Yak berikut merupakan cerita lanjutan dan bisa dibilang final chapter dari tur Jepangnya SNK yang kmaren. Setelah melalui hal yang mengejutkan seperti ketemu Watanabe Shinobu (Captain Hedge Hog, Aspargus) dan mungkin cerita mengharukan tentang gimana si boss, Kazu Onigiri, terkesima ngeliat performance nya SNK yang udah mulai 'stretching' pas maen di Waseda. Juga pada part ini doski ketemu Felix! akhirnya dan maen bareng di tur leg terakhirnya yang dimana si Felix! kudu buru2 setnya sehingga maenin set yang pendek soalnya harus ngejar pesawat haha! Kata terakhir dari saya adalah sebuah kebanggan dimana media kecil ini dipercayain buat Prabu secara personal untuk ngehost tour diary nya SNK :D Way to go brawh go catch a further star!
March 11th 2017
We woke up around 9 AM and Kazuki asked us to hang at Inokashira Park which he wanted to go there so bad. So we went there by train and met Shin (new Felix drummer) right there. The first impression of Shin was pretty funny. He was like “hello, I’m Shin! I love sex.” Haha! So we hung around there and saw many cool stuff. From a live reading manga action to a cute teenage girl played her own songs for no one. Like literally, no one was listening to here. Well, I listened and recorded her too. So what!
We actually had to be at Hill Valley Studio to gear up at 2.30 PM but we stepped into stupid crap at Inokashira Park. We got trapped watching stupid gaijin playing cheap magic tricks and he asked Tsubasa to be the volunteer and he just wouldn’t let Tsubasa away. We just stood there for like almost an hour and the gaijin just kept us there until we decided to run away. Stupid shit.
So we got off from that stupid magic show and went back to Shinjuku. The Felix! guys had to go to Hillvalley first to set things up. So we just decided to take a small break at our BNB before show time.
Back to my BNB and I wanted to take a bath, you know, just to feel good. But soon as I took off my socks at my BNB, Maruko called me on the phone and told me that if it was possible for me to go to Hill Valley as we spoke to join The Hum Hums rehearsal time. I was like, why should I do that and he explained that he wanted me to play guitar and sing at one of their songs. I WAS LIKE FUCK YEAH I’D DO IT. So I rushed my ass back to Hillvalley for that rad chance. Finally I arrived at Hill Valley and met Maeda (another Felix! Guitar player) for the first time. He was setting up the place when I got there. The Hum Hums already set their setting and stood there waiting for me. So I borrowed Kazuki’s guitar to practice with them. It was sick. I played a song with my favorite band. After checking out this and that with them, I just couldn’t stop smirking to the fact that I’d be a Hum Hum for one night only haha! After that, since I couldn’t help any further and tried not to mess up their preparation, I decided to hang outside with some new friends and people that I met there. People started coming and more familiar faces waved and hugged me toward show time.
This show was pretty special since many people that I’ve met at previous shows actually came again to see us –or maybe to see other bands, I mean, come on, my band sucks. Right before the show I got to hang out with Tatsuro& Yasuda from Kritical Hit, but it ended up so fast because they needed to set up. They played first. Shit, I didn’t realize that time flew so fast that it was showtime already.
Kritical Hit was the top batter of this show. They kicked ass really hard! I already listened to their songs and they sounded a lot better at live. They should get big because they’re that good. They even played a cover a Short Circuit cover for me haha! It was all in ful circle with Short Circuit because the first time I discovered them on the internet was through their 3rd Demo which the CDR cover is a parody of Short Circuit’s first album artwork. Thanks a lot for being great guys!
The Hum Hums was up next! They started their set with Back To Front and people started moving here. I got to listen to their 2 new songs for their upcoming 7” release. The songs were beautiful. I noticed they changed their playing style a little, their new songs sounded pretty power pop I gotta say, kind of different with their previous albums. Still, Maruko never fails me with his great songwriting and harmonies. So anyway, I got to play I’m Gonna Miss You with them here. With a guitar too. It was a scary yet exciting experience, even Maruko said that it was their first time to ask someone to play together like this. So yeah, I’m officially cool by doing that with them. I love you guys!
The Hathaways kicked next. Actually they were known as The Earthnoid Federation but Keita told me that that name sucked haha! So he changed it into The Hathaways, still songs are the same but only with different name. They even started the show with Earthnoid anthem! Best! They played my favorite song too, D.I.C.K! I can’t wait to listen to their new stuff and have a copy of their stuff too!
I finally got to see Felix! live here! They were great and they played many of my favorite songs, like Moe’s Tavern, I Saw The UFO even the new stuff like Job & Pop Punk Records. It was pretty cool that I finally saw them live after a long way of “friendship”. They also played the SNK cover for their last song. That song sounded a whole lot better when they played it haha!
