TOKYO JAPAN TOUR 2006
DAY FOUR

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Friday, Feb 10th, 2006

Up around 10 on this floor mattress thing. It’s always a bit of an awakening when you open your eyes and realize your sleeping on a floor mattress thing. Took a shower and sat on the floor for a while. Ate pretzels and a granola bar. Got the SG out and practiced a while while Matt changed strings.

Tomo was by to pick us up at 1:30 today. We drove out to Shibuya, which is known as the youth fashion district. Got stuck in traffic a few times today, but I still love driving through the city. Was a good day so far, Dave and Base took a few pictures on the way up...it’s our fourth day together and we can still stand each other. We turned up a narrow street up a hill and stopped in front of Club Veunos. Brought our guitars in and down the stairs to the stage area. This place was pretty nice, reminded me of the Fox Threater a bit cuz of the red and gold theming and some hefty pillars and stuff. I think Tomo said it used to be a movie and performance arts place in it’s day. Had floor sections at different levels connected by stairs and walkways, …and mirror balls. They like mirror balls. Dropped my case on the floor and kinda hid behind this little booth off to the right as some band was soundchecking. Was’nt a good place to hide, cuz I was in the liar of Mootchie, the only hefty guy I saw in Japan. Mootchie was a pretty cool guy, very fun natured with a pink mo-hawk. He had the profiles from our web-site all printed out and we tried to bring up our favorite cartoons…Bugs Bunny, Ren and Stimpy, and Tom and Jerry. He also asked if I liked Godzilla and cheesburgers. Wish I could of communicated with this guy better, we would of gotten along pretty good. But we could’nt, so we did’nt. They began to set up a bunch of DJ stuff where I was standing, so I went and sat on my case. I’m really allergic to DJ’s.

That band was done checking and it was time for us, but no one could find Matt. Off on safari, I think. So I told the next band to go on ahead of us…they all looked like rockstars…had on sunglasses indoors ( never a good sign ) and fur-lined coats. I almost expected the singer to have one of those extension cigerette holders and a small dog in his pocket. Wish we could of gone on when they did, cuz their soundcheck took for freakin ever. Matt finally showed up, had gone down the street somewhere..something about a leprechaun. Dave was pretty upset at him, I guess I was too cuz now we had less time to go eat. We’ve been having one meal a day so far..so after a while you kinda look forward to it. So we stood around and watched Public Package…that was their name…honestly….I’m not just making fun of them…this time…go through their long and monotonous set, and went around checking out the club. Was finally time for our check. They have one Marshall JCM 2000 and a Roland chorus amp. What is it with these Roland amps? Matt did his best to complain about it but it’s all we have to use. Borrowing someone’s amp here is considered out of the question, which I thought was weird considering how nice people act toward each other. So Matt was stuck with the Roland, and did his best with it. We checked with Year One and Nazi Clone. I did’nt think it sounded too bad. Put our guitars in the dressing room when we were done, which was this little narrow room in with a rounded roof..sorta looked like an airplane hanger.

Looking forward to eating, but we were told to meet Mootchie upstairs for a quick interview thing. I’m not sure what that accomplished, since none of us could really understand what he was saying, but apparently we are going to be interviewed when we come offstage tonight over the PA, and Mootchie was trying to prepare us for it. Lessee,…no one can understand me and I can’t understand them….I’m ready! He laughed a lot and we nodded a lot until he quit. Then we were told we could’nt go eat yet cuz all bands were supposed to meet downstairs when the soundchecks were done. Okay…fine. We had a half hour to wait. Base had been talking to the drummer from Bum Rush.( first band checking when we came in ) and he took us all to a music store not too far from there. He spoke broken English, and has an endorsement deal with Tama or something there and wanted us to meet some of the people at the music place, which had a back room specializing in drum equipment. That was cool, so we all walked there through the street of Shibuya. It’s hard to describe the girls out here, there are like…supermodels just walking around everywhere. Freakin’ incredible, really. I mean, most of Japan is filled with these cute, beautiful people…but Shibuya is where they must clone them. Me and Dave did’nt feel like checking out drum stuff, so we stood outside on the street. The KFC’s here have lifesize fiberglass figures of Colonel Sanders out in front of the stores. He’s smiling and holding out his arms like “ Hey! I hate chickens THIS BAD! Let’s just EAT them!” The crows also grow to abnormal sizes…one was perched on a rooftop across the street with a sniper rifle.

Eventually we walked back to Club Veunos for our band meeting thing. We all stood in a big circle in front of the stage and sort of stared at Mootchie while he said some stuff like “ Go Wal-Mart!” Matt announced he was happy to play in the land of Godzilla. Then we were free to go.

So we met up with Tomo outside and he took us down the street to find something to eat. Places here usually have pictures of what they have posted outside, many even little plastic versions of their food so you can examine it in 3-D. We stopped at this place on the corner that had noodles with meat and stuff, so we gave that a shot. It was a little diner-like thing with stools. Got pork slices with noodles, and me and Base split some pork pot-sticker things that I had to pass on after trying one. Noodles were good, though, but I could’nt eat the bamboo things. Yeeeech… ! First time we all used chopsticks, and we did pretty good I think. Dave said this was the first place he ate at where he did’nt leave still hungry.

