October 19th, 2018

Hey there,

This week is all Japan and Yo La Tengo in Japan.  4 nights.  Might have rambled on a bit, shared too many pictures  and had some difficulty coming up with ways to describe the music, but you get what you get.

Left on a Monday morning and had a show in Osaka that night.  Barely had time to check in, catch a quickie nap and then head to the show that was an unheard of 6pm start time.  We've done a ton of trips and am usually very confident going in, but whenever I've gone to Japan have felt a lot of angst about the language and maneuvering about.  Seems irrational cause they run a tight ship, signs are all translated into English and the locals are always helpful, but still...do not understand this feeling and don't like it.

Found my way to the club, which was on the 10th floor of a mall and found ample room in my favorite spot.

10/8/2018 Umeda Club Quattro.  The dates and club names in this are links to the show set lists, which were submitted by yours truly.   The show was great of course with my highlights being 'Stupid Things', 'Artificial Heart' and a cover of Devo's 'Gates of Steel'.  

They also did the guitar into the crowd thing during Ohm, which always takes it to another level.  They'd do this again in Tokyo with hilarious results.

 At the end of the second set, the closer was a cover of the Beach Boys 'Little Honda', which can be a standard garage tune or can get extended into a freak out noise fest.  It was freak out night, and as they launched into the noise, two dudes come out to play with them.  Later learned they were Shinji Masuko and Yojiro Tatekawa from an Osaka band called Boredoms and it got weird for the next 8 minutes or so.  I'd recommend that band to you, but only if you are in the mood for some white hot noise.

Have never had the opportunity to catch a show in Japan and was curious as to how the crowds were gonna be.  They have a long tradition of being hard core music freaks.  For example, after my dad passed and mom moved out of their house, it was time to sell off the stereo.  My dad had a great vintage system and we knew it was gonna be in demand from audiophiles, and the lady we had help sell off some stuff found a buyer in Japan and it went for 10 grand sight unseen.  Conversely, the culture has a reputation for being publicly austere.

The crowd this night was quiet.  Pre-show you could here a pin drop.  At every show I see in the States the crowd chatter is loud and there is typically a lout or yappy chick that is taking the opportunity to be overserved and have a conversation with everyone in a 10 foot radius.  This night, they clapped politely at the appropriate times but there was little screaming and no pushing/shoving.  They got louder as the band hit their freaky stride midway through the second set, and they rightly  lost their shit when the Boredoms came on and destroyed our eardrums, so it kinda went as expected.

One aspect that I found interesting but unsurprising was their alcohol consumption.  Every show required us to buy a drink ticket upon entering for 600 Yen (about $5.50).  That is de rigueur for a comedy show but had never seen it at a rock one.  Based on my observations, the crowd wasn't pounding drinks and since these places typically give the door to the artists and make money on the booze, this was a way for them to ensure they hit their target.  Additionally, they were so respectful in putting their garbage in the trash.  Was stunned after the show ended every night not to see a single cup or piece of anything on the floor.  I adhered to local custom and crushed my cup up and stuck it into my pocket to throw away later.

Nice crowd and a good start to the week

Next day needed to be in Nagoya so after watching some playoff baseball in the AM (Go Blue), hopped on the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the 50 minute ride that cost $60.  If you were to drive, it woulda taken 2.5 hours to go 189 kms (117 miles).  That Shinkansen is the shit.

As check out is 10a and check in is 3p, dropped my bag and walked around Nagoya for a few hours.  As with all places in Japan, everything was neat and orderly, they love shopping malls and gardens, and there really isn't anything unusual to see.  The weather was fantastic so it was lovely just to people watch and grab some food.  Being alone, eating out isn't as fun cause I hate eating alone.  Don't have any great food stories but I made a note that they have a wide range of choices that are both foreign and domestic and made me mad at Taiwan.

Nagoya Club Quattro 10/9/2018  Show that night was in another mall.  It was 15 minutes from hotel to club via the subway, which included a transfer.  Grabbed a pumpkin scone at the Starbucks to enjoy during the intermission and went in.  Got there early, grabbed the obligatory drink and walked right to the front of the stage.  

Tonight's show was the best for me.  Club was the smallest of the bunch and it didn't sell out, so plenty of room.  The setlist was just right for my taste with the second set being one of my all time faves.  I requested the song 'Flying Lesson' by email the week before and they busted it out tonight and it was incendiary.  Here is a YouTube version of it from a few years back where you can get the jist.