I felt kinda bad that I had to miss FastKiss act due to taking a crap and preparing shit. I’m so sorry guys. And well, we played again! This show was probably the biggest one in case of the number of people who came. I mean, even Kazuki already talked to me that he was scared if the place was too small for those people who wanted to come to the show. It was totally a packed up show. Rad! Thanks to the boys of Felix! for putting up this show! So we played with Felix’s gears and just rocked out haha! We sounded a little better here and it was probably my first time on the tour to play a really sweaty show! Everybody had fun and sang along –eventhough maybe they didn’t understand the song meaning like Bertemu haha! Yet it was so fun. We’re so grateful! Thanks for coming everybody!
After the show, Kazuki wanted to have a karaoke, since it was Saturday night and he wanted to go karaoke. See what I mean? But the idea got turned down by the boss because he thought it was going to be really expensive. So we ended up hang around at a nearby park near Maruetsu. Drinking and eating snacks. It was literally a party because many people were there! I was lucky enough to talk with some of them. Shit was getting crazier that the police showed up to end our party. Me and Brian ran away because we didn’t wanna get deported haha! Even the police got a hold one of the guys. But they let him away in the end. Probably it was just pretty much a common drunken nonsense they had to face haha! Night got late and people started going home.
Kazuki still had this idea to go out karaoke, but the rest of the guys didn’t wanna do it because of exhaustment. So as a friend, I went with him as a delegation of the band’s name to express my gratitude for today. So there were 7 people who went to karaoke : Kazuki, Keita, Maruko, Maeda, Menma, Tsubasa and me. So we got a nice place and the waiter was kinda cute too. What the fuck was wrong with me. It was a crazy karaoke time haha! Maeda would won the award as the MVP at the karaoke night for singing Samba Rio de Janeiro. Maruko too, he sang L’arc En Ciel really well haha!
At the middle of the karaoke madness session, Ogane from The CCS came to join the party! He was probably like the only one who was sober enough haha! So we ended the day by eating ramen together and waved goodbye. Because it was like the last time I would see Maruko & Ogane. They couldn’t come to the Yokohama show tomorrow. I was very grateful that I was able to hang and talked to them personally and made friends with them. I just can’t wait to see them again in a near future. Much love for them.
March 12th 2017
Today was the last day of the tour. That mixed feeling raged inside me before I fell asleep the night before but hey, what could go any wrong. I had to savor every moment of it. But soon as I woke up, I saw a hairy pair of balls and dick right on my face. It was Shin’s. Fucking dick! He was shrieking all over the place naked haha! After he got me, he put his dick into Brian’s back and Tsubasa’s face too! Crazy dude haha!
After a good morning laugh of dick and balls, we cleaned up a bit and the Felix! guys also packed their stuff because right after the Yokohama show, they had to fly back to Sapporo. So off we went to Yokohama, we hadn’t ate anything from the morning so we decided to get some snack and eventually, lunch as soon as we got off at Yokohama.
We got off at the Yokohama China Town and ate meatbun but we were still hungry haha! Kazuki wanted to eat yakiniku but it was too expensive for the rest of the guys we ended up at an all-you-can-eat Chinese Restaurant. It was fantastic. After that great lunch time, we went straight to the local train to reach our last gig spot of the tour, Olive Studio. Here’s a little fun fact for you, the place is owned by Asparagus’ drummer. How cool is that. Little by little, my punk rock dream could be fulfilled!
So we finally reached the place and Hisashi a.k.a the Pop Punk Sensei was already there, he organized this show by the way, we hugged and talked a bit. I thanked him for being so supportive to us. While waiting for him to get things done at the venue, I wandered around the place and it was great. The place felt really homey with a lot of old 3P3B Records artifacts. From old flyers of Avanti shows to a framed photograph of Asparagus first tour on their early days. I got to talk with the guy who was on his working shift. He actually already listened to SNK stuff and he liked it. He thought that it was pretty rare to find that people outside of Japan playing this kind of pop punk. I talked a lot more about 3P3B bands and old Japanese melodic punk bands, when the topic was around Captain Hedge Hog, he suddenly opened a new topic. Here is the raw interpretation of that conversation :
Olive Guy : I can’t believe that you actually listen to Captain Hedge Hog. Sachou (boss) must be surprised if he’s talking to you now
Me : Haha no way
Olive Guy : So I guess it must be you who took a picture with Shinobu a couple of days ago at Shimokitazawa Shelter right?
Me : Wait, how could you know that?
