(no subject)
Edit 11:37 Okay, I'm back in Akita now and moderately more well-adjusted, so I've tidied this entry up, put it in some rough semblence of order, and put in some of the stuff I forgot about when I was flipping out at the train station.
Also, take all my translations with a grain of salt. My Japanese is complete rubbish and News talk really quickly, so I a) missed a lot and b) may have misinterpreted stuff. / edit note
Just finished with the News concert in Sendai, and I'm actually paying 100Y for internet use at a kiosk at the station because I'm still THAT flaily and excited.
The stage was pleasingly glitzy and colourful. I'm not quite sure if it was supposed to go with the party theme or not, because it wasn't a terribly coherent set, but it was pretty. :D My seat was ridiculously good, right near the stage, and I could see them so well even from towards the back of my block. Miyagi Hothouse Arena IS my favourite concert venue - big enough that the atmosphere is really high, small enough that you can see everyone wherever they are. Love it.
There was a short movie at the start of all the guys running towards...well, presumably the 'party'. They were all pleasingly dorky. I don't remember too much of it actually ^^; just Yamapi pulling a stupid face, haha. They made a big show of the rings in the video too - way to advertise the concert goods, guys.
The concert began with a giant diamond rising out of the stage which contained all the members. ^^ They were singing 'Happy Birthday', just to get the party theme off to a bang. Second was 'weeeek', accompanied by lots of enthusiastic running around, and the crowd went a bit crazy. The girls around me were yelling out the 'mou iccho' part so loud, I think I was partially deafened! Where do those tiny Japanese girls keep those giant voices? XD
After that was...eh, I don't remember, but I get the feeling it was a song I wasn't too familiar with. I want to say they were dancing with chairs and tophats and shiny silver canes, but I think that song came later in the concert. Oh god, my memory, so bad.
BTW, top hats, chairs and shiny silver canes? A++ I love that sort of stuff.
Um, this is about the point I lose all sense of time, so don't expect things to be in order after this. ^^;
Then there was a short MC where they all introduced themselves. Just the usual "hey everyone, are you well, let's have fun, etc." But when Yamapi did his he...stole Tego's hand thing, I believe. I actually was paying more attention to them than the screens, but Yamapi was facing away from me, so. Anyway, Tego hand thing accompanied by a "Yamapi~ desu!". But then Ryo was after him and did the same thing - Tego hand accompanied by "Ryo Nishikido!", followed by some AMAZINGLY quick talking (seriously Ryo, SLOW DOWN) before he yelled loudly "I CAN'T LOSE TO PI." XD
Shige and Massu were the first to do their MCs so they disappeared off stage quickly, followed by Koyama, Pi, Ryo then Tegoshi last, who I think said something about filling up time? XD Anyway, he was obviously stalling to allow for the others to change their clothes, ha.
The next song was "Why" which I remember very clearly because it was awesome. A pool table rose out of the middle of the stage with Massu and Shige and as they sang the first verse/chorus they played pool. While they were singing, a small set made to look like a bar rose up on the right, and that had Pi and Koyama in it and they sang the next verse and chorus together. The four of them danced while a third set rose out of the ground, a jukebox/couch with Ryo and Tego, and they sang the rest of the song. It sounds lame when I type it here, but it was actually really cool and classy. Also, I love that song a lot, so. :D
After that (I think about this point?) was Bambina, which was accompanied by some brief all-member gropage at the start (too bad that was the only inappropriate boy-touching that night!) and some really bad-arse flames shooting out of the ground. :D I really enjoyed that one!
In Hoshi wo Mezashite, they all sang quite beautifully and in the last chorus there was PAPER HEARTS FALLING SOFTLY FROM THE CEILING. It was really pretty. News, ILU.
Somewhere in the middle-ish after a few of the solos they sang IZ.A.NA.I.ZU.KI and I almost thought it was a Yamapi solo at first because he was the only one lit up in the centre of the room. But no! Little did I realise that they were all, one by one, rising up on platforms at various locations around the room. I looked down. One of the platforms was right in front of my block! I quietly rejoiced. Then I flailed a little internally when the lights went up and I realised it was Ryo standing on the platform, now approximately at eye level with me. I'm always struck by how tiny he is, hahaha! His character makes him seem bigger, then I remember he's a midget. XD
(Later Tegoshi came up on the same platform, and at separate stages Yamapi, Koyama and Shige wheeled past in their little carts. The only one I didn't see up close was Masu actually.)
