The Flashcubes – intro film (2006, narrated by Dave Frisina)
The Flashcubes (Gary Frenay, Arty Lenin, Paul Armstrong and Tommy Allen) were a band that flourished in Syracuse, NY from 1977 to 1980, releasing several independent singles, opening shows for major acts like The Police, The Ramones, Pat Benetar and The Romantics, and amassing a rabid following of like-minded New Wave rock & roll fans throughout the Northeast.
The Flashcubes (same four guys) are a band of 50-something guys who still sporadically perform and record together well into this 21st century. We are, as one friend notes, “the band that refuses to die.”
Starting back in 1993 when we recorded several new tracks to accompany a CD anthology of our late-70s recordings (BRIGHT LIGHTS), we began to find new opportunities and new fans who encouraged us to keep on doing our thing. Our indie CD, ultimately released in 1997, led to a feature article in GOLDMINE magazine and our inclusion on several sampler discs that were distributed internationally. Those, in turn, led us to being asked to perform at an indie pop festival in Los Angeles (International Pop Overthrow) in 1998 and 2000 where we met several Japanese fans who had heard us on the sampler discs and took our BRIGHT LIGHTS CD – along with their firsthand accounts of our live performances – back to Japan.
Shortly thereafter we heard from Airmail Recordings, a Japanese label run by Hiroshi Kuse, which – much to our surprise and delight – wanted to release BRIGHT LIGHTS in Japan. Tied to the release was the offer that, if the CD did well, Hiroshi would like us to come to Japan to do a short tour. Amazingly, the CD did do well and, in May 2002, we flew to Japan for a 5-day, 3-date tour. The gigs were incredible with Japanese kids half our ages, singing along with our songs with their fists in the air and asking for autographs after the shows. We were treated like bona fide rock stars and it was all over much too quickly. Before we knew it, we were back in the States, resuming our own routine lives, with the nagging thought, “Did all that really happen?”
Over the next decade, Airmail Recordings released five more of our CDs in Japan, including a live recording made during our tour called RAW POWER POP, LIVE IN JAPAN. During that time, The Cubes performed sporadically at a few IPO Festivals, in Chicago, Boston and NYC, and at select CNY shows like Dave Frisina’s 30th Anniversary party at the Inner Harbor in 2008 and the Taste Of Syracuse in 2011.
In 2007, 30 years after our first gigs together, we began a new recording project: a tribute to British rock legend, Roy Wood, the founder of The Move, Wizzard and ELO. We are all record collectors (especially into anything British) and Roy Wood always held a special fascination for us because he was such a unique combination of outrageous performance and wildly-eclectic songwriting. There was, quite simply, no one like Roy Wood. And even better for our elitist collector-selves, very few people in the US knew who he was. It was like belonging to a secret club.
Because we had no real budget or financial backing for studio costs, we did all of the recording at home, on our computers, using modern digital recording programs like ProTools, Cubase and GarageBand. The album, SPORTIN’ WOOD, was the ultimate DIY project. I created demos in my Strathmore kitchen, Tommy tracked real drums in his NYC loft, Arty did guitar tracks in his Eastwood bedroom, and Paul added his parts in his Boston basement. As each track was finished, they were emailed to Tommy in NYC where he assembled the tracks – as project producer – and mixed the assembled parts into a finished whole. The album took five years to finish (longer than we were together in our initial run) and we were – in fact – never in the studio together at the same time. Despite our extremely unorthodox process, we have a new CD of which we’re all very proud.
Upon completion, Airmail Recordings stepped up once again to release SPORTIN’ WOOD in Japan. Along with the release, came the invitation to tour Japan again, only this time for five dates, spread over seven days. We were thrilled at the prospect of re-experiencing that level of adulation but, admittedly, apprehensive, in part because that was ten years ago.
Was the first time a dream? Would any of our fans still be into the music scene? Could we really do it again? Could we survive jet lag to make it through a tour that long, at our ages?