The second set closer Blue Line Swinger, which is always a journey, was a particularly long one.  On this song, Mr Kaplan usually gets on the floor and makes noise on his guitar and with the peddles, so being in the front, got to watch the magic happen close up.

Blistering.  For the encore, they asked one of the audience members in the front what they wanted to hear.  Last night they did the same and the person asked for it so quietly they had to get off the stage to hear what they wanted.  Tonight, the girl wouldn't even say it out loud but had written what she wanted down on paper and gave it to them.  He looked at it like all us old folks do, holding it out as far from his eyes as he could.  It was a great choice of 'Season of the Shark', which they rarely play and I'd never heard.  The band seemed delighted to play it.  A complete night.

Next nights show was in Tokyo so did the same drill.  Shinkansen this time cost $98 for the 1.5 hour ride which woulda been 4 hours by car to go 347 kms/215 miles.  There were two shows in Tokyo so when booking accomodations looked for a hotel in the Shibuya neighborhood where the club was located.  Found one a couple of minutes walk and booked at the Hotel Two Way.  Since I was doing this trip solo, booked places that were strategically located but were cheap and small to keep costs down.  The previous two nights were that, but everything was clean and my only gripe was the beds were hard as rocks.  As I am navigating to my Tokyo digs on the small side streets off Shibuya proper, see dozens of these little hotels offering nightly and "resting" rates for 3-5 hours, which gets me suspicious.  

Find the Two Way and it is one of these.  The reception desk is a little hole in the wall a bit bigger than a breadbox and reminded me of a cashier at a gas station in a really bad neighborhood.  Place still looks clean enough so get my room and it is decent sized for what it is, but this is obviously a place people go to fuck.  The next day had no travel so had it free and since I'd been to Tokyo before and seen all the touristy stuff was looking up things to do in town and adding words like 'weird' and 'unusual' in the search.  What came up on every list was to stay in a Love Hotel.  Here is one sites "recommendation"...

So you can stay in a fancy hotel, a trendy hostel or a capsule hotel—whatever—but for a bit of the unusual try one of Tokyo’s many love hotels. You might fancy a light-up hot tub, a rotating circular bed or a vending machine full of…entertainment, with a million more odd options available. Oddly, the rooms are actually often bigger than normal hotels and the themes make for a memorable stay (try illuminated cabinets of puppet clowns for one). They are also perfect for a cheap day nap with the ‘rest’ option, ideal if you arrive at a funny time or your jetlag kicks in!

Duh...these hotels are for couples that live with their parents but need to get their groove on.  Of course they have these things and knowing this, start to look a little closer at the folks walking around and sure enough, they are all young couples.  I don't know what a Japanese prostitute looks like, but these girls didn't look like that but rather just young folks in love and having fun.  Cute neighborhood with neat little places to eat interspersed with the hotels..  Would I have booked the Two Way knowing this?  Probably not, but it wasn't bad and other than the thought of it being full of bodily fluids (and what hotel doesn't have that as a distinct possibility), it was perfectly fine and would certainly consider staying in this part of town again.

One weird thing about the hotel to mention before moving on was that they had music playing softly throughout the building, including in the rooms and could not figure out how to shut it off.  All sexy background instrumental songs you'd know ('Girl From Ipanema', 'Imagine' 'Wonderful Tonight') played on acoustic guitar with a hint of crashing surf in the background.  

One more one more thing...the bed here was much softer.  

TSUTAYA O-East 10/10/2018 Tonight's show was at the Tsutaya O-East, which is a proper club and not in a mall.  

I show up a few minutes before the doors open and unlike Osaka and Nagoya, the crowd is there early too.  They have a system that lets you in based on the number of your ticket, but not understanding what the deal is I ask a guy that looks like he could speak some English cause he has a Hoboken t-shirt on signed by the band.  He does and tells me I am screwed cause my number is 800-something.  His is high too so we get to chatting and he is a nice guy with the auspicious name of Ichiro.  Here we are post show.

He lived in NYC for a dozen or so years in the 90's where he became a Yo La Tengo fan and it was also apparent that he had the hots for Ms Hubley as he knew a lot about her like that they were both the same age.  As a Yo La Tengo stalker myself, I respected that about him.  Knowing who the band had been asking for encore song requests the past two nights, tell him to be ready cause he has the right look.  Sure enough, during the encore they ask him and he whiffs.  Mr Kaplan even makes a comment along the lines of that being an embarrassing thing to happen.   See Ichiro after the show and he was busted up about it.

