OCTOBER 3 TOKYO - OCTOBER 6 KYOTO
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OCT 3 + 4 2005 TOKYO
Sleep was achieved after all. the dinner with the posse here brought me right back to how wonderful it was last year here. Best place in the world to eat. Maybe a tie with italy.
So we ate. An hour further back behind the jet lag lines then Australia, which in itself was 2 hours further back then new Zealand. So at meals end the blanket of exhaustion wrapped around me like a tangle of tango, dancing me away from conciousness.
Back to the same hotel as last year. Almost the same room, just next to it. it is a strange slice of peacefulness at this hotel, far from the looming bustle of Tokyo. An impossible oasis of quiet and reserve. Sleeps come on heavy.
Morning: I maintain a low profile, preferring to email a bit and linger in the hotel. I am fetched for lunch. Another stunning meal. Back to the hotel for a bit. Pink eye is an old friend now. Still traveling with me. Cannot seem to shake it.
Its been over 3 weeks with it.
We head to the club about 4. it is in the thick of tokyo’s bustle: shubyro area. It is located in an underground car park. Ha ha ho. Cracks me up. But the inside of the club is perfect. A wooden post modern box with excellent acoustics. No monitors either and not needed. A yippie grand piano means tonight will be fun and simple. A very good fender twin amp too. great.
Me and seth (American who married over here) venture out to get a wire. And he is also there to help me with the interview for good old ‘kitten’ magazine. We have it in an old style tea shop, complete with an abacus at the cashier.
Back to the show to catch the opening performers. Shugo amazes me with guitar prowess and noise accompaniment. Then the brothers go and tomo with a great song about sashimi tuna played on a saw.
Lovely stuff.
Now me. The place holds only under hundred, but has been sold out. Even though I have the usual wire glitches and set-hitches, I manage a good show, and the piano rocks. Folks seem severely satiated. They even understand some of my jokes.
The amount of vibe that comes in from these people is overwhelming sweet. It is hard to understand. Like trying to understand a stream of water. At some point you just let it wash over you, its way to powerful.
Then we all go off to a big extraordinary meal. I forgot to mention one thing from last night; I have learned to count in Japanese overnight. I can now count to a million, no problem. I am not sure how I am able to learn this stuff now.
But I can also remember names at an alarming rate. Folks in new Zealand and Australia were baffled and delighted by this new mastering. I must have been too stoned in my early days to ever believe it was even possible. Now it is more then a hobby, it is an exercise of the brain. One thing I have noticed, my capacity to remember so many names is limited to adoring the people I meet. The more I can adore them, the easier the name recall becomes. There was a fellow I met in wellington who at first seemed like a good guy, and probably was, but then digressed into a chump as the evening progressed. And I found I could not remember his name soon after that. No way could I recall it, yet had no problem with the other umpteen people I had met that evening.
Take last night for example.. it seems to work even here in japan. At dinner was norio, aki, ogi, mika, koya, ando, shugo, go, tomo, and katzumi. I remember koya’s name, even though he said he thought I looked like Richard gere. Not sure about that guy.
Ok. A great night in Tokyo. A great night on the planet. Filled me with a rare satisfaction and a pure delight in the humanity abounding. It is hopefully the future here. Since we are always in tomorrow land, in every way, dateline and contraptions galore. Just at dinner we were de-shoed, then led into a private style room, where we sat on a pillowy semi-floor (they lowered the space under the table so you can feel more like sitting on a chair then on the floor traditional style) and then mika reaches over to the portable wireless menu video screen. She picks it up off its dock station and pushes the items she wants on the touch screen, which then arrive out of the future a short time later. ha. Its nice to se the future work out so good sometimes.
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OCT 5 TRAIN TO HAMAMATSU
I am looking forward to the hamamatsu posse. A great sister / brother team there. Fumie and moto ...she does the most wonderful paintings, and he does up the promotion and has the ‘eel café’. Hamamatsu is famous for their eels.
But this show will be in the tiniest club on earth. About 8 floors up in an apartment building, inside 2 little rooms that makes you laugh out loud.
Same hotel as last time. The same electronic toilets. A short walk to the club. Then the elevator up and into the tiny venue. Mirror ball is always on, makes your head spin some. Makes you dim some.
I remember the sister of the brother who puts on these shows. She made the great posters last year. A fine artist. Primitive and minimal and joyous. Child like drawings that make more sense then sophisticated trappings. Her name is fumie. His name is moto. And tonight the opener will be by guitar virtuoso shugo again, as in Tokyo. But also a fellow I call utah (ryuta), and he calls me Arizona. We are neighbors then, and when he plays I jump in and jam a bit with him. He is a very young and tiny guy, but he has the goods too. beautiful song display, while his girlfriend (maybe) projects very lovely images over him that twirl and fall and flee and fly. And the mirror ball spins out of control (especially when you are trying to hook your wires together and set up) …and it again strikes you how beautiful the actions are here. So much to take in. you can feel your heart thump form all the human beauty reflected in the respect of image and sound.
The club can only hold about 35 people, but it is a rare gather. A full on dream. The mirror ball spins us all. the crowd are so close to you when you play, all comfortably cluttered together. It is like this club is a giant walkman; intimate and all in your head. The audience is almost all women I notice. The girls here have an animated beauty to them. a striking presence of adorability, but presented like they were drawn that way.
Mostly, very concerning and bemusing smiles. A curl of lip that tucks into cheeks built for smiling. like they can’t help showing off the eventual smile that is coming soon. A lilt in the eyes, a tilt to the head. The clothes are usually black. Hair is usually midnight black and often spoinked. It all lends itself to some form of art.
