The Candy Spooky Theater @ Meguro Rock May Kan - 2/2/09
My first time seeing The Candy Spooky Theater in their home country, on their turf, where they are unquestionably in control. I was definitely very nervous, with no idea what to expect at all. To be honest I was reminded of lining up outside the Middle East in Boston in May 2007, because I felt those same unrelenting nerves as that first time seeing them - however many times I may have seen them in America, I knew that seeing them in Japan would be completely different. At the same time though, there was a comforting familiarality in knowing that after more than a year, I was once again going to be seeing my boys, back on stage where they belong. A strange welcome home indeed.
So we got an e-mail a couple of nights before the live that they would be doing the ticket exchange at 4:30 so we shouldn't be late, and of course I figured I'd be getting lost for at least an hour, so I left my hostel a bit before noon to go to Meguro Rock May Kan. And then, of course, I didn't get lost. XD So I'm not sure what time exactly I got there, but it was really fucking early and there were a couple of other girls waiting outside but that was it, and it was pretty fucking cold I have to say. -_- I've never actually been cold waiting for TCST lives before, so that was... fun? Lol.
But all bitching aside, I'm very glad I got there as early as I did, because while I was outside waiting, this van stopped in front of the venue and all of a sudden I see jack dashing out with his hands jammed in his pockets running inside, ROFL. I have to say, well, in my opinion at least, he looked... pretty good. Yes, obviously very very thin, but what I could see of his face didn't look quite as haggard as I've seen it in the past... I think his new haircut is helping a lot too. His hair seriously looks amazing. I mean, yeah, I fucking loved his really long hair and I was... a bit concerned when I heard he cut it, but I do have to admit that his super-long hair sort of did drag the eye down a bit and kind of made his face look even thinner than it was. So cutting it to the length he has it now was a really good decision on his part and good job, jack. XD
Anyway, kal bone jr. got out of the van the same time jack did, and I probably wouldn't have really recognized him had I not seen his other band's New Year's video message, because he's put some blond in his hair since the Kuroneko picture with all the other guys. But since I had seen it, I recognized him immediately lolol go me \^o^/ He's cute! His image is definitely more subdued and casual than, say, Kiddy's is, but I don't mind that at all personally, I kind of like how laid-back he is, lol. I can appreciate musicians in jeans and puffy jackets I guess XDDDD
So kal and jack kept running back and forth carrying stuff into the venue, which was cool, but of course I was like "Gee, I wonder where Peggy is..." Anyway, I finally saw him maybe 15 or 20 minutes after I started seeing jack, and he looked adorable, ha ha. He started bringing stuff from the van into the venue too, and then he stopped for a while and was chatting a bit with these two lolita chicks that were also waiting for the show, I imagine they're probably TCST's saizen in Japan so I thought that was pretty cool.
Then Peggy started walking back into the venue, but he stopped and looked back at all of us waiting on the street for the show before he got all the way in and sort of bowed a bit... ^^ And then he saw me. And. He waved to me.
God it's sooooo embarrassing but I swear, I almost started crying right there. It was all I could do to wave back to him, and as soon as he got out of sight I literally had to sit down on the sidewalk and try to fucking catch my breath.
I really don't know why something so small and stupid affected me so deeply (and then of course 1-5 was making fun of me about it afterwards lolol XD), but I don't know... I guess the fact that he acknowledged I was there, and genuinely seemed happy to see me - me specifically, because there were several other girls lining up by that time, but I was standing waaaayy apart from them, ha ha - I guess that got to me at some level. And that was when it really started to hit me that I was going to see this band again, after more than a year. And it was a lot to take in.
So that was probably the most eventful thing that happened while I was waiting... until 1-5 and Nasu showed up, and then this foreign guy saw us and was like "OMG YOU GIRLS ARE SO COOL I HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU" LOLLLLL yeah something weird always has to happen while I'm waiting for TCST shows, it never fails... at least it wasn't a crackhead like at the Boston show... XDDD
But other than that, that was about it until the Rock May Kan staff called us all into the venue to get our numbers (30 minutes late, of course XD). You know, I had assumed we'd be assigned our numbers in the order we submitted our reservations, but now in hindsight I'm not sure... it might actually have been more like the order in which we got down the stairs and said we were there...? So actually if I hadn't been so shy and unsure of myself and tried to get in ahead of, say, all the girls that had showed up later than I did, I might have been able to have gotten a higher number...? But whatever, considering I had no idea how any Japanese venues work whatsoever I think I did pretty well for myself - I got number 19 and 1-5 and Nasu got 20 and 21. So, not bad. Aaaand then while we were getting our numbers kal and Peggy came running up the stairs right next to us so that was... awkward, lol. XDDD
Anyway, naturally after we got our numbers they chased us all back outside into the cold, which ruled -_- Luckily the wait to go back outside wasn't that long, lol. We all lined up according to our numbers (when... I figured out how lol) and filed in and it all went pretty smoothly.
Okay, so normally at shows I completely bypass the merch table and wait to buy shit after the show so I can get a good spot inside, but TCST fucking scared me so badly about how there were only 100 coupling CDs available that I was like "Shit I better get it now." And that was when some hilarious shit went down lol.
So I get to the merch table, there's this super-cute little staff girl selling TCST shit, I ask for the CD and that's just fine. But then I wanted a T-shirt too. My original plan was to buy both designs, but the day before the show I'd spent 2000 yen at karaoke lol, so I decided, okay, financial sacrifice, I'll just buy one shirt so I'll have enough money for the rest of the trip.
I decided I would ask in which design there were still small sizes available, and just buy whichever design I could get a small in. So I asked staff girl for the smallest shirt. She said, there were still smalls in the wtich design, but in the pumpkin design there were only mediums. So I'm like okay, and tried to ask for the CD, and the one small shirt.
Buuuut I guess she didn't understand my sugoku jouzu na Japanese, because I hand her the money and she's like "I need 2000 yen more please." Well, that was way more than I needed for the CD and the one shirt. So I assumed "Okay, this bitch is overcharging me because I'm a gaijin." Or something like that, you know. XD But I was like, whatever, I really don't want any trouble, so I just went back to my wallet and got her another 2000 yen.
And then she's like "Okay!" And she hands me the CD, the small witch shirt... and the medium pumpkin shirt.
And I'm like, shit.
I was just like, okay, now I have no money left at all, so I was kind of panicking then, lol. HOWEVER, all was not lost! For as it turned out, I had budgeted my shit so fucking well, and been so frugal by like not eating all along, that even with the karaoke, and all the subway fare, and the 1400 yen I'd had to spend in cab fare the minute I first got to Asakusa, I still had enough money to get both shirts, like I had planned all along, and I still had more than 10000 yen left over at the end of my trip all told.
