So what superlatives are there that can’t be used to describe Tokyo adequately? This is a city on the grandest of scales. It’s immense size, its unparalleled variety, its profuse populace, its enchanting charm, and it is Awesome! The maddening machinations by which it takes to keep a city as such operating is astounding. Yet it’s so easy to forget that when you’re just a lone integer walking about in this Mundo de Mathimatica. OK, I just made that last part up but I think you get the gist. Of course I love Manhattan and the entire metro area but Tokyo is a different vibe. Our gig is in one of many areas or ‘ku’ in this city; Shimokitazawa. This is our second time here. We played here on the last tour and it definitely has a more aggressive vibe than the other club we used to play in Meguro. We navigate in through the narrow streets to get access to the club and load in. Another rainy gray day,*geeze*, one of our wettest tours I can remember. We’ve got one of the same opening bands on the bill tonight – Made In Asia – and another band I’ve never seen – Quorum. We’re in first cuz’ as goes with the biz; last band on – first band in. The stage crew is only 3 people – FoH engineer, Monitor engineer and LD, Lighting director. Two girls and a guy. Super-efficient and pro as they come. Love it here. It’s rare to see a slacker over in Japan. Our equipment set up and our sound check done we settle in for the hours before the first band starts. So while there’s a pause in the action let me back up a bit and explain some protocols and observations I’ve adopted and taken mental notes of this time around in my time in Nihon.

I still exercise on a fairly routine schedule. Work out in my room if such space is afforded, I can exercise in the most extreme conditions of spatial economy if required, or I’ll get out and go for a run. Today it was a run cuz’ this is a really small room. So before I go planning is required and I take a look at the surrounding area on my cell phone map apps and decide or estimate a running route. I could do the easy way and just pick a street and go one-way for 30 to 45 minutes but I want to see a bit more and I choose the ‘scenic’ option. Tokyo streets are on a complex scale that Euclid himself could not have imagined. Even when you have a Garmin or of the like, mistakes and wrong turns are inevitably committed. It’s amazing to think just a generation ago there were drivers that knew these roads with profound precision. Take for instance when the sarin gas attacks happened in Tokyo back in the Spring of 1995, none of the modern navigation or communication accoutrements were available to the public at large and you had the average citizen and taxi drivers mobilized to help transport people to hospitals during the morning rush hour. Even finding the hospitals was a Gordian Knot in itself but it was done and so few people died compared to how many people were exposed. (For further reading on this subject I recommend Haruki Murakami’s book on this tragic event: Underground) So I’ve set a kind of overview for a route and tried to burn in my brain the street names I am to turn left and or right on to complete this big circle I am attempting to run. I set off and I start my usual efforts to read as much as possible while I am running. I’m not a complete rube though, I do take my phone with me.

Now for the protocol bit – there are so many bikes in use on the streets and sidewalks in Japan that it is a must that if you’re going to go around someone to pass them while running or walking, you must always look over your shoulder behind you for bike traffic. Especially if you’re running with ear-buds in because then you can’t hear them coming up behind you. I haven’t had any close calls as regards to run-ins but I’m pretty diligent about looking behind me. Be aware of your surroundings. Also, when you come to a traffic light and it’s says don’t cross then don’t. Even if it appears as an innocuous intersection you just wait it out. Everybody else is, so just try to be a good world citizen and respect their country’s laws. Nothing bespeaks a condescending and dismissive attitude towards other people as when you start displaying disregard for the simplest of rules in society. All right, I shall descend from my soap box. Oh and another thing, since they drive on the opposite side of the street here as they do in England, it’s proper to walk on that side of the sidewalk too.

Now for an observation – Japanese people when given permission to cross the street under the protection of the ‘green light’ do so with absolute confidence and the haughtiest of airs towards oncoming traffic. People are just so naturally ignoring the cars that are waiting to take turns. They aren’t even increasing the speed of their gait so as to let drivers and traffic carry on to prevent the backup that invariably happens at traffic lights. It has to be said though there is slight tacit complicity that the drivers take part in because I also notice that the first in line to take a said turn on red will usually wait till the last person is out of the crosswalk only then will the car proceed. It is also not uncommon for a pedestrian to step into the crosswalk at the last possible second before turning red and insouciantly saunter their way to the other side all the while engaged in an animated conversation on their cell phone exhibiting extreme temerity while every driver is waiting in the slips but takes it in with quiet humility and a zen-like approach to what I can only guess is anger management. I find it highly amusing actually.

