TOKYO JAPAN TOUR 2006
DAY SEVEN

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Monday, Feb 13th, 2006

Up for no reason at all at 9:30. I should be sleeping later than this. Beds become more irritating as the days go by, must drive the locals insane. Matt got up and then left, then Dave. Put my freakin’ mattress away and changed strings. Watched TV with BaseAmp. They have a sitcom here about a samari guy who is always having to get his wife out of trouble, and he kills lots of bad guys and then they have a good laugh at the end. It reminds me of Walker, Texas Ranger without the excitement. Matt and Dave back, Dave got some AAA batteries for the TV and heater remotes. Cool! Nothing is worse than not being able to change the channel on this TV. Long wait for Tomo today. Sat in the window and read Base’s Ramones book.

Tomo was by at 2:30 and we hauled our stuff out to the van. Matt is trying to figure out why his cell phone has switched itself to silent mode. This is involving a team effort. Did’nt feel like riding in the van today…kinda blah. It was a long drive into Yokohama, about two hours. We left the city, but never the population. It was a bit of a more rural area though, and we got to see some mountains in the distance. Japanese mountains look just like mountains. Lots of riverways, hotels, docked ships, and smaller townhouses and stuff…a little more space, I guess. I think Gamera was from here. Signs read “ While in Yokohama, visit beautiful Gamara!”

Arrived at Club Lizard, on the corner of another area that reminded me of Clayton. Other corners had upscale hotels on them. Brought guitars down a long flight of stairs ( always stairs…ALWAYS), into the club area which reminded me more of the Side Door or something, just without the decals everywhere and furniture you don’t need shots to sit on. Still tons of lights on the ceiling. Put the cases on the side and sat down on them and watched some of the other bands soundcheck. Dave went off to take pictures of Yokohama stuff. Bored, not used to long soundchecks.

We went up when it was our turn. Matt is stuck with a Roland Chorus amp again, I have a JCM 900 but it really does’nt sound that good. Most of the Japanese clubs here really depend heavily on kickdrum and base, and then this clean Roland sound with pedals. It’s like a cheeseburger without any meat or cheese. We played Year One. Had to stop many times for BaseAmp. He really wants to make sure he hears everyone after the deal Saturday night. Matt had trouble hearing his vocals, played Nazi Clone. I thought I sounded fine for Monday...guess I should’nt think like that but ah well. Brought the guitars into the dressing room, which is bigger than most of the rooms we’ve been in...so they made up for it by cluttering it with junk. Base wrote all over the place. He’s using the silver sharpie I gave him…I am so proud of him!

Time to go eat! Followed Tomo a few blocks into a Chinatown district that was’nt too far from the club. Amazing places here…was really cool! Orange lit lanterns lined the streets and stuff, elaborate archways over the intersections, and all kinds of little shops. “Chinatown” from Thin Lizzy was stuck in my head, could’nt get rid of it. We ended up stopping at this little traditional Chinese restaurant, very narrow with only four tables and three or four girls waiting on you. Tried to order seperately, but they told us we had to order stuff just to set on the table. Okay, fine, and our food arrived in strategic waves starting out with little plates of vegetables and corn soup. Then came plates of peppersteak with green peppers, sweet and sour pork, cashew chicken, sweet and sour shrimp, and two kinds of rice. One kind of rice would be silly. There was this lazy-susan thing on the table…freakin’ Susan… and we passed all this stuff around. Tried everything but the shrimp. Not touching that stuff! Also tried drinking some tea as Tomo said it was good to break down the oil in Chinese food…which he said is not really meant to be eaten. The tea is traditionally drank to remind people how much their ancestors hated Chinese food and dreamed of Cheeseburgers. If was the first time I had ever tried tea… did’nt care it..and if Tomo thinks THIS stuff is greasy, he should try Courtesy Drive-in sometime.

Went walking a bit through Chinatown afterwards. Somehow, we’re all still a bit hungry. Got some pictures near this temple that had tons of ornate, brightly colored stuff on it. I wondered how they dusted the place. Not sure if it was just timing or what, but they shut the gates on it right after we took a few pictures on the steps. Asked Tomo if they objected to us taking pictures and he said “Ahhhhhhhhh…..no, they don’t care.” This is known as the Tomo stall by the way. Sometimes his answers start out with “Ahhhhhhhhh…..” Walked back to the club stopping in a few places along the way.

