I’m an American J-pop artist and have traveled out to Tokyo several times now for my live house concerts and to even shoot a documentary. On my most recent trip and as part of a mini-tour I performed at a live house called Omotesando FAB! Live Houses is the term for music venues (a la House of Blues) out in Japan. What I noticed about Omotesando FAB compared to venues back in the states is that they thoroughly go through every detail of the show for that night. When I performed out in LA I was lucky to get a 10 min sound check. But at Omotesando FAB the whole band arrived to the venue at 3PM even though the show was at 8PM. And we had our sound check when we arrived and we went over the whole show. Each staff member at the venue was trained very well with how they set up the stage. And because we had an hour sound check I felt confident knowing that the sound would be right on for the show. After we were done with the sound check we were told where dressing room/backstage was unique in the way that IT was setup that all the counters connected and mirrors along the wall as well. At one of the counters was a T.V. Where we can see each band before we were up.
The whole dressing room/backstage was unique in the way that is was setup that all the performers that night could bond very easily before the show. I also noticed that the two other bands/artists that performed that night had similar music to me. Whereas venues out in the states usually just take whatever band that can have that night and most of the time the bands are very unmatched. Now that I have performed out in Tokyo and LA I must say that I am more pleased with how the live houses treat their bands/artists in Tokyo. At Omotesando FAB the staff and performers for that night all treated the show very passionately like it would be their last. If you are ever out in Tokyo I would definitely suggest that everyone should go at least once to a live house out in Tokyo.
