INDEX
PRE TOUR - Preamble
Arrival - Tokyo Japan - Thursday, Oct 1st
Day 1 - Ochanomizu, Shibuya & Shinjuku -Tokyo - Friday. Oct 2nd
Day 2 - Shimokitazawa - Tokyo - Saturday, Oct 3rd
Day 3 - Harajuku & Shinjuku, - Tokyo - Sunday, Oct 4th
Day 4 - Tokuyama -Yamaguchi Prefecture - Monday, Oct 5th
Day 5 - Fukuyama - Hiroshima Prefecture - Tuesday, Oct 6th
Day 6 - Saiinnishisanzōchō - Kyoto - Wednesday, Oct 7th
Day 7 - Kinkakujicho & Maruyama Park - Kyoto - Thursday, Oct 8th
Day 8 - Central Market - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Friday, Oct 9th
Day 9 - Taman Desa - Kuala Lumpur - Saturday, Oct 10th
Homeward bound - The End...

...~` PRE-TOUR `~...

It's been said that Kill The Apprentice are the most dangerous band on the Coast, well I can't vouch for that without losing a sworn to secrecy limb, but as it goes for international gigs, this time round we were compelled to actually play some, without being targeted by State agenda's to repress the freedoms of its people. No Najib, we are not a Satanist band, but unified with the Bukit Bintang Pyrate Punx we raise our fists without abash and collectively sing 'Not My Government!'.. The Malaysian side of things were looking defiantly positive.

Oddly enough the craziness started with the Japan side of things less than a month before flying out, as our Aus-Japan tour booking mate fell through on securing any dates for the start of what was to be our unnamed Kill The Apprentice's Semi-Professional Pre-World-Domination Let's Not Get Locked Up This Time Get In The Sea Tour of SE Asia .. Almost surrendering to what might be a pure sushi & sake holiday without a chance to offer up our latest KTA servings of fast gritty punk rock, through friends of friends, the social media networking help in the land of the rising sun button was remotely pushed.

And with speed of samurai's in-box enters Romantic Nobita Records (RNR on fb), a mostly melodic punk tour promoter based in Tokyo, well versed in Engrish and with a bunch of loyal promoters linked to his twatter, locking us into what would be four amazing shows for KTA's first immersion into the Japanese live house original music scene. We can't thank Waki and Yosuke from RNR enough from saving us from potentially spending all our badly converted Yen on Pachinko and underbelly S&M parlours (bottle of whiskey included) and sleeping in capsules.

So with fresh merchandise from Print'n'Wear with sharp artwork from Jamie 'Poon Goat' Peters @ Mammoth Design and a new tour release hot of the press fronting the fine art from www.whatispoongoatsartwebsitecalled.?, we strode into the airport bar at 8am and started drinking until we heard our names called across the public address system.. 'members of KTA - board the plane or get in the fucking sea'.. we took to the air.

No turning back. Occupy the how does this hunk of metal stay in the air thoughts in the back of your head with writing techno songs on Garage Band if your Tommy or naming cocktails for the menu at Eddie’s Grub House (fb) in Cooly if you’re beside Diklich. With a dry eyed landing we zombied through the perfectly engineered face scan tunnel and bago-collecto belt to have our first taste of walking laden with gear toward the train station.

Got this. A pause to get our bearings as Sid collects the rental Wi-Fi modem and Kristy warms up her vocal chords testing out a smoking cube with perfectly engineered exhaust fans before faring it to RNR headquarters. Down a few skinny dark noodling streets we meet Waki and Yousuke and shoe off into a neat shoebox apartment, punk rock home base for the first few nights of KTA Nihon shinanigans.

We can’t thank RNR enough for resurrecting our chance to rock the land of the rising sun, they presented us with the most organised itinerary I’ve seen to date with everything we needed including info on every train, someone to meet us/somewhere to stay, merchendise tally list and thankyou lists for each show, even beer proof prompt sheets of translated phrases like ‘come to the front’ and ‘let’s all drink together’. Absolute legends, also cause all they drink is Asahi, so we walked around the corner to the 24 hour Family Mart where they conveniently sell big cans of booze and cheap seaweed balls of rice called Onigiri. Stories were shared over a couple until mattress-land took over and dreams of guitar shopping set in.