Even though I have a crappy entrance number, found a nice spot dead center about 5 rows back and settle in.  This club is bigger and as the start time is approaching they did something I've never seen before.  To fit everyone in, we need to get packed in tighter in the front so they motion to the crowd for people to push forward. Typically it is too crowded up front and we are implored to move back.  Gonna be sweaty night.

The first/quiet set was the best of the 4 with them playing three of my favorite gems.  Second set was solid too (of course, would I say anything less)

I mentioned they did the guitar passing thing during 'Ohm' twice, and this was the second night of that.  They have this song they play often and during the end part, which is loud, Mr Kaplan hands his guitar into the audience and they/we get to bang on it however they/we see fit for a couple minutes.  I've had a couple of turns strumming/banging the guitar in the past and since it is popular, I tend to not fight to get my paws on it and let others have an opportunity.  This evening, I am in just the right/wrong spot and it comes to me.  As you'd imagine, everyone is clawing at it, which is totally appropriate, but then suddenly, they all stop and move away leaving me holding it alone.  I get two seconds to do my worst and then the another wave of people jump on top of me and the guitar and away it goes.  It was like being at the shoreline when a wave goes out and your back is turned so you have a feeling of calm, but then you're hit with a giant unexpected shore pounder and wipes you out.  I am too old and way too broken to withstand this often, but for one moment, felt young again.

 Good times.

Was happy the next day as I didn't have to lug my gear to another city and could just hang.  I wake up early and need coffee so stroll to the Family Mart around the corner (as in Taiwan, they are a stones throw from you anywhere).  Why I mention this is that I noticed two things about the neighborhood I was in.  First, due to the high concentration of restaurants around and that they leave their trash out on the street at night meant that there were also large populations of rats and crows.  Giant ones.  I remember them from previous visits, but the size of Japanese crows is shocking.  Like mid-size dogs.  And they are bold...one was munching on something and is in my path and he stares me down instead of flying away.  I crossed to the other side of the lane to avoid him.  The other thing I noticed was a lot of walk of shames going on this time of the morning.  Makes sense being in the Love Hotel district, but it's been a while since I've seen those.  

As mentioned, had seen stuff in Tokyo before and had no agenda.  Malls might be dying in the States, but they are alive and well in this neck of the woods with them being the main attraction for locals and tourists alike.  Not being that kind of shopper, looked up weird stuff to do and didn't see anything there that I wanted to do either, so decided to just go on a long walk.  Stopped by the Tower Records...they still have them and they are awesome.

This sticker on a signpost.

Made Takeshita St a destination.  This is the lane famous for the Harajuku girls...the ones that dress up like Hello Kitty or whatever.  We went on our trip there a few years ago and was unimpressed so thought I'd give it another try and was even more disappointed.  The girls with the cat ears and fancy stockings are all over town...everywhere but here and this seems like a tourist trap in the vein of Hollywood Blvd.  What I found interesting this time was the amount of black guys standing in front of the stores to entice you in.  Don't think I saw a single black guy anywhere else in 5 days, but there were a couple dozen here.  S'up?

 Tokyo is a curious place with things like a pot of live turtles on a random street...

 a store called Nude Trump...

and a place that takes you on a tour of Shibuya in a go-kart where you have to dress up like a character from Mario Kart or one of the Muppets.

I know you've been asking yourself, 'what did you think about the people?'  Being in the 92nd percentile of judginess on the Myers Briggs scale, you know I judged the entire culture based on 4 days, so here it goes.

Osaka and Nagoya have a much more conservative vibe than Tokyo.  As I was there during the week, saw them in their business attire and the ladies all wore nylons, which you rarely see anywhere anymore.  They guys all had on the same close fitting black suit with white shirt and skinny black tie.  Very cliché company look and right out of the Eisenhower administrations Japan reconstruction handbook.

In Tokyo, the fashion explodes in much the same manner that I feel about San Francisco where everyone has to look fahbulous.  Was commenting to Babydoll when I got home that the girls like to wear bulky gear and she was way ahead of me.  She knew the names of the big cable knit sweaters the girls prefer and such from some website she frequents and proceeded to give me a dissertation on the differences between the Japanese, Korean and Chinese looks.  "You have to be really skinny" to wear what the Japanese do she tells me and have to agree.  The girls are like stick figures but the bulk gives them shape.  It works and give them credit for it cause it is way more creative than what passes for fashion in this dump.  They also dig wearing giant platform shoes and saw three of them twist their ankles violently but not fall and keep on walking.   