Hell, sure we could! Part of being in a rock & roll band is being cocky. You have to think you’re great if you expect anyone else to. And you have to believe in yourselves, no matter what. So we believe we can do it. We can experience it all again, and prove to ourselves that it wasn’t a dream the first time. But just to make sure, I’m gonna keep a diary to document what really happens.
Ready, boys? Bags all packed? Passports in hand? Let’s go!
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Day 1 – Thursday
After arriving Wednesday night, not-so-fresh off a 14-hour flight, I, Arty, and my wife, Jackie (who I had to bring to witness this wild ride), settle into our hotel in the Shinagawa section of Tokyo. It’s spring and the cherry trees are in full blossom everywhere. Tokyo is the cleanest city I’ve ever encountered. No trash – or trash cans, for that matter – anywhere.
We spend the day taking in the sights. Arty checks out a modern art museum, while Jackie and I are content to comb the neighborhood, successfully, for the ancient Sengakugi Shrine. Built nearly 400 years ago, still standing, an active place of worship, and a wonder to behold. We’re all still feeling pretty out-of-gas, so after an early dinner and making sure the other half of the band arrive from Boston, we call it a day.
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Day 2 – Friday.
The first gig is booked for Hamamatsu, a small Japanese town about two hours south of Tokyo by bullet train. We leave in the morning and the urban jungle that is Tokyo gives way to picturesque hills, small towns and the ocean, to our left. Shortly before Hamamatsu proper, we see Mt. Fuji to our right. Snow-covered, majestic and looking every bit the wonder we’ve seen in pictures. Really amazing to behold!
We are met at the train station by Toshi who runs the club we’ll be playing at tonight. His band, The Florians, will also be on the bill. After ferrying us and our gear to the hotel (with his car stereo blasting my song, You Only Get One Life), we make tracks to the club for a 3 pm soundcheck. All goes well and we take in a quick meal before heading back to our rooms for a little rest.
The G-Side is maybe the smallest rock club in the world. It supposedly holds 100 people, but the crowd of 70 that shows up to see us is packed like sardines into a space no bigger the first floor of my house. We wait through four opening bands, who run the gamut from Rock to Punk to Ska, before finally taking the stage at around 10 pm.
We launch into my song It’s You Tonight and the crowd pushes toward the stage. Five songs into our set and they’re nearly spilling into our space. The wilder they get, the louder and crazier we play. Things seem to reach critical mass when we blast our way through the Flamin’ Groovies’ classic, Shake Some Action. Suddenly the line between band and crowd, already a blur, disappears. There are 5 or six fans on stage with us, dancing like mad, thrusting fists in the air, and commandeering our mics, to join in with the vocals. A few more songs, wilder and wilder, and Paul is on the dance floor having ceded his stage space to the throng while Arty plays his guitar behind his head as crazed, drunken fans genuflect in front of him. Drummer Ducky Carlisle (replacing Tommy Allen who couldn’t join us on this tour, due to family and business obligations) and I try to hold down the fort but, ultimately, there is no reining in this kind of energy. You can only try to ride on it. And ride we do.
Closing with originals Wait Til Next Week and Got No Mind, the whole room is a frenzy. I can’t even leave the stage, to wait for an encore. I just stand there and wait for Duck, who somehow did get offstage, to return. We dive into Do Anything You Want to Do, and over a dozen fans are leaping about on our cramped stage, screaming into the mics and having, what appears to be, the time of their lives. As are we!
Flashcubes – Do Anything You Wanna Do (inc) Hamamtsu, Japan
All that’s left in our collective tank is poured into a super fast version of my song, Welcome To The Working Class, with our obligatory Nick Lowe/Paul Collins/Ramones interlude. We end the set sweating and breathless. Four more nights to go. Oh man, do we feel old!
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Day 3 – Saturday
After taking a train to Tokyo, we check back into our home base, Hotel Keikyu, and head off to lunch with our hosts and promoters, Hiroshi Kuse and his wife, Yumi. For some reason a French restaurant is chosen, which is fine, but things gets comical when we start trying to read the menus. Having our Japanese hosts attempt to describe French food to American musicians seems like something right out of the Bill Murray film, LOST IN TRANSLATION.
