“The tsunami was a lot crazier than any of you could imagine,” writes Tetsunori Tawaraya of the spastic Japanese progcore duo 2Up via email.

“Tokyo was shaking like a mad children’s toy. A 50-story building was shaking people's sushi faces for about 5 minutes. It was the craziest 5 minutes any of you never could imagine. Well, that tragedy caused over 1,500 deaths and another 500 missing. A nuclear power plant went on meltdown as soon as it happened, but the worst problem we had was the Japanese media. They tried to hide what exactly happened in a big tuna can, I mean 4 tuna cans, in Fukushima Daiichi power plant. It was fucked up. Everybody thought it wasn't a meltdown for a month. Isn't that too long to keep a lie holding up on media? Crazy shit.”

In Tokyo, electricity, water, and gas services stopped for three days and residents lined up for three hours to get small portions of food from a super market parking lot.

“It totally scared the shit out of me for a second,” Tawaraya writes.

2Up will be playing this Friday, September 16, at the Tower Bar with LA proggy-math maniacs Upsilon Acrux, San Diego post prog-skronk space-tropicalia math-lounge duo Innerds, DJ Monsterpussy of Makeout Weird and Club Purple radness, and local sound suit experimentalist Randy Chiurazzi.

2Up has played with Innerds in the past at the Smell in Los Angeles and has performed locally at the Casbah, the Ché Café, the Treehouse, Park Gallery, and other venues.

“This is the only place I have been to a tunnel show with hardcore bands,” Tawaraya writes. “You guys know how to party all the time.”