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Ferenc wrote:
> Damn....a tour report from the Nebulas *AND* an show report from an actual
> Surf Coasters show!!!!! Thanks so much for that. Whats going on in Japan
> Ferenc? Business or pleasure trip?
>
> BN
The trip to Japan was for fun, though I was trying to get to know the club scene
to see if it is possible to set up a tour. I went with Mach 4 drummer Shig and
Aqua Velvets bassist Michael. Without Shig, and my friends in Japan, it would be
impossible to have the access that I had as as far as getting around, finding
small clubs, eating in local restaurants, using the trains and doing anything
outside of the "Tour Group" type vacation, which I wanted to avoid at all costs.
And yes, the costs are great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. we found a
good hotel for $100 (each) a night, CDs cost $25, a huge lunch at an out of the
way place might be $7, and $23 to get into a rock club.
Michael, Shig and I had the opportunity to play live twice, one show set up by
my friend who is a music editor for a Japanese magazine. This show was more or
less pretty straight, we had rehearsed a 7 song set, and were joined by a
Japanese rhythm guitarist. Though he spoke no English, he perfectly understood
musical lingo and the songs fell together very quickly.
The second time was after Nokie played at the El Camino club. This was really
bizarre. (See my Nokie review for a description of the nature of the club.) The
club patrons knew that we were American musicians and urged us to play. BUT,
since this is a players club, which means that anybody can take the stage, we
ended up backing up some of the (novice musician) patrons as they plowed through
songs. Sometimes a patron would come up mid song and rotate in. Very often they
would start a song witout counting it out or start their phrasing on a 4 count
instead of a 1. That's OK, that's how I started, it was just weird, and again, a
lot of fun. I think that the fan/musician club is a great idea, it works well in
a dense city like Tokyo where on any given night there are enough Venture fans
to fill a room, and they play, drink, and learn songs with each other.
Too fast Jim mentioned the weird keyboard layout of the computer in Belgium.
Imagine sitting down to a keyboard with no letters, just kanji characters, and
menus in Japanese---
Ferenc
