The Jrock Concert Part of Taste of Chaos
Thursday, April 10, 2008 - Rockstar Taste of Chaos
When the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour was announced - No, let me restate that.
When it was announced that D'espairsRay, MUCC and then unknown THE UNDERNEATH were joining this tour called the Rockstar Taste of Chaos - I wanted to go to support the Jrock, but I didn't seriously put any real effort into going. I'm not one really for big huge arena festival/tours; I prefer and love smaller venues - which, Jrock is awesomely suited for.
But, Wednesday, the day before the Tour stopped in Long Beach, I somewhat/mostly on a whim decided to go.
I had randomly checked tickets in the previous few weeks and found that you could still actually get some. Actually, up until at least a couple of weeks ago you were still able to get floor tickets. Of course, buying them the day before I was not going to get good seats - in fact, the seat I ended up getting was in the highest level directly opposite of the stage - there were somewhat better tickets actually available, but, being that I do have to be careful with money as I was just layed off, I just went with the cheapest price to pay - which I decided, having bad seats, it wasn't that big of a deal considering that my tour date had a Tokyo Pop signing - so, that was the big trade off in my mind.
Actually though, awesomely enough, I ended up in the pit anyway for all 3 Jrock Bands.
The order was this:
Band I Don't care about
D'espairsRay
band I don't care about
MUCC
THE UNDERNEATH (small stage)
all the other bands i don't care about.
One of the things I really was eager to see was how the american fans reacted to the Jrock bands. I had already seen D'espairsRay and MUCC at Jrock Revolution, and of course i was eager to see THE UNDERNEATH as, although i'm more of a very casual fan of the bands music, I wanted to see how'd they perform on stage, and I did like the song pieces that are on their myspace. I do plan on buying their American Release of MoonFlower in the future.
On to the bands.
D'espairsRay
Although, due to helping out the JRR street team, I missed the first two D'espairsRay songs, I have to say - GOD DAMN THEY FUCKING ROCKED. And I had an AWESOME view of the whole band - even of Tsukasa - the drummer - and if you've ever been to a concert you know how incredibly hard it is to see the drummer. But not only did I have a good view of Tsukasa - I could view all 4 members of the band in one view all at once well from my one spot. I had a way better view of them then I did at Jrock Revolution, which, I think actually added to the experience of seeing them again.
D'espairsRay was actually the Jrock Band that, from what I saw, had the best responce from the american fans that night. I had heard before that THE UNDERNEATH actually had been getting the best responses; in some places people started getting crazy during thier set, mosh pits and such. But, I guess last night was just D'esparsRays' Night.
They had a fucking a-mazing set list - it was just... how can i say it... perfect? It just kicked ass and really just made them shine even brighter. I'm usually insanely horrible at remembering set list but this is what I remember.
Closer to Ideal
2nd Song - dammed?
3rd Song - trickster?
Screen
Garnet
6th Song ?
Sixty Nine
New/Old Song
Let me tell you one thing - i fucking LOVE Garnet - and let me tell you - the american fans, I remember distinctly that this song seamed to be the most successful with american fans, as I saw them rocking the fuck out to it. (it was also cool to hear all the D'espairsRay fans sing the "la's" at the end - as Hizumi asked us to. I wonder if some of the american fans joined in when they figured out what we the jrock fans were all singing). Garnet is one of my favorite songs and it was suprising as fuck that they played it. From what i've heard its not been played too often - actually only in recent shows has it been added to their set list - and not usually played even at that.
I know that Trickster was played, and I'm about 80% sure Dammed was played. And I'm pretty sure that Trickster was right before Screen. And the last song.... I recognise it but at the same time... I have no idea what song it was. I had heard from one of the people I was with that a lot of people thought it was a new song but, the few people around me i was with all recognised it... just couldn't place it. I baught Spiral Staircase #15 final dvd, and noticed there was a song called "PIG" on there... maybe it was that? But i don't remember a song called PIG in any of thier earlier works - and the song style, i'm not sure if it would be from too early on as they were a lot heavier. Then again its been a long, long time since i've listened to anything earlier than Coll:Set. So, I'm not sure.