Time for the doors to open and the first band up. Quorum hits the stage and they’re the classic rock band set up – guitar, bass, drums and singer. The image made more replete with the guitar player opting for a ‘sans-shirt’ appearance. They’ve got a great heavy rock feel to them and the singer is now carrying the mike stand in a 45 degree angle to his side as he sings in true front man status. I’m having fun watching these guys. The guitar player is confidently blazing his licks and the bass player – Ma ka ka – which means very red, is decked out in a total red outfit. Kickin’ Butt and taking names. They’re also young and good looking so the front row of girls is standing and applauding after every song. Now in momentary reflection I think I was way too cerebral in my early musical ambitions. Gotta admit, something to be said about an adoring smile from a girl in the front row. *sigh*….oh, where was I?…right the show.

Now it’s time for Made In Asia and I get to see them play again. Really like this band, and what’s not to like about this drummer?! The true battery of the band she is. Shiho chan ga SAIKKO–! I took a bit of slow-mo video of her so to further exemplify her energy. Duran is in good form tonight and Maryne is thunderous on the bass. Great show!
It’s our turn but not before our MC for the night, my good friend Shimpei san who is also a highly noted music journalist here and usually gets all the top rock artists interview assignments, he is giving away some prizes to the crowd. There’s 4 items; two door stops from Vox that are shaped like Wa-Wa pedals, a tuner that’s encased in a faux Tuna can, obviously playing on the word play with how tuner is spelled in katakana and probably a nod towards the Canned Heat album – You Can Tune A Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish -, and lastly a stomp box. The winners are determined by a variant of the ‘rock-paper-scissors’ game we know, but here it’s called – Jankein. There is only two options in Jankein, rock-scissors, and it is hilarious watching the contestants whittled down to 4 winners. The grand prize is a SL Lead pedal from Xotic, exactly what I use. I have signed all the gifts and as the contest is going on I’m arranging my pedals on stage and when the MC announces what the grand prize is and adds that it’s what I use on stage I add to the presentation by holding up my pedal while I’m kneeling during my preparations. A completely off-the-cuff moment but it was there for the taking.

We start up and the sound is good and I’m feeling good, the group is sounding good and we take off. It’s a good crowd tonight, almost 100 people and the club looks comfortably full. We’re building musical momentum. After the show I visit with some of my friends I’ve made over the years and chat amiably with the fans at the merchandise table. It’s funny since because I speak a little more Japanese from the stage that fans are coming over and engaging me in Japanese. Sometimes I don’t know the exact words to reply in a colloquial fashion but I can mish-mash something together and get my intention across to them. I still have a long, long way to go in conversing properly but I’m sure enjoying the journey learning. The after party is at the club and it’s just the opening bands and a few friends and or wives. I’m still able to be conversant and they all try out their English too. It was a really good time. As Yoshi and I left the club, the owner knew there was a steady rain outside but in true fashion of hospitable decorum, an umbrella was provided to each of us and the owner escorted us outside, flagged down a taxi and stood there in the rain waving good-bye to us as the taxi sped off.

Hard to beat nights like this.

We’ve got the day off but we have a bit of promotion to do today. We’re driving from Yokohama, basically a city in the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area, an area with over 38 million people, up into another suburb of Tokyo Sangenjaya. At least that’s where our hotel is but first to the offices of Digimart. An on-line magazine that we’re to do a live performance video shoot and I’m also to do an interview for a Japan Vintage Guitar Magazine. When we get there we find out another shoot is going on and we have to find a way to spend a couple of hours before they’re ready for us. We set out to go find a little bit of food.

We stop into this Soba place but they’ve got other types of noodles too and the best thing about it is the price is right. Tokyo isn’t one of the most expensive cities for nothing. Your money can quickly ebb away when it’s just your daily intake of food that you buy. This place is for the office workers in the area, you enter and go to this vending machine looking thing that has the food choices on it. After you make your choice and you feed money into the machine, a ticket is dispensed and you then give it to a person at the counter. Much like the truck stops here. Lots of people are just standing and eating and they eat so fast, hand in their dirty dishes on the tray and quickly exit to return back to their office. As I sat at a table, I eat slowly, 4 to 5 people sat at our table with us and they finished and were out the door before I was done. Commerce stops for nothing.

