2010/12/31 - COUNTDOWN JAPAN 10/11 | 幕張メッセ Halls 1 - 8
Where do I start this? Too many things going on at the same time makes it hard to organise this post. But I think for once, I will not do a cut for the live report, but I will cut for individual artistes. Thus, the live report starts here!
I managed to successfully ballot for tickets to the last day of COUNTDOWN JAPAN 10/11 (CDJ10/11 from now on), and after a long wait, it's finally here!! Managed to wake up in time (before my alarms went off, in fact!) and caught the train from Shin-Kawasaki to Tokyo, and then to Kaihinmakuhari where Makuhari Messe was.
I think it was because it was the last day, but there was already a crowd of people streaming in an hour before the show even started. L'Arc en Ciel's New Year live was being held next door, but there was a sizeable crowd for CDJ as well.
Yes, very sizeable ^^;; Anyway, the goods booths were to the right, so I made a beeline for the the HIATUS booth, and headed over to the The BAWDIES one after that, after checking out TOTALFAT and LOCAL SOUND STYLE in between.
the HIATUS' towel! Made it out with my wallet still in good shape, thank goodness. Unfortunately they weren't selling the the HIATUS' tour shirts, or I would have gotten them here. "the HIATUS" is the band name. I am not typing "the" twice by accident. Was considering the The BAWDIES limited edition shirt, but the person in front of me in the queue bought the last shirt (what's new?). There was a very audible "EHHHHHHH????" when this unfortunate news was announced. There weren't other nice stuff, so I left the booth without getting anything. I was thinking about dumping my bag somewhere, but there weren't lockers available and the cloak fee was 1,000yen so the miser in me (I also didn't know if it's 1,000yen for the whole day or per use) decided to brave the crowd with my bag. It wasn't such a good idea, as I found out later on.
Awesomely pretty coloured lights in the main area *_* By the time I got to this area, 世界の終わり's performance had just started and I didn't want to rush. So I took the time to explore the whole area before the next performance I was due to attend.
Signed banners from the previous 3 days' performers. They didn't put today's one up though, sadly.
There was a stamp rally going on, and there were also custom-made stamps that each artiste had.
Graffiti wall, and a countdown clock.
Covers of Rockin' on JAPAN magazines over the years, and an awesome disco ball decor in the main corridor.
There were a total of 4 stages (2 large, 2 small) and an external arena. The large stages were for the more established artistes (Galaxy stage and Earth stage) while the other two were mainly for indie, or indie-just-turned major bands (Moon stage and Cosmo stage). The external arena was called the Astro Arena, where the DJ was spinning. If not for the stamp rally, I wouldn't have even gone there at all. I didn't even go in actually, just walked past.
The Astro Arena. I visited all the different stages, as the bands I wanted to watch were all spread out. Not too much stage-hopping, thankfully.
Anyway after some exploration, it was finally time for my first show of the day and I made my way to the Galaxy stage where RHYMESTER would be playing at 16:10h.
Corridor to the Galaxy Stage, and the entrance to the stage.
RHYMESTER 16:10h Galaxy Stage
I've long heard of RHYMESTER, and liked what I heard in (I think) one of the summer festivals either this or last year. I also liked the collaboration they did for their song "This Y'all, That Y'all", and so I figured I would give they a go. Not a fan, so although I have a recording, I don't know the songs. They're a hip-hop group consisting of three people (one DJ and two MCs). Wikipedia says they've been around since 1989, which means they're nearly as old as I am D: Anyway because they are hip hop, there was loads of bass, which meant doom for my recording.
They played about 3 songs before doing an MC. Utamaru did the bulk of the talking, with Mummy-D commenting sometimes. He thanked CDJ for inviting them to play every year, and talked about how when they were coming in this morning for rehearsals, the staff were greeting them very properly and enthusiastically. He thought that that was awesome... until he realised that they were in fact not greeting him, but some other big shot guy who had also just arrived. He then proceeded to announce the release of their 8th album called "Pop Life" on March 2 and was all, "Yes we do hip hop, but this album's called POP life!" There was going to be a mix of serious and not-so-serious songs in it, and they were going to play some of the new songs today. The first of the two new songs they unveiled was called "Hands". All I managed to make out from what he said was that the song was about the state of young (possibly single?) mothers and their children in society today, that have been appearing frequently in the news.
After the song was another MC again, where he tried to raise the energy level of the crowd, "I know it's Countdown Japan, but man don't go through this saving all your energy just for the countdown!!" They did a call and answer (is that what it's called??) segment with the crowd and headed into the second-last song. The last song was called "ほとんど病気" ("Generally Ill"?), which was the second new song to be unveiled this afternoon, and also their last song for the set. Utamaru mentioned something about doing crowd-favourites, and that how he's at the point for some of them where the "No way, I don't feel like doing this song again!" feeling is higher than the knowledge that the crowd will give a good response to the song. Or something like that, if I can make out the muffled words correctly -_-
He then said "But I was just thinking, let's do a new song off the new album!", but then talked about how whenever bands play new songs which the crowd doesn't know, it usually results in a really awkward atmosphere because the crowd doesn't know how to react. Thus, he said that that was the reason why they sandwiched the previous new song between two standard songs which they knew would guarantee a good crowd response, and also so that they had nice pictures which could be printed in the magazines (don't you just love honesty <3). Then he asked the crowd if they really wanted to hear the new song, because "I don't want all of you to head over to Twitter or Mixi later and tell your friends that "Ahh RHYMESTER's last song made the live end in such an awkward atmosphere!!" ("微妙な空気！！")". Also, while "Hands" was a pretty serious song, Utamaru said that ほとんど病気 was a song which would make its listeners go "Ahh RHYMESTER's doing these kinds of nonsensical songs again!" ("「ああRHYMESTER、またこういうふさけた曲」という曲です。"). They played the song, and I quite liked it haha. The DJ also kept shouting "GENKI DESU KA????????" which I don't know if it's part of the song or just random shouts. I was wondering if he was trying to do an Antonio Inoki impersonation, but I guess not heh considering that the song is about being ill after all.
The song was pretty easy to follow, so thankfully the performance didn't end awkwardly XD Anyway that concluded the RHYMESTER performance, and I decided to stay on for SHAKALABBITS who were next to play on the same stage, against my other feeling that I should already go and start camping for a place at the Earth stage to ensure front (or close to front) row for the HIATUS. I know, the HIATUS don't play till about 2.5hours later, but the HIATUS' fans are crazy. Or rather, Hosomi Takeshi's fans are crazy. Me included.
SHAKALABBITS 17:20h Galaxy Stage
But against better judgement, I stayed for SHAKALABBITS.
In all fairness, they weren't a let-down. I really liked the music. I was at the railings of the second section, and saw a bunch of people wearing TOTALFAT and Northern19 shirts heading for the first section. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there'd be a mosh. The music was good, and it actually made me stay the entire duration despite the vocalist's voice and the fact that my chances for getting a good spot for the HIATUS was getting slimmer with every passing second. Perhaps if you're the kind that likes the Judy and Mary type of vocals, then SHAKALABBITS is the band for you. Yes, it really says something about the music if it can make me sit through that kind of voice. Okay I really sound like I'm dissing her, even though I don't mean to. Oh well such is life.
The vocalist talked about the stars in the Tokyo night sky and how they wrote a song about it. If I'm not wrong, it was when they first came to Tokyo as a band to try to make it here. In the countryside you can see the stars easily, but apparently it's not so easy in Tokyo due to the bright lights (lies, I see the Orion constellation every night. Maybe she's talking about places like Shibuya). Then one night after drinking after a live, there was this really bright star which she/they noticed in the sky, and that was the first time she had seen stars in the Tokyo sky. Anywho my memory is failing me (I don't feel very inclined to go back to listen to my recordings because I have to sit through her voice, sorry), but somehow that linked to her realising that they were really not working as hard as they should be, and they moved on with renewed resolution from that point on. And this whole long story was the introduction to the song they wrote about it.
They ended the set with the song "Monster Tree" (which was a PV of theirs I saw on Youtube when I was trying to check bands out the night before while planning my schedule). That was when the crowd at the second section went wild and started pushing. I really don't see why though, because I honestly felt that the earlier songs they played were much better than Monster Tree. Also it didn't help that a plump smelly boy jostled his way in front of me -_-
It was relief when the set ended, and looking at the mass exodus of people running in the same direction as me, I feared the worst.