Back to the Club Lizard. Leaned on a pillar there and watched the first band..Biff. Like Saturday night..I just don’t feel like doing this tonight. Don’t remember much about Biff.

Second band was called 49 Ball. They had wireless systems, and for the first song they jumped off the stage and ran around the crowd. Very energetic bunch of guys, like most bands here, jumping around is just as important as playing. Forgot who it was, but one of the guys from the other bands gave me and Dave a beer. Nice of him..white label stuff called Draft One. I don’t drink, and even if I did I would’nt try this after seeing Dave’s reaction to sip one. I ended up bringing it home with me, all the way to St. Lou. I did’nt care for 49 Ball much until their last song, which was pretty cool! I went and bought their cd hoping it would be on there. It was’nt.

Back to lean on my pillar and watch the third band “Niche Industry”. They had a small girl drummer who was really good. Funny how girls always amaze us when they are good musicians…guy thing, I guess. They were pretty good, but I was getting tired of leaning on the pillar, and went outside by myself and walked around a bit. Started feeling pretty lonely out here in Tokyo, kinda down. So I went back into the dressing room while the fourth band went on…Japanese name that meant “No Littering”…how nice for them. Warmed up a bit and started to feel better. Dave said he did a lot better the other night when he did warm up…was going to do it for the rest of the week. He’s right, after a while you figure you don’t need to warm up anymore, but it really does help just to feel like playing more than anything else.

We went on. We played a pretty good set except for Dave, who SUCKED! No…just kidding. Actually, his amp kept cutting out. For the first half of the set it was hard to play alongside him cuz he was sounding like a bad drive-through speaker. Forgot if it was Matt or Tomo who after a while discovered that the limiter switch was on and cutting out on the heavier signals, but why did’nt it do this for the other bands? They all used the same amp. Also had a hard time singing tonight, my voice is starting to get tired of me. We played “Xanex for Everybody”…well, everyone except THAT guy, instead of Lacey Family, which Matt and I both declared was just a live desaster waiting to happen. It really was’nt a good show, but I’m not sure anyone really noticed.

Put the guitars back in the dressing room. Did’nt feel like standing around mingling so…I went to stand around outside. Watched one of the bands loading their stuff into a van. They would bring all their stuff up and then go back downstairs…and just leave their equipment and guitars and everything sitting out in the street for like five minutes at a time. I could’nt believe it! Just how trusting ARE these people?? After having my guitars stolen before, I just could’nt believe they would leave stuff out in the street like that. Everyday little things like this happen that make me realize what jerks we can be in the states.

Went back downstairs to see just how bad my socializing could be. One of the guys in Niche Industry came up to talk to me. We could’nt understand each other well at all, but it’s funny how you can still have a “band-guy” conversation after doing it for so long. While we were talking he reaches into his carry bag and gives me a bag of noodles. Like…snack noodles. Without warning…just here! Noodles! No ample bracing time or any sign of a noodle warning or “Standby to accept Noodles!”…just…here ya go! I thanked him, pretty nice of him really. Little bag with a cartoon chicken on it. Probably saying “ Die American Pig-Dog!” with a big smile. Did’nt eat it, it’s sitting next to my Draft One. There was an obvious European couple sitting at a table on the side. Poor bastards, they stick out like rabbi’s at a potatoe squash. BaseAmp went up to talk with them and learned that one is from Florida and the other from the UK, here teaching. They said they always try and catch bands from the US if they can. Just weird speaking English to someone I don’t know. Had a good time trying to talk to the guys in 49 Ball. As usual, they like to tell you what bands they like from the US or UK, and we were trading names back and forth. I would say like…”Judas Priest”, and they would look at me like “wha?”. Then Matt would say “ You know…Judas Priest” in a Japanese accent and they would all go “Oh Yahhh!” This happened like two or three times, and I just started laughing. So Matt became my Japanese interpreter for the night. Base was talking to the two girl drummers. He looked at me and said “Look! Small!” and they answered “Look! Big!”

Guess we could’nt really hang around too long, we had a long drive back to Shinjuku. Loaded up the van. Have’nt sold much of anything so far. None of the bands here seem to sell a lot, and none of the clubs have shirts for sale like I was hoping for. It would have been cool to have a Club Lizard shirt or something. Tomo made the long two hour drive home, but I did’nt. Feel alseep on the back seat and we were to the apartment by midnight. Feel alseep watching the damn Olympics again. Speed skating tonight. Guy from Italy won.

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