"let's have special show time!"

samurai-koala tour 2004

Nov 19th



picked band up from the airport around midday - they're tired but excited. after sorting out one or two things we got back home to some food and an introduction to Coopers Red - followed by lots of promo signing and eventually sleep

Nov 20th
fbi interview with nick findlay
had to stir the band at 9am otherwise they would've slept all day. after some pumpkin gnocchi breakfast koji and i played some soccer at the park while the others got ready. packed the car, dropped off the gear at the bowlers club, made a quick appearance at paint it black record store in newtown. the band are all keen to hear new australian music. had a successful interview at fbi despite all our nerves and excitement. much kudos to nick who was very professional despite a crushed vertebrae. another quick look around red eye records and it was off to lunch and an interview for japanese newpaper info-m. the band is tried so we head up to the bowlers club where they all fall asleep on chairs as the sound guys work around them.

Nov 20th

bowlers club with la huva, love of diagrams, youth group

just got the soundchecks finished in time - the soundguys aren't too sure what to make of limited express (has gone?) but i know what's coming. many introductions and friends were made with the other bands and with about 50 curious people through the door yukari, koji and jj ripped the place apart with their huge grins and bouncy theatrics. must say many thanks to tim from la huva for coming to the rescue when jj broke a string and tim loaned his guitar for the final two songs. so 30 minutes after the start of the samurai-koala show and there seemed to be 50 new fans all eager to talk to the band and purchase cds. yukari slept through some of la huva's set - they were certainly different after limited express (has gone?) but had some really nice pop songs that everyone enjoyed. can't strees enough - la huva are cool people. had to pack up a lot of stuff and only managed to catch a few songs of love of diagrams whose music is as good as ever. we hope we can catch youth group another day.

koji "i was a little nervous because it was the first show but i enjoyed it very much"
jj "yeah - i was very nervous - we hadn't played a show for one month until now. i was happy many people enyoed our show"
yukari "i was so glad to see everyone's smiling face"


Nov 20th

maggotville show with pure evil trio and many other dj's and bands (see poster)

wow - now this place is cool - a warehouse location with a great diy feel, drunk punks and dogs running around and all. after grooving to misanthrope everyone got setup and the room started to fill - it was party time. champagne was served and the audience popped poppers (among other things i'm sure) and the balloons started flying. with a much more intimate environment the bands grins were reflected right back at them and it was a joyous occasion for all. jj jumped straight on to the speakers and urged the audience on and surely, half way through some drunk punks decided to join in during stop-go and even picking up the bass during tiger rock (and doing quite well at that!). again many friends and fans were made. we all hung around to check out pure evil which all the band enjoyed for various reasons - yukari scoring a free album after smiling sweetly at pure evil's bass player. finally at 2.15am it was time to head back for some food, some ping pong club and maybe even some sleep

jj "the australian audience has a great reaction - i like the australian underground scene"
koji "i was a little scared of the punk crowd but they were cool"
yukari "when the guy got on stage and picked up my bass i felt is was great to have this kind of interaction and participation"

christine (new fan): "fuck that was cool!"

Nov 21st

good day! green square hotel with terrapin, triangle, vincent over the sink, faux furs, kiosk

after getting to sleep at 4.30am it was difficult to get up at midday and we were running a bit late but still managed to be first to arrive at the show only half an hour before it started! luckily everyone turned up soon and kiosk blasted out 15 minutes of superb sonic chaos to a small but enthralled audience. faux furs were up next - they play a cool minimal fall-type music that made me happy - again quite chaotic and fun. ithink these young bands are great - they seem to have a complete disregard to any normal rock conventions and the attitude of 'fuck it if you don't like it'. and then...vincent over the sink! boy, these guys were amazing! and just their 3rd show - this two piece taked structure from ruins, sounds from indie types yummy fur and quirk out like the minutemen - bands which they've never even heard of! triangle psyched us all out with distortion drenched rhythmics and swirling acid patterns. at this stage i went in search of the missing yukari to find her curled up asleep under a table at the side of the stage - how she slept through the noise i don't know - but she seems to fall asleep anywhere (as did jj and koji at various stages of the day) - samurai-koala is becoming an ever more appropriate name for this tour. terrapin, now a 5 piece, threw out a quick set of their ever improving rock and tonight some quieter and poppier moments - very nice and jj liked them a lot. anticipation mounted and temperatures rose as limited express took the stage and once again amazed a reasonable sized crowd - i don't know how they do it but they seem to be getting better each show, jj's stage theatrics playing a bigger part tonight with yukari bouncing around as usual and eventually, during tiger rock, into the audience and with jj breaking a string yet again - that was it,to much rapturous applause and the sale of many cds. big thanks must go out to all the bands, especially those prepared to lend equipment and to toby who did the sound for the cost of two beers. good day? it was a fucking great day!

