Japanese New Music Festival tour

Last night I went to the Bottom of the Hill to see this show. The venue place is a wonderful 300 capacity dive in a San Francisco neighborhood where it is easy to park. There were three musicians:

• Kawabata Makoto: guitarist and main man of Japanese psychedelic band Acid Mothers Temple
• Yoshida Tatsuya: drummer and main man of progressive rock duo Ruins
• Tsuyama Atsushi. player of “monster bass” in the Acid Mothers Temple

These all played in different combinations. Each section was announced carefully in cod Japanese accents: “Wercome to Jarpanese Muzik Frestival”. I laughed a lot during the shows. This is one of the best gigs I have been to in a long time. There were seven combinations:

SEIKAZOKU (Kawabata/Tsuyama/Yoshida). Kawabata played violin and guitar simulteously while Tsuyama played his pink toy guitar.

ZOFFY (Tsuyama/Kawabata) played a drone song (showing off Tsuyama’s throat singing) but mostly played covers of various classics: Smoke on the Water in the style of Captain Beefheart and Bob Dylan. They did three Miles Davis electric numbers where Kawabata played funky guitar for a minute, then Tsuyama (as Miles) plays a single note, and that’s the end. This was the only section I thought went on too long.

RUINS ALONE (Yoshida) was a fantastic experience. Yoshida is such a great drummer, he has the skill of a jazz drummer with the power of a metal drummer. Basically Ruins sounds like all the twiddly bits off every prog rock record ever made, accompanied by live drumming from Yoshida.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE SWR (Tsuyama/Yoshida/Kawabata). There were no roadies or guitar techs and so equipment problems forced Kawabata to play Tsuyama’s “toy” electric guitar for some of the time. On record I find AMT a bit samey but live they make complete sense.

AKATEN (Tsuyama/Yoshida). These two improvised by manipulating everyday items using some sort of amplification that I couldn’t see. They did a duet with scissors and a piece involving brushing teeth and grating a radish. This sounds silly, and it was, but it was musical too.

ZUBI ZUVA X (Yoshida/Tsuyama/Kawabata) All three playing a cappella, there was a lot of difficulty trying to keep a straight face here.

SHRINP WARK (Kawabata/Yoshida) This actually sounded like Ruins, except with Kawabata provoding the twiddly bits.