live report: D'espairsRay @ Hamamatsu FORCE 4/26
I'm off to Kyushu tomorrow for Golden Week, so I might as well put this up before I forget.
Went to Hamamatsu FORCE to see D'espa with notafanboy last Sunday and it was great! It was soooo windy though, so while I was biking to the station to meet her, I swerved in some strange fashion and in doing so, clipped my foot against the pedal so that my shoe fell off. I was too surprised to do anything about it before I realized I had already zoomed away something like 5 metres. I had to hop back with only one shoe to retrieve the other one. I made it onto the train on time, though. I cut it kind of close. :)
Right, so FORCE was the same place I saw Girugamesh ages ago (gosh, MaveRick was still MaveRick then!) and we got there pretty alright. We were there early to take a look at goods but I didn't buy anything because the designs were bloody ugly this time. I regret not buying last tour's shirt. The shirt this time has a picture image thing that is all blurry and pointless and green; against the background of the red shirt, it looks TERRIBLE! The black one is slightly better. Someone (Hizumi?) designed a battle dress for 12,000 yen. It's nice, but jesus, I can't afford that. Karyu's Zippo lighter was a shocking 22,000 yen. Who'd buy it? It's white leather, or so we assumed. For that price, it had better be real leather. The cutest thing was Tsukasa's little money bank-- Ira bought it, but I didn't.
So, I was number 227 and I already knew the venue was very small. It's like Nagoya Heartland, but painted all black and slightly wider. Better atmosphere and setup, I believe. I waited for my number to be called, and when the guy called "220番までのお客様", EVERYONE who was still remaining went inside. So that it was just me. On the street. Alone. This gig was sold out, too! So I awkwardly looked around until the staff guy was like, "Are you here for the live?" And I said, "Uhh, yes," and was let in. So I was literally the last person in. DDDD:
I was stuck in the far back at first, but I noticed there were loads of empty places closer in front, and Ira saved me a spot a couple rows back (maybe about 4, 5 rows?) so I wiggled up, centre/kamite, content. :)
Setlist
D'espairsRay
Psychedelic Parade
Hamamatsu FORCE 2009.04.26
Lizard
REDEEMER
KAMIKAZE
Scissors
SIXty∞NINe
kohaku
Lost in re:birth
BRILLIANT
DAMNED
TRICKSTeR
MIRROR
MASQUERADE
PARADOX5
DESERT
R.E.M-fuyu no genchou-
Bullet
yozora
HEAVEN'S COLOR
-encore1-
LOVE PARADE （omocha no chachacha/session）
Dears
Hollow
'fuyushita risou'
HORIZON
-encore2-
“forbidden”
Cocoon
I could've sworn Cocoon and HORIZON were switched, though. I distinctly remember HORIZON being the last song because it was a good genki song to end on. Oh well.
The wings of the stage were pretty much smack in the audience-- as in, you could touch the members when they were entering. The ceiling was sooooo low, that when Hizumi got up on his riser, there was less than half an inch of space between his head and the beam. I'm surprised he didn't knock himself out.
They came out as usual, and they all looked very nice. The short choppy blond thing is working for Zero (but not his poorly shaved facial hair, lol), and Karyu looked elegant. Hizumi looked like his usual cute rodent-y self, and Tsukasa was sporting dark blond and a white tank. He should wear white more. The sound was much too loud at first, and you could barely hear Hizumi vocalize through Lizard. They must've toned it down later, though, because it was better near the end. Either that or we all went deaf.
The crush was pretty strong! I'm assuming most of the Hamamatsu crowd were commuters from Nagoya or maaaaybe the Shizuokans who usually travel to Tokyo. I got pretty squashed, and up until kohaku, the crush was unrelenting. It wasn't painful, but it was extreeeemely hot. The ventilation in that hall just isn't good. It was the same with Girugamesh back when they played, too. It got unhealthily hot, and the ceiling was dripping water. The first time I was there, I thought it was condensation, but it seems like it was actually the air conditioner since Hizumi noted it, too. During the first MC he interrupted himself to say, "The air conditioner must be broken. Seems broken, doesn't it? It's so hot." And after it started dripping water on the poor girls in front, he again interrupted himself to say, "Ah! It's leaking! It's dripping poi-poi here. Definitely broken!"