We head to the club for our 4 pm soundcheck, now pushed back to 5 pm, to accommodate our amazing – but leisurely – lunch. The sound system is much better here than last night with killer monitors and great amps for us to play through. All the clubs we’ll play in Japan supply backline amps and drums so we wouldn’t have to bring our own. Hard enough just dragging our guitars and stage clothes from hotel to train to plane.
We have two opening bands tonight that both feature friends from our first trip, ten years ago: Rockbottom and The Raydios, and both are great. We hit the stage at about 9 pm and there are about 150 people stuffed into a smokey, intimate club. We played The Jam (the club, not the British band), on our first date in 2002, and I’d forgotten how cool it is. The stage is narrow, but deep, allowing us more room to move than we had last night. Paul, especially, has way more room to prance, which he takes full advantage of. The band is better tonight, and the crowd, while not quite as crazy as Hamamatsu, are clearly very passionate. They are pressed up against our monitors and singing along with every song.
I’ve said it before, but this is my rock star fantasy, coming to fruition. The Flashcubes were never a huge band in America, despite our game attempts to spread the word. But here in Japan, we feel revered. A young guy in his mid-20’s, wearing a Cubes tour t-shirt (like the original, but now yellow letters on black) is standing right in front of me with tears streaming down his face as I sing my song, You’re Not The Police. He knows every word and seems to be truly overcome, being this close to our music, and the musicians who make it. Very moving.
Flashcubes – Wait Til Next Week (excerpt) Tokyo, Japan
We are in top form tonight. This is about as good as The Cubes can be – at this age, anyway – and we feed on the constant energy that comes back at us from the assembled horde. Rockbottom recorded Shake Some Action on their most recent CD (which they were eager to share with us) so I brought the lead singer, Tatsuya, up onstage with us to share the lead vocal with Arty and me. A very wise move, indeed. I’m not sure what it is about that song, but it seems to have become one of the power pop anthems here in Japan and, seeing one of their own onstage with us, drives the crowd crazy. This is almost unimaginable energy. If we could harness it, we’d solve the energy crisis! We rip through the final 5 songs at breakneck pace (sorry, Duck) and take our leave, before returning for two very long-winded encores.
We’ve taken to including The Raspberries classic, I Wanna Be With You, in our shows over here as a tribute to the Cubes original drummer Tommy Allen, who is the most passionate Raspberries fan in the world. It’s our way of feeling Tommy’s presence. Even though he isn’t with us physically, he is with us in spirit. And if Shake Some Action has attained increased status in the Power Pop pantheon, I Wanna Be With You is the mountaintop! There are really no words to describe that song, in that place, by this band, but suffice to say, it’s a memory we’ll treasure forever.
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Day 4 – Sunday
Hiroshi and Yumi meet us in the lobby the following morning to usher us to the train station. We board the bullet train for a two-hour ride that takes us from the capital Tokyo, on the East coast, nearly all the way to the West coast, to the original capital of Japan, Edo, now known as Kyoto. While still a bustling city, Kyoto is quieter and more picturesque than what we’ve seen in Tokyo. Our hotel is across the street from the Imperial Gardens, sort of like the Central Park of Kyoto. We had our lunch – Bento boxes (Japan’s much-healthier version of fast food: sushi, egg rolls, and veggies) – on the train to save time,
so after a quick 20 minutes in our rooms, we take several cabs (this band and all of our guitars and gig bags does not travel light) to the club. Our cab driver hears Jackie and I talking to Yumi about a gift we gave our son, Nick, for his 21st birthday: a complete blu-ray set of the Star Wars films. “Star Wars,” he says. ”I love Star Wars!” He then proceeds to roll through his Darth Vadar imitation for us: “Luke, I am your father,” he says proudly in a thick Japanese accent, along with several other lines of iconic dialogue. Much laughter on our part and, as we arrive at the club, we feel compelled to leave him saying, “May the force be with you!”
