Small bottle of whisky that conveniently fits in a bag that is never checked at the door: 500 yen.
Cost of the show (advance price) + required drink ticket = 4000 yen.
So, to translate that into US money, before I've gotten my first drink or heard the first note I've dropped a little over 40 bucks and it's only 7 o'clock at night, only 2 bands playing, but they be 2 bands from Austin and the entire night ended up well worth my while.
American Analog Set and Her Space Holiday played last night here in Tokyo, I found out it was the first time in Japan for AMANSET which I was surprised by and hence the show sold out. Luckily I didn't repeat the mistake of waiting to get my ticket and even though my other friends couldn't make it I had a lovely night of dancing and seeing familiar faces. Amanset had some technical difficulties with their rented Rhodes but ultimately the sound was rich, clean and LOUD. Kenny kicked a couple songs up a notch giving them a good punch with the distortion peddle. They mixed some old songs with newer ones and if memory serves correctly there was even a track from their first CD "From our Bedroom to Yours" (I think).
It became obvious that quite a few had come for Her Space Holiday who headlined and I don't think anyone left disappointed. After seeing them a couple times post-Kylie Mark and co. solidified my opinion that their live shows outshine their CD's. I haven't heard the new one but while the last one had some nice tracks the energy of the live shows never quite crosses over to the recordings. They opened with "My ex-girlfriend's boyfriend" but actually toned down the Weezer-esque chorus and instead revved up the rest of the song with strong drums and heavy bass. It's hard to get Japanese audiences but there were some bodies other than mine jumping around to the music. The rest of the show featured some new songs and past and everything was beefed up by the mixture of electronic and live drums. Good show, the people left hot, sweaty, tired and in great spirits, exactly how it should be.
After getting a chance to talk and finally meet Mark, the drummer from AMANSET I hung out for a while reminiscing about Austin and life there. For a moment I felt a million miles closer to my old home. Leaving the club I was faced once again with the anonymity monster that is Tokyo, to walk the street half drunken swerving between people worse off than myself, staring at my feet as I faced the crowded train ride home awash in my thoughts and feeling more alone than I have in ages. Maybe it just takes growing up in a city like this to be accustomed to it, but I don't really know if people were meant to live like this, and THIS is the future, at least for a lot of the world. I read about the megatropolises sprouting up throughout China, creating cozy communities of several million over a couple years and I wonder if we're all headed in the right direction if it means living amongst more and more strangers in apartments the size of suburban closets. I'm not at all ready to leave, but I am anxious to see the green spaces of Austin and ride my bike once again and wave at familiar faces which after 5 months are still all but absent here. I'm planning on staying here for at least another year, but I have been thinking that if I find Japan in my future again, or any of several other countries that I'm going to pick a smaller place. I've heard you can bike across Kyoto and meet people with ease because you'll see them several times a week. All a bit like back home and that is something I miss.
Pastor from ATX/NYC was here for a couple weeks and said that it's hard to even compare this place to NY, that it sucks in and consumes that entire city and multiplies, then lays it down in sheets of concrete (my words, not his). Tokyo is a beast unique to itself and perhaps I've simply not found the correct way of navigating through it, time will tell and language is a bit part of the key. In the meantime I'll be waiting for a familiar face to return a smile or wave of the hand as I bike the familiar path to work. Hajimemashite.
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