Torture Garden
The leather ‘n’ latex set slither into Unit

Psycho Cyborgs

Photos courtesy of Torture Garden

Fetish events are now a staple (ouch!) of the nightclub scene, but Torture Garden was the first big overseas party in Tokyo when it arrived nearly a decade ago. After a two-year absence, TG is back with perhaps its largest do yet.

Launched in 1990 by Londoners Alan Pelling and David Wood and named after a novel by Octave Mirbeau, TG is now a worldwide franchise with events from New York to Moscow. In Tokyo its parties bring out crowds ranging from fetish fashionistas to Goth types to practitioners from the body art/piercing scene. What you generally won’t see at a TG event are the kinds of hardcore sadomasochistic displays that are performed at the domestic party Sadistic Circus.

That said, there should be plenty to raise the eyebrow at this weekend’s event. While the DJ lineup is solid, including TG’s Alan and David, Ed Real of Riot Recordings and Japan’s own DJ Tsuyoshi playing electro and “slut-core,” the music at a fetish event is only the background for ogling—and prepare to be ogled yourself as a strict dress code is in effect and those in casual wear may be denied entrance.

Topping the bill is Lucifire, a performance artist who has been seen at the Glastonbury and Fuji Rock festivals and featured on Discovery Channel’s The New Sideshow program. Her shows are a mix of skilled circus performance, fire-eating and body art. Recently, Lucifire has been working with “body modification expert” Dave Tusk on a traveling sideshow, The Fire Tusk Pain Proof Circus.

Lawler

Also to perform from overseas are Finnish group Psycho Cyborgs, who use “piercing, skewering, electricity, lights and power tools” to illustrate “dystopic narratives,” and bizarre contortionist Nada Eschaton from the US. Wounding out the evening are a number of domestic performance artists as well as fashion shows from Torture Garden Clothing and Kaori’s Latex Dreams...

One of the UK’s most dependable house DJs gets behind the pulpit at Womb next weekend. Building on a deep, tribal sound with a progressive bent, Lawler made his way into the DJ booths of mega clubs like Twilo and events such as Renaissance and Bedrock at the turn of the decade, and hasn’t looked back. Tokyo clubbers with a penchant for wee-hour ecstatics may find themselves agreeing with his point of view.

Torture Garden@Unit, Feb 2. Steve Lawler@Womb, Feb 9. See club listings for details.

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