So basically, I rule at life and I should be an accountant or something because I am just a fucking awesome person. \^o^/
Anyway, so I had known all along that Rock May Kan used to be a movie theater and that there were still seats left from then, but I don't know, I guess I assumed there was no way they could have left all the seats there... well, they did. XDDD And the space from the stage to the seats is about... the amount of space you'd expect in a small movie theater from the screen to where the seats begin. So basically about three rows of people could fit standing in that space in front of the stage. Whaaaaaat the fuck. XDDD
So that was kind of weird, but in any event 1-5 and I figured, surely TCST would play after SaTaN, since this was their revival live after all, so instead of going to stand in front of the stage we went to sit down and I filled out TCST's anquette, OMFG I FUCKING LOVE ANQUETTES, that's like the one thing I think Japan does right when it comes to lives, LOL mine was so offensive, I basically gave no helpful information whatsoever and pretty much just wrote "I LOVE YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK! PLEASE COME BACK TO AMERICA!" in all the spaces XDDD And then there was a space where you could fill in your address, your fucking address, and I was soooo tempted to write mine and be like "LOL COME ON BY PARTY AT MY PLACE HAAAYY" but I didn't lolllll. Ha ha so yeah my anquette ruled and I hope they read it and get so mad at me ROFL. :D
And then while we were sitting there I opened my CD and we lol-ed at the lyrics to La Dance Macabre, OMG, they're so... horrible. XD Like, if you think Prince of Darkness was bad... this is ten times worse. XDDD In the booklet the English, which is what jack actually sings, is printed first, with a sort of Japanese translation under it strictly for reading purposes, and that's how we figured out what the problem is... The problem is, jack writes lyrics in Japanese first (really good lyrics too, by the way, I read the Japanese and it actually not only makes perfect sense, but is... really intelligent and very beautiful, like most of his writing), and then, translates the lyrics into English. And that alone isn't a great way to write anything in a foreign language, but to make it worse, he definitely translates the lyrics with like, Google Translate or Babelfish or something. And whatever comes out, is exactly what he sings. Ohhh goddddddd no jack, nooooooo... I love you but nooooooo... and I'm trying to make an effort to be less mean to him lolol, but still, noooooo... XDDD
Okay. So all that was fun. However, all of a sudden 1-5 is like "Well hmmm it looks like all TCST fans standing in front of the stage right now." And we started being not so sure that it was going to be SaTaN first after all. XD So we're like, okay, on the off chance TCST is first, let's actually get up and go over to the stage. And it's a good thing we did, because almost as soon as we got down there, This Is Halloween started playing...
At this point, a curtain was still drawn in front of the stage, and they started projecting different pictures and text, like all the band members' names and things like that, onto it. (It's kind of cool that they can do that since the venue was a movie theater, the only venue I can think of in NYC where a band could potentially also display a slideshow like that would be Irving Plaza, but of course no one thinks to use their projector like that. Maybe they should, it might be cool.) While this was going on, I looked around, and it sort of occurred to me that I could probably get closer to the stage than I was - there was a lot of empty space and no one was pushing or crowding toward the stage as usually happens in America - but again, I didn't really want to potentially cause trouble with the saizen; and anyway, I ended up in the second row, just left of center, with an almost unobstructed view of the left and center portions of the stage and a decent portion of the right, so all things considered it wasn't bad.
And it was right then that the curtains were pushed aside and Peggy and kal were right already there. And my hand just flew to my mouth. Because it all looked so mindblowing.
The stage itself was completely decorated, with jack-o-lanterns and lights and a child's mobile which was actually running and playing music, and at the center of it all, a huge, looming black umbrella was open and propped up with Tsutomu under it. I wish I could have taken a picture of the stage to show you guys but of course you weren't allowed to, but I don't know, maybe something will pop up online someday and then you can all see how amazing it was.
But even more so than that, was LINDA-CHAN. Yes. Peggy was using his fucking monster of a black-painted contrabass, complete with a little pair of dice glued along near the bridge. I had actually seen him bringing it in earlier that day, and right then I knew it was going to be a fucking amazing show. Honestly, words cannot express how impressive it is to see Linda-chan live - and Peggy plays it with such vigor, enough to actually cause himself physical pain, it's sometimes sort of hard to tell or gets taken for granted but he really is an amazing bassist, and I wish more than anything that he could bring Linda-chan to America someday but I guess that's pretty much impossible, right T_T Well, at least I've seen it once in my life, lol.
And as if all that wasn't enough to take in, then jack came out, in this gorgeous long jacket, and I thought I would cry at that point, but for some reason I could only sob without any tears, dry heaves making me lightheaded. It was as if even then, my mind wasn't accepting the reality of seeing them again. jack stepped up to the microphone as I struggled for air and suddenly, IT'S A SHOW TIME in Japan:
SE - This Is Halloween (Nightmare Before Christmas)
Spook House
Merry Go Round
Prince of Darkness
Strip
La Dance Macabre (新曲)
Murder Toy in the Closet
Devilish Kidnapper
Bordeaux After Midnight
眠れる森の花嫁 (live arrangement)
Spook House
During the show, the one thing that became immedtiately apparent to me was... it's true, everything they say about Japanese TCST fans. Lol, a part of me had hoped it was an exaggeration, but... it's not. As much as they very clearly love the band, they really are just... not very expressive or energetic, unfortunately. A few of them did jump around and clap and sort of... dance, more than anything else, but the majority of them really do just seem like these prissy lolitas who literally do just. stand. there. completely. still. Or they sway back and forth a little bit, but that's about it. And between songs, for the most part, they're actually completely silent. They do applaud - yes, they do politely clap, it's true what that Orkus live report said, lol - but not for very long, and then, you can fucking hear a pin drop. I mean, you can literally hear the guys shuffling around on stage getting ready for the next song. It's so eerie. And now, having experienced that, I can see why jack was so struck by the energy of American fans the first time TCST came here. I can imagine the sheer shock everyone must have felt to actually hear fans screaming for them, cheering and surging forward and just showing our joy and appreciation for these men however we could... it must have felt so strange and alien to them. Well, I can't say that I know which kind of audience they prefer, of course, but, I know which crowd I like best. XDDD
So of course I felt a little bit awkward amongst these eerily silent, still girls, but I tried not to let it get to me that much, ROFL. Anyway, they opened with Spook House, like at PMX, and instinctively my hands went up over my head to clap along with jack - and luckily I wasn't completely alone in clapping, lol. They blistered through it, Peggy's bass sounding like thunder through the livehouse, and before the final chorus, the one really cool thing the Japanese fans did during the show - they started jumping up and down wildly, completely in unison, even the lolitas, ROFL. Jumping along with them, I have to say, was really awesome, and I sort of think we should start doing that in America too, it's just too cool not to, so like, when they come back, if you all could just jump with me, that would be really cool, lol. :D Of course it would be great if we could get every single person in the audience to do it, but even just a decent-sized group of us, toward the front, I think would be a really nice thing to do for our boys. ^^
...Okay, back to the live. XD Spook House was followed by Merry Go Round, and then, Prince of Darkness, and as completely dumb as the lyrics are I fucking screamed along with them at the top of my lungs, lol. I think it was around then that jack started scanning the crowd and... I'm not sure, it's hard to tell with his contact lenses, LOL, but I think at one point he might have seen me...? I mean, I was jumping around like a retard enough, so it's not like I wasn't drawing a disgusting amount of attention to myself, lawl. If he did see me then he gave me the strangest look ever, LMAO. Of course it could have just been jack being weird AS USUAL ha ha, but it's possible that he really was like "Oh god this fucking crazy bitch again" LMAOOOO I love you too jack XDDD
Anyway, next was Strip, and I can't quite remember at which particular points jack did MCs, but during the set he broke out Tsutomu three times, lol. Of course I couldn't contain myself and was like "OH MY GODDDD" when he first appeared, ha ha. The MCs were hilarious, it's really refreshing to see jack speaking so freely, in his own language, without needing to worry about his words; both with and without Tsutomu, and he really is so funny, during the first MC he was like "We're... not doing member introductions yet," and then later, again, he was like "We're... still not doing member introductions yet," LMAOOO.