The corridor to the Earth Stage, and the decor outside. the HIATUS were playing at the Earth Stage, so I made a beeline for it (together with 83469827938 other people).
SPECIAL OTHERS 17:55h Earth Stage
Of course, the set before the HIATUS hadn't ended yet, but I started to weave my way through the crowd, stopping near the second section. There were quite a few other people doing the same thing as me as well.
I don't know much about SPECIAL OTHERS, but it seemed like they were mainly playing instrumentals. Still, their instrumentals were pretty good. It seemed like they were having a jam session onstage, but my common sense tells me that it's probably just how their songs go. Unfortunately, I was sleepy and was fighting to keep awake half the time. I don't know why, but once there is no vocals, my brain starts going to sleep and it didn't help that I was really sleep deprived anyway.
This is probably the lousiest and non-detailed part of this live report you will ever see, because I didn't really intend to watch them in the first place, and was half asleep. The only thing I remember is that they had nice music. Youtube will probably confirm that, if you're even vaguely interested in them after reading this, and want to know more.
the HIATUS 19:15h Earth Stage
The previous set ended, and they started setting up the stage for the HIATUS. You don't have to know me to be able to know by now that this is the band I've been eagerly waiting for since the moment I successfully balloted for my ticket. It would be my first time seeing Hosomi Takeshi live. Well, it's the same for all the other artistes there except for TOTALFAT and LOCAL SOUND STYLE, but none of them have impacted me as much as ELLEGARDEN (Hosomi's previous band) did. I had wanted to go for his ANOMALY tour this year, but by the time I knew about it, tickets were all sold out (not surprisingly). the HIATUS are due to guest on Straightener's Tour STOUT in February this year, but the Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO show is sold out, and Zepp Fukuoka is too freaking far away.
I overhead another concert-goer wondering aloud to his friend (while I was browsing the magazines at the Rockin' on JAPAN booth, many hours after the live) that "Actually Hosomi Takeshi isn't good looking at all" (he said "ブサイク"), to which his friend (I think it was a female) replied "Yea you have a point... Actually if you look carefully, he's kinda normal". Which is true. But I really don't know what's attracting me so much. Maybe it all started from the knowledge that he used to work as a computer engineer in the USA. Okay, I really don't know. I should stop with my confessions of love before people get turned off and stop reading hurr.
Techs setting up the stage for the show. After SPECIAL OTHERS had ended, I ran to the first section only to find that the people at the front for SPECIAL OTHERS were in fact really there for the HIATUS. I told you we're a pretty extreme bunch. The barriers were kinda zigzagged, and I ended up second row or so behind the part of the barrier that was further away from the stage.
The moment the SE played over the speakers, the crowd surged to the front. There were 2 people or so shouting "Everyone, calm down!". I think they were concert-goers as well, but they might just as well have been concert staff. Okay I take back what I said. I think I remember that one of the guys had been standing beside me, so I think they were concert-goers as well. In any case, I actually have that part recorded in my recording. And it's awesome because I actually managed to record the whole show despite having shaken my iPhone around a lot during the live (which used to result in botched recordings for two previous lives I attended). Thus, I can (and will very happily) write a setlist! :D
Setlist:
01) The Ivy
02) My Own Worst Enemy
03) Monkey
04) Storm Racers
MC1
05) Walking Like A Man
06) The Flare
07) ベテルギウスの灯
MC2
08) Twisted Maple Trees
09) Insomnia
During the first MC I got a little lost when he talked about his memories about high school baseball playing-kids aiming to get to Koushien (where the National Championships for Baseball are held yearly). I don't know if he meant that it was his dream, but anyway I caught the next part. He assured the crowd that it wasn't a negative memory or anything (so I assume he was talking about himself), but basically was trying to express the sense of achievement he felt for being invited to play on the last day of CDJ.
The crowd was already singing along during the chorus of ベテルギウスの灯, but then later on he stopped singing during that part and let the crowd take over. I cursed my lack of memorisation power for Japanese lyrics and tried to blend in with what Japanese I THOUGHT was correct and used to sing whenever it played on my iTunes (I karaoke in my own room, yes).
For the second MC, he asked the crowd if he could play his guitar for a bit (or something like that - I assume he didn't get to do that much for the earlier songs?). And then later on said to the crowd: 「ありがとう」の言葉しかないです。ありがとう。幸せ。。。幸せです。ありがとう。("I have nothing else I can say except "thank you". Thank you. I'm... really happy. Thank you.") Not the greatest of MCs if you just read it like that, but somehow it meant a lot more for me.
I was singing along to the next song, "Twisted Maple Trees". Seeing him smile so widely during the song nearly made me cry, because it was such a brilliant smile. I was already crying inside though. Sorry for being a softie :S
The crowd sang along in unison during the chorus for "Insomnia". It was beautiful, because the chorus goes "save me", and hearing everyone sing that line together felt like some sort of a moment of emotional release.
With that, the live ended, and Hosomi thanked everyone for the upteenth time before wishing us a great year ahead and leaving the stage.
During the entire live, I was on tiptoes just so that I could try to catch a glimpse of him. I'm surprised my toes didn't break, oh the wonders of adrenaline. And of course, I was all prepared to break the rules and sneak photos.
I CAN"T BELIEVE MY PHOTOS ACTUALLY TURNED OUT YES I AM A REALLY HAPPY GIRL NOW <3
I think you're able to see the guitarist masasucks (from FULLSCRATCH) and the keyboardist at most. Oh hell I went to the official site and dug up the names of the people playing anyway.
Vo.&Gt.細美武士 Gt.masasucks Ba.ウエノコウジ Dr.柏倉隆史 Key.伊澤一葉
There we go.
This is my favourite photo of the lot, because it's the (comparatively) clearest of them all.
I think that this was one of the best things to happen to me in 2010. It surprised me how much it felt like I was watching a DVD the entire time during the concert, instead of really being physically there. I have no idea why. It was too flawless (in terms of sound. I'm not trying to be fangirly here), which is strange. Maybe it's because my brain doesn't quite yet accept that I'm actually seeing Hosomi Takeshi in person. It's too surreal. Probably too much of a shock for it, haha. Hearing Hosomi talk also makes me smile. I don't know if ELLEGARDEN going on an indefinite hiatus was a good thing to happen to him or what, but I'm really happy that he seems to be enjoying whatever he's doing at the moment.
I have to apologise for how scatterbrained this segment feels, because there's just so much I felt while watching the show and I don't know how I can put all that into words. As you can see from the really short paragraphs, my brain is failing me.
But enough of my fangirl ramblings. The show ended and I stayed on for the next act, Sakanaction, based on only one song I heard of theirs over Youtube.
Sakanaction 20:35h Earth Stage
I don't really know where to start for Sakanaction. Apparently their name is a combination of the words "sakana" meaning fish and "action", and meant to signify being quick to move like a fish adapts in water (or something like that). I thought they were going to be pop/rock, then they began with electronic/techno-ish numbers and it confused me. But those weren't bad. No wonder the couple beside me was wondering to each other if there would be space to dance.
Speaking about dancing, there was this guy behind me who was literally pressed on my back the whole time, and my face was in a girl's hair half the time. So when the dude moved, I had no choice but to move as well. Personal space, he has clearly not heard of. (Also I think he was kinda normal-looking, so that was meh. If it was a shiny boy I wouldn't have minded it half that much haha.)
Sakanaction's songs are mainly upbeat, crowd-friendly and pretty singeable (now the next step for me is to commit the lyrics to memory), and of course danceable. The song that made me decide to stay for Sakanaction was "Identity", and they played it last. It didn't disappoint.
During the MC, he (I think it was the vocalist) announced the release of a live DVD on February 2 of the Budoukan live they did in October. Other than that, I don't remember anything else important being talked about. Anyway, Hokkaido (I think they're from Sapporo?)-power!
I had my dinner (kebab) after Sakanaction's gig and took a short break. Was considering on going for other shows earlier on, but I decided that I should rest if I wanted to last right until the end, considering that I still had 4 more bands to go. At about 22:30h, I got up and headed for the Cosmo Stage, where LOCAL SOUND STYLE would be playing.
