[CON] Jin Akanishi @ Club Nokia, LA, 2010.11.16, 8:00 PM
I walked out after the show wondering how it was possible for one man to be so adorable, but in truth, there were a lot of adorable things last night and not all of them were to do with Jin. I'm practically in tears over how happy the show made me. I don't regret coming to the US for concerts at all!
Before I forget, I know there were people in the queue I really should've said hello to but I didn't know they were there. So if in NYC you spot a short white girl with long, reddish-brown hair (which may or may not have gold sparkles in it) and toting a You & Jin concert bag around with her, come say hi! ^_^
Jin Akanishi @ Club Nokia, LA, 2010.11.16, 8:00 PM
iris_aya arrived at my hotel just after 11 yesterday and the two of us walked the couple of blocks to Club Nokia to see if we could find any staff members to ask about wristbands. (They weren't answering their phones, you see.) Place was deserted and the escalators up to the third floor weren't running, so we shrugged, turned around, and went back down to find lunch and watch for obvious fangirls. After lunch and a brief stop at Starbucks, which must've seen an awful lot of business yesterday afternoon, we took a stroll and headed back up when we saw other fans disappearing up to the third floor and not returning.
Surprise surprise, we found a couple of dozen girls already queueing, almost all of them Japanese, and some of them had clearly been there for a few hours already. Blankets, pillows, lunchboxes, games consoles, you name it. That's some hardcore queuing there. Of course, once we were up there we couldn't possibly go back down, and that's how we ended up spending (and I am sort of ashamed to admit this) a total of 5-6 hours in the queue. We joined it at about 1:30 PM, and the show started at 8, so we had a long wait ahead of us. All the better to let the anticipation build, I guess!
We weren't really prepared for an afternoon in the queue - we had water, I had my PDA and Aya had some assignments to work on - but compared to the girl with the DS and all the people plugged into their mp3 players, we were total amateurs. It took ages before another foreigner turned up, so much so that it felt like going to a concert in Japan again! We got chatting to a nice girl named Melissa who was down from Canada, and there were some girls near us who had gone with the "Yellow Gold" dress theme. We didn't speak to them much, I'm afraid, though they did ask me where I got my You & Jin bag from. (I wasn't the only person who brought one with me, but I might've been the only Westerner in the queue with one. Not sure.)
Staff members kept popping out to laugh, get assaulted by rabid fangirls asking questions, and put up even more "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" signs in various languages. Mostly the queue was kind of quiet until about 5, though, with the exception of people who had the "I'm with the band" kind of excuse so they got to go in the guest door. It wasn't too bad, sitting there in the shade, with people sometimes dashing out for the restroom/Starbucks. I can see the appeal of going in a large group - you can queue in shifts!
Proof that it is a small world after all! The girl behind us in the queue, who looked vaguely familiar, was with her mum and spoke with a distinct American accent, got chatting with us after we'd all had to stand up (we were all sitting for all these hours) and shuffle in to make room for the growing queue. See, they'd set up another goods stand downstairs, and various people were running down and coming back with about 20 posters, which is how we knew about the weirdness that is Poster D. After sharing some mutual outrage and concert comments, she asked me if I knew a girl named Sandy and that's when it clicked - we'd met last year at KAT-TUN's 'Break the Records' cons at the Tokyo Dome! Sorry, Elena, not sure how you spell your name so I'm just going to have to write it as it sounded to me.
So there we were, chatting happily in the queue, and I end up talking to a lady next to me who was there with her friend Amy, and it turned out that Amy and Elena knew each other. Cue more chatting. I've never had this kind of experience in a concert queue before - at least, not with people I didn't go there with!
We finally managed to corner a friendly staff member, Brian, who was able to tell us about the pit wristbands. First 300 people, he said, and he told us where to go. So the four of us decided on a plan, and when we eventually got inside, we ran for the wristbands, got our place down in the pit, went "OMG! OMG!" at how close we were to the stage, and then I went with Elena to join the goods queue (which was pretty short at that point) while her mum and Aya held our spots in the pit. Cameramen were going around interviewing people and they got the girl in front of us in the goods queue. We attempted to dodge, but I wasn't as successful after the show and I am now mortified for life. (See end of report.)
Buying goods was relatively hassle-free, except that they gave me poster B instead of poster A. Nobody said anything about any limits, so I guess they're now catering for people buying in bulk!
We fought our way back to the pit, where I had to tie the poster bag to my handbag in a complicated strap arrangement so I didn't have it dangling from my wrist while I danced. I had enough room for my notepad, thankfully, so I was able to take notes during the whole show - albeit in the dark, without looking at the page, so I did scribble over myself occasionally. I hope I didn't leave any inkstains on the girl in front of me.
