YFC 08/29 - Swimsuit Live!
That live was hell. Seriously, hell.
But onto the day first!
(Click the photos for the larger versions)
I got there about 1 after catching the Shinkansen in the morning from Osaka following the VAMPS live the night before. shinimegami21 was already there and first in the tour goods queue! We watched them putting together the ice sculpture...
And them repeatedly dropping the big blocks of ice.
It was pretty awesome when it was finished though.
Tour goods opened at 2 and despite previous notices they didn't have the Dears Bear on sale. All of the staff were wearing the YFC swimming trunks, red shirts and swimming caps!
Of course the Gakuchis came out to play and where being quite lewd....
There were changing rooms provided so we, along with nightangel_jai got changed and dumped our gear in a locker. It was really amusing to be walking around in a bikini as the venue is located right next to a shopping mall (Venus Fort... remember that one?) and this huge car showroom. Three foreigners wearing bikinis gain a lot of strange looks!
The stage was set up like the normal YFC shows - no cat walk. The men were positioned in front of You and in the third section of the crowd and the women took up everywhere else.
The set list!!
Zan
Dbbyuk
Nine Spiral
Speed Master
Lu:na
Kimi ga mattieru kara
Mind Forest
The Next Decade
Vanilla
Ever
Justified
Jesus
Flower
Kagero
**Encore
Uncontrol
Koakuma Heaven
We were down in the pit and the pushing started 30 minutes before the show started and didn't end until after the show had finished. It was so violent down there! We started out in line with GACKT's platform but shinimegami21 and I decided to find refuge against the barricade at the back of the pit as the show went on and stayed there, halfway between GACKT and Chacha. I cannot describe how insane it was in there. I hope that comes through on camera.
They had 3 or 4 male staff members actually in the crowd at all times to pull people out and they were pulling out so many people. Some people just wanted out of the madness and were fine, others had fainted and were being literally carried out. The staff had such a tough job in there, fighting through the crowd to rescue people. With their swimming caps they really were life guards!
The announcements were done by GACKT (I`ve never heard him do one before!) You and then Junji after the show.
They wore modified versions of the normal YFC uniforms but the shirts were Hawaiian print with flowers.
GACKT - black base
Chacha - yellow base
You - red base
Junji - matched the pattern of his drums!
Chirolyn - pink
They all wore the men's swimshorts, they're below the knee but split at the sides to the lower thigh. GACKT kept tugging his down so they were lower on his hips and was pulling them dangerously low at times. And I mean DANGEROUSLY LOW. He must have been wearing a really low lying thong as we never saw a flash of it. Either that or he was commando... Shirt and tie still went during Lu:na as normal.
He had a shiny eyepatch over his right eye. I'm not sure if it was for fashion or not as he kept messing with the monitor in his ear that side and held his eye a few times. It either didn't fit properly or his eye was hurting him. nightangel_jai pointed out that his message on Touch the Numbers the day of the live was simply 目は (eye) so maybe there is a story behind the eyepatch other than the fact that it makes him look like a bad ass.
The Next Decade was a nice surprise. It sounded slightly different to the single version, or at least the music did. I think they made it a little more GACKTJOB and a little less Kamen Rider.
When the intro to Vanilla started, it started like the Sixth Day version and was pre-recorded. I heard it, instantly recognised it as Vanilla and looked around to see if I had recognised it right but nobody else had reacted. I thought I was hearing things and *then* it kicked in properly and the pit went insane. *I* went insane and I don't even like Vanilla that much!
SEE PEOPLE! HE LISTENS TO US. Occasionally.
Vanilla was like a slightly rockier version of the Sixth Day version. GACKT's dancing really has improved, he was working those hips and doing less flailing around. There was a little fanservice with Chacha as GACKT pressed up right behind him and had his arm around him during the chorus towards the end when the band all line up at the front of the stage.
Koakuma Heaven saw two enormous beach balls thrown to the crowd but they were too big to be controlled well so they kept bouncing back to the stage. GACKT karate kicked a couple and a staff member ran on to save Chacha a few times. There was a recorded portion in the middle where GACKT threw big water balloons into the crowd alongside water filled pink condoms. One condom that Junji threw burst right in my face after a little tug of war in the crowd. Tasheen won and has the condom! It was just a fun, fun song, even more so than during RRII.
The songs that were in the regular YFC shows were pretty much the same as ever. Nothing was really changed although GACKT did get the crowd to sing parts of Lu:na, which he doesn't normally do. He didn't drop to his knees during FLOWER either until the end and that seemed more like a "I'm so tired I can't stand" drop than a dramatic effect drop.
GACKT sounded amazing throughout. He certainly didn`t sound like someone who hasn`t had a voice for the last few weeks. He was enjoying himself too although he was a little weak by the end of Kagero and at the end of the concert proper. He seemed to take great joy in teasing the audience with flashes of his hips!
I was surprised to see that even in the madness of the pit, nobody seemed to be losing their bikinis. Most girls had bought their own as the official ones were not only overpriced, but the skirts were so short that they really didn't look good on anyone. I'm so glad I didn't get one! The men's shorts were really nice though.
When we came out I could have wrung out the skirt I was wearing. My face and upper body were pretty dry but my stomach and legs were soaked with sweat and not all of it was mine :-(
The three of us managed to find the friendly staff member Chris again and filmed a message for GACKT thanking him for the show and for playing Vanilla XD
But onto the day first!
