TOKYO JAPAN TOUR 2006
DAY EIGHT

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Tuesday, Feb 14th, 2006

Up at 10. Took a while to wake up today. Opened many cards from Steph that she snuck into my luggage, the weasel! Put my bed away and took a shower. Ate a banana and a granola bar…yeah, big breakfast this morning. Changed strings, put the anvil cases on a blanket now cuz they’re starting to chew the wood floor up. Both Matt and Dave were gone when I got up, talked with BaseAmp for a while. Continued doing the laundry from yesterday, this machine does’nt hold too much. Hung more clothes out on the balcony, we always have towels hanging out here. It’s finally a nice day outside, must be in the 70’s! Matt and Dave were back about 12:30.

Tomo was by to pick us up at 2, took my usual back seat. Did’nt have to drive too far today. Pulled off the street and down an alley to a club called The Wall. ALWAYS stairs to go down, then into this little club that reminded me of a smaller Creepy Crawl. Some places you like as soon as you walk in, and I did like this place…lots of flyers and stickers covering the walls, and the sound guy spoke English! Really well, in fact. And of course, he has a small, cute sound girl helping him out. I found a spot to sit down, but we were first to sound check and on time so we went up right away. There were TWO Marshalls here!! Matt declared “ Free at last!” Had a JCM 900 that was pretty close to my 800 back home. Played “Spirits in my House” for Base, we are both reading that Ramones book now, pretty cool. Played Year One, Nazi Clone, and Lacey Family for soundcheck. Wow, three songs! We made sure Base could hear his monitor tonight. My monitor was’nt too good at all, making me feel more at home. No big deal, I usually wear earplugs if I can’t hear myself sing.

When we were done with soundcheck, we put our guitars back in the little dressing room (and I mean LITTLE), and joined Tomo outside to go find something to eat. Walked up the street, looks like we’re not too far from that department store we went to Sunday. Lots of people out today. Had a hard time deciding on where to eat, Matt and Base want sushi, but I can’t stand that stuff. Told them we could split up or something, but Tomo decided on KFC in the end. Really did’nt want KFC, I can do that at home, but no one could agree on anything, and Dave did’nt want to walk around anymore. Very narrow place, ordered on the main level, then carried our food downstairs to a dining area. They had a second floor but it was full. Sat at a bar kinda thing in the middle of the room. Ate a chicken pot pie that was’nt too far from the ones at home. Not sure what I was expecting, but there is murals on the walls of farms and stuff in Kentucky.

Walked back down the street. You have to be kinda careful or you’ll lose each other in the crowds. We stopped in a convenience store, bought some grapefruit juice and two packs of Xylish gum. Matt found that gum last week, it says mint…but it’s really like ecualyptus or something, like chewable listerine. We all like it, except for Dave who is just annoyed that we even buy the stuff.

Back to the club. Show was’nt starting yet, and it was a nice day so we hung around outside in the alleyway. Talked a while, then Matt, Base, and Dave went to some porn shop they saw on the corner. Hung around by the club. Met a guy named Yohai who spoke pretty good English! Came to find out he lived in Tulsa for about five years and his accent reminded me of Cheech Martin. Was great to talk with him, he showed me how to get into the dressing room from a back way in the street. There was a TV in there, all kinds of hair spray stuff, and a little table in the middle. Walked around and wrote down some of the better band names I saw: Skull Shit, Dog Bolt, Crispy Nuts, Amplified Banana, Long Island Lip, Kicking Asshole, Death Burger, and my all-time favorite..Dead Snake C’mon! Somehow, our name makes perfect sense over here. Matt was back from his porn adventure, and we talked a while outside. I got this fruit juice out of a vending machine in the alley (don’t know what kind really, had pictures of fruit all over it), some of the best fruit juice I’ve ever had! Which was great, cuz I had set my grapefruit juice I bought earlier down somewhere and could’nt find it. About the vending machines…there must be tens of thousands of them, and on every corner here. Sometimes lined up 6 to 8 at a time. Each one of them usually has around 40 drinks in them, all kinds of stuff. They really take their little can drinks seriously, must be just hundreds of them..hot and cold. Hot drinks are a pretty awesome idea in a vending machine, but easily a lawsuit in the U.S. Any fruit juice I have bought here is downright killer! ( except for the one I bought that had white grape in it… yeech).

Went inside to check out the first band, Anti-Clockwise, who tried as hard as they possibly could to be British punk. These guys spent all day in front of the mirror. They tried everything…black leather vest covered in metal spikes with their band name on the back, metal-studded wristbands, spike mohawk hair, and all mixed in with a 98-pound tuff-guy attitude…all that and I STILL can’t remember any of their songs.

Went outside in between bands, just too nice outside. Went back in for the second band...Kidraw. They were better, but not much. The singer was way too intent on jumping around and being crazy, and the guitarist jumped off the stage at one point and pulled his cord out, he thought that was pretty cool. I am happy the bands so far have been a little more punk tonight...always a better energy.

Third band was Kicking Asshole. How can you go wrong with a name like that? They tried to their best, God bless those little asshole kickers, but I’m still waiting to see a good thrash band here. More entertaining was the moshers in front of the stage. They were slam dancing, but without actually touching each other. When a couple of them would accidently collide or something, they would exchange “sorry” looks. It was hilarious, a group of polite moshers! Tomo later told us that the clubs used to let kids slam-dance a while back, but the fights would often attract the police who would investigate the club’s liquor laws on serving to minors. There are MANY minors drinking out here (the vending machines even have beer in them), it seems more of a guideline than a rule. So to keep the alcohol going, the kids kinda agree not to slam into each other. Now you would think the more you drink..ah nevermind. This will never make sense.