What an odd place. Jittoku is a restaurant by day and a club by night, and in the light of mid-afternoon, resembles nothing more than a Japanese Tea House. The Flashcubes are going to play here? Really? The room is all natural wood and wall hangings, and the tables are, what appear to be, old industrial-size cable spools, three feet high and six feet in diameter. For seating, simple barrels with small, thin pads atop each one. We soundcheck quickly, as everyone is pretty burned out from the triumphant chaos of the previous two nights, and the lack of solid sleep that comes from severe jet lag.
In a residential area, the club is tucked away on a small back street with no commerce in sight. We’re told there is a noise curfew in the area and that we cannot play later than 9 pm. Perfect. A sleepy Japanese neighborhood with sound restrictions; just the place for the Flashcubes! To say that we have doubts about this evening’s performance, given the setting, would be an understatement. We assemble in a loft dressing room area (“please remove shoes before going upstairs, boys!”) to write sets, change clothes, and figure out what we’re doing here, 7,000 miles from home, about to perform loudly in what appears to be nothing more than a coffeehouse! We visit with the support band, The Mayflowers, who we discover are huge fans of The Move and Roy Wood. We collectively decide that they will join us for an encore of I Can Hear The Grass Grow… if we garner one.
At the appointed time, we descend to the club, which is now – amazingly enough – filled with people, many in Flashcubes t-shirts. Major sighs of relief, all the way around. The Mayflowers are on and are wonderful. Great originals and covers of The Beatles’ Day Tripper and Badfinger’s No Matter What. The crowd seems very appreciative, but a bit reserved, for our tastes.
When it is our turn, the audience seems to push forward and the energy level immediately raises as we prance through our opening salvo of my song, It’s You Tonight, Arty’s When We Close Our Eyes and Paul’s Pathetic. Still a bit reserved, but getting more reactive with each song. During the sixth number, Paul’s punk rocker I Need Glue, he decides to take matters into his own hands. When his ending solo comes, he steps from the stage onto the closest table (spool) and starts dancing and soloing inches from the assembled kids. They reach up, then stand up and start dancing themselves. This is more like it! During our next original, No Promise, more kids stand up and start dancing in place. There is no dance floor, just the little bit of space around the spools and barrel seating.
Later in the set, with things getting more intense by the minute, Arty is on the spool during his song, Angry Young Man, when Paul joins him as they trade licks, side by side. After that comes my song, Wait Til Next Week. As Duck’s drumbeat starts, Paul dares the audience to get on the table. A young, slight guy in his mid-20’s jumps on a barrel then leaps onto the table, like some mad Shogun go-go dancer. Someone hands him a beer and he takes off his John Lennon-style cap and pours the beer all over his head! The crowd goes crazy as he start spinning in circles, whipping his beer-soaked head in every direction, soaking us and the crowd around him.
Flashcubes – Wait Til Next Week Kyoto, Japan
No turning back now. Seems the whole place is on their feet and in our faces. We end with Arty’s anthem, Nothing Really Matters When You’re Young, and any question about an encore is erased. We bring the Mayflowers up and, together, storm through I Can Hear The Grass Grow; sloppy but triumphant. A second two-song encore – Do Anything You Wanna Do (Eddie & The Hot Rods) and In The City (The Jam) – and we are drained and done!
Afterwards, we sign autographs and pose for pictures with kids half our ages. Really amazing what they have and what they know. Kids in original Cubes’ t-shirts (purchased on eBay) holding our long out-of-print single Christi Girl to sign. The conversations, while halting given the language difference, are absolutely fascinating.
“We love your drummer!”
“Ah yes, that’s Ducky Carlise,” I say.
“Yes, we know,” comes the reply. “The Ohms, Teenage Alcoholic,” (another long out-of-print CNY single originally released in 1979).
They seem to know every detail of our lives. One kid asked me about the Agents, a Camillus band I had produced on our label, Northside Records in 1982.
