... went the (sparse) crowd at the Rock Factory, as I finished up my last of 3 songs. For those (all) of you who can't read that, it sounds something like ancouru!, which is about as close as they can get to "encore!"
The Rock Factory's open mic allowed 3 songs per artist, with a possible 4th if there was crowd support. And crowd support there was. And it's not like they were just cheering for everybody, too. I was one of only two people to play an encore last night. It felt so good. I've never been called to play an encore before.
Last night I met up with Yuki at Roppongi station where she took me to meet two of her friends, Chu and Gilly. Chu is a dude from Tokyo, the same age as Yuki (27), and a drummer who occasionally subs in for Yucca's drummer when she is unable to play. Gilly is a rather large (vertically, not horizontally) man from Brisbane, Australia, whom Yuki had met at yet another open mic. We went and had a dinner, after a fashion, of fish and chips, haggis, and spaghetti bolognese (or however you spell it) at a small pub on the way to the "Rock Fac" as it is called by those who frequent it.
It was my first time in Roppongi and I wasn't too thrilled about it. Ted says he always avoids Roppongi if at all possible because it is foreigner central, and, sure enough, the foreigners were a-plenty. It was nice, however, to find that there were only a couple foreigners aside from Gilly and myself at the Rock Fac. The MC of the evening was a half-New Zealander, half-Japanese girl named Kat, who opened the show with some of her own music, which was, appropriately, half in English and half in Japanese. It wasn't bad, but it didn't really match my tastes. Mostly because most of the time she would take what she had just sung in English, and repeat it in Japanese. It got a little tedious for me. There were then some other artists that I mostly wasn't paying attention to. A white guy, a Korean guy, a Japanese guy... Then it was Yuki's turn. Yuki's music is slow and gritty. It's not easy to listen to at first, but once I got used to it I began to really like it. Right now she's working on a solo album, which is great, but I don't think it'll be done before I leave. Chu played drums with her on two of her songs, as well. He kept saying he was so bad at drums (classic Japanese), but he was really good. They hadn't rehearsed at all or anything and he matched her songs just about perfectly with various beats.
Then I went and played my 3 songs. And then another.
Then Gilly, which was totally different from me. His music stayed true to his "era" (as he said to me) of 80's-style Rock n Roll. He wouldn't tell me exactly how old he was, though--just that he's in his 30's. My guess is 36. He was pretty good and really fun to watch. Chu played drums for him as well. Again, with no rehearsal of any kind.
Well, that's pretty much that whole story. Oh, well, actually there was a guy who played after us who was pretty interesting. It was a man from Fukuoka who just got back from a tour in Taiwan and is now playing all around Tokyo for a couple weeks. He said he has also played in Europe, Australia, and the US. His style was totally wild. All instrumental music on the acoustic guitar, but he certainly used every single bit of the guitar. He would drum on the wood, bend the neck, and really beat the heck out of the guitar. He cracked the guitar he was using in two places last night (he said he has to buy new guitars a lot), AND broke 3 strings. It was really good music, though. Got everyone pumped up, as evidenced by the fact that he was the other person whom people cheered "encore" for.
I have nothing going on tonight (for once) so my plan is to practice for tomorrow's show at the Ruby Room. I meant to practice over the weekend, but somehow my schedule filled up with other things. So I'm glad to have a free night because I really can't stand to do a show on no rehearsal. Plus, it would be nice if I could come up with a new song to play. I don't want to just keep repeating the same ones (which I haven't really done yet, but I will have to soon because I'm running low). Alright, work time. Ciao.
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