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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.....
ferenc
--- In , Ferenc Dobronyi <ferencnd@n...>
wrote:
> Show Report- The Surf Coasters - Club 251, Tokyo Japan
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.....
>
> ferenc
What CDs of theirs did you get?
Anxiously awaiting a U.S. tour ...
-Warren
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
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
Ferenc...once again, thanks. You said it wasn't a Ventures show, but he did
mostly Ventures tunes. Are you saying he played them in a non-Ventures
style...more finger style?
BN
More twang, fancier pickin. Mos of the ventures songs kept the Ventures
arrangements though Hawaii 5-O had a fourth modulation.
ferenc wrote:
> Ferenc...once again, thanks. You said it wasn't a Ventures show, but he did
> mostly Ventures tunes. Are you saying he played them in a non-Ventures
> style...more finger style?
>
> BN
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Ferenc wrote:
> Surf
> Coasters are a power trio, with a great rhythm section,
>
Were the 'Coasters always a trio? I hear quite a bit of rhythm guitar on the
songs I have heard.
BN
> Were the 'Coasters always a trio? I hear quite a bit of rhythm
guitar on the
> songs I have heard.
>
> BN
No, I know early on they had a rhythm guitarist, but he left in ...
God, I don't know. They've had a ton of line-up changes, but for the
past year and a half or so they've been a trio, and before that they
had an organist as a fourth member.
Even on the albums where Shigeo Naka's the only guitarist, though,
there's ample overdubbing--on their newest, Surf Express (Side note:
Hands down the best surf album I've heard released in 2003, and well
worth the import price), there are a few moments where it gets to be
a bit too much for a three-piece to capture live.
"Dead Tree," for example, has an acoustic rhythm guitar, a heavily
reverbed guitar buried way down in the mix, and it sounds like for at
least part of the song the lead/melody is doubled. That could be a
little difficult for one guitarist to pull off live.
So, I guess, in short ... no, they weren't.
-Warren