“You play on that record?”
“No, I just produced it,” I reply.
“But Tommy Allen, he play in Agents too, no?”
I say no, but the kid insists that Tommy did play with Tim Anthony of the Agents, and I hazily recall that, yes, Tommy did have a band with Tim as a teenager, called Baby Blue. They did one gig, I think, at a party or something, and this guy knows about it! So many little miracles in this country.
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Day 5 – Monday
Our only day off, and we split up. I think we’re getting sick of being in such close quarters, given that we’re not a real band anymore. Paul and Duck take an early train back to Tokyo for recovery and record shopping, while Arty, Jackie and I take Hiroshi and Yumi up on their generous offer to take us sightseeing in Kyoto. So much to see and so little time, so the bulk of it is spent at Nijo Castle, an amazing structure built in 1612 when Kyoto (Edo) was a shogunate. Surrounded by moats and vast gardens, the grand temple-like structure itself features one really memorable thing: “nightingale floors” that sound like birds chirping when anyone walks on them, to alert residents of intruders. We spend hours there, then head for the station for a 3 pm train back to Tokyo.
After checking back in, we split even further, with Arty desiring rest, our hosts heading for home, and Jackie and I free to wander. Cherry blossom trees (sakura) are in full bloom everywhere (remember that the Japanese gave our country the cherry trees that circle the tidal basin in Washington, DC), and we have learned that the Japanese celebrate with Hanami (sakura-viewing parties)!
We take a long and expensive cab ride to a sprawling park on our Hanami quest. Hiroshi has prepped us for this solo outing by instructing us to tell the driver (who typically speak no English) to take us to the Nippon Budokon (where Cheap Trick recorded their landmark LP) which is situated in the park. We spend a few stressful minutes, both repeating “Bu-do-kon” as the driver parrots it back to us without recognition. Jackie pulls out a city map with too-small print and the driver fumbles with his reading glasses. Finally, he makes sense of the location, exclaiming in an “aha” moment, “Oh, Bu-do-kon!” All in the pronunciation!
As we arrive, the sun has just set and we wander around in the twilight trying to find sakura. Then, thanks to the kindness of two young Japanese women whom we ask, we are led up a path lit only by one of their open cell phones. We are still in the dark, but as we look over the edge of a small cliff, we see below us a solid wall of cherry trees on both sides of a lake. Looks absolutely magical! There are thousands of people around the lake which is encircled with cherry blossom trees… all spot-lit from underneath. It’s an absolutely unforgettable experience and we take many photos of the blossoms, and the crowds as they, too, snap pictures of the delicate pink blossoms.
What a day! On to Sapporo tomorrow.
Day 6 – Tuesday
Before the tour, we all questioned the wisdom of the Sapporo gig. At 600 miles away and on another island to the North, Sapporo is the largest city on Hokkaido. We travel by plane which seems to us an awful lot of effort and expense for one gig. We had to leave our hotel at 9 am, for a shuttle to the airport. Hiroshi was not joining us on this trip, but did escort us to the airport, handling all the arrangements for luggage and boarding passes (even with English-speaking attendants, the language barrier can still be a challenge), before saying his goodbyes. We fly over miles and miles of snow-covered mountains on the way there, confirming what we read, that Japan does not have mountains, it is mountains. The plan is that we will be met at the Sapporo airport by Kei Sato, a member of the support band for tonight – The Choosers – and Hiroshi’s on-site caretaker for all things involved with this leg of the tour.
As we deplane we are, indeed, met by Kei and his wife, Mayumi, but also a small army of their friends. Someone distributes an itinerary, including pictures and names to help us remember them all!
