Toru Shioiri had to pause and catch his breath as he adjusted the strap on his electric bass guitar, drawing laughter from his wheezing bandmates. After all, the Tora-no-ana band had finished only its fourth song - the Doobie Brothers' China Grove - at the Shibuya Gakki music shop in Tokyo, and they already looked exhausted...Shioiri and his bandmates might feel a little long in the tooth to be sweating out old Cream medleys and Eagles tunes on stage, but they are riding a growing wave on the Japanese music scene - the middle-aged rock band. Concerts featuring amateur old guy bands - known in Japanese as oyaji bands - are increasingly popular, with support coming from music equipment makers, cable music TV, department stores and other businesses hoping to attract new customers. The boom in older amateur bands signals the musical coming of age of the generation that grew up to the sounds of the '60s and '70s, then dropped their dreams of a rock`n' roll life to put in hard hours for corporate Japan. But as middle age or retirement has approached, those old hopes have resurfaced - and Japan's increasing gray crowd is plugging in its amps again...Shioiri introduced Tora-no-ana's members at Shibuya Gakki by listing the various ailments each allegedly suffered along with their instrument..."I didn't think I would still be playing music at this age," said Tora-no- ana's keyboardist Masahisa Okuda, the band's youngest member at 38. "If I didn't have this band, I might have wound up being a depressed man"...more...
See related FG Thread: Rolling Stones in Japan
