Soaked after walking home from Shinjuku in what turned out to become pouring rain. But it was a fun live (^^)
Not thanks to the fans of the main act though....orz. Ever since Seiji started doing events with Kaya, the Kaya fans have started trying to occupy the entire front row for Art Cube (often looking like they don't care about the band at all). And it's fine if you like a band and want to see them up close, but it's incredibly rude to constantly block out all the regulars (>_<) Today they did this for König as well... Somewhere down the road, I somehow became the person responsible for Art Cube's front row, and I end up feeling really bad when I can't give people the spots they've requested because of this behaviour :/ Thankfully one of the girls in the center was happy to give up her spot for me, but we were only a total of two regulars who were able to go to the front. The band looked a bit taken aback by this as well, but took care to give their fans extra attention.
Anyway, setlist:
1. 蓮華宙
2. Pain~ Wing・・・
3. 花陽影 (hanahikage)
- MC -
4. not exist
5. Soaring awakening
6. 失楽蝶 (shitsurakuchou)
^They need to vary the songs a bit more, with the amount of lives their doing lately. But at least we got an extra long set this time, since it was a threeman :D There was also time for long MCs. This time Seiji did have a prepared paper with a list of things to talk about, but he still managed to mess it up x) He had trouble reading most of it. Then, as he got to the (re-)announcement of the oneman on the 20th, he got confused as it didn't say "Takadanobaba" on the list (The part of Tokyo where it's taking place) lol. And the last thing on the list said "something else", and he didn't get this at all. He shouted "What else is there???" to the staff in the back, but didn't seem to get a reply. Yossy kept trying to mouth something to him, and I'm not sure if it was meant to refer to the moshing somehow, or if he gave up and just changed the subject, but he went on to introduce the moshing for not exist. Looks like the band noticed our completely failed moshing at the previous live, so this time we had to practice beforehand x) Shizuki came to the front of the stage again, and showed us what to do. And this time we managed to get something decent out of it. No jumping around in circles, but we did the "jumping while running from left to right", which is fun (Although it feels completely out of place when it comes to this band).
Nobu looked surprisingly good today. He lost quite a lot of weight, and somehow looked years younger. I wonder what he did to achieve that in only one week o.O
Kaya's setlist:
1. Awilda
2. Kaleidoscope
3. Funerary Dream
4. Silvery Dark
5. Sink
6. Addict
- encore -
Kaya's sets tend to be either lots of fun, or a complete miss with me. Unfortunately this time he had chosen songs that sound nice on a CD, but aren't that interesting live. I'm glad he did the two new songs though. It was my second time hearing Awilda, and the first time I heard Sink. The latter didn't really leave an impression, I'll have to listen to it some more I think. But I like Awilda (Whom he introduced as a Swedish pirate... Wasn't she supposed to be Danish?)
I love Addict, so that made me happy :) I still wish he'd get around to releasing it soon. I first heard it live in February 2009, so it's not exactly a new song. It's heavier, like Rose Jail, and composed by Kalm. I'm glad he seems to be writing more songs for Kaya again lately.
Kaya appeared in his new Awilda dress. It's asymmetrical, with various details, which makes it a lot more interesting than some of his other outfits in my opinion. He said he chose not to wear the pirate hat for the live though (Apparently he was wearing it at the instore event earlier that day). Instead he wore a black and red feather arrangement in his hair (which was brown and curly, with lots of glitter spray), and the pirate eye patch.
After finishing Addict, he mentioned the session with the two other acts, and left the stage. Then there was silence...... And more silence... Took me a few minutes before it hit me that no one had started the encore call ^^; Eventually Kaya came back on stage and complained about it. We then had to start calling, while he ran off stage so he could return later, thanking us for the encore :p
He called Loki and Art Cube to the stage, and they started playing Rose Jail. The "band version" this time, with Art Cube playing the melody rather than the playback track. Seiji was supposed to do the first part of the singing, but he only got to the "B..uh huh?" part of the first word (Barairo), before everyone else stopped what they were doing, and Kaya started singing "Happy Birthday" ^^ August 9th is Seiji's birthday, and he looked absolutely confused and amazed when Totoro (AC staff) brought a birthday cake up on stage while everyone was singing for him. That was a really nice gesture of them, as no one in the band has received that before. And the look on Seiji's face (And he seemed to be tearing up), was well worth it.
After blowing out the candles, they went on to finish the song, and the event.
- Current Mood:
aggravated
Comments
They're so much fun now ^^
Walking home in heavy rain in thin clothing and high heels, with only one umbrella to share, isn't all that fun... But at least it was going home from the live, not to it.
They do their onemans in a pattern of one per winter and one per summer, so being here for three months, there's a big chance you might catch one.
I wouldn't mind the rain so much if it didn't completely mess up my hair x) oh curls...