A brawl very nearly broke out in the pit before the show even started. A girl basically moved Aya out of the way and stole her place, so all the girls and slightly older Japanese ladies around us got very indignant about this and tried to attract security. (No luck. Perhaps they should've flashed cameras.) There were death threats and all. Eventually one lady forcibly shoved her way into the fracas, and I think the original offender ended up crying? I was at the wrong angle to see. Celebrations all around.
And now for the show. I was about six feet from the stage, slightly to the left of the centre, so I had a fabulous view. I mean, I could see the little hoop in Jin's ear, I could see the sweat along his collarbones, my view was that good. To get that close in Japan, I suspect I'd have to take out a loan. I couldn't see anything behind me so I'm afraid I can't say how full it was. The balcony had some empty spaces. The crowd made plenty of noise, though, and while I can't speak for everyone behind me, down in the pit we were dancing all right. Some girls in front sang 'Tipsy Love' while the camera guys were filming them, and in general the atmosphere was very lively!
Now, I went to the Tokyo You & Jin shows but I didn't go to the LA ones in June, so I was seeing some of these people and songs for the first time. Please excuse me if I screwed up anywhere.
John Michael and Juice came out to get us warmed up and making some noise, which we did - more so on my side, I am pleased to say - and then the lights went out so they could show us the video footage of the June concerts. In my notes I have "not one of Jin's better moments" but damned if I can remember why. I suspect it was the press-con footage.
They asked us who went to the June shows, and then Juice teased us and threw his crucifix into the crowd. Cue much yelling of "I wanna rock" and "right now right now", and then they introduced Joey, who had lighter hair than when I'd last seen him. Longer, too. He wore the same red and yellow baseball cap for much of the show, got a lot of applause just for being there, got screams for his hiprolls (I have to wonder if all the guys get together and practise this, and if so, how much they'd charge for admission), and while I have no technical appreciation for dancing whatsoever, it looked...uh...Joey-like. I am impressed by his flexibility, though. He said it had been five minutes already, and he was really tired (what, his stamina is as bad as Jin's?), and then he joined in with the "I wanna rock" cheers.
Next up: Dominic, who performed a medley of some of his songs. First was '#1', and the audience joined in. Next was 'One Love', and I'm afraid I didn't know the third one. Anybody know, or can suggest what it might have been? He had two female dancers I didn't recognise, and to be honest it reminded me a lot of the PV for Queen's 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'.
John asked us if we were drunk already, and since we weren't, he told us to go to the bar to get a drink and come back. Like any of us would give up our spot for that. He and Juice asked us if we'd seen the next video, and a lot of people had, but he said they hadn't and that it was basically Jin's life. I'm pretty sure there's more to his life than photoshoots, but it was nice to watch, anyway. Hair flips, pouting and dorky poses got the most screams. The girls next to me muttered about how much his English had improved.
So, all of that took us to about 8:30. The drumkit rolled out on stage while we were watching the video, and I guess everyone has either seen 'Christmas Morning' live or has seen a fancam by now, so I'm not going to describe it at length. The usual gold suits, robot girls - Jin came out pushing a robot trolley, without warning. Jeans, black T-shirt, puffy white jacket, sunglasses, gold necklace. At least his hair's too short to tie up right now. And my god, does his giant watch ever sparkle. You could get blinded by that thing.
Joey makes a scary golden robot. I kept watching to see if he blinked, and I could never catch him at it. Dancing with the severed torso of a female robot is not a great way to get people to like you, either.
Anyway, Jin gave us a gorgeous smile, hugged all the guys in that handclasping, shoulder-patting, macho-wannabe way, and then we got the "Weather: sunny. Alcohol: ready. Time to: party" in the robot voice. I could happily spend the day just watching Jin dance and marvelling at the way he moves, but I will say the robot thing is not my favourite. (Although if this is the future he's envisioning, I'm willing to go with it - as long as he makes Joey blink, damnit.)
Next up: 'Bass Go Boom', which I'm not that keen on, but it certainly got the crowd moving and you could feel the bass very strongly where we were. Enjoyed Jin moving across the stage without seeming to move at all, flirting with Lizzy, and throwing his mike from hand to hand.
A word here for the lovely ladies, Lizzy and Aubree. I am jealous that Jin has two such fierce, gorgeous girls working with him. Aubree pulls such great faces, too! I think I'm in love. ^_^
And speaking of girls, 'Wonder' was up next. Didn't pay attention to the PV since I saw it last year, but during Crystal Kay's parts the crowd got louder. Jin unzipped his jacket to reveal the black T-shirt underneath, so you can imagine the kind of screams that got. And he sweats a lot, but I'm not surprised, moving in all that under stage lights. Everybody else wore skimpy costumes when they could get away with it but Jin kept himself modestly covered up. Other than the girls, who were hanging off him at the end. Campaigning for world peace Akanishi-style: getting up close and personal with American girls.
