Osaka-Kobe

After a long sleep we grabbed coffee and took the train to Sannomiya Station in Kobe where we met up with a bleary eyed Randy. We then headed to a veggie Indian restaurant for an awesome lunch, we certainly have been eating well on this trip, with much thanks to our hosts.

From lunch we headed to the much revered Hardcore Kitchen record store, and hangout, to meet Comet, who just returned from the ill-fated Nightmare tour of the US West Coast, which actully involved them getting denied by US customs and stranded in Vancouver. He had many stories to tell, even those recounted in Japanese were entertaining. We also met Mike from the UK (but if you ask me he seemed like a local to me), who Randy had sent as his band was waiting for the US band's train to arrive. We hung out at the shop all afternoon and drank, watched Japanese punk videos, and of course bought records.

We eventually headed to the station to meet up with Randy and then to the watch the sound check at the club.

APRIL 9 Live House 108, Kobe



FROM BEYOND
These guys dealt a mixed bag of punk genres but an excellent one. They set out to defy labels handily incorporated several sounds really well with a bit of HC, grind, thrash and crust. Their vocalist Kevin had a mean growl, very unexpected from a skinny Kiwi. FROM BEYOND also features our Osaka host, Randy of Buffalo and ex-PROJECT GRIZZLY.



NIGHTMARE
Fresh from their aborted US tour ordeal they showed up to the club with their luggage, not intending to play as their bassist was still in Tokyo. What a drag! Comet of the great Hardcore Kitchen Records insisted he play bass, so they practiced 2 songs at soundcheck. NIGHTMARE actually played 3 songs during their set – the last one with Comet playing frantic air bass while people were trying to plug him back in. This brief blast from this awesome band was just what we had come to Kobe for.



KRUW
This band had amazing matching jackets that read All Jap Crazy Punky Team. They are like Action’s Japanese cousins featuring perm-a-charge hair dos. They even sang with the matching silk screened SARS masks on. This band is great and will be big – KRUW are playing with LAUGHING NOSE in the summer.



KATIE KATTY
This Kobe all-female band kicked ass. We had really enjoyed their demo and they managed to top that and then some. PANTYCHRIST’s Japanese cousins. They have a 7” out on Otto’s label soon and a split LP with Hamilton’s PANTYCHRIST to be released on Schizophrenic in the near future.

CUT THROAT
This band from Portland was very well received by the crowd, people went bonkers for them in comparison to the rest of the sets. They might have also been surprised at the high gaijin representation at the show. Them, us Canucks, the upstate New Yorkers and the sheep shaggers made this the most white show we had been to. Of course we didn’t come to Japan to see US bands to this review is over.

Randy wanted to stay out all night, so we wimped out and headed back to his place as we had an earlyish train to catch back to Tokyo. As we were headed to Kanazawa Monday it actually would have been quicker to take the train direct from Osaka (2 1/2 hour trip), except for the fact Gauze were playing a tiny club in Tokyo (4 hour trip to Kanazawa). With the JR pass it made sense to travel 3 hours out of our way for this, since we missed a Gauze show in Kyushu last time.