9^th March 2014

NRQ / TADZIO/ 空間現代

I am late, but unwittingly so having wrongly assumed that Tadzio would headline this event.  My reasons were sound.  1. It was their album launch.  Who wouldn’t play last at their own fucking release party?  2. Their name was written largest and at the top of the flyer.  Still, see half of the gig.  I am encouraged never to assume anything in Japan.  One bald guy in glasses wearing a washed- out t-shirt saying “Edo is the answer” is going absolutely mental to the music.  I have no idea what the question could have been to make him mosh like that.  Everyone else just claps politely.

Sakauradi Pool is a very odd venue.  It seems to hold gigs in an active garage workshop beneath a block of apartments.  Upstairs the owner has built 5 crazy motorcycles, 4 guitars with gun horns attached, a go-kart, a rocket launcher and some sort of ape walking robot.  The whole place looks and feels like the industrial zone from The Crystal Maze, except the sound-proofing looks like it has been made out of mattresses.  This would be a great place to hide prisoners and torture them.  After all, the tools are in the workshop in the next room.

NRQ were quite nice and good, although twee.  They have a song called “they invaded from Korea”.  I hope they are right wing nutters, although they didn’t look like it.  Again, I try not to assume anything.  During their set the guy in front of me fainted.  I don’t know if it was because I was the only foreigner in the venue, or whether it was because I tried to pick him up - but everyone looked at me like it was my fault for the next 15 minutes.

The other bands weren’t as good as that.  空間現代  caught my attention.  They were a bit like a hardcore Tacobonds, except their music was way more bitty, jabby and impossible.  Ju-ju-ju-ju… ju, ju…  ju-ju-ju-ju… jju-ju-ju – cha – chang.  A bit like a car refusing to start and punching you at the same time while dancing to a funk CD from 1981 that keeps skipping.  For 20 minutes.

Later I buy Tadzio’s album and the singer of 空間現代 comes up.  “Ah, you are like a hardcore Tacobonds”, I say. “Yes, Tacobonds… my friend” was his reply.  I felt a bit disappointed by that knowledge.  I’m not sure why.