Which leads me neatly into 'I.N.P.', and I wanted to put my notebook away so I could do the hand gestures. As much as I wanted to "take a shot take a shot take a shot", to do so would've involved poking out my eye with my pen - not really a good idea. I love how happy Jin looked, hosting his international party - even when Dominic groped his chest during the first rap battle. The battle with Aubree was fabulous - she looked so defiant, and full of attitude, and gave it right back to him with both barrels. The hip thrusts got a lot of screams. Still waiting for Jin to release his own exercise video. He drank some bottled water, then threw the rest of the bottle over us. (Which is an improvement on Gackt, who threw the actual bottle at us.) The gold mic was slightly delayed in coming down, so Jin ignored it for a bit.
'A Page', just Jin alone on the stage, breaking everyone's heart. Much heavier bass than usual, lots of green and blue lasers for an Earth theme to match the worlds going past on the screen in the background. Jin likes to emphasise the word "bitch", which probably means he'd do quite well if the sitcom 'Will & Grace' was still around. The audience sang along for most of it, and in fact were doing all the singing in some parts, especially the last verse.
Then we got another video, of Jin on a bench, texting, complete with emoji, typos, and text-speak. How so adorable, Mr. Akanishi? I don't have notes on the actual brainteaser but I guess everyone knows it by now, and the answer is always 1. (Some girls decided to pick 0 for their number, presumably to outfox him, but the answer was still 1.) 'Oowah' is so cute, even if it makes no sense whatsover. Jin came out in his Six Senses jacket and fedora - no sunglasses. The rest of his dancers wore regular clothes and looked like the bunch of Juniors in the park scene in Dream Boys. They all looked adorably puzzled trying to calculate the answers on their fingers.
World's shortest MC segment followed, in which Jin checked to ensure we were all having a good time. When we didn't respond loud enough, he gave a cute little resigned smirk and started to walk off before trying again. He thanked us for coming in from different cities and countries, then screwed up a little trying to tell us about his new songs.
'Body Talk' made me notice that Jin is very skinny right now. :-( Lizzy and Dom had a short of dancing courtship, if you can call it that - it was like Jin was musically narrating their adult movie. Impressed with Dom's constant lifting of Lizzy.
Jin twinkled during 'The Fifth Season', owing to the rotating spotlights. I don't have much to say about this except that the bassline is fantastic and the song is so, so beautiful live. He poured his heart and soul into it and so did the audience.
Well, what do I say about 'Lovejuice'? It doesn't vary, really - still with the silhouettes against barcodes. Aubree looked wonderfully cheeky. Jin danced in strobe lights at the end, and while the song always makes me laugh, I love the dancing.
But what I love most, above all else, is 'Paparats'. Jin sat down at the back with Aubree and Lizzy, took off his jacket and had drinks while Juice breakdanced in front of him. Then out come the paparazzi, snapping shots, and I had to laugh because the pics on the screen look a lot like Jin's real leaked shots. You know, tongue hanging out, cross-eyed, and all that. Don't think I saw one of him biting anyone's chin, but that might've been an oversight... I was obviously so excited during this song that I scribbled all my notes on top of each other and now can't actually read them, so I can't recall at what point Jin discarded his hat, but he performed 'Paparats' hatless, shades-less, jacket-less, in jeans and a black T-shirt, and - and I do not say this lightly - I would've jumped him right then and there if I'd been into that sort of thing.
You see, I didn't think anything could possibly top the performances of this song in the February shows. I've seen fancams from LA and would have to say "You failed, sir" because I don't think anything like the passion came across there.
Not so last night, though the wardrobe change helped. You know how in action movies, especially Stallone ones, the hero by the end is exhausted, sweat-soaked, has his hair all mussed up, and yet has all this anger and he's going to defeat the villain because right is on his side? That's what Jin's performance was like. But Jin doesn't need weapons - just his voice, and his middle finger, which made many appearances during the song. The lightning, the red and blue lighting, the haunting "Let go", the smoke - it was all there, and if Jin had been singing to break out of Hell itself he couldn't have done a much better job of it.
And now for something completely different... 'Hey Girl', which had more cuteness than you could shake a stick at, starting with the hand gestures and pointing, and Dominic clutching a large suitcase that Jin tried to grope beneath. Shunpei stole my heart by wandering in wearing glasses and a large, grey, furry hat (I'm convinced he was the poodle in February, which would explain a lot), looking for all the world like he was a uni student who'd taken a wrong turn on the way to his lecture and was pleasantly surprised to find himself in the middle of the hottest party on campus. He and Jin rapped together, which I loved, and Shunpei endeared himself to me forever by waiting till Jin was distracted by Dom's suitcase and sneaking up behind him for a tickle-tackle. Excuse me for giggling but Jin was such an adorable sight, squirming like crazy and wriggling like a little kid. Just when it looked like he might escape, Shunpei went after his collarbones again. I really like this guy. They even held hands for a sec, aww. Oh, and Jin played it up for all he was worth staggering around drunk during the verse about drinking so much you throw up.