We then notice that the controversial war hero’s shrine, Yasukuni Jin Ja, was right there in front of us. So happens that this very day there was an explosion or a terrorist attack on the shrine, somebody blew up a bathroom there, yeah that might not seem like a lot but that’s big here. Police presence was out but the shrine was open and we stepped in the area. It’s a nice looking shrine and there seemed like the normal amount of traffic was going in there; westerners and locals intermingling and reading the signs. I’m sure most people know what shrine this is, the westerners that is, I’m just there to satisfy a curiosity. It was close too. Normally I’d ascend the stairs and pray and call the ‘Kami’ but not this one. I’m reverent of the families and loved ones that died in their armed conflicts, but I don’t want to give a blanket tacit approval to some of the people revered there who gave orders for their subordinates to carry out those horrible atrocities. I’m against the same thing in my own country. But I’m not here to create controversy or demonstrate, this is their country and I just have to let them deal with it. So we leave there and head back to the building where the video is going to be done.

We enter the room and it’s a real small room, why am I not surprised? It’s Tokyo and not only is space at a premium but they’ve learned how to be very efficient in operating within limited areas. For the vintage Japan Guitar magazine the owner has brought down two guitars from the 80’s; a Tokai and a Greco. Both are Stratocaster models. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Tokai. Back in the 80’s in Austin, a lot of players I knew were buying them because the price of Fenders were going up and a Tokai was regarded as just as good as a regular Strat. Some even liked them better. The Greco I don’t see too much at all, only when I come over here in Japan. The Greco is a 1984 guitar and it’s in immaculate condition. It just had one ding on it on the lower horn of the body, but absolutely no scratches on it. I was amazed with that, and it played well. Greco’s were not made to be for the high caliber professional but they’re not bad. I could see some of the tell-tale signs of its mid-level status; the finish, 3-color sunburst, didn’t have the right symmetry or aesthetics to it but that was about it. Had strong colors, the black on the outside, then the red paralleling the black and finally the yellow surrounding the pickguard. But someone had over sprayed the red so that there was no yellow showing on the top of the pickguard. That matters to some. Plus the slab wasn’t a consistent thickness down the length of the neck. That was about it though. The Tokai was a Clapton ‘Blackie’ looking copy. Maple neck and good tone. I was asked about them and asked to play and give my opinion on them. In the end I liked em’ both but I chose the Greco cuz’ it had a rosewood neck and that’s what I prefer to play on. The sounds were real close. I also had to demonstrate with some different distortion pedals to compare the sounds. I’m never good doing these kinds of demonstrations in a solo type setting. I work better when I’m playing off interaction so my solo chops are just not happening. I hope they edit out the mistakes.

Then came the video shoot and the crew prepared the area for our scaled-down performance. No drums for John but they did manage to get a Cajon and Yoshi was playing through this laughably small bass amp but just fine for our purposes. I had the nice late 70’s Deluxe Reverb, with a light blue jewel for the power light I might add…nice touch. The staff has requested two songs off the Lucky 13 album and for one to be instrumental, so we gave them ‘Jump The Trane’ and ‘Angry Man’. Trane was cool and I tried my best to keep it harmonically interesting but that’s not always the case with me. Angry Man was fun because when it came time for the vocal harmonies on the bridge, we were all it a tight circle so we all kind of leaned in with our heads like a bluegrass band huddles up around a lone microphone. Plus for playing early in the afternoon I was surprised at how good our pitch was. After the song was done we looked at each other with the same unspoken expression – ‘did that really happen and wasn’t that Awesome?’ Maybe not awesome but it sure felt fun. The staff was impressed though. One guy couldn’t believe I didn’t use my pedals once for solos and I stayed with the clean tone the entire time. Done this a bunch and it always sounds better when you just go straight up when in a low volume scaled down situation. We pack up and say our good-byes and we dive into Tokyo rush hour but to me it’s only a little bit busier than normal work hours. I also started to wonder how many people were moving beneath us in the subway system since a majority of the populace does not have a car. I sit in the back of the van and I once again start practicing my reading and try to decipher the billboards and shop marquees before they’ve passed us. Like learning new things in music, it’s a never ending endeavor for me.

The district where the Thumbs Up club sits in Yokohama is a crazy kind of entertainment area with lots of shops and restaurants and places of carnal delights for both men and women. We’re here to play though. Thumbs Up is one of the more popular clubs for foreign musicians’ cuz’ most times a foreign group tours, they come to this club. I’ve played here several times with Bluestone Co. and now this is my fifth time returning here. Always a good and rambunctious audience. Here the proper and polite veneer that is most always present with Japanese behavior is left at the door and if enough spirits are imbibed then a bacchanalian event will ensue; Let The Wild Rumpus Begin!

