Miki's Fat City

Went to Akiko Yano's show last Sunday. I didn't expect much but it was great. I had to see it because we were supposed to do an interview with her drummer Jay Bellerose for a magazine right after the show. It went okay, I mean Jay talked a lot about his love for music, drums and playing drums that his interview was pretty interesting. The reason why it was OKAY is that a well-known English journalist suddenly interrupted it and he unconsciously put pressure on us a bit afterwords- we never knew he was waiting for Jay to finish it outside the dressing room until we were done with it. The record company guys, however, looked worried and actually asked us a couple of times how more MINUTES we would need to finish it while we still had 10-15 minutes. You know, this kind of behavior always tells you something is happening. Which is more important for them than an interview but obviously not good for us and letting us feel time-crunched. I saw this English journalist 4 days before

Went to my first Extreme show on the 4th. The band and the audience truly rocked!! Guess I was so lucky to experience their show in that great atmosphere. One of my good friends Mika booked tickets for another good friend of ours Aki and me. Our seats are in the 9th row on Nuno's side, which is close enough to see his expression clearly. I've been a fan of Extreme since their first album but didn't know what to expect this time. It was my first time, you know. My biggest wish, however, was to see Pat play live. I had a chance to interpret at his interview for a magazine 14-15 years ago. I don't know exactly what triggered this feeling of comfort in me but during the interview, the atmosphere he created and his tone of voice reminded me of my American dad Duane Batdorf who had passed away about a month before it. Of course I loved his bass playing but his great personality made me fall in love with him. Since then, I looked for an opportunity to see their show but did