It seems everyone is wearing either a Flashcubes’ t-shirt, Flashcubes’ buttons, or both. They had all come to greet the band from America! We take a train from the airport to the downtown Sapporo station and then cabs to our hotel. After a brief unpack, we meet in the lobby and hit the streets. Sapporo was described in our guide book, as a smaller, yet more roomy version of Tokyo, with far fewer people. Set in Hokkaido, it hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics and is home to the Sapporo brewery. While still very populous, it does seem more spacious, and also very colorful. The back door of our hotel opens onto a five-block long pedestrian-only street called the Tanuki Arcade, with hundreds of tiny, shops and restaurant, each more colorful than the next, and mini-shrines to its namesake, the badger.
Our hosts then treated us to a very authentic sushi experience, where the food circles the restaurant on a track while diners on the other side take the food from the chefs who craft it inside the track. All very festive, with much spontaneous shouting and exclaiming by chefs and diners, alike (think Ed McMahon’s signature Tonight Show “Hi-yo!!”). The food was amazing with tuna, egg, salmon, shrimp, eel (my first time for that, fantastic!), fried squid and savory bowls of miso soup.
After that we head to the club for soundcheck. I previously described the club in Hamamatsu (the first night of the tour) as the smallest we had ever seen. That was until we walked into the Richmond Spiritual Hall. It was almost like a joke. As small as Hamamatsu was, you could fit two of this club inside that one. I know Asian people are smaller than we Westerners, but this is just unbelievable. Despite the size, it still has a full-size stage and huge concert-style PA system. So maybe we have more room than the entire crowd has.
We are all pretty dragged out now, physically, and vocally, so we keep the soundcheck relatively brief. Paul has taken to calling our tour the “We’ll Sleep When We’re Dead” tour (after the old Warren Zevon song) because of how little rest any of us is getting (we average maybe 4 hours a night). We have some time to kill before the show starts, so we split up to rest or shop. Jackie and I opt for the latter with Kei’s wife, Mayumi, her friend, Sally (Americanized nickname), and a very soft-spoken young fan, Yoshiki, as our guides. They are very proud to show us their city and very patient with us as we insist on looking on all six floors of the 100-yen souvenir store (the Japanese version of our dollar store).
When we arrive back at the club, Kei’s band, The Choosers, is onstage and the club is packed with about 50 people. Really. 50 people is about all it can hold. The Choosers are a three-piece power pop band clearly modeled on American bands like ours. Their only cover is Shake Some Action (what is it about that song?) and they close with their first single, Christine, which quite likely was, in some way, inspired by our own first single from 34 years ago, Christi Girl.
Flashcubes – It’s You Tonight Sapporo, Japan
As we begin, the crowd are all on their feet (no tables), and pressed against the front of the rather high stage, hitting them at about waist level. It takes about half the set before things start to progress from applause and fists in the air to things more manic. Kei, Mayumi and their friends seem to lead the charge that ultimately sees several audience members – Kei included – scale the stagefront and leap onto the stage. What is it about these people? Good thing our early years at the Jabberwocky on the Syracuse University campus, where student New Wave fans would regularly jump on stage to join us, prepared us to handle this well.
Flashcubes – Got No Mind Sapporo, Japan
We encourage the mayhem and push them up to the mics to sing along with us. No problem whether it’s a cover or one of our own, as they know every word to every song we sing. With wild fans pogo-ing up and down, on and off the stage, the whole scene resembles something out of the late-70s in a London punk club. We roar and they respond! We are, however, exhausted, despite the intense energy they are giving back to us. We try to leave the stage for good, after two lengthy and loud encores, but with the whole crowd stomping their feet and screaming in unison, “Flash-Cubes, Flash-Cubes,” we are left no choice but to do one more song: Do Anything You Want To Do. By the end, there just might be more people on the stage than on the dance floor. Just incredible. We are completely spent but after three previous conquests, this one, in the tiniest club of all, so far from home, might be our greatest yet!
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Day 7 – Wednesday
Kei and Mayumi threw a post-gig party for us that started at midnight at their guitar shop, Teenarama, (named for the song by The Records). This could be Arty’s idea of Heaven: a party in a guitar shop with great Japanese food and Sapporo beer. All of the people who met us at the airport earlier that day were there, along with several more of their friends. We partied until nearly 3 am then crawled back to our hotel, painfully aware of our 9 am lobby call this morning.
