“Yomo” April 2021, 27th edition.

fateful encounter

Dear Sir or Madam, I hope you are enjoying the pleasant spring breeze and are in good health.

I hope you are doing well. It is said that life is a way to pass the time until death, and I believe that there is no more meaningful way to spend your time than with this blog. Deceptive spirits of mountains and rivers are walking around here. It is a den of demons. I pray that you will not turn into demons. Counter-teacher.
I would be happy if you could leave your dimly lit room with a Starbucks latte in your hand, or a Strong Zero in your hand, and sail across this great ocean called the Internet. I hope you can join me on my voyage for a little while, please.

I’m writing this article in my spare time after a rehearsal at a live music club. No matter when or where you see this text, or even if you happen to come across it years later, I’m sitting in a small chair in a small, dark live bar, working away on this text. Strictly speaking, I’m way past my deadline at the moment, and I’m in a hurry to finish it, but I’m not in a hurry. I’m sitting here with a clear face, as if to say, “No, I’m not in a hurry. I’m like a Kyoto beauty. I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize. I’m sorry.

Now, from my point of view, I think that the fact that you and I, who are the only oasis in this blog of the Dark World, have met here, and that you have read this text without getting tired of it, is the meeting of fate. I hope you will enjoy my poor writing as much as possible.

While I’m on the subject of fate, I’d like to tell you a story about myself.

To put it simply, I don’t believe in fate at all. I believe that fate is just a theory of results, just like the “we did it this way” stories of rich people who happen to be successful. If you make a mistake, you are just like a homeless person. The famous Soichiro Honda also has a very impressive record, but if he had not succeeded, he would have been lost. I am one step ahead of him.

I wondered if there were any encounters that I could say were destined to happen, but if I had to say, there are some encounters that I think I could use sentimental words like “destiny” to describe.

If I were to go into too much detail, my identity would be revealed, my real name, address, and age would be revealed, and even my graduation album photo would be published in an instant in this virtual technological world.

This was about three years ago.

I was a bass singer in a band. I had been in that band for about two years, but we were not doing well, the audience was deserted, the CD we had spent 50,000 yen to record did not sell, and I had no friends in the band.

At that time, I was invited by a booking agent to a live event where you had to win an audition. To be honest, I wasn’t interested in the audition system, but the event claimed “1,000,000 yen in prize money for the winner,” and as I was always short of money, I wanted it so badly that I wanted to get my hands on it.
I decided to recruit people just to win and get a million yen. We had no customers and no friends, but we succeeded in summoning one person. It was a long-time friend of mine.

However, on the morning of the concert, the guitarist contacted me and told me that he couldn’t make it because he had been called away from his job. Even Ikinari Steak was surprised. It was as if he had become a steak.

By the way, when we had our first live concert at that live house not long ago, the guitar vocalist was also sick. What a mess.

The fact that one of the three-piece members suddenly stopped coming to the show and the fact that I was losing the balance between my job and my leave of absence made me go into the “I’m sick of this show” mode. For some reason, however, the drummer was strangely determined and encouraged me, saying, “Well, you won’t be invited by that live house again, so let’s do whatever you want. The last time we played when the guitarist was sick, we played with only drums and bass, and the center of gravity of the sound was too low, so this time I decided to play with a guitar I was not used to (I could only play power chords).

I contacted my friend who had invited me, saying, “You don’t have to come to the concert today.
I called the friend who invited me.
“What’s up?”
I don’t think I’ll be able to get people to pay for the show today because I don’t have a guitar player.

My friend is also a bass player.
I asked him what he had in mind.

“Do you want to go to the concert today?”

Yeah, sure.

It’s an impossible question, but I wondered if my friend would say yes. I wondered if my friend would say yes.

Thinking about it now, this was the turning point of my fate.

So my friend arrived 30 minutes before the concert started, was drilled with 7 songs in 30 minutes, and actually went on stage.

Of course, I had no idea how to play, but for some reason I still thought it was the most fun I had ever had. But that’s because Seiji Amasawa, who gave me the worst impression when I first met him, said, “I don’t think you should play Concrete Road,” gained more and more points in the latter half of the show, using the technique of “dropping and gaining” to swing the positive from the negative. In fact, maybe not so much.

So the guitarist left, and it was probably the best time for me to quit music, as I was going through a tough time with a lot of things going on. However, I invited my friend to join me and we decided to form a new band. Simply because it was fun.

I know how difficult it is to form a band when you are a working adult. Of course, I’m not saying it’s only for working people. For those who are able to form a band as a matter of course, they may not be aware of it anymore, but first of all, it is difficult to gather members. It’s difficult to get members together, and it’s even more difficult to get together and practice in a studio on a regular basis. Each member has to make time and money to get together. It’s even harder to get together for a live performance. Of course, if you are acquainted with the person in charge of booking, the threshold is low, but if you have never been to a live concert before, you have to contact the live house. Even a band that plays live on a regular basis can’t do that. You have to overcome a lot of obstacles before you can get on stage. There are countless bands that only get together in the studio and never play live.

In such a situation, we stood on the stage as the three of us, perhaps by chance. But there are many people who don’t get that chance. Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without my friend’s willingness, and I don’t know what would have happened without the drummer’s encouragement.

I thought it was quite an amazing thing that we were able to play together as a band, even if it was a bit confusing. I thought it would be good to surrender a little more to this miraculous coincidence.

So we welcomed a new member, and I made a brilliant part change from bass to guitar, and a new band started.

Not long after that, I met Art House, and through various encounters, I ended up writing about it here.

If my friend hadn’t come that day, I wouldn’t have met any of you here, and when I think of it that way, I feel that our reunion that day was a meeting of fate and coincidence.

For me, meeting you, the people who are reading this right now, may be the encounter of destiny.

For you, your encounter with destiny may come suddenly tomorrow.

At the end of this article, I would like to wish you all good health and happiness.

Sincerely yours