Rooster Live Café in Ogikubo

Hello, I am Kanta K. and I would like to share about an interesting café that I used to go to when I was younger. It's located in Ogikubo in Tokyo, and it's called "Rooster". But this is not just an ordinary café, because it is actually a live café with live music. What's more, the live music is actually performed not only by professional musicians doing concerts, but also by the very customers at the café themselves ! In fact, I was one of those amateur musicians who would go to Rooster, enjoy the food there and also play guitar on stage.

Stage at Rooster

(Source: https://www.ogikubo-rooster.com/)

The way it works is that on select days, the stage would be available for people who want to play improvised blues jam sessions. If you were one of them, you would need to register for it and then attend like any other customer. Then, the organiser would call out your name when you are ready and you can join the musicians on stage and play with them. By doing this, we had a different combination of musicians each time who would come together for the first time and start jamming together.

In blues, we have specific chord progressions and musical scales that are used very frequently, so with all of us using these same chords and scales, we were able to start playing on the spot without any rehearsal. It was a great way to experience the magic and joy of music, almost like a language, as if we were communicating in real time through the melodies we each come up with on the spot.

The food there was great as well ! I particularly liked the spicy fried chicken there, which I would often eat in between going on the stage to perform.

If you play music and you're looking for others to play with in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, or even if you don't play music and you want to simply enjoy the joy and thrill of live improvised music as you eat delicious snacks, then this place is for you !

Thank you for reading !

Link to the website of Rooster: https://www.ogikubo-rooster.com/