JAPAN TOUR - DAY 2

I didn’t expect to sleep well, but to my surprise I did. The bed was very comfortable, and the blinds were heavy and left the room pitch black. My voice feels good, and felt even better when D Mo called me with great news. His friend Yukkyyy from Frank McComb’s forum lives here and knew where Gatorade was and dropped off a gang of it. More on Yukyyy later.
We had sound check at the Cotton Club. The entire staff was standing there to greet us when we entered. That felt great. They did everything I could to make the stage as comfortable for us as possible. From the drums, to the monitors, the lighting, everything was perfect. This is gonna be a fun couple of days.
We pretty much go back to the hotel to get dressed and head right back to the club. The crazy thing is while standing there about to board our bus, who do we bump into… Chris Potter, the artist we were just talking about the other day. We shared a brief conversation sharing compliments. A band member of his had recently played him some of my music as well. I guess when he saw my name on a bill for the Cotton Club. He was headed to Korea the next day. Man, life on the road is serious…
So when we arrive to the Cotton Club we walk into the dressing room and what do I see waiting for me. A huge box of Gatorade that Rene went out and bought for us. So now we had plenty and I was happy about it. Now onto the shows.
Now I had the pleasure of touring Japan with Amel Larrieux about 3 years ago, so I already know that Japanese crowds for the most part are extremely reserved. The band has been schooled on that but I think they had to see it to believe it. They are use to trading energy with the crowd, but this audience came to watch a show and show their energy later. And it’s a beautiful energy I must say. I so appreciate them, but you almost get to a point where you think your performance is wack. Hahahahaha… The first show is 75 minutes. Anthony doing 20 minutes and me doing 55. I’m so impressed with how the band plays Anthony’s music now. It’s getting better with each show. I was able to sit back and enjoy his set and not think about what I had to do. That was great. So I jumped up there and we had fun. An artist named Crystal Kay that I use to give voice lessons to back at home came to the show with her family and label. I believe she’s a pretty successful artist here in Japan. She’s on album number 9. Guess I got some catching up to do. It was good to see her and her mother. I didn’t know they were coming so that was a pleasant surprise.
So after the show, Anthony and I go to a table to sign cds. Even though there is a language barrier between a lot of us, one thing is clear… They enjoyed the show and we appreciated them for supporting us. Once the line dissipates, the staff informs us our dinner is ready in our dressing room. Time to eat and get ready for show number 2.
The food was very good. The turn around time was quick, so before you could blink we were heading downstairs to perform again. This place had a livelier crowd than earlier, so of course the guys were happy about that. I must admit we are still fine tuning our set list here. Trying to experiment with what will work best. We chickened out on doing Rock With You today but we will see what tomorrow holds.
So we get back to the hotel and I have two things on my mind. Food and sleep. There’s not room for both, so I take my butt to bed.