Wild Mood Swings party - dance!

Wild Mood Swings is an all-new, all-night, all-mix DJ party in Tokyo, playing an unpredicatable mix of different tunes, aimed to frizzle-fry your brains! Ideal for those with short attention spans, like the guy from Memento.
It's at Hell's bar in Sangenjaya on March 21st (Sunday, before a national holiday) from 11PM 'til the break of dawn. And it's free.

The bipolar DJs are:
craig eee (Tokyo Gig Guide)
Grant McGaheran (Abikyokan)
Jake Arntson (Abikyokan)
Timebred (GaijinTonic)
Yukari (UK Sound)
Brendan Smith (Belgium Internet)
Mu-tan
Junko
Special K



Expect to hear all genres like indie, disco, dub, italo, old-skool hip-hop, electropop, 80s pop, krautrock, African 70s, Farsi pop, psychedelic, shoegaze, electronica...

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wildmood

On Tokyo Gig Guide: http://www.tokyogigguide.com/en/gigs/details/2420

You can dance if you want to

by liza

When a show lets out at 9 or 10pm, the excitement is high but the night is still young! What to do then?

When the usual izakaya or bar seems like a buzzkill, there's always getting your dance on. And there are definitely places that play music other than what you'll hear at a Gaspanic horrorshow or Roppongi pick-up joint.

Tokyo Indie lists these nights in English. (I suppose "indie" is now a genre instead of a way of thinking, but I digress.) I'm not affiliated with this site at all but I'm glad it's there!

This Saturday night, they're throwing a party at Hell's Bar in Sangenjaya. I went to the one in November and had a good time, even though it was really crowded and seems like it will be again. I'm sure the cover charge of "free" has nothing to do with this!

As for other bigger parties -- Hard to Explain is once a month and the location changes sometimes. It's usually good fun with more obscure music toward the beginning of the night and "classics" once everyone is good and liquored up. They used to have bands playing earlier in the evening but I haven't seen any since the night has moved to smaller venues.

Mighty Pop throws parties in different places. I've been to one at the Chelsea Hotel that had a good opener band and slightly more obscure but good music, but it was quite fashion-y. Lots of people dressed up standing around chain smoking looking bored for awhile. But they loosened up.

Parties listed on Tokyo Dandy seem to be more electro- and fashion-oriented. Haven't been to any yet.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but my late-night standby when all else fails is the Rock no Cocoro bar in Shibuya. The music is not especially "cool" but the people and staff there are usually really nice and like to party. (plus there's no cover!) Stay away from the food though...

Anyway those are the bigger ones, am still sussing out the smaller ones so let's hear it if you know a good one!

Dancing to a Japanese Beatles cover band by the tandoor

Last night, a coworker had been invited to play bass in a band in Chiba, so I decided to go along.
After getting totally lost, we finally managed to get to the venue which was an Indian restaurant hidden under a huge apartment building in the middle of nowhere in Higashi-Chiba.
Inside, it was a British rock-themed izakaya-like place jam-packed with an odd collection of middle-aged locals. I tucked into a super-spicy North Indian curry and some pints of Bass.
The band set up and earnestly played Beatles songs. A few people got up and danced at first, and later after more songs, beer and samosas, chairs were pushed aside and half the place was getting on down. An Indian chef showed off some Bollywood moves and a lady in a strange dance outfit very enthusiastically tried to make me dance with her, while an old guy with overalls and a combover cheered and took photos. We were offered some home-brewed ale.
Next, just to make things even more surreal, an old guy in an orange shirt got on stage and started singing opera.
It was great to see some real, unpretentious culture. If only I'd brought along my camera.