An awesome note also - HIzumi looked and pointed at me - he came over to the side I was on...which was the right side of the stage, the lead guitar side, I was allready jumpin up and rockin out - obviously he noticed :) He pointed also at my friend too who was a couple people away from my on my left. Unforutnatly I don't remember what song it was during. Oh well, it was awesome. They were just awesome.
MUCC
I'm a very, very casual MUCC fan. Their are only two songs that I know very well from them: FUZZ and LIBRA. Libra was played last and FUZZ was early in their set, though not the first song. Because of that I can only say so much about them.
As at Jrock Revolution, I really enjoyed watching them perform. They are solid, awesome live - and Tatsuro (sp?), the vocalist...good god when he jumps the dude seriously bounces - and high at that. He has awesome awesome stage presence. One of the things that was amusing was that he kept putting his hand over his eyes and scanning the crowd as if he was looking for something. I had thought it was something in relation to the song (that was playing at the time) and that's why he was doing that, but apparently, according to one of the people I went with, they thought he was doing that just so he could see the crowd better. Either way, the dude is just awesome to watch.
As for american fan reaction - As one of the people i went with commented - people were confused about them lol.
They just...didn't know what to make of them. I think about it and its amusing. really, really amusing. For instance, I remember during Libra, which is a very interesting song from them because there's soo much going on in it musically and how he sings it - there's really hard rock parts and then a melodic part that's random, comes out of no where, and being that you don't really find that in american music: at one point you can be headbanging and the next your swaying - within the same song. So you can imagine how people who though they'd be head banging was then randomly hit with the melodic,... and then the change happends again... yea. Tatsuro has a very interesing way that he moves about the stage, as well as a very intresting singing style, so maybe that was another thing that caught american fans off guard about them.
Tatsuro, as did Hizumi, and the singer from THE UNDERNEATH (not sure of what his name is) did MC's in english, spoke to the crowd, told them to yell scream jump all that good stuff (Hizumi and Tatsuro). He even did a roll call of the remaining american bands to play (Tatsuro).
and of course, Tatsuro was barefoot :) maybe that's how he ends up so bouncy? haha
One thing that is awesome about MUCC/Tatsuro is that he always bows at the end of their set. And its not the common bow, its one that really shows apreciation (and also respect and utter politness, for that matter). It's just an awesome aspect of him on stage.
THE UNDERNEATH
I did not see a whole lot of their set, unfortunately, although I was close enough to the doors of the main performance area to hear them. They sounded awesome. They played on the 2nd stage, which is a lot smaller naturally from the big stage, and was right after MUCC. I had to walk out actually because one of the people i was with wasn't feeling well so I walked with her out. I went back in and caught some of their set.
Now, i did have a hard time (as with MUCC and D'espairsRay to some extent) seeing the crowd reaction, but it seamed like - although they rocked it out, the crowd wasn't really havin it. There was once, that I saw, where he (vocalist) tried raising his arms and other little things that Jrockers do to get reactions that didn't do much. But, either way, they still rocked out with their hearts and gave an awesome performance.
The vocalist, I noticed, he's much into swaying, really fluid movements on stage. For american fans, that might had not been "manly" enough for them, so it may have put them off a little bit. In general, as we all know, according to western standards, and I can at least definitely apply this to americans, Japanese men in general, especially jrockers, are "girly men", so, with most amerians being ignorant as they are...
Anyway, the other reason why I missed a lot of their set was that - the plan was within the group of people I went with, we were going to leave the set of the last band early to get into the autograph line so we'd be more towards the front. I can say this, I do look foward to seeing them perform again someday.
The Autograph Signing
I've never actually done this before, so I was slightly bewlidered / nervous about it. Its really fast though. It's nothing really to get too crazy over, in my opinion but it was cool none the less. How they did it - basically all three bands were there sitting in a row - in this order: THE UNDERNEATH / D'espairsRay / MUCC. They had free posters that each of the jrockers signed - it was pretty much an assembly line. I smiled, shook everyone's hand and moved down the line. Nothing special really - except for two small things that kinda stand out
I almost forgot that I had the DvD to sign for D'espairsRay, I got to Zero when I remembered (order:Tsukasa, Karyu, Zero, Hizumi) I had it. So i showed the dvd to him and said "can you?" he wen't "ah", nodded and slid it back to Tsukasa while he continued with the poster - of which i didn't actually know was mine until the end of the line...