Friday. Oct 2nd
Day 1 - Ochanomizu, Shibuya & Shinjuku -Tokyo

Keen as beens out the door to explore, Japan Rail pass activation at the station and fleet to Ochanomizu guitar street where my dreams came true, picking up a stylish and light weight 90’s Japanese brand ‘Greco’ bottom end weapon for half the price of the likes back in Aus. The top shelf guitar selection in some of these 5 level shops is outraging enough to make one turn to the bottle, so we made that a plan before some sensory overload in the gadget town of Akihabara. Out-skilled by skill testers we found our brains exploding at Maidreamin (fb) bar where you pay the maids to serve you and get you to sing variations of nonsensical ‘moi moi’ chants, some call it crazy, some call it kawaii, I got a souvenir photo to decide ron ;)

Feeling the flow we met up with team RNR to Shibuya stomp the busiest intersection and shovel sashimi at the 21st century touch screen sushi bullet train. A random alternate couple from Brisbane joined the party for the manga camera booth action before Jäger and biru at one of the many dive bars in Nombei Yokocho. It was great to see our old friend Scotty from A Secret Death (fb), now teaching English in Japan, who made the out of town journey to join us in celebrating a rockers life.

The place was overflowing with tourists so we went to another cool drinking area in Shinjuku called the Golden Gai. The tiniest of bars sit side by side each housing only a handful of punters, we found one with one local guy in it. The old lady owner, let’s call her Mumma, didn’t seem so keen at first to welcome us tourists but because the local guy could speak English well it made her feel comfortable to let us in for a drink. She specialised in Shochu (distilled spirit with alcohol content usually between 20-40 %. It is commonly made from rice, sweet potatoes, wheat and/or sugar cane). As we translated through our new interpreter friend we find out that she is the longest running bar in this old Yakuza area now tourists spot. She had been there for over 40 year. She said she dosen’t normally let foreigners in (common in that area) but because of our new translator friend she warmed up to us. After smashing down a shit load of Shochu she asked us to go with her to some apparently Yakuza bar who some of her relatives owned. We blindly followed her to a restaurant bar that apparently no foreigners go. She was just hooking her relative up with some more business. We got fed more food and brought more drinks even though we didn’t want it, but some of the dudes there were missing a finger so we handed over a wad of cash and began the trainless early morning stumble home in preparation for our deserving hangovers.

Needless to say the residual Shochu somewhat tainted the morning. We eventually made it to Shimokitazawa Tokyo and a beer at the venue of our first show at Music Bar Rockaholic Shimokitazawa (fb) with a line-up of awesome melodic punk/ska bands, it amazed us how organised everything was and the exceptionally professional sound quality. Almost always backline is provided and shared, each band gets a full half hour sound check before a short meet and greet lead by the promoter in this case Hiro the trumpet player from the main band LostBoy. We snuck off around the corner to a punk record store and sampled the local Okonomiyaki, pretty close to everyone's new favourite food now.

The show was a mad introduction for us into the Japanese Live House scene, the way they've got their shit together embarrasses the backyard tactics we are used to back home on the Gold Coast. All the bands were amazingly good, the beer was cheap, every punter we met proved to be overtly kind, cheers to Shot Dead Kids for the trades, check out 34Ruins at Mohenjo-Daro and Re:right too.

Post show, tables are set up on the dance floor and all the bands talk and drink and get fed plates and plates of varied noodles and fried goods! It was an awesome first show experience. Vague memories of drunken guitar hugging on the train back to mattress land.

A second day off gifted us a chance to hit the hip streets of Harajuku along with some Sunday flamboyant fashion beyond Purple Zains imagination. Yoyogi Park is where the rockabilly dancer gangs owning the coolest cats in town award hang out with a battery/inverter blasting old school tunes through a speaker, they twist and shuffle mostly then bust out denim ripping moves that would eventually burn holes through the tape around their winklepickers, spin on the ground a bit and comb their hair all in one move as they fall back into groove.

