YFC Live 2010/06/10
Date: 2010/06/10
Location: Zepp Tokyo
Gackt Lateness Quotient: 15-20mins
So, yesterday I did the non-sane person thing and skipped class to go get Gackt stuff. I arrived at the goods line at 12:45-ish, where there were already a hundred or so people waiting. I then did nothing but stand in line for a couple of hours waiting for the damn thing to open. Luckily about 2:30-ish or so I was joined by a friend so we could whinge about it together (which also took a bit of weight off my shoulders, since she'd asked me to buy a heap of stuff if she didn't show up in time). Anyway, they finally got around to opening the goods table at 3:30ish iirc, and I managed to get my hands on a set of plushies and five bags of chips with the cards (as well as some things for other people and an extra plushie I might be auctioning off, stick around my journal if you're interested). I totally forgot to get myself a cellphone charm *headdesk*
Judging by the photo cards my friend and I got, Gackt likes it standing or girl on top.
The More You Know 三★
After this, we met some other foreign G fans and chatted for a while. And then this happened:
IRL GACKUCHI
I DIED OF CUTE
So, after squeeing and taking a million pictures, I went with the others and got some McDonalds and got changed and took way too long to put my damn contacts in (I'm new at them), and then it was about time to line up.
If you've never been to a standing Gackt live before, it's a bit different to a seated one. Your ticket has a number on it from 1 to about 2,500 or so. When it's time to line up, there'll be staff members with signs saying 1~100, 101~500, 501~1000 etc. You need to find your group and stand with them. Anyway, group 1~100 gets to enter the hall and pick their spots to stand first, followed by the next group, etc, etc. Throughout the hall are barriers every few meters to stop everyone crushing up against the stage. There are roughly six doors along the side of the hall, which are closed by staff members as the sections fill up. I had ticket number 1,877 (i.e. crap), but inexplicably, when I entered the hall and went to the left side doors, the second one closest to the stage was still open.
Yeah, I took that one.
I was really quite amazed at how close I was to the stage, so I snuck out my camera and snapped a quick photo:
Kinda dark, but it's not like I was going to use the flash in there
Oh, but it got better.
I've been told that technically it's possible to duck under the barriers or sneak out a side door during the concert and back in another one if you want to try and get closer to the front. I've also been told, by someone who has seen NIN live in Germany, land of the metalhead, that getting up close at a Gackt concert is sheer suicide. It's on a level of it's own. Fans of other bands might mosh and headbang and get violent, but Gackt fans push. Relentlessly. With a single minded desire to get closer to him.
It is suicide.
But it's also amazing.
I think it was during the very first song. I was in the row behind the people leaning on my barrier, when suddenly the girl in front of me ducks under it into the first section. I have a second to decide before the gap in the crowd fills up. I follow.
She's very good at pushing her way through, and just by following her I'm soon in the middle of the front section, just two meters from the front most barrier, and directly in front of Gackt. The girl I'm following gives in at that point, but after a few more songs I manage to get myself to near front and centre. Maybe 3-4 (crushed) people between me and the barrier. Maybe two and a half metres away from Gackt. He reaches out from the stage to the crowd and his fingertips are about a metre from my own.
And then he tears his shirt off.
I don't know if I'm giving a good report here. Usually I try to go through these things logically and analytically, but I don't feel like I can do that this time. For one, unlike the R+RII tour or Kyoshiro, there's no story here. It's pretty much the same setlist as the YFC DVD, with the addition of the new single due on the 28th (For those curious, it's lyrically similar to ZAN and Setsugekka, but sounds more like the kind of thing he tends to do for anime/game theme songs [Redemption, Journey through the Decade, etc]. Pretty straightforward Gackt-rock, but he did a rather stripper-tastic dance during it).
