On its very last night, the nightclub ageHa threw a party for the ages.
Thousands of revelers attended the “The Grand Final” event on Jan. 30 at the Studio Coast live music venue in the Shin-Kiba area of east Tokyo. The atmosphere was electric as house music thumped from the speakers and local favorite DJ Emma played for more than nine hours. Everyone in attendance received vials of sand and water from the pool area to take home as mementos. After the party, ageHa and Studio Coast closed for good.
From its opening in 2002, ageHa served as the largest nightclub in Tokyo for two decades, attracting both up-and-comers as well as big-name international acts. In August, it was announced that the landowners decided not to renew the contract with Studio Coast’s parent company, Mother Entertainment Inc., and in the following months, events and concerts held there took on a bittersweet tone, with the final slate of offerings in January providing a celebratory send-off to the space.
“The closing of ageHa is a very big deal, not only in Tokyo but also in the Japanese dance scene,” says Yoji Biomehanika, a world-renowned trance DJ who has been a fixture at ageHa since 2003. “It feels like the end of an era, because ageHa was definitely the temple of Japanese club culture.”
“I was impressed by the huge cylindrical woofers in the middle of the dance floor,” Biomehanika continues, recounting his first visit to ageHa, about six months after the venue opened. “It looked as if a baumkuchen-shaped UFO had landed there.” The spacious venue — both as Studio Coast and ageHa — was known for hosting some of the biggest non-Japanese artists as they toured the country, often supported by local talent.
“I already knew about ageHa when I was a teenager because some of my favorite DJs, like Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Tiesto and Derrick May played there,” says Seimei Kawai, co-founder of electronic label Trekkie Trax. (Kawai played ageHa’s penultimate party, as did Biomehanika). Throughout his teens, Kawai dreamed of hitting ageHa’s dance floor and listening to live music. “I collected ageHa’s event flyers, you could find them at record stores in Shibuya, and I put them on the wall of my room. They’re still at my parent’s house.”
AgeHa is where Kawai had one of his first club experiences, which helped inspire him to become an artist and start a label. He says the sheer size of the venue — with a 2,000-plus capacity — made it unique to the city. “It was like a magnet between the international and local club scene,” he says, adding that it gave artists in Trekkie Trax the chance to meet and play with foreign DJs.
“For locals, we could see what was happening overseas, what styles were popular abroad. (At ageHa) we could experience it live, rather than just through the internet,” Kawai says, adding that with the venue now closed, the only place non-Japanese acts can play will be at festivals like Ultra Japan or EDC Japan (both of which might not happen again for some time, given current pandemic-related border restrictions).
While the space is best known for attracting major talent and boasting an over-the-top party atmosphere — they once held an “EDM Train” event — it also offered a space for a diverse set of local sounds and performers to grow, including LGBTQ+ events such as the long-running Shangri-La night. Its size and popularity made it more accessible than some of the grittier spots around Tokyo, too, which allowed it to act as a bridge between mainstream and underground cultures.
“I think club culture is an exciting sort of chaos of music, art, fashion and other creative delights. There was always that kind of chaos at ageHa,” Biomehanika says. “It was a rare example of a facility that large, being able to try something creative like that.”
A shrinking scene
The closure of Studio Coast and ageHa comes amid a tumultuous period for Tokyo’s live music community. The COVID-19 pandemic has struck a devastating financial blow to many venues, and has resulted in several smaller ones shuttering permanently. Of those that are left, many have had to take unusual steps to survive, such as launching crowdfunding campaigns. Entering the third year of the pandemic — and in the middle of a quasi-state of emergency — the situation remains precarious, with murmurs among industry insiders suggesting that another summer of canceled concerts could force even more venues to call it quits.
Studio Coast’s fate isn’t totally at the mercy of the pandemic, however. Land redevelopment was another factor that pushed it to close, as was the case with Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba — another major live music venue — which closed up shop at the start of the year ahead of a massive area renewal set to be completed in 2025.
So what will happen to Tokyo’s club community? It’ll get smaller, at least in terms of overall size per venue, for starters. One example of what might come is Asagaya Drift, which sits close to Asagaya Station on the Chuo Line in the western part of the city. The compact music space opened in the fall and features an automotive theme that manager Kaita Tsuchiya says was inspired by the “Fast & Furious” film franchise. A visit to the bar during its opening weekend last October saw all of its charm on display. Revelers danced in front of YouTube videos projected onto the wall, while others lined up to try their luck on a slot machine to win a free drink. Meanwhile, DJs played music on a deck tricked out with a Ford Mustang bonnet mounted on the front.
“I like to think that Drift is the only place in Tokyo where DJs can feel like they are gracefully driving a car while in the booth,” Tsuchiya says.
Plans for the spot went into motion in the spring of 2021. Tsuchiya was managing an even smaller music bar in the nearby neighborhood of Koenji, the 20-person-capacity Yakusyu. Attendance proved better than he expected, so Tsuchiya began searching for a bigger space for a new venture, coming across property in Asagaya that was cheaper due to the pandemic.
“Nakano and Suginami wards have a local culture where bands and live houses are strong,” Tsuchiya says. “I wanted to create a DJ bar where all kinds of genres could be featured, and provide the sort of fun, familiar and local experience you can’t get in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi or other parts of Tokyo.”
Those areas Tsuchiya mentioned, however, are also seeing smaller-size venues pop up. Kawai points to Space Tokyo in Shinjuku, which opened at the end of 2020, as another example of a homely club venue. Even in the glitzier world of Roppongi, new clubs such as R3 Club Lounge — which aims to attract international acts, potentially filling the void ageHa leaves behind — feature small spaces, and put just as much emphasis on VIP experience and pool tables as live music.
“I don’t think it’s possible to have big spaces like ageHa anymore, given the circumstances. I think in the next few years smaller venues will become the norm,” Tsuchiya says. Kawai agrees, saying that everything in the city already feels like it’s shrinking in terms of size.
A search for something new
Prior to the pandemic, Japan’s club scene had taken a hit due to a so-called anti-dancing crackdown that primarily hit smaller spaces that couldn’t afford proper permits and accreditation. When COVID-19 forced a halt to concerts and DJ events, larger venues were affected. Tsuchiya believes that, when left with no other option than to stay home, more and more people picked up DJing as a hobby. As a result, there is now more of a demand to return to those smaller spaces where these burgeoning selectors can perform and perhaps improve.
A fragmented network of smaller clubs isn’t anything new to Tokyo either, which has long been known for a similar, rock-oriented live house culture. That system has its own problems, but would allow for a wider range of music and creativity to develop. Club enthusiasts will just have to search them out in the capital’s nooks and crannies.
As for the people involved with ageHa, the temple may be closed but their faith isn’t lost. Biomehanika says they will continue to organize shows and events in some capacity.
“The people behind it said, ‘We create parties because we believe that what we create will make the world a better place,’” he says. “I think that idea filled the hearts of the purists who gathered at ageHa, and that will be its greatest legacy.”
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