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 Rovics Rocks On Heaven's
Door!
On Monday 17th March
David Rovics played at
Heaven's Door for the
third time opening a short second tour of Japan in this cosy and
welcoming venue that is home to Spring
and various other English speaking groups in Tokyo that focus on
social, economic and political questions as well as human rights. After
a long flight from Portland where he had entertained crowds at an
anti-war demonstration the night before, Rovics only arrived at Narita
Airport after five o'clock in the evening on Monday, just three hours
before he was due on stage! As some people in the
audience had travelled from over two hours away after their
first day back at work following the weekend, the organisers, who were
seriously worried about
the prospect of his flight being delayed, came up
with a variety of contingency plans that fortunately didn't have to be
employed. As the support acts ( Paul Arenson, playing political folk
music with one or two love songs thrown in for good measure, and Endo
Kazuaki playing his unique avant-garde brand of poetry and verse set to
electric giutar and calculated feedback ) kept everyone happy and a
member of the Railway Workers union jumped up for an impromptu
performance of his union song, had Rovics not made it to the venue,
perhaps ( just perhaps ) the paying audience might not have lynched the
organisers!
Rovics opened his set
with Operation Iraqi Liberation ( O.I.L ) and
followed it with St. Patricks Battalion which set the tone for the
evening. As the lyrics were projected in Japanese onto a big screen the
tempo and emotion built up as Rovics alternated between radical
stompers and poignant and pertinent, almost melancholic songs of love
and loss in places such as Baghdad, Jenin and New Orleans . To finish
the evening the set list ( which was used due to the
necessity of projecting the lyrics in a workable sequence ) was
broken from as David dedicated "Which Side Are You On?", orignally
written by Florence Reece in the 1930's to the trade union members in
the audience, espescially those from Doro Chiba - The National Railway
Motive Power Union of Chiba. The audience sang along and the gig was
emotionally brought to an end with an encore of "Crashing Down".
David left the stage exhausted but still had the time and energy for a
host of different people who wanted to introduce themselves and talk
about what they had heard. He signed one or two Cds for people and
finally chilled out with a pint!
Visit: davidrovics.com
On Tuesday the 18th
Rovics the Rover was in Asagaya to play
at the Asagaya Cafe: Check out the report by T.P
On
the second night (March 18), David played at the Asagaya cafe, doing a
very similar set to the one at Heaven's Door.
Paul Arenson worked the sound system while Fujimoto san and Matsumoto
san of Poetry in the Kitchen took care of the projection system. Paul
again led off with some of his political, love and "almost but not
quite love" songs as well as Dave Van Ronk's "Mourn you dead land of
the free" which goes like this:
When I got back from Luang Prabang
I didn't have a thing where my balls used to hang
But I got a fuckin' medal and a big harangue
And now I'm a fuckin' hero
Chorus :
Mourn your dead, land of the free 
If you wanna be a hero, follow me
Mourn your dead, land of the free
If you wanna be a hero, follow me
In Luang Prapang there is a spot
Where the corpses of your brothers rot
And every corpse is a patriot
And every corpse is a hero
Photo:Paul Arenson at Heaven's Door 3/17
The
overflow audience of about 60 people obligingly sang along on the
chorus of this and another song.
Dave gave another rousing
performance, talking all the while about
things like the upcoming G8 summit. Earlier in the day, Dave was hit
with a severe bout of vomiting, presumably brought on by a serving of
oily tempura soba that morning, compounded by extreme jet lag. However,
as David's partner, Reiko, did not get sick despite eating the same
dish, rumors were rife that the CIA had perhaps tipped off the Japanese
security police, who in turn kidnapped the soba shop proprietor, tied
him up and then donned his cook's outfit, lacing David's tempura with
some unknown chemical agent in the hopes this would dissuade him from
returning for the G8 protests this summer. Questions were raised about
how, if they were so keen to keep this well-known rabble rouser from
rousing the rabble, they hadn't stopped him at the border and routed
him out before he could come to Suginami and cause so much damage to
the nation's prestige and social order.Unconfirmed reports have been
coming in suggesting that anti-globalization activists have managed to
infiltrate the Immigration Bureau, kidnapping Immigration officers and
tying them up, then donning their uniforms and gleefully stamping the
passports of an increasing number of activists poring in through
Japan's newly porous borders in preparation for anti-G8 festivities.
After David sang, another
performer known to much of the audience,
comprised of activists dedicated to preserving Article 9, their
friends, their friends' friends and their friends' friends' friends,
sang a number of high spirited songs on topics ranging from the wonders
of his native Hiroshima to his love for his
grandmother and, surprisingly for Reiko-san, David. We decided to leave
that to the 3 of them to sort out.