EDIT: Having 'Hey Girl' stuck in my head all day reminded me that Jin replaced the "uchyo!" with a cute, girly "Hi Jin!". So now we know what *not* to say to him...
After the song, the dancers all got to show off for a bit. Paul looks a lot like Koki a few years back. Joey smiled so sweetly when everyone cheered for him.
For the World Dance segment, Jin came out in jeans, black shirt with silver tie, black jacket and black fedora. The first part was the Pop Dance, with Jin, John and Joey. John's no Kazumi but he did fairly well for himself, and I think Jin's bit was the same as in Feb.
During the Tricking Dance, Joey temporarily stole my heart from Shunpei by wearing a red panda T-shirt. Pandas to the left, guys!
The best part was the Lock Dance, though. This was done by the Go Go Brothers in Feb, and I'm told the girls have been doing it on this tour, but last night I got a real treat! For those of you who don't know who Yara Tomoyuki is, he's a tiny, cat-eyed dance demon from Musical Academy & Butoukan, and I adore him. I'm pleased to see he lost the terrible hair he had in Endless Shock in Feb. He was unshaven, though the little moustache actually looked quite good on him in a neighbourhood tough kind of way, and his hair is quite short and punkish at the moment. So happy to see him! I'm not sure who the other guy was because he was over on the right and I couldn't see. (I got two of my favourites for the price of one last night. How's that for value?) Gorgeous smiles from Yara, and of course it goes without saying his dancing was amazing.
Jin took a couple of quick, gulping breaths, then changed hats. He pulled this one down to reveal sunglasses (what, no cigarette magic in the US?) and tossed it into the crowd. More screams. Of course Yara gave him another hat, since it wouldn't do for him to be bareheaded...
Nothing much happened during the Hip Hop Dance except that another sweat-soaked tissue went into the crowd. Clearly the dancers have figured out that fans will take *anything* from Jin.
The Japanese Dance was the only part I hadn't seen before in any shape or form. Yara got to show off his dancing-with-swords skills again, slaying a masked Joey a few times (mask + baseball cap is a strange look!). The whole sequence is quite artsy, involving silk robes and giant fans, and I know there's a fancam from June around somewhere if you feel the need to know every detail of the Jin-switching.
'Yellow Gold' was another new one for me. Lots of gold lasers, of course, and all the dancers are wearing gold and shiny pants. The hilarious thing is that only Jin and the girls are allowed to have facial expressions - all the rest of the guys keep a totally straight face the whole time when they dance, and they're wearing skimpy, shiny tanktops that make them look like they're at a Mr. Universe competition. Or possibly, which amuses me more, that they're some sort of harem. Given the gold and all, would that make Jin Cleopatra? He gets to have fun with the girls while the guys do all the work. ^_^
On a related note, no matter how many times I hear 'My Mp3' live, I still mishear 'play on this girl' as 'and I'm his girl', so that gets me laughing for a start. Same Rubik's Cube video, same dance sequence on the floor, etc. etc. I love the song to pieces but it doesn't change much.
Finally, 'Tipsy Love'! Out came the giant transparent globe with the lights. Lots of pink lighting, hands waving. Jin was a little out of breath. Girls and guys separated on stage, gradually moving towards each other. Aubree attempted to pole dance on Jin, or so it appeared, and ended up giving him a big, adorable hug. They are so cute!
They did intros while the song played, and the dancers all did a little dance and got hugs. Shunpei showed up with a sword and...a script? Notebook of some kind, anyway! He got more of a handshake and shoulder hug. Yara emerged in a denim jacket, did a bunch of flips and got a hug for his trouble. Everything was adorable, right down to Jin singing "Aquanisha" (the joke that never dies) about himself and making cute little "more" hand gestures by his face. We sang the dancers' names to the tune of 'Tipsy Love'. Jin said he really loved us, then something I couldn't catch, and the show ended. (This was about 10 pm.)
It was amazing! We said our goodbyes and headed out, and Aya and I got caught by one of the cameramen on the stairs. Still high from the concert and grinning like a loon, I just said it was a fantastic show and I looked forward to seeing it all again in New York. He asked for a thumbs-up, which I did, and then I did a peace sign and walked off laughing. Am now mortified in case anyone ever sees it. The show destroyed my higher brain functions and left me capable of only speaking fangirl for a good half an hour.
Anyway, I have to check out of my hotel in a couple of hours and I've got a lot to do before I head to New York, so that's all from me. I've had next to no sleep and I don't even care because I'm so elated, riding high on a wave of concert-love. If the security at LAX ask me what I've been taking, I'll just tell them last night I had a big dose of Jin Akanishi and I think the effects are permanent.
