Day 5: from which our hero is still recovering
Our gig was a blast, in many different ways. After another round of eggs Benedict (less good this time, but still great) I made my way back to Nagoya, picked up my guitar and pedals from my friend’s house and sat in my hotel room practicing the songs for that night and generally napping. Lots of napping. I met up with the rest of the band for some very spicy chicken wings and a few beers before sound check.
Cedar’s is a new venue for us, but one we’ll definitely play in again. A long, thin, basement bar with a decent sized stage, friendly staff (not always a given in Nagoya venues) and a great sound. We were on first, and opened with “Little C”, my favourite of Pete’s songs and a perfect opener, starting slowly before building and building. It’s a pretty good snapshot of our sound and sensibility. We had planned to play a 9 song set (roughly 45 minutes) and it tends to take me about four songs to settle, to feel like my fingers are warmed up enough, and to be able to enjoy myself without worrying about the sound and about mistakes. One of our oldest songs, “Constant Battle” is one that always relaxes me and it has a big break in the middle where we jam and it’s always a highlight of the set for me, so I tend to position it about fifth in the set so it comes along right when I need it to. It was going great, I was standing on the tiny drum riser rocking out with Ryosuke (as a guitarist I play with the drums, standing as close to the kit whenever I can, riding the beat) when he gestured at the bass drum. “It’s ripped!” I crouched down and sure enough, his kick pedal had torn a huge hole through the drum head. We finished the song and paused the set. It was totally destroyed, unrepairable.
“Ryosuke rocks so hard he’s destroyed the drums.”
We soldiered on for one more song, a slower song that we thought might be okay with less drums, but it wasn’t going to work. That bass drum is a big part of our sound and without it, nothing held together. We dropped two songs from the setlist and ended early, leaving more time for drinking. Luckily a nearby music shop was still open so the owner ran out and bought a new head (venues in Japan have their own drum kit and amps, usually the drummer just brings their own snare and sometimes cymbals) so StarKat could play their set.
By Sunday I was dead on my feet, hence the delay in posting this. It was a hell of a week, a lot of fun, but fun my middle-aged body isn’t used to anymore. My ankles hurt so badly from all the moshing, and I need to detox for a few weeks. A dry healthy February (3 days shorter than a dry January, smart) is on the cards (he lies, knowing damn well that he’s going to see Green Day on Feb 23rd), and I need to get some proper writing done (i.e. book writing). Thanks for following along this week of me reliving some of my youth. As Franz Ferdinand sang, “It’s so much better on holiday / that’s why we only work when we need the money.” Well, it’s back to work.