Walked further up the street so Matt could find an Auntie Em, then we walked back to the club. Tons of people outside now, would be easy to get lost if Tomo were’nt so damn tall. Matt set up the merch table upstairs on these little round tables. Looked down on the stage and talked with Tomo a while..probably my longest conversation with him the entire trip. Maikee showed up, always great to see her. I always try to get her to go first in front of me, like down the stairs or through a doorway or something, and she just refuses. Just the way it is here, but I just can’t follow it. She also told me she was acting as our manager at these things, and is supposed to be with JustRockPR. I had no idea, no wonder she’s at most of these shows.

Went downstairs to watch the first band, Qrenightboze. Yeah…I could’nt pronounce it either. Group of young kids (Base player was a 13 year old girl), who were a bit too pop for me, but they did a great job and played a great set! Being impressed with the bands we’re finding ourselves touring with is really becoming a common thing. Most all of these bands really have their shit together, whether you like them or not. Near the middle of their set, the stage left guitarist broke a string on his Strat and had a hard time trying to get a new one on. They had to stop for a while, but the guy really could’nt get a new string going, and we all kinda felt bad for them cuz they pay for this and only get maybe 20 or 25 minutes, so Matt goes back and gets his Strat and hands it to the guy…which is pretty unheard of here. He took it and they finished their set. He looked really surprised when Matt did that. Guess it just does’nt happen much here.

Bum Rush came on next, after an intro from Mootchie and his recently added sidekick. I remembered I did’nt change strings yet, so I went back and did that in a hurry and missed most of those guys. I liked their guitar sound, even if it was a bunch of pedals. Not much room in the dressing room to change strings, so Matt was helping me. It looked like the string-changing Olympics. Tomo sort of looked on in a bewildered state.

We went on next, finally a show without a curtain or a video screen to raise up. Don’t remember much of this either, but we played our most energetic set so far I think. The crowd response was’nt bad and we had a good time. Dave gave Maikee the camera and she took some pics for us, think he even set up his tripod and filmed. When we were done, this American guy came up to me and said, “ Man! That was fuckin’ killer!” I shook his hand and then he ran out. Only Americans I’ve met so far and they freakin’ disappear. Bastards!

Put the guitars up in the dressing room, getting a half-hearted thumbs up from Public Package,..that’s their name…really….and then we were called out to do the interview thing with Mootchie. I went up last after Dave’s salute to all the great bands and stuff, and had no clue what they were talking about. He would say some stuff real fast and then put the mic in my face. All I could think of to say was “ Domo Shibuya!” but that was’nt enough cuz he kept talking. I felt like Bruce Willis in Fifth Element when Chris Rock keeps asking him stuff on the air. I hid in the dressing room a while after that.

Felt like going out front for a while to cool off…BaseAmp went with me, and we people watched a while…always good here. Talked to some girls we nicknamed 7 and 8 ( we got a little tired of rating them after that, none were below 7…what’s the damn point), and answered all sorts of questions we could’nt understand.

Went back in and sat by the merch table, did’nt feel like watching Pubic Slackage. Tried talking to the guys in Qrenightboze with Maikee’s help. They gave me a cd and I had them sign it. They all wrote in English though, I had Maikee tell them to sign it again in Japanese…looks much better. The club was beginning to convert over to a dance thing as soon as Pube Jerk Puckage was done, so we had to pack up and stand out in the street while Tomo went to go get the van from some place way off. Talked a while, BaseAmp and Matt tried talking to a group of girls standing nearby. They just stand around out here. Don’t really mind most of BaseAmp’s ramblings but he was getting a bit rude tonight. He said no one here understands him anyway, but I think he’s wrong on that, and I know Maikee did’nt care for some things he said. She said she may not be able to see us again, little politics in the PR stuff I was thinking, but I gave her my e-mail and we all said goodbye. Matt and Base were hoping Tomo or Maikee could take us out since it’s Friday night, but Tomo just wants to drop us off, and I’m pretty sure Maikee has had enough of Base. Dave was wanting to go anyway. So Matt takes off down the street for some reason and is gone for 15 minutes while we all sit in the van. Something about Pixies this time…he comes back and says he was looking for Base, who has been sitting in the van the whole time acting like a Pixie. I was wondering if anyone else would care to wonder off by themselves for a while, but nope…we were ready to go. It’s hard to hang out after these things when the only one who speaks Japanese just wants to drop you off cuz he has a long drive ahead of him, and we don’t know anyone or even how to get back to our apartment. So we went back, driving through the city at night in tons of traffic. Had to commend Tomo on some of his slick driving moves, he leaves his opponents dumbfounded. Talked to BaseAmp about the religious implications of the chip-crunching in God is Great. The Chips of Gethseminie as they are often called. He said the chip-crunching bothered him, not the first time I’ve heard that. Nell once told me that bugged her. …did’nt say much the rest of the way home. Tired, I guess.

To the room at 11:30, lugged the guitars up. Ate pringles and watched TV that made no sense at all. Big Friday night, eh? Le Bel Age is stuck in my head. Asleep.

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