koji "this show had a great sound and was easy to play"
jj "i loved terrapin - i was excited"
yukari "i couldn't see the audience faces because of the lights but i could feel their vibrations - so nice"


Nov 22nd

2ser interview - sightseeing - 2rrr interview
had to get up early today and make a mad dash down to the 2ser studios to record an interview for wednesday overdrive - everything went really well thanks to ben, host of the show - looking forward to hearing it sometime in the future (we won't be here on wednesday to hear it go to air). while in the studio the weather turned cool and windy so limited express (has gone?) did some souvenir shopping before we headed off to bondi to contemplate the possibility of swimming. unfortunately it was way too cold to tempt them into some pretty good surfing conditions even though it was t-shirt weather for me. toured around to south head and watsons bay where i think we finally started to wind down after the weekend's shows. we dropped into newtown to oporto for these junk food freaks and met up with pure evil again in paint it black much to yukari's delight! soon after we were in the 2rrr studio with the wonderful micko to talk and play cool japanese and tenzenmen music for an hour - koji was particularly interested to talk more this time. finally home to rest and pizza and beer.

yukari - "many things....but #1 is micko's interview because koji talked much and i could play a lot of japanese music and introduce it to australia"
koji - "the highlight was going to bondi beach - i enjoyed the sightseeing and i talked on the radio in english, i had lots of fun but sorry about bad english"
jj - "today's highlight is now - relaxing"

Nov 23rd

after some morning rain things brightened up while visiting the koala park where the guys got to see many strange australian animals. spent the rest of the day mad dashing around the city for quick visits to various eateries and photo ops at the opera house. finally we kicked back with some fine thai food and much joking about koji's potential sexual performance with gaijin girls!

koji - " i was very moved by the beauty of the opera house. thai food was 'fucking ripper, mate' and koala is cute"
jj - "the thai food was excellent - in japan people go to thai restaurants to drink and i don't drink much so i don't have much chance to try thai food"
yukari - "when we first arrived we were so busy but today we got to see many things - opera house, clothes shops, supermarket (to buy tim tams and lamingtons) - and i can feel 'this is australia'"

Nov 24th


got up at what seemed a reasonable time but it was a crazy run down to the airport all squeezed into the car. everything went smoothly though and a few hours later we arrived at robert's (grey daturas) house - we checked out all the promo stuff which is really great and jj started listening to robert's cd collection. after some dinner and beers a few of us went to the revolver club/bar where we chuckled at the oi! band playing before going through to the back where more beers were consumed and various photo opportunities arose with members of jet and apparently jon saffran was there too.