The other reason is, it's complete sensory overload just being there. The pressure is incredible, I'm in shock that my floating ribs never snapped, the heat is so intense steam rises off the crowd like in a sauna, people pass out left and right and have to be dragged away. You sweat so much you look like you've been swimming and your clothes don't fit you afterward because of the weight you've lost. My bra came undone and my top was nearly completely torn off by the movement of the crowd. There's the noise, the lights, the music, screaming even when you know, logically, that the last ragged breath was crushed from your lungs four songs ago, and in front of you, always, is Gackt, wild-eyed, possessed, writhing, screaming into the crowd, half naked and drenched in sweat. A lot of the time I had no idea even what song was playing, my memory of the concert is just of him.
I suppose I might sound to some concert veterans like a total noob, but I'm not a complete one. And, well, if you don't believe me, I'll just point you back up the page to my definite concert veteran friend who thinks standing Gackt shows are a special level of insanity.
The heat was probably the worst part. Gackt tried to help us out by spraying the contents of several water bottles on us (I got it 3-4 times during the show), but it was scant relief. I was eternally grateful for the water bottle I'd brought with me, I certainly would have passed out without it. I was also grateful for being taller than most of the crowd so that my shoulders and arms could stick out above the worst of the heat. The women in front of me were TINY even by Japanese standards, and had no water with them, I've absolutely no clue how they survived. The woman next to me begged me for a sip of water, which I rather reluctantly gave to her (it was kind of a precious resource), and then suddenly she pulls a white object up into view clenched in one of her hands and tells me to touch and smell it. IT'S GACKT'S GODDAMN SHIRT.
Even drenched in crowd funk it still smelt like it had been marinated in Platinum Egoist. Jesus.
By Kagero, I wasn't doing too well myself. Although I knew in my head it was hot, hotter than any onsen or sauna, my whole body started shivering uncontrollably, which I knew to be a Very Bad Sign. Escaping through the crowd was impossible, so I just hoped desperately I wouldn't pass out before the concert ended. Luckily, at the start of Uncontrol, Gackt brought out the fire extinguisher to spray the crowd with. God, it was like being rained on by the kisses of a thousand angels or something.
So, I just scraped through to the end of Uncontrol, and Gackt's speech to the crowd afterward. It was in that annoying really slurred slangy masculine yelling Japanese I find near impossible to understand, but I did catch a couple of things. He mentioned doing another Otoko Matsuri (men-only live), to which the woman next to me yelled in Japanese:
"THE F*CK DID YOU JUST SAY!? WHAT ABOUT US WOMEN?"
and I kind of fell in love with her a bit (well, even more after the shirt thing).
Also of interest to people will be the fact that he referred to YFC as a "zenkoku, sekaijuu tsuua!". "Nationwide and worldwide tour".
After that, we screamed backwards and forwards for a while, Gackt with that almost childishly gleeful look in his eyes he gets when there are thousands of people, all paying attention just to him. I'm sorry, Mr. Camui, what was that about it being the audience's job to enjoy and the performer's to entertain, not get off on stage? We all know you love it XP
And then he was gone. Exhausted and slightly shell shocked, the front rows were slow to leave. I struggled to locate my handbag that had got dropped and lost and trampled in the crowd (I wasn't expecting to get into the front, so I didn't worry about finding an extra locker for it). I must have looked worse than I felt, or perhaps been worse than I felt, because some Japanese fans came up to me and asked in English if I was okay. They straightened my top for me, and I suddenly realised that my half torn off bra was all that had been keeping me even a little modest. I made my way back thoroughly worn out, but still buzzing with adrenaline, and I've had a strange come down since.