I just have to say this - Zero and Hizumi are very, very attractive. For some reason I was really sticken with Zero when I saw him upclose. I'm actually not super familiar with what they look like - especially off stage so at first it didn't occur to me that when I came to Tsukasa that it was actually Tsukasa. huh, even worse with Karyu who, even after I realized I passed him i was like....woah..that's what he looks like? (not in a bad way). Hizumi I recognise immediately off stage, hes' easy for me to recognise for some reason.
I also have to say this - Tatsuro is just awesome. I got to MUCC - to Tatsuro, who was last (I think it was..drummer / bassist / guitarist / Tatsuro) - he said to me "you have really cool hair!" (my hair has a pretty bright blue highlighted all through it) I said thank you and then as i was leaving (I didn't want to take up too much time, although i realised later that we wern't really being rushed), he said "see you next time". i turned around and said "yes" or something, don't remember exactly what I said.
Now I wish i would had said a little more to him, he was just so incredibly friendly - not that the others wern't, but he was pretty much the only one that really said much and there was also just something really.."open" about him.
MUCC actually had done an hour signing right before at another booth - Now I wish I had gone to both because at the first signing they did, I saw it was really chill; they were givin hugs and such too. I heard later that if you asked for one he'd give you one. I'll have to note that for next time I see them and they do a signing. I guess i see a little more of him now, a little smitten i suppose (in a light way, of course) :)
The signing was only supposed to be for an hour, but the line was crazy long, and they ended up going far longer than that.
That's pretty much it for the concert part - There's more of the day I want to record but, that'll have to wait for next time.
Although, I gotta add this one thing - Yoshiki was there. I didn't see him, but he was around. I almost walked around and to the area where he was seen at but, I didn't.
There's more to the day i'll have to record someday but, on ending note for now - I'm so, so fucking glad that I decided to go. I had an amazing, fucking amazing time. The whole day, the crazyness of it all.... fucking awesome.
When the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour was announced - No, let me restate that.
When it was announced that D'espairsRay, MUCC and then unknown THE UNDERNEATH were joining this tour called the Rockstar Taste of Chaos - I wanted to go to support the Jrock, but I didn't seriously put any real effort into going. I'm not one really for big huge arena festival/tours; I prefer and love smaller venues - which, Jrock is awesomely suited for.
But, Wednesday, the day before the Tour stopped in Long Beach, I somewhat/mostly on a whim decided to go.
I had randomly checked tickets in the previous few weeks and found that you could still actually get some. Actually, up until at least a couple of weeks ago you were still able to get floor tickets. Of course, buying them the day before I was not going to get good seats - in fact, the seat I ended up getting was in the highest level directly opposite of the stage - there were somewhat better tickets actually available, but, being that I do have to be careful with money as I was just layed off, I just went with the cheapest price to pay - which I decided, having bad seats, it wasn't that big of a deal considering that my tour date had a Tokyo Pop signing - so, that was the big trade off in my mind.
Actually though, awesomely enough, I ended up in the pit anyway for all 3 Jrock Bands.
The order was this:
Band I Don't care about
D'espairsRay
band I don't care about
MUCC
THE UNDERNEATH (small stage)
all the other bands i don't care about.
One of the things I really was eager to see was how the american fans reacted to the Jrock bands. I had already seen D'espairsRay and MUCC at Jrock Revolution, and of course i was eager to see THE UNDERNEATH as, although i'm more of a very casual fan of the bands music, I wanted to see how'd they perform on stage, and I did like the song pieces that are on their myspace. I do plan on buying their American Release of MoonFlower in the future.
On to the bands.
D'espairsRay
Although, due to helping out the JRR street team, I missed the first two D'espairsRay songs, I have to say - GOD DAMN THEY FUCKING ROCKED. And I had an AWESOME view of the whole band - even of Tsukasa - the drummer - and if you've ever been to a concert you know how incredibly hard it is to see the drummer. But not only did I have a good view of Tsukasa - I could view all 4 members of the band in one view all at once well from my one spot. I had a way better view of them then I did at Jrock Revolution, which, I think actually added to the experience of seeing them again.
