Tennis Coats at Dalston’s Café Oto

The last time I went to Café Oto I was dumped. In the middle of the date. Feet pointing away (apparently a classic sign) the date suddenly stated: ‘You are not my girlfriend you know.’ Biting back the tears, I sought refuge in the loo.

I called my sister: ‘Walk out. Pick up your coat. Don’t even say goodbye,’ she ordered. As I was leaving the date said ‘does this mean I can’t come back to your place now?’

We’d been to see a ‘noise’ concert at Café Oto. Set up by an Anglo-Japanese couple a year ago the venue specialises in contemporary music, sometimes importing musicians from Japan. That night’s acts included a British jazz group, a Japanese pianist and a group on tour from Japan called Tennis Coats, described as ‘folkadelic’.

Café Oto, a loft-style space, is situated down a back street in Dalston, an area in the process of being overhauled, possibly for the Olympics. It was a hot night, and many of the hipsters that frequent this place (‘Hoxton twats’ said the date) were sitting on the kerb outside.

Inside there were two Japanese dressed in that curious stylistic combination of geekiness and cool, taking money for tickets. Surveying the audience sat on assortment of candlelit tables, sofas and chairs. A girl walked by wearing fishnet popsocks. I wished I’d worn something black, asymmetric and modern.

This is a venue where people sit and listen to music, quietly and respectfully. There is no sweaty pit and conversation is hushed. The British jazz act, with a slightly out of tune guitar (I assume on purpose) left the stage and a small Japanese man in Harry Potter glasses started banging out dissonant springy notes on the grand piano. After 15 minutes, he stopped and said ‘sorry’. But the ‘mistake’ sounded the same as the rest of his music.

Next up was Tennis Coats. There are no such garments as tennis coats. It’s a Japanese mistranslation of ‘tennis courts’ said their drummer. The married couple, who looked like brother and sister, played sweet melodic music; the boy on a bright orange plastic guitar and the girl, wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, on a little plastic piano with a mouthpiece. Every so often the girl did cute bunny hops.

In between songs, they spoke to the audience in Japanese. We all smiled warmly. Tennis Coats are the musical equivalent of a Haruki Marukami novel…quotations from occidental music, innocence, idiosyncratic humour and matter of fact alienation. I enjoyed it.

Café Oto
18-22 Ashwin Street
Dalston E8 3DL

Tel: 020 7923 1231

www.cafeoto.co.uk