Sapporo - Day 2

Pics below! Long Post!
We're still tired from the flight. Ben's trying to kick this flu but the travel and TIGHT schedule hasn't made it easy. We are staying in a suburb of Sapporo, with a fellow named Yoshi, who volunteered his home (complete with mom and dad) as a host family for us to stay with. His lovely mom prepeared us a fresh american breakfast before our long day.

Performances Today:

* FM Apple radio show with Yoko
* Soundcheck @ Club Colony
* HMV In-store Appearance
* Headlining Club Gig @ Colony

It's a 1 hour drive into town. It's the only time I have to create our backing disc- editing some drums; mixing levels; balancing tracks. So I awaken my laptop from sleep and try to do as much ProTooling in the car for as long as my battery will allow. I must create a 20min show disk and a 45min disc. We arrive at the Radio Station as the first disc is almost done burning.

The radio show went great. Interviews and performances. The host Yoko is very personable and happy which made it easy for us there. She's a great on-air personality.

Thanks to DJ Yoko and program director Ms. Mori.

Recording at the FM Apple studio.

We've pretty much got it down now- tell the band story and a little personal history relating to music, then set up our gear. We've been doing the radio shows without backing tracks- just a Guitar/Bass duet. Using the little Eden amps as direct boxes makes it quick and easy to get good sound- no fuss. This time we played "The Elder" from our CD, and then "Yamoto", the title track from Starblazers. The Japanese go NUTZ for that tune! Here the version we learned HERE on YouTube™.

Colony.
Off to the venue- a small club inside of an office building. Lots of places seem to be like that here- you can't judge from the outside. Soundcheck was our first time practicing to our backing tracks through a system. So far, so good. Off to HMV, the big music superstore (it's like a Virgin Megastore).

Eden amp in Colony. Small and Powerful. Thanks for making our life easier.

HMV is in a mall. Load in was us and our crew carrying guitars and such past all the stores, up and down escalators. Soundcheck, lunch (Katsu is THE BOMB!), then a 20min in-store appearance with backing tracks, and "Yamoto" as our finalé. Autograph signing and picture op's followed. All good! The store had an excellent selection of music. While performing I was staring at cd's by my bass hero's Jaco Pastorius and Richard Bona for inspiration. While browsing the store I came across CD's I've played on- Whitesnake; Christina A; Flametal. I also came across lots of California Hip-hop love which included my homies Lyrics Born, Crown City Rockers and Pigeon John. I purchased a 15 CD Django Reinhardt collection for about $15! Someone must have had the price wrong!

HMV Store Font

Myself and Ben

The Legions of fans

HOURS to kill before the midnight show at the Colony. We walked around the BIG ASS electronics store before heading to a bar: Jersey Irish Bar. It was a rock bar with an impressive collection of albums lining the walls. The owner had me sign a Whitesnake Album from 1980! I was only 5 then. With time to kill I got a little sauced.

Jersey Bar

We rocked the show. The other bands were all good- energetic and loud, but all sounded the same- Good Charlotte meets Hoobastank. I liked the drummer from Sons of the New School. They all had cool hair, black button down shirts and thin red neckties. They ALL jummped and moved around A LOT!

KEEP IT LOUUUD event @ Colony

From Backstage

Flametal booth with VJ Aki and Yoshi

We experienced our first technical difficulty when it was our turn. The lights on our amps all stayed lit- warning lights and all! Before switching to the Bass amp they had there to use as a backup, I tryed again to get sound anyways and it worked. Ben wasn't so lucky, as his rig had deamons too. The guitar kept shutting off. I made sure it was plugged into the 4ohm (not 16ohm) input on the cab. We'll have to investigate more to isolate the problem. I ended up covering for Ben with a distorted bass solo that blended perfectly into the first song once he was ready.
We gotta pace it though- his voice is getting shot from singing in a metal fashion so soon after being sick.

Well after a long day and even longer night, we finally got back "home" to Yoshi's house. We ended up cancelling the travel and show for tonight in Tokyo so Ben could rest his voice. He was hurtin a little last night, but I'm sure he'll be fine given some much needed rest. Off to Tokyo in the morning- on the Bullet train! Ciao!
-Uriah