Nov 25th

tote hotel, mebourne with lung upc, seedy three, deep where all drown
the weather has been kind in melbourne and today is about 30 degrees and we're eating breakfast in the back yard before a quick check out of the city with some cd shopping, coffee, mailing, coffee, trams and coffee. we figure out how to squeeze all the gear and all the band in the van and a dumbass parking inspector decides we need a ticket as we unload. the evening and night seems to timewarp as we either wait for things to happen and then everything happens too fast. we miss soundcheck because we're eating some nice indian food and before we know it lung upc are up and on stage playing some nice droney psyche with big riffs. seedy three rock like cowboy motherfuckers though be careful not to call them that, for your mom's sake. limited express hit the stage and rock out in their usual way - it's hard to guage the audience reaction as i'm videoing them but everyone seems enthusiastic during the breaks. around song five jj discovers the wonder of technical problems and the usual active express is stuck at the station as things get sorted out. it gives yukari a chance to interact with the audience at least. things get rolling again but another song later and jj gives it away while yukari and koji noisily end the set - short, sweet and fucked up. despite the problems and kinda subdued audience reaction many people come up later and buy cd's, chat to the band and we all ask them to come and see special show time again and promise no problems. apparently this is the first time ever they've had any problems. we'll sort out the gear in the morning and make sure it's all ok - and also make sure to get a soundcheck from now on! kudos to the guy who turned up late and missed the set but bought a cd anyway. oh yeah - before i forget, deep where all drown finished off the night with some really good hard assed in your face rock - check them out!

koji - "melbourne is a very stylish city - melbourne people are good - kawaii"
jj - "i'm surprised - there's a nice music scene. many customers grow up to be musicians"
yukari - "i'm sorry that i couldn't give everybody a good gig, but so happy people came even though they have to work tomorrow"

Nov 26th

missing link instore

we got up early in an effort to get down to lygon street for breakfast though by the time we were sorted it was lunch time anyway - still, the food was great and we relaxed a little in the 30 degree plus heat. we found the source of jj's technical problems so feel confident everything should go well today. so - load out from the house, load in to missing link, setup and wait - thank god for the air conditioning in the store! gray daturas play first and churn out some nice sludgey noise - the set is short and sweet and the crowd are digging it. anticipation mounts as limited express take the stage and play through a more poppy set (if you can call it pop!) with a great rendition of 'donuts' and much jj and yukari theatrics. everything goes without hitch and the band are happy and the crowd are happy too! everyone comments on how happy limited express (has gone?) are on stage and how infectious their smiles become. special show time!

jj - "i did a good show - but we forgot to sell t-shirts - sorry!"
yukari - "in japan we can't have a show in a record store because they are too mainstream"
koji - "i was a little nervous because i haven't played many instores. i am soundcheck!"


Nov 26th

pony with ai yamamoto & kaigen and twitch of the death nerve

after much chat we finally load out and head up to the pony to load in again! straight onto stage and the band are jamming out and instrumental soundcheck while soundman nao setup around them. twitch of the death nerve looked impressed as they brought their kit in and were really looking forward to the show. the room filled up and ai yamamoto and kaigen beat out some laptop noise and curious hip-hopisms which sounded great to me. a few minutes later and twitch of the death nerve cranked up the pressure some with some very impressive genre bending stop on a dime twists and turns - they were cool and super nice guys too. there seemed a genuine curiousity about limited express (has gone?) tonight and the crowd eagerly watched and enjoyed the best show of the tour so far. the pony is a nice intimate venue and nao managed to get a good loud sound cranking. with a little bit of space in front of the stage it was perfect opportunity for yukari and jj to mix it up with the crowd and the response was very enthusiastic indeed. it took us a long time to get out of there as we sold a ton of merch and the band were asked to autograph cds and have a chat with near everyone in the place! cool cool - damn cool - tonight was the shit - but i reckon it's going to get better!

jj - "awesome! awesome people - lots of applause - we had lots of fun together - our music is best enjoyed together - band and audience. australian audience is nice."
koji - "last night was the best show in australia so far. fucking great show! everyone was nice - i like melbourne people."
yukari - "now i don't remember everything because i was too excited. i was glad many people told me 'fantastic' and 'great!'"


mark from twitch of the death nerve had this to say after 'special show time':
"bands like limited express (has gone?) are capable of making someone's year or even changing someone's life. seeing artists who have delved so deeply and passionately into a world of their own inspires others to fight harder for their art. it reinforces peoples belief in the things that they already know, universal truths which reside in the minds and hearts of all people who truly believe in the significance of art. it is clear that touring a band like limited express (no matter how mind blowing) is a low profit venture. the fact that someone was prepared to lose money on them warms my heart."

