The Tokyo Metropolis is a great place for gigs if you know where to find them and book early enough! This page is here to help you do exactly those two things, starting with a few gigs that may already be sold out and then ranging further ahead a few months down the road to gigs that may not even be confirmed yet. All our own picks too. Comments welcome!
BRAINBOMBS (OCTOBER)
Brainbombs have been doing this since 1985, which is longer than most of the people who will pack Earthdom have been alive. The Swedes take the looping, paranoid rock of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, early SWANS, SUICIDE, and THE STOOGES, strip out anything resembling a tune you could hum on the train home, and leave you with something that sounds like a broken machine grinding through the same ugly riff until it becomes strangely appealing—possibly because it harmonises with your inner feeling of the World being completely fucked up. The lyrics are nihilistic, repetitive and often about things you wouldn't want to discuss at the next PTA meeting. They released an album last year and somehow still exist as a functioning band rather than a dirty rumour. First Japan dates in forty years. That alone should be enough to get you excited. Support from MERZBOW, ZENOCIDE (cool name!) and RAMPS fill out the bill.
31st October, EARTHDOM, Shin-Okubo.
¥2,900 (Ticket info).
YĪN YĪN (OCTOBER)
YĪN YĪN's oeuvre is probably exactly the kind of thing almost any 4 European guys hanging out playing funk and psychedelia around the tourist trails of south-east Asia would end up developing. After a while, being bombarded by Thai bar music and Malaysian railway station jingles, seeps into the blood! But the lads from Maastricht have got a new kink in their musical formula. Since 2024, a couple of albums (Mount Matsu & Yatta!) have shown a turn towards the Rising Sun, with J-pop, koto and the instrumental guitar rock of Takeshi Terauchi thrown into the already crowded mix. But expect a smooth flow, with bouncy Oriental rhythms and guitar lines that veer from surf guitar to funk and muzak, with a hint of Quentin Tarantino thrown in.
YĪN YĪN's oeuvre is probably exactly the kind of thing almost any 4 European guys hanging out playing funk and psychedelia around the tourist trails of south-east Asia would end up developing. After a while, being bombarded by Thai bar music and Malaysian railway station jingles, seeps into the blood! But the lads from Maastricht have got a new kink in their musical formula. Since 2024, a couple of albums (Mount Matsu & Yatta!) have shown a turn towards the Rising Sun, with J-pop, koto and the instrumental guitar rock of Takeshi Terauchi thrown into the already crowded mix. But expect a smooth flow, with bouncy Oriental rhythms and guitar lines that veer from surf guitar to funk and muzak, with a hint of Quentin Tarantino thrown in.
16th October Spotify O-EAST.
Price: ¥6500 (Ticket info).
CARCASS (SEPTEMBER)
Liverpool’s long-reigning kings of gore and "surgical" precision are back in Tokyo yet again, proving that even after decades of putrefaction, there is still plenty of meat on them bones. Bill Steer and Jeff Walker’s crew (complete with the usual rotating guitar and drum support) bring their trademark mix of early grindcore brutality and more melodic doomy material to a pair of shows. The main show is at Toyosu PIT (3000 capacity) on the 17th with another gig at the hastily added SPACE ODD in Daikanyama, the next night (350-450 capacity) because the numpties at Creativeman miscalculated the appeal of Liverpool's other great contribution to World civilisation.
16th October Spotify O-EAST.Price: ¥6500 (Ticket info).
Liverpool’s long-reigning kings of gore and "surgical" precision are back in Tokyo yet again, proving that even after decades of putrefaction, there is still plenty of meat on them bones. Bill Steer and Jeff Walker’s crew (complete with the usual rotating guitar and drum support) bring their trademark mix of early grindcore brutality and more melodic doomy material to a pair of shows. The main show is at Toyosu PIT (3000 capacity) on the 17th with another gig at the hastily added SPACE ODD in Daikanyama, the next night (350-450 capacity) because the numpties at Creativeman miscalculated the appeal of Liverpool's other great contribution to World civilisation.
17th September Toyosu Pit. 18th September Space Odd.
Price: ¥9500 (Ticket info).
What do you think traditional Ainu music would sound like? you wouldn't be far wrong if you assumed it to be a shamanistic caterwauling kind of thing, made up of chants and hypnotic ethereal sounds, more suited to mysterious goings-on in bear-haunted Northern glades than a concert situation. This is where OKI DUB AINU BAND come in with their agenda of beefing up this sylvian strain with a bit of dub, reggae, rock, and Afrobeat. Now celebrating their 20th year, the band features two "half-Ainus" (the 100% variety are increasingly rare) and some "Ainu-appreciative" Japanese. The band jams the kind of groove that would have happened if Hokkaido had been a lot nearer the Atlantic slave routes, in the process creating an otherworldly but soulful sound that is driven by cyclical rhythms and highlighted by the ghostly plucking of the tonkori, a traditional five-stringed Ainu lyre. The only real drawback is that this kind of "roots" music is sure to pull in the New Age and Hippie brigades, so get your love beads, ganja, and rasta wigs ready.
16th May. Club Quattro, Shibuya. Price: ¥5000 (Ticket info).
The key to getting a good gig in Tokyo is to not to go for the jaded big names that have been dragging their brands around for several decades, getting you to fork out 20-30,000 yen for a seat 500 rows from the front just so you can boast about it on your social media (yeh, fuck off SPARKS and KRAFTWERK). It is instead to spend a few thousand yen to see great bands with shit publicists who may never escape the underground, like Seattlite "math rockers" NO EDITS. You can tell they have a shit publicist because a couple of years back, just as their chunky, melodic sound was gaining traction, they...erm..."reinvented" themselves and ditched their uberkool name as "The Fixtures." Their melodic, careening, off-kilter, "angular" riffing may not be to everyone's tastes, but, in my view, this is that gem on the Tokyo gig circuit, namely a relatively underappreciated band that it's not too expensive to appreciate. Support from BARICAN, MIRROR, and JESUS WOUND. Part of a four-date Japan tour.
2nd and 5th May. Spread, Shimokitazawa &
14th Feb.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment. All comments are moderated.