A relaxing stroll through the massive evergreen forest to Meiji Shrine softened our awareness and prepared us for the next few shows on the other side of the island. Although the rows of decorative rice wine barrels reminded me of the traditional use of sake as a connection between the Shinto gods and people of Japan, seeing them only made us want to drink it, maybe meet some gods while where there.

So we decided the best thing to do was go back to Shinjuku and find a bar with sake and do the Robot Restaurant.. hard to explain, kind of a remote controlled live theatre thing, another brain explosion. The night wound down with some slow service at a music bar so we commuted back to Yousuke's for a final hang and farewell biru's at a hidden Izakaya with a local baseball team. I like these places, known for good cheap food but you can't eat without having a drink.

5 a.m. wake up and mission almost a thousand kilometres on the high-speed Shinkansen train into Yamaguchi Prefecture’s industrial bay side city of Tokuyama. Kenji from a local band Vid-O=Tape was promoting this show and met us at the station to show us around the town and a bowl of hot soba before that nights show at Shunan-Rise (fb) live house. Another early check where the sound is better than ever through the same sound desk as used at Twinnies, we meet Hide from Kenji’s band who's traditional rice paper walled house we would later snore in. He took us for another seafood rich Izakaya session, tearing into whole fish and all sorts of wild sea life, option for dolphin on the menu was politely ignored.

Hide was in a band that toured the USA years ago and played in heaps of bands since, I think he said he was currently in 7 bands, one with 8 bass players, another cyber punk one with Kenji called Takevez utilising a second drum kit set up behind the crowd. We met the other bands before the show and Piccolo the owner of the establishment who would be pouring various strength drinks for us all night. Another fantastic one it was, the early acts were solo – a metal guitarist shredding to his backing track, Eri craftily weaved her pop songs out with a loop pedal, and an young feller pouring out eccentric modern-traditional acoustic jazz from the depths of his soul.

Vid-O=Tape were entertaining with some proper experimental rocking sounds, I guess with about 40 pedals between Kenji and Hide they could. With no shoe gazing involved, the two XY midi pads glued and hard wired to his guitar to boost the signal to another level. Next up were a band from Osaka if there’s any band I recomend you click further into from this, make it these guys. They’re called それでも尚、未来に媚びる ‘Soredemo Nao Miraini Kobiru’ (fb), which translates to the likes of 'Nevertheless, we obsequiousness to the future', yeah Japanese dosnt always translate directly too well into english, but either way you got to check them out.

Primed on Suntory whisky and local brew vodka, we blasted our KTA thing complete with Dinj fold back tripping and dance floor skipping. The crowd come from afar and get loose because they know the spot is a little gem of great quality bands that make the effort to tour that far south. The epic lighting setup was in full effect to capture the main band Snow Chord (fb), the all-female three piece served up powerful and sexy riffs over a grasping solid backbeat. We’d noticed by now that generally the crowds at live house shows tend to applaud quite consistently but don’t really get vocal in between songs. We felt at home enough here to heckle the ladies on stage to ‘come to Australia, you, can stay at the porch’ and ‘will you marry me?’ both honest suggestions.

Another in-house after party with the bands, 1000 Yen for all you can eat and drink in two hours hanging out with all these dedicated musicians and made us appreciate the universality of music as a language and its unifying abilities. I had some fantastic discussions that night which also helped me appreciate the unifying abilities of Google Translate to recognise slurred slang. Successful attempts to not fall through the walls back at Hides studio most definitely woke the surrounding neighbours as we slumbered like sardines.

