Saturday Night Karaoke Japan Tour 2017 Journal Pt II

Wokeh kita lanjutkan perhelatan jurnal tur SNK kita part kedua! Jadi setelah kmarenan pas doski pada sampe Jepang dan akhirnya ketemu bapak Yoshi dari Nerdy Jugheads, mereka akhirnya melakukan first show di Akihabara dan sempet kek kaku gt jarinya bang Prabs soale blm beradaptasi dengan iklim Jepang yang cenderung dingin. Dan berikut merupakan part 2 nya langsung aja sikat cuyyyy....

March 8th 2017
After waking Maruko up in the morning, we decided to take a stroll to Shinjuku Gyouen. It was beautiful. There was this funny thing where the park has this green house filled with tropical plants which we can easily see here. Cool.
After strolling around the park, we got back to our BNB to prepare things up for the gig at Waseda later that night. Boss Kazu picked us up and we walked to the venue, which was great.

The gig at Waseda was cool because we didn’t know pretty much many people and the bands who played there. Well I mean, I know the guys who organized it like Osawa (IHSR), Eno, Takagi and Hiro (Break A School), but most of the people was new to me which was great, because we always wanted to play in front of new people who dare enough to tell us that we suck. It was a crazy night that we actually drank a bit too fast since Takagi and Eno gave us the drink before the show haha! I drank a little and couldn’t get any further. Brian also didn’t drink, he learned from his mistake at Koenji haha! It was also cool that our friends from Indonesia were surprisingly there too! Thank you so much Azis, Adyth & Betty for being there! It was great to have you guys there!
So the show began and Under Socks played first. This band was great. They played raw pop songs with a shitload amount of distortion. I was killed by that and became a fan of them instantly. I talked to them after they played and they were shy guys –before the alcohol kicked in-
After that Life is Water was up next. Osawa played bass here to help this solo project to go electric. Kinda reminded me of Paul Baribeau when he still played with electric guitar.
Then there was this band called Cheddar Pieces. This band was an aftermath of The Cavitys who broke up. That was why I was kinda familiar with the singer and the bass player. They played Kolibri type of rock/pop songs with Mac DeMarco-type guitar too. So jangly yet so fast. Maybe Kolibri Records would like to sign them because they fit the stereotype perfectly.

I missed the band called JIV because I went upstairs to prepare shit up. When I got upstairs, Maruko & Yoshi were there! They were back and loaded up with booze already haha! Everyone was pretty messed up when I got there, including Japra who actually had to take care of the merchandise but he got himself some drinks too, so yeah haha!
For this gig, I borrowed Under Socks’ guitarist guitar which was light as a feather. At first, I was scared if I’d mess up his guitar because it was so clean and tidy but well he said it was okay to use it the way I wanted it. Thanks a lot! So this was probably one of the best shows we ever played on the tour. The PA system was great, the output was also fine. Also what a surprise we had, Botch from Four Get Me A Nots was in the crowd! He saw us live that night! It was great to see him again while we rocked out in his place.
Anyway we played a cool set here and everyone was having fun. It was kinda funny that many people smiled & laughed everytime we played songs with changing parts, you know like the ending of 90s Revival or like the doo wop part of Never Learn. They were amused by that. Also, I took a chance to joke around about the Japanese punk rock bands that I listen. I teased them by a small bit of each song from each band, from Thumb to Seventeen Again. Everyone laughed. Pretty much because they though that I acted dumb that night. So the point is the show at Waseda was perfect! Thank you so much for Dance My Dunce crew for helping us here!

After the show, I talked to Botch again for a short time. He said he couldn’t stay long because he just got married. We hugged and he promised us to see us again in Indonesia. Thanks Botch!
We went upstairs and everyone was waiting for us to start the after party. Osawa brought me to the bar front and thanked everyone for coming and asked the audience to keep supporting us by attending our upcoming shows. He was a great guy. So the party started, everyone was frolicking and had their fun. I had a great comprehensive talk with Osawa and his friend about many things, especially punk rock in Indonesia. They asked me about the scene and the bands. I told them that today’s bands are indifference, there were great bands around but they started to play commercial music. They understood it and compared it with the same phenomenon that happened during the transition from 90s to 2000s. We could relate at same things about it. They asked me for some recommendation of Indonesian bands and so yeah I gave them a couple of names. But they didn’t want to recommend me anything because they thought I already had a great knowledge of Japanese music haha! I still don’t though.
Time to go home, I hugged everyone and Osawa told me that he would come again to our show at Shinjuku and I was very happy by that.

We said goodbye and we parted ways. Before we went to our BNB, Boss Kazu and Maruko took us to nearby 24 hour ramen stall. When we were eating ramen, Kazu said something to me that I will never forget forever. Here is a raw interpretation of that conversation :
Kazu : What’s wrong with your head?
Me : What about it?
Kazu : Today’s show you guys were different. You were fucking great
Me : No way hehe
Kazu : No man, not only the show. They way how you tuned your guitar and managed your amplifier to produce that kind of sound is out of the world. You’re smart you know/
Me : *slurping ramen

Hearing that thing from Kazu wasthe best thing ever. I don’t know if he was drunk or something, but that just encouraged me to play better in a band and I’m so grateful that there’s someone who paid attention about that. Thank you so much, Boss. Not only that, I also agreed the show was fun. It was one of the best shows from the tour. Glad to be there.



March 9th 2017

Just My Luck!