And then every couple of sentences, jack would stop speaking, wave Tsutomu around, and sort of go... "Wooooo!" And of course all of us would go "Wooooo!" right back. And eventually jack wouldn't even have to say anything anymore, he'd just wave Tsutomu around and we'd all automatically go "Wooooo!" LOL so that continued the whole night. XD
Anyway, after Strip, jack announced that next they'd be playing La Dance Macabre, and 1-5 and I sort of lol-ed, ha ha. Well, in any case, the English lyrics are indeed atrocious, but I have to say, the song itself is amazing. The entire thing has this jazzy, sort of swing feel to it, with a great beat, and jack's vocal delivery is excellent - I actually think I like his performance live better than recorded because it's just much more forceful and confident, which doesn't so much get translated into the recording... but yeah, live it's just really fun, and I like it a lot. ^^
Immediately after that though, jack announced Murder Toy In the Closet, and I couldn't help jumping wildly up and down and screaming along, Peggy's bass once again leaving me absolutely breathless. As for kal, I know I haven't been talking a lot about him, and it's because from where I was standing I couldn't always see him very well (and my eyes were constantly riveted to jack and Peggy anyway, lol), unfortunately. In any case, though, the songs sounded great, which is what matters most, and although on stage as well he's more subdued than Kiddy, and perhaps less of a focal presence than Zull, he's still really cool, and he looks great, and dammit I like the guy, lol. With a little time to feel out TCST's audiences and get used to their style on stage, I think he'll really come into his own. ^^
Anyway without any sort of break after Murder Toy In the Closet, they launched into Devilish Kidnapper, and this time it wasn't just me screaming, lol. You can tell for sure this is a fan favorite even in Japan, and even the prissiest of the lolitas allowed themselves to bounce on their heels, ROFL. During the second chorus jack motioned for us to move our arms as he was doing, and in Japan the fans actually do this, which is cool. It's not furi, just something fun to do during the song, lol.
And then. Bordeaux After Midnight's introduction began blaring over the speakers. jack crouched low under the black umbrella on the stage, muttering "Bordeaux After Midnight" into the microphone, and I didn't even think to suppress the scream that clawed its way out of my throat, even if every single person in the venue could hear me. As Peggy and kal bore down into an extended introduction jack bounced all over the stage, and since I couldn't headbang without hitting the lolitas in front of me, I settled for jumping as high as I could into the air, not caring if anyone else was jumping with me. And as jack raised the microphone to his lips again to start spitting the lyrics in our faces, my fists went in the air and I spat them back at him, with no regard to anyone around me, because this is my song and I'll be damned if I let anyone get in the way of my breathing every second of it.
Emotionally I was already fucked up after that, but then, the haunting piano introduction to the new arrangement of Nemureru Mori no Hanayome began, and as soon as the notes reached my ears, my hand flew to my mouth and I was sobbing again, sure that any second tears would begin to well in my eyes. They still didn't come. As if in a dream, I watched jack whisper the song's title and slowly make his way to the front of the stage, still unable to believe what I was experiencing.
Your eyes are locked on jack during this song; they can't possibly wander anywhere else. The air felt unbearably heavy and I watched with my hand still hovering over my mouth as he left his body behind to venture somewhere dark, where none of us could possibly reach him. He didn't seem to sing out to the audience as much as to himself, eyes cast down and fixed somewhere beyond the walls of the livehouse where we could never imagine. We could only watch, transfixed, and wonder.
The strain led jack to sweat beneath the lights, but toward the end of the song his voice gained strength for the final notes, which he sang with an unearthly richness, and then he stopped completely without finishing them. He paused, drew a trembling breath, and screamed.
In five TCST shows I have never heard him scream like that, ragged, veins straining in his neck, body shaking, and joining the persperation on his face - the unmistakeable glint of tears. It honestly felt like a year's worth of pain, a year's worth of anger and sorrow and frustration and fear, a year's infinite burden, being violently exorcised from his frail body right in front of us.
And that was when my own tears finally came. Pouring from my eyes uncontrollably. I couldn't even look at jack anymore, but had to put my head down into my hands, bend low, and weather the storm of emotions finally hitting me, trying to hold on. It was cathartic, giving voice to all my anxieties surrounding the past several days and my unspeakable gratitude at being present while the band remade itself. I just cried until the echoes of jack's voice finally died away and left us in silence.
jack collected himself for an MC then, and announced that the next song would be their last. And even through my tears I was like "...Seriously?" Seriously. It felt like fucking no time at all and I started wracking my brain wondering what song they would end with. But then after speaking with Tsutomu for a while jack was suddenly like "Oh! I almost forgot! Member introductions!" and we were all like "...Oh yeah!" and started laughing, ha ha. XD
Lol, jack tried to get Peggy and kal to say something but they stubbornly refused, aaahaha, so he had to handle their introductions himself. I wasn't quite able to understand everything he was saying because my Japanese still fails so fucking badly, but basically he explained that kal is called "kal bone jr." because he's Peggy's child or something like that I don't really know, lol.
After that jack explained that TCST's next live would be March 10 and that they'd be playing with Zull's band sairensu and I was sort of the only one who clapped, ROFL. Ugh, I'm honestly still soooo pissed that I can't go... Zull at least seems really excited for it and just guh, I can only sort of imagine what kind of stuff might happen, and the fact that I can't be there for it, honestly kills me. And I don't know if I'll even ever find out, in detail, how it was... I mean they'll all probably blog about it a bit but I really do want shit like "And then jack said this" and "Zull had an expression on his face like this" and fucking all of that ugghhhhh. -_- I'm just so fucking mad about that. But whatever, lol.
Anyway, TCST's last song was... Spook House. Again. I don't know why. It wasn't even like an encore or anything, just literally Spook House, again. Lol why do they do that? I've never known any other band, Japanese or otherwise, that plays the same song twice within a set. I mean, like, really, not to be mean or anything (lol okay I should just admit that I'm a horrible person, really) but there are a shitton of other songs they could have played instead, you know? XDD
It was admittedly cool though, instead of beginning with "Welcome to the Spook House" jack said "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Haunted House," the name of the twoman, and in general it looked like he was having a lot of fun, he started jumping up and down when we did - really jumping, like, bringing his knees all the way up to his chest and shit, and he's tall already so he can get really fucking high up in the air, ROFL - and at one point he, like, attacked Peggy and tackled him almost to the ground, bass and all, LMAO.
At the end of the song, jack thanked us all for coming, a heartfelt "Thank you. Arigatou." The guys all waved to us, and... they closed the curtains. And that was it. I was still left in a state of utter disbelief. Yeah, overall, the one possible criticism I have of this show was that it felt waaaayyy too short, almost as though TCST were the opening act as opposed to the first half of a twoman, and as a result their set list was kind of lacking a lot of songs I would have loved to hear (I think I was more surprised that TRICK or TREAT was missing than any other song, in particular), but really, even if they had played for hours on end, it wouldn't have felt like enough XDDD Anyway, other than that, it was, indeed, absolutely breathtaking.