(Click the photos for the larger versions)
I got there about 1 after catching the Shinkansen in the morning from Osaka following the VAMPS live the night before. shinimegami21 was already there and first in the tour goods queue! We watched them putting together the ice sculpture...
And them repeatedly dropping the big blocks of ice.
It was pretty awesome when it was finished though.
Tour goods opened at 2 and despite previous notices they didn't have the Dears Bear on sale. All of the staff were wearing the YFC swimming trunks, red shirts and swimming caps!
Of course the Gakuchis came out to play and where being quite lewd....
There were changing rooms provided so we, along with nightangel_jai got changed and dumped our gear in a locker. It was really amusing to be walking around in a bikini as the venue is located right next to a shopping mall (Venus Fort... remember that one?) and this huge car showroom. Three foreigners wearing bikinis gain a lot of strange looks!
The stage was set up like the normal YFC shows - no cat walk. The men were positioned in front of You and in the third section of the crowd and the women took up everywhere else.
The set list!!
Zan
Dbbyuk
Nine Spiral
Speed Master
Lu:na
Kimi ga mattieru kara
Mind Forest
The Next Decade
Vanilla
Ever
Justified
Jesus
Flower
Kagero
**Encore
Uncontrol
Koakuma Heaven
We were down in the pit and the pushing started 30 minutes before the show started and didn't end until after the show had finished. It was so violent down there! We started out in line with GACKT's platform but shinimegami21 and I decided to find refuge against the barricade at the back of the pit as the show went on and stayed there, halfway between GACKT and Chacha. I cannot describe how insane it was in there. I hope that comes through on camera.
They had 3 or 4 male staff members actually in the crowd at all times to pull people out and they were pulling out so many people. Some people just wanted out of the madness and were fine, others had fainted and were being literally carried out. The staff had such a tough job in there, fighting through the crowd to rescue people. With their swimming caps they really were life guards!
The announcements were done by GACKT (I`ve never heard him do one before!) You and then Junji after the show.
They wore modified versions of the normal YFC uniforms but the shirts were Hawaiian print with flowers.
GACKT - black base
Chacha - yellow base
You - red base
Junji - matched the pattern of his drums!
Chirolyn - pink
They all wore the men's swimshorts, they're below the knee but split at the sides to the lower thigh. GACKT kept tugging his down so they were lower on his hips and was pulling them dangerously low at times. And I mean DANGEROUSLY LOW. He must have been wearing a really low lying thong as we never saw a flash of it. Either that or he was commando... Shirt and tie still went during Lu:na as normal.
He had a shiny eyepatch over his right eye. I'm not sure if it was for fashion or not as he kept messing with the monitor in his ear that side and held his eye a few times. It either didn't fit properly or his eye was hurting him. nightangel_jai pointed out that his message on Touch the Numbers the day of the live was simply 目は (eye) so maybe there is a story behind the eyepatch other than the fact that it makes him look like a bad ass.
The Next Decade was a nice surprise. It sounded slightly different to the single version, or at least the music did. I think they made it a little more GACKTJOB and a little less Kamen Rider.
When the intro to Vanilla started, it started like the Sixth Day version and was pre-recorded. I heard it, instantly recognised it as Vanilla and looked around to see if I had recognised it right but nobody else had reacted. I thought I was hearing things and *then* it kicked in properly and the pit went insane. *I* went insane and I don't even like Vanilla that much!
SEE PEOPLE! HE LISTENS TO US. Occasionally.
Vanilla was like a slightly rockier version of the Sixth Day version. GACKT's dancing really has improved, he was working those hips and doing less flailing around. There was a little fanservice with Chacha as GACKT pressed up right behind him and had his arm around him during the chorus towards the end when the band all line up at the front of the stage.
Koakuma Heaven saw two enormous beach balls thrown to the crowd but they were too big to be controlled well so they kept bouncing back to the stage. GACKT karate kicked a couple and a staff member ran on to save Chacha a few times. There was a recorded portion in the middle where GACKT threw big water balloons into the crowd alongside water filled pink condoms. One condom that Junji threw burst right in my face after a little tug of war in the crowd. Tasheen won and has the condom! It was just a fun, fun song, even more so than during RRII.
The songs that were in the regular YFC shows were pretty much the same as ever. Nothing was really changed although GACKT did get the crowd to sing parts of Lu:na, which he doesn't normally do. He didn't drop to his knees during FLOWER either until the end and that seemed more like a "I'm so tired I can't stand" drop than a dramatic effect drop.
GACKT sounded amazing throughout. He certainly didn`t sound like someone who hasn`t had a voice for the last few weeks. He was enjoying himself too although he was a little weak by the end of Kagero and at the end of the concert proper. He seemed to take great joy in teasing the audience with flashes of his hips!
I was surprised to see that even in the madness of the pit, nobody seemed to be losing their bikinis. Most girls had bought their own as the official ones were not only overpriced, but the skirts were so short that they really didn't look good on anyone. I'm so glad I didn't get one! The men's shorts were really nice though.
When we came out I could have wrung out the skirt I was wearing. My face and upper body were pretty dry but my stomach and legs were soaked with sweat and not all of it was mine :-(
The three of us managed to find the friendly staff member Chris again and filmed a message for GACKT thanking him for the show and for playing Vanilla XD