Shige did his lip thing again. He still gets wild cheers from the crowd for it, ha. Actually, Shige seemed to have a lot of enthusiastic fans in Sendai! I was surprised, but kind of thrilled at the same time for him (then later when I hit the goods line and asked for a Shigeaki uchiwa the girl tried to give me a Masuda one. Which kind of made me laugh because that's so Shige's life, even the girls doing the goods don't know who he is XD;).
Potentially the most exciting moment of the day - because it was the very first concert of the tour (I went to the lunchtime show) they were all 'Oh hey, we have a special guest so let's bring him out' and it was FRIGGEN' TACKEY, omg, I could've peed myself I was so shocked and excited. It was revealed at the end that Tackey had been in charge of the video at the start. *_* Anyway, Tackey - totally cool guy. He speaks slowly too, which I really appreciated, ha, because it meant I could at least understand one side of the conversation (News are a lost cause, they just speak too quickly). Unfortunately, I spent a good five minutes or so flipping out and kept forgetting to concentrate on what they were saying. -_-; Anyway, it seemed like Tackey was ribbing Koyama a lot about something, then declared that if he had to pick one person in News to be the leader, it would be Koyama. XD
Um, other stuff - I'm 98% sure Koyama announced a solo butai! He said that this was the first time he'd mentioned it. Hoorah for Koyama!
Shige and Ryo spent some time giving Masu grief about his eating (it was originally just Shige, but Ryo seemed to pick it up and run with it) - something to do with tartar sauce and dressing? XD I think at one point Ryo asked him to list stuff he'd eaten and Masu just started naming stuff, and Ryo cut him off and demanded that he do it in order! And Masu was just like '*sigh* Bread, seafood pilaf, ebi fry..." XD
Koyama asked Yamapi to do...something, and asked the audience if they wanted to see it, and Yamapi was just like "*pout* NO, IT'S EMBARRASSING!" and deflected on to a different topic, so I'm kind of dying to know what all that was about! Anyway, Koyama and Pi seem to be all buddy-buddy at the moment - at one point Pi sidled over to Koyama and declared the two of them 'KoyamaPi' before they ran off stage, pulling silly faces, and then the camera cut to Ryo who was standing there with this amazing long-suffering 'why am I friends with this idiot' look on his face. XD
Solos! Shige had a really cute rockpop sort of song that suited him well and was dancing on top of the giant diamond. He was waving around a star shaped tambourine though, which I'm not quite sure fit the atmosphere of the song...I guess it wasn't camp enough before hand. XD
Ryo sang a really nice song called 'Ordinary' which I think is another one of his own songs (well, on the screen it indicated he wrote it, so I'll go with that). I can't comment on the lyrics though, as I'm not quite good enough to translate on the fly, and the karaoke captions for that song were in Ryo's own handwriting, which made the kanji pretty much illegible.
Tego sang 'Ai no Matador' and was wearing red zebra print, and danced like a fucking champion (when did he learn to move like that again?) KoyamaPi did a joint effort that was fun if not terribly memorable, but they both looked really cool (all the girls around me agreed because the whole song they kept saying "kakkoii!"), and TegoMasu sang together, which had the whole room sighing happily (though Tegoshi still hasn't learnt to reign his voice in!)
And Masu. Um. Masu. XD Sang a song called Masuperman which was accompanied by a weird slideshow of comic book scenes in which he was a Supermanesque character, and the lyrics seemed to about food. IDEK. XD XD XD The speech bubbles were hilariously Engrish-tastic too (we had a bit of an Episode Zero moment, with one of the bubbles just saying "WHAT HAPPEN!?" XD) Koyama said in the MC he was worried about that song, I think, hahahahaha. It was pretty catchy, though whoever dressed him for that song needs to be taken out the back and given a good shaking, because bow-ties and cardigans are possibly less cool than the usual Johnnies ruffles.
The only other song I remember with any clarity is 'Snow Express' because the crowd went wild when it started, and News were wearing these ski jackets that must have felt awful underneath those lights. I was hot just sitting in the audience!
At the end they only did one encore - News Nippon and weeeek - but I'm not going to complain because they did have another show to do in an hour and a half. Noticeable losses from the tracklist, for me, were - Sayaendou, Hadashi no Cinderella Boy, Akaku Moyuru Taiyou and Taiyou no Namida. The first three I can maybe understand, but Taiyou no Namida is recent enough that I was surprised by its exclusion! Maybe they didn't want to sing about the sun being emo at a 'party', IDK. XD
As for goods - the pamphlet is GORGEOUS. It's hardcover and a bit sparkly, and the photos are really lovely. It has interviews too, which I may attempt to tackle over the next few weeks (ha, don't count on it). I may try and take photos of it tomorrow.