You can't tell from pictures, as I always spend an hour straightening my hair + use five different straightening products on it before going out, but I do have a lot of curls too ^^; Thankfully this summer hasn't been as humid as earlier years.
I guess since Hora is more or less retired we will get to hear more Kalm compositions now. Not that I mind. I'm a bit wary of what other composers Kaya may recruit though. So far they have been more miss than hit with me.
I always preferred Kalm's music, so I'll be happy to see him write more music. Judging by his blog and myspace, he seems to have become a bit more musically active lately.
But it would be a good idea to go through the MC list before the live too... He's not the one writing it (I assume, since he didn't know what the last word on the list meant).
But this type of behaviour is not completely right; for example european or american fans can never reach the first raw, because of they live far from Japan; there are passionate fans, who religiously buy every cd and daily follow the band on internet, but they're discriminated by their nationality. That's not right.
So first-raw tradition isn't fair itself.
A lot of smaller bands don't have a full front row to begin with anyway.
Unluckily, during my travel in Japan, I wasn't able to reach the first raw: only during a concert with 10 persons as audience I could try this experience. XD
Even if you speak Japanese and gently ask for only a couple of songs, it's difficult, they simply pretend not to heard you. Well, there's not a big difference, seeing a concert from the first or second/third raw, but it pissed me off, the fact that Japanese fans are such egoist, denying the first raw to foreign fans, when they usually are such generous, leaving the best places when their favourite band is not playing.
I'm not speaking about Art Cube fans, it's only my opinion about "the first raw issue". ^-^
Hope you'll have better luck next time at least :) Don't let it discourage you from asking again.
Hahahahaaha, -wow-, Kaya. Demanded encores, that's just interesting. I am so intimidated by how free his is with lecturing fans. xD
Ohoh, I'm glad it was fun. ^^ Rose Jail is such a strange song to picture Happy Birthday coming out of. XD I hope that Z enjoyed it, though~ XP
Oh I'm sure Seiji appreciated the surprise :) The look on his face was quite honest.
He used to have A LOT more fans than he does nowadays. Then he lost most of them when he went major. Usually a lot of people show up for bigger events, but when I saw him at a threeman with THE VELVET last year, he only had about 10~15 fans there. (Including the fans of the other bands, we were only two and a half row of people, in a tiny livehouse).
He's gained a bit more fans again now, since he's started doing songs that are more similar to his older stuff, but he definitely isn't drawing as many people as he used to.
But I don't think Chocolate was really that bad (it's one of my favourite "happy" songs XD). There was still Pourriture Noble on that release that was still darker song. But I think giving up on artist because of the one song is quite lame. :/
It's fine not to like it, not everyone likes everything, but to top being a fan because of it... :/
And surely there were some people who aren't fans anymore because he went major. I guess the reasons are different for different people. :)
Kaya fans wtf? It's really not nice to block the fans. Or at least they could've tried to look interested in the band. :/
How the hell did he manage to mess up reading from the paper?! LOL
It's good to hear that this time moshing wasn't complete failure. :D
I see what you mean about Kaya's setlist. I think it's nice that he pulled out Funerary Dream, but followed by those two, it's a bit ehh. Maybe if he threw in something more energetic instead of Silvery Dark. And I agree that he needs to put out Addict. I've only heard it on YT from AUSA, but it did sound nice. (I'm just wondering what does Sugar Rose sound like, but that's another thing.)
The birthday part is sooo sweet! Catching Seiji off guard like that haha. It's funny how encore was important for that and fans forgot to call. And it's cute how Kaya instructed you to call for the encore and ran off. :)
But I felt really sorry for the other Art Cube fans this time :/ They were obviously not very happy. But it was nice of the band to show us some extra attention and smiles.
Seiji usually messes up the MC. His eye sight seem to be bad? He more often than not have trouble reading the paper, and often has to bend down to get closer to it. And he tends to read exactly what the paper says, so abrivations and stuff is a problem x)
This time he blamed bad handwriting (Though I had no problem reading it even upside-down), and that Japanese is a difficult language.
I haven't heard Sugar Rose myself, but I'll try to remember to write down some thoughts about it here if I ever do.
I think people forgot to call because Kaya told us there would be a session (and the bands had written about it in their blogs), so people were just patiently waiting for the guys to return to the stage ^^;
His eyesight is bad? I didn't know that. Then he really should do as you said, go through his MC's before the live. But wtf? He blamed Japanese for being difficult? LOL he can't do that since it's his native language. XD
Oh please do that for Sugar Rose if you hear it. I really hope he will release that soon, too (why did he make it live-distributed only?). Or at least when he puts out an album or something.
So that's why you forgot! XD Then it's Kaya's fault haha. Btw he put a pic of the cake on his ameblo, so if someone hasn't seen it, here: http://ameblo.jp/kaya-rose/entry-10614753067.html
It was lots of fun, though, thanks to Seiji!:-D
Seiji's messed up MCs are amusing :D Japanese is a difficult language x)