Osaka dash!

A couple of weekends ago, on April 10, we got on a plane and flew to Osaka for one night only. Our mission: to see legendary 90s indie rock band Pavement! Pavement are newly reformed and on a world tour, having originally broken up back in 1999 (a few years before I started listening to them).

And we got to hang with our good pal Darlene again while we were there, of course. Bonus!

This is the view from the balcony of Darlene's sweet bachelorette pad. This is a pretty remarkable apartment view for Japan, where usually you'd be looking at the walls of other apartment blocks. The kids below are playing a nice Sunday morning game of softball.


She also has Beatles Rock Band, which Mirabel totally wailed on. Also pictured is Sarah, who came with us from Sendai. She didn't wail quite as hard as Mirabel.


Pavement were amazing, by the way. We didn't take any pictures, but here's the setlist they played, in case you're interested.

In The Mouth of a Desert
Shady Lane
Father To A Sister of Thought
Perfume-V
Silence Kit
Grounded
Rattled By The Rush
Kennel District
Zurich Is Stained
Range Life
Loretta's Scars
Starlings of The Slipstream
Two States
Fight This Generation
Stereo
Summer Babe
Unfair
Cut Your Hair

Encore:
Date With Ikea
Debris Slide
Stop Breathin'
Here

Encore 2:
Box Elder
Trigger Cut
Spit On A Stranger
Gold Soundz
5-4=Unity
Conduit For Sale!

Pretty great setlist! They played lots of my favourite songs and we had basically an awesome time. The venue was good, the lighting was stunning, and the band was all kinds of nerdy cool.

Later, I reinterpreted the broken wear manouevre for the Osaka subway system.


We met these lovely ladies as we made our way into a karaoke place. Note the spooky contacts and Gaga-esque police tape.


The next day, we took a ride on a ferris wheel. Darlene didn't enjoy the heights too much.


And this time we played a game of Rambo at Club Sega. We regretted not sticking with the ususal House of the Dead though. Shooting zombies is way more fun.