Late last night, and early this morning, I found myself deeply depressed and panicking over whether or not I could sell my Sendai ticket (there are quite a few people trying to sell them but not many who want them). I suddenly couldn't stand the thought of going to the concert next week either. Now that I'm calm enough to think about it, I guess it's that I'm not sure I could physically or emotionally take being down the front again. But how can you go and stand up the back and watch, knowing what it's like down there? My body is aching and my brain feels like someone ripped it out, put it in a blender and then poured it back into my skull. But I guess I'll go again next week and see what happens when I get there. The temptation might be too much to resist ~_^
Location: Zepp Tokyo
Gackt Lateness Quotient: 15-20mins
So, yesterday I did the non-sane person thing and skipped class to go get Gackt stuff. I arrived at the goods line at 12:45-ish, where there were already a hundred or so people waiting. I then did nothing but stand in line for a couple of hours waiting for the damn thing to open. Luckily about 2:30-ish or so I was joined by a friend so we could whinge about it together (which also took a bit of weight off my shoulders, since she'd asked me to buy a heap of stuff if she didn't show up in time). Anyway, they finally got around to opening the goods table at 3:30ish iirc, and I managed to get my hands on a set of plushies and five bags of chips with the cards (as well as some things for other people and an extra plushie I might be auctioning off, stick around my journal if you're interested). I totally forgot to get myself a cellphone charm *headdesk*
Judging by the photo cards my friend and I got, Gackt likes it standing or girl on top.
The More You Know 三★
After this, we met some other foreign G fans and chatted for a while. And then this happened:
IRL GACKUCHI
I DIED OF CUTE
So, after squeeing and taking a million pictures, I went with the others and got some McDonalds and got changed and took way too long to put my damn contacts in (I'm new at them), and then it was about time to line up.
If you've never been to a standing Gackt live before, it's a bit different to a seated one. Your ticket has a number on it from 1 to about 2,500 or so. When it's time to line up, there'll be staff members with signs saying 1~100, 101~500, 501~1000 etc. You need to find your group and stand with them. Anyway, group 1~100 gets to enter the hall and pick their spots to stand first, followed by the next group, etc, etc. Throughout the hall are barriers every few meters to stop everyone crushing up against the stage. There are roughly six doors along the side of the hall, which are closed by staff members as the sections fill up. I had ticket number 1,877 (i.e. crap), but inexplicably, when I entered the hall and went to the left side doors, the second one closest to the stage was still open.
Yeah, I took that one.
I was really quite amazed at how close I was to the stage, so I snuck out my camera and snapped a quick photo:
Kinda dark, but it's not like I was going to use the flash in there
Oh, but it got better.
I've been told that technically it's possible to duck under the barriers or sneak out a side door during the concert and back in another one if you want to try and get closer to the front. I've also been told, by someone who has seen NIN live in Germany, land of the metalhead, that getting up close at a Gackt concert is sheer suicide. It's on a level of it's own. Fans of other bands might mosh and headbang and get violent, but Gackt fans push. Relentlessly. With a single minded desire to get closer to him.
It is suicide.
But it's also amazing.
I think it was during the very first song. I was in the row behind the people leaning on my barrier, when suddenly the girl in front of me ducks under it into the first section. I have a second to decide before the gap in the crowd fills up. I follow.
She's very good at pushing her way through, and just by following her I'm soon in the middle of the front section, just two meters from the front most barrier, and directly in front of Gackt. The girl I'm following gives in at that point, but after a few more songs I manage to get myself to near front and centre. Maybe 3-4 (crushed) people between me and the barrier. Maybe two and a half metres away from Gackt. He reaches out from the stage to the crowd and his fingertips are about a metre from my own.
And then he tears his shirt off.
I don't know if I'm giving a good report here. Usually I try to go through these things logically and analytically, but I don't feel like I can do that this time. For one, unlike the R+RII tour or Kyoshiro, there's no story here. It's pretty much the same setlist as the YFC DVD, with the addition of the new single due on the 28th (For those curious, it's lyrically similar to ZAN and Setsugekka, but sounds more like the kind of thing he tends to do for anime/game theme songs [Redemption, Journey through the Decade, etc]. Pretty straightforward Gackt-rock, but he did a rather stripper-tastic dance during it).