Olive Guys : Yappari ne, it was you. Everyone at 3P3B was talking about it. Shinobu told about it to everyone and they were blown away. They couldn’t believe there was an Indonesian who came to their show. You’re probably like the only Indonesian who talked to him and knows about many bands on 3P3B
Me : No way
*Seriously no way. I just couldn’t buy his words easily. But fuck it, the fact that Shinobu talked about me to his peers is cool haha!*
I talked a lot with him and I got to set up our final merch stall. It was a mixed up feeling. I mean, last show of the tour that I always wanted since the start of this band. Maybe you guys can’t understand the feeling but it was really really a nervous time. So the show finally began
Felix played first. They really played a short set because of the time rush. They needed to get to the airport on time. Still they were great. They played efficiently. Even the crowd asked for an encore but they couldn’t do it because of time! Haha!
Grill Chicken played next, they played really energetic and fast. Some people said that they’re legend and they’re good. It was true they were good! Glad to see them!
Witchcraft Act was up next! This band shredded! I love how they played punk rock with traditional Japanese melody! So freaking cool. The lamps on the guitarist pick up was also a spot on! I wanted to buy their record but they said it was out of print so instead I traded some of SNK stuff for their only one-in-the-world shirt haha! It was like really printed for fun and it was only one. Now I have it!
By the way, from this point of time, there was this guy who always yelled YUFUUUUUUUUU everytime a song ended and always danced in a rock n roll way. It was the best moment of the show! Me and Kazu couldn’t hold our laughter everytime YUFUUUUU got into the air hahahaha!
So anyway, The Living Dummies was next! This band is the new project of Yoshi, Keita, Menma & Sayuri (Upstairs). They played fast pop punk with female vocal. They even started their set with an Unlovables song! They could hit the harmony really well. I also can’t wait for their stuff to come out. At the end of the set, Yoshi gave me a surprise by playing his old band’s song, Solanax! I was blown away haha! I finally got to sing along the words “ I Wanna Be Ninja Turtles.” Thanks Yoshi! I love you!
After them, the almighty Sunny Branch was next! They rocked hard! Sounded similar to the record! I couldn’t help myself to sing when they played She Is Cute! My life rules sometimes! Also thanks to Shin for being supportive to me and SNK as well! Sunny Branch rules!
So the time had came, our last show ever for the tour. It was a great time and great vibe. Everybody was having fun. The communication between us and the crowd went pretty well with our shitty Japanese skill! But that was what made everything so fun, the crowd communication! At the middle of the set, I told them that it was like a miracle that we ever went to Japan to play music. They nodded and I supposed they understood what I meant by that. Thank you everyone. The show ended with another encore. Then when it was over, I lied for a minute at the floor and thought “well it sucks, I just have to go home again and back to work.”
So the show was over, we hung out and talked a little more. I got to talk with Shin and Mii from Sunny Branch, they never thought that Indonesia had a band like SNK and even could communicate with them in their own language. They said that was great because not many bands from outside of Japan could pull out that kind of thing. I was very grateful to know that. So before I left the place, I hugged Hisashi and thanked him for caring about SNK music since the start. Thank you sensei!
We went home by train and it was quite a pack, Yoshi, Shin, Maeda and Kazu were along the way. On the train, I couldn’t keep myself from thinking that I just didn’t wanna the tour to end. But then again, it was that kind of feeling that always makes a tour is memorable. The arrival and the departure. Meeting new friends and people. Playing music every night. Get some silly things going on. Get annoyed once in a while. Touring is the most important part as a band, at least for me. And my ultimate dream of playing music had just ended.
We dropped at Shinjuku Station and said goodbye to everyone. It was kinda hard. Kazu walked us to our last stop of the tour, ramen stall. When we finally got to the ramen stall, he had to say his goodbye. It was sad for me. He was the one who always came to our show and took care of our silly asses. So we ate at the stall and he walked away home. When I was eating my ramen, I actually held my tears a bit because I just didn’t wanna go home and the tour was so much fun.
March 13th 2017
Last morning at Shinjuku...
We made it to the airport so early, so we wouldn’t miss the boarding time. At the airport, I contacted almost everyone who I met on the tour and thanked them for what they had done for us. On the flight, I decided to listen to some music from my phone and it sucked because the first song that came up was The Hum Hums’ I’m Gonna Miss You. I cried a lot while listening to The Hum Hums and recounciled every memory of the tour. I didn’t stop crying until the playlist got shuffled. No one noticed me crying on the plane, so yeah, there I just said it.
We landed safely at Soekarno Hatta Airport and I contacted Kazu as soon as I landed and thanked him again.
So that’s my story. I feel so grateful and I definitely will come back again to Japan.
I still have many things to do there.
Including playing a show with Pelotan and meeting Makiko.
Why bother. Thanks everyone for reading.
(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!
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