# Just got back from my first gig in Shinjuku



## Naren (Aug 5, 2007)

So, today we played with 2 other bands at a club in Shinjuku (downtown Tokyo). The other two bands were both black metal bands. It was funny, because, before even going, we were thinking that our band was going to be better than the other two bands, but after hearing how absolutely horrific the second band was... wow. The third band would have been pretty bad when compared to great famous bands, but compared to the second band, they didn't sound bad at all. Since it was our first time playing there, we were the first act. So, even though we were the opening very first act, the reaction from the audience was amazing. And, despite the fact that this is Japan where most metalheads don't go crazy, the entire front of the stage was banging their heads like maniacs, giving us the horns, and acting insaaane. The second band had no one in front, no one banging their heads, no horns. The third band was banging their heads for us and were out front for our performance, so we supported them, but even though they were the "headliner," there were much less people out front for them than for us. After the sound check, the guitarist for the third band was intrigued in my guitar (my RG7EXFX2 - a baritone 7-string) because she had never seen a guitar like it. She also said that we should have been headlining since our band was, by far, the best one there. Some of the other bands' fans also told us that we've made them into fans. After the show, we went out to drink with the bandmates and 2 friends I invited and 1 friend the bass player invited. One of the friends I invited said that our performance was the best she had seen in over 6 years (she said the other two bands totally sucked). The bass player's friend said pretty much the same thing. After the gig, one of the girls working at the club was telling us that we were, by far, the best band there and that she wanted us to come back next month for a gig with several of the more popular bands that play at that club. We said that we probably couldn't because the drummer and bass player would be leaving the band (which kinda sucks), but they both said that they'd stay on for that gig and just play until we could find replacements. When the girl heard that they were both gonna be leaving the band, she made a face like she had just heard the most shocking thing in her life and said, "Wow. What a waste... Because, I mean, you guys are such an amazing band..." 

So, pretty good live performance tonight. Quite fun and enjoyable. Every comment was very positive and coooool.


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## Alpo (Aug 5, 2007)

Sounds like you had fun.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Aug 5, 2007)

I'd really like to hear Japanese black metal.


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## ledzep4eva (Aug 5, 2007)

Everyone who has ever seen my band has sworn their souls to us and killed themself on the spot because they know their lives cannot ever compare to us. Last gig we had, ten teenagers tatooed our name on their foreheads. Twenty nine girls wanted to have sex with my guitar, and EMI tried to sign my little toe.

And everyone said we should rule the world. Includnig Bill and Ted, who had come along just to see us, even though Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin were also playing.


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## El Caco (Aug 5, 2007)

ledzep4eva said:


> Everyone who has ever seen my band has sworn their souls to us and killed themself on the spot because they know their lives cannot ever compare to us.



Thats gotta be crap for sales.


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## Naren (Aug 5, 2007)

ledzep4eva said:


> Everyone who has ever seen my band has sworn their souls to us and killed themself on the spot because they know their lives cannot ever compare to us. Last gig we had, ten teenagers tatooed our name on their foreheads. Twenty nine girls wanted to have sex with my guitar, and EMI tried to sign my little toe.
> 
> And everyone said we should rule the world. Includnig Bill and Ted, who had come along just to see us, even though Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin were also playing.



Sounds like hearing your band could be a good way to ruin your life.  Remind me never to click any links to any live recordings of your music.


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## D-EJ915 (Aug 5, 2007)

sounds good man \m/


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## Ryan (Aug 6, 2007)

lol dont let it go to your head ;D


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

Ryan said:


> lol dont let it go to your head ;D



Too late.  

Unfortunately the bass player and drummer quitting is stalling our full-power gigging plans we had, but we just got an e-mail today from a drummer and bass player interested in joining the band. Hopefully that works out...

But, seriously, the second band last night was really really bad. The rhythm guitar and lead guitars sounded like they were out of tune with each other. Like the rhythm guitar was playing an A and the lead guitar was playing an A# and the singer was singing a G. And the drummer's tempo was sporadic through the show, oftentimes not even matching the tempo the guitars were playing at. And there was no bass player (but the rhythm guitarist had EQed tons and tons of bass into his sound to try to compensate, but it ended up sounding like crap). One of the guys I invited said, "In the 32 years I've been alive and the many years spent touring and playing out as a drummer, that was the worst band I have ever heard..."  Other band members said, "I'll never forget that band. I can guarantee that."


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## Ryan (Aug 6, 2007)

ouch lol any pics from your gig yet?


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

Ryan said:


> ouch lol any pics from your gig yet?



We didn't take any pics, but we did have the entire gig filmed (the club we were at does that if you want). Unfortunately, it was on video casette and I don't own a tape player. The other guitarist has the tape and I told him to make me a copy, even though I have no way to watch it. I'll probably watch it at his apartment sometime.

Don't know how/if I could get them into AVI format on my computer. :/ If I could, I'd put a few songs on Youtube and post some links. But no idea how to do that.