Once again, we’re met by five of our hosts to escort us to the train and, ultimately, to the airport: Kei, Mayumi, Jun, Yoshiki and Deebo, who all seem like close friends now after less than 24 hours. We hug and then wave goodbye from the security checkpoint. Our tour is, essentially, an act of trust on our part. We are strangers in a very foreign land with no language skills and, yet, the people we meet who take care of us at each stop along our way, could not be more friendly. In fact, everyone in Japan that we interact with – on any level – is welcoming, overly polite, and generous of their time and spirit. And I don’t think it’s just on our behalf. I really think it’s cultural. The Japanese are truly wonderful people.
We fly back over the mountains, with the view to our left of the ocean – just magnificent – and land in Tokyo shortly after 1:30 pm. We’ve left one group of friends only to be enthusiastically met by Hiroshi and Yumi, jumping and waving to us just outside baggage claim. They lead us to the bus that will deposit us back at our base hotel in Tokyo 45 minutes later. We get just 20 minutes to check in and unpack, when we are due back in the lobby to take the 40-minute cab ride to Shinjuku, the site of our final stop on the tour.
We have a soundcheck set for 4:30, but due to traffic, we’re a bit late in arriving. This is the same club we were at last Saturday night and we’re thinking it will be a good idea to change the set around for people who might see both shows To that end, we work up a few new (old) numbers during the check. While we’re doing so, several members of the support bands sit in front of us with their smart phones out, taking videos and photos as we run through a few songs.
There are three opening bands tonight: The Mayflowers (from Kyoto), The Power Pops, and The Cokes. As we check out each band (all very spirited and energetic), the crowd fills in nicely and, by the time it is our turn, the room is at near capacity.
As we make our way to the stage, I can see on my fellow band members’ faces the same deep fatigue that I am feeling. This tour has been exhausting, with much travel, little sleep and very demanding performances. But we know this is it, so we are ready to give it our all.
We open with Hold Me Tight, by The Beatles. It’s a song with some significance in our long history. Thirty-five years ago when we debuted at The Brookside Inn in Syracuse, it was the first song we ever played on stage. We’re a band of rabid music fans who also happen to be musicians and we are always aware – and proud – of our history. Granted, Ducky is filling in for Tommy Allen on this tour, but it is a major bragging point of ours that we can name only 3 other bands from the 70’s who still perform with all of their original members: Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and ZZ Top.
The crowd is once again pressed right up to the stage and in our faces. They are clearly having a good time, but not so boisterous yet. That starts in earnest when we break into my song, You’re Not The Police. Now fists are pumping and they are shouting so loud, we can hear them over our own considerable din. That continues as we launch into the Ramones’ song, I Just Wanna Have Something To Do, another one of that we added just for tonight. Seems our efforts are appreciated. We do Shake Some Action again, with Tasuya back on vocals, like last Saturday night, and there’s no turning back. The energy these kids have seems boundless. They never seem to tire. But, unfortunately, we do.
Flashcubes – Shake Some Action w/Tatsuya, Tokyo, Japan
As we storm through Arty’s rocker Angry Young Man (the song that spawned the name of our “Four Angry Men In Syracuse” tour, as the posters say), I take a moment to note the condition of my bandmates. Arty, who always parties harder than the rest of us, is looking extremely drained. Ducky is pounding relentlessly, drenched in sweat and sucking wind. How he is managing, with eight hot white lights burning down from behind him, is beyond me. And Paul, who, like the Energizer Bunny, never seems to tire, looks completely gassed. I know the feeling. I ache everywhere, but nowhere more than in my throat. Singing over the volume of the Flashcubes is always a challenge, but after so many exhausting gigs, with constant travel and little sleep, I am drowning in our ocean of noise.
