Loft Madness

The day started pretty early as I met Billy, Miriam and Marcus at a coffee shop near our hotel for a much needed jolt of caffeine. We all had some sandwiches with the crusts cut off (a common practice here) leading us to wonder where the crusts for all these millions of Japanese sandwiches go. With not much to do until soundcheck, I decided to tag along with Billy, Miriam and Bruce as Rockin' Jelly Bean took us to a local Norton distributor in Shinjuku.

Since this was my first foray into Shinjuku/Kabukicho to say I was overwhelmed is an understatement. The fact that it was mid-afternoon did not lessen the impact one bit and luckily allowed my senses to adjust from NY-insanity to Tokyo-insanity. The easiest comparison is Times Square, on every block, but cleaner, with more noise, and more people walking on streets that are about 1/4 of the width of a typical NY street. Its pretty intense, but in an interesting sort of way.

The shop, Barn Homes, is quite special in that it stocks new and used 50s and 60 s related music. Its pretty comprehensive as far as stores like this go and is totally on par with similar shops here in NYC. The owner, Kunio, is an exceptionally kind and soft-spoken man that has been in business with the Millers for 15-20 years or so. In fact he was so grateful for the merchandise Norton releases, everytime the Millers tried to pay for something, Kunio kept giving them a below cost discount. This happened a couple of times until Billy convinced him to sell him a third purchase without a discount. He then quickly bought enough to cover what Kunio had literally given away previously!

Soon after we walked back into the heart of the entertainment district Kabukicho to meet up with the rest of the A-Bones for thier soundcheck. Loft, I was told is a pretty well-known club. Similar in status to CBGBs. Except that this club originated elsewhere and relocated to Shinjuku about 7 years ago (if I recall correctly.) Anyone, who is anybody in rock has played Loft. The club itself is located in a sub-basement of a pretty modern building. Its divided into two sections: a large stage room and an adjacent small "bar" room. With each half separated by a soundproof door, its easy to see two separate shows being staged at the same time.

The A-Bones were slated for the big stage. What was perplexing though was that the bill had about 15-20 acts scheduled to play. Leading to worries that the A-Bones would see the stage around daybreak. Luckily, the promoter, Daddy-O Nov, saw to it that as one band was playing, the other stage was being prepared. The second a band hit their last note, the announcement for the next band was being made on the other stage. Leading to an amusing shuffling of kids from one room to the other all night. Still, it worked like a charm. Only in Japan could this have been pulled off as well as it was. By the time the 10th band had played the schedule was only off by about 15 minutes. Still, with a later slot, the A-Bones had a lot of time to kill.

One of the best things about being the "headliner" was that the band had an actual air-conditioned dressing room. Fully decked out with a couple of sofas, fridge, private bathroom and a cable feed from the main stage. The rest of the groups shared one tiny crowded room. It made an otherwise hellish wait easier to take. Well wishers came and went. Naps were taken and we all ventured out into the wacky Kabukicho night at different times.

One of the famous highlights of the neighborhood is its redlight district and its accompanying workers. You literally cannot walk a block without being hassled by some guy trying to convince you to go to his joint for a beer and companionship. And ladies, don't think you get off easy either. For every guy/girl trying to steer you into a female host bar, there are just as many bizarrely coiffed guys trying to talk women into the men host clubs. It makes walking to the local food joint quite an exercise. Throw in some arcades, punkers, cosplayers, college kids, businessmen and you start to get the picture.

One of the amusing things was that Loft was in the basement of what seemed to be a high end host club upstairs. So anytime one of us came up from the club for a breath of fresh air we were side by side with these host guys. Which led to some quite amusing looks from passing women who wondered what the hell planet we came from.

The bands at Loft were fantastic. What was surprising was how well the bands in the small room were compared to their better-known counterparts in the larger room. The bands in the smaller room were often younger but still quite often blew the crowd away with their energy and enthusiasm. The Moonlights, The Fadeaways, The Mighty Moguls, The Stompin Riff Raffs, The Fly and Miss Tarantula were but a few of the bands that stood out.

In the large room, The Minnesota Voodoomen, Jackie and the Cedrics, The Raydios, Los Rizlaz, 5,6,7,8s all put on great sets as well.

By the time the A-Bones came on the crowd was worked up into a frenzy and the band just went with it. Highlights included Bruce getting saved by a pit photographer after slipping on the edge of the stage and falling on top of him. and of course the 5,6,7,8s doing backup during the encore, Wooly Bully.

I stuck around til the bitter end and stumbled out, bleary-eyed into the Kabukicho morning around 6AM. Dazed, I sat on the front steps of the club and watched the parade of hosts heading home as well. Some fellow even came out into the street wearing a yukata and geta sandals talking on a cell phone. Like he was in his backyard or something. Not really knowing the exact way back to the hotel I wandered around until I saw some familiar landmarks and found my subway. All-in all a great night....but a strange one. More photos below: