Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Japan Drum Incident

I almost forgot about this, but it's as blog-worthy as the rest of the garbage I write about.

It was about 4:30AM, and we had just left this random bar. Apparently in Japan, bars don't close until you're damn well ready to have them close. I asked my boss if there was a law about closing time for bars, and he said: "Well maybe, but...I mean, they want you to have a good time, so they can't really close until you're ready to leave..."

Wow, ever been in an east coast bar 2 seconds past closing time? It's a little different.

Anyhow, we left. The awesome and loud Australian guy wanted to go to another bar, so we obliged, knowing it would give him more opportunities to be awesome and loud. We get to this bar, and the hostess clearly wants to close up shop, but is politeness bound to let us come in. I felt kind of bad, and wanted to get out and not be a huge pain in the ass, but then I saw them.

A tiny little drum set parked in the corner of the bar, no doubt for live music. For whatever reason, seeing drums overrides all sense of control. I must play them, no matter what, whether it's socially acceptable or not.

I proved this to the guy in Nebraska who yelled at me for playing drums shirtless in bike spandex in his church (whoops! thought he went home), to the people trying to sleep early in the morning in a different church, to the people at Jake's uncle's birthday party who wanted the actual band to play-- you get the picture.

So I asked the hostess if I could play them. With a pained expression, she told me that I must be very good at drums and should go ahead. At five in the morning. When there were other people singing Karaoke.

By God, I sat there behind that tiny kit and gave Japan the rockingest 30 seconds it had every seen, social niceties be damned. It's a little like Garth's drum scene in Wayne's World. There's something so incredibly primal and seductive about wailing on drums--anyone who hasn't done it is seriously missing out.

Thanks Japan, that was fun!

5 comments:

Sam said...

So, what did they say? Did they bow down before the all-powerful god of drums or did they ask you to leave?

Nate said...

Nobody said anything at all. There was a big loud Australian who was being more obnoxious from me, and diverted all the attention from my 9000 decibel drum-playing.

I just sidled in, played for a bit, sidled out, and left. It was kind of weird.

Nate said...

Oh also, I wasn't drinking there either. I literally just walked in from the street, played drums for a bit, and left. I may as well have been some wandering vagrant...

Anonymous said...

How can we visualize the scene without a pic or two?

Was it Funky Drummer or something more obscure?

Unknown said...

Bars, drums, spandex--I think you missed your calling and have another career waiting in the wings.