Club Zero Wins - Fatality!
- Sep 13, 2016
- 3 min read
Last Friday we finally made some time to track Pete's vocals for Who Is Real? and I'd like to state for the record, considering the limitations of venue and time, they came out really good and we now have a lot of good material to start mixing the final product.
The trip to Toyohashi was nicely uneventful, as always. It was a beautiful day outside and the ride on the Shinkansen was just beautiful. I'm usually taking it at night so it was a real treat to watch all the fields and towns breeze by under an almost cloudless sky in the middle of what is supposed to be the typhoon season (grey, shitty, drizzling skies outside as a write this post). Mike took the slow Meitetsu train, while Pete and Rob were ready and waiting in town. Club Zero proved to be a little hard for me to find, as I walked about two football fields past the place before Google Maps decided to properly triangulate my little blue dot.
Soundcheck was interesting....the guy who usually runs the place was out of town and so he sent his Dad to set us up. Being the owner of the place I feel we were eventually in safe hands but it seemed his son had everything set up differently which led to most of our soundcheck being used to identify sources of feedback and check which knobs affect which equipment. Eventually however, all bands were set up and ready to go, leaving us some time to go outside and soak in the remainder of the beautiful sunny day.
As is our custom, we nourished our pre-gig selves with beer and grub, this time at notorious Toyohashi izakaya The Shithole, where we bumped into some local Toyohashi personalities, as well as the other bands of the night. Perched on our tatami-fied beer crates, we gorged ourselves with The Shithole's finest standard izakaya fare, including hokke, edamame, sashimi, and miso kushikatsu. I was impressed by the fact that The Shithole is not beholden to any particular beverage corporation, as they offer a choice of Sapporo, Asahi, and Kirin beers. As if this were not enough, The Shithole even boasts a robot on its staff! An outsider could nae help but postulate that the people of Toyohashi must have very high expectations if they are such as to label such a fine establishment as a 'shithole'.
The depth of talent at the show was elbow level. Both fists in. In fact my wife even joked about us being the headlining band when the other bands were all so professional! Epstein was freaky awesome with his acoustic guitar, crazy effects and loop pedal. Xandra Corpora Band were spot on that night and we were all loving it. Sozoro 座 Mode blew me away with their nasty instrumentals, and I'm disappointed that I couldn't catch their whole set. Hope to see them again.
Our set was good but it was kind of weird for me, being a new member in an old local band, trying to live up to old expectations while pushing forward new tunes at the same time, in a whole new direction. I think we did well, but unfortunately due to another popular local act being on the same night, we still have a lot of Toyohashians to reach - and after dining at The Shithole, I am aware of their high expectations. We will be back in December I believe, so I'm looking forward to
winning hearts and minds in future incursions.
Once again, T-shirts proved a hit. A touring metal musician from Europe once described to me his job as 'writing jingles to sell T-shirts'. This is not far off the mark. We need to start a fashion label.
Next up is Nagoya on the 24th of September at GC Live in Shin-Sakae. We'll also be appearing in Tokyo on October 22nd at What the Dickens in Ebisu, tentatively followed up in Yokohama on the 23rd returning to 7th avenue. We're gonna take a break to write more music through November, returning to play some more gigs in December, including House of Crazy in Toyohashi. If you want us in your town, send us an email! Be sure to keep an eye out for our new single Who Is Real? which is currently being mixed. You can hear it live at one of our shows right now.
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