If you're in a foreign band trying to plan a tour in Japan, you sometimes need to improvise when it comes to booking venues. That may be why you're more likely to find Australian six-piece The Lagerphones at a cozy cafe than a grimy Shibuya live house.

This New Orleans-style jazz act from Melbourne once played an impromptu performance inside a train car, but their go-to stop in Tokyo is a kissaten (traditional coffee shop) called Lawn in Yotsuya.

Vaughan Allison, who has lived in Japan for around 10 years and is the band's manager, says he'd been asking Lawn's owner about hosting a music night there for a while.