Nov 27th

cumbersome records instore

despite a good sleep everyone is still tired this morning. we have a bit of time before loading all the gear but we don't have the energy to go anywhere and there's things to sort out here and there and before we know it - time's up. we head out to cumbersome in a hot humid muggy atmosphere - at least it's not the 34 degrees that was predicted though it feels pretty close. there's no air con in cumbersome and the band decide a pretty short set is in order - this doesn't deter them from rocking out and impressing the small but friendly crowd. there's a lot of good video footage today and hopefully you'll get to see it one day - the rock 'n' roll photo opportunities come thick and fast (see pics). once again there's lots of talking between band and audience after the show and limited express (has gone?) are always happy to make new friends.

yukari - "it was interesting to play in the daytime - we usually play at night but i could see the sun outside - it was great!"
koji - "nao (soundman) made a good recording of this show - so i'm happy. nao's kids were very cute - i like them"
jj - "we're comfortable with nao as our soundman so we're confident about our sound - on stage sounds good and i think off stage too - we can play louder here because of the good vocal sound"

Nov 27th

101 bar with ninety nine, morti viventi, flesh vs. venom

load out from cumbersome and ten minutes later load into 101 bar. a quick dinner at the vegan fish and chip shop and then yukari and jj set up the gear while i take koji down to 3cr for a radio interview - thanks to matt for the invite after the cumbersome show. koji does pretty well and briefly enjoys the limelight but soon we're back at the 101 to soundcheck and finally the band get to rest though koji is determined to slake his thirst with beer. i'm door bitch tonight so don't really get to check out the other bands though jj runs back to take some video of each band so i'm assuming he likes them. morti viventi sounded pretty awesome from my spot so go check them sometime. limited express (has gone?) quickly raise the temperature in the already boiling room and burst through their set, once again with an amazing energy (we found yukari asleep only twenty minutes earlier!) and of course the audience all seemed to enjoy it. kudos tonight for the twitch nerve guys for coming back for more (and tomorrow too!) - lots of applause, lots of smiles, lots of happy people - special show time! i've seen these guys play 9 times or so in the last week and i'm still loving their music, their attitude and their humour. god bless them!

koji - "i think i had a good show - audience was exciting but shaun was angry because i made a mistake so i felt sad. we are still friends!"
yukari - "i love ninety nine so much - i like music where i can dance. my throat is getting more sore but when i was onstage i had no problem because the audience inspired me to do my best - thank you to everybody."
jj - "our performance is very good but our groove is not good maybe because we are tired and there is a lot of reverb in the room"

Nov 28th

builders arms with grey daturas, young prfessionals, bug girl

we get very little sleep as we have to get up early to make an apperance on the japanese program on 3zzz - the host koji being a recent convert to the wonders of the special show time - the band feel very comfortable being able to talk in japanese and all goes well with many laughs. we split up later as jj and koji go to the city to buy some bits and pieces and yukari heads up to 3cr for a radio interview on the 'girl' show (sorry - forgot the name of the show) with another recent convert, larissa. yukari gets to introduce limited express (has gone?) and her other band ni hao! to the listeners and does well for a solo interview in english. we all converge back at robert's place and fall asleep for a few hours. we make our way to the builders arms around 7pm and pretty soon bug girl are up the front bashing out some nifty rock - the small room makes for a nice atmosphere and i have a good feeling about the show tonight (as each band plays the room fills more and more). next is young professionals who were fantasically ameteurish and entertained us all no end - my kind of music! grey daturas crank the volume with some huge slabs of noise and big pounding beats and most everyone has their fingers in their ears but enjoying it nonetheless. the room packs full as limited express (has gone?) set up and with a gambatte break into a familiar start of 'free style riding' and 'aloha' which has the audience booging with big smiles. tonight is the culmination of an exciting few days and the band excel themselves (yet again!) with a lot of guitars held high, jazzy craziness and bouncing bass players ('4-7-3-5-8-1-0-tiger rock!' (or something!). the crowd refuse to let them leave after 'talk to me, all right' and they rip through one of their high energy, high intensity tracks from the new album with such a ferocity it's impossible not to just laugh at the absurdity of the amount of pleasure that is being connected and interlinked between everyone in the room. even the landlady and door guy come back with favourable comments and surprise at the size of the crowd for a sunday show. limited express (has gone?) conquered all tonight and the merchandise box is favourably lighter for the trip to new zealand. we make lots of new friends and contacts yet koji can't overcome his shyness around pretty girls! packed up and home - the excitement keeps us up until 2am despite having to get up again at 6.30am.


