Tokyo 2008: Stacked Rubbish Grand Finale REPEATED COUNTLESS ERROR - 4/19 Yoyogi Stadium Live Report!
ok the long story cut short: i sent money to HERESY in Jan 08 to enter the ballot for the Yoyogi tickets, i never received any confirmation from HERESY, and i thought my money was gone. so i went ahead and bought tickets for the other lives, and instructed my sister to mail the FC tickets should i receive anything at all from HERESY. about five days ago, my sis said she received it, and Fed-Exed it over to me here in Tokyo. i screamed when i saw my seatings. today's live was at Arena, A3, seat no 163. fucking arena seat, and block A3!
but things didn't start right today. i went out for lunch with my friend, and the wait for our omu rice was incredibly long. then i missed the special rapid train to Shinjuku, and took almost 1.5 hours to reach Harajuku. then it was fucking raining again, and i had to go brave the Takeshita-Dori crowd to buy an umbrella. finally made my way to the Yoyogi Stadium, it was jam-packed with cosplayers, gyarus, lolitas, dressy people, and a whole load of bemused tourists. quickly headed to the goods booth, and found no queue! thought i was lucky, turned out almost everything was already sold out! all three t-shirts, the silver boston bag (limited to 300pcs only), the bath towel, the nice stuff. i got the tour pamphlet only, and quickly joined the entrance queue. turned out i was in the wrong queue, there was another queue for the arena seats, so i quickly went over and rejoined the queue again. it was drizzling and the wind was fucking cold. there's something with me and bad Tokyo weather, i swear.
found my seat pretty easily, turned out i was on the Aoi/Reita side AGAIN (whyyyyyyyy!). thought of changing my seats with someone on Uruha's side, decided not to since i can barely communicate well. there's total of six blocks per alphabet (A1-A6, B1-B6, C1-C6), and per block there were only 12 seats in a row, so i was technically Row 14 from the front. it wasn't as close as the Row 8 one at Toyama, but i could still see facial features clearly. i noticed this small red block of seats at the Minami side, which was totally separated from the other blocks, and there was a special entrance leading to this block. the people in that block are mostly old folks, like 50-ish? and they were greeting each other as they sat down. i wonder if they could be the band members' family members? D:
the live began late, at 6.20pm. the backdrop this time was of a headless scorpion, and it's torso was a collage of human faces. there were also the same chasing illuminating lights, except there were four rows this time. Kai went onstage first, then Uruha, Aoi, Reita and finally Ruki. i was so annoyed by the tall girl in front of me, cos i had to tiptoe to catch glimpses of the members. how i wish i'm an eight-foot giant sometimes. they changed costumes! i'm not sure if the pics of the Osaka Jo-Hall live are out yet, Ruki was in a shiny silver penquin-suit set and a red sequuin tie, Uruha was in some sleeveless long-vest + skirt thingy with fur collar and stretchy PVC arm-covers, Reita was in a red sleeveless leather vest and had alot of chains dangling in front, Aoi looked somewhat similar to his previous outfit, while Kai was totally obscured by the drums and all i could see was a red sleeveless shirt. they began with Agony, and ooh the tall girl is a massive head-banger, good! it was really tiring to tiptoe most of the time, and my back was hurting from having to crane my neck out to see the stage. the setlist goes (not in order):
-Agony
-Hyena
-Cockroach
-Ganjezu ....
-Swallowtail in Death Valley (the dance for this song is SO MUCH LOVE!)
-Guren
-Kugutsu
-Kyomou
-Circle of Swindlers
-Mob 136Bars
-Pyschedelic Heroine
-Chizuru (OMFG THEY PLAYED CHIZURU AGAIN! i was so happy and teared at the chorus part. it was soooooo much better than the one they did previously! my eyes were all on Uruha and his freaking deft fingers, his opening solo was awesome)
-DISCHARGE
-Maggots (i'm sure Ruki means it when he growls that he wants our heads)
-Burial Applicant (my newfound headbang song)
-Filth In The Beauty (my favourite headbang song!)
-Nausea And Shudder (yay!)
-Gentle Lies
-Calm Envy (during this song, a HUGE disco-ball descended from above Kai's head, and it totally recreated the stage effects of this song at the previous lives, which was really amazingly beautiful and incredible. then it split open and revealed a HUGE spotlight within, which shone on Kai brilliantly)
the stage was alot longer and wider than the previous ones, but they rarely moved around, and kept standing in the centre area. i think i only saw Uruha ran over to our side twice, while Reita went over to Uruha's side only once i think. there were side stages as well, but the members rarely ran there except for Ruki. at one point i had no idea where Ruki was although i can still hear his voice. Uruha had centre-parted hair today, and i finally caught glimpses of his face when he isn't bending forward. HE WAS SO DAMN CUTE AND DORKY WHEN HE SMILED! Aoi loved to thrust his guitar out, loved to thrust his ass out, and loved to tilt his head back until his back totally arches like a bow. Reita just kept splitting his legs wider and wider apart. Kai was all :D :D :D :D :D :D :D.
and for a few times i got really annoyed at the two girls beside me, because they had lousy headbanging manners. they took up my space, giving me not enough room to headbang without banging our heads together, and kept slapping their hair into my arms and sides. oh oh then i saw a stretcher being wheeled in, and a girl was wheeled out on it. it was really warm and uncomfortable, and there was a stench of sweat and BO in the air.
then they broke for encore, everyone cheered and clapped for about 15mins before Reita and Kai reappeared for Ride with the Rockers! as usual, Aoi and Uruha ran out later, and Ruki sauntered onto stage, and they played Maximum Impulse, Kantou, Go To Hell, and ended with Linda. but during last week's Osaka Jo-Hall live, they did two encores, so everyone cheered again and indeed they reappeared for a second encore! Ruki began talking, about this whole Pulse Wriggling To Black live series for the past ten months, how bad the weather was (i fully agree), and how tiring it has been for the members and staff. at one point Ruki choked abit and quickly wiped off his tears, and everyone was going "don't cry! don't cry!" i think the crowd expected Aoi to speak or something, and he quickly waved "NOOOOOO!" to Ruki, haha!
i nearly died when i saw the staff draping a guitar over Ruki, they were going to play Cassis! OMFG CASSIS! i really hoped to hear it at Burst Into A Blaze, but they never played it, and tonight i finally had a chance to hear it live! Cassis! aaaah and because i was on Aoi's side, i could see his ending solo perfectly-clear, and it was so beautiful. then Ruki spoke abit more, and finally uttered "Aishiteruze!" at the crowd, and we all went wild! for the first time, it was something more yasashii then yelling at us to give him our heads, or go and die. and for the final song, they played Best Friends, which caught everyone by surprise! this was such an old song, and no one expected it to be played tonight, and it was a great ending to a wonderful, wonderful live.
...which then i raced out of the stadium to catch the trains back to Tachikawa. am so dead-tired now. one more live to go tomorrow, and i'd be packing my stuff for home. :/
edit: 2-May, 1:25am
okay so a few pics here!
the FC tickets!
taken from the overhead bridge across the Yoygi Stadium!
the tour goods booth!
queue for the arena-ticket holders were at the side instead.
and that's it!