Hello everyone,
I’ve been planning traveling to Japan after finishing my university for some time now, and I wonder which city has the strongest underground scene at the moment?
I’m really into Japanese experimental music and from what I know Osaka seems to be “Japan’s capital of noise” since that’s where most of the bands came from, although it’s very probable that this city doesn’t have the same status as it had two decades ago
Maybe you could share your personal concert experiences from Japan too?
I wanted to further emphasise that I mean local concerts rather than the ones which carry some big and better recognised musicians
Thank you very much in advance
5 comments
Tokyo is worlds bigger than anything. Given corona tho, many places aren’t doing live shows (tho some still are, with reduced numbers). Many are also doing virtual/streamed events. Might be fun to do a bit of research in the genres you like for live houses doing things you could view from abroad now, in advance of your visit someday.
If there is bands you like, follow their social media and check where they played in the past. Personally, many of the bands I like have played at Liquid Room in Tokyo or Shangri-La in Osaka, just to name two, there is other place I noticed several times and most of the time I would see they played in Tokyo.
I’m more into Post-Rock and Math-Rock and in the bands I like, most are from Tokyo and the is some from different cities in Kansai, actually more from Kyoto than Osaka.
However, I would not really call the band I like as “underwound”, like if you like that genre, for sure you know, but not bands that most people have ever heard of.
My only experience was going to the concert of a band I saw playing in Yoyogi park, I wend to their website and saw they where playing in the following days, ended up in a really small live venue with like 6 band during the night but obviously just small bands.
I watched the documentary [Live from Tokyo](https://www.flixfling.com/freemovie/3140/MVD220-R-SD) before my trip a few years ago. Might give you some ideas, although I don’t know how many of the venues are still open.
It led me to check out Muryoku Muzenji, a pretty cool/weird place in Tokyo which probably has some of what you’re into. When I went, there were a couple of singer-songwriter types, an old lady playing a Theramin, an Australian electronic group, and some kind of theatrical piece that involved a woman stripping down to her underwear and brandishing a whip. All in a tiny room that looks like a lunatic’s asylum.
For true punk in Tokyo, a good and legendary live house to follow is Anti-knock. They are hosting shows now :
https://www.antiknock.net/schedule/20201213night/
For Osaka / Noise / Expiremental. It doesn’t get more established than Bears :
http://namba-bears.main.jp/
When you arrive to either city, the best thing to do is visit record stores for gig flyers. The punk markets of Disc Union will usually stack your bag with a ton of them and they’ll be hung on the walls.
Osaka has some amazing smaller record stores. It’s generally a bit more friendly in that city, so shop owners would usually be happy to tell you about upcoming shows.
There is a well established “noize bar” in Shinjinku that you could visit / meet other folks into experimental music.
As a general Tokyo neighborhood goes, Shinokitazawa has a bunch of cool spaces + shows with almost exclusively local artists
There is a pretty okay gig site : TokyoGigGuide which is helpful for finding a show where or there which you might not have known about.
But of course the best way is to just jump in feet first and start going to as many shows as you can. Either city will have a TON of awesome local shows.
El Puente Yokohama. Has punk/powerviolence shows. Would love to see Self Deconstruction play there. I mean they have, but I wanna be there.