最後にデスゲ
Last night was my last Deathgaze live, maybe my last in Japan live, since I'm going home in less than two weeks. Well, it's the last concert that I have tickets in advance for, but recently I was informed that our company is giving us this week off (after today), so I will have lots of free time... I feel more sad about leaving behind that life than leaving my job or my current 'home.' I'm sad, of course, about leaving the new friends I've made here, though I feel like they've been more in my life since they know I'm going home than they ever were before. All the going away parties have actually been seriously tiring. They seem to be happening almost daily. And it's hard because I'm very much an introvert and I need time alone somewhat frequently to rest and recharge and because of the daily 'parties' I can't seem to ever catch up on that time.
Thursday I had a going away dinner with our Jteachers. We had makisushi and kimchi okonomiyaki and cake and salad and fudge and karaage and . . . well just about everything anyone could think to bring, I suppose. They gave met ons of presents and while it was super nice I can't help but think now, how am I going to pack them home too... On Friday was my last Japanese class, so I had to say good-bye to everyone there. The teacher's wanted me to get up in front of the class and give a goodbye speech, but I insisted that I was way too shy to do such a thing and just said goodbye privately to the people that I actually talk to on a regular basis.
Then Saturday we had a gyoza party with our archaeologist friend (he's a professor at Kyoto Uni, but lives in Yakuno on the weekends or school breaks). Everyone stayed up until about 2am eating gyoza and nabe and just talking. It was actually really nice; I wish we had done it more often.
Sunday, I had a concert in Osaka. It was at a new venue, Esaka Muse (sister venue to Osaka Muse, which I've visited frequently). It was super easy to find, which was wonderful, maybe I'm just finally getting good at finding things in Japan though. It seems like the venues are getting easier and easier. I'm not getting lost nearly as often. :) It was a little weird, because I never saw a sign for it, but there was a staff worker out front shouting "this way for defspiral!", so I went 'this way.' and then climbed 5 flights of stairs to find the line into the venue. Because my train from Fukuchiyama to Kyoto had been late I arrived exactly in time to hear my number be called (well, they called for tickets through 140 just as I walked up, and I was ticket number 136. Basically, it means I didn't have to wait in line at all, I just walked straight into the venue and found myself a cozy little behind a bunch of girls drinking asahi and sporting Deathgaze towels.
This concert was a four band event. The first band was Jilled Ray. They were okay. Obviously very young. Their music was not really my style. A little too soft, I guess? They were followed by who I assume was Scar. I don't remember them ever announcing their name. Their music was really good, but their singer sang in a kind of falsetto for the majority of songs. Yuck at falsetto. I guess in my brain somehow they don't have to look like men, but they do have to sound like men... haha.
Third on stage was Deathgaze. Yay!! Takaki's hair is growing back out already, for which I'm super happy. I was kind of upset when I saw that he had cut it all suitman like. He just seems better wtih the long hair. He likes to be very metalhead on stage and the longer hair suits that image and feel much better. Ai's hair is getting super, super long. in parts. Ai's jacket was really cool, I want one like it. It almost looked like it was made out of curtain material to me. But the back had a corset style shaping thing. Lovely, I tell you, lovely! He also was wearing a leather(pleather, maybe?) pleated skirt over a pair of plain black pants. Under the jacket was the new long sleeve t-shirts they started selling. Naoki was wearing the same outfit you can see in the creature preview. I don't really remember how Kousuke was dressed. Takaki was dressed as he usually is. black pants, dark long sleeved t-shirt...
I was a bit worried they wouldn't be super great because Ai had been complaining about being a little sick on twitter just a couple days before, talking about having to go to the nose and throat doctor, but he seemed to be mostly fine. Maybe he didn't headbang as much as usual though. Usually he headbangs right along with all the audience, but for the most part he stayed up right and just made funny faces at the audience and if he caught you looking at him he would gesture at his head in the universal gesture (if you go to vkei concerts) of "why aren't you headbanging!?" lol.
Their set list for the evening:
GOD BLESS YOU
闇に雨 腐敗した世界
BLOOD
MY DOPED BRAIN & SKIN IS DEAD
paranoid parade
リヒトゾイレ
abyss
genocide and mass murder
Usually at these type of events Deathgaze doesn't use much time to speak. They just play song after song plowing through as many as they can. But today they did take some time to announce their new CD release, the following instore events, and of course, the Creature tour.
After Deathgaze's set I went out into the hall and attempted to buy all the goods I didn't already have. BUT. they were out of the shirts in my size. and this makes me very sad. I chatted a little with the girl from Nagoya who follows Deathgaze everywhere. She was wearing the cute Hell Bunny zombie unicorn dress that I've been trying to convince myself I should own. It was all sad when I told her I was going back to america and wouldn't be able to see her or DG any more. And she totally comisserated with me on missing the Creature Tour. But she offered to get me mail me tour goods if I send her a note on ameba. But I probably won't because to me, the importance of tour goods is having been there and having those memories of being their associated with the goods.
After Deathgaze defspiral came on to finish the night. They were really good and fun and I'm going to have to go digging to find a CD from them before I leave. Because they were the main focus of the night most of the audience was there for them. Plus, they had a little longer set. As a band that I know how does touring around the world, you can definietly tell the difference between them and the other bands of the night. Scar. and Jilled Ray are nowhere near, and Deathgaze kind of seemed on a level somewhere near, but not quite there.
Of course, after defspiral there was a call for encore and defspiral came out and invited the other 3 vocalists to do a quartet of one of their songs. Since I don't know defspiral I didn't know the song, but now, looking on the internet, tells me the song was "SALVAGE." Though all four singers were on stage it was mostly a duet between defspiral vocalist and Ai, because in all honestly the other two singers just weren't up to par. The stage was definetly a little crowded with so many vocalists. haha.
It's kind of fun, as I'm writing this I'm also skimming other audience member's ameba live reports. The one I'm currently on, written by a defspiral fan, is really nicely written. She talks about each band and, therefore, about deathgaze, of which this is her 2nd time seeing them, she talks about the extreme headbanging the audience does, "客のヘドバン、壮快だったなー。あんなに綺麗に髪が舞うなんて、見てて気持ち良い。" [The audience's headbanging is emotionally uplifting. To see the whirling dance of hair makes me feel good.] (or something kind of like that--my Jspeak and translation skill is not that great, you know!)
And then later about the session band at the encore, "アンコールのセッションは、ステージが狭そうだった。
なんせデスゲの藍がでかい. . ." :) [regarding the encore session, the stage seemed a little narrow (or confining). Anyhow, Deathgaze's Ai is huge. . . ] haha. That just made me laugh a lot when I read it. Because he is quite big, and I've even seen him hit his head on the stage lights and fall off the stage because he takes up so much space when he sings. lol. poor guy. He's really not that big by western standards, I think. Maybe on the big side of average, but not gargantuan!
I bought a t-shirt from defspiral that they had special commemorating this specific mini-tour called "beauty and beast." so if I don't make it back to Japan (though I totally plan to), I'll have a shirt to remember this, my last Deathgaze live in Japan (even though it's a defspiral shirt...it's all about the beauty and beast thing, not especially defspiral-y. follow my logic?).
After the concert I said good-bye to a couple more of my groupie 'friends' at the nearby McDs and then caught my train home. The two hour train ride was simultaneously really boring and really sad. It has really begun to strike me that I'm done in Japan and I'm going home and I don't really have anything definite for the future. I spent the two hours watching clips of Deathgaze lives and half sleeping.
When I finally got home it was past midnight. Since I have work the next day I promptly tried to sleep, but was still quite hyped from the concert, so it was difficult even though I was sleepy.