Anyway, so. In regards to SaTaN. They were fucking. Amazing. Oh my god. They definitely did get way more stage time than TCST did, and played a way longer set, and there were way more SaTaN fans there than there were TCST fans, I'd say - so the people on 2ch who are like "It felt like a SaTaN oneman" are completely right, that pretty much IS exactly what it felt like. So if it had been some shitty band, I would have been really pissed, lol.
I have to admit that up until the show the only SaTaN songs I'd actually heard were the not-quite-full length samples up on their MySpace page, so as 1-5 and I returned to our seats I really had very little idea of what to expect. Well, they were absolutely fucking mindblowing, jesus christ. Musically, they're incredibly tight, Hi-Na's vocals are commanding, D.K. is a fucking beast on drums, and Shiya... is amazing, I've grown to have a real soft spot for talented bassists and Shiya is incredible and uhhhh yeah I love him <3 *blush*
But you know, even if SaTaN had sucked - WHICH THEY DIDN'T, I'm just giving a hypothetical example, lol - it honestly wouldn't have made a difference at all because a) their stage show is fanstastic, think a slightly more mischievous and tongue-in-cheek version of Alice Cooper or Marilyn Manson, and b) their fans are. fucking. AMAZING. Seriously, SaTaN fans are some of the most hilarious, enthusiastic, cracked-out, energetic girls I have ever seen, I love them all and wanted to take them back home with me, and if TCST fans were like that, I would literally cry with joy.
Literally, I have never seen such crazy things happening at a show before. Here you have this band playing this music that's actually incredibly heavy, some of the songs actually bordering on black metal in their sheer nastiness, and while this anarchy goes on onstage, down below you have these madly grinning little girls who have literally kicked off their shoes to dance around, doing the most elaborate and borderline-retarded furi you could ever imagine - yeah, don't ask me how you can do furi to metal, but somehow these chicks figured it out, one particular furi had them essentially going back and forth doing a version of the Thriller dance, I SHIT YOU NOT OMG I LAUGHED SO HARD - sort of half-heartedly throwing the devil horns with really limp wrists (most likely because they don't actually know what the devil horns are lol), and at certain points during certain songs, actually doing synchronized HEADBANGING, except it wasn't really like any headbanging I've ever seen, it was basically them all holding onto each other's hands and sort of wildly waving their heads back and forth - which actually looks sort of cool if you have really nice straight Japanese hair... LOLOL I DIGRESS, I must also tell you all about THE LEAST THREATENING MOSH PIT I HAVE EVER SEEN, which was formed toward the end of SaTaN's set and consisted of all three rows of shoeless girls lifting their arms over their heads, waving their hands in the air, and pretty much just running back and forth into each other. Yeah okay they wouldn't last five seconds in a normal American mosh pit, but OMG, it was the dumbest and cutest thing I have ever seen, and it was so cute seeing them all excited for each other and for the band and seriously, during the entire show I had this retarded grin on my face just because I love these bitches so much. And 1-5 is disgustingly lucky and gets to see SaTaN AGAIN in a couple of weeks and I am soooo jealous lol. I want to see them every day of my life oh my god and be a retard with all their awesome fans. XDDD
But anyway, as I mentioned, SaTaN are very theatrical, so a good portion of their time onstage was spent doing costume changes, extravagant theatrical pieces, and very amusing little skits (although between songs they didn't do as many spoken MCs as TCST did)... during one such skit Hi-Na had this basket full of candy and was throwing the candy out to us, and then during another one D.K. and Shiya came out with this huge bag of McDonald's and started throwing (wrapped) HAMBURGERS out into the audience - OMG I really would have killed at that point to have caught one of those hamburgers because I was fucking starving, literally, but I wasn't close enough to get one and anyway it was all their most hardcore fans that got them, so it was cool. Ugh I just wish TCST would feed their fans, that would be so wonderful of them... oh well... T_T
Finally, just when I thought all this insanity was over, the fans started calling for an encore. Lol, even the way SaTaN fans call for encores is weird, they don't really even raise their voices or clap or anything, they just sort of groan in this kind of nasal, high-pitched voice: "SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN..." LOL it's really strange, and hilarious. XD Although it kind of made me wonder if, had all of the TCST fans called for an encore, would they have done one...? I don't know if they would have had an opportunity to, since SaTaN had to get onstage after them, but it really sort of didn't seem fair on some level, that this show was so important to them and yet they'd had hardly any time at all to play. A part of me wondered, could they have been sort of waiting for us to call for an encore, and just no one thought to...? Or if it was understood by everyone that they had to get out of their and couldn't do one? In any event I wasn't going to be the retard to start doing some stupid chant for them, lol, but I do wish that maybe the Japanese fans might have, you know... considered it. XD
But I don't want to give the impression that I was pissed SaTaN ended up getting so long because like I said, they were amazing, ha ha. Anyway, during their encore the guys came back onstage in their SaTaN t-shirts, all except D.K., who was wearing A TCST T-SHIRT, OH GOD I FREAKED OUT SO BADLY LOL, and Hi-Na was all adorable like "Thank you for allowing us to do an encore!" awwww. Anyway, they played a few more songs, although it got stretched out a bit because they needed to switch around huge stage pieces, lol, but then after that was done, the curtain was drawn again for a few minutes, and when it was opened back up again, the SaTaN guys were standing on stage with TCST, who had come back to say goodbye, LOL I was pissed I wasn't standing in front of the stage at that point, but it was okay, I made up for it by jumping up and down waving and screaming like a retard from our seats, basically looking exactly like this \^o^/ lulz. Peggy and kal still refused to speak, lol, so jack thanked us all again on the band's behalf, and then he shook hands with Hi-Na and it was reaallllyy cute. <3
And then, the curtains were drawn for the final time, and onto them were projected a series of credits, like you'd see in a movie, where each band thanked specific people - and you could totally tell which portion jack wrote because there was an entire section thanking horror stars like Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Johnny Depp (spelled wrong in the projection lol), etc etc and I was like like "That's our jack," ha ha. It was a fitting end to such a theatrical and emotional evening.
As we all filed out of Rock May Kan we ran into Rammy, who unfortunately couldn't come to the live because of work - I felt really bad that she couldn't go, but in any event, I'm really thankful to have met her because she's really cool, lol. ^^ And once again I do have to extend my heartfelt thanks to 1-5 and Nasu, because they really did make the live ten times more enjoyable than it would have been had I been alone, lol, and I give them credit for putting up with my ridiculous fangirliness and stupidity, ha ha. And major kudos to SaTaN who have stolen my heart, LOL, and their fans who are my new favorite people in the world. XDDD
Most of all, though, of course, I've got to thank my boys. When I look back at how long I've been a fan of The Candy Spooky Theater - which isn't even than long, if I think about it - I realize that if you'd told me in 2006 that one day, for them, and them alone, I'd be willingly tearing myself from my comfort zone and throw myself headlong into a place I never thought I'd venture in my life, I would have thought you were crazy. But when I look back at this time, I realize that it really could only be for them that I would do something so brazen. Time and time again they have proven themselves not only to be incredible musicians, songwriters, lyricists, and storytellers, but wonderful people as well, and I can never forget the kindness they have always shown me, whether they've known it or not. Ultimately I guess I probably am crazy for going to such lengths for them, but if you were to ask me if I regret anything, I'd have to honestly say, no. Through them I have had some of the best experiences of my life, and this show was no exception. So for that, I'm eternally grateful to them, and am eager to see where the next few years take them, and to hang on for the journey, wherever it may take me.