The other reason is, it's complete sensory overload just being there. The pressure is incredible, I'm in shock that my floating ribs never snapped, the heat is so intense steam rises off the crowd like in a sauna, people pass out left and right and have to be dragged away. You sweat so much you look like you've been swimming and your clothes don't fit you afterward because of the weight you've lost. My bra came undone and my top was nearly completely torn off by the movement of the crowd. There's the noise, the lights, the music, screaming even when you know, logically, that the last ragged breath was crushed from your lungs four songs ago, and in front of you, always, is Gackt, wild-eyed, possessed, writhing, screaming into the crowd, half naked and drenched in sweat. A lot of the time I had no idea even what song was playing, my memory of the concert is just of him.
I suppose I might sound to some concert veterans like a total noob, but I'm not a complete one. And, well, if you don't believe me, I'll just point you back up the page to my definite concert veteran friend who thinks standing Gackt shows are a special level of insanity.
The heat was probably the worst part. Gackt tried to help us out by spraying the contents of several water bottles on us (I got it 3-4 times during the show), but it was scant relief. I was eternally grateful for the water bottle I'd brought with me, I certainly would have passed out without it. I was also grateful for being taller than most of the crowd so that my shoulders and arms could stick out above the worst of the heat. The women in front of me were TINY even by Japanese standards, and had no water with them, I've absolutely no clue how they survived. The woman next to me begged me for a sip of water, which I rather reluctantly gave to her (it was kind of a precious resource), and then suddenly she pulls a white object up into view clenched in one of her hands and tells me to touch and smell it. IT'S GACKT'S GODDAMN SHIRT.
Even drenched in crowd funk it still smelt like it had been marinated in Platinum Egoist. Jesus.
By Kagero, I wasn't doing too well myself. Although I knew in my head it was hot, hotter than any onsen or sauna, my whole body started shivering uncontrollably, which I knew to be a Very Bad Sign. Escaping through the crowd was impossible, so I just hoped desperately I wouldn't pass out before the concert ended. Luckily, at the start of Uncontrol, Gackt brought out the fire extinguisher to spray the crowd with. God, it was like being rained on by the kisses of a thousand angels or something.
So, I just scraped through to the end of Uncontrol, and Gackt's speech to the crowd afterward. It was in that annoying really slurred slangy masculine yelling Japanese I find near impossible to understand, but I did catch a couple of things. He mentioned doing another Otoko Matsuri (men-only live), to which the woman next to me yelled in Japanese:
"THE F*CK DID YOU JUST SAY!? WHAT ABOUT US WOMEN?"
and I kind of fell in love with her a bit (well, even more after the shirt thing).
Also of interest to people will be the fact that he referred to YFC as a "zenkoku, sekaijuu tsuua!". "Nationwide and worldwide tour".
After that, we screamed backwards and forwards for a while, Gackt with that almost childishly gleeful look in his eyes he gets when there are thousands of people, all paying attention just to him. I'm sorry, Mr. Camui, what was that about it being the audience's job to enjoy and the performer's to entertain, not get off on stage? We all know you love it XP
And then he was gone. Exhausted and slightly shell shocked, the front rows were slow to leave. I struggled to locate my handbag that had got dropped and lost and trampled in the crowd (I wasn't expecting to get into the front, so I didn't worry about finding an extra locker for it). I must have looked worse than I felt, or perhaps been worse than I felt, because some Japanese fans came up to me and asked in English if I was okay. They straightened my top for me, and I suddenly realised that my half torn off bra was all that had been keeping me even a little modest. I made my way back thoroughly worn out, but still buzzing with adrenaline, and I've had a strange come down since.
Late last night, and early this morning, I found myself deeply depressed and panicking over whether or not I could sell my Sendai ticket (there are quite a few people trying to sell them but not many who want them). I suddenly couldn't stand the thought of going to the concert next week either. Now that I'm calm enough to think about it, I guess it's that I'm not sure I could physically or emotionally take being down the front again. But how can you go and stand up the back and watch, knowing what it's like down there? My body is aching and my brain feels like someone ripped it out, put it in a blender and then poured it back into my skull. But I guess I'll go again next week and see what happens when I get there. The temptation might be too much to resist ~_^