We have three opening bands on tonight’s bill, an acoustic duo of females playing blues standards and some originals (Shoka chan), then half that opening duo, Shoka, who has her own band gets on stage, Shoka Blues Project, and she is a good player. She has really good rhythm and she sings really well too. In fact 2/3’rds of the band is female – bass and guitar. They played blues standards and her own originals too. Then came ‘Made In Asia’, another two-thirds female band, bass and drums. Guitarist Duran has got this really versatile style and is able to play shuffles and blazing speed riffs. They also incorporate a keyboard bass in their songs and they’ve got this infectious energy. The drummer is a pounder for such a diminutive girl. Shiho chan, she’s my thing to watch. Really big fun checking them out.

We get up and so far this is our largest crowd of the tour, about 70 have showed up. Not a bad turn-out. We tear into our show and I’m in good form with my Japanese tonight, being a bit camp and over dramatic and the audience is entertained. I smile a lot. I have a bit of a problem with my playing, just one of those nights where I make a bunch of simple mistakes and as they start adding up I’m getting frustrated with myself. Gotta chillax! We get through the night and talk to the people for a while then I drag my tired body back to the hotel. No going out after the gig tonight. The stress has taken its toll on me and I retreat for a horizontal position of rest. There’s always tomorrow and I want to be ready for it. We do an interview for a Vintage Japanese Guitar Magazine and a video shoot of a live performance for an on-line magazine; Digimart. Tomorrow is a brand new day.

Out from the previous two days in the middle section of Honshu’s mountainous region and over to Hitachinaka. I was wondering if the company Hitachi was located in this area. I found out that Hitachinaka was originally called Katsuta. ( I just found out a lot of people call this area Chiba too) The Hitachi Company gave a lot of money to the town for beautifying the area as well helping to repair the town because the disastrous earthquake of 2011 tore this place up pretty good. In fact our hotel we stayed in is almost brand new because the old one was completely destroyed as was the train station next to it. By the way so far the hotel in Hatachinaka was the best one on this tour. We’ll see if it can be topped.  I had the A/C cranked last night. Can’t take the heat in the rooms yet because it’s not very cold outside…yet. Anyway back to the story, in light of this exchange of financial donations and city beautification, the city fathers chose to honor the Hitachi Company by renaming the city Hitachinaka and now you know the rest of the story.

The club we’re going to play today is called Stormy Monday. I came here 2 years ago. It was the last stop on the tour at that time. Situated in a small neighborhood that’s got some other restaurants, karaoke and clubs in the area. We haul all our stuff up the 3 flights of stairs to the venue. When we get there the opening band is waiting for us outside in front and when it’s time to load in, the staff of the club joins in and we’ve got an army now. Nice stage, a little tight but totally enough for us, we proceed to check levels and do a song to make sure we can hear the monitors well enough. I’ve been using Beth Lee’s song that I’ve been playing for the past few months, ‘Wouldya Wanna’ cuz’ it’s got the right vocal range and harmonies going in it plus I just like to play the song. That done I go back and change strings on the guitar. Watch the last day of the Sumo tournament and catch a bit of the outrageous ‘booty’ that is given to the winner of the tournament after its conclusion, the ceremony is a lot like the Super Bowl with the handing over the Lombardi or the World Series trophy except it’s way over the top in quantity. I was thinking how a lot of champions and sports stars have their trophy room, well if you’re a top Sumo Yokozuna and you have a long career and rack up a lot of wins, you’re probably going to need a trophy building. Seriously. Interesting side note to this month’s Sumo tournament, both Yokozunas lost on the final day. It set up a bit of drama in deciding the final outcome but the main point is that it’s very rare to see both Yokozunas lose their match. The winner backed in to this victory. A historic day.

I walk back down to the show to catch a bit of the opening band’s set. ‘The Smell’ is their name. I think it’s just a bad translation but I can’t say for sure cuz’ I didn’t see the name written out either in Kanji or Katakana so the interpretation is undecided in my mind. Anyhow they were really enjoyable to watch. Two guitar attack with a vocalist. They played some Savoy Truffle songs and another nice sort of slow rocking song about going to California, (yeah I know, that narrows it down a bit Chris), but they had a real together sound like they were out of the 70”s. Really cool.