Peggy does promise that they'll come back to America someday. When that day comes, I'll be ready, as I'm sure all of us will be as well. Until then, though, I'll hold on to these memories, look back at them with a smile, and be constantly reminded of precious times spent with precious people. Of all the things I could possibly ever say to them, the one that is probably most important, is simply, thank you.
So we got an e-mail a couple of nights before the live that they would be doing the ticket exchange at 4:30 so we shouldn't be late, and of course I figured I'd be getting lost for at least an hour, so I left my hostel a bit before noon to go to Meguro Rock May Kan. And then, of course, I didn't get lost. XD So I'm not sure what time exactly I got there, but it was really fucking early and there were a couple of other girls waiting outside but that was it, and it was pretty fucking cold I have to say. -_- I've never actually been cold waiting for TCST lives before, so that was... fun? Lol.
But all bitching aside, I'm very glad I got there as early as I did, because while I was outside waiting, this van stopped in front of the venue and all of a sudden I see jack dashing out with his hands jammed in his pockets running inside, ROFL. I have to say, well, in my opinion at least, he looked... pretty good. Yes, obviously very very thin, but what I could see of his face didn't look quite as haggard as I've seen it in the past... I think his new haircut is helping a lot too. His hair seriously looks amazing. I mean, yeah, I fucking loved his really long hair and I was... a bit concerned when I heard he cut it, but I do have to admit that his super-long hair sort of did drag the eye down a bit and kind of made his face look even thinner than it was. So cutting it to the length he has it now was a really good decision on his part and good job, jack. XD
Anyway, kal bone jr. got out of the van the same time jack did, and I probably wouldn't have really recognized him had I not seen his other band's New Year's video message, because he's put some blond in his hair since the Kuroneko picture with all the other guys. But since I had seen it, I recognized him immediately lolol go me \^o^/ He's cute! His image is definitely more subdued and casual than, say, Kiddy's is, but I don't mind that at all personally, I kind of like how laid-back he is, lol. I can appreciate musicians in jeans and puffy jackets I guess XDDDD
So kal and jack kept running back and forth carrying stuff into the venue, which was cool, but of course I was like "Gee, I wonder where Peggy is..." Anyway, I finally saw him maybe 15 or 20 minutes after I started seeing jack, and he looked adorable, ha ha. He started bringing stuff from the van into the venue too, and then he stopped for a while and was chatting a bit with these two lolita chicks that were also waiting for the show, I imagine they're probably TCST's saizen in Japan so I thought that was pretty cool.
Then Peggy started walking back into the venue, but he stopped and looked back at all of us waiting on the street for the show before he got all the way in and sort of bowed a bit... ^^ And then he saw me. And. He waved to me.
God it's sooooo embarrassing but I swear, I almost started crying right there. It was all I could do to wave back to him, and as soon as he got out of sight I literally had to sit down on the sidewalk and try to fucking catch my breath.
I really don't know why something so small and stupid affected me so deeply (and then of course 1-5 was making fun of me about it afterwards lolol XD), but I don't know... I guess the fact that he acknowledged I was there, and genuinely seemed happy to see me - me specifically, because there were several other girls lining up by that time, but I was standing waaaayy apart from them, ha ha - I guess that got to me at some level. And that was when it really started to hit me that I was going to see this band again, after more than a year. And it was a lot to take in.
So that was probably the most eventful thing that happened while I was waiting... until 1-5 and Nasu showed up, and then this foreign guy saw us and was like "OMG YOU GIRLS ARE SO COOL I HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU" LOLLLLL yeah something weird always has to happen while I'm waiting for TCST shows, it never fails... at least it wasn't a crackhead like at the Boston show... XDDD
But other than that, that was about it until the Rock May Kan staff called us all into the venue to get our numbers (30 minutes late, of course XD). You know, I had assumed we'd be assigned our numbers in the order we submitted our reservations, but now in hindsight I'm not sure... it might actually have been more like the order in which we got down the stairs and said we were there...? So actually if I hadn't been so shy and unsure of myself and tried to get in ahead of, say, all the girls that had showed up later than I did, I might have been able to have gotten a higher number...? But whatever, considering I had no idea how any Japanese venues work whatsoever I think I did pretty well for myself - I got number 19 and 1-5 and Nasu got 20 and 21. So, not bad. Aaaand then while we were getting our numbers kal and Peggy came running up the stairs right next to us so that was... awkward, lol. XDDD
Anyway, naturally after we got our numbers they chased us all back outside into the cold, which ruled -_- Luckily the wait to go back outside wasn't that long, lol. We all lined up according to our numbers (when... I figured out how lol) and filed in and it all went pretty smoothly.
Okay, so normally at shows I completely bypass the merch table and wait to buy shit after the show so I can get a good spot inside, but TCST fucking scared me so badly about how there were only 100 coupling CDs available that I was like "Shit I better get it now." And that was when some hilarious shit went down lol.
So I get to the merch table, there's this super-cute little staff girl selling TCST shit, I ask for the CD and that's just fine. But then I wanted a T-shirt too. My original plan was to buy both designs, but the day before the show I'd spent 2000 yen at karaoke lol, so I decided, okay, financial sacrifice, I'll just buy one shirt so I'll have enough money for the rest of the trip.
I decided I would ask in which design there were still small sizes available, and just buy whichever design I could get a small in. So I asked staff girl for the smallest shirt. She said, there were still smalls in the wtich design, but in the pumpkin design there were only mediums. So I'm like okay, and tried to ask for the CD, and the one small shirt.
Buuuut I guess she didn't understand my sugoku jouzu na Japanese, because I hand her the money and she's like "I need 2000 yen more please." Well, that was way more than I needed for the CD and the one shirt. So I assumed "Okay, this bitch is overcharging me because I'm a gaijin." Or something like that, you know. XD But I was like, whatever, I really don't want any trouble, so I just went back to my wallet and got her another 2000 yen.
And then she's like "Okay!" And she hands me the CD, the small witch shirt... and the medium pumpkin shirt.
And I'm like, shit.
I was just like, okay, now I have no money left at all, so I was kind of panicking then, lol. HOWEVER, all was not lost! For as it turned out, I had budgeted my shit so fucking well, and been so frugal by like not eating all along, that even with the karaoke, and all the subway fare, and the 1400 yen I'd had to spend in cab fare the minute I first got to Asakusa, I still had enough money to get both shirts, like I had planned all along, and I still had more than 10000 yen left over at the end of my trip all told.