D'espairsRay was actually the Jrock Band that, from what I saw, had the best responce from the american fans that night. I had heard before that THE UNDERNEATH actually had been getting the best responses; in some places people started getting crazy during thier set, mosh pits and such. But, I guess last night was just D'esparsRays' Night.
They had a fucking a-mazing set list - it was just... how can i say it... perfect? It just kicked ass and really just made them shine even brighter. I'm usually insanely horrible at remembering set list but this is what I remember.
Closer to Ideal
2nd Song - dammed?
3rd Song - trickster?
Screen
Garnet
6th Song ?
Sixty Nine
New/Old Song
Let me tell you one thing - i fucking LOVE Garnet - and let me tell you - the american fans, I remember distinctly that this song seamed to be the most successful with american fans, as I saw them rocking the fuck out to it. (it was also cool to hear all the D'espairsRay fans sing the "la's" at the end - as Hizumi asked us to. I wonder if some of the american fans joined in when they figured out what we the jrock fans were all singing). Garnet is one of my favorite songs and it was suprising as fuck that they played it. From what i've heard its not been played too often - actually only in recent shows has it been added to their set list - and not usually played even at that.
I know that Trickster was played, and I'm about 80% sure Dammed was played. And I'm pretty sure that Trickster was right before Screen. And the last song.... I recognise it but at the same time... I have no idea what song it was. I had heard from one of the people I was with that a lot of people thought it was a new song but, the few people around me i was with all recognised it... just couldn't place it. I baught Spiral Staircase #15 final dvd, and noticed there was a song called "PIG" on there... maybe it was that? But i don't remember a song called PIG in any of thier earlier works - and the song style, i'm not sure if it would be from too early on as they were a lot heavier. Then again its been a long, long time since i've listened to anything earlier than Coll:Set. So, I'm not sure.
An awesome note also - HIzumi looked and pointed at me - he came over to the side I was on...which was the right side of the stage, the lead guitar side, I was allready jumpin up and rockin out - obviously he noticed :) He pointed also at my friend too who was a couple people away from my on my left. Unforutnatly I don't remember what song it was during. Oh well, it was awesome. They were just awesome.
MUCC
I'm a very, very casual MUCC fan. Their are only two songs that I know very well from them: FUZZ and LIBRA. Libra was played last and FUZZ was early in their set, though not the first song. Because of that I can only say so much about them.
As at Jrock Revolution, I really enjoyed watching them perform. They are solid, awesome live - and Tatsuro (sp?), the vocalist...good god when he jumps the dude seriously bounces - and high at that. He has awesome awesome stage presence. One of the things that was amusing was that he kept putting his hand over his eyes and scanning the crowd as if he was looking for something. I had thought it was something in relation to the song (that was playing at the time) and that's why he was doing that, but apparently, according to one of the people I went with, they thought he was doing that just so he could see the crowd better. Either way, the dude is just awesome to watch.
As for american fan reaction - As one of the people i went with commented - people were confused about them lol.
They just...didn't know what to make of them. I think about it and its amusing. really, really amusing. For instance, I remember during Libra, which is a very interesting song from them because there's soo much going on in it musically and how he sings it - there's really hard rock parts and then a melodic part that's random, comes out of no where, and being that you don't really find that in american music: at one point you can be headbanging and the next your swaying - within the same song. So you can imagine how people who though they'd be head banging was then randomly hit with the melodic,... and then the change happends again... yea. Tatsuro has a very interesing way that he moves about the stage, as well as a very intresting singing style, so maybe that was another thing that caught american fans off guard about them.
Tatsuro, as did Hizumi, and the singer from THE UNDERNEATH (not sure of what his name is) did MC's in english, spoke to the crowd, told them to yell scream jump all that good stuff (Hizumi and Tatsuro). He even did a roll call of the remaining american bands to play (Tatsuro).
and of course, Tatsuro was barefoot :) maybe that's how he ends up so bouncy? haha
One thing that is awesome about MUCC/Tatsuro is that he always bows at the end of their set. And its not the common bow, its one that really shows apreciation (and also respect and utter politness, for that matter). It's just an awesome aspect of him on stage.