I play the best set of my life tonight.
It is rock opera style, all songs melding into the next. The cd player with peter’s new beats comes on in mid set accidentally and perfectly to self arrange things. Then changes in the middle of a song so the song will dance with the change and seem flawless to the listener. I am more entertained then the crowd by the accidents unfolding, but in turn then deliver a most fine performance so they can be just as entertained as I am. It is a way of delivering the goods by instant inspiration. I suppose I have always gambled on this. And when it works, it is majesty.
A great set. Perhaps no one knows here how good the accidents are and that form of incidentalism mixed with disposability thrills me. It feels like the true nature of things here on the planet.
I end as I began with “hey jude”…although when I began I used the japanese numbers to instigate the lyrics.
Example: 1 is ichi. 2 is nee. …so I just started counting, using the numbers for lyrics a bit.
Like this: ichi, nee, san, young, go, rocku, nana na na na na na …na na na ….and then I continue counting past 7….hachi, que, and then “hey ju”…ju is 10.
This goes over really well and sets up the rest of the set nicely. Everyone in a very smiling way now. Beautiful smiles. The land of smiles. I think they invented the smile.
For an encore, I play the happiest version of wayfaring stranger mixed with fly me to the moon ever. The crowd is clapping along the entire time with a good strong back bone beat that I work off. It’s striking up the band.
When the set over then I invite shugo and utah and moto up for the big finale, “lay lady lay”… karaoke style. It is hilarious and joyous.
Too much adorabilty is thick in this club now. The blade runner rain plinks at the window here 8 flights up. Soon I amble back to the hotel, and the rest of the posse heads back to stay at moto’s house. I am tired. A good sleep.
Happy new year style.
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OCT 6 KYOTO
Up early enough. I am completely on this time zone, unlike last year here. The tour routing of hitting new Zealand first , then Australia and finally japan has made it very much conducive to the extreme jet lag that can occur here. Plus the shows in japan are usually on very early in the evening.
This is making for some fine shows.
I am greeted by the posse from moto’s house. We go and see the wonderful art that fumie organized with the town’s children, having them all work on a giant piece of collected art works and then submerged in a shallow man made river in the center of town. So much adorableness this early in the day is like a vitamin.
Then the good byes, and a sadness to see them all stay behind. On to the bullet train again then. Aki nabs me a bento box for the journey. Hamamatsu eels. That’s what is in my box. I attempt to find the delicacy involved here. I fail. Beer chaser rescue.
Mitch cullin and peter chang is supposedly in Kyoto today. This will be a fine recess of these days of partial communication . plus I have not seen old mitch for quite a while. In the interim, his last book ‘tideland’, has been made into a film by terry Gilliam. It will be good to catch up. Especially here in japan. It was he who first brought me back first hand knowledge of his trip here a few years ago, overcoming his fear of flying and tackling the impossibility to quit smoking at the same time. I found that double action inspirational. And really, this tour probably happened only because he made the offhanded comment to me many months ago that he would probably be here about this time of the year, and wouldn’t it be great if I had a tour here then. So here it is. This train flinging me right up to the point of said instigation and flink flonk.
note : the art on this current tour-only cd (upside down home 2004 – year of the monkey) was all photographed there in Kyoto at the infamous monkey park last year.
At the hotel. Its better then last year. Thai messages are offered for a bout 40 bucks an hour. They can last as long as 2 hours if you wanna pay for that. My back hurts enough that I want to give it a shot. I have just an hour before sound check.
A wonderful tiny thai woman greets me and walks me through the proceedings. Never have I ever before. It is amazing how she wrangles herself in and around by long frame to torque and yank. Torque and yank. Good title for something. Anyway, it is mostly pain, which probably means I needed it since I have not been stretching near enough here on the road. Sometimes the rooms are too small to stretch, and they are nice rooms, electronic toilets and everything. So, she digs in deep. Burns. Yanks. Torques. Ok then. Ouch. Makes me sweat a bit. I invite them to the show anyway. A gesture.
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seeing mitch and peter here was a blast. It a slammin’ sake night. I am afraid I sake-trashed old mitch. He video taped the entire set. I was in good form. I loved the club. It was an old 100 year old + building with big stone floors and heavy wooded beams making up the stage and everything else. The owner and sound man was the same: terry, who is about 57 years old and has the most rightheous wonderful vibe about him. In the city of bhuddist temples, this is a sonic temple, and terry is the house monk. House monk meets howe’s monkey. He lent me an amp that I fell in love with. An old ampeg. Had it since he opened the club so many years ago. it has 4 tens in it (or 12s ?) and a second cabinet that must have had 6 speakers in it. way way too heavy to lug. He said no one wants it cause it is way too heavy. I want it. broken reverb and all. so now the deal is if I come back and play his club next year, he will give it too me. No problem.
Anyhow…
The night gets luxuriously long. Everyone who works there is becoming a best friend. Some folks traveled a long way to see the show. Everyone is yippin and hootin and having a time after the show. Me and mitch slam them sakes. He takes a beating by the end. I’m good. We end the night by …well, I am not sure now we ended that night. Oh yeah, I went back to the hotel alone but in with the company of the posse until they got me there. Met a couple of american bands coming home after the gig that my daughter would probably know. American analog set from Austin and her space holiday from san fran ?
And that was that.
Oh yeah, somehow robyn Hitchcock talked to me by phone from Tokyo back at the club. His wife, michelle must have found out I was in the country and gave a holler. Looks like we will all just miss each other for the umpteenth time again. But a fine chat was had.
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howe on 10.31.05 @ 01:20 AM GMT [link]
