Asia

Lookin' all fly n' stuff in Singapore

After having a few days to decompress from the craziness that took place over the last two weeks, I still have a hard time believing it happened. It's strange to go "Oh yeah, that's right, I was playing in front of like 23 billion people in Tokyo the other night" and then sure enough, there it is on youtube. Before we left on this tour I had never been outside of the country, so needless to say I was kind of culture shocked a touch. And by a touch I mean I was in gawking tourist face mode at least 113% of the time.

I get to LAX in the afternoon and head into the international terminal to check my bag, with about a million butterflies in my stomach, as airport security is like my favorite thing in the world right next to SARS and the Twilight series. I get through security to the lounge, and here I find out two things:

1. Best Buy apparently makes giant vending machines.

*and more importantly*

2. Kanye West is somewhere in this lounge.

So pretty quick after I get there, Jeff, Nicole and Billy arrive, after being pretty well hassled by security, and I tell them Kanye is on our flight. This proves to be the most awkward/awesome thing ever, for a few reasons. The flight to Singapore is something to the tune of 19 hours, and every time I went back to the bathroom, I ended up walking past Kanye. I just got to thinking to myself, "This is probably the most hilariously undignified circumstance I could be repeatedly seeing a giant hip hop star in." Other than that, the flight was rather uneventful, a nice relaxing sleep before the craziness.

Nicole getting her first-class lounge on.

We arrive in singapore and the first thing I notice getting off the plane is that the windows are drenched in humid fog, which was just a sign of things to come. The minute we got outside the airport it was like I had stepped into sauna. Thankfully the car was like ten feet from the door, and we cruised to the hotel to catch a few hours of nap time before meeting up again to go explore. We stayed on the almost top floor of a hotel overlooking downtown Singapore, and it sort of struck me, at 6:00 A.M. from the terrace of my hotel room overlooking the city, just how ridiculously far I've come, and how truly blessed I am to do what I do. And that was even before we hit the stage.

Singapore

We decided to go out and do a little walking around a market area near the hotel, which was quite relaxing. We had lunch at this chicken rice place called Tian Tian, which is Anthony Bourdain certified good. Tasted delicious and costs next to nothing.

Tian Tian, Complete with whole chickens, head and all.

After delicious rice, we went through town looking for a decent place to get foot massages. That was kind of a trip. I have never had a massage before, let alone the crazy brand of pull-your-toe-out-of-socket deal they've got here, but it was fantastic.

Kat, Kristin and Billy having a super cool Blackberry party at the massage place.

This particular strip of tourist trap also had a couple of the best restaurant names I'd ever seen such as:

Da Dong Restaurant, Fatty Weng Group. Making it too easy.

and my personal favorite:

The Spicy Temptation Steamboat. Obviously.

Not a restaurant but still worth noting is the fact that apparently this is an issue in singapore:

DO NOT EAT. You're cool to eat the live octopus, but NO MOUSE PADS.

We get to Singfest our second day in Singapore, though Nicole, Kat and I had come the night earlier to see Lupe' Fiasco destroy the stage (which he did quite handily. When he played Kick Push I almost jump-kicked a guy.) My drum tech Brad was up on stage when we arrived, ready to get me situated. I got up on the drum riser and leaned over to him and said "I feel like I've got vertigo or something, is this riser crooked?" To which he responds "Nope, It's the whole stage." So we soundcheck on this funhouse stage, basically unable to hear anything and sweating our brains out. We wrap up and head to this rad aquarium called "Underwater World". Fun Fact: feeding manta rays is probably the fastest way to get self induced whiplash ever. Those suckers are quick, I almost jerked my shoulder out of socket when one cruised up and startled the hell out of me.

Me chillin' with a lobstery-looking critter (see bottom left).

Track forward to showtime, we hang out until midnight waiting to play, we finally get up there, and man, it was good. The crowd really hung in there, and we had an awesome time. It was still pretty darn near impossible to hear, but the fans kept the energy so high, you couldn't help but have a good time. Next stop was Tokyo.

So just to put it in perspective, this is how I imagine locals view the city of Tokyo:

This, however, is a little closer to our tourist viewpoint of Tokyo:

It was really overwhelming, the amount of amazing, totally insane culture there was to discover in Japan. Everything is extremely vibrant and colorful, and the people are wonderful. We had a few days to kick back and enjoy the city, which was excellent. Nicole and I visited a couple temples during the day, as well as the electronic district, which is super crazy, and the streets of Harijuku, which is possibly the most ridiculously overwhelming stretch of anything ever conceived. Plenty of excellent tourist gear there, I bought my dad a shirt that said "Smooth Trooper Lover's Yo Mama's Flapjacks", which last time I checked doesn't mean anything, at all. The one thing that I encountered everywhere I went was the unbelievable amount of politeness and respect shown to everyone, regardless of the situation. This of course, while amazing, can make for an interesting show experience, as was evidenced by Summer Sonic.

We got our first shot at Tokyo on the Mountain Stage in the Makuhari Messe in Chiba. Biggest crowd I've ever played bar none. It was unbelievable how many people were in this building, it looked like it went on forever. Which made it all the more interesting when, following their applause, they would be absolutely silent. It's a really ridiculous feeling to be sitting up in front of a giant crowd that isn't making any sound at all. That said, that show was one of my all time faves, I'm never going to forget how incredible it felt to walk off the stage after playing that show.

The next day we hopped the bullet train to Osaka, which was super awesome, I couldn't believe how quick we got moving. We drove from the station to the festival grounds, which were really beautiful. We hung out, ate some sushi, and warmed up until it was time to take the stage. Good show, a little weird hearing Jay-Z super loud during the entire set, but it was overall a cool show, even if we were choking on generator fumes for a large portion of it. We stayed a night in Osaka before jetting back over to Tokyo for two more shows at Studio Coast.

Studio Coast

The shows here were awesome, by the end of the show each night the band was on fire. At one point there was people coming over the barrier so fast and often, it was like a people waterfall. The energy was electric, the crowd was wild, and we had an absolute blast.

Stage view of the Studio Coast ceiling.

The crowd during Ling Toshite Sigure, our support for night 2

Brad and I getting our bro-faces on at soundcheck.

Following the show, we went to karaoke with Kat, Kristin, Nicole, and a few other friends, which initially, sounded like a terrible idea to me, but quickly became one of the most awesome moments of tour. We channeled our inner Zach De La Rocha and let our light shine down like never before. After that we returned to the hotel to rest up for our trip to Seoul.

Anything I thought I knew about humidity was quickly obliterated the minute we stepped in to Korea. We didn't do a terribly huge amount of exploring in Seoul, except for a really nice visit to a temple across the way.

Nicole getting all spiritual/rocking a sweet teal fanny pack.

After a few days of hanging out, we drove to the Jamsil Gymnasium for the show that evening. This show would very quickly become the most awesome experience of my entire life. The crowd was absolutely insane. They were loud, they jumped all over the place, they knew the words to every song and sang the entire time. It was explosive, rowdy, and the fans really came to have a great time. When we got back to the hotel after dinner a number of them were waiting for us, and they were all gracious and excited, it made us feel like champions. It was the perfect end to Asia. Our next stop is Mexico City tomorrow night, and then from there we come back for our west coast tour, which I am super excited for, I cant wait to see what it has in store for us.

I'll leave you this time with a picture of a sign I took in Tokyo of something we found that is 100% a real thing. A real, beautiful, totally hilarious thing. See you guys on the road. :)

-Mike