yukari - "i promised myself i will come back to melbourne because so many people enjoyed with us - that was my pleasure too"
koji - "i was happy for many people coming and i could do my best. i appreciate melbourne people"
jj - "thank you melbourne! thank you melbourne's punk rock! we are rock and roll!"

Nov 29th
we all grudgingly drag ourselves up this morning and almost silently navigate our way to the taxi and the airport where limited express (has gone?) head off to wellington for a couple of days and i head back to sydney in anticipation of the final show on dec 2nd which should be an absolute cracker!

over to kieran: great to have limited express (has gone?) here at last. they arrive weary but happy to be here. they crash with us and fall in love with the kids. we talk briefly about the plans for the next few days, but good food and few beers and the boundless energy of the kids soon pushes anything serious into the background. we all sleep really well.

Nov 30th

happy with lucky food bar & the greasy poorz and ditzy squall

the day seems to slip by easily. in the afternoon we cruise around cuba street, checking out record shops and eating. at 5 we have a radio interview at radio active. we opened the interview with a track being played from the tenzenmen release eccentrics #2. sadly the interviewer was a bit of a dork and wasn't very successful at getting the best out of us. but the music seemed to say it all and one listener we spoke too later said limited express (has gone?) came across really well but the interviewer didn't look so good!! later after more eating, we crammed the car full of gear and made our way down to a club called happy. set up and sound check was smooth and then all we had to do was wait. tuesday night is a shit night for a gig in most towns, but yeah to wellington and a good crowd came out to see limited express (has gone?)'s first gig in new zealand. lucky food bar and the greasy poorz were first up; the line-up was turntables, vocals and guitar. johnny marks was the vocalist and was almost diamanda galas in performance, an impressive first set. ditzy squall followed up. a tight three piece dishing out uppy angular songs that bounced between shellac-like trance to choppy 'blink and you miss it'. by the end of the set people were up the front dancing away and anticipation was building for limited express (has gone?). the crowd had filled out nicely by the time jj, yukari and koji took the stage and ripped into their first number with all the energy you could hope for. all heads stayed turned on the band while they played and people danced and danced during the length of their set. the band finished with yukari bouncing in and out of the audience, then minus bass, and jj was on top of the piano at the side of the stage. the audience hollered for more, an unusual sight for a tuesday night and the band returned to the stage in response to the rapturous encore and performed 2 more songs. some cds were sold and people hung around basking in the glow of a most excellent first night.

jj - "i am glad to meet wonderful family. so we played nice show today. today we want to introduce japanese new music to more new zealand people."
yukari - "kieran, chrissie and their daughter are pretty good!!! i love so much! it was on tuesday, but many people came to our show! thanks a lot! i was excited!"
koji - "i was not nervous - kieran, chrissie and their family was very kind for us so we could play great gig."