Lizard was most excellent. A fine start-up song. kohaku was as lovely as usual, and I was so happy to hear PARADOX 5 being played. It's a pretty unusual ballad for them. The lights went green and red, and it was just beautiful. Way more powerful than on record. Also, I love Lost in re:birth! D: It is the best heavy song on the album. There are bits that I swear sound like they wouldn't be out of place from a European metal band. It was a rough song, too. I got shoved around and somebody stepped on my foot and left a jagged wound.
R.E.M. is pretty enough, but I still feel pretty indifferent to it. It's not that they didn't perform it well, but it's kind of boring. I found myself zoning out a bit. HEAVEN'S COLOR is slightly better than it is on disc. The oldest song they played tonight was fuyushita risou (yay!) but nothing pre-Garnet (sad!).
I think the band had a good time tonight. During one song, Karyu came over and uhhh, bit Hizumi on his chest, around the left nipple area. And looked pretty happy about it. Hizumi afterwards was like, "ugh, that hurt." And 2chan was filled with nothing but comments about it after the live. It took a full day before the setlist surfaced and the girls stopped talking about the damn nipple-biting!
So the "session band", LOVE PARADE came on after the main set without Hizumi. Karyu did the talking. "So, we are LOVE PARADE. We've been doing it every stop on this tour. Does everyone know about this?" (Audience: "Yes!") "Yes? That's great. As you know, the fans of D'espairsRay are known as Mania." (Audience: "Yes!") "Since this band is called LOVE PARADE, what should we call the fans? Perhaps... LOVERS?!" (Audience: "HEE!") "And me... you can call me... LOVE KARYU." (Audience: "!!!") "So Hamamatsu is in Shizuoka prefecture and I think you guys are famous for tea. Is that true?" (Audience: "Yes!") "So we always do a song that relates to the region we're playing in. Tea-- ocha-- that's like, chachacha!, right? So we will play omocha no chachacha!" At which point, everybody got superexcited but I was clueless. It turns out that it's a ridiculous little children's song.
Yeah... except imagine this played heavy with electric guitar/bass and drums. And as they played on, the tempo just got quicker and quicker. The audience was clapping on with the 'chachacha' bits. Afterwards, Hizumi came out and he said the usual, with the whole, "So I can't join this session band?" and Karyu went, "Nah." Tsukasa talked a bit and seemed confused about whether he was the leader of the band or not. Zero again talked about his underwear and challenged (?) the audience to show him ours. Uhhhh, how about no, Zero.
Encores were rough! But DEARS got played! And they didn't endlessly loop Hollow, thankfully, because that song KILLS. So does 'fuyushita'. Then Hizumi poured some water on us and Zero did his spitting-thing (yuck? yay?). I didn't expect them to come back after the first encore (because for some reason, they tend to do only one encore in Nagoya), but they did. And played "forbidden". I'm not sure when was the last time I heard that played, but it's been a loooooong time. For the last song, Hizumi got up on his riser, and using the ceiling as support, he crawled a good metre into the audience and leaned out. He lowered the mic to the audience to get us to sing some parts, but the mic dropped into the crowd. I think the lead was still in his hand, though. He was SO CLOSE, and I expected him to let go of the ceiling and just fall in. The dive would've been easily supported and the drop height was really nothing, but he didn't. :( He ducked back into the stage area.
Then they left for real, and Karyu and Zero threw out assloads of picks. I had given up because the venue ceiling was so low, the stuff they were throwing couldn't get any height-- everything mainly landed in the first few rows. But as my arm was outstretched, I felt something fly into my left hand. Surprised, I grasped my fingers tight and it turned out I accidentally caught Karyu's pick. Which I don't exactly need, since I already have one... but it's nice to have two. :) Now I need to collect Zero's.
Tsukasa threw the drumstick, turned to leave, and knocked his face on Hizumi's mic. LOL.
It was steaming hot in the venue, but windy as fuck outside. We were shivering on the walk back to the station. Got some nice sandwiches and left for home! One more stop on the tour left. I could POSSIBLY catch them in Fukuoka while I'm in Kyushu but it doesn't really fit up with my itinerary. I'm also missing 5/2 9GOATS at Ell Size, which is also crappy, but not nearly as crappy. I feel my time with D'espa is limited...!