So basically, I rule at life and I should be an accountant or something because I am just a fucking awesome person. \^o^/
Anyway, so I had known all along that Rock May Kan used to be a movie theater and that there were still seats left from then, but I don't know, I guess I assumed there was no way they could have left all the seats there... well, they did. XDDD And the space from the stage to the seats is about... the amount of space you'd expect in a small movie theater from the screen to where the seats begin. So basically about three rows of people could fit standing in that space in front of the stage. Whaaaaaat the fuck. XDDD
So that was kind of weird, but in any event 1-5 and I figured, surely TCST would play after SaTaN, since this was their revival live after all, so instead of going to stand in front of the stage we went to sit down and I filled out TCST's anquette, OMFG I FUCKING LOVE ANQUETTES, that's like the one thing I think Japan does right when it comes to lives, LOL mine was so offensive, I basically gave no helpful information whatsoever and pretty much just wrote "I LOVE YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK! PLEASE COME BACK TO AMERICA!" in all the spaces XDDD And then there was a space where you could fill in your address, your fucking address, and I was soooo tempted to write mine and be like "LOL COME ON BY PARTY AT MY PLACE HAAAYY" but I didn't lolllll. Ha ha so yeah my anquette ruled and I hope they read it and get so mad at me ROFL. :D
And then while we were sitting there I opened my CD and we lol-ed at the lyrics to La Dance Macabre, OMG, they're so... horrible. XD Like, if you think Prince of Darkness was bad... this is ten times worse. XDDD In the booklet the English, which is what jack actually sings, is printed first, with a sort of Japanese translation under it strictly for reading purposes, and that's how we figured out what the problem is... The problem is, jack writes lyrics in Japanese first (really good lyrics too, by the way, I read the Japanese and it actually not only makes perfect sense, but is... really intelligent and very beautiful, like most of his writing), and then, translates the lyrics into English. And that alone isn't a great way to write anything in a foreign language, but to make it worse, he definitely translates the lyrics with like, Google Translate or Babelfish or something. And whatever comes out, is exactly what he sings. Ohhh goddddddd no jack, nooooooo... I love you but nooooooo... and I'm trying to make an effort to be less mean to him lolol, but still, noooooo... XDDD
Okay. So all that was fun. However, all of a sudden 1-5 is like "Well hmmm it looks like all TCST fans standing in front of the stage right now." And we started being not so sure that it was going to be SaTaN first after all. XD So we're like, okay, on the off chance TCST is first, let's actually get up and go over to the stage. And it's a good thing we did, because almost as soon as we got down there, This Is Halloween started playing...
At this point, a curtain was still drawn in front of the stage, and they started projecting different pictures and text, like all the band members' names and things like that, onto it. (It's kind of cool that they can do that since the venue was a movie theater, the only venue I can think of in NYC where a band could potentially also display a slideshow like that would be Irving Plaza, but of course no one thinks to use their projector like that. Maybe they should, it might be cool.) While this was going on, I looked around, and it sort of occurred to me that I could probably get closer to the stage than I was - there was a lot of empty space and no one was pushing or crowding toward the stage as usually happens in America - but again, I didn't really want to potentially cause trouble with the saizen; and anyway, I ended up in the second row, just left of center, with an almost unobstructed view of the left and center portions of the stage and a decent portion of the right, so all things considered it wasn't bad.
And it was right then that the curtains were pushed aside and Peggy and kal were right already there. And my hand just flew to my mouth. Because it all looked so mindblowing.
The stage itself was completely decorated, with jack-o-lanterns and lights and a child's mobile which was actually running and playing music, and at the center of it all, a huge, looming black umbrella was open and propped up with Tsutomu under it. I wish I could have taken a picture of the stage to show you guys but of course you weren't allowed to, but I don't know, maybe something will pop up online someday and then you can all see how amazing it was.
But even more so than that, was LINDA-CHAN. Yes. Peggy was using his fucking monster of a black-painted contrabass, complete with a little pair of dice glued along near the bridge. I had actually seen him bringing it in earlier that day, and right then I knew it was going to be a fucking amazing show. Honestly, words cannot express how impressive it is to see Linda-chan live - and Peggy plays it with such vigor, enough to actually cause himself physical pain, it's sometimes sort of hard to tell or gets taken for granted but he really is an amazing bassist, and I wish more than anything that he could bring Linda-chan to America someday but I guess that's pretty much impossible, right T_T Well, at least I've seen it once in my life, lol.
And as if all that wasn't enough to take in, then jack came out, in this gorgeous long jacket, and I thought I would cry at that point, but for some reason I could only sob without any tears, dry heaves making me lightheaded. It was as if even then, my mind wasn't accepting the reality of seeing them again. jack stepped up to the microphone as I struggled for air and suddenly, IT'S A SHOW TIME in Japan:
SE - This Is Halloween (Nightmare Before Christmas)
Spook House
Merry Go Round
Prince of Darkness
Strip
La Dance Macabre (新曲)
Murder Toy in the Closet
Devilish Kidnapper
Bordeaux After Midnight
眠れる森の花嫁 (live arrangement)
Spook House
During the show, the one thing that became immedtiately apparent to me was... it's true, everything they say about Japanese TCST fans. Lol, a part of me had hoped it was an exaggeration, but... it's not. As much as they very clearly love the band, they really are just... not very expressive or energetic, unfortunately. A few of them did jump around and clap and sort of... dance, more than anything else, but the majority of them really do just seem like these prissy lolitas who literally do just. stand. there. completely. still. Or they sway back and forth a little bit, but that's about it. And between songs, for the most part, they're actually completely silent. They do applaud - yes, they do politely clap, it's true what that Orkus live report said, lol - but not for very long, and then, you can fucking hear a pin drop. I mean, you can literally hear the guys shuffling around on stage getting ready for the next song. It's so eerie. And now, having experienced that, I can see why jack was so struck by the energy of American fans the first time TCST came here. I can imagine the sheer shock everyone must have felt to actually hear fans screaming for them, cheering and surging forward and just showing our joy and appreciation for these men however we could... it must have felt so strange and alien to them. Well, I can't say that I know which kind of audience they prefer, of course, but, I know which crowd I like best. XDDD
So of course I felt a little bit awkward amongst these eerily silent, still girls, but I tried not to let it get to me that much, ROFL. Anyway, they opened with Spook House, like at PMX, and instinctively my hands went up over my head to clap along with jack - and luckily I wasn't completely alone in clapping, lol. They blistered through it, Peggy's bass sounding like thunder through the livehouse, and before the final chorus, the one really cool thing the Japanese fans did during the show - they started jumping up and down wildly, completely in unison, even the lolitas, ROFL. Jumping along with them, I have to say, was really awesome, and I sort of think we should start doing that in America too, it's just too cool not to, so like, when they come back, if you all could just jump with me, that would be really cool, lol. :D Of course it would be great if we could get every single person in the audience to do it, but even just a decent-sized group of us, toward the front, I think would be a really nice thing to do for our boys. ^^
...Okay, back to the live. XD Spook House was followed by Merry Go Round, and then, Prince of Darkness, and as completely dumb as the lyrics are I fucking screamed along with them at the top of my lungs, lol. I think it was around then that jack started scanning the crowd and... I'm not sure, it's hard to tell with his contact lenses, LOL, but I think at one point he might have seen me...? I mean, I was jumping around like a retard enough, so it's not like I wasn't drawing a disgusting amount of attention to myself, lawl. If he did see me then he gave me the strangest look ever, LMAO. Of course it could have just been jack being weird AS USUAL ha ha, but it's possible that he really was like "Oh god this fucking crazy bitch again" LMAOOOO I love you too jack XDDD
Anyway, next was Strip, and I can't quite remember at which particular points jack did MCs, but during the set he broke out Tsutomu three times, lol. Of course I couldn't contain myself and was like "OH MY GODDDD" when he first appeared, ha ha. The MCs were hilarious, it's really refreshing to see jack speaking so freely, in his own language, without needing to worry about his words; both with and without Tsutomu, and he really is so funny, during the first MC he was like "We're... not doing member introductions yet," and then later, again, he was like "We're... still not doing member introductions yet," LMAOOO.
