Playing in a Snack Bar in Town, Borrowing an Outdoor Amp - The Cube Street EX

Hello.

In September, I performed at another event called “Town Music” held at ARAKAWA LABO main branch, a snack bar located in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo.

I’d like to share about the event and the gear I used for the performance.

About Town Snack Bars and “Town Music”

A “town snack bar” is a new type of community‑oriented eatery. It hosts events under themes such as young and old meet-ups, town building planning, and creating a friendly place for people to gather.

Town Snack Bar

These “town snack bars” are expanding nationwide, so one might come to your town someday. I hope one pops up near me, or perhaps in my home region in the Tokai area someday. (Haha)

The ARAKAWA LABO main branch, where I performed, seats about 15 people. It’s a compact space where, even during a performance, you can see everyone inside the shop.

There’s a tatami area at the back of the pub.

Inside the pub, bottles that customers had kept are lined up everywhere — it’s quite a sight to behold!

“Town Music” is an event held about twice a month at the town snack bar ARAKAWA LABO main branch. They host performances mostly by small ensembles playing instrumental music. To match the shop’s concept of being a place where young and old people can meet, it’s designed as a casual event where you can enjoy conversation as well as performance.

This time, I appeared solo with my guitar. I performed a set list heavy on cover songs, and in my MC, interacted with customers while keeping a lively mood that didn’t break the izakaya (pub) atmosphere.

Once the main live set ended and things settled down, we had an open‑mic / street piano style time. Members who were at the shop played pop or classical pieces on the shop’s electronic piano, and I relaxed and listened along.

It was a pretty chill time throughout the event. It felt like being with friends when suddenly the music began. It’s nice to be able to hear live performances casually, without pressure!

Live Gear and Setup

Because there’s no PA staff for Town Music, we basically handle amplifier and sound adjustments ourselves while performing.

This time, we used the following:

Borrowed from the venue:

50W output amp: ROLAND / Cube Street EX

Dynamic microphone with switch: SHURE / SM58SE

Mic stand: TAMA / MS205

Brought by me:

Acoustic guitar

Multi‑effects processor: Line 6 / HX Stomp

On the day of the performance, it was rainy, so I was really grateful to have only a small amount of gear to carry.

The SHURE mic had a switch, which turned out to be quite handy.

Since I was doing an instrumental performance, being able to turn off the mic during playing helped prevent issues like feedback.

I muted the guitar signal during MC segments using the HX Stomp. I have it set so that engaging the tuner also mutes the output.

Below is the screen that appears after activating the tuner on the HX Stomp. There are several ways to mute the HX Stomp with one touch, but I think this method is probably the easiest.

Below is a photo of the pedalboard during the performance.
It’s a bit dark and hard to see, but you can spot the Cube Street EX and HX Stomp at my feet. The setup takes up very little space, which is great.

About the Cube Street EX

The ROLAND Cube Street EX is often recognized as a street or busking amp, but it also proved to be an excellent amplifier for indoor live performances! It had been a while since I last used the Cube Street EX for a live show, but I was reminded of how user-friendly it is.

For a venue of this size, it had more than enough output power to handle the live set with just this one unit. During this performance, setting the master volume around 1 o’clock provided sufficient volume. Also, since the amp can be placed on a platform, chair, or mounted on a stand, it offers flexible positioning based on the room layout or the arrangement, which is especially useful if the audience is far from the stage or if there’s no stage at all.

For solo or duo performances, one unit is enough. For a trio setup, two units would be sufficient to support an acoustic-style live show. Although we didn’t try it this time, it seems totally possible to hold a piano and guitar session using just one unit of this amp.

By the way, while I used the HX Stomp for all the effects like reverb during this show, the Cube Street EX itself comes equipped with built-in chorus, reverb, and even distortion effects for electric guitars. So it's perfectly usable for electric guitar, and seems capable of handling a variety of genres and performance setups.

Compared to a PA mixer and powered speaker setup, it takes up less space, is easier to operate during a live performance, and since most of the input jacks are combo jacks, you don’t have to worry about cable compatibility. You also don’t need to worry about input/output impedance or whether you need a separate DI box. Basically, it’s highly recommended because you can use it without stressing over the small stuff.

For shops that are thinking, “We’d like to incorporate music events, but we don’t have a sound engineer, and we can’t prepare a stage or allocate a large area…”, this is definitely something worth trying. It can also be powered by batteries (dry cells), so you can even take it outdoors for the occasional event.

What if your shop doesn’t have a Cube Street EX? That’s okay too. This amp only weighs 7.4kg, so if you’re motivated, you can still bring it in yourself for a live performance. (Though honestly, if you're going to carry it around, a carrying case would definitely help.)

Dedicated Carrying Case ROLAND / CB-CS2

If transporting it is a little too much due to distance or mode of travel, you might be better off using the smaller model Cube Street II, or if you only use acoustic guitar, using an amp specialized for acoustic guitars like the AC‑33 could be better.

BOSS / Cube Street II (4.4kg)

Roland / AC-33 (4.7kg)

For those doing live performances with a single amp and seeking one amp that alone suffices, these are worth checking out.

Summary

How was it? This time I introduced the concept of town snack bars, their music events, and I especially focused on the Cube Street EX and the gear used for a live show in a small venue.

Being able to casually hear live performances in familiar places is surprisingly delightful. I hope this article becomes useful for similar events and venues.

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