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Tokyo Warlocks
Yukotopia, 10 Feb 98
Eyes visited Tokyo's
version of Wetlands...
Yukotopia's a small club on the
upper reaches of the Hibiya line
-- er, that's the grey one, isn't it?-- half an hour or so
from Tokyo station.
It's easy to find, even without the little map obligingly provided
on the webpage.
The "Live House" is almost across the street from the tube, and
the window display,
and the group of heads waiting to be let in before "Live Time"
starts at seven, are
a Dead giveaway. We're not, as far as I know, in clubland, Roppongi-style
--
Yukotopia seems out on its own, a sort of mini-Wetlands in
the middle of
nowhere and the kind of total immersion Dead environment I've always
wished
we could create in London. Dead stuff everywhere, tiedies and posters
from
floor to ceiling, a cabinet with an impressive range of Dead CDs,
T-shirts,
jewellery and merchandise.
Shoes off as we go in, of course. Bar, tables, stage. It's small
--the fifty people
or so here tonight fill it comfortably, though I'm told double that
is possible.
Centrepiece of the decor, on the left hand wall, is a late, black
and white shot of
Jerry, from which radiates a quite beautiful display of dried roses,
a commemorative
tribute designed and made by the club owners. Admission is 2,000
yen-- approx a
tenner at current benign rates of exchange, and reasonable
indeed for Tokyo, especially
with a free beer or whisky thrown in!
Inspiration for this oasis lies with Yuko herself, herself tied-died
head to
foot, running the show and keeping an eye on her two young kids,
Loa and Kea,
at the same time. Yuko Tsukamoto spent most of the eighties in the
US, following the
Dead and catching dozens of West Coast shows, as well as making
it to London for the
1990 Halloween run at Wembley. She opened Yukotopia in the early
nineties and gradually
built up a loyal following of local and expat Deadheads. She admits
she gets
nostalgic for the States and for the touring lifestyle -- it's hard
to close
the club down for a while and get away. By now at least three or
four nights
every month are devoted to Dead-related stuff -- The Tokyo Warlocks
(on in a
minute), the Yukotopia house Dead band (a looser, more acoustic
jam session
by the sound of it rather like the Charlies at the Unplugged), and
now
another, younger group. Sometimes, evenings are powered entirely
by the club's
substantial Dead tape library. There's something on most nights:
February's schedule
included Free Jazz and Bluegrass nights, some rap and punk, groups
called Slippin Slidin,
and Chicken Heads, and some of those odd Japanese non-sequitur names
(Cowboy
Star Orange).
The audience are a mixed bunch, a large minority of Americans, some
teaching
languages or working for Merrill Lynch or IBM (all over Nagano,
and some
here tonight). Evan from Florida, here with a Japanese friend, only
started
seeing shows in 94/5 -- but since one of those was the Unbroken
Chain
breakout, I don't feel too sorry for him. Then I start chatting
to local dat
taper Toshiro, in the corner with his D8 and Cores, and seek to
impress him
with tales of the Rainbow shows. Had he seen the Dead live? "I was
at the
closing of Winterland in 78!" he confides. Others present
include a Tokyo
ad copywriter ("women's cosmetics") understandably amused at my
gestural,
alcohol-inflected efforts to communicate without knowing a single
word of
Japanese. One local fan claims to be a good friend of Donna Jean,
and
another has spent time in the slammer following a herbal misunderstanding
at
the airport - Japan's possession laws are draconian, and the local
Ebisu (Yebisu?)
brew is the drug of choice here, though there are the usual discreet
exits
during the setbreak.
8.00, everyone sitting comfortably, showtime.
The
Warlocks are a six-piece:
two guitars, bass, two drummers, keyboards. Three-deep on
the tiny stage area.
Music stands for the guitarists. Setlist:
1) Good Times Roll, Mississippi, Feel Like a Stranger>Franklins
Tower, Music
never Stopped>Sugaree, Simple Twist of Fate, Dough Knees
2) Stop That Train, BT Wind,Uncle>River, Brown Eyed Women, Tennessee,
Masterpiece, Wheel, Werewolves. Sugar Magnolia/SSDD. NFA.
Get in the groove and let the good times roll. The perfect opener,
really
-- there's the sense of a practised ensemble here. The Warlocks
have been
together with minimal personnel changes for five years or so, and
its an integrated, full sound, aided by a very nice PA, whether
mixed or not
in such confines I'm not sure. Some of the songs do venture out
there, but
lead player Ken Sasaki doesn't go for frantic jamming. The feel
is more for
an authentically sweet Jerry-band sound, rippling and succinct solos
with a
solid bass/two drums behind it and the keyboard player, Chisato,
adding her
piano fills and "organ" background. Meanwhile the other guitar,
Hiro, has the Weir part down: that distinctive Bobby forward
guitar motion, not to mention the ponytail-- and some accomplished
playing
and singing of his own. The bassist is fluent, verging on fretless.
The
vocals, obviously, are something to take on board at the start,
from an
all-Japanese band singing in English. Let's say that a C&W standard
has
already travelled some distance even en route to the Dead themselves,
then
much further as retransmitted in the accents of London and Paris,
and that
Tokyo is way out there into its long strange trip! That said, there
are no
compromises being made here, and a highlight for me is a confident,
JGB-length Twist of Fate, complete with bass solo, lead playing
very close
to Jerry's and with expressive vocal commitment. It all falters
now and again, but
Evan, who has seen a fair number of US tribute bands, reckons the
Warlocks
can easily hold their own.