Today was our last day off of the tour. We decided to stroll around Asakusa, you know, it was pretty much a tourism obligatory thing. We sightsaw, took pictures with cute girls and stuff. Then we decided to split up again. Me and Bayu went to Shimokitazawa (again) while Brian and lads went to Sky Tree and someplaces else. The reason why I wanted to go back to Shimokita was that I still had hopes on Pizza Of Death Home. But anyway we still got none. It was closed like a couple of days ago. Odd business.
Something cool happened here actually. I got to meet Watanabe Shinobu (Captain Hedge Hog, Asparagus) by chance. So I totally didn’t miss any chance to take a photo with a cool guitarist who I ripped many riffs from haha! Then I visited 45 Revolution, it was pretty close from Shelter. I checked out the stuff and I got enlighted from there. I realized why many punk rockers order many stuff from there since their collections were legit as freak. But I didn’t buy anything from there though haha!
So that was it I guess. At the evening, I strolled around Kabukicho with Avin and his girlfriend. Nothing fancy.

March 10th 2017
Before went to Ashikaga, we decided to shop some snacks and stuff to be brought home at nearby supermarket. It was cool that the price was kinda cheaper than convinience store. So people, if you’re looking for some stuff to be brought home, go to nearby supermarket. The best.
Around 4 PM, Boss Kazu picked us up with his car since it was going to be a long trip to Ashikaga from Shinjuku. It took us 3 hours to reach there by car. While on our way there, we talked a lot with Kazu –of course, to keep him awake during driving- about many things and it was cool that we got some information about music and upcoming Waterslide stuff. Best.

We passed by Saitama, Gunma and other places. One thing that I remembered about passing those places was the cold temperature. It was inhuman. Maybe since we are not a non-tropical group of people so the weather was getting colder and colder. Rad.
Right off the bat, we arrived at the venue and it was totally cool. It was indeed named as Live House of Ashikaga Embassy and we learned that it was a multi-functional live house. There were 3 rooms –that I discovered- there. The front room was used as a practice studio. There was a band practicing there when we got there, they played many Green Day songs, so I took that chance to warm my vocal up haha!

The back rooms was also used as a practice room, but when I checked it out, it was being used by little children singing with their parents. Coolage. And the room in between was our gig spot. It was pretty cool and pretty proper. It has banter and lights, you know, like another proper live house. But the difference was that we didn’t play on stage since the commitees thought that it would be a really small show so we played at the floor instead which was totally great for us. We always suck at big stage haha!

Shibata (Fortvivlan) who ran the show talked to me before show time about punk rock and scene in Ashikaga. He said that not many bands play here since it’s pretty much a small town with small number of people. But whatever he said, I didn’t buy it because I already felt a good vibe on how the show would turn out to be so great. It’s cool to know too that eventhough he’s playing in a crust punk band, he has this big love for pop punk and helped us to play at his place. He even brought a cooking set and soba for everyone at the gig. Boss Kazu cooked yakisoba for everyone who came down to the show. Fabulous. Thanks Shibata!

Showtime! The landlord, Fortvivlan played first. They played as a 3-piece here since their bass played couldn’t show up so the singer sang and played bass at the same time. They shredded hard. Much better at live I gotta say. The 3 piece formation gave somewhat extra energy to their act. Maybe the rush of energy of playing instruments and yelling at the same time gave that kind of vibe that powered their live there. The point is that they’re great.
Next we had The Datsumouzu. They were a 3 piece all-girl band.

They sounded like Shonen Knife on Burning Farm album. So raw, treblish and fast. They were kinda cute too haha! Even Brian had a crush on the bass player! There were two impressions from them that left remaining to me. 1. When they realized that their instruments were out of tune, they say and they tuned them together. How cute. 2. At the end of the show, singer & bass player Ayumi kinda got frustrated –or maybe it was just an act- and just threw her bass to the back. Punk rock haha! But anyway, I guess they will be big in the future, you know, like The Pats Pats or something. But quirkier, which is great.
Coke Aloha Sister was next. They were pretty much a Pizza Of Death/Ken Yokoyama-core band. They played it really well. They even covered Stay Gold for us haha! If they ever come to Indonesia, they will receive good feedback from the so-called “melodic punk” fans here. They were great for playing that kind of music.

Then Cooking Casper was up next. They played fast punk rock with catchy riffs. KBD stuff, you know. Like more raw version of The Briefs meet Crimpshrine. From watching their act here, I’m now totally a fan of them. Ashikaga rules for having this kind of band.
And well, we got to play too. I borrowed the guitar from Cooking Casper and it was my first time ever to play that kind of guitar. At first I was worried that I couldn’t get a grip of that kinda guitar but hell, it sounded well and it wasn’t so bad. I might buy one. It was pretty cool that everyone anticipated us to play and some people actually sang along. I didn’t know that they listened to us anyway, but it was cool. The show went well and fun! They even asked for an encore –which we never thought that it would happen this often on this tour. Since we didn’t practice that well, I ended up taking Kazu’s idea for granted to play AKB48 cover. People laughed hard when I played Heavy Rotation. So why not to fuck it up a bit I thought. I changed the lyrics into way more idiotic and they were pleased as well. Goddamn, people were too nice at us I guess! We definitely want to visit Ashikaga again in the future. Thanks for being nice!
So off we went back to Shinjuku after the show and what a surprise that Tsubas & Kazuki from Felix already hit the BNB board. Well, they booked the same room as us, so it wasn’t pretty much a surprise actually haha! At 3 PM. 3 fucking PM, they asked me to get some food. So I thought, why not. We ate at nearby soba stall around the corner and it tasted like shit. I guess I ordered wrong stuff or something. So when we got back to BNB, I puked everything out. Sorry soba chef...
(Prabu Pramayougha)

*Note : 
- The photos are taken by the talented Bayu Rizki Purnama.Catch all his photoworks at 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bayuxrizki/sets/72157679989972730
- We'll post the third part later so stay tune!