Before I forget, I know there were people in the queue I really should've said hello to but I didn't know they were there. So if in NYC you spot a short white girl with long, reddish-brown hair (which may or may not have gold sparkles in it) and toting a You & Jin concert bag around with her, come say hi! ^_^
Jin Akanishi @ Club Nokia, LA, 2010.11.16, 8:00 PM
iris_aya arrived at my hotel just after 11 yesterday and the two of us walked the couple of blocks to Club Nokia to see if we could find any staff members to ask about wristbands. (They weren't answering their phones, you see.) Place was deserted and the escalators up to the third floor weren't running, so we shrugged, turned around, and went back down to find lunch and watch for obvious fangirls. After lunch and a brief stop at Starbucks, which must've seen an awful lot of business yesterday afternoon, we took a stroll and headed back up when we saw other fans disappearing up to the third floor and not returning.
Surprise surprise, we found a couple of dozen girls already queueing, almost all of them Japanese, and some of them had clearly been there for a few hours already. Blankets, pillows, lunchboxes, games consoles, you name it. That's some hardcore queuing there. Of course, once we were up there we couldn't possibly go back down, and that's how we ended up spending (and I am sort of ashamed to admit this) a total of 5-6 hours in the queue. We joined it at about 1:30 PM, and the show started at 8, so we had a long wait ahead of us. All the better to let the anticipation build, I guess!
We weren't really prepared for an afternoon in the queue - we had water, I had my PDA and Aya had some assignments to work on - but compared to the girl with the DS and all the people plugged into their mp3 players, we were total amateurs. It took ages before another foreigner turned up, so much so that it felt like going to a concert in Japan again! We got chatting to a nice girl named Melissa who was down from Canada, and there were some girls near us who had gone with the "Yellow Gold" dress theme. We didn't speak to them much, I'm afraid, though they did ask me where I got my You & Jin bag from. (I wasn't the only person who brought one with me, but I might've been the only Westerner in the queue with one. Not sure.)
Staff members kept popping out to laugh, get assaulted by rabid fangirls asking questions, and put up even more "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" signs in various languages. Mostly the queue was kind of quiet until about 5, though, with the exception of people who had the "I'm with the band" kind of excuse so they got to go in the guest door. It wasn't too bad, sitting there in the shade, with people sometimes dashing out for the restroom/Starbucks. I can see the appeal of going in a large group - you can queue in shifts!
Proof that it is a small world after all! The girl behind us in the queue, who looked vaguely familiar, was with her mum and spoke with a distinct American accent, got chatting with us after we'd all had to stand up (we were all sitting for all these hours) and shuffle in to make room for the growing queue. See, they'd set up another goods stand downstairs, and various people were running down and coming back with about 20 posters, which is how we knew about the weirdness that is Poster D. After sharing some mutual outrage and concert comments, she asked me if I knew a girl named Sandy and that's when it clicked - we'd met last year at KAT-TUN's 'Break the Records' cons at the Tokyo Dome! Sorry, Elena, not sure how you spell your name so I'm just going to have to write it as it sounded to me.
So there we were, chatting happily in the queue, and I end up talking to a lady next to me who was there with her friend Amy, and it turned out that Amy and Elena knew each other. Cue more chatting. I've never had this kind of experience in a concert queue before - at least, not with people I didn't go there with!
We finally managed to corner a friendly staff member, Brian, who was able to tell us about the pit wristbands. First 300 people, he said, and he told us where to go. So the four of us decided on a plan, and when we eventually got inside, we ran for the wristbands, got our place down in the pit, went "OMG! OMG!" at how close we were to the stage, and then I went with Elena to join the goods queue (which was pretty short at that point) while her mum and Aya held our spots in the pit. Cameramen were going around interviewing people and they got the girl in front of us in the goods queue. We attempted to dodge, but I wasn't as successful after the show and I am now mortified for life. (See end of report.)
Buying goods was relatively hassle-free, except that they gave me poster B instead of poster A. Nobody said anything about any limits, so I guess they're now catering for people buying in bulk!
We fought our way back to the pit, where I had to tie the poster bag to my handbag in a complicated strap arrangement so I didn't have it dangling from my wrist while I danced. I had enough room for my notepad, thankfully, so I was able to take notes during the whole show - albeit in the dark, without looking at the page, so I did scribble over myself occasionally. I hope I didn't leave any inkstains on the girl in front of me.
A brawl very nearly broke out in the pit before the show even started. A girl basically moved Aya out of the way and stole her place, so all the girls and slightly older Japanese ladies around us got very indignant about this and tried to attract security. (No luck. Perhaps they should've flashed cameras.) There were death threats and all. Eventually one lady forcibly shoved her way into the fracas, and I think the original offender ended up crying? I was at the wrong angle to see. Celebrations all around.