LOCAL SOUND STYLE 22:45h Cosmo Stage
This is a photo of the LOCAL SOUND STYLE boys doing their soundcheck before the show! As mentioned somewhere at the beginning, I think the Cosmo and Moon stages are for budding artistes. Every other band I've seen so far has their techs set up the equipment and do the soundcheck, but here are the LSS boys doing their own soundcheck. They jammed two songs ("Don't Look Back On Winding Roads" and "Out Of Colour") during the soundcheck and that got the crowd dancing. It was the first time I got to hear part of the songs in instrumentals, because Araseki would stop singing for some parts. I kinda like their songs as instrumentals because you get to soak in guitar goodness.
I figured that I could stay for about 3 of their songs before running off halfway to the Moon Stage to get a nice spot for TOTALFAT later on (and I was sure there were many TOTALFAT fans among the crowd as well. This is what happens when everyone likes the same type of music). I kinda felt bad for running off halfway, but you know, priorities.
The opening SE played and it made me so happy, because I had been dying to hear that song live. I wasn't sure if they'd play the actual song, but one could always hope. Because I love LOCAL SOUND STYLE, you get a setlist! :D
Setlist:
01) The Symphony
02) Get Up Kids
03) Everyday Means All
04) Get Out
MC1
05) Starting Over
06) Carry On
They really did play "The Symphony" after all! Though it felt shorter than I remembered. Well it is, after all, an 8-minute song. I guess they had to cut the song down. Anyway I think Araseki was either nervous/didn't do his vocal warmups properly/not feeling too well because he went off-key so many times during the entire set during the high parts. In between "Get Up Kids" and "Everyday Means All", they did the thing where they got the audience to pump their fists in the air and shout "hey!" (like they did at the previous live I attended). As usual, it was Kurotaki putting his bass down and running around trying to hype everyone up. It was pretty funny because after he picked up his bass and they looked like they were about to move into the song proper, the crowd stopped going "hey!", probably thinking that they were required to shut up because the song was going to start. They realised that this was not the case because the dudes onstage all turned around and literally went DDD: at us HAHAHA XD Ohhh I love the LOCAL SOUND STYLE dudes much, they're so funny <3
During the first MC, Kurotaki greeted the crowd with "うぃーっす！！" (I love how ah beng he is <3). They were playing earlier in the day at Shibuya BOXX, and then he said something about it being great style, local sound style (lol dude, trying to be funny. Unfortunately I have to admit that I appreciate stupid humour like this hurhur), to be able to soak in live music on March 31st. To which Araseki tsukkomi-ed him, "今日は３月３１日じゃねぇぞ。めっちゃ恥ずかしいけど。" ("Today isn't the 31st of March. This is so embarassing."), and Kurotaki replied "Aww but I'm really nervous now, and anyway this is a day when people should be allowed to do stupid things!!!". In retrospect, I think Kurotaki might have cracked the stupid joke earlier on to try to cover up for his mistake. Kurotaki then continued by saying that according to his search on Wikipedia, the 31st is when people's tension levels are at the highest. Lol, I never knew such data existed on Wiki. And announced that his (their?) parents were here today (which I knew they were coming because he tweeted about them coming down all the way from Aomori to watch them play today). Don't you love music-playing ah bengs who are good boys as well? Whatever it is, they are awesome.
They started on the next song "Starting Over" and Araseki was encouraging the crowd to sing along the whole time, letting us sing part of the chorus. It felt like I was the only one singing among the people around me though. I bet the girls around me must think I'm a crazed fan or something. But I don't care because I actually know their lyrics (it being in almost correct English makes things all the better for me hahaha).
After "Starting Over", Araseki told the crowd, "In the year 2011, the music scene isn't in the CD shops or the internet. To us, it's here in the live arena right now.", to which the crowd cheered and they entered into their song for the night. I had actually turned to leave after they finished "Starting Over", but since Araseki said that it was their last song, I decided to stay on after negotiating with the TOTALFAT fan within myself and coming to the consensus that I could afford another 5 minutes.
I had actually expected to leave halfway during the live, but their set was really, really short (my recording says 28 minutes). Thus, I had actually managed to catch the entire performance after all, which was awesome.
After the live ended, it was another mad rush to the Moon Stage. As usual, I was heading in the same direction as everyone else. Sigh.
COUNTDOWN: TOTALFAT 23:30h Moon Stage
Stage before the live started. I guess I should be thankful that there are bigger bands like The BAWDIES playing during the countdown segment at another stage, because it means that there would be less people to compete with (as I discovered on Twitter later, some of the Holidays of Seventeen dudes and one of the execs(?) of Fabtone Records were counting down with The BAWDIES). To my Dear BAWDIES-Loving Friends: Don't stone me for picking TOTALFAT over BAWDIES :( Fair exchange, because the The BAWDIES live I'm due to attend on Jan 29 clashes with TOTALFAT's Punisher's Night, and I'm picking The BAWDIES to attend.
I would love to write a set-list, but of all the 8 bands I had recordings for, one of them died. Guess which one? -_- Also, even though I had loads more opportunities to take decent photos during the live as compared to the the HIATUS one, I didn't manage to get nice ones here. I could actually see the entire stage when people weren't raising their hands. Is it because TOTALFAT fans are short??? Or maybe because they have tall fans who are nice and stay nearer the back. Or maybe I'm just further back than I was for the HIATUS. Or the stage was higher. I don't know. I just know that I apparently don't have much luck with TOTALFAT. Sigh.
But because I love the boys loads, I will try to put together (read: steal) the set-list off the RO69 quick report, and combine it with the set-list I wrote down from memory!
Set-list:
01) Invention ~Good morning,my treasures~
02) Ryan, Don't Worry
03) Life Like Movies
04) I Wanna Make You Feel Alright
05) Show Me Your Courage
06) Overdrive
COUNTDOWN
07) Summer Frequence
08) Good Fight & Promise You
The photo to the left is the best one out of the lot I managed to take T_T Well, at least you can see Shun if you stare hard enough. The rest of the band got blocked by heads. Shun's my favourite, so I guess at least that's -some- consolation :S
I can't remember what Shun said during the MCs due to recording fail. Didn't include them in the set-list because I have no idea when they occured. But according to the RO69 site, it seems like nothing special was said. I think he did say something after the countdown, but I wasn't really listening at that point of time either. I will have to wait until February when WOWOW airs CDJ10/11, and for some kind soul to then up it for me to relive the moment.
At any rate, what I DO remember is Shun announcing after "Life Like Movies" that they had a very special guest. That very special guest turned out to be none other than Nobu, the keyboardist of the telephones! He played the keyboard for their next song "I Wanna Make You Feel Alright". Actually, the keyboards only came in during the intro and fills after the first chorus, and then at the ending. So other than those occasions, Nobu was just jumping (or should I say "flailing"?) about wildly on the stage hahaha XD I recall him coming out dressed, but I think somewhere in the middle he turned topless. I have no idea when he took of his shirt though.
After "Overdrive", the stagecrew took out two timers (there were no screens for this stage), and the audience gathered together in various circles. We started counting down from 20 seconds, and when it hit zero, they shot out silver streamers. Everyone went around high-fiving each other and there was a random half-naked Japanese boy with blonde hair going around hugging people (lol). Now if you recall from my previous live (the GazettE at Tokyo Dome) I talked about stuff being printed on the streamers? I tried grabbing a handful of them (to send to the people back home) after realising that there was stuff printed on these streamers as well. Unfortunately, a couple of them fell out of my bag when I was jumping around for Summer Frequence and I ended up with only one T_T During Summer Frequence, they released balloons on the crowd, and after the song, Shun said after the song ended, "How about we pop all the balloons before we play the last song?". He clearly was joking, because he looked a little stunned when people started doing just that XD Anyway, the balloons were popped (I didn't keep one because I realised that it was just a normal balloon), and TOTALFAT proceeded into the last song for the night.
Now with punk lives here, there are a couple of things the fans do to enjoy the music. There's of course the mosh, there's the dancing thing where they look like they're doing a running man on the spot, the sitting-on-people's-shoulders-and-pumping-your-fists-in-the-air, and the crowdsurfing. There's the hunch-over-in-a-circle-into-mosh. And then, there's the everyone-run-around-in-a-circle-and-high-five-the-people-standing-in-the-outer-rim. During TOTALFAT's tour final, I was part of the inner circle (the ones going around high-fiving people). This time around, I formed the outer rim because I had my green bag with me, so my job was to stick out my hand for the people in the inner circle to high-five.