Awaking puffy eyed to chirping birds a couple of us got to explore the well-kept traditional suburban-hood in search for a can of Boss ice coffee. Thanks Hide for taking the next day off work and zipping us to the Station, let’s do a split and tour one day \m/

We got off the train at an outer suburb of Hiroshima Prefecture called Fukuyama and thought we could walk with all our gear in the blistering heat to the airB&B 2.5km away, we could. We had to pay for this guest house but holy crap was it an experience, fancied up to the tilt with automatic toilets, black lit universe roof, odd knacks around the rooms like a real samurai suit, a life-size pirate skeleton, whale baleen and weird little figurine displays, a record player for classic 007 tunes, fresh local produce and home cooked food and bread. The dude and his wife were almost like a secret agent, pictures on the wall of him winning Triathlons and stories of them performing classical piano vocal duet at the local schools and hospitals. He even built the guest renovations himself on what was his father’s hand built home, and yes he drives a sports car. 5 stars.

That night’s show at Fukuyama Music Factory (fb) was the smallest in turn out but arguably the most fun. Two passionate pop punk bands Not Sorting and の公演情報 'Forever Stay Youth' played stadium worthy sets to just a handful of punters, we pushed our way to the front row and I even got to dance on stage for a song! Really though we couldn’t stop smiling at the awesomeness and kindness bestowed upon us, almost everyone there bought our merchandise that night with many connections made and band names swapped. It was only after we played I noticed the free Shochu behind the bar, and the drunk got drunker quicker.

We returned to the Japan’s James Bond villa via the Asahi and onigiri shelves of the trusty Family Mart, and were greeted with refreshments and a cute note from Mama to offering us to ‘please rest slowly’. Ok thanks mama, good advice.. and then we party Kyoto!

A breakfast fit for royalty that morning from our most gracious hosts. We crammed most of us fit in the cab and Diklich got to fang in the little red Ferrari looking thing.. Shinkansen platform bound for Kyoto, oh that platform we just left a passport hand bag on? Shiitaye.. As we roll off at 300 kms per hour.. language barrier to steward no problem, we reroute 20 minutes and the platform officer is waiting there honourably zipped and folded.

We sorted ourselves at Gattaca (fb) Live House in Saiinnishisanzōchō, Kyoto City with a few rounds of Street Fighter on the Nintendo 64 and once again sounded fab Virgil checked through top notch in-house gear. Kana, a friend of Sids who drove up from Osaka helped us find the closest izakaya to begin again. I'm pretty proud of KTA for sustaining the ability to eat and drink so much and still rock the shit out of any stages put in front of us. I remember it being a totally wild night from the get go, Green Ginger Wine eased the enduring travel pains as we watched the funky bass driven rhymes of Garden Of Chicken Coke followed by the punchy pro punkers Stone Leek (fb) and ‘Ah’ who moved their microphone stands to the floor and head-banged with us.

We became bar flies and once again got smashed after the show, our host for that night couldn’t keep up with us and got buckled to the point of not remembering. We taxied to his tiny apartment with a routine Family Mart supply stop along with the bar tender and a renowned older punker. Without getting into too much half naked calisthenics detail, some inappropriateness made us feel we’d be better off on the streets than participating in their weird drunken orgy. Luckily Sid could message his friend Kana who found a Hotel we could check in and respectfully trash at 2am.

Kyoto is a nice looking city with about a million temples and shrines so it wasn't hard to check out a few. We had the whole day before needing to rail to the airport back in Tokyo so we left our gear at the hotel and checked out Chion-in mega Temple in the ancient gardens of Maruyama Park and the very popular three story Golden PavilianTemples in Kinkakujicho on the northern hills, as well as a few shops and noodle houses. Farewelling Kana we hit the high speed to waste what Yen we had left on flight lounge takoyaki octopus balls and flew through the clear autumn night.

Waking through relaxed customs in Kuala Lumpur to an early morning wash of palm oil plantation smog blown in from Sumatra in every direction, everyone’s feeling pretty haggard but excited to be in KL again to finally play some shows with our Malaysian punker friends. I wasn’t there last time but I hear KTA were too dangerous to play, with most shows getting raided and shut down as an example made by the State to stamp out Satanist metal bands. A similar incident happened at the same venue three weeks prior to us arriving with punters being treated like scourge, but we were assured tonight’s show with eight crusty punk bands will be fine as it’s at a legit pub, the Colonial Bar in Central Market.