We ascend the stage and set our stuff up and light into our show. The sound here is good and it’s easy to play. I do have to adjust myself a bit and step back when I do solos because the drums are right off my left shoulder and a mic stand is placed to pick up the ride cymbal and if I stay and do normal routine of swinging around my guitar while I play I’m going to hit that stand and set off a series of events I’d rather not have for the show. All I had to do was step back and to the right and straddle my pedals so I don’t set of another kind of series of events. The turn-out was good here in Hitachinaka and everybody enjoyed the show. Afterwards the opening band members and a few more of the fans hung out with us for the ‘Après-gig’ party. A buffet of food is laid out, libations imbibed and the regaling of stories are told all the while the chopsticks are floating about reaching for this and that. There’s laughter and smiles and it’s always a lot of fun. Almost as good as playing but not quite. Still there’s no substitute for warm human contact no matter where you are in the world.

I love my job.

Yoshi and Kato are discussing which route to take to Yamagata. There’s the direct route through mountains but there’s also the scenic route, also through mountains but the views are prettier. They decide upon the scenic route for our benefit. It’s rainy today and even though it’s gray and a bit dark outside, the views are nice and I decide to put down the book I brought along to read, cuz’ I’m not doing the driving here, and I crack the tinted window on my side of the van and stare out, part ruminating, part sightseeing. The effort was made to give us these views and I wasn’t going to be an ungrateful or insouciant guest. We stop at this small place that sells local produce and toys and they also have a restaurant inside and its lunch time. This place is also situated above a small waterfall on a stream that is fed from the mountains.

While I sit and eat, I only have to turn my head to the left and I can watch the water rush over the rocks and flow. I get Tonkatsu, breaded pork cutlets, one of my favorites, and we mirthfully eat our meals. That being done it’s just a short drive into Yamagata. The drive today wasn’t long to begin with, about 60-70 miles so it was an easy travel day for us.

Arriving at the club I was intrigued by the venues name when I saw it appear on the itinerary; Frank Lloyd Wright. Really, named after a famous architect? The must be some kind of structural design to either the exterior or the interior or to the tables and chairs or how it’s set up inside? Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t just do buildings you know. When we pulled up there was nothing I could see to even grasp a remote reference to FLW, so when the owner came I queried as to the namesake; turns out his little brother really liked this Paul Simon song called – ‘So long to Frank Lloyd Wright?’, I didn’t know it but the reason was of sentimental origins.

すごい！お相撲大好きです！ I love me some Sumo!

A video posted by Chris Duarte (@duarte.rocks) on Nov 15, 2015 at 11:49pm PST

After sound check we ready ourselves with a little bit of time back at the hotel and I turn on the TV so I can watch Sumo Wrestling. The Nov. Tournament is almost over here so the big match-ups are gaining more popularity and with increasing magnitude as to the outcome towards the winner. Sometimes it’s a runaway affair and the winner is pretty much revealed by the halfway mark, determined by one wrestler, usually the top-dog, Yokozuna, will retain a perfect winning record and the others will start to lose too many matches that the numerical odds become an inevitable forgone conclusion. Not this time, there’s one with a perfect record, and the next has only one loss and they’re fighting today. I start to change my strings and I wait in anticipation for said match to come. Sumo is not just two fat guys smacking bellies together and pushing. It’s a very nuanced competition and there’s a psychological element to it as well. During the pre-fight ritual when the wrestlers ascend the circle where they’ll grapple, they go through the ceremonial moves and squats but all the while they’re staring down each other while there and these stares intensify when the assume the starting posture; bending over and placing their balled up knuckles on these lines that determine where thrust out towards each other. This ritual is done 2 times with the third time being the start. Both wrestlers jump off the lines when both the wrestlers have touched the ground on the lines. Sometimes one wrestler will already have his hand on the ground waiting for the other wrestler to do the same, and the other will wait and squat there and stare before snapping down their hands just barely brushing to ground then jumping off the line as if to gain the element of surprise. I’ve seen matches last anywhere from one second to several minutes. It’s always thrilling to watch and I don’t have the time to type out all the observations and technique involved in this very old sport. It’s no wonder that it’s survived this long due to its complexity and traditions. In the big match today, the Yokozuna with the perfect record lost to the Yokozuna with one loss. That sets up and epic battle for the final day. What’d I tell ya?…this stuff is great.

Back to the club and we listen to the opening band. Local guys but they’re playing interesting songs. The open up with a Steely Dan song and do like a rocking boogie-woogie blues and play some other progressive songs. They were a lot of fun to listen to.