Also, there was a sudden commotion to my right. I kinda inferred that some girl's contact lense had fallen out of her eye, but we didn't manage to find it. Eventually the girl gave up. Poor girl >_< During the whole time, a couple of people had joined in to help and some of them were looking out to make sure that the moshers didn't come into the area and trample all over what could have been the contact lense. This is one of the reasons why I love the TOTALFAT fans, ever since the time I got included into their random circle during the tour final at Akasaka BLITZ.
I seem to be talking a lot about the audience, so let's return to the stage for a moment. During the last song, there's a part of the song that goes "Wo ohh oh ohhhh", and the four boys put down their instruments and came together at the front of the stage, hands on each other's shoulders, and sang together with the audience. It was an awesome moment, and I very badly wanted a photo of that, but didn't manage to get one T_T
The last song ended, and Shun wished us a happy new year before the band left the stage.
And then the half-naked blonde boy who I mentioned earlier, who was now walking from the stage to the back of the hall, came up and hugged me D:
I hugged back in reflex (he was all sweaty). I guess I didn't mind because he was vaguely shiny. I hope this bodes well for the upcoming year HAHA.
In any case, this was an awesome way to begin the new year.
I had initially contemplated going to catch YOUR SONG IS GOOD immediately after TOTALFAT, but decided to take a break before B-DASH. Went over to the magazines section where they were selling back copies, and bought 2 magazines which had long interviews with Hosomi Takeshi. I figured that I wasn't going to mosh anyway and would stand nearer the back, so it would be safe bringing magazines into the venue, right? Oh I was never more wrong.
B-DASH 25.50h Galaxy Stage
I had first seen B-DASH at GLORY HILL's "Break the Deadrock" live and liked what I heard, so it was great to know that they were playing for the last day of CDJ as well.
Both photos were taken during the soundcheck. Pretty, colourful lights! :D
True to what I had expected, B-DASH totally did not disappoint. I didn't know their songs (though I recognised some melodies), but it was all good. As usual, there was their signature (should I call it that?) many melody changes during the songs. I like how they manage to do that, yet not make the whole song sound utterly disjointed.
I find the way they speak really amusing. It's... cheekily formal (I really don't know how to describe it, you have to hear it for yourself to know what I'm talking about). Whatever it is, it's a really unique way in which they speak haha. During the second MC, GonGon (Vo/Gu) introduced the band members. He first introduced Arase, the drummer. Arase wished everyone a happy new year and said "So here we are at Countup..." to which there was awkward silence and the crowd giggled. He then tried to correct himself: "Okay, calm down! Here at Countdown Japan, we're playing our first gig of the year. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" The crowd cheered, and he said with an air of resignation, "Ahh I can't do this without referring to a script!" (he was supposed to be making announcements with regards to their future gigs) and took out a printed piece of paper, placed it on the toms, and started reading off it. It was really funny, because the camera was filming this and broadcast it onto the screens at the side. At one point when they were still figuring out how to make the announcement, he actually held up the paper to show the audience, thinking that we could read it by ourselves off the screens at the side XD Man... I really hope priceless moments like these will make it into the final video that WOWOW is going to broadcast in February. Anyway, Arase made the announcement about their upcoming gig verbally in the end, and continued wistfully to GonGon: "You know.. Don't you kinda feel like putting out a new album this year?" Aww I love it when they talk among themselves during the MC. GonGon then introduced the bassist, Tanaman. Tanaman greeted the crowd with "KONBANWAAA" (which really sounded like the Matchy impersonation that the dude from comedy duo Dienoji did when they were auditioning to be new members in Mechaike - sorry I know this is too specific and random lol). Tanaman then asked the crowd if we were sleepy, and said that they were going to play a new song, to which GonGon corrected by saying that actually they were going to do two new songs instead.
During the next MC, they introduced GonGon. GonGon then told the crowd that it was Arase's 31st birthday two days ago on Dec 29. Because of that, B-DASH would be playing one of their old songs for this occasion. Well, he didn't say it was their old song, but I heard everyone around me going "懐かしい！" (I don't really know how exactly to translate that, but basically they're saying that it's a song that they haven't heard for a long time).
After the last song for the set, B-DASH left the stage, with Arase screaming before he left the stage, "人生最高の２０１１しましょう！" ("Let's all have the best 2011 of our lives!").
Northern19 27:00h Galaxy Stage
I stayed on for Northern19, thinking that perhaps I should give them another go. After all, I did like at least one of their songs ("Smile for Peace") when I last heard them at the CATCH ALL SHOW at Zepp Tokyo earlier on in the year. I don't know if I'm biased after TOTALFAT's live, but I think that they have smelly (figuratively) fans. There were quite a few tall guys, and they were all making a beeline for the front. I had actually moved backwards because I knew that it was going to be chaotic. As it would turn out, I didn't move back enough.
Anyway, the concert started and I feel like there were more songs I heard that I liked this time around as compared when I last heard them at the CATCH ALL SHOW. That was probably the only saving grace here. Other than that, I was really annoyed because people don't know how to be violent in one place, and instead spread out to be violent. I wouldn't have minded it so much, but I had stuff to protect this time around. So during the live, I kept shifting further and further towards the back. But it seemed like the violent people would move further and further back each time -_-
So perhaps it was my fault for putting my stuff on the floor. But having moved to the back, one wouldn't expect the violent people to actually come to the back. I was keeping an eye on the mosh activities, and I knew that they were doing the high-five circle thing I mentioned earlier. All was fine and I was avoiding the circles. But suddenly a circle formed in front of me and before I could react, it surged into me. I nearly fell and my spectacles got pushed into my face (and one of the nosepads bent). I managed to rescue my green bag, but my other bag got sucked into the circle and disappeared. I feared the worst and went to look for it after the circle had dissipated. It ended up a good 5 meters away from me. From then on, I carried my bag in case freak circles like those happened again. (I went home and checked my magazines. I'm surprised they're still in pretty good condition, and only escaped with one magazine getting the edges creased. I'm lucky that I had put in other stuff earlier which acted as cushions for all the abuse it went through -_-)
Yes, thank you so much Northern19 fans. I try to like the band, I really do. But it's kinda hard to do so when people like you exist. I look at you, I look at the TOTALFAT fans, and I wonder why you're so different. Being considerate to fellow fans isn't THAT hard, you know.
(It looks like this section has turned into a bitch session. Oh well.)
It was about 4am by then, and I debated if I should return home or stay on for a last band (there were 2 playing). Decided to go around wrapping up instead (taking pictures, getting all the stamps, etc) instead.
It was already about 4.30am before I finally turned to leave. Only to be confronted by this scene at the Kaihinmakuhari station:
Apparently the people from the L'Arc en Ciel live (which had also just ended) were also all headed towards the train station at the same time, resulting in the huge crowd of people clogging up the station. I managed to get on the train and was finally homebound.
Apart from the delay the connecting train experienced, which resulted in the train being stopped at the station for nearly 10 minutes because some bugger (probably drunk) was standing on the train tracks and had to be cleared off, I reached the Shin-Kawasaki station in the freezing cold at about 6am. Saw the first sunrise of the new year from the train.
Shin-Kawasaki station at 6am. Walked home, bathed, and it was (a very long overdue) goodnight world.
For those people who actually made it right to the very end, thank you so much for sitting through all my ramblings and attempts at writing an interesting live report. I wrote it over the course of 2 days, so I'm sorry for any style changes along the way. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it, and that you might have been able to, in some small way, feel the atmosphere of the music festival that is COUNTDOWN JAPAN 10/11. I hope that I'm as lucky and am able to get my hands on tickets for COUNTDOWN JAPAN 11/12. In all my life, I've never attended a countdown event and I am very glad that I made CDJ10/11 my first. Perhaps if it were back in Singapore, I wouldn't be as interested. But with such a large-scale music festival with tens of thousands of other concert-goers all united by the music, I feel that it's an awesome way to conclude the old year and usher in the new.
So this is a little late, but Happy New Year everyone, and have a great 2011 ahead!