And now for the show. I was about six feet from the stage, slightly to the left of the centre, so I had a fabulous view. I mean, I could see the little hoop in Jin's ear, I could see the sweat along his collarbones, my view was that good. To get that close in Japan, I suspect I'd have to take out a loan. I couldn't see anything behind me so I'm afraid I can't say how full it was. The balcony had some empty spaces. The crowd made plenty of noise, though, and while I can't speak for everyone behind me, down in the pit we were dancing all right. Some girls in front sang 'Tipsy Love' while the camera guys were filming them, and in general the atmosphere was very lively!
Now, I went to the Tokyo You & Jin shows but I didn't go to the LA ones in June, so I was seeing some of these people and songs for the first time. Please excuse me if I screwed up anywhere.
John Michael and Juice came out to get us warmed up and making some noise, which we did - more so on my side, I am pleased to say - and then the lights went out so they could show us the video footage of the June concerts. In my notes I have "not one of Jin's better moments" but damned if I can remember why. I suspect it was the press-con footage.
They asked us who went to the June shows, and then Juice teased us and threw his crucifix into the crowd. Cue much yelling of "I wanna rock" and "right now right now", and then they introduced Joey, who had lighter hair than when I'd last seen him. Longer, too. He wore the same red and yellow baseball cap for much of the show, got a lot of applause just for being there, got screams for his hiprolls (I have to wonder if all the guys get together and practise this, and if so, how much they'd charge for admission), and while I have no technical appreciation for dancing whatsoever, it looked...uh...Joey-like. I am impressed by his flexibility, though. He said it had been five minutes already, and he was really tired (what, his stamina is as bad as Jin's?), and then he joined in with the "I wanna rock" cheers.
Next up: Dominic, who performed a medley of some of his songs. First was '#1', and the audience joined in. Next was 'One Love', and I'm afraid I didn't know the third one. Anybody know, or can suggest what it might have been? He had two female dancers I didn't recognise, and to be honest it reminded me a lot of the PV for Queen's 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'.
John asked us if we were drunk already, and since we weren't, he told us to go to the bar to get a drink and come back. Like any of us would give up our spot for that. He and Juice asked us if we'd seen the next video, and a lot of people had, but he said they hadn't and that it was basically Jin's life. I'm pretty sure there's more to his life than photoshoots, but it was nice to watch, anyway. Hair flips, pouting and dorky poses got the most screams. The girls next to me muttered about how much his English had improved.
So, all of that took us to about 8:30. The drumkit rolled out on stage while we were watching the video, and I guess everyone has either seen 'Christmas Morning' live or has seen a fancam by now, so I'm not going to describe it at length. The usual gold suits, robot girls - Jin came out pushing a robot trolley, without warning. Jeans, black T-shirt, puffy white jacket, sunglasses, gold necklace. At least his hair's too short to tie up right now. And my god, does his giant watch ever sparkle. You could get blinded by that thing.
Joey makes a scary golden robot. I kept watching to see if he blinked, and I could never catch him at it. Dancing with the severed torso of a female robot is not a great way to get people to like you, either.
Anyway, Jin gave us a gorgeous smile, hugged all the guys in that handclasping, shoulder-patting, macho-wannabe way, and then we got the "Weather: sunny. Alcohol: ready. Time to: party" in the robot voice. I could happily spend the day just watching Jin dance and marvelling at the way he moves, but I will say the robot thing is not my favourite. (Although if this is the future he's envisioning, I'm willing to go with it - as long as he makes Joey blink, damnit.)
Next up: 'Bass Go Boom', which I'm not that keen on, but it certainly got the crowd moving and you could feel the bass very strongly where we were. Enjoyed Jin moving across the stage without seeming to move at all, flirting with Lizzy, and throwing his mike from hand to hand.
A word here for the lovely ladies, Lizzy and Aubree. I am jealous that Jin has two such fierce, gorgeous girls working with him. Aubree pulls such great faces, too! I think I'm in love. ^_^
And speaking of girls, 'Wonder' was up next. Didn't pay attention to the PV since I saw it last year, but during Crystal Kay's parts the crowd got louder. Jin unzipped his jacket to reveal the black T-shirt underneath, so you can imagine the kind of screams that got. And he sweats a lot, but I'm not surprised, moving in all that under stage lights. Everybody else wore skimpy costumes when they could get away with it but Jin kept himself modestly covered up. Other than the girls, who were hanging off him at the end. Campaigning for world peace Akanishi-style: getting up close and personal with American girls.
