All Ages

Who are All Ages?
By The False Prophet on Jan 26, 2008

So on the night of January 25th I was able to head out to a local rock show at the Jive-n-Java in Fallon, not knowing what I was going out to see really at all. I was just told that it was a show of some sort. I got more than I was expecting when I first showed up.

The band, All Ages, showed up and unloaded their gear into the small coffee shop on this cold Nevada night and just from their look I knew that we were not just getting to watch a group of kids express themselves (which, do not get me wrong, would have been cool also), but we were getting some musicians with something to say.

All Ages are a punk/grunge band hailing from San Francisco, CA but also from Osaka, Japan. After only being together for three years, they are already signed in Japan(Zenext Records), Independent in the US (Shameless Self Productions), and when I got a chance to sit down and talk to these three fun musicians, they told me that they split time in between the US and Japan, about half and half. With influences ranging from old school punk to modern grudge, the band has a good and versatile sound. In my sit-down interview, Derrik informed me that they listen to Nirvana, The Pixies, Green Day, The Get Up Kids, The Ramones, and are heavily influenced by some Japanese music, especially the band Mongol 800 from Okinawa.

The band is comprised of three members, Derrik on guitar and vocals, Koko on the drums and percussions, and the one who was the most fun to watch and wanted to be affectionately referred to as “Crazy Tom” on bass and backing vocals. Both guitar players, using wireless playing devises, had fun jumping and running around the room, but Crazy Tom, during the second song started running around the room with his heavily spiked hair and silly smile. As the show went on, more and more theatrics occurred, and during the final song he eventually somehow lost his pants and end the night jumping off a table in nothing but a t-shirt and some boxer-briefs. Overall it was a good feeling in the air and an entertaining show, even if there was only the one band.

The band told me after the show that they like to have fun, write music in a normal band manner, and for those which have never had the privilege to play music with friends before, it sometimes can be a long and difficult process of coming up with an idea in a bedroom, taking it to the studio or garage or what have you, and having your band mates hate it and fight with you over it, or sometimes it just all clicks together. The point in the end according to Derrik it to just keep it fun and friendly because if it is not that in the end, it is not really worth it. For all you young and aspiring musicians out there, I recommend to always remember those words.

I asked them around the history of the band and I got a reply of, “Do you want the true story or the fake story of how we started?” so I am not totally sure which story I got but I believe it is the true one. Derrik stated that Tom was homeless and that he was one of the only people on the streets of SF that would give him some money, so Tom started finding him and whatnot and one thing led to another and somehow they found they enjoyed playing music together. That is actually a better story than most bands have, so whether true or not, it is a good thing to think about. I then asked them about the band name and if it had any artistic or poetic meaning to them and why they chose it to which I got the reply that it is a statement that there needs to be more all ages venues around because in the end, that is who musicians are talking to, the youth of the world and that is who needs to be in contact with the music in the end to which I very strongly agreed with and noted that here in Nevada especially, most venues are bars which are 21 and over, and the rest are just so unheard of and hard to get in touch with. This is a state which makes it more and more difficult for the music to get to the audience, and the band understood and agreed. That is one of the best features of the Jive-n-Java is the all ages aspect of it.
(The band name they say is literal, meaning everybody ages.)
So if you get a chance to check the band out sometime, I highly recommend that you do, it will be worth your five bucks to get in, trust me. I hope to get more chances to see these fun and friendly tune smiths in the future and that we can keep in contact. We will keep you updated as to anymore local and national events with ALL AGES.

Will Hoffknecht

- www.theobscurearts.com

"(All Ages)successfully created a melee of distorted guitars and crash
cymbals with ghostly-catchy keyboard ditties over the top." - www.blogs.sfweekly.com