Playing in a Rock and Roll band

So I got asked by these fellows (well one of them asked me anyway,  i'm not entirely sure if he had the consent of his other band mates XD) to be a guest guitarist for them and play at our school's festival last weekend. At first I wasn't so sure about doing it because to be honest, the most I have touched my guitar in the past two years is to move it out of the way while i'm cleaning. So I was a bit nervous and rusty as all hell. But since this sounded like an awesome opportunity that probably wouldn't come up again, I swallowed my nerves and agreed.

The only thing was that I didn't bring a guitar with me to Japan (had too many bags full of clothes XD). Luckily, that didn't faze them and they let me borrow one of their's during practice. I did end up buying a used acoustic for fairly cheap with full intentions of selling it back before I go home to America but so far it has proven it's worth as a good guitar so I shall reconsider this...

Anyway, since I was just their "guest" they only wanted me to play one song for them; that song being "It's my Life" by Bon Jovi. Not what I would have picked but; not my band, not my choice. I didn't complain. It is a fairly simple song that worked well with my rusty, clumsy fingers. XD The first practice was the most nerve-wreaking though; even more so than the concert itself! Before the practice I had only met the vocalist (the one who asked me to join) and the drummer. Did not know who the guitarist or bassist were, or what any of their levels were. I found that out pretty quickly after walking into the practice studio though. These guys definitely were not on the rusty side, or as they say here in Japan; "level takai". But they were all nice boys and made me feel like part of the band right away; didn't even laugh when I made clumsy mistakes on the solo part.

I suppose I could give names to these guys.

Vocal/guitar: Ryuichi
Guitar/vocals: Kazumi
Bass: Norihiro
Drums: Yohei

We had about five practices (*Tangent alert* I had never thought about this before but we had all our practices in this studio by the station that was specifically made for bands to practice in. And there are a TON of studios like this around, well; everywhere. Seems like about half the population in Tokyo plays an instrument. Anyways, it's not like in America where prospective bands will meet in the basement of one members house or something, because here no one has space like that in their house! All practice is done in studios for any level of band. And it costs too which sucks especially if you're a poor student. 740 YEN per person! The thieves!). So, five practices and about 25 dollars later, I somehow got conned into SINGING the whole song "By The Way" by RHCP (originally I was only going to do the rap part but whatever...).

The show went very well in my opinion. We were tight for the most part and didn't have any sound problems as far as I could tell (unlike my last experience I had playing a show...but we won't go into that).  I got a video of it that I plan on uploading as soon as I get a cable to connect it to my computer.

Now that the show is over though, I hope that these boys won't forget me and that we can  hang out again sometime. They're all pretty awesome in my opinion and valuable friends to keep (and it's hard to come by friends like that in this damnable school of mine DX)

PICTURES! These are the best of the bunch unfortunately...there was this damn spot light that turned my head into a ball of light in almost every picture. I put the rest up on FB so if you feel so inclined...

Oh and BTW, the band called themselves Sally, based off of one of the songs they played called "Don't look back in Anger" by Oasis.

Might as well do a song line up too:

"Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis
"Help" - Beatles (but a punk version arranged by a band I can't remember the name of)
"It's My Life" - Bon Jovi
"By the Way" - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Teh Band.

Best pic I could find of me singing...

Beautiful pic taken by my friend Mikaela.

I wanted a group shot but was let down by people
taking off before I could say something...
But L-R Yoehi(Dr) Me(Gr/Vo), Kazumi(Gr/Vo)