. Always makes me feel like playing more, that’s for sure.

Next up was Arinco Gang. Their name was in Japanese on the flyer, but it was Arinco Gang on their cd’s. They were the only all-girl band we saw on the tour. This attracted most people up to the stage, including Matt and BaseAmp. I sat back on the wall and watched them from there. I thought they were good, they put on a good show with great stage presence and all, looked great up there, hard not to with a red SG…but I really was’nt into their songs. It was’nt until much later (like when we were back in the states), that Matt let me listen to their cd’s and I thought it was all great stuff! Especially the song “Japa”, which is stuck in my head even as I type. Have their cd as one of my top five. Had to laugh when the guy from LuckyStrikers jumped on BaseAmps back at one part during their set.

Next was Pinhead, the band Futoshi was in. Three guys, and Futoshi brought up a little wooden podium thing that he would jump on and scream at the crowd with. This guy is one of the best screamers I’ve ever heard, reminded me of some little Japanese warrior or something. From the first song “Hey Ho! Let’s Go!” he put on a great show! They did a cover of I Wanna Be Sedated. He could’nt say Sedated too well, but it sounded great. I loved these guys, and their cd is in my top five, as well. Too bad I’ll never get to see them again. Made me think for a while how many bands there are all over the world that you would like if you would only get to hear them, and how many you would of liked that have faded away into obscurity. Yes, my positive, philosophical mind at work. At any rate, the bands tonight made this my second favorite night on our tour, with the exception of The Wall.

We went up next, got set up, and went right into our set. No rock-star shit here, kids! This was probably our best show, mostly cuz of the energy the crowd was throwing at us. Always makes you play better. Very energetic bunch of people in front of the stage. I kept expecting a few of them to jump up like they would of back home, but they kept their distance. Maybe that would be considered rude, I dunno. Good news was my voice held out! Eating all those lozenge things actually worked! I had an awesome time tonight. Even got some of the kids to hit the strings when I held the SG out on the end of Year One. When we were done, they raised their fists and all yelled “U-S-A!” which made me feel kinda weird. We did our only encore that night, something we hardly ever do even back home, and played Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World.

Hung out by the merch table when we were done. Tried to socialize with some people which, like I said before, I don’t do very well even in English. Base and Matt hung around Arinco Gang mainly. Tried to talk with the Lucky Strikers, and did’nt do too well. Tried to talk with Futoshi, we get along but we sure don’t understand each other very much. I was trying to ask him how many times a year they got to play out, and gave up after ten minutes. His Base player was pretty cool too, but I have no idea what his name was. Gave Futoshi a shirt and got more buttons from them. Tomo and Dave seemed ready to go. Tomo had even put my guitar and cords away, then he got my SG back out and was playing it on the couch. Said he owned a Strat, so I felt sorry for him and let him play mine for a while. Sat behind the merch table a while, really don’t feel like leaving yet. You…that’s her name “You”, Arnico’s drummer sat by me and gave me this postcard calendar thing of them on it, and asked me “ Which one your favorite?” talking about them. Boy, is this a good way to get into trouble. I pointed at one and it turned out to be her (really did’nt know that, she kinda looked different) and she yelled “That’s ME!” She was pretty funny, and a really nice girl! She was handing us these little cookie things, and after a got home discovered it had dried shrimp in it. Holy Cow! Had nothing to give back except some Godzilla pins. The Base player was trying to teach me how to say hungry..”Peco Peco Dah!” Not sure if I ever got it right cuz they all laughed every time I said it. Enough of that. Started taking stuff out to the van. This Marshall in its case weighs a ton! Saw You one more time on the way out, got a quick hug, and we ended up leaving by around 10:00.

So…there we were, all had a great night, and were still having a pretty good time having played one of our best shows in front of a great crowd, when Matt begins to argue with Tomo about why we did’nt make any money that night. Won’t go into too much but I felt that was an argument for the door and not Tomo. So there we were with a two hour drive in front of us and know no one wanted to say anything. Well, I really did’nt feel like screwing the whole night up over 200.00, your only on tour in Japan probably once…I mean, what’s that worth? So I began to talk with Base again and after a while we had a pretty good time, except for Dave…who was too mad and embarrassed by this point. Long drive back.

Lugged our suitcases back up, Tomo let the Marshall stay in the van, thank God! Got my bed ready and then sat in the kitchen a while. Base stepped out for a bit and came back with more porn he found on the freakin’ street. I had to laugh, only BaseAmp could find that shit at this time of night. Listened to Pinhead’s cd as I was going to sleep. Production is really good on a lot of these cds around here. It sounds great! Asleep around 2:30 thinking…one more show. I think I could do this for another two weeks.

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