THE UNDERNEATH
I did not see a whole lot of their set, unfortunately, although I was close enough to the doors of the main performance area to hear them. They sounded awesome. They played on the 2nd stage, which is a lot smaller naturally from the big stage, and was right after MUCC. I had to walk out actually because one of the people i was with wasn't feeling well so I walked with her out. I went back in and caught some of their set.
Now, i did have a hard time (as with MUCC and D'espairsRay to some extent) seeing the crowd reaction, but it seamed like - although they rocked it out, the crowd wasn't really havin it. There was once, that I saw, where he (vocalist) tried raising his arms and other little things that Jrockers do to get reactions that didn't do much. But, either way, they still rocked out with their hearts and gave an awesome performance.
The vocalist, I noticed, he's much into swaying, really fluid movements on stage. For american fans, that might had not been "manly" enough for them, so it may have put them off a little bit. In general, as we all know, according to western standards, and I can at least definitely apply this to americans, Japanese men in general, especially jrockers, are "girly men", so, with most amerians being ignorant as they are...
Anyway, the other reason why I missed a lot of their set was that - the plan was within the group of people I went with, we were going to leave the set of the last band early to get into the autograph line so we'd be more towards the front. I can say this, I do look foward to seeing them perform again someday.
The Autograph Signing
I've never actually done this before, so I was slightly bewlidered / nervous about it. Its really fast though. It's nothing really to get too crazy over, in my opinion but it was cool none the less. How they did it - basically all three bands were there sitting in a row - in this order: THE UNDERNEATH / D'espairsRay / MUCC. They had free posters that each of the jrockers signed - it was pretty much an assembly line. I smiled, shook everyone's hand and moved down the line. Nothing special really - except for two small things that kinda stand out
I almost forgot that I had the DvD to sign for D'espairsRay, I got to Zero when I remembered (order:Tsukasa, Karyu, Zero, Hizumi) I had it. So i showed the dvd to him and said "can you?" he wen't "ah", nodded and slid it back to Tsukasa while he continued with the poster - of which i didn't actually know was mine until the end of the line...
I just have to say this - Zero and Hizumi are very, very attractive. For some reason I was really sticken with Zero when I saw him upclose. I'm actually not super familiar with what they look like - especially off stage so at first it didn't occur to me that when I came to Tsukasa that it was actually Tsukasa. huh, even worse with Karyu who, even after I realized I passed him i was like....woah..that's what he looks like? (not in a bad way). Hizumi I recognise immediately off stage, hes' easy for me to recognise for some reason.
I also have to say this - Tatsuro is just awesome. I got to MUCC - to Tatsuro, who was last (I think it was..drummer / bassist / guitarist / Tatsuro) - he said to me "you have really cool hair!" (my hair has a pretty bright blue highlighted all through it) I said thank you and then as i was leaving (I didn't want to take up too much time, although i realised later that we wern't really being rushed), he said "see you next time". i turned around and said "yes" or something, don't remember exactly what I said.
Now I wish i would had said a little more to him, he was just so incredibly friendly - not that the others wern't, but he was pretty much the only one that really said much and there was also just something really.."open" about him.
MUCC actually had done an hour signing right before at another booth - Now I wish I had gone to both because at the first signing they did, I saw it was really chill; they were givin hugs and such too. I heard later that if you asked for one he'd give you one. I'll have to note that for next time I see them and they do a signing. I guess i see a little more of him now, a little smitten i suppose (in a light way, of course) :)
The signing was only supposed to be for an hour, but the line was crazy long, and they ended up going far longer than that.
That's pretty much it for the concert part - There's more of the day I want to record but, that'll have to wait for next time.
Although, I gotta add this one thing - Yoshiki was there. I didn't see him, but he was around. I almost walked around and to the area where he was seen at but, I didn't.
There's more to the day i'll have to record someday but, on ending note for now - I'm so, so fucking glad that I decided to go. I had an amazing, fucking amazing time. The whole day, the crazyness of it all.... fucking awesome.