3 Unequivocal Truths About the Tour
1. The bands and I gained a LOT of weight eating and drinking the fine food and beer Canada has to offer.2. I developed a cold. (and I'm pretty sure it was susquatch's Maki-chan that gave it to me.) 3. I had the time of my life touring with sgt., MOTFD, susquatch and uhnellys !!!!
First of all THANK YOU to all the people who have posted comments. Your words mean alot to me and I will do my best to reply to them ASAP.
Secondly, I love the NMFT vol2 bands to death. If you've read my earlier blog entries I was actually quite critical regarding the lack of support they gave me in organizing and promoting the tour, but that is definitely water under the bridge. All 4 bands were thoroughly AMAZING to work and hang out with and their performances each night were MINDBLOWING! They took nothing for granted and worked incredibly hard to put on a great show each night. Despite the relatively poor turnouts they were very supportive and appreciative of what I tried to accomplish with the tour. I will never forget the great times I had each and every night with sgt., uhnellys, susquatch and MOTFD!!
I would love to do recaps of each of the shows and sightseeing activities but that would take me an eternity so I'll make a list of some of the most memorable moments on tour instead.
- watching sgt. perform for the first time and sh*tting my pants at how awesome they are. Every other band on the NMFT tours I had seen live multiple times but recruiting sgt. was based on a hunch and the highest recommendation by my friend Nathan (Hear Japan). I actually took a poll on a Japanese music forum because I had a choice between inviting sgt. vs LOSTAGE. The poll was almost unanimously in favor of LOSTAGE. I am so incredibly glad I did not take their advice and stuck with sgt. Not to take anything away from LOSTAGE (who I've seen twice) but sgt. put on a life-altering performance that is on a completely different level from 99.9% of the bands in music today.
- MOTFD destroying all notion of having become "soft" with the release of "ゼロコンマ" Their live performance is filled with so much intensity and raw power. The people who came to watch the tour are incredibly lucky b/c unfortunately some very sad news was released today. Chiemi Ishimoto will be leaving the band at the end of the "ゼロコンマ" album release tour. Her last show will be on Dec 11 @ Shibuya QUATTRO. I will do everything in my power to attend that show and it is guaranteed to be an emotional night for the band and fans of MOTFD.
- Mikiko (sgt.) ribbing me constantly about my poor Japanese and use of slang. "あんたたち" "そしてね.." "まじ？！" and "huh?" She'd take every opportunity to mock me by saying "まじ？！" and "huh?" If anybody else were so relentless in mocking me I'd probably clobber them but Mikiko is so damn gorgeous I can't help but smile. =)
- stagediving for the first time in my life at the Rivoli (I had crowd surfed before but never stagedived). Then stagediving twice during MOTFD's set and once during susquatch @ Velvet Underground. I also started up all the mosh pits and crowd surfing each night. In Montreal I stagedived knowing full well the crowd was a bit sparse in front. I asked the bands to protect me from falling. They tried their best but I fell straight onto my back. Kim (uhnellys) and Koji (sgt.) said they almost broke their wrists trying to catch me. hahaha. note to self: now that the tour is over, go to the gym and on a f*cking diet!
- Kenta describing susquatch as a "kinky, kinky band" with everyone in the audience, including me, thinking he had slipped up his English only to realize he knew exactly what he was talking about when he elaborated with "crazy pretty girls" and being into "hentai." hahaha.
- Nattchan (MOTFD) in my living room playing susquatch's "3 chords" on my Strat and Mikiko saying she wants to steal my amp (Orange Rocker 30).
- Maki and Midi proving without a doubt that they are 2 of the best female drummers in the world.
- Watching the bands eat a ton of Korean food (chijimi, bibimbap, jap chae, sundubu, and of course Pork Bone Soup!!!), then drink non-stop, and still find the room to eat street meat (hot dogs) in the freezing rain that my friend Larry bought for them.
- We took the Metro (subway) to Club Lambi in Montreal. When the train arrived it was too crowded to fit us all, so I told everyone to wait for the next one. Unfortunately, Mikiko didn't hear me and she got on. The cute but scared expression on her face as the train left and she stared at everyone who didn't get on was priceless. Luckily Mikiko knew to get off the train at the 3rd stop and she was waiting for us with a smile of relief. On a similar note, we had to board a semi-crowded bus from Toronto airport to Kipling station. I was relieved when it appeared all of us managed to get on. Then Koji (sgt.) mentioned we were missing Kim and Midi of uhnellys. My response = "Maji?!!!!" (translation: "Are you f*cking kidding me?!!!!" ) I had to call Kim long distance on his cell and give him directions to meet up with us at Kipling. This is also the beginning of when Mikiko started mocking me all the time by saying "Maji?!!!!"
I realized I hardly took any pics on this trip but here are a few:
I didn't take too many pictures because I was too busy having fun and I'll be hanging out with these guys again in December. Can't wait for Baba's gyoza party on the 16th!! (Kenta's going to be playing acoustic versions of susquatch songs and Yusuke will be making his famous gyoza for everyone.) MOTFD's final show with Chiemi will be an event that can't be missed at all costs. All of us will be reuniting in Tokyo for yakiniku!! Swan Song Council will be the concert series of the year as always!