Monday, July 16, 2012

Telephone club


So what's new? I've been dragging my gear around Tokyo playing a bunch of shows and took a trip to Osaka as well. My personal highlight so far has been the birthday event in Koenji DOM, where Ian rounded up a bunch of awesome bands to celebrate his, mine and Zana's birthday (we all have them in the same 10 days, so we made one big party instead of 3 small ones). Now Koenji DOM isn't a proper live music venue, but a rehearsal studio for bands. That means that gigs are held back to back in two tiny practice rooms with just enough space in them to fit in a 5 member band. Add 20 more crazy audience members into the room and you have an amazing, sweaty, loud as fuck rock experience. Well, that is if the bands are good, which in this case, they were. It started off with a great performance by a band called KyuShoku, who played a heavy, noised out stoner-dub set that set the atmosphere for the night perfectly. The mysterious, ever-changing Kaki played a gig in pitch dark and started the dance-friendly part of the evening, it was great to see her play to such a cool audience. I missed a couple of bands while setting up my gear, then quickly found myself playing to a packed room of sweaty enthusiasts, which I realized is the best possible environment for me. Fuck big venues and festivals, give me a dark chamber with 20 head banging friends any day. After my gig I saw heated performances by LOVEBUYLOVE and my favorite band of the night Jebiotto. Jebiotto brought the event to an end with a show as fun and relaxed as their singer was drunk...everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams, mics falling to the ground, effects getting stepped on by the audience, cables pulled out, lyrics forgotten and the vocalists voice completely gone, but it all added up to a hell of a show. Can't remember having that much fun in ages. I say that a lot don't I?


Jebiotto doing their thing. The clip isn't from our event, but I think it sums up what they do nicely

The party was followed by another all night event the next day, with me playing live and Zana and Ian DJing in Shibuya Echo. All I can say is that we were moshing to Idoli at 5am, which pretty much sums up the absurdity of the event. All in all, last weekend was a pure win.
Which unfortunately wasn't the case in Osaka, where I also played in a similar rehearsal studio environment, but to a much more violent audience and with much shittier sound. Not to say that I didn't enjoy myself or even had a bad gig, but the atmosphere of the evening was kind of ruined by the violent outbursts of some of the people, and shards of broken glass flying through the room didn't help things out much. But anyway, I got to see my friends Praha Depart again, who were absolutely awesome in every way possible. Having seen them over 20 times I still lost my breath when they started playing an amazing new song.

Osaka
KyuShoku
Jebiotto
Kaki



The fun doesn't stop there. The Call and Response Records team is taking the show on the road next weekend for a Kyushu tour! If you're in the area come check us out for live performances from N'toko, Jebiotto, Kaki and more!


Date: July 20th (Fri)
Place: Yakuin Utero (Fukuoka)
Event: Telephone Club Fukuoka, with live acts N'toko, Rim (a tribute band to unsung CAR legends Mir) and more, and DJs Emix and Ian Martin.


Date: July 21st (Sat)
Place: Kokura UN (Kitakyushu)
Event: Live acts N'toko, Jebiotto! and more.
http://www.bloc.jp/navaro/ 


Date: July 22nd (Sun)
Place: Kumamoto Navaro
Event: Live acts N'toko, Jebiotto! and more.


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