The cellphone strap is also a delight - it looks really classy and awesome, the only problem is that the dice on it are a bit clunky and really heavy, so I'm debating if I want to hang it on my keitai in case it damages it. I bought Shige's uchiwa, simply because I'm yet to buy an uchiwa and it seems like a nice souvenir, and also the group poster because it's really nice. I bought a tote bag to put everything in and it's nice enough, but I'll probably never use it again, so I'm thinking of selling it. Anyone interested? It cost 900Y, but I'll pass it along for 600Y and shipping-handling costs (which shouldn't be that much).
I didn't buy the hat pin or the ring, or any of the photo sets or clearfiles. I'm a poor student, don't judge me. XD; I thought the ring was kind of tacky actually, but it's not really my style of jewelery either. I know some girls who'd love it. The hat pin was cute, but a little too...small child. Ryo DID ask in the MC if everyone was wearing them and said they looked cute though, which is probably incentive enough for some people to pick one up. XD
ANYWAY. I think that's about it! I'll maybe come back to this post and add more if I remember it later, but it'd be for my own benefit only I suspect. I might go to bed - I had to be up at 6:30 this morning in order to catch my bus to Sendai! @_@
Edit the Second, 2:31 (I'm really dying of exhaustion now guys XD;) Everyone seems to be curious about their hair (you guys say the darndest things ;D), so, from what I saw today -
Yamapi - still curly and brown, though I think it's a bit shorter. It's cute.
Shige - back to brown! He's blonde in all the concert goods though, so I think this is a recent change.
Ryo - ... he's Ryo. As long as it's black, it looks fine.
Massu and Tego - same as ever, bless. Both light brown.
Koyama - needs a haircut. XD He was fiddling with his hair in the MC and I remember thinking it needed a trim, because it looked like all the running around + hair spray was well on its way to creating a nice little birds nest back there.
Edit 27/10/08 (for my own benefit) Other reports from Sendai -
Contains pictures and setlist
More pictures, little moments I missed and mp3s
Also, take all my translations with a grain of salt. My Japanese is complete rubbish and News talk really quickly, so I a) missed a lot and b) may have misinterpreted stuff. / edit note
Just finished with the News concert in Sendai, and I'm actually paying 100Y for internet use at a kiosk at the station because I'm still THAT flaily and excited.
The stage was pleasingly glitzy and colourful. I'm not quite sure if it was supposed to go with the party theme or not, because it wasn't a terribly coherent set, but it was pretty. :D My seat was ridiculously good, right near the stage, and I could see them so well even from towards the back of my block. Miyagi Hothouse Arena IS my favourite concert venue - big enough that the atmosphere is really high, small enough that you can see everyone wherever they are. Love it.
There was a short movie at the start of all the guys running towards...well, presumably the 'party'. They were all pleasingly dorky. I don't remember too much of it actually ^^; just Yamapi pulling a stupid face, haha. They made a big show of the rings in the video too - way to advertise the concert goods, guys.
The concert began with a giant diamond rising out of the stage which contained all the members. ^^ They were singing 'Happy Birthday', just to get the party theme off to a bang. Second was 'weeeek', accompanied by lots of enthusiastic running around, and the crowd went a bit crazy. The girls around me were yelling out the 'mou iccho' part so loud, I think I was partially deafened! Where do those tiny Japanese girls keep those giant voices? XD
After that was...eh, I don't remember, but I get the feeling it was a song I wasn't too familiar with. I want to say they were dancing with chairs and tophats and shiny silver canes, but I think that song came later in the concert. Oh god, my memory, so bad.
BTW, top hats, chairs and shiny silver canes? A++ I love that sort of stuff.