Which leads me neatly into 'I.N.P.', and I wanted to put my notebook away so I could do the hand gestures. As much as I wanted to "take a shot take a shot take a shot", to do so would've involved poking out my eye with my pen - not really a good idea. I love how happy Jin looked, hosting his international party - even when Dominic groped his chest during the first rap battle. The battle with Aubree was fabulous - she looked so defiant, and full of attitude, and gave it right back to him with both barrels. The hip thrusts got a lot of screams. Still waiting for Jin to release his own exercise video. He drank some bottled water, then threw the rest of the bottle over us. (Which is an improvement on Gackt, who threw the actual bottle at us.) The gold mic was slightly delayed in coming down, so Jin ignored it for a bit.
'A Page', just Jin alone on the stage, breaking everyone's heart. Much heavier bass than usual, lots of green and blue lasers for an Earth theme to match the worlds going past on the screen in the background. Jin likes to emphasise the word "bitch", which probably means he'd do quite well if the sitcom 'Will & Grace' was still around. The audience sang along for most of it, and in fact were doing all the singing in some parts, especially the last verse.
Then we got another video, of Jin on a bench, texting, complete with emoji, typos, and text-speak. How so adorable, Mr. Akanishi? I don't have notes on the actual brainteaser but I guess everyone knows it by now, and the answer is always 1. (Some girls decided to pick 0 for their number, presumably to outfox him, but the answer was still 1.) 'Oowah' is so cute, even if it makes no sense whatsover. Jin came out in his Six Senses jacket and fedora - no sunglasses. The rest of his dancers wore regular clothes and looked like the bunch of Juniors in the park scene in Dream Boys. They all looked adorably puzzled trying to calculate the answers on their fingers.
World's shortest MC segment followed, in which Jin checked to ensure we were all having a good time. When we didn't respond loud enough, he gave a cute little resigned smirk and started to walk off before trying again. He thanked us for coming in from different cities and countries, then screwed up a little trying to tell us about his new songs.
'Body Talk' made me notice that Jin is very skinny right now. :-( Lizzy and Dom had a short of dancing courtship, if you can call it that - it was like Jin was musically narrating their adult movie. Impressed with Dom's constant lifting of Lizzy.
Jin twinkled during 'The Fifth Season', owing to the rotating spotlights. I don't have much to say about this except that the bassline is fantastic and the song is so, so beautiful live. He poured his heart and soul into it and so did the audience.
Well, what do I say about 'Lovejuice'? It doesn't vary, really - still with the silhouettes against barcodes. Aubree looked wonderfully cheeky. Jin danced in strobe lights at the end, and while the song always makes me laugh, I love the dancing.
But what I love most, above all else, is 'Paparats'. Jin sat down at the back with Aubree and Lizzy, took off his jacket and had drinks while Juice breakdanced in front of him. Then out come the paparazzi, snapping shots, and I had to laugh because the pics on the screen look a lot like Jin's real leaked shots. You know, tongue hanging out, cross-eyed, and all that. Don't think I saw one of him biting anyone's chin, but that might've been an oversight... I was obviously so excited during this song that I scribbled all my notes on top of each other and now can't actually read them, so I can't recall at what point Jin discarded his hat, but he performed 'Paparats' hatless, shades-less, jacket-less, in jeans and a black T-shirt, and - and I do not say this lightly - I would've jumped him right then and there if I'd been into that sort of thing.
You see, I didn't think anything could possibly top the performances of this song in the February shows. I've seen fancams from LA and would have to say "You failed, sir" because I don't think anything like the passion came across there.
Not so last night, though the wardrobe change helped. You know how in action movies, especially Stallone ones, the hero by the end is exhausted, sweat-soaked, has his hair all mussed up, and yet has all this anger and he's going to defeat the villain because right is on his side? That's what Jin's performance was like. But Jin doesn't need weapons - just his voice, and his middle finger, which made many appearances during the song. The lightning, the red and blue lighting, the haunting "Let go", the smoke - it was all there, and if Jin had been singing to break out of Hell itself he couldn't have done a much better job of it.
And now for something completely different... 'Hey Girl', which had more cuteness than you could shake a stick at, starting with the hand gestures and pointing, and Dominic clutching a large suitcase that Jin tried to grope beneath. Shunpei stole my heart by wandering in wearing glasses and a large, grey, furry hat (I'm convinced he was the poodle in February, which would explain a lot), looking for all the world like he was a uni student who'd taken a wrong turn on the way to his lecture and was pleasantly surprised to find himself in the middle of the hottest party on campus. He and Jin rapped together, which I loved, and Shunpei endeared himself to me forever by waiting till Jin was distracted by Dom's suitcase and sneaking up behind him for a tickle-tackle. Excuse me for giggling but Jin was such an adorable sight, squirming like crazy and wriggling like a little kid. Just when it looked like he might escape, Shunpei went after his collarbones again. I really like this guy. They even held hands for a sec, aww. Oh, and Jin played it up for all he was worth staggering around drunk during the verse about drinking so much you throw up.
