Tag: Samurai Koala Tour

Good Day! – 21st November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

good day! green square hotel with terrapin, triangle, vincent over the sink, faux furs, kiosk

after getting to sleep at 4.30am it was difficult to get up at midday and we were running a bit late but still managed to be first to arrive at the show only half an hour before it started!

luckily everyone turned up soon and kiosk blasted out 15 minutes of superb sonic chaos to a small but enthralled audience.

faux furs were up next – they play a cool minimal fall-type music that made me happy – again quite chaotic and fun. i think these young bands are great – they seem to have a complete disregard for any normal rock conventions and the attitude of ‘fuck it if you don’t like it’. and then…

vincent over the sink! boy, these guys were amazing! and just their 3rd show – this two-piece take structure from ruins, sounds from indie types yummy fur and quirk out like the minutemen – bands which they’ve never even heard of!

triangle psyched us all out with distortion-drenched rhythmics and swirling acid patterns.

at this stage i went in search of the missing yukari to find her curled up asleep under a table at the side of the stage – how she slept through the noise i don’t know – but she seems to fall asleep anywhere (as did jj and koji at various stages of the day) – samurai-koala is becoming an ever more appropriate name for this tour.

terrapin, now a 5 piece, threw out a quick set of their ever-improving rock and tonight some quieter and poppier moments – very nice and jj liked them a lot.

anticipation mounted and temperatures rose as limited express took the stage and once again amazed a reasonable-sized crowd – i don’t know how they do it but they seem to be getting better each show, jj’s stage theatrics playing a bigger part tonight with yukari bouncing around as usual and eventually, during tiger rock, into the audience and with jj breaking a string yet again – that was it, to much rapturous applause and the sale of many CDs.

big thanks must go out to all the bands, especially those prepared to lend equipment and to toby who did the sound for the cost of two beers. good day? it was a fucking great day!

koji “this show had a great sound and was easy to play”

jj “i loved terrapin – i was excited”

yukari “i couldn’t see the audience faces because of the lights but i could feel their vibrations – so nice”

Fuck, that was cool! – 20th November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment


fbi interview with nick findlay

had to stir the band at 9am otherwise, they would’ve slept all day. after some pumpkin gnocchi breakfast koji and i played some soccer at the park while the others got ready. packed the car, dropped off the gear at the bowlers club, made a quick appearance at paint it black record store in newtown. the band are all keen to hear new australian music.

had a successful interview at fbi despite all our nerves and excitement. much kudos to nick who was very professional despite a crushed vertebrae. another quick look around red eye records and it was off to lunch and an interview for japanese newpaper info-m. the band is tired so we head up to the bowlers club where they all fall asleep on chairs as the sound guys work around them.


bowlers club with la huva, love of diagrams, youth group

just got the soundchecks finished in time – the sound guys aren’t too sure what to make of limited express (has gone?) but i know what’s coming. many introductions and friends were made with the other bands and with about 50 curious people through the door yukari, koji and jj ripped the place apart with their huge grins and bouncy theatrics.

must say many thanks to tim from la huva for coming to the rescue when jj broke a string and tim loaned his guitar for the final two songs.

so 30 minutes after the start of the samurai-koala show and there seemed to be 50 new fans all eager to talk to the band and purchase cds. yukari slept through some of la huva’s set – they were certainly different after limited express (has gone?) but had some really nice pop songs that everyone enjoyed. can’t stress enough – la huva are cool people.

had to pack up a lot of stuff and only managed to catch a few songs of love of diagrams whose music is as good as ever. we hope we can catch youth group another day.

koji “i was a little nervous because it was the first show but i enjoyed it very much”

jj “yeah – i was very nervous – we hadn’t played a show for one month until now. i was happy many people enjoyed our show”
yukari “i was so glad to see everyone’s smiling face”


maggotville show with pure evil trio and many other dj’s and bands

wow – now this place is cool – a warehouse location with a great diy feel, drunk punks and dogs running around and all. after grooving to misanthrope everyone got setup and the room started to fill – it was party time. champagne was served and the audience popped poppers (among other things i’m sure) and the balloons started flying.

with a much more intimate environment the bands grins were reflected right back at them and it was a joyous occasion for all. jj jumped straight on to the speakers and urged the audience on and surely, halfway through some drunk punks decided to join in during stop-go and even picking up the bass during tiger rock (and doing quite well at that!).

again many friends and fans were made. we all hung around to check out pure evil which all the band enjoyed for various reasons – yukari scoring a free album after smiling sweetly at pure evil’s bass player.

finally, at 2.15 am, it was time to head back for some food, some ping pong club and maybe even some sleep.

jj “the australian audience has a great reaction – i like the australian underground scene”

koji “i was a little scared of the punk crowd but they were cool”

yukari “when the guy got on stage and picked up my bass i felt it was great to have this kind of interaction and participation”

christine (new fan): “fuck that was cool!”