On Saturday we saw 2 shows and did interviews with Optrum and Kuuru Krew. Makoto once again hooked it up big time and helped us out with some translations. So we've seen Kuuru Krew before, so I'll leave out any lengthy description of them. Here's a few pictures from their interview and show.
Optrum on the other hand, was a first for me in so many ways.The band consists of two members.
A drummer, and a flourescent lightest.
By which I mean, that the guy plays a 5 or 6 foot flourescent light bulb tube. He has the thing hooked up to a series of effect-pedals and is somehow amplifying the electric feedback that the powersupply of the light gives off.
So the show is performed in total darkness, and every time he plays a bassy tone from the lightbulb, it flashes revealing him. And check out this mask he was wearing...I mean does this guy know how to party or what?
It was like Halloween, and the 4th of July rolled into one.
And how about the drummer?!
I mean, a guy just playing an oridnary drum kit would be extremely lame by comparison to his adjacent band-mate. So the drummer found a solution...lasers.
He had a series of lasers blasting out from his clear drum set. What? Is this seriously a band? This was the coolest thing I have ever seen.
He also had a laser attached to his glasses/head so wherever he looked a beam of light would follow...
The next afternoon we headed to the fringes of Tokyo to meet up with Don and a few members of the Zoobombs at Don's house. He is married to the keyboardist in the band, and they have a really great little abode. There's a tiny recording studio in the basement, so we filmed them down there for a while, before doing an interview...
Don is a rockstar. He's all about the Rolling Stones, and has such great stage presence...yet at home, we were surrounded by his jazz/African music collection, a whole other side to the guy. The interview went well.
After that we headed to Koenji for a show and interview with My Pal Foot Foot. They were much mellower than much of the music we've seen thus far. The band consists of a guitarist, tuba player, and keyboardist, and Asuna, a friend sat in on drums/clarinet/sound effects...pretty relaxing stuff.
The interview took place in a small Chinese restaurant...it was extremely crowded in the little room we did the interview in, but we made it work.
Then today started with a productive 3-hour session in the studio. Return To Hamburger is doing well. Our repetoir is coming together, and we should be ready for our show on the 26th...
This evening, we headed to the streets to get more footage of trains/cars/people/the mayhem that is Tokyo hyper-futuristic culture...mission accomplished me thinks.
I hear there's a hurricane heading for the gulf coast, anyone know anything about it?
Talk to ya'll soon.
Ian
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