Experience Japan Vicariously Through EXEK's Tour Photos

EXEK recently returned from their first Japanese tour. Delivering their uniquely Melbourne style of no-wave to the empty rooms of Japan, the three EXEK's (Albert, Sam and Henry) embarked on a staggering six shows in ten days. By the sounds of things, it seemed like a boozy ride of conbini stores, live houses and nomihodai after parties.

Read their tour diary and listen to their live Japanese tour cassette "On a Plane to Japan".

Tokyo: The trendy suburb of Koenji served as our first stop. Fatigued from the 20 hours of drinking from the previous day – which included an open bar flight followed by a late night of sake and karaoke – we bombed.

Osaka: If it wasn't for a surprise visit by Heidi, from Brisbane band Bent, and her friend Yoodoo, we'd have played to an empty room. In order to vent our frustration at the shit bill of bands that failed to pull anyone – not even one friend between the lot of 'em! – we went on a healthy binge of stealing booze, food and ciggies. We hit each passing convenience store on the way back to our hotel, which we later learnt was located in the worst neighbourhood in Japan.

Kyoto: Hide, Japan's first punk-rocker, let us crash at his place. He offered a bombardment of statistical information and anecdotal evidence that supported his view on how fucked Japan is, particularly the live scene. The shitty atmosphere in the 'live houses' (venues); the pay-to-play bureaucracy; but above all, the plethora of boring acts that relentlessly keep playing to nobody. It's not that he was jaded. He simply had a point.

Kyoto: This show was almost as poorly attended as Osaka. Once again, a saving grace was that Heidi and Yoodoo. There was also some old monk dude lurking in a dark corner of the band room. Not even our host Hide attended – choosing to sustain his boycott of Japan's live music scene. But the night was made memorable by the glorious demise of one of the performers. He got over excited and drank too much. He terrorized the other supports and harassed Heidi. He also passed out.

Nagoya: Our most solid show in terms of performance, audience, and enjoyable supports – LeakLeek , followed by our personal favourites Vodovo. The night presented a well-choreographed bill of 40-something-year-old punkers that didn't conform to the rules of technical proficiency. Instead, they respected originality over everything else. Which, by our forth show, was as refreshing as starting off a morning with a Boss coffee/Pocari Sweat combo. A much desired combo, as we didn't get much sleep; cos we stayed with a dude who kept a pet snake in his apartment.

Matsumoto: A definite highlight, as it offered a respite amongst the otherwise high energy and fast pace of the rest of the tour. The show ended up being as, if not more, enjoyable than Nagoya, with an audience that refused to believe that we had played all of our material.

Koenji: Our tour led us in a full circle, where the final show was located only a couple of blocks from the first. By this stage we had honed our craft. And luckily for us the audience was responsive and appreciative of our journey, kindly granting us an opportunity to rectify the horrors of our first show. We managed to not only wake the blue-haired old punker who played in the supporting grindcore two-piece, but he was also the only person who bought any merch that night.

By this stage of tour we had honed our craft. We had learnt how to get by in Japan on a shoestring budget and armed with only a handful of (important) phrases, such as "Where is the toilet?" and "I don't want a plastic bag" we felt a collective sense of invincibility. Convenience stores served as our personal rider, and smashing through ticket gates of suburban train networks felt like the euphoric splitting of a marathon ribbon. But we began to suspect that repeatedly remarking "I can't believe we got away with that" was soon going to have us running out of luck. It was time for us to leave.