Clay Heximer, drummer, The Implosions: “My wife and I have been to Japan three times, and we’ve always talked to our friends about doing Bon Jovi karaoke. One (previous visit), we were at a bar that had karaoke. I had a headache, and a guy in broken English told me I needed to cheer up, we only have so long to live, and that karaoke keeps him from killing himself. So he picked a Bon Jovi song that was infectious (“It’s My Life”), sang one line of it, put the mic down, and watched everyone else take over.”
(Fast forward to the band’s March 22 show in Tokyo.) “So we finished a show, it’s the last night we were gonna be there, and we hadn’t done Bon Jovi karaoke yet. Immediately after the show, the venue staff moved the furniture around, moved the bar to the middle of the room … and then Bon Jovi came on! They handed our singer (Adrienne Post) the microphone, and the whole room busted into “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and it was just perfect. I felt like I had let my friends down that we hadn’t done the karaoke I had promised. And then the universe provided it.”
Luke Metz, bassist, Shanda and the Howlers: “When we did our first trip to Europe (in 2019), we relied on a lot of trains and buses for travel. On our first trip from Germany to Belgium, the bus stopped at a place off the highway, and everyone was able to hop off, grab snacks, etcetera. We made a mental note, certain that there would be several stops on our (subsequent) 11-hour bus ride to Austria. Well, we were stupid Americans, because that bus didn’t stop for anything except to let people on and off. We got so hungry, and kept passing billboards with pictures of food that made us even hungrier. I made friends with an old guy who literally had bread scraps he was going to feed the birds later, and he gave them to me. But we were starving when we got in super late, and everything was closed up. But our drummer (Guido Tries) spoke German and got the innkeeper to make us some schnitzel at like 1 a.m. We were super thankful!”
Samuel Ramirez, guitarist, Post NC: (During our May 2024 tour of Japan), “We played a venue in Osaka called Para-Dice. It was great, all the bands were amazing, and it was interesting to see people coming from work in full suits to listen to this experimental music. I mean, people in their 60s and 70s. I’m not used to that in the States.
“At this show, we were chatting with bands afterward and one of the locals says, you know, the trains stop going after 1 a.m. We were like, we haven’t even packed our gear yet! So we packed in like 10 minutes and booked it. We ran across Osaka with all our gear — keyboards, all my guitars and pedals, a lot of drum parts, and our merch — to barely make the last train!”
James Howard Adams, guitarist and vocalist, Same Sex Mary: “In Hiroshima after (our November 10) show, they pulled in all the merch tables that were just outside — these venues are very small rooms — and, all of a sudden, it turned into like a little dining room. There were hot pots on the table — what they call nabe, just big pots of soup. The bar was open, and so the drinks were flowing — I felt like we were taken in by their little music family.”
Tsvetelina Stefanova, keyboardist and vocalist: “It was delicious, first of all. But it was from the bar owner. He was also the sound guy, the bartender, and the chef. Everybody (in Japan) puts so much care (into everything). … We got to experience something that they do and felt part of the family. It was just an unforgettable experience.”