Um, this is about the point I lose all sense of time, so don't expect things to be in order after this. ^^;
Then there was a short MC where they all introduced themselves. Just the usual "hey everyone, are you well, let's have fun, etc." But when Yamapi did his he...stole Tego's hand thing, I believe. I actually was paying more attention to them than the screens, but Yamapi was facing away from me, so. Anyway, Tego hand thing accompanied by a "Yamapi~ desu!". But then Ryo was after him and did the same thing - Tego hand accompanied by "Ryo Nishikido!", followed by some AMAZINGLY quick talking (seriously Ryo, SLOW DOWN) before he yelled loudly "I CAN'T LOSE TO PI." XD
Shige and Massu were the first to do their MCs so they disappeared off stage quickly, followed by Koyama, Pi, Ryo then Tegoshi last, who I think said something about filling up time? XD Anyway, he was obviously stalling to allow for the others to change their clothes, ha.
The next song was "Why" which I remember very clearly because it was awesome. A pool table rose out of the middle of the stage with Massu and Shige and as they sang the first verse/chorus they played pool. While they were singing, a small set made to look like a bar rose up on the right, and that had Pi and Koyama in it and they sang the next verse and chorus together. The four of them danced while a third set rose out of the ground, a jukebox/couch with Ryo and Tego, and they sang the rest of the song. It sounds lame when I type it here, but it was actually really cool and classy. Also, I love that song a lot, so. :D
After that (I think about this point?) was Bambina, which was accompanied by some brief all-member gropage at the start (too bad that was the only inappropriate boy-touching that night!) and some really bad-arse flames shooting out of the ground. :D I really enjoyed that one!
In Hoshi wo Mezashite, they all sang quite beautifully and in the last chorus there was PAPER HEARTS FALLING SOFTLY FROM THE CEILING. It was really pretty. News, ILU.
Somewhere in the middle-ish after a few of the solos they sang IZ.A.NA.I.ZU.KI and I almost thought it was a Yamapi solo at first because he was the only one lit up in the centre of the room. But no! Little did I realise that they were all, one by one, rising up on platforms at various locations around the room. I looked down. One of the platforms was right in front of my block! I quietly rejoiced. Then I flailed a little internally when the lights went up and I realised it was Ryo standing on the platform, now approximately at eye level with me. I'm always struck by how tiny he is, hahaha! His character makes him seem bigger, then I remember he's a midget. XD
(Later Tegoshi came up on the same platform, and at separate stages Yamapi, Koyama and Shige wheeled past in their little carts. The only one I didn't see up close was Masu actually.)
Shige did his lip thing again. He still gets wild cheers from the crowd for it, ha. Actually, Shige seemed to have a lot of enthusiastic fans in Sendai! I was surprised, but kind of thrilled at the same time for him (then later when I hit the goods line and asked for a Shigeaki uchiwa the girl tried to give me a Masuda one. Which kind of made me laugh because that's so Shige's life, even the girls doing the goods don't know who he is XD;).
Potentially the most exciting moment of the day - because it was the very first concert of the tour (I went to the lunchtime show) they were all 'Oh hey, we have a special guest so let's bring him out' and it was FRIGGEN' TACKEY, omg, I could've peed myself I was so shocked and excited. It was revealed at the end that Tackey had been in charge of the video at the start. *_* Anyway, Tackey - totally cool guy. He speaks slowly too, which I really appreciated, ha, because it meant I could at least understand one side of the conversation (News are a lost cause, they just speak too quickly). Unfortunately, I spent a good five minutes or so flipping out and kept forgetting to concentrate on what they were saying. -_-; Anyway, it seemed like Tackey was ribbing Koyama a lot about something, then declared that if he had to pick one person in News to be the leader, it would be Koyama. XD
Um, other stuff - I'm 98% sure Koyama announced a solo butai! He said that this was the first time he'd mentioned it. Hoorah for Koyama!
Shige and Ryo spent some time giving Masu grief about his eating (it was originally just Shige, but Ryo seemed to pick it up and run with it) - something to do with tartar sauce and dressing? XD I think at one point Ryo asked him to list stuff he'd eaten and Masu just started naming stuff, and Ryo cut him off and demanded that he do it in order! And Masu was just like '*sigh* Bread, seafood pilaf, ebi fry..." XD
Koyama asked Yamapi to do...something, and asked the audience if they wanted to see it, and Yamapi was just like "*pout* NO, IT'S EMBARRASSING!" and deflected on to a different topic, so I'm kind of dying to know what all that was about! Anyway, Koyama and Pi seem to be all buddy-buddy at the moment - at one point Pi sidled over to Koyama and declared the two of them 'KoyamaPi' before they ran off stage, pulling silly faces, and then the camera cut to Ryo who was standing there with this amazing long-suffering 'why am I friends with this idiot' look on his face. XD
Solos! Shige had a really cute rockpop sort of song that suited him well and was dancing on top of the giant diamond. He was waving around a star shaped tambourine though, which I'm not quite sure fit the atmosphere of the song...I guess it wasn't camp enough before hand. XD
Ryo sang a really nice song called 'Ordinary' which I think is another one of his own songs (well, on the screen it indicated he wrote it, so I'll go with that). I can't comment on the lyrics though, as I'm not quite good enough to translate on the fly, and the karaoke captions for that song were in Ryo's own handwriting, which made the kanji pretty much illegible.