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## Ryan (Aug 6, 2007)

I think your puter would need an AV-in for that. But that'd be rad.


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

Ryan said:


> I think your puter would need an AV-in for that. But that'd be rad.



 And my TV would need a tape player. My old computer had an AV-in (hooked directly into the video card) and I used it once or twice to take video directly from N64 games or TV commercials. But don't have that no more.

That would be pretty cool. Don't really have any money now to spend on a tape player or a video card with an AV-in... or on a new computer (which is what I need the most).


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## NegaTiveXero (Aug 6, 2007)

I'm sure you can take the tape somewhere and they can put it onto a disc in AVI for you. It probably wouldn't cost much. I mean, there are some places around here that'll transfer tapes to DVD for you too, and for relatively cheap.


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

NegaTiveXero said:


> I'm sure you can take the tape somewhere and they can put it onto a disc in AVI for you. It probably wouldn't cost much. I mean, there are some places around here that'll transfer tapes to DVD for you too, and for relatively cheap.



Any idea what kind of place would do that? Because I'd have no idea where to even start looking.


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## NegaTiveXero (Aug 6, 2007)

Well, I doubt Japan has some of the places that we have around here, but I'd go to electronic stores and ask around there. 

I know places like Kroger and Wal-Mart around here will do it. Again, I don't know if Japan has any, maybe a wal-mart, but most likely not a Kroger.

Or you could just find a friend with a computer that has the necessary jacks on their computer.


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## garcia3441 (Aug 6, 2007)

Naren said:


> Any idea what kind of place would do that? Because I'd have no idea where to even start looking.



Video Conversion


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

NegaTiveXero said:


> Well, I doubt Japan has some of the places that we have around here, but I'd go to electronic stores and ask around there.
> 
> I know places like Kroger and Wal-Mart around here will do it. Again, I don't know if Japan has any, maybe a wal-mart, but most likely not a Kroger.
> 
> Or you could just find a friend with a computer that has the necessary jacks on their computer.



Kroger and Wal-Mart will do that for you? 

Japan has places like Kroger and Wal-Mart (doesn't have any Krogers or Wal-Marts, though), but they don't do anything electronic. They just sell food, clothes, some electronic equipment, etc. They won't convert tapes to DVDs. I've never seen a place around here that offered such a service. I thought you might mention some special type of store that specifically did that kind of stuff.

Sounds like I'm out of luck again. 



garcia3441 said:


> Video Conversion



Wow. That's expensive.


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## NegaTiveXero (Aug 6, 2007)

Naren said:


> Kroger and Wal-Mart will do that for you?
> 
> Japan has places like Kroger and Wal-Mart (doesn't have any Krogers or Wal-Marts, though), but they don't do anything electronic. They just sell food, clothes, some electronic equipment, etc. They won't convert tapes to DVDs. I've never seen a place around here that offered such a service. I thought you might mention some special type of store that specifically did that kind of stuff.
> 
> Sounds like I'm out of luck again.



Yeah, the Kroger by me has this thing in the photo area, they'll take your pictures and make video photo albums and they also offer to take your old VHS home videos and make them into DVD format.

Guess you'll just have to find someone that has Component cables on their Computer.


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

NegaTiveXero said:


> Yeah, the Kroger by me has this thing in the photo area, they'll take your pictures and make video photo albums and they also offer to take your old VHS home videos and make them into DVD format.
> 
> Guess you'll just have to find someone that has Component cables on their Computer.



That's a cool service. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any friends with component cables on their computer. In fact, most of my friends in Japan either don't own a computer at all or aren't computer savvy.

The biggest electronics store in all of Japan is about 3 minutes walking distance from where I work. So I could ask there if they know any place that can do that (since I doubt that they do any services like that) and... hope for the best.

The Kroger near where I used to live didn't have that service. Maybe they do now. It's been a few years. Kroger was cheap... could get a bunch of good candy for almost nothing.


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## NegaTiveXero (Aug 6, 2007)

Naren said:


> The Kroger near where I used to live didn't have that service. Maybe they do now. It's been a few years. Kroger was cheap... could get a bunch of good candy for almost nothing.



True that. True that.


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## Naren (Aug 6, 2007)

NegaTiveXero said:


> True that. True that.



Went there when I was on vacation in the US for Christmas last year and bought a bag of Reeses mini peanut butter cups, some jalapeno poppers, a box of my favorite cereal (that I hadn't had in over 2 years), a box of Little Debbies Oatmeal cookies, and a few other assorted things and got it all for under $10. I bet most Japanese wouldn't believe me if I told them that (of course, Japanese wouldn't know any of those foods I mentioned, but the idea that you could get all that for so cheap is crazy!).

I miss American supermarkets...


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## Ciprian (Aug 9, 2007)

Maybe if you ask the guys from the club they could convert the video for you?


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## Naren (Aug 9, 2007)

Ciprian said:


> Maybe if you ask the guys from the club they could convert the video for you?



They don't have the equipment to do it.