Went to Hamamatsu FORCE to see D'espa with notafanboy last Sunday and it was great! It was soooo windy though, so while I was biking to the station to meet her, I swerved in some strange fashion and in doing so, clipped my foot against the pedal so that my shoe fell off. I was too surprised to do anything about it before I realized I had already zoomed away something like 5 metres. I had to hop back with only one shoe to retrieve the other one. I made it onto the train on time, though. I cut it kind of close. :)
Right, so FORCE was the same place I saw Girugamesh ages ago (gosh, MaveRick was still MaveRick then!) and we got there pretty alright. We were there early to take a look at goods but I didn't buy anything because the designs were bloody ugly this time. I regret not buying last tour's shirt. The shirt this time has a picture image thing that is all blurry and pointless and green; against the background of the red shirt, it looks TERRIBLE! The black one is slightly better. Someone (Hizumi?) designed a battle dress for 12,000 yen. It's nice, but jesus, I can't afford that. Karyu's Zippo lighter was a shocking 22,000 yen. Who'd buy it? It's white leather, or so we assumed. For that price, it had better be real leather. The cutest thing was Tsukasa's little money bank-- Ira bought it, but I didn't.
So, I was number 227 and I already knew the venue was very small. It's like Nagoya Heartland, but painted all black and slightly wider. Better atmosphere and setup, I believe. I waited for my number to be called, and when the guy called "220番までのお客様", EVERYONE who was still remaining went inside. So that it was just me. On the street. Alone. This gig was sold out, too! So I awkwardly looked around until the staff guy was like, "Are you here for the live?" And I said, "Uhh, yes," and was let in. So I was literally the last person in. DDDD:
I was stuck in the far back at first, but I noticed there were loads of empty places closer in front, and Ira saved me a spot a couple rows back (maybe about 4, 5 rows?) so I wiggled up, centre/kamite, content. :)
Setlist
D'espairsRay
Psychedelic Parade
Hamamatsu FORCE 2009.04.26
Lizard
REDEEMER
KAMIKAZE
Scissors
SIXty∞NINe
kohaku
Lost in re:birth
BRILLIANT
DAMNED
TRICKSTeR
MIRROR
MASQUERADE
PARADOX5
DESERT
R.E.M-fuyu no genchou-
Bullet
yozora
HEAVEN'S COLOR
-encore1-
LOVE PARADE （omocha no chachacha/session）
Dears
Hollow
'fuyushita risou'
HORIZON
-encore2-
“forbidden”
Cocoon
I could've sworn Cocoon and HORIZON were switched, though. I distinctly remember HORIZON being the last song because it was a good genki song to end on. Oh well.
The wings of the stage were pretty much smack in the audience-- as in, you could touch the members when they were entering. The ceiling was sooooo low, that when Hizumi got up on his riser, there was less than half an inch of space between his head and the beam. I'm surprised he didn't knock himself out.
They came out as usual, and they all looked very nice. The short choppy blond thing is working for Zero (but not his poorly shaved facial hair, lol), and Karyu looked elegant. Hizumi looked like his usual cute rodent-y self, and Tsukasa was sporting dark blond and a white tank. He should wear white more. The sound was much too loud at first, and you could barely hear Hizumi vocalize through Lizard. They must've toned it down later, though, because it was better near the end. Either that or we all went deaf.
The crush was pretty strong! I'm assuming most of the Hamamatsu crowd were commuters from Nagoya or maaaaybe the Shizuokans who usually travel to Tokyo. I got pretty squashed, and up until kohaku, the crush was unrelenting. It wasn't painful, but it was extreeeemely hot. The ventilation in that hall just isn't good. It was the same with Girugamesh back when they played, too. It got unhealthily hot, and the ceiling was dripping water. The first time I was there, I thought it was condensation, but it seems like it was actually the air conditioner since Hizumi noted it, too. During the first MC he interrupted himself to say, "The air conditioner must be broken. Seems broken, doesn't it? It's so hot." And after it started dripping water on the poor girls in front, he again interrupted himself to say, "Ah! It's leaking! It's dripping poi-poi here. Definitely broken!"