Luckily, our crowd of faithful, fanatical fans, does not seem to notice or care. Maybe any Flashcubes, tired or not, is better than no Flashcubes. We limp to the finish line, buoyed, maybe, by our surprise closer, God Save The Queen, by the Sex Pistols. We played the song many times, back in the day, but haven’t tried it in several decades. It seems to go over big, as they call us back for an encore, which has to be Do Anything You Wanna Do. We have guest audience members on this one, thankfully, as their endless energy, in some way, makes up for our own lack thereof.
We stumble off, praying we’re done, but we are not. “FLASH-CUBES, FLASH-CUBES, FLASHCUBES!”, they roar. We sit in the dressing room…. dead. And yet we rise, one last time. After begging off the last two nights, due to vocal strain, Arty surprisingly agrees to do The Raspberries’ I Wanna Be With You. It’s a ragged version at best, but no one seems to notice or care. They are all dancing and singing along…. and smiling. So incredibly happy! I call one last song, my own, Welcome To The Working Class, with our usual interludes of Nick Lowe, Paul Collins and The Ramones. For some reason, I’ve counted the song too fast (probably trying to compensate for our fatigue) and Ducky has taken that as one last license to shine. He is pounding away and pushing the tempo even faster, to his own great delight. While Arty and Paul play their solos, I turn to face him, and mouth the words “fuck you” to him, while grinning ear to ear. What a moment!
Finally, we are done. Boy, are we done. We gather at the front of the stage to do the classic joined-at-the-shoulders band bow. We stand and shake the outstretched hands of those in the front. We want them to understand that this is it. Please.
Back in the dressing room, we are aware that there are still some people chanting our name and calling for more. Paul says, “Always leave ‘em wanting more, right?” But that is more wishful thinking than anything. Two of our biggest fans, Koji and Tatsuya, of the band Rock Bottom, make their way back to us, imploring us to do “just one more.” It is flattering, but it isn’t gonna happen. Not tonight. As they say in the sports world, we have left it all on the field.
After our nightly session of autograph signing and pictures with fans, we are led out into the night by Hiroshi and Yumi, who want to treat us and several of the other musicians to one last dinner party. We didn’t see this coming, and would probably have preferred to head back to the hotel for greatly-needed rest, but who can turn down such heartfelt hospitality. After a wonderful dinner with all of our new friends, we are finally back at the hotel for one last night, however brief, of sleep.
Day 8 – Thursday
To say that morning came too soon today would be a great understatement although, in reality, no amount of sleep would rejuvenate our tired bodies. We don’t need hours of rest, we need days! We meet Hiroshi and Yumi in the lobby. They have arranged travel for us to the airport via shuttle, so this will be where we say goodbye. How do you properly thank people who have gone to so much trouble to give us one of the most memorable weeks of our lives?
Their label, Airmail Recordings, has put out seven of our CDs, and they have singlehandedly raised our standing in the music world. Because of them, hundreds of young Japanese fans know who we are and feel we are the Real Thing. Because we have been around since the late-70s, we are their connection to that time and the original Power Pop era. They can’t see The Raspberries, The Ramones or Big Star anymore, but they can still see The Flashcubes!
After our first tour, back in 2002, Paul came up with the analogy that our relationship with these Japanese fans was like the film, GALAXY QUEST. In it, a group of nearly washed-up actors from a 60’s TV space travel show (think Star Trek) are hijacked from a Trekkie-style convention to another planet, by aliens who have seen the show and revere them as real space travelers with real powers. Much comedy ensues, as the actors, led by Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, try to come to terms with such unrealistic hero worship.
Japan is like that for us. We yank ourselves out of our, for the most part, nondescript lives in the US (though Ducky has won a Grammy), and plop ourselves down in the Land of The Rising Sun, some 7,000 miles from home, where we are suddenly treated like real rock stars. When the most sincere of Japanese musicians, Kei, looks you in the eye and says, “You are my hero,” it is something one is wholly unprepared to handle. But I’ll take it. We all will. And we’ll treasure this experience for what it is: our wildest dreams coming true.
Goodbye, Japan. Sayanora….for now.
We Connect 