New Audiogram: オルタナティヴミュージック ウェブマガジン

Any show that Tera Melos plays in Japan is special to me, but our show at Pepperland in Okayama was extra special.  It was the opportunity to play with some of my favorite Japanese bands, BRAHMAN and Ruins.  

9 years ago, I was a senior in high school and we had a Japanese foreign exchange student named Motoki Aihara.  I asked Motoki to play some Japanese music for me and one day he gave me a copy of the BRAHMAN album "A Forlorn Hope"  I loved it instantly and became a fan of the band from then on, one of my old punk rock bands even used to cover "For One's Life" live.  Fast forward to the Tera Melos Japan Tour 2009, we played with Overground Acoustic Underground at Club Quattro Shibuya and I was able to meet the members of BRAHMAN for the first time, something that I never imagined would have happened.  We became friends and when we were booking the Tera Melos Japan Tour 2010, we asked BRAHMAN if they would like to play a show with us, and they kindly agreed.

We arrived in Okayama in the afternoon on a nice sunny day and loaded in for soundcheck in what we found to be a very small but nice club with a surprisingly big stage.  There were some technical difficulties but we finished up and began setting up merch while the crowd, which was mostly BRAHMAN fans lined up outside Pepperland.  Ruins, who are another very important Japanese band to me were first on the bill.  Yoshida Tatsuya is an amazing drummer and it was also a huge honor to play with him.  He has influenced lots of American experimental bands and now performs by himself with just a drum kit and some electronics, calling it Ruins alone.  I believe that many in the packed crowd were seeing him for the first time and everyone seemed very impressed.  Members of BRAHMAN and Tera Melos stood on the side of the stage watching in awe of his performance.  

BRAHMAN took the set afterwards, and played to one of the craziest, most chaotic crowds I have ever seen.  From the moment they started playing the crowd began body surfing and stage diving as they charged through their set.  Toshi-Low was very kind and allowed me to request some songs for the set, one of the songs that I requested, "Last War" had not been played live by BRAHMAN for many years, but they did a fantastic job with no signs of rust.

We played our set shortly thereafter and I think also played many people seeing Tera Melos for the first time.  It was lots of fun and by the end of the set I think the crowd had begun to understand our music.

We then went to Racco's burger for an after part with BRAHMAN and it was an incredibly good time!  We all socialized over drinks and great food and had a little fun mischief together.  It was a very memorable time for me and I think for everyone else as well.  I found myself repeatedly shouting "Nippon saiko!" at the end of the night.  I owe a big thank you to everyone involved, especially our good friend Kazuto Yamazaki for putting it all together and to Racco for opening up his wonderful shop for us.

John Clardy