Tego sang 'Ai no Matador' and was wearing red zebra print, and danced like a fucking champion (when did he learn to move like that again?) KoyamaPi did a joint effort that was fun if not terribly memorable, but they both looked really cool (all the girls around me agreed because the whole song they kept saying "kakkoii!"), and TegoMasu sang together, which had the whole room sighing happily (though Tegoshi still hasn't learnt to reign his voice in!)
And Masu. Um. Masu. XD Sang a song called Masuperman which was accompanied by a weird slideshow of comic book scenes in which he was a Supermanesque character, and the lyrics seemed to about food. IDEK. XD XD XD The speech bubbles were hilariously Engrish-tastic too (we had a bit of an Episode Zero moment, with one of the bubbles just saying "WHAT HAPPEN!?" XD) Koyama said in the MC he was worried about that song, I think, hahahahaha. It was pretty catchy, though whoever dressed him for that song needs to be taken out the back and given a good shaking, because bow-ties and cardigans are possibly less cool than the usual Johnnies ruffles.
The only other song I remember with any clarity is 'Snow Express' because the crowd went wild when it started, and News were wearing these ski jackets that must have felt awful underneath those lights. I was hot just sitting in the audience!
At the end they only did one encore - News Nippon and weeeek - but I'm not going to complain because they did have another show to do in an hour and a half. Noticeable losses from the tracklist, for me, were - Sayaendou, Hadashi no Cinderella Boy, Akaku Moyuru Taiyou and Taiyou no Namida. The first three I can maybe understand, but Taiyou no Namida is recent enough that I was surprised by its exclusion! Maybe they didn't want to sing about the sun being emo at a 'party', IDK. XD
As for goods - the pamphlet is GORGEOUS. It's hardcover and a bit sparkly, and the photos are really lovely. It has interviews too, which I may attempt to tackle over the next few weeks (ha, don't count on it). I may try and take photos of it tomorrow.
The cellphone strap is also a delight - it looks really classy and awesome, the only problem is that the dice on it are a bit clunky and really heavy, so I'm debating if I want to hang it on my keitai in case it damages it. I bought Shige's uchiwa, simply because I'm yet to buy an uchiwa and it seems like a nice souvenir, and also the group poster because it's really nice. I bought a tote bag to put everything in and it's nice enough, but I'll probably never use it again, so I'm thinking of selling it. Anyone interested? It cost 900Y, but I'll pass it along for 600Y and shipping-handling costs (which shouldn't be that much).
I didn't buy the hat pin or the ring, or any of the photo sets or clearfiles. I'm a poor student, don't judge me. XD; I thought the ring was kind of tacky actually, but it's not really my style of jewelery either. I know some girls who'd love it. The hat pin was cute, but a little too...small child. Ryo DID ask in the MC if everyone was wearing them and said they looked cute though, which is probably incentive enough for some people to pick one up. XD
ANYWAY. I think that's about it! I'll maybe come back to this post and add more if I remember it later, but it'd be for my own benefit only I suspect. I might go to bed - I had to be up at 6:30 this morning in order to catch my bus to Sendai! @_@
Edit the Second, 2:31 (I'm really dying of exhaustion now guys XD;) Everyone seems to be curious about their hair (you guys say the darndest things ;D), so, from what I saw today -
Yamapi - still curly and brown, though I think it's a bit shorter. It's cute.
Shige - back to brown! He's blonde in all the concert goods though, so I think this is a recent change.
Ryo - ... he's Ryo. As long as it's black, it looks fine.
Massu and Tego - same as ever, bless. Both light brown.
Koyama - needs a haircut. XD He was fiddling with his hair in the MC and I remember thinking it needed a trim, because it looked like all the running around + hair spray was well on its way to creating a nice little birds nest back there.
Edit 27/10/08 (for my own benefit) Other reports from Sendai -
Contains pictures and setlist
More pictures, little moments I missed and mp3s