Tokyo’s underground Metal scene is thriving. This is fuelled by a network of intimate venues known as Live Houses, where bands play night after night to passionate audiences. At Earthdom in Shin-Ōkubo, Glenn Williams discovers the people keeping that scene alive, meets promoter Matt Ketchum, and catches up with Over The Hill, a band whose ferocious live performance prove their name is anything but a reflection of their musical ambitions.
Over The Hill
Earthdom, Shin-Ōkubo, Tokyo – 2 October 2026
Words And Photography: Glenn Williams
Estimates of how many Live Houses, small venues with an average capacity of 100 to 500, there are in Tokyo vary. There are definitely well over 150, most likely closer to 200. The discrepancy is that the smaller ones open and close at an alarming rate, and that no official definition of the term Live House exists.
These types of venues range from a café to a basement in an office block to an actual purpose-built venue. The well-established ones are open seven nights a week and will put on up to six bands every night.
There is lots of live music in Tokyo, and one man who promotes shows in them is expat Matt Ketchum. I had a few words with him as the audience rolled in.
For Matt, organising shows in Tokyo is what we would all expect. “Herding cats, promotion, designing flyers, and getting bands on board, communications, and various different social media, websites, listings,” he smiles. “There’s just everything to do.”
But this is something Matt does for the love of it. “The scene here is really good,” he says. “There’s a lot of really creative folk that really just do not get any kind of exposure, which sucks.
“I’m a musician too. You want people to hear what you’ve got. I started doing this back in 2013, and part of what I saw as a musician was that the musicians themselves were also taking on the responsibility of the booking, the management and the promotion.
“In my head, I was thinking, you are the musician, do the music. So I try to give back, participate, and help out with all the bands and folk that I know.”
Matt says there is competition, but it is not malicious. “There’s coordination as well,” he says. “I’ve got this night, you can have that night. It’s good that they do that.” Worship Pain is the band that Matt Ketchum is with, while the booking part is through Kaala. At this point, Matt has to run off for some reason or another, so I turn my attention elsewhere.
The bar at Earthdom has a bright and smiley barmaid who serves me a beer in a paper cup. Joe and Bill are already in there, drinks in hand. Bill has just come off the wagon and has a big grin on his face. Joe and I both come from Leicester, England, while Bill is American. “Florida, I guess,” he says. “But it’s complicated”.
It is rare to see one without the other at a Metal gig. Tonight, their excuse is that they are in one of the bands, namely, Over The Hill.
Over The Hill – Joe Duggan (vocals) and Bill Jokela (bass)
Joe says the seeds of the band were sown when he went to a Sigh concert in 2010. “I had never been to a local Japanese show before, so I contacted them to book advance tickets. I contacted Mikannnibal specifically, and she said, ‘Oh, you’ll be OK, don’t worry about it.’ After a few exchanges, she said I should meet a friend of hers, Bill.”
Over The Hill played their first show in 2022. “It was a bit rushed,” Bill says. “The guy who originally started this band, Tim Yoshida, who is still technically a member of the band, he wrote a bunch of music and wanted to perform it. Then he asked how many friends I had.”
Yoshida sent the music to Joe, asking if he could write lyrics. “We jammed a few times,” Bill says, “and it was working, sounding cool.” Then Tim Yoshida announced he was leaving Japan and moving to Canada.
“Before that, though, he said, we need a lead guitarist,” Joe points out. “I didn’t know anybody, but he said he had a friend who is really good, but didn’t know if he would be interested in doing this, because it’s not quite up to his level. That’s how we got Kenta [Sugawara, lead guitar].”
“He was leaving Japan and I’m like, well, we’ve got to play before he leaves,” Bill says. “We managed to slip in a show at the Pit Bar in Nshii Ogikubo. We weren’t ready, but all things considered, it went pretty well.”
A show at Bastardfest would follow, but there was no consistent lineup. “We are not playing at full strength tonight as one of our guys couldn’t make it,” Bill says. “But fortunately, we’re flexible enough that we can do multiple lineups and still pull off a show. Our drummer, Hitoshi, could not make it tonight, but Taka [Sano], our guitarist, actually played drums with us originally.”
Tonight would find Taka, the guitarist, on drums, Kenta on guitar, with Bill and Joe. Over The Hill are flexible, “but stable.” As for future recordings, there are plans, but “A couple of us have not recorded before so we’ll take it a step at a time.”
Soggy beer cups were charged, and as Joe and Bill head off for the changeover, I find a suitable viewing position out front. Changeovers at Live Houses are swift, as everyone usually uses the same in-house backline, so it is barely ten minutes before they begin, and they waste no time in setting out their stall.
Aggressive Metal, it is definitely in-your-face, especially when Joe leans over the monitors and sings into your face. Given Bill’s comment earlier about not being at full strength tonight, Over The Hill showed no signs of not knowing what was going on.
Taka and Bill provide a solid backing for Kenta to lay some nifty guitar work on and also play a couple of blinding solos that belie his ‘average bloke’ image. He is a bedroom shredder let loose.
Joe, as friendly as you like over a pint, gets possessed when singing, his eyes bulging as he stomps around the stage, urging the band on. Between numbers, he is all smiles as he chats to the audience. Bill throws in a few comments and then, bang. It is back to business.
Thirty minutes later, it is all over and we’re back in the bar. “We enjoyed it,” says Bill as he gets a round in. “And the audience seemed to enjoy it”
That they did. Bill and I leave them after a quick one to head home. Over The Hill may be the name of the band, but over the hill, figuratively speaking, they are certainly not.
Over The Hill – Setlist
Twisted
Over The Hill
7 Inches Of Steel
So What (Anti-Nowhere League cover)
Godbilla
Bastard Sons Of Tokyo
Over the Hill
You can find Matt Ketchum at https://worshippain.com and Kaala Music at https://kaalamusic.com. To find out more about Over The Hill, visit their Facebook page.
From Tokyo’s underground Live Houses to the heart of Japan’s Metal scene, there is plenty more to discover. Explore more stories, interviews and live reviews in MetalTalk Japan.
