THROW ME THE STATUE
スタッフによる・ツアー・レポート

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さて、レポートですが、とにかく内容の濃ゆ～い一週間でした。。。！とは言うものの、その内の約２６時間近くは移動のバンの中で過ごしていたのですが。。そう、移動だけで丸１日ちょいの計算となります。メンバーには、改めて、よく乗り切ってくれて本当に『お疲れさま』と伝えたいです！

４月３０日（金）：メンバー到着日
５月２日（日）のアラバキ・ロック・フェス出演がツアーの頭なので、移動のこともあり、余裕を持たせるために４月３０日に来日を果たす。いつものことながら、空港迎えというのは、実際に会えるまでは、ちゃんと本人たちが予定の飛行機に乗っているか、日にちを双方間違えていないか等々、ドキドキするものだ。到着したとしても荷物の紛失、破損など、トラブルや心配は尽きないし。だが、今回はバッチリ！４０分違いの２便に分かれての到着だったのだが、メンバー同士で待ち合わせをして４人まとまったところで、無事に出て来てくれた。思ったよりも荷物が少なくて、ビックリ＆関心。スコットとは１年振り、ほかのメンバーとは初対面だった訳だが全員とてもお行儀が良く、礼儀正しく、ナイスガイという印象。とても大人なバンドでホッとする。
今夜は明日の仙台移動に備えて、とにかくゆっくり休んでもらおうということで軽く居酒屋でウェルカムパーティーの食事をして解散。しかしその後、スコットとジャレドは渋谷の街を探索に、チャールズとアーロンはホテルに帰って寝たいということでホテルへ、２手に分かれて行動。う～ん、何となくこれ、性格を表しているのかな？！

＊レポートと写真は随時アップしますのでお楽しみに。

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最初のパフォーマンスはRyotaro & Mitsu Salmonだった。この二人のステージはよく見た事あるけど毎回違い、全部が面白い。いつもRyotaroがミディアコーディオンをやりながら Mitsuさんがダンスか歌かスポケンウアドを演じる事だ。今回は感情的な踊りからきれいな歌に動いた。観客の目が点になって騙させるぐらいな演技だった。嬉しい事にMitsuさんは僕の友達でいつも彼女の留まる事のない想像力を尊重している。
次はMs. Mekanism & Dodoだった。Mekaは三年間ぐらい京都のシーンに活躍しているけど今夜は彼女の最後の日本のライブだった。今年の夏からドイツに引っ越す予定だからもうすぐ日本を出ることになってしまった。今夜の公演はとてもMekaらしくて非常に面白くて皆楽しめた。今夜は京都の有力なバンド、Dodoのメンバ達も組み合わせて一緒にライブをした。きれいな所もあったしロックぽい所もあったし、少しおかしい所もあって、全体的に見送りにふさわしく、素晴らしい演奏だった。
そして、次はTMTSだった。Urban Guildが大好きだけどTMTSの元気なロックによく似合うかどうかが少し気にしていたけど全然問題なかった。最初の二つの曲がちょっとゆったり目だったけどその後、スコットは「これからは盛り上がった曲になるから良ければ前で踊っていいよ」と言ってから、少しずつ人々がステージの前に移動してバンドがやり始めてからたちまち皆が激しくダンスし始めた。それからセットの最後まで止めずに観客はよく盛り上がって楽しんでいた。時々バンドの音楽が知らない人にとってはダンスさせるまで難しい場合があるけど、今回はバンドと観客が完璧に一体化していた。しかも今回は、キーボード／グロケンスピールのアーロンにとってのTMTS最後の演奏だった。残念だけど彼は博士をすぐ終わって偉いプリンストン大学で研究の仕事をする事になったからしょうがなく止める決断をしたそうだ。頑張れアーロン！
TMTSの後、フランスのdDamageが演奏した。dDamageの音楽はエレクトロなダンスとヒップホップパンクを交えたみたいな音だった。初めは皆を唖然とさせるほどの激しい曲で、この夜のテンションは最高潮となり、また皆激しく踊っていた。信じられないほど楽しい夜のとても良い終わりだった。
そして、残念ながらTMTSの日本ツアーが終わりを迎えた。スコットとジャレドが今日から中国に移動して上海と北京でライブするから朝早く出てアーロンとチャーリーはアメリカに帰るから、彼らも早く東京に移動しちゃった。あっという間に過ぎた感じだったけど皆にとってとてもいい経験だと思うから、またいつか必ずTMTSは日本に戻ってくるだろう。その時までバンドの将来の活動を楽しみにしよう。

