written 7/29

today was insane. i'm going to sound like such a nerd in the next few minutes because of all the people i met but it was awesome for me haha. we woke up at about 10 am and went down to breakfast. we rode in the elevator with the singer of the hives who was going to meet up with franz ferdinand for breakfast where we were going too. everyone you could imagine was down there eating right by us, wolfmother, who we saw like 15 times the whole day, it was pretty cool. the breakfast was very odd, just as all the food is here and i didn't eat much, but it was a good experience.

first i had some weird japanese stuff that was like a pastry of some sort.... but i had to pass over the 10 fish products that were out before i got there. i also had to pass up spoiled beans and honey, a tasty japanese treat, according to foodog. the pancakes were branded with dragon emblems, it was real sweet.

anyway, when we got to the basement to get ready for the show, we went to our dressing room... we had our own trailer which was awesome. we were right in the same area as bands like, wolfmother, yeah yeah yeahs, story of the year, sonic youth, jenny lewis and the watson twins, string cheese incident (who said they were playing for 4 hours today) and tons more, it was out of control.

after we got settled in we went over to our stage and got everything all situated. they had all the amps we ordered and drums and everything all set up and ready to be wheeled out onto the stage as soon as locofrank and eastern youth wer done. they are both japanese bands who were very nice to us. we hung out with them for a while afterwards and made some new japanese friends, hopefully we'll see them again sometime.

before we played i had to get some problems that happened with my guitar fixed. the flight had messed up the neck and intonation of the guitar, i was worried but the stage hands fixed my guitar and everything. even though they spoke no english.... the guy basically setup my guitar for free in about 5 minutes, adjusted the truss rod and all.. so sweet.

after that we met up with our friend Sho, and walked around to talk with some people out in the crowd, we took so many pictures and it was awesome.

anyway, finally it was time to play and we put on some bruce springsteen: born to run. halfway through the song max ran out and started out the set and we ran out and had everyone clap. it was raining, so instead of the 15000 that our stage could hold... we only had about 3 or more watching us.... but still, very insane. the crowd was incredible. EVERYONE would clap if you prompted them, they would all jump if we did, and they would throw their fists up and yell HEY at every chance, it was so sweet. kids were singing and dancing and moshing... it was pretty out of control, even in the rain they were so crazy.

after we played we went and did a plug for 'wowow tv' and headed back to our dressing room. when we got there, shane and i went to say hello to string cheese incident because we had met them the night before and we ended up meeting the watson twins and their translator instead. they were very nice and invited us to come in the van and go watch them play. so shane and i went, it was really awesome. they were so nice, and it was goodt to finally speak english and be understood for a bit haha. when we got to their stage, we hung out and talked while we waited for them to go on. while we were hanging out flea came over and we got a picture with him, and i even talked with the guys from junior senior a little bit, who were amazing, best danish people i ever met haha.

jenny lewis played really really well and we said goodbye and went back to the dressing room and bar area to get something to drink and do some interviews. we did a television interview and it was really really funny. we had to kick a soccerball and see how many times we could keep it in the air, for the interview. it was awesome.

while we were doing the interview, the scissor sisters were doing a photoshoot near us and so were the yeah yeah yeahs... i wanted to talk to karen o so bad, but they were done while we were still in our interview and i didn't get a chance. oh well...

after that, george, rob and i went to watch junior senior. they were so incredible. they remdinded me of like gospel or something, but like funky and just really fun. we watched their whole set and i was just in awe the whole time.

then we went to go check on merch sales. we had the most ridiculous time getting there. we walked all over the world, and met some crazy people. some girl gave george a free pack of cigarettes, and he tried to return the favor. we saw anthony and flea from 'red chili' (as they call it over here)... they walked right past us again and george was drunk and dumb and tried grabbing and stopping anthony, and rob was drunk and dumb and started yelling his name.. it was retarded haha. i just thought it was crazy that out of 130000 people and so many acres, i managed to see flea twice... very strange.

we walked through a damn swamp and sea of mud and crazy techno music to find the 'official goods shop' where our shirts were being sold. we had go through a crazy headquarters, where i got packaged banana souffle and chocolates and tea, and had many japanese people stop us and signed cell phones and things, and walked all the way there.... only to have no luck. it was out of control. then we had to walk all the way back in the same ridiculous mud, for no reason.... but it was really worth it just to see what everything was like, it was such an insane experience. the sea of people watching and dancing to this techno music.. we must have been a half mile from the stage and it was still SO loud and SO crowded.

anyway, when we got back we talked with the watson twins and their band a little bit more, and then it was time to go... we packed up the bus and headed towards tokyo.. and here i am in the tokyo prince hotel. i am very excited for tomorrow, we're going to see an ancient japanese temple, and then walk the streets of tokyo, and then the show, and then going out on the town... it will be an awesome experience.

but its almost 4 so i'm going to sleep. good night.
brendan