Everything is so cheap in Malaysia, except alcohol so we had to pay up for that, but for the most part we could be comfy in a large hotel apartment and eat all the roti canai we wanted made fresh on the dirty streets below. We mono-railed through the haze to circle the mall, hotel massage and drinks by the pool and caught up with Sids old friend Alang from ‘Man Under Zero Effort’ who we would play with the next night and talked about how breathing in the smog is starting to make people sick, or if you’re the ‘when in Rome’ type you could try an Indonesian clove cigarette to numb the throat.

So we already know that Malay time is a bit different to time in other parts of the world and a stark contrast to the ordered ways of Japan. Nobody knew when it started or what time we would play, there was no sound check, just towers of beer and the waiter refilling your glass before you could see the bottom. We don’t practice self-control very often so it was a great way for us to get proper legless, they finally decided to let the bands start yelling around 11pm. Malay time to lose control to noisy punk, the crowd is pumped and everyone looks out for everyone else with appreciative solidarity.

We heard a lot of classic punk covers and our mates Coleen from Vixxen (fb) and Nanai from Glass War and Anton from Berantakan (fb) played wild shows with a bare set up and foldback-less stage, but that’s all we needed to thrash and swill to a crowd who’d been waiting five years for this. Cheers to the Bukit Bintang Pirate Punx and Gudang Records it was my first time in KL and now I can see why my band mates want to keep coming back. The show finished tremendously late and in the KL chaos we jumped in cars and drove off into what knows direction. I think the aim was to find a karaoke bar, Tommy and I were taken by Nanai and Dhiana Dee to their favourite roti kitchen, we concurred then beered on until all the eyes closed as the curtains began to glow.

Sleeping off some of the morning we strolled to the Petronas Towers and a food court to rival all food courts to feast on worldly delights. The final show was at the DIY venue Live Fact on the outskirts of KL at and a mile more organized than the last so we geared up early and taxied there for sound check and a sad beer at the Irish Bar around the corner before doors. The vibe at Live Fact was funky and wholesome, the bar lady was serving a home-made vodka punch and the grooves were progressively good. The opening act Moods hit some fine flows before we exploded almost like semi-professional touring musicians to a full room pressed tight to the front, just how we like it. It was Man Under Zero Effort's CD launch and they rocked the room into the night with some epic extended instrumental journeys until the DJ turned the best mix of original ska & rocksteady tunes and the bar lady danced us under the table topping us up with the jug as she goes.

Everyone had fantastic smiles ear to ear, and we squeezed the life out of the night before the early flight home with another table full feast at the famous Jalan Alor street in Bukit Bintang. No taxies out there then and not enough room in the few cars so our mad activist friend Yati and I had to hitchhike back to the city, an interesting experience in any country. But as we usually find, the kind attract the kind and the Chinese guy who picked us up wasn't any different. I shouted him a beer for the ride and he met the gang, there was fried stingray on the table so we probably talked about varied seafood popular to different parts of Asia and catching them all in one nasty indiscriminatory big arse scoop net.

In KL fashion the motel transfer driver was half an hour late to take us back to the airport, by that stage with about a half an hour shut-eye, it was easy to live in the moment and know that nothing really matters in the end. None the less we would be delivered to the terminal with minutes to spare and by the end of the evening be back to our abnormal lives down under, we didn't even get locked up so we could tell you the tale.

Nothing compares to deep immersion into cultural wonderlands and we now have a treasure of experience to draw on by having this chance to play alongside truly amazing bands and meet a stack of rad new music lovers along the way. Ticks that of as a win, this is why we do it..

Tour over, see ya next year..
Love KTA.

Oh we sold out of tour CD's btw so download it at killtheapprentice.bandcamp.com and look out for the upcoming mini video diaries that might make sense of some of these words

written by The Dinj