I saw, and was involved with, a lot of great performances in 2024. Here’s a (nearly) complete rundown. You can also stream (nearly) everything on this YouTube playlist.
Jeimus is one of the best drummers in town. And Riki, well, he’s a jammer too.
In the freezing cold, this trio really warmed the “room”. These Tama river sessions are something special.
Beautiful evening of skitter-skatter movements of sadness and joy.
Somehow I’d never seen Chris Corsano until this night. And Merzbow is there. And Jarvis is there! And, wait that’s Sato-kun behind the decks.
Had to go see the trio again, really great.
Mark Sadgrove and his magic box is truly magic. I’m pining to be the drummer in this band.
I wept. Scott was like, “man, he just played three Sun City Girls songs”. Yeah, totally.
TFUL 282’s Mark Davis and his stellar cultural respect cover band. Oh, and pretty sure that’s Tom Lax’s head.
We (they) are indeed Puppet Wipes. Really fun band. Oh, and pretty sure that’s Gerard Cosley’s head.
One night only! James Yu sitting in for Jason Funk. So fun and so amazing how we immediately gel. Time cannot defeat us.
Insane quartet, and reminded me that I need to go out and see Akira Sakata more often.
And so I did…and bumped into Tobita-kun for the first time in all too long. Sakata-san gave a mini-lecture on microscopic water organisms.
Night one of the Ayal Senior Summer 2024 tour.
Night two of the tour, which united these three. Really beautiful. We need to get them in the studio in 2025.
Night three of the tour. Kento was in town, so the three college buddies joined him. Was super fun.
Where is everybody? Everybody’s gone!
This was absolute fire.
Final night of the tour and Ayal was on top of his game.
Turner told me about this. And here’s Sakata-san again. He got into the chants at the end, was nice.
Absolute legend. The first time I’ve seen him 100% acoustic.
Travelled to Matsumoto in the middle of a typhoon for this. Was worth it.
Eiko surrounded by the poketto, an excellent trio of Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Riki Hidaka and Kei Matsumaru.
Luke brought a warm mind buzz to the already mellow Permian.
Day 1 of the Bruce Russell / S•Glass tour. Haino on solo electric guitar!
And this was at soundcheck. In classic form, Haino tells them: “That’s enough, we don’t want to waste it all here.”
Nothing was wasted, here is the full set of the trio.
Day two of the tour. Bruce’s set sounded great in the Nanahari cave. I played with Akiyama and Masubuchi to open, don’t have video though…
Day three of the tour. Bruce and S•Glass sets getting better every night. Sharing Hina project who also played, was a fun blast of solo drums.
The final day of the Tokyo area tour. The rain kept the locals away, but not Nakahara from Hair Stylistics. Both sets by both guys were great. Was happy and honored to be a part of this.
A drone-y, kinda dark and super compelling jam. Yamamoto-san’s playing!
Tetsu is always so much fun to watch. Especially in the smokey Bar Fuzz.
The same goes for Rob. Same night, same fuzz.
Rob and Ayami, oh my goodness what a set! The Masubuchi / Suzuki duo minutes before was also great.
A gong, a bridge and a guitar, a nice way to close out the year.