A colleague at work said that he could ask someone he knows to do it for me. And he also mentioned a company near where I work that could convert it for me for about $10 or so. So I'll look a little into that. If that doesn't work, then I'll ask my colleague to have it converted for me.


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## Ryan (Aug 9, 2007)

\o/ do it. i wanna see japanese bm hah


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## Drew (Aug 9, 2007)

Awesome.  I'm still trying to picture a japanese _chick_ playing in a black metal band.


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## Naren (Aug 9, 2007)

Drew said:


> Awesome.  I'm still trying to picture a japanese _chick_ playing in a black metal band.



Without the corpse paint on, she was pretty cute (during sound check, none of the band members had makeup on). She had camo shorts on and a black metal t-shirt on that was too big for her, black hair half the way down her back, and she was playing a red Jackson King V which looked pretty huge on her (she was probably 5'2" or so). With the corpse paint on, she looked kinda scary. 

Maybe you can imagine better now.


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## Naren (Aug 12, 2007)

Update, so I had band practice today and the other guitarist in my band gave me the video casette of the gig. I found a "dubbing studio" that can convert a VHS to DVD for about $10. It's relatively close to my house (4 stations from the station near my apartment and then 3-4 minutes by foot from that station), so I'm gonna go there tomorrow to get it converted. It might take a few days until they can get me the DVD, but once I get it, I'll see about converting it to files on my computer, maybe upload a few songs to Youtube, and start a thread with links in it. 

Glad I found a place that can do it. I was beginning to get worried.


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## Metal Ken (Aug 12, 2007)

Sounds badass (Dont know why i didnt see this thread before). I'll be looking forward to seeing videos ;p



Ryan said:


> \o/ do it. i wanna see japanese bm hah



Ever listen to the japanese Sabbat? They're like, blackish thrashish japanese satan metal.



Drew said:


> Awesome.  I'm still trying to picture a japanese _chick_ playing in a black metal band.



If you've never checked out the band "Boris" you should. Its stoner/doom metal (most of the time), and they have a chick guitar player.


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## Naren (Aug 12, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> Sounds badass (Dont know why i didnt see this thread before). I'll be looking forward to seeing videos ;p
> 
> 
> 
> Ever listen to the japanese Sabbat? They're like, blackish thrashish japanese satan metal.



Yeah, the Japanese Sabbat are like a mixture of black metal and thrash with absolutely ridiculous Satanic occultic lyrics about sacrificing virgins on a blood-covered pyre on a mountain of corpses, etc. etc. Their lyrics are really bad in that whole Satanic vein. I've always found Japanese black metal bands to be ridiculous because they sing about Satan and anti-Christian stuff when less than 1% of Japanese are protestant or Catholic. It's like they just want to be as "black metal" as possible. The black metal band we played with had a song called "God is Evil" and I was just snickering to myself at it. Black Metal bands in the US and Europe come from a culture where it makes sense. In Japan when I see a death metal band with sacrilegious Buddhist imagery on their album cover, it makes perfect sense culturally, but not sacrilegious Christian stuff. It's not the right culture at all. There are no really famous Japanese black metal bands, but there are quite a few bands. The guitarist in my band has been in like 3-4 black metal bands sometime within the past 12 years or so and he has quite a collection of Japanese black metal CDs in his apartment (as well as Japanese death metal).

I don't know if the video casette I got has any footage from the other bands, but it should have my band's whole 30 minute set (6-7 songs if I remember correctly). I'm also expecting the sound quality to be pretty good since they record this stuff regularly and they have it hooked through the house speakers where all the instruments are miked. The guitarist told me after he watched it that there was a lot of energy in the performances, which resulted in a few mistakes, but mostly ones that the audience wouldn't notice but the band members would. One time the bass player slammed into me when I was playing guitar and singing but I was able to keep playing and singing without completely screwing up. I'm looking forward to see how that turned out on film. 



Metal Ken said:


> If you've never checked out the band "Boris" you should. Its stoner/doom metal (most of the time), and they have a chick guitar player.



The drummer and bass player for my band are gonna be quitting in about 1-2 months and the drummer is helping us look for his replacement. Today he said he knows this girl drummer who is into really heavy music and that she might be a possible replacement. We told him that we don't care about age or gender. All we care about is whether she can play and whether she likes the music. So, he said he'll contact her and see if she's interested. Taka and I were joking about having her dress up in high school sailor uniforms and high school exercise clothes. Got into a huge joking sexist conversation. If she heard that, she'd probably not want to join.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Aug 12, 2007)

Drew said:


> Awesome.  I'm still trying to picture a japanese _chick_ playing in a black metal band.



That would be so hot. 



Naren said:


> Taka and I were joking about having her dress up in high school sailor uniforms and high school exercise clothes.



That, also, would be really fucking hot


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## Shawn (Aug 13, 2007)

Awesome, Naren.  Sounds like a killer show! I miss Shinjuku, that place is very cool. I really liked Machida City as well. One of these days, i'll visit there again.


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