This whole weeklong tour has been a really great time, but the final show in Kyoto was far and away the best.  Up until now it sort of felt like I was introducing the boys of TMTS to this country that I’ve grown to love, but for the last show the equation was reversed a bit.  This time I really felt like I was able to introduce all of my good friends in my new home of Kyoto to TMTS and it felt great.  The show went down at one of my favorite venues ever, Urban Guild and also had a few of my good friends giving great performances.  I’d been looking forward to this show for months now, but somehow it even managed to surpass even my highest hopes to become a night I’m sure I’ll never forget.
Starting the night off was Ryotaro & Mitsu Salmon.  I have seen these two perform a number of times in the past and they are always unique and entertaining.  Ryotaro specializes in Midi Accordion while Mitsu combines, dance, song, and spoken word in a way that is always original and interesting.  This time she moved from a beautiful dance piece into an ethereally captivating song.  The combination of Ryotaro’s virtuosic accordion and Mitsu’s gorgeous performance stunned the audience with its beauty and held us in its trance.  I’m happy to say that Mitsu is a good friend of mine and I truly respect her continued creative success.
Next up was Ms. Mekanism & Dodo.  Meka has been going crazy on the Kyoto scene for around three years now, but this was actually her final show in Japan.  This summer she will be moving to Germany so she’ll sadly be leaving Japan rather soon.  Tonight’s performance saw Meka in rare form and gave the audience a great performance to remember her by.  On this particular night she was also joined on stage by rising Kyoto stars Dodo.  There were some pretty moments, some rockin’ moments, and some pretty hilarious moments as well, but overall it was just an awesome performance and a fitting goodbye for Meka whom we will all soon miss.
After that it was TMTS’ turn to get up and do their thing.  Now, I love Urban Guild and all the folks there, but I was a little nervous about how well TMTS’ energetic rock would be received by the crowd.  It turns out that was a very silly way to feel.  The first few songs led off with a little looser vibe to warm up the audience, but then Scott said, “Okay, now we’re going to play some more upbeat, fun songs.  If you feel like coming up to the front for some dancing, please feel free to do so,” and very happily a few people did.  Then nearly the instant they began playing, everybody jumped right into dancing and pretty much didn’t stop until the final moment.  Sometime it can be difficult for a band to make an audience dance if they aren’t familiar with their music, but this time the band and audience were a perfect match that led to amazing times all around.  This was all compounded by the fact that the show also happened to be keyboardist and glockenspielist extraordinaire Aaron Goldman’s final show with the TMTS.  Aaron will be finishing up his doctoral program very soon now and then is taking on a position doing research at Princeton so he unfortunately has to leave the band.  He will be greatly missed, but I’m sure he’ll do fantastic things over there.
Following TMTS was dDamage from France.  dDamage’s music is a mixture of Electro dance, hip-hop, and punk ferocity.  It was incredibly fierce right from the get-go, and shocked people a bit at first but then won them over and had them dancing hysterically in no time.  It was a great cap to an unbelievably fun night.
And so, TMTS’ tour of Japan has come to an end.  Scott and Jared are off to China to play a pair of shows in Shanghai and Beijing, and Aaron and Charlie are winging it back to the states.  While it felt much too short, the tour was a fantastic experience for all involved and I’m sure that someday TMTS will make its way back to Japan for a return visit.  Until then let’s keep an eye out for the bands continued activities and future musical endeavors.

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夜：やっぱりね。今夜のライブはとても楽しかった。パンクの音楽じゃなかったけど何となくパンクの空気を感じた。見たバンドは両方とも温かくてとても美しかった。TMTSの前のバンド、シラオカはLowを思い浮かばせた。今まではデモだけ作ってるけど６月に記録する予定もあるから楽しみに待ってる。そして、TMTSがやり始めてまた精一杯やってくれてとても楽しかった。さすがパンククラブ！ファンの人々も人見知りしないで曲と曲の間少しバンドのメンバーと会話できた。結構面白かった。また、面白い事にライブの途中にスコット君がギターの弦を切っちゃって他のバンドの人がギターを貸してくれた。Huck Finnの雰囲気は本当に気に入って絶対いつかまた名古屋に遊びに行きたいと思う。

