Tokyo - Coventry "Jailhouse", December 2005
Vocals - Arvin Yarollahi
Guitar - James Stew
Bass - Nathan Rainer
Drums - Ben Tranter
Depending on how familiar with the Jitty you are, you may have heard of Tokyo already. Ever since certain members of the Editorial team saw this band come only second in the competition at Super Sonic Boom, we’ve kept a close eye on them. After all, taking all the factors into consideration, these guys should have won.
So imagine my reaction when I was invited to join the band for a gig at the Jailhouse in Coventry. Okay, so it meant leaving Leicester extremely early in a rather unsucessful attempt at avoiding traffic and having to endure a seemingly dragged out soundcheck, but that was a fair exchange I think.
The journey down to Coventry provided me with an insight as to what went on before the band went on stage. Admittedly, I’d got onto the bus, fully expecting the only conversation to be flowing along the lines of “Okay, so we need to do this, and this, but we can’t forget to do this…”. I couldn’t have been any more wrong if I’d tried.
Most of what was said on the bus, I’ve been asked to keep off the record. And, well, seeing as I’m not a tabloid journalist looking to stir up whatever I can, I’ll honour that. ;)
You can learn a lot about people by just observing them from the background. So while it may have seemed I was being really quiet, there was a lot to take in. For example, the relationship between the band. A lot of friendly teasing was going on, mainly aimed at the views on a stereotypical musician. So you could expect to hear something along the lines of “drummer this….” Or “I’m a bass player, what do you expect?!”. Incredibly funny to listen to, but at the same time, you can tell they have a deep respect for the others roles…none of them try to imply that they are of a higher caliber than the others.
I took the time to ask Arvin whether he got nervous before appearing on stage. He threw the question across to the others, and the general consensus was that it wasn’t so much nerves, more a case of expectation…or anticipation, if you will.
Finally, after a while of trying to figure out the best way to go, and a fair bit of lane hopping, we reached the Jailhouse. Leading to the inevitable unpacking of the bus to get all of the equipment into the venue.
My first impression of the place? Tiny. Smaller than any of the places in Leicester I’ve been to. In fact, it’s about half the size of the Charlotte, and that’s probably generous of me to say that. Or at least, the stage area was.
Tokyo started to set up, whilst certain people who’d travelled down went to locate the important amenities of the place. Read that as the bar and the toilets!
A long dragged out soundcheck, which I won’t go into, as, well, there’s no need to really…
Finally, it’s showtime. People started to drift from the other room, and the place started to fill up.
What would you know, Tokyo are the first band on.
Taking no prisoners, they launch into a set that lets everyone know immediately where they stand with things. Arvin looks right at home, center-stage, bounding around and spilling every glass of water to come within a meter radius of him. Nathan, despite having to use someone elses amp that looked ready to up and die on him at any moment, gave it his all, and still has me convinced he’s one of the best bass players I’ve seen yet. Jimmi looked a little lonely on his side of the stage, as he seemed cut off by a dodgy stage that thought it good design plan to have a post running down the middle. Talking to him afterwards revealed that he was trying to make his way across to join the others, but felt in danger from Arvin’s mic stand. Never the less, some amazing solos were forthcoming. Then, last but by no means least, Ben. Hidden away at the back of the stage, obstructed by post, people and whoever deemed it fine to walk in front of me now and again. As has been said before, great drummer…although, I’m a bit disappointed he didn’t try to up the stakes to 500bpm, as he’d said he was going to do on the band’s forum, in retaliation to a comment by someone. That would have been a sight to see.
The set was over much too quickly in my own opinion, however, I did get to see Tokyo finish on my favourite song, “What are we fighting for”, so that rounded off a great performance.
Once they made their way off stage to allow the next band to set up, they were surrounded by people wanting to congratulate them on a great set. All of the band took this in their stride, and were completely chatty and down to earth, which I think is something refreshing when you consider how most people in the limelight will treat their fans.
One thing, however, that does have to be said, is that I get a slight feeling Jimmi has taken to damaging soundsystems. The next band had gone onto stage to set up for their set, and, believe it or not, the same amp that Jimmi had just been using, was refusing to work for the next guitarist on. Further investigation revealed that the gig at The Musician has turned out a similar problem, once Tokyo had played. All I’m going to say is, perhaps the system couldn’t cope with so much raw talent?
We hung around to see perhaps half of the second band’s set, and then made good our escape, ready for the drive back up to Leicester.
Watching the band after their show, and on the bus, revealed their belief in what they do. Alongside going over things they felt needed fine tuning after performing (though to be honest, I hadn’t picked up on them), and then picking at the venue and not being able to use their own equipment, there were quite a lot of quiet patches, where I think the fatigue showed through a bit. That may have had something to do with having to be up early for an appearance on Wiggle FM though.
Other than that, I’m not sure what more can be said…other than perhaps…rock on!
