Every year, the week between April and May is a big vacation holiday in Japan called Golden Week and this year Detroit punk legend and girl group enchantress Nikki Corvette came with her latest backing band Gorvette, consisting of members of the Gore Gore Girls. They made a four show tour organized by Nikki's longtime Japanese label Base Records with Yokohama garage band The Havenot's supporting at all stops. First nite was at Nakano Moonstep in Tokyo with additional support from
Spookey, an all-girl punk/new wave band got popular in Europe for playing with the likes of the Damned. Next the Gorvette crew headed down to Osaka to play Rockrider with one of Japan's most fuzz-fueled trio of female furies
The Go-Devils and the old-school pop punk sounds of Wimpy's (who can be found on the
2007 Raw 4 DVD). Next they were joined by melodic punk/power pop fusion band Water Closet and firewater-guzzling garage punk legends Gasoline at Day Trip in Nagoya. Nikki and company finally wound their way up to F.A.D. in Yokohama where they were opened by some of the most savage & stylish garage bands in Tokyo these days, namely the caveman surf & soul group The Mighty Moguls and spy-theme Mod girl band Six (featured on the first Sex & Fury & RnR DVD). I'm very pleased so many bands that I've come into contact with through Pacifiction Records have participated in Nikki's tour and it was very cool I could promote these artists at the same time.
In 2006, I got to see Nikki Corvette and the Stingrays in NYC when they played with Big Fun, Baby Shakes and The Milky Ways at Cake Shop and Trash Bar. At that time I also met Rico, a Japanese kid living in NYC who plays with WLWL, who I became friends with and met in Shibuya and also the last time I went back to the city. After the show, stragglers (like me and Rico) got pictures taken with Nikki and we all went to another rock 'n' roll bar down the road for drinks and late nite dance party. So, needless to say I had been anticipating when I would see Nikki in Japan. I met up with Detroit Jack outside and rapped with him for a bit before going in where I then met DJ Micky Room, who owns a small record shop in Yokohama where I distro some NY punk. After seeing Six do a blistering set of 60's mod & surf filtered through girl punk intensity and The Mighty Moguls lay down a fuzzed-out primitive groove, I met up with Mika and Kub (Theee Bat) and we all waited for Gorvette to speed out of the graveyard. Nikki met another adoring Japanese audience who seemed to shimmy out of their coffin-cubicle daily life to Corvettes classics, Gore Gore Girls tunes and new co-written material as well. They even graced us with a cover of the Buzzcock's "What Do I Get?" and, during the encore, called a bunch of girls from the audience on stage for a femme fatale freakout! To know more about the amounts of estrogen and the machinations of Mothra read this article from the Phallus Press!
After the set, much like in NY, Nikki and company hung out with fans getting pictures taken with them and dancing to the music being played DJ's Micky and Kent-low. Kub and Mika gave Nikki a copy of their new 7" split on Swamp Fiction Records, the first release of a new garage punk label I'm trying to kick start. After much drinking, introducing and chatting, we all let the flashback fade away and parted ways waiting for the next chance to take a spin in the Gorvette time machine. 
