Japan Feature

Bands of the Rising Sun
Rock地坦oll In Japan

A Scene Report By Dan Moses of the The Dynotones

Just a few days before I left for my 4th visit to Japan, Ben asked me to do a review of the shows I was going to attend. I hadn't been to Japan since August of 2000. I was really looking forward to going back and visiting my Japanese friends I had met on previous visits. Here are the shows I attended in and around the Tokyo area:

Monday, December 23: Mad 3 @ "Shelter"

Only 24 hours in Japan and I was going to see Mad 3. I had seen them the last time I went to Japan, so I knew to bring earplugs this time. They are a three-piece punk band that play some vocal and instrumental songs. They're just as popular as Guitar Wolf, and have several albums out. This particular show featured no opening bands, just Mad 3. Shows start very early in Tokyo around 7:OOpm the doors open, and the bands start playing promptly at 7:30pm. The first set was loud and rowdy. They did a kick-ass version of Blue Suede Shoes, even better than the Toy Dolls version. Caravan was included in the first set as well. The 2nd set Eddie (singer/guitar player) came out in bondage gear a la 1977 U.K. punk style. The lst song was Ramblin' Rose by the MC5 with the drummer doing the vocals. The audience was really getting into it now. No real slamming, just everyone kinda jumping around and enjoying the band. 3rd set had yet another costume change by all members. Each set was about 30 minutes long with only 5-minute breaks between sets. The highlights were Too Kool To Die, Ace Of Spades, and Teenage Kicks.

Wednesday, December 25: Rockin' Enocky @ "Fellows"

My first Christmas in Japan and it doesn't seem like Christmas at all. Just another day here. I did go shopping in the Shinjuku and Shibuya area and found some great sixties Japanese garage punk compilation CD's. From there, my wife and I headed out to see my friend Enocky from the band Jackie & the Cedrics. It was about a 40-minute train ride from Shinjuku to where we were headed. I don't even remember the town we saw the show in. It was really cold, and we had to walk a good ten minutes from the train station to the club. Once we got inside, I couldn't believe how small this place was. This place was only as big as most living rooms here in America. We were tortured by 3 opening punk bands. All the members of these bands were very young in they're early 20's or younger. They were all nice boys, just hadn't learned how to play their instruments yet. Enocky came on around lOpm this was a one-man band show. Kinda like a Hasil Adkins thing. It was quite entertaining to say the least. He used a Jazz cocktail drum set to use as a bass drum for the right foot, and used a high hat for the left foot. It takes a lot of coordination to do this and he pulled it off well. I really enjoyed his version of Oh Oh I Love Her So by the Ramones as well as Oh Boy by Buddy Holly. After the show they served us free food!

Friday, December 27: Charlie & the Hot Wheels @ "Club Doctor"

I had been visiting Japan since 1996 and I had met Charlie and Buddy from the band Charlie & the Hot Wheels. We have all become good friends over the years, and I was really looking forward to seeing them play. No disappointment here. They were the tightest band I'd ever seen from Japan. They sounded so much better live than on any of their records. I would say they sound like the Ramones meet the Beach Boys. The 3-part harmonies by all members' sound nice. They looked great wearing matching jackets. There was no bullshit chatter in between songs, just a rockin' 35 minute set. Headlining the show this evening were Rant & Rave. Japanese cowboys with toy guns, even the audience members had toy guns. It looked really silly watching everyone shooting these guns off between songs. Rant & Rave had some Western sounding songs with a touch of 80's glam thrown in.

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