Most of the time, the innertubes are a terrible place full of capital letters and lies, but occasionally you find out that there are–and have been for a while–Japanese Deadheads.
The great (and greatly named) Buzz Poole even attests on Twitter that he saw a Dead tribute band in Osaka back in ’91, and not one made up of ex-pats and Marines and English teachers: the whole band: Japanese guys. Authentic ones; locally sourced. (Something as deeply weird and inspiring as the Dead making it to Japan is more than worthy of a plug: go pre-order Buzz’s new book on Workingman’s Dead. It’s part of the critically-acclaimed 33-and-a-third series and comes out in April and there are no spiders secreted within the books pages, probably.)
The odd thing is that this happened in Osaka. Kyoto? Sure. But, Osaka? Wow.
Anyway, the above picture comes from an old post on Friend of Thoughts on the Dead’s (FoTotD) David Gans’ website. A guy named Nabe threw a festival based around a band that never got within 3,000 miles of his home and 600 people showed up. Also: the bands–at least one of them–were not terrible.
[archiveorg mjc2005-05-03.dpa4061shn width=640 height=140 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true]
A Japanese Fake Jerry. God bless America.
ps I had originally intended to post that tape of Majestic Circus–whoever in God’s name they may be–simply as proof that the festival actually happened, but these guys are not bad at all. They are actually killing this Playing, and Fake Jerry-san has really got Garcia’s tone down. Also, they have clearly learned the words to Playing phonetically and that is always good for a laugh.
dude
bro
where did you get this idea, huh?
Buzz Poole, like I said.
warlocks of tokyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9P4g30joG8
OH MY GOD THIS IS SO GREAT I CANNOT STOP SCREAMING I LOVE U JAPAN
Here Ya go Maggz
http://youtu.be/D5rRtYSwnOU
Digging the playing and the singing is killing me
In a GOOD way
Thanks for the link Bacon, these guys can play.
I imagine (have never been) that Japan and the people there are the most hygienic on earth.
How then would a family or group deal with the shame of someone as smelly as Jerry occasionally had to been ?
One of my brothers lived in Japan for two years. Spoke High and Common Japanese (if I have the distinction labeled correctly) and moved through all levels of society there. It’s Shiney there but the he brightness hides a lot of grime.
Sounds a lot like Donna!
I cannot believe how excellent this Playing is, despite the, uh, singing. It gives me the real deal Dead feels.
I KNOW, RIGHT?
I wasn’t lying: started listening just to say that I had and was dancing in my little seat a few minutes in. Keep listening: there’s neat Japanese-sounding stuff in Drums and the jam after that is tremendous.
Thumbs up – Praying In The Band is good stuff.
More. Now with Joe Russo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXfiPTL2DSI
this is great! i love these guys. thanks!