Alright, in the midst of editing the first day of our Fukushima trip, while also planning 2 shoots over the next 5 days. The first will be down in Atami, Shizuoka tomorrow (the 30th), and is just for a local bar that occasionally does jazz shows. The second will be for Sakado Extreme 5 & 6 up in Saitama set up by Obliteration Records.
Regarding Atami, I'm more stoked to get in on that one as a gesture to the community than a major fan of the music I expect will be played. This'll hopefully allow us to do more extreme music-oriented stuff in the future, but its also still more practice that we need on this journey towards making decent road/music documentaries.
I've only been to the venue, Cafe Lydian, once, but its a small enough place and don't expect many people to show up, so the shoot shouldn't be that difficult to prepare for.
Sakado Extreme will be a lot more in line with our interests. 8 bands over 2 days in the suburbs of Tokyo. This is definitely a step in the right direction, and probably even necessary to getting people out of the city and into the sticks proper for music events. I'd love it if everything would just immediately go rural, but that's sort of unrealistic.
Killer lineup for Sakado Extreme, as is always expected from Obliteration. Day 1 has YxAxD, Kruelty, Myocardial Infarction, and Mortify. Day 2 features Saigan Terror, Decapitated Pigs, Outbreak Riot, and Invictus. A damn heavy lineup of punk, death metal, and grind. Very nice.
Never been to the venue, Riddim, but it's a proper live house so its almost certainly going to be more difficult to set up. Sound may also be a bit of work to get in place, but not impossible.