Morning: Probably not a big deal or nothing, but I’m pretty sure that we found the raddest rest stop in Japan today on the Meishin highway between Tokyo and Nagoya.  I have no idea what it was called, but it’s somewhere in Shizuoka and it has a great view of Fuji.  In addition they also had amazing food options as well as a live surf rock band to serenade the weary travelers.  Seriously cool beans.  Anyway…  I can’t say the overall city of Nagoya left quite so good an impression, but the nights venue, Huck Finn, seems like a very cool joint.  The place, while rather small, is just dripping with punk rock credibility.  Very much looking forward to tonight’s show.
Night: Just as I thought. Tonight’s show was some good fun indeed.  While it wasn’t really punk music in any way, you could still feel the punk-like attitude for sure.  Both of the bands I saw before TMTS dealt in beautiful, lilting, precisely orchestrated tunes.  In particular the band before TMTS called Shiraoka, reminded me of Low and had a captivating show.  So far they’re only got some demos, but they said afterward that they’re going to be recording some things in June.  I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for that and you should too.  After that TMTS got up there and kicked up the energy of the club a bit so that many of the folks were moving around and having a good time.  Also, in true punk club fashion, the audience was not at all shy and even engaged the band in some strange banter between songs.  Pretty funny stuff.  At one point, there was a close call where Scott busted a string during a song and had to borrow a guitar from another band in order to keep going.  The crisis was averted however and they finished in good form.  I really loved the atmosphere of Huck Finn and I will definitely be trying to get back there sometime.

NAGOYA HUCK FINN

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次の日は無事にサウンドチェックを終えた後、ビンテージギターの店を見たり美味しいタイ料理（アーロンの勘違いで豚足が出て来た以外は．．．）を食ったり洗濯したりして演奏の時間を待った。そして予定通りにちょうど６時に（さすが日本）Ohbijouをやり始めた。Ohbijouは４年間ぐらいトロントのインディーズのシーンで音を鍛えてきてすごくきれいな歌を作ってる。その上にバンドのみんな一人一人優しい人だ。必ずおすすめです。その次の東京のバンド、Sleepy.abもとてもきれいな音を聞かせてくれた。ついにTMTSの番になってきた。バンドの皆がやっと時差ぼけが直って元気な様子でステージに登場して あらばきロックフェス以上にエネルギッシュなパフォーマンスを見せてくれた。観客の反応もとても良くてアンコールまで続いた。ライブの後残っていたファンとゆっくりしゃべたり、一緒に写真を撮ったり、CDをサインしたりした。最後に渋谷の居酒屋で『お疲れ』乾杯を酌んでもっと深く日本のうまい料理を探検した。少し意外だったけどみんなの一番好きな料理はエイヒレだった。結構雄々しい奴らじゃない？じゃ、それでは明日、名古屋に行こう。

My God, Golden Week is insane!  It took us over 9 hours to go from Arabaki to Tokyo.  It’s the first time driving that length for me but I’m pretty damn sure that’s way longer than usual.  After we finally arrived in Shibuya we all went out for some conveyor belt sushi.  Nowadays we have a bunch of conveyor belt sushi spots in America as well, but there were still a few new concoctions for the boys to enjoy.  Probably the most surprising aspect though was the price.  It’s definitely cheaper over here which is a little unexpected.  After that we went for a stroll around Shibuya and oogled all the über fashionable locals.  What a crazy place…
The next day after a great soundcheck the band oogled some vintage guitars in Shibuya and we enjoyed some great Thai food (aside from poor Aaron not realizing what “pork shins” quite meant), and did some laundry.  After heading to the venue, the show kicked off right on schedule at 6PM, as shows tend to do in Japan, with Ohbijou taking the stage.  Ohbijou has been deep in the Toronto indie scene for like 4 years now honing their sound and it shows.  They were really fantastic.  On top of that each and every one of them is a really awesome person and we had a great time hanging out with them that night.  I highly recommend checking them out.  After Ohbijou came Tokyo band Sleepy·AB who also specialized in beautifully crafted atmospheric pop.  Then it was finally time for TMTS’ turn.  The band had finally gotten over their jet-lag and they took to the stage with a newfound energy that suited them well.  The audience seemed to be into it as well and they returned for an encore version of “Groundswell”.  Post performance, they hung around and signed some CDs and posters for the fans who stuck around to say hello.  Finally we all headed over to a Shibuya izakaya for a drink and to let the guys further explore Japan’s wonderful cuisine.  A little unexpectedly, everyone’s favorite seemed to be manta ray fin.  Pretty darn brave I’d say.  And with that it was time to rest up for the next day’s gig in Nagoya.

SHIBUYA O-NEST

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