Lizard was most excellent. A fine start-up song. kohaku was as lovely as usual, and I was so happy to hear PARADOX 5 being played. It's a pretty unusual ballad for them. The lights went green and red, and it was just beautiful. Way more powerful than on record. Also, I love Lost in re:birth! D: It is the best heavy song on the album. There are bits that I swear sound like they wouldn't be out of place from a European metal band. It was a rough song, too. I got shoved around and somebody stepped on my foot and left a jagged wound.
R.E.M. is pretty enough, but I still feel pretty indifferent to it. It's not that they didn't perform it well, but it's kind of boring. I found myself zoning out a bit. HEAVEN'S COLOR is slightly better than it is on disc. The oldest song they played tonight was fuyushita risou (yay!) but nothing pre-Garnet (sad!).
I think the band had a good time tonight. During one song, Karyu came over and uhhh, bit Hizumi on his chest, around the left nipple area. And looked pretty happy about it. Hizumi afterwards was like, "ugh, that hurt." And 2chan was filled with nothing but comments about it after the live. It took a full day before the setlist surfaced and the girls stopped talking about the damn nipple-biting!
So the "session band", LOVE PARADE came on after the main set without Hizumi. Karyu did the talking. "So, we are LOVE PARADE. We've been doing it every stop on this tour. Does everyone know about this?" (Audience: "Yes!") "Yes? That's great. As you know, the fans of D'espairsRay are known as Mania." (Audience: "Yes!") "Since this band is called LOVE PARADE, what should we call the fans? Perhaps... LOVERS?!" (Audience: "HEE!") "And me... you can call me... LOVE KARYU." (Audience: "!!!") "So Hamamatsu is in Shizuoka prefecture and I think you guys are famous for tea. Is that true?" (Audience: "Yes!") "So we always do a song that relates to the region we're playing in. Tea-- ocha-- that's like, chachacha!, right? So we will play omocha no chachacha!" At which point, everybody got superexcited but I was clueless. It turns out that it's a ridiculous little children's song.
Click to viewYeah... except imagine this played heavy with electric guitar/bass and drums. And as they played on, the tempo just got quicker and quicker. The audience was clapping on with the 'chachacha' bits. Afterwards, Hizumi came out and he said the usual, with the whole, "So I can't join this session band?" and Karyu went, "Nah." Tsukasa talked a bit and seemed confused about whether he was the leader of the band or not. Zero again talked about his underwear and challenged (?) the audience to show him ours. Uhhhh, how about no, Zero.
Encores were rough! But DEARS got played! And they didn't endlessly loop Hollow, thankfully, because that song KILLS. So does 'fuyushita'. Then Hizumi poured some water on us and Zero did his spitting-thing (yuck? yay?). I didn't expect them to come back after the first encore (because for some reason, they tend to do only one encore in Nagoya), but they did. And played "forbidden". I'm not sure when was the last time I heard that played, but it's been a loooooong time. For the last song, Hizumi got up on his riser, and using the ceiling as support, he crawled a good metre into the audience and leaned out. He lowered the mic to the audience to get us to sing some parts, but the mic dropped into the crowd. I think the lead was still in his hand, though. He was SO CLOSE, and I expected him to let go of the ceiling and just fall in. The dive would've been easily supported and the drop height was really nothing, but he didn't. :( He ducked back into the stage area.
Then they left for real, and Karyu and Zero threw out assloads of picks. I had given up because the venue ceiling was so low, the stuff they were throwing couldn't get any height-- everything mainly landed in the first few rows. But as my arm was outstretched, I felt something fly into my left hand. Surprised, I grasped my fingers tight and it turned out I accidentally caught Karyu's pick. Which I don't exactly need, since I already have one... but it's nice to have two. :) Now I need to collect Zero's.
Tsukasa threw the drumstick, turned to leave, and knocked his face on Hizumi's mic. LOL.
It was steaming hot in the venue, but windy as fuck outside. We were shivering on the walk back to the station. Got some nice sandwiches and left for home! One more stop on the tour left. I could POSSIBLY catch them in Fukuoka while I'm in Kyushu but it doesn't really fit up with my itinerary. I'm also missing 5/2 9GOATS at Ell Size, which is also crappy, but not nearly as crappy. I feel my time with D'espa is limited...!