Dec 1st


restful day today, took a trip to the top of brooklyn hill and saw the views from the windmill. a huge blue still day. down to the beachfront to have lunch in the sun. the sea was calm and we watched for dolphins, but got side-tracked by great food. it was beautiful to be a bit out of the city and yukari, jj and koji all seemed to enjoy the space. had a nap when we came home and when jj and koji got up, they went and did skipping with the children on the footpath. koji is very good at skipping. we went down to the cross bar for sound check at 7pm; it went quickly and smoothly and then went for turkish food for tea. blow up dolls were on first, at times sounding rock and at other times early 80s influences came out. they have tightened up considerable since the last i saw them, and a few brave audience members got the dancing going. the users were next, popular around wellington at the moment after the release of a recent cd, this group appealed to large parts of the crowd. at times crampsish, and at other 1960s rock & roll infused trash rock, a very slight and tight set.  the audience had swollen considerably and the room was now looking really full. by the time limited express (has gone?) took the stage, the room was packed. many people who came to the tuesday night had returned to see them again. it was an impressive site for the middle of the week. it was a hard set though; the band had several technical problems that had developed since sound check. yukari was having a lot of problems with her pedals and jj was breaking strings. but from an audience perspective you couldn’t tell that there were difficulties. the performance seemed even more intense and powerful than the previous night. yukari still has a sore throat but this did not seem to hinder her efforts. half way through the set, jj announced that they were going to donate a portion of the money they made from merchandise to the local anti-bypass action group. yukari, jj and koji all were interested in this local issue and felt they would like to help somehow. the show reached its conclusion with huge energy, the audience calling for more, more. yukari took the mike and explained tthat all their gear was now broken and they could not play anymore, but asked the audience to remember them and come and see them when then next come this way. a lot of merchandise was sold after the show, the tzadik album ‘feeds you’ was sold out, the single, tenzenmen albums, and t-shirts were all being bought as well. although it was hard for the band, it was a fantastic finish to such a short visit. i'm sure many will remember them and will anticipate and look forward to their return. i shall.

koji - "last night  was last gig in new zealand . i was very excited for many people coming."
jj - "i regret because our last night show was not good. i wanted to play more exciting show. so I would like to come again new zealand certainly!!! ps - we appreciate wonderful kierans family!! thank you so much."
yukari - "they took us to go around in daytime. very happy! because I can got clean air and nice nature view! on stage, i had some troubles, but  I enjoyed so much!"

Dec 2nd

frequency lab with grey daturas, hit the jackpot, vincent over the sink

waiting waiting waiting at the airport - finally a customs guy finds us and wants to know why jj, yukari and koji have equipment with them - i just tell him they were recording before and have come back to sydney for one night before flying back to japan - eventually limited express (has gone?) come out and we sheepishly load up the car and drive into the city to frequency lab - we take everything up and vincent over the sink start pretty soon after - these two guys are great but we only get to check out a couple of songs before hunger calls. we make it back to see hit the jackpot who are another wonderfully simple band - playing with a complete disregard to anything at all - they're cool! i'm running around wondering if everything will be ok as the place fills - it looks to me as though the equipment is ropey and the drumkit will fall apart but it's all there is...grey daturas manage to crank everything up a notch and chris on sound manages pretty well with the noise. the place is packed now and no one else should be allowed in but it seems the place is getting more and more full as people squash right up to the microphones. a 10 second soundcheck and limited express (has gone?) special show time begins once again with free style riding and aloha! the grins are wide on everyone around and people are climbing over each other to get a view. the enthusiasm is running both ways as the band crank up the tempo, heat and intensity. jj makes his way into the audience during stop-go and yukari during tiger rock. limited express (has gone?) finish special show time with another crazy run through talk to me, all right and a ripping version of spy which disintegrates into a squall of noise before a jj jump to full stop. the audience won't let them go though and beg for more so get treated to a beautiful rendition of drawtoborn and another quick run through free style riding after which jj and yukari get carried through the crowd to rapturous applause. everyone is happy! everything is good! limited express (has gone!).



jj - "thank you sydney audience! thank you punk rock! we are rock and roll! certainly we will come here again"
yukari - "it is no problem, language or different country, music is great!"
koji - "tonight we rose to the occasion and the last show of the tour was a great show"

Dec 3rd
we sleep for 2 whole hours before having to get up, load the car and head back to the airport. after much messing around checking in everything is finally sorted and we wish each other well and say our goodbyes - all hopeful that we will see each other again soon.

limited express (has gone?) made it safely back to japan where they will tour the release of their 2nd album 'makes you dance' in january/february. if our ideas and plans come to fruition they'll be back here in march/april 2005.

thanks to everyone who made this 'special show time!'

look out for a live cd and dvd from the tour

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