Next live: 2011/01/27 - LOCAL SOUND STYLE 「Before The Daylight Vol. 4」 - "The Symphony" Release Party. Guest: OCEANLANE/GLORY HILL | 下北沢 Shelter
I managed to successfully ballot for tickets to the last day of COUNTDOWN JAPAN 10/11 (CDJ10/11 from now on), and after a long wait, it's finally here!! Managed to wake up in time (before my alarms went off, in fact!) and caught the train from Shin-Kawasaki to Tokyo, and then to Kaihinmakuhari where Makuhari Messe was.
I think it was because it was the last day, but there was already a crowd of people streaming in an hour before the show even started. L'Arc en Ciel's New Year live was being held next door, but there was a sizeable crowd for CDJ as well.
Yes, very sizeable ^^;; Anyway, the goods booths were to the right, so I made a beeline for the the HIATUS booth, and headed over to the The BAWDIES one after that, after checking out TOTALFAT and LOCAL SOUND STYLE in between.
the HIATUS' towel! Made it out with my wallet still in good shape, thank goodness. Unfortunately they weren't selling the the HIATUS' tour shirts, or I would have gotten them here. "the HIATUS" is the band name. I am not typing "the" twice by accident. Was considering the The BAWDIES limited edition shirt, but the person in front of me in the queue bought the last shirt (what's new?). There was a very audible "EHHHHHHH????" when this unfortunate news was announced. There weren't other nice stuff, so I left the booth without getting anything. I was thinking about dumping my bag somewhere, but there weren't lockers available and the cloak fee was 1,000yen so the miser in me (I also didn't know if it's 1,000yen for the whole day or per use) decided to brave the crowd with my bag. It wasn't such a good idea, as I found out later on.
Awesomely pretty coloured lights in the main area *_* By the time I got to this area, 世界の終わり's performance had just started and I didn't want to rush. So I took the time to explore the whole area before the next performance I was due to attend.
Signed banners from the previous 3 days' performers. They didn't put today's one up though, sadly.
There was a stamp rally going on, and there were also custom-made stamps that each artiste had.
Graffiti wall, and a countdown clock.
Covers of Rockin' on JAPAN magazines over the years, and an awesome disco ball decor in the main corridor.
There were a total of 4 stages (2 large, 2 small) and an external arena. The large stages were for the more established artistes (Galaxy stage and Earth stage) while the other two were mainly for indie, or indie-just-turned major bands (Moon stage and Cosmo stage). The external arena was called the Astro Arena, where the DJ was spinning. If not for the stamp rally, I wouldn't have even gone there at all. I didn't even go in actually, just walked past.
The Astro Arena. I visited all the different stages, as the bands I wanted to watch were all spread out. Not too much stage-hopping, thankfully.
Anyway after some exploration, it was finally time for my first show of the day and I made my way to the Galaxy stage where RHYMESTER would be playing at 16:10h.
Corridor to the Galaxy Stage, and the entrance to the stage.
RHYMESTER 16:10h Galaxy Stage
I've long heard of RHYMESTER, and liked what I heard in (I think) one of the summer festivals either this or last year. I also liked the collaboration they did for their song "This Y'all, That Y'all", and so I figured I would give they a go. Not a fan, so although I have a recording, I don't know the songs. They're a hip-hop group consisting of three people (one DJ and two MCs). Wikipedia says they've been around since 1989, which means they're nearly as old as I am D: Anyway because they are hip hop, there was loads of bass, which meant doom for my recording.
They played about 3 songs before doing an MC. Utamaru did the bulk of the talking, with Mummy-D commenting sometimes. He thanked CDJ for inviting them to play every year, and talked about how when they were coming in this morning for rehearsals, the staff were greeting them very properly and enthusiastically. He thought that that was awesome... until he realised that they were in fact not greeting him, but some other big shot guy who had also just arrived. He then proceeded to announce the release of their 8th album called "Pop Life" on March 2 and was all, "Yes we do hip hop, but this album's called POP life!" There was going to be a mix of serious and not-so-serious songs in it, and they were going to play some of the new songs today. The first of the two new songs they unveiled was called "Hands". All I managed to make out from what he said was that the song was about the state of young (possibly single?) mothers and their children in society today, that have been appearing frequently in the news.
After the song was another MC again, where he tried to raise the energy level of the crowd, "I know it's Countdown Japan, but man don't go through this saving all your energy just for the countdown!!" They did a call and answer (is that what it's called??) segment with the crowd and headed into the second-last song. The last song was called "ほとんど病気" ("Generally Ill"?), which was the second new song to be unveiled this afternoon, and also their last song for the set. Utamaru mentioned something about doing crowd-favourites, and that how he's at the point for some of them where the "No way, I don't feel like doing this song again!" feeling is higher than the knowledge that the crowd will give a good response to the song. Or something like that, if I can make out the muffled words correctly -_-
He then said "But I was just thinking, let's do a new song off the new album!", but then talked about how whenever bands play new songs which the crowd doesn't know, it usually results in a really awkward atmosphere because the crowd doesn't know how to react. Thus, he said that that was the reason why they sandwiched the previous new song between two standard songs which they knew would guarantee a good crowd response, and also so that they had nice pictures which could be printed in the magazines (don't you just love honesty <3). Then he asked the crowd if they really wanted to hear the new song, because "I don't want all of you to head over to Twitter or Mixi later and tell your friends that "Ahh RHYMESTER's last song made the live end in such an awkward atmosphere!!" ("微妙な空気！！")". Also, while "Hands" was a pretty serious song, Utamaru said that ほとんど病気 was a song which would make its listeners go "Ahh RHYMESTER's doing these kinds of nonsensical songs again!" ("「ああRHYMESTER、またこういうふさけた曲」という曲です。"). They played the song, and I quite liked it haha. The DJ also kept shouting "GENKI DESU KA????????" which I don't know if it's part of the song or just random shouts. I was wondering if he was trying to do an Antonio Inoki impersonation, but I guess not heh considering that the song is about being ill after all.
The song was pretty easy to follow, so thankfully the performance didn't end awkwardly XD Anyway that concluded the RHYMESTER performance, and I decided to stay on for SHAKALABBITS who were next to play on the same stage, against my other feeling that I should already go and start camping for a place at the Earth stage to ensure front (or close to front) row for the HIATUS. I know, the HIATUS don't play till about 2.5hours later, but the HIATUS' fans are crazy. Or rather, Hosomi Takeshi's fans are crazy. Me included.
SHAKALABBITS 17:20h Galaxy Stage
But against better judgement, I stayed for SHAKALABBITS.
In all fairness, they weren't a let-down. I really liked the music. I was at the railings of the second section, and saw a bunch of people wearing TOTALFAT and Northern19 shirts heading for the first section. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there'd be a mosh. The music was good, and it actually made me stay the entire duration despite the vocalist's voice and the fact that my chances for getting a good spot for the HIATUS was getting slimmer with every passing second. Perhaps if you're the kind that likes the Judy and Mary type of vocals, then SHAKALABBITS is the band for you. Yes, it really says something about the music if it can make me sit through that kind of voice. Okay I really sound like I'm dissing her, even though I don't mean to. Oh well such is life.
The vocalist talked about the stars in the Tokyo night sky and how they wrote a song about it. If I'm not wrong, it was when they first came to Tokyo as a band to try to make it here. In the countryside you can see the stars easily, but apparently it's not so easy in Tokyo due to the bright lights (lies, I see the Orion constellation every night. Maybe she's talking about places like Shibuya). Then one night after drinking after a live, there was this really bright star which she/they noticed in the sky, and that was the first time she had seen stars in the Tokyo sky. Anywho my memory is failing me (I don't feel very inclined to go back to listen to my recordings because I have to sit through her voice, sorry), but somehow that linked to her realising that they were really not working as hard as they should be, and they moved on with renewed resolution from that point on. And this whole long story was the introduction to the song they wrote about it.
They ended the set with the song "Monster Tree" (which was a PV of theirs I saw on Youtube when I was trying to check bands out the night before while planning my schedule). That was when the crowd at the second section went wild and started pushing. I really don't see why though, because I honestly felt that the earlier songs they played were much better than Monster Tree. Also it didn't help that a plump smelly boy jostled his way in front of me -_-
It was relief when the set ended, and looking at the mass exodus of people running in the same direction as me, I feared the worst.
