Riding into the New Year

Readers of BEnB will no doubt know that it is lead by members of Tokyo metalers Retch. To ring in the New Year, two of us heathens biked our way up to Utsunomiya. As a newer contributor to this blog, it seems fitting that my inaugural post recount this recent New Year's trip.

Blood Rite Vol. 7 (January 17th, 2015)

Bit of a late posting here, but hey better late than never. Retch's first event of 2015, Blood Rite vol. 7, went off like dy-no-mite a few weeks ago over at Shinjuku's Earthdom, a club that by now you should probably know of as we sing its praises relatively often.

Songs of Morning: High on Fire's Rumors of War

I really don't understand morning people.

Salad Days vol. 305 @ Koiwa Bushbash

Way out in Koiwa there’s a venue called Bush Bash, which is a ridiculous name, but it’s a pretty nice venue and one where I’ve seen some of my favorite live acts. It’s spacious, the drinks are cheap, they serve food, their sound system is pretty solid and it manages to be big enough to support a large crowd yet simultaneously still feel intimate.

12/19/2014: Hyper Sonic Vale Tudo 3 @ Okubo Earthdom

For personal reasons, the line-up on this one was kind of out there. Hitting shows in general is pretty much a must-do, as its the best way to maintain relationships and get things done (a quasi-lamentable fact that I'll address in a subsequent post), so to that end this show had the potential to be just as good as any.

Bloody Ears 'n' Beer with Zothique

The Tokyo band Zothique was first described to me as “psychedelic/sludge/doom/noise nightmare music”, which gave me pause since I was asked to interview them and could not for the life of me imagine what kind of sounds those words described. The first three descriptors I could maybe manage, but given my ignorance of and distaste for noise music in general, I accepted the assignment with reservations.

Halloween 2014: Koiwa Bush Bash & Shinjuku Jam

Bit of a late post here. This past Halloween, Retch booked a night of double brutality: 2 shows across the city from each other. Pretty decent night, all told, though it took a turn for the boring near the end.