Fourth band was Shapeen!! This was the band Yohai was in. Right away you could tell the Ramones influence which really calmed their songs down and made them more three cord punk..which is always refreshing at times. They rocked! Thought their stuff would go over even good in the states. Thing that most impressed me with them was Yohai and the Base player downstroked everything!! They were moving. I kept watching them thinking, “ They’re not going to do that through the whole song are they?” Songs had guts, but they played way too short.

Decided to skip the fifth band and go back into the dressing room. Tonight is feeling pretty good and I wanted to warm up a bit. Matt, Base, and Dave were already back there with Tomo, hardly any freakin’ room in this place! Warmed up and watched Tomo play with this ball and stick game, he was pretty good at it. Watched the monitor, the fifth band was call “Doinglife”…and I’m sorry I missed these guys. Bought their cd later and loved it! Matt said they had toured the west coast before. Maikiee walked in, she was wearing a business suit and said she had to rush to make the show. Did’nt think I would see her till Saturday, so that was pretty cool she made it tonight!

Bugs went on, no rockstar screen or curtain here, just like home…sniff. Opened up with Lacey Family for a switch tonight, since the bands were a bit more hardcore than the previous nights, and it seemed to work well. Had a pretty good time tonight and felt we did our best show so far. Good atmosphere in this place. Thought if I lived here, this would be a place I would probably come to a lot. Only weird thing that went wrong is Base’s foot pedal came off at one point and the sound girl had to rush in and put it back on. Had to laugh at Base’s smile.

Put the git-fiddles away and went back out. Bought a Shapeen cd..I insisted they take money for it. Most bands won’t take your money. Yohai gave me a little stack of stickers. Got a Doinglife cd and traded shirts with them, first band I’ve seen here that has shirts for sale. Of course, they’re all small and medium. Maikee helped me talk with them a while, she’s really insistent I try to talk to the other bands. She’s right, but I’m just not a good mingler. Yohai was wanting to know if we all wanted to go out to eat, Ive been really wanting just to hang out for a while after these shows, not just head back to the apartment. Dave just wants to go back, though…and Tomo has to drop our stuff off, so it was looking like it would be too much trouble. Yohai said Shinjuku station was’nt far from there, and he could get us back afterwards, Dave said he would take the stuff upstairs, so I thought why not? Matt agreed to stay with Dave, guess he did’nt want him to carry everything by himself…but I really wanted to go. Loaded up the van and talked in the alleyway for a while with people. Maikee said she had been on a job interview tonight, wanted me to be quiet about it, and said she would try and make the last show Saturday. She would’nt say much, but seemed kinda sad tonight. Said bye and me and Base left with Yohai. No clue where we were going and did’nt care…this touring thing is pretty cool sometimes. Yohai walked down the street with his Mosrite in a gig bag on his back. Noticed a lot of guys walking around in the day like that.

Did’nt have to walk too far, went into this little crowded, steamy restaurant..all the way to the back and went up these stairs to a little dining area where you had to take off your shoes and sit down on these little pillow chairs. Felt like I just walked into Kill Bill. The rest of the Shapeen guys were already there. Met the drummer (forgot his name, he told me several times...my fault), a friend of theirs on the verge of passing out, girl named Teechi (undoubtedly spelling that wrong), and Kataro and his wife Makkiy. Yohai ordered all kinds of food...and me and BaseAmp just had an awesome time!

Yohai wrote his name down for me, I have a hard time remembering names here. Pronounced “ Yo Hey” which caused me and Base to start up a chant of “ Yo! Hey! Let’s go!” The other tables gave us a look, but did’nt seem to mind much. Gave me the impression socializing is respected more here. Food started showing up in waves. Tried thesepickled potatoe and pepper things, little pork slices on…something, but I passed on the boiled chicken. It still had like…raw skin on it. Base tried it, first asking if it was poison, which caused the drummer to act like he was choking. Had pork strips in rice, then some spicy rice that Teechi insisted I try. Managed to eat everything with chopsticks. Not sure about Base, the more beer he drank the less chopstick-friendly he became. Kataro held up our cd and wanted us to sign it. I really feel weird doing that, and really did’nt want to, but Yohai told me “ This is a serious matter. It means a lot to him.” So we did. Talked until the place closed, then we had to leave. Their one guy that was on the verge of passing out before was now out, and they had a hard time getting him up. I had the feeling that happened a lot. Put money on the bill, got our shoes, and went outside and talked in the street a while. Still a nice night out here. Kept wondering if these guys had to get up for work in the morning. Me and Teechi sang “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers for some reason, that was pretty funny. How the hell did she know that song? She could’nt speak much English at all, but she can sing a Bay City Rollers song half-drunk at 1:30 in the morning. Said bye to the folks, and Yohai walked me and BaseAmp up the street till we were on Riki Tiki Tavy street. He walked us as far as Shinjuku station, where all the lights were, said he would try to make the show on Saturday, and then me and Base walked the rest of the way home.

Had the best night out so far, was wishing we could do this every night. Stopped at a vending machine and got an orange juice thing, and walked in around 2. Drank my orange juice and sat up watching TV for a while. My mind seems to wander more in the am…hard time falling asleep.

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