We set our stage back up and I change my clothes and head to the stage. It’s a lot of fun tonight and I feel that I’m moving better on the guitar but the sound quality in the room is absorbing too much of the high end and I’m having trouble hearing my guitar. Even after I request for more of my guitar in my monitor, the absence of high frequencies still make it a bit of a chore to hear and play with ease but I man up and soldier through it. Still had fun but I had to wonder what could’ve been if we had a stage we could hear well on. Oh, that’s the way it goes on the road and you just adapt the best you can and play with heart. Always play with heart. The crowd thought wasn’t disappointed at all and they call us back for an encore. A great time and beginning for Yamagata and I hope I get to return here and play.

Next stop – Fukushima.

The Japan Tour for Lucky 13 has started. We had a couple of days in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo then we picked up our backline from a Marshall Representative then we were on our way. The cool thing when we went to get the backline was that the street we were on had a direct view of the Tokyo Sky Tree Tower. It’s the 2nd tallest structure in the world and it is massively tall. You can see it anywhere you are in Tokyo if on an elevated plane or hill say for instance while on the highway system. When you’re far away from the Tower is appears as though it’s some vague vision you’re having, like it’s not real. The sun reflects off it and you see this metallic sheen and that confirms in your mind it’s real but the structure is just so huge! I hear there is also restaurants and shopping places up there and an observation deck as well all accessible when a bit of a pricey fee is ponied up to ascend this majestic monolith so as to touch the hand of God. OK that’s a bit dramatic but superlatives can’t be used enough to describe the Tower.
So Sendai is a couple hundred miles north of the Tokyo metro area and we get up there with relative ease. The highway system here in Japan is good but expensive. Most of the main arteries that crisscross this island nation are toll roads. To get from Tokyo to Sendai costs us around $80. I’ve seen up pass through those booths, everyone has an ETC card and the electronic accouterments that goes inside your car where you put the card in a slot which activates your car to be read by the sensors, I once saw us pay up to $300 for toll charges from Sendai to Osaka. Yeah that’s pricey. Another thing I like on the highways are the truck stops and each one has its own specialty food item. Sometimes it’s the baked goods, or a certain vegetable or how they cook ramen or soba or udon. Never a dull moment on the roads of Japan.

Sendai is still a bit warm for this time of year and so I’m still running around in a T-shirt. Most people have started wearing their full complement of winter clothing and I can’t blame them. When you want to feel comfortable out in the elements there’s nothing wrong with that. My hotel room is of a spacious proportions unlike our economic conditions of our rooms in Tokyo. My room was so small and narrow in its hallway that my luggage took up almost 25% of the available space. Too funny. I made due though cuz’ I’m use to this here. It’s a different country and you can always get a big American size room, you just have to pay for it. I was good. So I go out and explore as usual but I already know Sendai pretty good. I’ve been coming to this town for almost 10 years now and it never gets old to me. They have these walkways/mall areas that can stretch for blocks and blocks in the middle of the city and shops line the sides in a varied array of spatial assignments. The mall near our hotel has already got the Christmas stuff adorning the walls and inside this huge wreath is the name – Clis Road.

I look up on the wall near the wreath and I see in Katakana – kurisu ro-do, or translated to – Chris Road. That’s me! Aww thanx Sendai! So there’s a Duarte city in California, a Duarte Avenue in Arcadia, California and now a Chris Road in Sendai. My plan for world domination is actually coming into focus, albeit on the periphery but one step at a time.
The club is a great performance venue with a really good PA and staff. Everybody is so helpful and earnest in their efforts that I feel bad that I’ve forgotten some of their names. I ask in my bad Japanese if we’ve met before and they reply ‘yes’ and I shake my head and apologize. We set up and do our sound check and do just a touch of rehearsal. We’ve still got a two days till our gig and tomorrow the club is busy so it’s a day-off for us. Gig day arriving we rehearse for a couple of hours. This is also a chance for me to try and loosen up my fingers cuz’ originally we were going to rehearse in Tokyo but since the Hawaii tour came together we just took that as ‘real-time’ rehearsal for us but being off for 4 days before the start of the Japan Tour, my hands and live performance faculties can quickly atrophy.