After the show, much of
the audience lingered to buy CDs and
glow-in-the-dark David dolls (just joking about the latter, folks!),
chat with the performers, share news of the latest protest actions and
art exhibitions, and partake of the tasty food and abundant drink. Even
David was able to enjoy two kinds of pizza, a few types of pasta and
some minestrone soup. Although he was planning on crashing at Paul's
place, the fact that the Asagaya Cafe is located on the ground floor of
a Love Hotel caused him to wonder whether they might be able to get a
room there, this despite the fact that none of the other guests had
actually ever availed themselves of its facilities and were unable to
make a recommendation. Also, as the Guide Michelin does not rate Love
Hotels, there was no knowing in the ceiling mirrors had been polished
recently or if the vibrating bed was functioning adequately. In any
case, David's hopes were dashed when it was ascertained that the hotel
was fully booked, and that they would make no exceptions, even for an
internationally renowned rabble rouser as Mr Rovics.
Everyone that came along
to this show had a cracking time and once
more, activists and good people on the left of differing shades
of red showed there colours, giving hope to those of us who are working
for a brighter, collective future.
Saturday 25th August 2007
ROVICS REVIEW
After jetting and speeding around for a
month or so on his tour of Japan, David
Rovics played a friendly and
good humoured gig at Heaven's Door
Shimokitazawa for the second
time on Friday
17th August. Returning from Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kyoto as well as
other places where he played to great acclaim at each venue in front of
crowds ranging from thirty to forty to several thousand, Rovics treated
the crowd at Heaven's to an hour of his music and was called back for
an encore.
Those who listened to David live for the first time were greatly
impressed at his guitar playing and word craft. As he sang songs such
as Occupation Iraqi Liberation, New
Orleans and I'm a Better Anarchist Than You, the mood swang from
raucous sing along to quiet contemplation and back again! The evening
ended with a few beers and some relaxed chat, as David signed CDs and
mingled with those who had stayed behind to exchange anecdotes.
The following evening a funk-punk-folk night in Uguisudani on the Yamanote line took
place where the Lickerish 4tet, Beerwulf, and the Happening entertained
the crowd before Rovics took to the stage and performed a short but
intense set of some of his best political
songs, the highlight of which, arguably, was After the
Revolution.The international crowd of Japanese, Asian, European and
North Americans enjoyed a top, hot night!
At Spring, we'd like to thank David Rovics for coming along and playing
for everyone and to encourage all of you to check out David's site, buy
his music and spread his message, as performers such as him make a much
bigger impact on wider audiences than we can ever hope to do through
meetings and demos.Cultural events
are an essential ingredient in fighting back against big business, the
corporations and the established media and with this in mind we can
fairly argue that David Rovics is up there in relative importance with
people such as Victor Jara,
who was a leading figure in the cultural and political revolution in
democratic politics in Chile in the 1960s and 70s which brought
Salvador Allende to power in the general election of 1970. Victor was
murdered by the Chilean military which came to power under a US funded
coup d'etat which installed "General" Pinochet on September 11th 1973.
( For this reason we really all should remember 9-11! )
Jara once said "The cultural
invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own
sun, sky and stars....in order to be able to see the sky above our
heads our task is to cut the tree off at the roots.US imperialism
understands very well the magic of communication through music and
persists with filling our young people with all sorts of commercial
tripe......they have taken certain measures....the commercialisation of
so-called "protest music", the creation of "idols" of protest music who
obey the same rules and suffer from the same constraints as the other
idols of the consumer music industry - they last a little while then
disappear. Meanwhile they are useful in neutralising the innate spirit
of rebellion in young people.The term "protest" song is no longer valid
because it is ambiguous and has been misused.I prefer the term revolutionary song" ( Victor
Jara, Victor An Unfinished Song, Joan Hara 1998 p117 )
While David Rovics may use the term protest singer himself, he is
uncompromising in his song writing, and shows how people with enough
determination can take an alternative road in art and music, working
with real people, the working classes, the underclasses of societies
around the world, to not only get a message out, but to embolden,
encourage and prepare people politically for different but
inter-connected fights for social justice against their governments.
Next time you think of buying music, think about the message, think of
why you are buying it and who you are going to play it to. Think of
where the music came from and how it was generated.Consider your social
reality and whether or not the music matches you life experience. It
may well do, because we have been born into societies that peddle
"commercial tripe". However, if you're looking for something more in
life, you should seek out performers like Rovics, or make the music
yourself!
David Rovics is back in
the USA : http://www.davidrovics.com/
ROVICS
ROCKS
ON HEAVEN'S DOOR!!
Spring hosted
singer songwriter and well known political activist David Rovics at Heaven's Door,
courtesy of owner Paul, on Saturday
July 21st 2007. In a packed to capacity gig after people were
unfortunately turned away at the door David played some of his best
songs in two 40 minute sets. With interpreting from Reiko, the songs
messages with anecdotes were communicated to an audience of mostly
young Japanese.
At one point it looked like David was melting in the heat and a towel
was passed up onto the stage so he could mop his brow. Someone had
leaned on the aircon switch by accident, turning it off and
consequently the temperature soared! Things were much better and cooler
in the second half of the gig and everyone was impressed by this
genuinely talented performer who has been called "the peace poet and
troubador for our time" by Cindy Sheehan and "the musical version of
Democracy Now" by Amy Goodman. Everyone had a great time and SPRING sends out a big thank you to everyone who
made it happen, especially those of you who came to see David play!
Check David out at http://www.davidrovics.com/
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