Day Two: in which our hero's age catches up with him

It was somewhat inevitable, I suppose. I felt so great after watching Cavalera that I was up early and out the door. I walked 10km from my hotel to Osaka Castle, round the grounds, up to the top and down, and back. I did some shopping at Arc’teryx and Book Off, stopping for a coffee and a sandwich before returning to the hotel where I absolutely crashed. One thing about seeing bands in the old days: I never had to nap in between. I slept until about 4:30, had a burger at Critters (if you’re ever in Shinsaibashi, check it out: great burgers which is still a novelty for me in Japan) and wandered back to Big Cat.

Tonight’s audience was very different from Cavalera. While the age range was roughly the same (mostly Gen X with a few 20-somethings), this lot didn’t just act their age: they acted their parents’ age. It wasn’t sold out, and everyone spread out accordingly, like a YouTube video explaining the concept of personal space. No one moshed. No one even jumped. Fist pumps, cheers, singing along, that was about it. One guy five from the front had a huge backpack on throughout the show. The couple stood next to me explained that was how Japanese audiences did it. I explained about the night before and they smiled condescendingly. Foreigners just don’t get it.

The band were awesome, everything I hoped, tight, powerful, somewhere between alien rock stars and normal blokes (you can’t be a proper alien rock star if you’re from Strathaven). I was most blown away by the drummer, Stump Monroe. On record his drumming is amazing but I’d never really thought too much about it, always more concentrated on the guitars, how they get that sound, how to play that riff, how they fit so many ideas into a single arrangement. Seeing Stump playing those patterns live floored me. As far as I know he’s never really been in any of those conversation about best rock drummers but based on this performance, he should be.

A two-hour set, mostly culled from their first four albums (Blood, Fire and Love, Soul Destruction, Powertrippin’, and Crank) with one song from Just Add Life. No covers, nothing from the two underwhelming “reunion” albums. Just what they fans wanted, no more, no less.

I’m off to Kawasaki for the next two shows and I’m hoping the crowd there is more active, more vocal. As the woman next to me said, if the shows don’t sell out, and if the crowd don’t show how happy they are, the band won’t come back again. It’s the recurring problem we have in Nagoya: Everyone complains that bands skip Nagoya, then when bands put on shows, everyone’s too busy or too tired to attend. Can’t have it both ways.

As for me, I got a good night’s sleep, didn’t drink too much, and I’ve found somewhere that does eggs Benedict near Shin-Osaka station (the best food in the world bar none), so it’s shaping up to be a good day. Onwards.