And then every couple of sentences, jack would stop speaking, wave Tsutomu around, and sort of go... "Wooooo!" And of course all of us would go "Wooooo!" right back. And eventually jack wouldn't even have to say anything anymore, he'd just wave Tsutomu around and we'd all automatically go "Wooooo!" LOL so that continued the whole night. XD
Anyway, after Strip, jack announced that next they'd be playing La Dance Macabre, and 1-5 and I sort of lol-ed, ha ha. Well, in any case, the English lyrics are indeed atrocious, but I have to say, the song itself is amazing. The entire thing has this jazzy, sort of swing feel to it, with a great beat, and jack's vocal delivery is excellent - I actually think I like his performance live better than recorded because it's just much more forceful and confident, which doesn't so much get translated into the recording... but yeah, live it's just really fun, and I like it a lot. ^^
Immediately after that though, jack announced Murder Toy In the Closet, and I couldn't help jumping wildly up and down and screaming along, Peggy's bass once again leaving me absolutely breathless. As for kal, I know I haven't been talking a lot about him, and it's because from where I was standing I couldn't always see him very well (and my eyes were constantly riveted to jack and Peggy anyway, lol), unfortunately. In any case, though, the songs sounded great, which is what matters most, and although on stage as well he's more subdued than Kiddy, and perhaps less of a focal presence than Zull, he's still really cool, and he looks great, and dammit I like the guy, lol. With a little time to feel out TCST's audiences and get used to their style on stage, I think he'll really come into his own. ^^
Anyway without any sort of break after Murder Toy In the Closet, they launched into Devilish Kidnapper, and this time it wasn't just me screaming, lol. You can tell for sure this is a fan favorite even in Japan, and even the prissiest of the lolitas allowed themselves to bounce on their heels, ROFL. During the second chorus jack motioned for us to move our arms as he was doing, and in Japan the fans actually do this, which is cool. It's not furi, just something fun to do during the song, lol.
And then. Bordeaux After Midnight's introduction began blaring over the speakers. jack crouched low under the black umbrella on the stage, muttering "Bordeaux After Midnight" into the microphone, and I didn't even think to suppress the scream that clawed its way out of my throat, even if every single person in the venue could hear me. As Peggy and kal bore down into an extended introduction jack bounced all over the stage, and since I couldn't headbang without hitting the lolitas in front of me, I settled for jumping as high as I could into the air, not caring if anyone else was jumping with me. And as jack raised the microphone to his lips again to start spitting the lyrics in our faces, my fists went in the air and I spat them back at him, with no regard to anyone around me, because this is my song and I'll be damned if I let anyone get in the way of my breathing every second of it.
Emotionally I was already fucked up after that, but then, the haunting piano introduction to the new arrangement of Nemureru Mori no Hanayome began, and as soon as the notes reached my ears, my hand flew to my mouth and I was sobbing again, sure that any second tears would begin to well in my eyes. They still didn't come. As if in a dream, I watched jack whisper the song's title and slowly make his way to the front of the stage, still unable to believe what I was experiencing.
Your eyes are locked on jack during this song; they can't possibly wander anywhere else. The air felt unbearably heavy and I watched with my hand still hovering over my mouth as he left his body behind to venture somewhere dark, where none of us could possibly reach him. He didn't seem to sing out to the audience as much as to himself, eyes cast down and fixed somewhere beyond the walls of the livehouse where we could never imagine. We could only watch, transfixed, and wonder.
The strain led jack to sweat beneath the lights, but toward the end of the song his voice gained strength for the final notes, which he sang with an unearthly richness, and then he stopped completely without finishing them. He paused, drew a trembling breath, and screamed.
In five TCST shows I have never heard him scream like that, ragged, veins straining in his neck, body shaking, and joining the persperation on his face - the unmistakeable glint of tears. It honestly felt like a year's worth of pain, a year's worth of anger and sorrow and frustration and fear, a year's infinite burden, being violently exorcised from his frail body right in front of us.
And that was when my own tears finally came. Pouring from my eyes uncontrollably. I couldn't even look at jack anymore, but had to put my head down into my hands, bend low, and weather the storm of emotions finally hitting me, trying to hold on. It was cathartic, giving voice to all my anxieties surrounding the past several days and my unspeakable gratitude at being present while the band remade itself. I just cried until the echoes of jack's voice finally died away and left us in silence.
jack collected himself for an MC then, and announced that the next song would be their last. And even through my tears I was like "...Seriously?" Seriously. It felt like fucking no time at all and I started wracking my brain wondering what song they would end with. But then after speaking with Tsutomu for a while jack was suddenly like "Oh! I almost forgot! Member introductions!" and we were all like "...Oh yeah!" and started laughing, ha ha. XD
Lol, jack tried to get Peggy and kal to say something but they stubbornly refused, aaahaha, so he had to handle their introductions himself. I wasn't quite able to understand everything he was saying because my Japanese still fails so fucking badly, but basically he explained that kal is called "kal bone jr." because he's Peggy's child or something like that I don't really know, lol.
After that jack explained that TCST's next live would be March 10 and that they'd be playing with Zull's band sairensu and I was sort of the only one who clapped, ROFL. Ugh, I'm honestly still soooo pissed that I can't go... Zull at least seems really excited for it and just guh, I can only sort of imagine what kind of stuff might happen, and the fact that I can't be there for it, honestly kills me. And I don't know if I'll even ever find out, in detail, how it was... I mean they'll all probably blog about it a bit but I really do want shit like "And then jack said this" and "Zull had an expression on his face like this" and fucking all of that ugghhhhh. -_- I'm just so fucking mad about that. But whatever, lol.
Anyway, TCST's last song was... Spook House. Again. I don't know why. It wasn't even like an encore or anything, just literally Spook House, again. Lol why do they do that? I've never known any other band, Japanese or otherwise, that plays the same song twice within a set. I mean, like, really, not to be mean or anything (lol okay I should just admit that I'm a horrible person, really) but there are a shitton of other songs they could have played instead, you know? XDD
It was admittedly cool though, instead of beginning with "Welcome to the Spook House" jack said "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Haunted House," the name of the twoman, and in general it looked like he was having a lot of fun, he started jumping up and down when we did - really jumping, like, bringing his knees all the way up to his chest and shit, and he's tall already so he can get really fucking high up in the air, ROFL - and at one point he, like, attacked Peggy and tackled him almost to the ground, bass and all, LMAO.
At the end of the song, jack thanked us all for coming, a heartfelt "Thank you. Arigatou." The guys all waved to us, and... they closed the curtains. And that was it. I was still left in a state of utter disbelief. Yeah, overall, the one possible criticism I have of this show was that it felt waaaayyy too short, almost as though TCST were the opening act as opposed to the first half of a twoman, and as a result their set list was kind of lacking a lot of songs I would have loved to hear (I think I was more surprised that TRICK or TREAT was missing than any other song, in particular), but really, even if they had played for hours on end, it wouldn't have felt like enough XDDD Anyway, other than that, it was, indeed, absolutely breathtaking.
Anyway, so. In regards to SaTaN. They were fucking. Amazing. Oh my god. They definitely did get way more stage time than TCST did, and played a way longer set, and there were way more SaTaN fans there than there were TCST fans, I'd say - so the people on 2ch who are like "It felt like a SaTaN oneman" are completely right, that pretty much IS exactly what it felt like. So if it had been some shitty band, I would have been really pissed, lol.