The corridor to the Earth Stage, and the decor outside. the HIATUS were playing at the Earth Stage, so I made a beeline for it (together with 83469827938 other people).
SPECIAL OTHERS 17:55h Earth Stage
Of course, the set before the HIATUS hadn't ended yet, but I started to weave my way through the crowd, stopping near the second section. There were quite a few other people doing the same thing as me as well.
I don't know much about SPECIAL OTHERS, but it seemed like they were mainly playing instrumentals. Still, their instrumentals were pretty good. It seemed like they were having a jam session onstage, but my common sense tells me that it's probably just how their songs go. Unfortunately, I was sleepy and was fighting to keep awake half the time. I don't know why, but once there is no vocals, my brain starts going to sleep and it didn't help that I was really sleep deprived anyway.
This is probably the lousiest and non-detailed part of this live report you will ever see, because I didn't really intend to watch them in the first place, and was half asleep. The only thing I remember is that they had nice music. Youtube will probably confirm that, if you're even vaguely interested in them after reading this, and want to know more.
the HIATUS 19:15h Earth Stage
The previous set ended, and they started setting up the stage for the HIATUS. You don't have to know me to be able to know by now that this is the band I've been eagerly waiting for since the moment I successfully balloted for my ticket. It would be my first time seeing Hosomi Takeshi live. Well, it's the same for all the other artistes there except for TOTALFAT and LOCAL SOUND STYLE, but none of them have impacted me as much as ELLEGARDEN (Hosomi's previous band) did. I had wanted to go for his ANOMALY tour this year, but by the time I knew about it, tickets were all sold out (not surprisingly). the HIATUS are due to guest on Straightener's Tour STOUT in February this year, but the Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO show is sold out, and Zepp Fukuoka is too freaking far away.
I overhead another concert-goer wondering aloud to his friend (while I was browsing the magazines at the Rockin' on JAPAN booth, many hours after the live) that "Actually Hosomi Takeshi isn't good looking at all" (he said "ブサイク"), to which his friend (I think it was a female) replied "Yea you have a point... Actually if you look carefully, he's kinda normal". Which is true. But I really don't know what's attracting me so much. Maybe it all started from the knowledge that he used to work as a computer engineer in the USA. Okay, I really don't know. I should stop with my confessions of love before people get turned off and stop reading hurr.
Techs setting up the stage for the show. After SPECIAL OTHERS had ended, I ran to the first section only to find that the people at the front for SPECIAL OTHERS were in fact really there for the HIATUS. I told you we're a pretty extreme bunch. The barriers were kinda zigzagged, and I ended up second row or so behind the part of the barrier that was further away from the stage.
The moment the SE played over the speakers, the crowd surged to the front. There were 2 people or so shouting "Everyone, calm down!". I think they were concert-goers as well, but they might just as well have been concert staff. Okay I take back what I said. I think I remember that one of the guys had been standing beside me, so I think they were concert-goers as well. In any case, I actually have that part recorded in my recording. And it's awesome because I actually managed to record the whole show despite having shaken my iPhone around a lot during the live (which used to result in botched recordings for two previous lives I attended). Thus, I can (and will very happily) write a setlist! :D
Setlist:
01) The Ivy
02) My Own Worst Enemy
03) Monkey
04) Storm Racers
MC1
05) Walking Like A Man
06) The Flare
07) ベテルギウスの灯
MC2
08) Twisted Maple Trees
09) Insomnia
During the first MC I got a little lost when he talked about his memories about high school baseball playing-kids aiming to get to Koushien (where the National Championships for Baseball are held yearly). I don't know if he meant that it was his dream, but anyway I caught the next part. He assured the crowd that it wasn't a negative memory or anything (so I assume he was talking about himself), but basically was trying to express the sense of achievement he felt for being invited to play on the last day of CDJ.
The crowd was already singing along during the chorus of ベテルギウスの灯, but then later on he stopped singing during that part and let the crowd take over. I cursed my lack of memorisation power for Japanese lyrics and tried to blend in with what Japanese I THOUGHT was correct and used to sing whenever it played on my iTunes (I karaoke in my own room, yes).
For the second MC, he asked the crowd if he could play his guitar for a bit (or something like that - I assume he didn't get to do that much for the earlier songs?). And then later on said to the crowd: 「ありがとう」の言葉しかないです。ありがとう。幸せ。。。幸せです。ありがとう。("I have nothing else I can say except "thank you". Thank you. I'm... really happy. Thank you.") Not the greatest of MCs if you just read it like that, but somehow it meant a lot more for me.
I was singing along to the next song, "Twisted Maple Trees". Seeing him smile so widely during the song nearly made me cry, because it was such a brilliant smile. I was already crying inside though. Sorry for being a softie :S
The crowd sang along in unison during the chorus for "Insomnia". It was beautiful, because the chorus goes "save me", and hearing everyone sing that line together felt like some sort of a moment of emotional release.
With that, the live ended, and Hosomi thanked everyone for the upteenth time before wishing us a great year ahead and leaving the stage.
During the entire live, I was on tiptoes just so that I could try to catch a glimpse of him. I'm surprised my toes didn't break, oh the wonders of adrenaline. And of course, I was all prepared to break the rules and sneak photos.
I CAN"T BELIEVE MY PHOTOS ACTUALLY TURNED OUT YES I AM A REALLY HAPPY GIRL NOW <3
I think you're able to see the guitarist masasucks (from FULLSCRATCH) and the keyboardist at most. Oh hell I went to the official site and dug up the names of the people playing anyway.
Vo.&Gt.細美武士 Gt.masasucks Ba.ウエノコウジ Dr.柏倉隆史 Key.伊澤一葉
There we go.
This is my favourite photo of the lot, because it's the (comparatively) clearest of them all.
I think that this was one of the best things to happen to me in 2010. It surprised me how much it felt like I was watching a DVD the entire time during the concert, instead of really being physically there. I have no idea why. It was too flawless (in terms of sound. I'm not trying to be fangirly here), which is strange. Maybe it's because my brain doesn't quite yet accept that I'm actually seeing Hosomi Takeshi in person. It's too surreal. Probably too much of a shock for it, haha. Hearing Hosomi talk also makes me smile. I don't know if ELLEGARDEN going on an indefinite hiatus was a good thing to happen to him or what, but I'm really happy that he seems to be enjoying whatever he's doing at the moment.
I have to apologise for how scatterbrained this segment feels, because there's just so much I felt while watching the show and I don't know how I can put all that into words. As you can see from the really short paragraphs, my brain is failing me.
But enough of my fangirl ramblings. The show ended and I stayed on for the next act, Sakanaction, based on only one song I heard of theirs over Youtube.
Sakanaction 20:35h Earth Stage
I don't really know where to start for Sakanaction. Apparently their name is a combination of the words "sakana" meaning fish and "action", and meant to signify being quick to move like a fish adapts in water (or something like that). I thought they were going to be pop/rock, then they began with electronic/techno-ish numbers and it confused me. But those weren't bad. No wonder the couple beside me was wondering to each other if there would be space to dance.
Speaking about dancing, there was this guy behind me who was literally pressed on my back the whole time, and my face was in a girl's hair half the time. So when the dude moved, I had no choice but to move as well. Personal space, he has clearly not heard of. (Also I think he was kinda normal-looking, so that was meh. If it was a shiny boy I wouldn't have minded it half that much haha.)
Sakanaction's songs are mainly upbeat, crowd-friendly and pretty singeable (now the next step for me is to commit the lyrics to memory), and of course danceable. The song that made me decide to stay for Sakanaction was "Identity", and they played it last. It didn't disappoint.
During the MC, he (I think it was the vocalist) announced the release of a live DVD on February 2 of the Budoukan live they did in October. Other than that, I don't remember anything else important being talked about. Anyway, Hokkaido (I think they're from Sapporo?)-power!
I had my dinner (kebab) after Sakanaction's gig and took a short break. Was considering on going for other shows earlier on, but I decided that I should rest if I wanted to last right until the end, considering that I still had 4 more bands to go. At about 22:30h, I got up and headed for the Cosmo Stage, where LOCAL SOUND STYLE would be playing.
