Lighting the Fuse

The rollercoaster that has been TIMNS' first ever tour continued the morning after the Minus Festival. We piled into the van ready to hit Osaka's funky shopping district. Mike turned the key in the ignition and... a loud mechanical sound, then nothing. Once the mechanic arrived, we found out our battery was dodgy and even though we managed to get the engine going it was unlikely to last the day. Changing a battery is not something you have to do every day, particularly with a minimal grasp of the language, but thanks to the help of the (unfortunately named) Heart-on Hotel staff we went off to find a suitable garage to buy and fit a new one.
The garage had the usual Japanese characters adorning various car accessories, including an entire Hello Kitty section, and also had a bizarre advertising campaign involving Leonardo Di Caprio selling the benefits of a new type of eco-tyre.

Once equipped with a new battery and fully inflated tyres, as well as fully inflating ourselves with some takoyaki (balls of batter and octopus), we set off for Hiroshima, staying the night there before reaching our destination of Kokura on the island of Kyushu. Kokura is a small, sleepy city whose industrial skyline is contrasted by lush green mountains springing up on its doorstep. For once we arrived early for the gig, which gave us enough time for a decent soundcheck and some hurried flyering of trees (apparently more acceptable than flyering signposts).

The venue, Fuse, was very similar in style and sound to Tight Rope in Nagoya, and the event was definitely a rock event. We were quite worried about numbers for the event, firstly because we only knew one or two people personally, and secondly because this was the furthest point away from Tokyo on our tour. Although the event was nowhere near the magnitude of Osaka, each support band drew fans and many stuck around for our set. We had to try and play in a way that would appeal to a more 'rock' crowd. We've agreed since that the tour in general has taught us to play tighter and adapt to our audience. This is something that we want to work hard on in the future.

Thanks to Fumi for the photo!

It was past 1am by the time we had left the venue due to an overly chatty venue manager. However, two of the bands had stuck around, and we all went to a nearby restaurant for food and beer and sake. Conversation was broken but hilarious - special credit should go to Adam, who was managing to hold his own in Japanese against the joking of the local bands, and also for apparently selling Non ('the most beautiful girl in the world') to one of them for 30,000,000 yen!

After Fuse we are heading back on the return leg of our tour. We have a 4 day rest in which to check out Hiroshima and the surrounding area. Check back soon for more updates and more gig photos!

Much TIMNS lovin',

Dave, Non & TIMNS