EDIT: Having 'Hey Girl' stuck in my head all day reminded me that Jin replaced the "uchyo!" with a cute, girly "Hi Jin!". So now we know what *not* to say to him...
After the song, the dancers all got to show off for a bit. Paul looks a lot like Koki a few years back. Joey smiled so sweetly when everyone cheered for him.
For the World Dance segment, Jin came out in jeans, black shirt with silver tie, black jacket and black fedora. The first part was the Pop Dance, with Jin, John and Joey. John's no Kazumi but he did fairly well for himself, and I think Jin's bit was the same as in Feb.
During the Tricking Dance, Joey temporarily stole my heart from Shunpei by wearing a red panda T-shirt. Pandas to the left, guys!
The best part was the Lock Dance, though. This was done by the Go Go Brothers in Feb, and I'm told the girls have been doing it on this tour, but last night I got a real treat! For those of you who don't know who Yara Tomoyuki is, he's a tiny, cat-eyed dance demon from Musical Academy & Butoukan, and I adore him. I'm pleased to see he lost the terrible hair he had in Endless Shock in Feb. He was unshaven, though the little moustache actually looked quite good on him in a neighbourhood tough kind of way, and his hair is quite short and punkish at the moment. So happy to see him! I'm not sure who the other guy was because he was over on the right and I couldn't see. (I got two of my favourites for the price of one last night. How's that for value?) Gorgeous smiles from Yara, and of course it goes without saying his dancing was amazing.
Jin took a couple of quick, gulping breaths, then changed hats. He pulled this one down to reveal sunglasses (what, no cigarette magic in the US?) and tossed it into the crowd. More screams. Of course Yara gave him another hat, since it wouldn't do for him to be bareheaded...
Nothing much happened during the Hip Hop Dance except that another sweat-soaked tissue went into the crowd. Clearly the dancers have figured out that fans will take *anything* from Jin.
The Japanese Dance was the only part I hadn't seen before in any shape or form. Yara got to show off his dancing-with-swords skills again, slaying a masked Joey a few times (mask + baseball cap is a strange look!). The whole sequence is quite artsy, involving silk robes and giant fans, and I know there's a fancam from June around somewhere if you feel the need to know every detail of the Jin-switching.
'Yellow Gold' was another new one for me. Lots of gold lasers, of course, and all the dancers are wearing gold and shiny pants. The hilarious thing is that only Jin and the girls are allowed to have facial expressions - all the rest of the guys keep a totally straight face the whole time when they dance, and they're wearing skimpy, shiny tanktops that make them look like they're at a Mr. Universe competition. Or possibly, which amuses me more, that they're some sort of harem. Given the gold and all, would that make Jin Cleopatra? He gets to have fun with the girls while the guys do all the work. ^_^
On a related note, no matter how many times I hear 'My Mp3' live, I still mishear 'play on this girl' as 'and I'm his girl', so that gets me laughing for a start. Same Rubik's Cube video, same dance sequence on the floor, etc. etc. I love the song to pieces but it doesn't change much.
Finally, 'Tipsy Love'! Out came the giant transparent globe with the lights. Lots of pink lighting, hands waving. Jin was a little out of breath. Girls and guys separated on stage, gradually moving towards each other. Aubree attempted to pole dance on Jin, or so it appeared, and ended up giving him a big, adorable hug. They are so cute!
They did intros while the song played, and the dancers all did a little dance and got hugs. Shunpei showed up with a sword and...a script? Notebook of some kind, anyway! He got more of a handshake and shoulder hug. Yara emerged in a denim jacket, did a bunch of flips and got a hug for his trouble. Everything was adorable, right down to Jin singing "Aquanisha" (the joke that never dies) about himself and making cute little "more" hand gestures by his face. We sang the dancers' names to the tune of 'Tipsy Love'. Jin said he really loved us, then something I couldn't catch, and the show ended. (This was about 10 pm.)
It was amazing! We said our goodbyes and headed out, and Aya and I got caught by one of the cameramen on the stairs. Still high from the concert and grinning like a loon, I just said it was a fantastic show and I looked forward to seeing it all again in New York. He asked for a thumbs-up, which I did, and then I did a peace sign and walked off laughing. Am now mortified in case anyone ever sees it. The show destroyed my higher brain functions and left me capable of only speaking fangirl for a good half an hour.
Anyway, I have to check out of my hotel in a couple of hours and I've got a lot to do before I head to New York, so that's all from me. I've had next to no sleep and I don't even care because I'm so elated, riding high on a wave of concert-love. If the security at LAX ask me what I've been taking, I'll just tell them last night I had a big dose of Jin Akanishi and I think the effects are permanent.