Other goodies in the two and a half hour show: a relaxed Mississippi
with
some very sweet soloing, and a powerful jam on Stranger into the
famous
LP-segue-that-never-happened, >Franklins, funky. Album-predictable?
Forget
it: a stomping rhythm I called as Minglewood becomes instead Music
Never
Stopped. shaky in the verses but with a very nice, delicate midsection
jam
turning into, of all things, Sugaree! Set II offers Stop That
Train, and
cowboy songs chugging along very nicely.
And a rare delight, a stand-alone Wheel, slowly rotating from scratch
and a
beautiful thing to behold-- again, a gentle jam, with quite simple,
repeated
elements, very effective though. Werewolves takes us into surreal
territory
-- a Tokyo club howling away to tales of lycanthropy in darkest
Mayfair.
Done in my honour, Ken later tells me! Extra slide player for this
one,
and for a slowish but solid SM/SSDD to get everyone dancing.
Not Fade Away keeps the groove going, but an emergent Going Down
the Road is curtailed -- time to go home, for most of the audience,
given
last-subway times, and taxi fares, even worse than London's.
They all have day jobs, of course. Ken's a carpenter, (though not
by choice,
he laughs.) Now 41, he formed the band about five years ago, learning
the
material from records and tapes. The personnel have stayed pretty
much the
same, though a US guitarist featured for a while last year. The
Warlocks
appear almost exclusively at this club, though sometimes at festivals
and
with players from the China Cats and other groups. He seems genuinely
delighted that a Relix writer recently flew all the way to Japan
to
interview him, and says he'll be going to the gigs by the post-tribute-band
Juggling Suns in Tokyo this month. Does he ever sing in Japanese?
"Sometimes." "I'm his translator!", his friend giggles.
There's also an extra band member tonight. Chisato has brought
along her
dog. Of no special pedigree, but a cute-looking animal with an upturned
curly white tail. Dismissive of head-patting by Heads, but
happy enough to
wander on and off stage throughout the gig. "There's Otis", Japanese-style,
I guess.
After midnight, a hard core stays on into
deepest "pub time" -- till 3am.
I'd presented Yuko with a clone of the Charlies January John Bull
show. She
offers to play some of it, and it stays on the deck for a couple
of hours.
So the remaining hard drinkers and house-special curry-and-rice-feasters,
are treated to an almost complete concert by Brian & Co. over
the house PA!
Ken and other listeners are impressed. Some seriously think a Dead
tape is
playing during some of the second set jamming.
I'm then introduced to a whole other side of Yukotopia --Yuko's partner,
Roku, who has been working the bar as well as some incidental percussion
from the back of the room. "I'm a designer, and this is the
product," he
says, talking about the whole concept of the club. He's also a music
producer and musician: in the CD display case, along with
all the imports,
are some domestic items on the Captain Trips label which he helped
launch,
including Japanese psychedelic bands -- notably the China
Cats' first album
-- as well as choice back catalogue items from German groups like
Amon Duul
II. And also Roku's own CD, "Ha-Za-Ma", or Middle Way, a collection
of
propulsive, seriously psychedelic guitar pieces recorded between
1988-1993,
some of them here. Roku cites Pink Floyd as a major influence, and
less
obviously, Can, though he learnt classical guitar to begin with
and says (I
think-- things are getting a bit fuzzy by now) he was influenced
by Japanese
free-improvisational music in the Derek Bailey mould -- bassist
Moto-Yoshizawa is mentioned. Despite the hour, Roku takes time to
fill me in
on the Japanese scene-- on Old Japanese Psychedelia from the sixties
such as
a band called Lalys, and an offshoot Larydo, and Fushitsu-sha (No-Lose-Man).
"Psychedelic" is a major alternative category in the record-store
racks, but
Dead-style bands are confined to clubs like this, or
festivals
like the one on the slopes of Fuji a couple of years back. (In addition
to
Roku's disc I picked up the China Cats' live cassette, with versions
of I
Want You (She's So Heavy), Dear Prudence, and other covers - I prefer
the
sound of this to the more heavily produced first album. The Warlocks,
alas,
don't have any official product as yet.)
By now we're past pub time and into extra time. I've been up for
24 hours
and have nowhere to stay, so Yuko and Roku are nice enough to let
me hang
out until the first subway, just after five. Huge thanks, and I
hope you
managed to get some sleep! On the PA, the Charlies have been
replaced by a
Charlatan, Mike Wilhelm, recorded for an acoustic Capt Trips CD
on this very
stage: so the evening closes with Friend of the Devil, and Me &
My Uncle,
and a parting gift/souvenir of Kyoshi's nicely-bound Japanese translation
of
some Jerry Rolling Stone interviews. After this I stagger to the
tube, get
on the wrong one, turn back the way I came, promptly fall asleep
and wake up
on the other side of the city just in time for rush hour... eventually
I
make it onto a Hakata-bound "bullet train" and flake out, feeling
distinctly
werewolf-like by now (but my hair is perfect).
DEAD HEAD'S LAND YUKOTOPIA
3-2-8 Umejima Adachi-ku Tokyo 121, 03-3886-2996 (phone /fax)
http://home9.highway.ne.jp/yukos/yukotopia/
(thanks to Moliken's page [now sadly no more] , and to Tokyo Journal
http://tokyo.to/, for some of the background
here.)
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Eyes of the World
billpannifer@easynet.co.uk