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Show Report- The Surf Coasters - Club 251, Tokyo Japan
Just finding Club 251 is an experience... actually moving around at all in
Tokyo (for us gaijin) is next to impossible, in fact, it is like being
completely illiterate. But I will skip the sundry travelogue...
Club 251 reminds me a lot of the Purple Onion in SF as we descend the
narrow staircase to the basement of an old building. At the small landing before
entering the club we are introduced to Shigeo Naka and the bands manager Masa.
Shigeo speaks no english, but has a wide grin and is very friendly. We exchange
biz cards (you do that a lot), CDs and T-shirts.
Inside of Club 251 is not like the Purple Onion, though it is dark and has
an uneven, beer soaked floor. The stage has a full PA. Japanese clubs have a
backline ready- drums and amps, in this case there are Marshall, Fender, and Vox
at the ready. The musicians usually just bring there guitars and effects. This
is because everybody uses the Subways to get around, so it would be a huge pain
to haul amps around. For this reason, shows also start around 8:30 and finish by
11, as the trains stop running at midnight and everybody needs to get home.
The Surf Coasters take the stage and immediately start a set of
sledgehammer set of instrumentals. I only recognize two songs- Miserlu and Jack
the Ripper. Their set had about 15 songs, but not my favorite, "Dreams". Surf
Coasters are a power trio, with a great rhythm section, the bass player's style
reminded me of Sam Bolle's. He was also responsible for getting the crowd going
and yelling "Hup Hup Hoooo" in Miserlu". Naka is an incredible player, if I had
to compare him to somebody in the Cowabunga world, it would be to Bernard Yin.
Fluid single note runs, with staggering technique that reminded me of Yngvie
(er, in the good way). He is an extremely competent and versatile player. And,
he was born to be a rock star. His theatrics were meant for a big stage,
although the crowd at 251 followed his every move, as they had memorized some
dance moves and knew all of the call and response shout outs. During Jack the
Ripper he leaned his guitar against the amp letting it moan furiously and ripped
of his shirt, went to the front of the stage and bent over backwards and blew a
mouthful of water into the crowd-- they loved it. I just kept thinking about the
laid back audiences in the US, and I guess the laid back bands for that matter--
would this action go over here? Naka sent the last song standing on the monitor
at the front of the stage, a born guitar hero. For his guitar he was playing a
Yamaha Blue Jean, he was usuing a Fender reissue tank and had a custom built
fuzz box. amp was the clubs Fender Twin. I will be posting some photos in a
couple days.
Sorry I can't give more details about the song list. I did manage to pick
up 5 Surf Coaster CDs on my trip. CDs in Japan are pretty expensive - about $30.
There was some talk about a Surf Coasters U.S. tour next year.....
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