Nippon "Live House" kulture

The Japanese "live" scene is cool. It's not a huge metal/hardcore scene here but it's never the less here and it's intense, very intense. The Japanese moshpits are fun, most of these light featherweights are doing their best to kick the shit out of eachother but always with a murky smile on their face. I have seen many times "westerners" trying to make themselves understood in the circle pit by doing what they do home in Bavaria or Kentucky or where ever they come from. The lokal kids just gets shit scared and will either try to fight the aggressor for real (!?) or just from a distance keep aways from that lonely frustrated white man, all pumped up, standing there alone in the pit looking just plain dumb. The thing with Tokyo is that most bands pass by here for a couple of gigs on whatever "world tour" they are on, and most of the times they play in really small venues, makes it easier as photographer to get close to both the bands and the kids but there are usually no place to shoot from except from in the middle of the pit or on stage, fine with me. Next month we have MADBALL, H2O, SICK OF IT ALL here in Tokyo (in one of the oldest and smallest venues there is, great...) and even metalcore gods LAMB OF GODS will play a gig or two (also in a tiny place).