One of the better shows this year, Cathode, Gewapend Beton and Seein Red opened up for Tragedy at the ACU in Utrecht, the Netherlands the 10th of may 2009.
TRAGEDY IN THE NETHERLANDS 2009 played with Cathode, Seein Red and Gewapend Beton( video coming lateron) at the ACU in Utrecht. Show was sold out within 15 minutes? Great sunday hardcore matinee. Hardcore/Punk, lots of friends, 4 great bands, good food and beer, what more do you need?
FxUx is a hardcore/punk band from Japan. I spoke with the singer, Hayato for a while, his english was very good, unlike most people i met in Tokyo, after his bands show in Wall. Next show, which was a couple of days later they put me on the guestlist and i planned a little email interview, here we go. FxUx or F-U(Fuck you) Vocals:Hayato,Guitar:Keigo,Bass:Yuki,Drums:Toshio
How long ago did your band start and how did you get involved with hardcore/punk to begin with? F-U has just started. Our 1st show was August 1st 2008. We played in front of few people,though it was really fun show! Offspring was my first punk band, and I started to get more deep into the scenes.
What was the first song you wrote as a singer and what was it about? First song... hmmm let me think.. I don't rember it... maybe It was kinda about selfesteem things.
Which bands have been an influence to you? RISE(Japanese hardcore), and Black Flag is one of my favorite band!!
Can you explain how these livehouse shows work in Japan? I hear you pay to play? That is very odd to me.Do you play other places? Houses, Recording studios etc?
Yep, Normally we pay to play a show in Japan.and it's totally normal thing to Japanese people. BUT I know this system really sucks! so sometimes, we rent the cheap studio and organize our own show.
When can we expect your demo? We just finished all art works so it's gonnna be out from next show. (Jan.29th, 2009)
Any funny stories while you were on this little tour/past few shows you can share with us? Not in this band, but I went to the Phillipines and it was awesome!!! The bands and kids were awesome!!! You gotta go there and FEEL IT!!!
Tell me a little about yourself? Are you a student or do you work? I'm not a student anymore. I graduated AOYAMA Univ. 2004 and I'm working as a part time job which is using some computers.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? I guess I'm still playing in the band like today, and I hope to be.
Any famous last words? Anything goes! Jealous Betrayer!!! HAHAHAHA!
Time for an update and something a little different.During my trip to Tokyo in november i went to quite alot of shows and ill try to give you a little taste of those experiences.
Just looking through website after website in japanese, trying to spot the little english they present i made a agenda for myself in tokyo. One of the bands i wanted to see was Tone Deaf, which i had checked out through one of your favorite dutch hardcore messageboards. They were actually playing during my stay just 2 metro stops from my home in Tokyo. It was a pretty big event called "United Trash Night vol. 65". To think they already had 64 of those shows, amazing.
This was one of the shows were i was obviously the only foreigner as i could tell, yet i felt right at home when i began to spot kids in various old dutch band shirts like B.G.K. and Larm and even distro's selling split records with dutch bands i have actually filmed last year and are on my video site.
Here are in order of appearance the following bands that day:
When i went to a show in Japan , at the entrance you often had to say for which band you specifially came so for me they checked Tone Deaf. Later i got me a nice shirt saying "Go loser, go!".
From Sapporo. I had a little chat with the singer of this band , who seemed like a nice guy just before i went back home. When asked where i was form and after replying with "Hollanda, Amsterdam" he again replied with "Ah, Larm country" or something to that extend.
Obviously the headliner of the evening as people went nuts,(and i later found out this was their e.p. release show) and i was presently surprised eventhough a few days before the singer of Number Two had responded excitingly as i told him i was going to this event by showing me his Crucial Section patch, which i also picked up together with the ep "Against the Wind".
A bleeding, fucked up, adhd singer with his last days on mind,fast guitars,pumping drums and a fucking poison idea cover mixed with some hardcore rock n roll creates Night Fever from Denmark. Nothing out on record yet, but until it is i recommend playing my next video, over and over and over again......:
Another pretty new dutch band which got my attention is Padded Cell from Utrecht. At their show in De Baarmoeder back in december they surprised me and i bought their demo which just got out. Too bad i didnt turn on my camera back in De Baarmoeder, cause if i remember right i did film Losing Streak the same night...
Padded Cell lists as influences Jerry's kids, and probably Black Flag, cause of the name? Can't really go wrong there for me. So give them a listen!
The audience was lacking this night but the band sure wasn't:
Not much work to do at my job the thursday Trashfest started, so we drew straws and i won and was able to take the day off.Good! off to trashfest! A two-hour, train ride and a hitchhiked ride to the camping got us there.
Lots of bands,lots of beer,lots of distros.And not to forget, lots of punks,lots of hardcorekids, and lots of crusts.
First band ill cover is: Sick Mormons, a friends band, very new, very promising. Snotty vocals type of melodic punkrock or hardcore ala, adolescents?
Colored Rice Men from Japan is another band i just stumbled upon in april 2008, during a punk show in Tokyo. After some research i found out they had some former members of Outo and Lip Cream!
I can only describe them as an offbeat punk/hardcore sound with an insane-ass saxophone. Imagine that!, hardcore + saxophone.
Picked up their lp "New Animal Life", during my stay in Tokyo.