LOCAL SOUND STYLE 22:45h Cosmo Stage
This is a photo of the LOCAL SOUND STYLE boys doing their soundcheck before the show! As mentioned somewhere at the beginning, I think the Cosmo and Moon stages are for budding artistes. Every other band I've seen so far has their techs set up the equipment and do the soundcheck, but here are the LSS boys doing their own soundcheck. They jammed two songs ("Don't Look Back On Winding Roads" and "Out Of Colour") during the soundcheck and that got the crowd dancing. It was the first time I got to hear part of the songs in instrumentals, because Araseki would stop singing for some parts. I kinda like their songs as instrumentals because you get to soak in guitar goodness.
I figured that I could stay for about 3 of their songs before running off halfway to the Moon Stage to get a nice spot for TOTALFAT later on (and I was sure there were many TOTALFAT fans among the crowd as well. This is what happens when everyone likes the same type of music). I kinda felt bad for running off halfway, but you know, priorities.
The opening SE played and it made me so happy, because I had been dying to hear that song live. I wasn't sure if they'd play the actual song, but one could always hope. Because I love LOCAL SOUND STYLE, you get a setlist! :D
Setlist:
01) The Symphony
02) Get Up Kids
03) Everyday Means All
04) Get Out
MC1
05) Starting Over
06) Carry On
They really did play "The Symphony" after all! Though it felt shorter than I remembered. Well it is, after all, an 8-minute song. I guess they had to cut the song down. Anyway I think Araseki was either nervous/didn't do his vocal warmups properly/not feeling too well because he went off-key so many times during the entire set during the high parts. In between "Get Up Kids" and "Everyday Means All", they did the thing where they got the audience to pump their fists in the air and shout "hey!" (like they did at the previous live I attended). As usual, it was Kurotaki putting his bass down and running around trying to hype everyone up. It was pretty funny because after he picked up his bass and they looked like they were about to move into the song proper, the crowd stopped going "hey!", probably thinking that they were required to shut up because the song was going to start. They realised that this was not the case because the dudes onstage all turned around and literally went DDD: at us HAHAHA XD Ohhh I love the LOCAL SOUND STYLE dudes much, they're so funny <3
During the first MC, Kurotaki greeted the crowd with "うぃーっす！！" (I love how ah beng he is <3). They were playing earlier in the day at Shibuya BOXX, and then he said something about it being great style, local sound style (lol dude, trying to be funny. Unfortunately I have to admit that I appreciate stupid humour like this hurhur), to be able to soak in live music on March 31st. To which Araseki tsukkomi-ed him, "今日は３月３１日じゃねぇぞ。めっちゃ恥ずかしいけど。" ("Today isn't the 31st of March. This is so embarassing."), and Kurotaki replied "Aww but I'm really nervous now, and anyway this is a day when people should be allowed to do stupid things!!!". In retrospect, I think Kurotaki might have cracked the stupid joke earlier on to try to cover up for his mistake. Kurotaki then continued by saying that according to his search on Wikipedia, the 31st is when people's tension levels are at the highest. Lol, I never knew such data existed on Wiki. And announced that his (their?) parents were here today (which I knew they were coming because he tweeted about them coming down all the way from Aomori to watch them play today). Don't you love music-playing ah bengs who are good boys as well? Whatever it is, they are awesome.
They started on the next song "Starting Over" and Araseki was encouraging the crowd to sing along the whole time, letting us sing part of the chorus. It felt like I was the only one singing among the people around me though. I bet the girls around me must think I'm a crazed fan or something. But I don't care because I actually know their lyrics (it being in almost correct English makes things all the better for me hahaha).
After "Starting Over", Araseki told the crowd, "In the year 2011, the music scene isn't in the CD shops or the internet. To us, it's here in the live arena right now.", to which the crowd cheered and they entered into their song for the night. I had actually turned to leave after they finished "Starting Over", but since Araseki said that it was their last song, I decided to stay on after negotiating with the TOTALFAT fan within myself and coming to the consensus that I could afford another 5 minutes.
I had actually expected to leave halfway during the live, but their set was really, really short (my recording says 28 minutes). Thus, I had actually managed to catch the entire performance after all, which was awesome.
After the live ended, it was another mad rush to the Moon Stage. As usual, I was heading in the same direction as everyone else. Sigh.
COUNTDOWN: TOTALFAT 23:30h Moon Stage
Stage before the live started. I guess I should be thankful that there are bigger bands like The BAWDIES playing during the countdown segment at another stage, because it means that there would be less people to compete with (as I discovered on Twitter later, some of the Holidays of Seventeen dudes and one of the execs(?) of Fabtone Records were counting down with The BAWDIES). To my Dear BAWDIES-Loving Friends: Don't stone me for picking TOTALFAT over BAWDIES :( Fair exchange, because the The BAWDIES live I'm due to attend on Jan 29 clashes with TOTALFAT's Punisher's Night, and I'm picking The BAWDIES to attend.
I would love to write a set-list, but of all the 8 bands I had recordings for, one of them died. Guess which one? -_- Also, even though I had loads more opportunities to take decent photos during the live as compared to the the HIATUS one, I didn't manage to get nice ones here. I could actually see the entire stage when people weren't raising their hands. Is it because TOTALFAT fans are short??? Or maybe because they have tall fans who are nice and stay nearer the back. Or maybe I'm just further back than I was for the HIATUS. Or the stage was higher. I don't know. I just know that I apparently don't have much luck with TOTALFAT. Sigh.
But because I love the boys loads, I will try to put together (read: steal) the set-list off the RO69 quick report, and combine it with the set-list I wrote down from memory!
Set-list:
01) Invention ~Good morning,my treasures~
02) Ryan, Don't Worry
03) Life Like Movies
04) I Wanna Make You Feel Alright
05) Show Me Your Courage
06) Overdrive
COUNTDOWN
07) Summer Frequence
08) Good Fight & Promise You
The photo to the left is the best one out of the lot I managed to take T_T Well, at least you can see Shun if you stare hard enough. The rest of the band got blocked by heads. Shun's my favourite, so I guess at least that's -some- consolation :S
I can't remember what Shun said during the MCs due to recording fail. Didn't include them in the set-list because I have no idea when they occured. But according to the RO69 site, it seems like nothing special was said. I think he did say something after the countdown, but I wasn't really listening at that point of time either. I will have to wait until February when WOWOW airs CDJ10/11, and for some kind soul to then up it for me to relive the moment.
At any rate, what I DO remember is Shun announcing after "Life Like Movies" that they had a very special guest. That very special guest turned out to be none other than Nobu, the keyboardist of the telephones! He played the keyboard for their next song "I Wanna Make You Feel Alright". Actually, the keyboards only came in during the intro and fills after the first chorus, and then at the ending. So other than those occasions, Nobu was just jumping (or should I say "flailing"?) about wildly on the stage hahaha XD I recall him coming out dressed, but I think somewhere in the middle he turned topless. I have no idea when he took of his shirt though.
After "Overdrive", the stagecrew took out two timers (there were no screens for this stage), and the audience gathered together in various circles. We started counting down from 20 seconds, and when it hit zero, they shot out silver streamers. Everyone went around high-fiving each other and there was a random half-naked Japanese boy with blonde hair going around hugging people (lol). Now if you recall from my previous live (the GazettE at Tokyo Dome) I talked about stuff being printed on the streamers? I tried grabbing a handful of them (to send to the people back home) after realising that there was stuff printed on these streamers as well. Unfortunately, a couple of them fell out of my bag when I was jumping around for Summer Frequence and I ended up with only one T_T During Summer Frequence, they released balloons on the crowd, and after the song, Shun said after the song ended, "How about we pop all the balloons before we play the last song?". He clearly was joking, because he looked a little stunned when people started doing just that XD Anyway, the balloons were popped (I didn't keep one because I realised that it was just a normal balloon), and TOTALFAT proceeded into the last song for the night.
Now with punk lives here, there are a couple of things the fans do to enjoy the music. There's of course the mosh, there's the dancing thing where they look like they're doing a running man on the spot, the sitting-on-people's-shoulders-and-pumping-your-fists-in-the-air, and the crowdsurfing. There's the hunch-over-in-a-circle-into-mosh. And then, there's the everyone-run-around-in-a-circle-and-high-five-the-people-standing-in-the-outer-rim. During TOTALFAT's tour final, I was part of the inner circle (the ones going around high-fiving people). This time around, I formed the outer rim because I had my green bag with me, so my job was to stick out my hand for the people in the inner circle to high-five.