Plus we were making arrangements to video tape our performance so to make a DVD to sell for next year. Live House Enn2 is having an anniversary next year and we wanted to have this DVD to commemorate the first DVD we made with Bluestone Co. back in 2008. This time we had a multi-camera shoot and we were getting some shots to make it as a ‘rockumentary’ cuz’ in addition to this we had a director conducting the shots. Pretty cool. The gig went good, as good as first gigs can go, and the only bump on the road was that Yoshi had a bit of equipment trouble and I was left to entertain the crowd with my campy Japanese. I regaled the people with terribly worded stories, then started to play ‘Rocky Racoon’, in which the audience joined in with clapping in time, Beatle songs never fail to disappoint, and after 10 minutes or so we were back in our rocket ship. The director has his hands full with editing now.
All in all it was a good time and I look forward to the rest of this tour. We also have some new cities that I’m never been to before, Yamagata and Fukushima. I can’t wait.

As we sit here in the terrific traffic jams that Tokyo is cursed with every week day, I get out my laptop and I now turn my thoughts back to Hawaii.
Ah…Hawaii, the place on Earth I preface with the phrase, ‘People go there and they never return.’ I always love going to Hawaii. This time I got a real chance to experience the different climate conditions on this small little island chain out in the Pacific. Most of our gigs on this run was on Hawaii itself, commonly referred to as ‘The Big Island’. This island also continues to grow due to the continued lava flow emitting from the volcano there. We didn’t get to that part of the island because the route we chose to traverse from the east to west side, Hilo to Kona, was by the coastal roads that parallel the north shore of Hawaii. Flying into Hilo we were greeted with rain. Then a little bit of blue skies then more rain and more rain. Hilo is on the east side and with this tour also coinciding with the current hurricane season, the rain was out in all its gray and wet glory casting a gloomy appearance to the small town. With our hotel looking out on the Hilo bay we would relish the short lived moments of blue skies and temporary halts to the precipitation but those moments were short and few. We were told that Hilo gets more rain than Seattle per year and that’s a claim I’m willing to believe after a week-long stay here. Still you can’t help but marvel at the fecundity and explosion of growth that the rain forest exhibits. Our hotel was on a street named Banyan Drive and yes there were magnificent Banyan trees to look at lining the street. Some of these trees stood in majestic height and with their mad tangle of branches going this way and that in conjunction with a root system that seemed to sprout downwardly from each branch thus making their way into the ground gave each tree a ‘Roger Dean illustration-look’ to them. Roger Dean did all the Yes album cover artwork and these trees are spot on in their other worldly looks and were sights to behold.

One of my peculiarities on the road is that I like to take the stairs when I stay in hotels. Most of the time I never have to climb more that 4 or 5 stories but the occasional 10+ floors does come along. This time I was on the 5th floor a couple of days then after a gig in Oahu, Honolulu, I was on the 8th floor, which I diligently climbed at least 8 to 10 times a day. Easy way to get exercise and yes, during check in and check out, I carry my bags with me too. Just part of the deal. Hawaii also has a frog problem; namely the Coqui Frog. At night time when the Coquis start to croak or call, they emit a high pitched short whistle-like burst. Yoshi thought they were birds at first but when I heard it I knew it was something different. People are paid to laboriously and meticulously look for them and catch them to help eradicate the sonorous pests especially near the family friendly tourist hotels because people paying these rather robust Hawaii hotel rates want to get a good night sleep after spending the day running around the island taking in the sights. I was on the 5th and 8th floors of my hotel respectively and still you couldn’t avoid the constant calling and cacophony of the ‘frog song’ below. I had to crank up my a/c and use my ‘fan app’ on my phone to mask the auditory annoyance outside.

Our first gig turned out to be at our hotel there in Hilo at the Polynesian Room. Our hotel was going through a period of renovations and no doubt it will be simply smashing and glorious once they’re complete because the land in which it sits upon is of prime location. So yes, we had the Coqui frogs to deal with at night then we had the start of construction sounds that usually began promptly at 8 am. Fortunately I am an early riser now and the ‘workers symphony’ was of no bother to me. I did wonder about the other more sleep oriented people in the hotel though. Welcome to Paradise, Right? Anyway the Polynesian room used to be the spot to have shows at but now it’s been a bit shuttered and trying to make a comeback. It’s still a fine venue inside with an ample stage and a good enough PA company contracted to bring in sound for us. I’m so easy to work with anyway, give me some power and I’ll make it work. Our opening band for this tour on the Big Island was Tomi Isobe. He’s from Japan but he’s spent many years living in the states. Even though you can hear his Japanese accent when he talks, when he sings he sounds like an English speaker. I know this because after listening to many Japanese blues bands over the years coming to Japan, there are certain words and cadences that Japanese presents a bit of linguistic jumps and leaps the singer must do, and even if they’re deft at it, there’s no mistaking the difficulty with a few of the consonants in the words. Tomi doesn’t have that problem at all; he’s quite deft in navigating this nuanced area. Everybody also calls him ‘Tommy Eye-sobee’ which he acquiesces to by even announcing his name like that to the audience but I would call him by his correct name ‘Toe-me Ee-so-bay’. He was grateful for my gesture and we had a good time every night. Plus they lent us their backline for our use and for that we shall be forever in their debt. Arigatou Tomi – san.

