Night of Spasm #4 continued

	Yukiko, a side project of Kazumoto Endo and his girlfriend,Yukiko, was next. I was expecting an all-out harsh noise assault like Killer Bug or Endo's solo work. This was more in the vein of dark ambient, with Yukiko vocalizing into a headset mic and modulating the sound with a pitch shifter/delay. Endo further processed the sound through some rack effects. Modulated vocals and looped drones drifted around for a very haunting and mournful effect. Yukiko has a beautiful voice. At times it was loud, but it ebbed and flowed, allowing crowd sounds to seep in, kind of a cool effect... The spotlight was on Yukiko, who looked stunning in her low cut black cocktail dress, while Endo was crouched down behind his table of effects working the sounds. I just recently found out that this was one of their last shows. I heard that they broke up. damn.
	After Yukiko was Shortwave Radio Suicide, a noise super group jam of sorts. SRS was originally supposed to be just Koji Tano (MSBR), Yasutoshi Yoshida (Government Alpha, S. Isabella), and Kimihide Kusafuka (K2), but at the last minute one of the members invited Andy Bolus (Evil Moisture) and Rudolf (R&G). I can't say that i was impressed. I had been looking forward to this super jam session, but when I found out that they were adding some Europeans (especially, those two clowns) to the mix, i was less than enthused. You see, I'm not a fan of either artist's work and figured they would mar an otherwise interesting performance. They did. Instead of the killer all-out noise assault , what we got was Andy wearing a big orange stuffed mask squawking into a mic and Rudolf clicking and clacking on an auto harp. Tano and Kusafuka were off to the left playing with electronics and shortwave radios. Yoshida was off to the right of the stage strategically set-up behind a Hi Watt stack. The high point for me was the last couple of minutes when Andy stopped his incessant yelping and he and Rudolf left the stage. Yoshida came out from behind the stack and jumped around with the amplified auto harp.
	Facialmess was next. They turned out the good harsh stuff. Kenny Sanderson was joined on stage by his mate Pete, another Brit expat. The sound was dense lots of changes. Very cool. Kenny told me after the show that he had technical problems and wasn't satisfied with the sound. We traded some releases. The Grunt/ Facialmess split LP is excellent. track down Kenny's releases. One of the few Brits making harsh and heavy stuff, none of that Monty Python wanker noise for him. Kenny and I talked about his coming to the states to play in November, but I recently heard from him that he's unable to make it due to the fact that his wife Yuki is expecting... Good luck Kenny.
	After Facialmess was Kiyoshi Mizutani. Unfortunately, I don't remember his set and i didn't get it on video, because Mizutani unplugged my camera to plug in his DAT. Oh well.... Kazumoto Endo took the stage again, this time as himself. It had been about a year or so since I'd seen him perform. He had some new equipment this time. The sound was total Endo: harsh, active, powerful noise... The way I like it. Lots of rumble, squeals, and feedback with crunchy metallic sounds. He keeps getting better and better... Very impressive, I can't wait for him to come to the U.S. again. Thanks again to Kazumoto for putting on the show....
	I was anxious to see the next group, Gomikawa, another noise super group made up of Pain Jerk's Kohei Gomi and the Incapacitants' Toshiji Mikawa. I had never seen either of these groups before, as they rarely get to the states to play, but I am a huge fan of both artist's work. It started off with a delayed loop of what sounded like a guitar chord and then burst into spastic feed back highs, mids and lows. swirling sounds, rich, dense, and active: pure harsh "japanoise," I hate that term. Fuckin' amazing stuff. A tough act to follow... and I think I played next, at least on the videotape i was next. doh! I passed my camera to my homeboy Toshi, who flew in from the countryside on the back of Japan to see me. Went backstage and dragged the table of effects out. I noticed that some prankster had fiddled with all the settings. Plugged into the Hi Watt half stack and the Jazz Chorus, then went for it. Played maybe a 20 minute set. People were up front rockin' out, and the drunken Euro trash came up and started to fuck with the pedals, that was a good time to stop. Broke down in record time and grabbed a beer.
	Next was Crack Fierce aka Hideki Kato of United Syndicate records. He turned out a short but sweet set of good harsh stuff... After Crack Fierce was an act whose name i don't remember, all i know is that he was from Maniac Pussy and had some of the loudest, most piercing high pitches I've ever heard. For some reason I didn't get him on tape either which is a pity because he was quite good.
	All in all it was a wonderful show, it was great to finally meet a lot of noise friends who i only knew by their releases and letters. Got to trade for many great tapes, cds, and records. The only blemish on the evening was the incident involving Rudolf, Andy, and Miyano. A bunch of folks were drinking backstage getting quite fucked up. Rudolf and Miyano were fucking around and broke some shit and punched a hole in the wall. As a result of some drunken juvenile behavior none of the acts were paid, the door take and extra money paid out of pocket by Yukiko and Endo went to the club to cover the damage. After much finger pointing and arguing back in forth, nothing was resolved, the club wouldn't call the police or anything. strange. After everything was over (about 4:00 AM) Toshi and I took a cab to the Tokyo station for me to take the first Shinkansen back to Osaka. I was tired and still drunk with a long day ahead of me before returning home the next day. Thanks to everyone responsible for the show and who attended...

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