Also, there was a sudden commotion to my right. I kinda inferred that some girl's contact lense had fallen out of her eye, but we didn't manage to find it. Eventually the girl gave up. Poor girl >_< During the whole time, a couple of people had joined in to help and some of them were looking out to make sure that the moshers didn't come into the area and trample all over what could have been the contact lense. This is one of the reasons why I love the TOTALFAT fans, ever since the time I got included into their random circle during the tour final at Akasaka BLITZ.
I seem to be talking a lot about the audience, so let's return to the stage for a moment. During the last song, there's a part of the song that goes "Wo ohh oh ohhhh", and the four boys put down their instruments and came together at the front of the stage, hands on each other's shoulders, and sang together with the audience. It was an awesome moment, and I very badly wanted a photo of that, but didn't manage to get one T_T
The last song ended, and Shun wished us a happy new year before the band left the stage.
And then the half-naked blonde boy who I mentioned earlier, who was now walking from the stage to the back of the hall, came up and hugged me D:
I hugged back in reflex (he was all sweaty). I guess I didn't mind because he was vaguely shiny. I hope this bodes well for the upcoming year HAHA.
In any case, this was an awesome way to begin the new year.
I had initially contemplated going to catch YOUR SONG IS GOOD immediately after TOTALFAT, but decided to take a break before B-DASH. Went over to the magazines section where they were selling back copies, and bought 2 magazines which had long interviews with Hosomi Takeshi. I figured that I wasn't going to mosh anyway and would stand nearer the back, so it would be safe bringing magazines into the venue, right? Oh I was never more wrong.
B-DASH 25.50h Galaxy Stage
I had first seen B-DASH at GLORY HILL's "Break the Deadrock" live and liked what I heard, so it was great to know that they were playing for the last day of CDJ as well.
Both photos were taken during the soundcheck. Pretty, colourful lights! :D
True to what I had expected, B-DASH totally did not disappoint. I didn't know their songs (though I recognised some melodies), but it was all good. As usual, there was their signature (should I call it that?) many melody changes during the songs. I like how they manage to do that, yet not make the whole song sound utterly disjointed.
I find the way they speak really amusing. It's... cheekily formal (I really don't know how to describe it, you have to hear it for yourself to know what I'm talking about). Whatever it is, it's a really unique way in which they speak haha. During the second MC, GonGon (Vo/Gu) introduced the band members. He first introduced Arase, the drummer. Arase wished everyone a happy new year and said "So here we are at Countup..." to which there was awkward silence and the crowd giggled. He then tried to correct himself: "Okay, calm down! Here at Countdown Japan, we're playing our first gig of the year. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" The crowd cheered, and he said with an air of resignation, "Ahh I can't do this without referring to a script!" (he was supposed to be making announcements with regards to their future gigs) and took out a printed piece of paper, placed it on the toms, and started reading off it. It was really funny, because the camera was filming this and broadcast it onto the screens at the side. At one point when they were still figuring out how to make the announcement, he actually held up the paper to show the audience, thinking that we could read it by ourselves off the screens at the side XD Man... I really hope priceless moments like these will make it into the final video that WOWOW is going to broadcast in February. Anyway, Arase made the announcement about their upcoming gig verbally in the end, and continued wistfully to GonGon: "You know.. Don't you kinda feel like putting out a new album this year?" Aww I love it when they talk among themselves during the MC. GonGon then introduced the bassist, Tanaman. Tanaman greeted the crowd with "KONBANWAAA" (which really sounded like the Matchy impersonation that the dude from comedy duo Dienoji did when they were auditioning to be new members in Mechaike - sorry I know this is too specific and random lol). Tanaman then asked the crowd if we were sleepy, and said that they were going to play a new song, to which GonGon corrected by saying that actually they were going to do two new songs instead.
During the next MC, they introduced GonGon. GonGon then told the crowd that it was Arase's 31st birthday two days ago on Dec 29. Because of that, B-DASH would be playing one of their old songs for this occasion. Well, he didn't say it was their old song, but I heard everyone around me going "懐かしい！" (I don't really know how exactly to translate that, but basically they're saying that it's a song that they haven't heard for a long time).
After the last song for the set, B-DASH left the stage, with Arase screaming before he left the stage, "人生最高の２０１１しましょう！" ("Let's all have the best 2011 of our lives!").
Northern19 27:00h Galaxy Stage
I stayed on for Northern19, thinking that perhaps I should give them another go. After all, I did like at least one of their songs ("Smile for Peace") when I last heard them at the CATCH ALL SHOW at Zepp Tokyo earlier on in the year. I don't know if I'm biased after TOTALFAT's live, but I think that they have smelly (figuratively) fans. There were quite a few tall guys, and they were all making a beeline for the front. I had actually moved backwards because I knew that it was going to be chaotic. As it would turn out, I didn't move back enough.
Anyway, the concert started and I feel like there were more songs I heard that I liked this time around as compared when I last heard them at the CATCH ALL SHOW. That was probably the only saving grace here. Other than that, I was really annoyed because people don't know how to be violent in one place, and instead spread out to be violent. I wouldn't have minded it so much, but I had stuff to protect this time around. So during the live, I kept shifting further and further towards the back. But it seemed like the violent people would move further and further back each time -_-
So perhaps it was my fault for putting my stuff on the floor. But having moved to the back, one wouldn't expect the violent people to actually come to the back. I was keeping an eye on the mosh activities, and I knew that they were doing the high-five circle thing I mentioned earlier. All was fine and I was avoiding the circles. But suddenly a circle formed in front of me and before I could react, it surged into me. I nearly fell and my spectacles got pushed into my face (and one of the nosepads bent). I managed to rescue my green bag, but my other bag got sucked into the circle and disappeared. I feared the worst and went to look for it after the circle had dissipated. It ended up a good 5 meters away from me. From then on, I carried my bag in case freak circles like those happened again. (I went home and checked my magazines. I'm surprised they're still in pretty good condition, and only escaped with one magazine getting the edges creased. I'm lucky that I had put in other stuff earlier which acted as cushions for all the abuse it went through -_-)
Yes, thank you so much Northern19 fans. I try to like the band, I really do. But it's kinda hard to do so when people like you exist. I look at you, I look at the TOTALFAT fans, and I wonder why you're so different. Being considerate to fellow fans isn't THAT hard, you know.
(It looks like this section has turned into a bitch session. Oh well.)
It was about 4am by then, and I debated if I should return home or stay on for a last band (there were 2 playing). Decided to go around wrapping up instead (taking pictures, getting all the stamps, etc) instead.
It was already about 4.30am before I finally turned to leave. Only to be confronted by this scene at the Kaihinmakuhari station:
Apparently the people from the L'Arc en Ciel live (which had also just ended) were also all headed towards the train station at the same time, resulting in the huge crowd of people clogging up the station. I managed to get on the train and was finally homebound.
Apart from the delay the connecting train experienced, which resulted in the train being stopped at the station for nearly 10 minutes because some bugger (probably drunk) was standing on the train tracks and had to be cleared off, I reached the Shin-Kawasaki station in the freezing cold at about 6am. Saw the first sunrise of the new year from the train.
Shin-Kawasaki station at 6am. Walked home, bathed, and it was (a very long overdue) goodnight world.
For those people who actually made it right to the very end, thank you so much for sitting through all my ramblings and attempts at writing an interesting live report. I wrote it over the course of 2 days, so I'm sorry for any style changes along the way. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it, and that you might have been able to, in some small way, feel the atmosphere of the music festival that is COUNTDOWN JAPAN 10/11. I hope that I'm as lucky and am able to get my hands on tickets for COUNTDOWN JAPAN 11/12. In all my life, I've never attended a countdown event and I am very glad that I made CDJ10/11 my first. Perhaps if it were back in Singapore, I wouldn't be as interested. But with such a large-scale music festival with tens of thousands of other concert-goers all united by the music, I feel that it's an awesome way to conclude the old year and usher in the new.
So this is a little late, but Happy New Year everyone, and have a great 2011 ahead!
Next live: 2011/01/27 - LOCAL SOUND STYLE 「Before The Daylight Vol. 4」 - "The Symphony" Release Party. Guest: OCEANLANE/GLORY HILL | 下北沢 Shelter