Our first gig was fun then we had to go to the west side of the Island into Kona. Here’s where you saw the climate difference and the geographical difference of the island. Hilo being wet and rain forest, Kona being dry and mainly grasslands and pastures. Pretty striking. Plus you’re just not going to zip around the island like we would on the mainland. Speed limits are more reduced due to the twisting and winding ways through some of the valleys and rivers and streams that have to be traversed and as the rains fall in copious amounts this time of year one has to be wary of the possibility of mudslides and rocks and or boulders that lose their purchase on the hills and give way to the gravitational pulls thereby ending up in the road creating the occasional hazard. Such is the price at times for living in Paradise.
The Kona gig was a cool little turnout and we had a lot of fun. There was even someone who lived in Austin back in the days I was coming up and after the gig we sat there and reminisced about how Austin used to be. A sure sign that I’m getting old. On our drive back at night to the other side of the island I took over the driving duties and we had to go by one of the old volcanoes that is dormant at present and this road we took pretty much went straight down the middle of the island. It just seemed like one long acclivity then the summit and then the proceeding declivity, (one-way up then one-way down), until we started to get into the jungle side where the road took to gentle curves and various little bumps and twists as though we were on a slow and varied spaced ‘level mogul skiing’ course. All in a bible black backdrop for there are not lights out there in the rain forest. An interesting drive to say the least.
The next event was at this Charter High School in Pahoa, HI and here I was in my element. Oft times I get a bit reticent to talk to the audience at some gigs maybe due to me being frustrated with my playing or I’m have sonic issues or other variables. This was where we would just play a couple of songs and do a Q n’ A afterwards. I try to make myself as accessible and easy to communicate to as possible while in return trying to be articulate and thorough with my responses without sounding to pedantic or ambiguous. I was having fun here. We had the most basic of accoutrement by which to apply and demonstrate our craft, a single all-in-one 6 channel PA that we plugged right into and John playing one of the school’s Djembes, you know – a hippy drum. We made it work with our attitude and charm and afterwards the staff and student body was entirely entertained.
I need to back up and give a review of our Honolulu show though. This was a stark and dramatic change of pace for us because Honolulu is pretty much like going to a regular big city, with express Interstates and traffic whizzing by and loads of tourists and tour groups crowding up the rows and rows of hotels that line the famous Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Plus the sun was out in all her blazing glory. Our show was staged at Hawaiian Brian’s and we had two opening acts. The first was the young local and upcoming Jamm with his band Blue Jeans, they rocked, and then Grammy-winning slack key and Island native Jeff Peterson with his virtuosic talents on the guitar. Wow, it was quite the offering but I would have expected no-less of talent offerings from the big city of Honolulu. The room had a nice attendance, basically a SRO crowd, and we jumped right in. Fun was had by all and we have to give credit to my good friend Dr. John Hart for arranging this event. I’ve known John for close to 20 years and we’ve been trying to pull a Hawaiian date off for the past 15 years and we finally did it.
So our last gig was at the Honokaa Theater in Honokaa Hawaii, and it’s this really old theater back from the 30’s. It pretty much looks the same inside and it’s a great place. We didn’t have that many people come out to the show but when has that ever stopped me from going out on stage and playing as hard as I could. In fact as I oft opine; Some of my greatest shows have been played to tables and chairs. I dress to the nines with my Mariachi pants and my Lady of Guadalupe shirt and we entered the fray. Now that I’ve got a few gigs under my fingers on this tour we had a blast.
You know… this year I’ve had to overcome a lot of things to keep myself focused and on the path with my music. Emotional encumbrances, vehicular break downs, exorbitant financial ebbing and just the drum, drum, drumming on the mind that can veer even the strongest of wills and mindsets into the ditch and make a return to a harmonious equilibrium a challenge too hard to endure for some. I am still here and I am so grateful for the things I get to do and the places I get to see in the world. I am equally grateful for the friends and people in my life that give me substance and fortitude with equanimity and reflection. When I take that all into account…my life ain’t so bad after all.

Aloha and Mahalo.