Hello.

After 8 days in Japan, playing, celebrating and sleeping sometimes,we’re home.

There was a true sense of we might never come back to Japan (the tour being postponed et al) which meant that WE (us and the fans) were so excited about this tour.
We arrived minus julien who had been replaced for these shows by Tahiti 80’s 7th member, that is to say Mehdi Zannad (aka Fugu). Mehdi was also the opening act, I would join him on Here Today, a song we wrote together for his As Found album. It worked great. What I loved best, was when he invited the audience to clap their hands and sing along on the chorus of 1000 times every night . I’m sure it was a first for him.
We had also brought our light show with us. Forget about the trucks, only 2 suitcases were needed. I think it complimented perfectly the concert, The cubes and Daisuke Kitayama’s video really made for a Sound & Vision experience.
Then there was the songs, I think we played long sets, but nobody complained!
All albums & EP’s were represented. Everytime, the reaction on Defender amazed me: People were going nuts. Japanese people know their Kraut, Prog & Shoegaze! It makes me think of Kyoto: It must have been very loud in front of the Metro’s stage!

There were several musical highlights, but let’s remember two.

First, Osaka when I swapped my acoustic for an electric guitar, responding to a r’n’r impulse. I always thought the bridge section was a classic power pop moment, so all it really needed was a faz fuzz sound. It worked!
Then there was the Crack Up finale at Liquid Room Tokyo, with Pedro jumping up and down, hitting the crash cymbal with his hands 4 or 5 times. We all looked at each other wondering if he had gone mad! It just gave us more energy to make a crazier ending.

Then there were some aftershows,  where some mics were given to me, some takoyakis were eaten, some scenes were drawn by Mehdi, some draft beers served by me etc.

I don’t know if all of this will ever happen again, (time to grow up?) yet it was great to experience it once more.

Next. A few days in the studio with Manceau. Some songwriting on our end, some shows in July. Some Time off. Life.

Take care

have a great summer,

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