Juice: 10th Anniversary

After catching Prague's show last week, I got in touch with their manager and offered to take pictures at any upcoming show if he was interested. He invited me to catch one of his bands, Tobaccojuice, at a concert held tonight at Ebisu Liquid Room.

The event was the 10th anniversary party for Club Juice, a Japanese language free magazine that covers the music scene in Japan. I gathered from Fumi, my radiohost housemate from Osaka, that all the bands in tonight's lineup were moderately popular.

First up was a lively rock band, Otogibanashi, which my dictionary tells me means "fairy tale."

Tobaccojuice was second on the lineup. They play stoner rock with a bit of a country twist.

Last up was Flower Companies, a lively punk band that cranked the volume up a notch.
Yes, I know what you are thinking, Japanese band names don't sound all that cool in American English. I think that is their only weak point. You wouldn't believe how much energy these guys put into their shows.

Being Unofficial Photog was an experience. You may have noticed that I never turn down a slot on the guestlist. This time though, I got myself into trouble. Twice, Japanese staff members at the venue came up to me and told me to stop taking pictures. The first guy even told me to delete all of my data. Both times, I name dropped the manager which seemed to shut them up.

Between sets, I ran into Mika and Ryoko from Bo-Peep. They are still buzzing from their experience playing in LA and Austin's SXSW festival. They agreed to do an interview for my blog sometime so stay tuned.