As for the dudes, not as fashion forward as the ladies but they make an effort overall.  Found it funny that I did not see a single Japanese guy wearing shorts, nor did I see a single westerner not wearing them (including myself on walkaround day).  Mine didn't have cargo pockets however while every one of the other white guys did, so felt a bit of redemption.  What the Japanese guys have is great fucking hair.  There are 60 million Japanese guys and it feels like there are 60 million different hair styles, and they all look cool.  Whether it is a residual effect from centuries of bonsai being an art, or the construction of their hair follicles, it is impressive.  Even the dudes with the shaved heads look good as the shape of the skulls is so proportional and cappuccino colored.  Juxtapose that with the Chinese dudes and have maybe seen a dozen that look cool.  Was just at the local market and looked around and laughed out loud at how comically bad their heads look.  There are like three hair styles here and at least two of those involve bowls.  Combovers are even still a thing.  

Made notes that I did not see a single local wear sunglasses, bowing is an endearing trait that is common practice for all service occupations and casual greetings, and that women cover their mouths when they laugh but the men do not laugh at all.  Also, while these folks are slight of stature and not meaty of frame, I would not mess with a single one of them.

TSUTAYA O-East 10/11/2018  After a nap, headed to the club for the last night.   My number was low tonight so went in and got a spot right up against the barrier in front of Mr Kaplan.  Tonight's show was different as there was an opening act...Shintaro Sakamoto.

Wasn't familiar with him previously but investigated prior to the trip.  He was the guitarist for the legendary band Yura Yura Teikoku and has been a solo act for the last 6 years.  Listened to all of his stuff leading up to the trip and while I didn't understand the lyrics, liked the vibe.

My spot was right in front of him and fully enjoyed his set.  Unlike Boredoms, I do suggest you dial him up on Spotify.  Makes for groovy music to enjoy around the house and you can also impress your friends at how hip you are.

 And look at that hair!  Also note how skinny the bass player is but is so sexy with the bulky outfit.

The dude on percussion/saxophone provided the stage antics and while it is harrd to tell in this shot, that bald head looks delicious.

Since there was an opener, we only got one set from the beloved Yo La Tengo.  Sorta liked the change-up cause we didn't get all the same songs from the new disc, which I like but as this was my 12th show this year, was a break from that routine.  Spirited versions of 'Red Buckets' and family favorite 'Mr Tough', and the closer of 'Story of Yo La Tango' had feedback antics that were new to me.

Encore was a bit different tonight.  They come out and invite Shintaro-san to join them for The Velvets 'Run Run Run'.  He got to display some of the psychedelic chops he was known for in his previous band that are not a big part of his solo stuff.

Then for the fun stuff.  They point to three members of the audience to come on stage.  I'm sure there was some translation issues involved cause they don't know whats going on and none of them wants to go.  It takes several minutes to get them to go up and I had to physically push the guy next to me to go.  They have the three members stand to the side while they set up the bit.  The looks on their faces was priceless.

 The band then plays the verses to Anita Bryant's (yes that Anita Bryant) 'My Little Corner of the World' and then have the audience members join the four guys in their road crew to whistle the chorus.  Not sure how they did it or how they picked three people that could whistle, but it sounded OK.

There were smiles and laughter all around (except from the two Japanese guys of course).  They came back for a second encore playing 'Yellow Sarong' and it was over.  Sorry to have spent so much time detailing these (and the west coast summer) shows, but was just something I had to do.  If someone asked what my hobby was, would have to say that communing with Yo La Tengo is a big one.  Knowing what song they are about to play just by seeing what guitar they pick up or hearing a couple of notes is fun and am never disappointed in the songs they choose to play.  And every show there are several moments when you can feel the electricity coursing through your body.  Yum.  I picked up the coffee mug made for this tour, which is a design of Mr McNew's with Yo La Tengo written in Japanese.  Makes me happy every morning when I fill it up and gets the day started off in fine fashion.

Hadn't had dinner and noticed a little joint across the street from the Two Way that looked good and sexy.  Ordered me up a spicy chorizo pizza and glass of wine and had a chance to reflect upon the week and what a lucky boy I am.

See ya.