I have to admit that up until the show the only SaTaN songs I'd actually heard were the not-quite-full length samples up on their MySpace page, so as 1-5 and I returned to our seats I really had very little idea of what to expect. Well, they were absolutely fucking mindblowing, jesus christ. Musically, they're incredibly tight, Hi-Na's vocals are commanding, D.K. is a fucking beast on drums, and Shiya... is amazing, I've grown to have a real soft spot for talented bassists and Shiya is incredible and uhhhh yeah I love him <3 *blush*
But you know, even if SaTaN had sucked - WHICH THEY DIDN'T, I'm just giving a hypothetical example, lol - it honestly wouldn't have made a difference at all because a) their stage show is fanstastic, think a slightly more mischievous and tongue-in-cheek version of Alice Cooper or Marilyn Manson, and b) their fans are. fucking. AMAZING. Seriously, SaTaN fans are some of the most hilarious, enthusiastic, cracked-out, energetic girls I have ever seen, I love them all and wanted to take them back home with me, and if TCST fans were like that, I would literally cry with joy.
Literally, I have never seen such crazy things happening at a show before. Here you have this band playing this music that's actually incredibly heavy, some of the songs actually bordering on black metal in their sheer nastiness, and while this anarchy goes on onstage, down below you have these madly grinning little girls who have literally kicked off their shoes to dance around, doing the most elaborate and borderline-retarded furi you could ever imagine - yeah, don't ask me how you can do furi to metal, but somehow these chicks figured it out, one particular furi had them essentially going back and forth doing a version of the Thriller dance, I SHIT YOU NOT OMG I LAUGHED SO HARD - sort of half-heartedly throwing the devil horns with really limp wrists (most likely because they don't actually know what the devil horns are lol), and at certain points during certain songs, actually doing synchronized HEADBANGING, except it wasn't really like any headbanging I've ever seen, it was basically them all holding onto each other's hands and sort of wildly waving their heads back and forth - which actually looks sort of cool if you have really nice straight Japanese hair... LOLOL I DIGRESS, I must also tell you all about THE LEAST THREATENING MOSH PIT I HAVE EVER SEEN, which was formed toward the end of SaTaN's set and consisted of all three rows of shoeless girls lifting their arms over their heads, waving their hands in the air, and pretty much just running back and forth into each other. Yeah okay they wouldn't last five seconds in a normal American mosh pit, but OMG, it was the dumbest and cutest thing I have ever seen, and it was so cute seeing them all excited for each other and for the band and seriously, during the entire show I had this retarded grin on my face just because I love these bitches so much. And 1-5 is disgustingly lucky and gets to see SaTaN AGAIN in a couple of weeks and I am soooo jealous lol. I want to see them every day of my life oh my god and be a retard with all their awesome fans. XDDD
But anyway, as I mentioned, SaTaN are very theatrical, so a good portion of their time onstage was spent doing costume changes, extravagant theatrical pieces, and very amusing little skits (although between songs they didn't do as many spoken MCs as TCST did)... during one such skit Hi-Na had this basket full of candy and was throwing the candy out to us, and then during another one D.K. and Shiya came out with this huge bag of McDonald's and started throwing (wrapped) HAMBURGERS out into the audience - OMG I really would have killed at that point to have caught one of those hamburgers because I was fucking starving, literally, but I wasn't close enough to get one and anyway it was all their most hardcore fans that got them, so it was cool. Ugh I just wish TCST would feed their fans, that would be so wonderful of them... oh well... T_T
Finally, just when I thought all this insanity was over, the fans started calling for an encore. Lol, even the way SaTaN fans call for encores is weird, they don't really even raise their voices or clap or anything, they just sort of groan in this kind of nasal, high-pitched voice: "SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN... SaTaN..." LOL it's really strange, and hilarious. XD Although it kind of made me wonder if, had all of the TCST fans called for an encore, would they have done one...? I don't know if they would have had an opportunity to, since SaTaN had to get onstage after them, but it really sort of didn't seem fair on some level, that this show was so important to them and yet they'd had hardly any time at all to play. A part of me wondered, could they have been sort of waiting for us to call for an encore, and just no one thought to...? Or if it was understood by everyone that they had to get out of their and couldn't do one? In any event I wasn't going to be the retard to start doing some stupid chant for them, lol, but I do wish that maybe the Japanese fans might have, you know... considered it. XD
But I don't want to give the impression that I was pissed SaTaN ended up getting so long because like I said, they were amazing, ha ha. Anyway, during their encore the guys came back onstage in their SaTaN t-shirts, all except D.K., who was wearing A TCST T-SHIRT, OH GOD I FREAKED OUT SO BADLY LOL, and Hi-Na was all adorable like "Thank you for allowing us to do an encore!" awwww. Anyway, they played a few more songs, although it got stretched out a bit because they needed to switch around huge stage pieces, lol, but then after that was done, the curtain was drawn again for a few minutes, and when it was opened back up again, the SaTaN guys were standing on stage with TCST, who had come back to say goodbye, LOL I was pissed I wasn't standing in front of the stage at that point, but it was okay, I made up for it by jumping up and down waving and screaming like a retard from our seats, basically looking exactly like this \^o^/ lulz. Peggy and kal still refused to speak, lol, so jack thanked us all again on the band's behalf, and then he shook hands with Hi-Na and it was reaallllyy cute. <3
And then, the curtains were drawn for the final time, and onto them were projected a series of credits, like you'd see in a movie, where each band thanked specific people - and you could totally tell which portion jack wrote because there was an entire section thanking horror stars like Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Johnny Depp (spelled wrong in the projection lol), etc etc and I was like like "That's our jack," ha ha. It was a fitting end to such a theatrical and emotional evening.
As we all filed out of Rock May Kan we ran into Rammy, who unfortunately couldn't come to the live because of work - I felt really bad that she couldn't go, but in any event, I'm really thankful to have met her because she's really cool, lol. ^^ And once again I do have to extend my heartfelt thanks to 1-5 and Nasu, because they really did make the live ten times more enjoyable than it would have been had I been alone, lol, and I give them credit for putting up with my ridiculous fangirliness and stupidity, ha ha. And major kudos to SaTaN who have stolen my heart, LOL, and their fans who are my new favorite people in the world. XDDD
Most of all, though, of course, I've got to thank my boys. When I look back at how long I've been a fan of The Candy Spooky Theater - which isn't even than long, if I think about it - I realize that if you'd told me in 2006 that one day, for them, and them alone, I'd be willingly tearing myself from my comfort zone and throw myself headlong into a place I never thought I'd venture in my life, I would have thought you were crazy. But when I look back at this time, I realize that it really could only be for them that I would do something so brazen. Time and time again they have proven themselves not only to be incredible musicians, songwriters, lyricists, and storytellers, but wonderful people as well, and I can never forget the kindness they have always shown me, whether they've known it or not. Ultimately I guess I probably am crazy for going to such lengths for them, but if you were to ask me if I regret anything, I'd have to honestly say, no. Through them I have had some of the best experiences of my life, and this show was no exception. So for that, I'm eternally grateful to them, and am eager to see where the next few years take them, and to hang on for the journey, wherever it may take me.
Peggy does promise that they'll come back to America someday. When that day comes, I'll be ready, as I'm sure all of us will be as well. Until then, though, I'll hold on to these memories, look back at them with a smile, and be constantly reminded of precious times spent with precious people. Of all the things I could possibly ever say to them, the one that is probably most important, is simply, thank you.