NMFT 5: Toronto @ The Rivoli May 17, 2013

The Rivoli has a capacity of 200 and the show was sold out in advance. There was definitely room to fit quite a few more people but to obey fire safety regulations the Rivoli prevented us from selling any more tickets at the door unless there were obvious no-shows. Although the show was technically sold out, it didn't feel sold out due to the empty space at the back. And it sucked having to turn away lots of people at the door. I guess I'm just used to shows in Japan where they cram as many people into a livehouse as humanly possible and don't give a f*ck about fire safety. hahaha.

Having said that this photo of the audience does look like a sold out crowd:

Rewinding back a few hours, here we are loading the cargo van, walking from the hotel to the Rivoli and killing time during during soundcheck/rehearsal:

At the show a professional photographer named Mikey Riot gave me a present. It was a framed picture of me crowd surfing during NMFT vol 3. It's incredibly dope (Thanks Mikey!). Unfortunately, Kawasaki of mouse on the keys accidentally broke the picture frame while drunk after the show. (nauuuuuuooooo!) I got quite a few gifts from fans this year... mostly from guys. Nothing wrong with that. Though I'm straighter than six o'clock so it would be nice to get some gifts from girls next year. wink nudge squared.

For the May 17 show the secret opening act was Tatejima Yoko, singer of harafromhell. She used my acoustic guitar and sang songs about everyday life with topics ranging from her workplace ("Stamina Taro" an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant similar to the Mandarin), the movie Toy Story 2 and stalkers in junior high. Her emcee'ing was hilarious. The only English she used consisted of proper nouns while everything else was in Japanese... but it still seemed like she was conversing mostly in broken English. Her English improved with each show though when performing with the rest of her band. Tatejima brought her solo CD with her and the packaging... I sh*t you not... consisted of a brown paper bag with a B&W photo of her glued on. Most D.I.Y ghetto CD packaging e v e r. So much so it rules! She sold out of her CDs too. Congrats! Right after her solo act, Tatejima Yoko remained on stage to perform with harafromhell who were the first band up. I congratulated her and she seemed to relish the experience of performing in front of a capacity crowd.

me tatejima