GACKT @ Ichikawa 5/27
Yesterday, I finally got to my first show of GACKT’s new tour. I know there’s a million reports already floating around, but this is my LJ so I can write one and fangirl if I want to XD
Long review is long, apologies in advance.
The show was at the large hall in the Ichikawa Culture Centre and they really pushed the boat out with the sign advertising the show.
The goods line was non-existent and I bought a few things to add to what I had already picked up. I also bought the CD version of -MILD-, purely because I want the cat paw for my phone. I have the DVD box set on order already, so I paid 3,650yen (including postage) just for that damn paw.
Nyan.
We lined up to get in and the doors opened about ten minutes late. Our seats were pretty good as they were twelfth row, and we were really the first row to be on a proper incline from the stage. The rows in front of us were raised too, but only slightly. Our row seemed a lot higher and as the girls in the eleventh row before us were pretty dull and quiet and we had some very loud guys behind us, we probably stood out even more than three white girls usually would!
Unbelievably, GACKT was only thirteen minutes late. THIRTEEN MINUTES. That’s the same as starting early by his standards. When the lights went down to signal it was starting there was this surprised hush and frantic rustle of bags and things as people quickly had to get ready, hahahaha.
The stage was curtained off by a very impressive video wall (from experience, the staff do not care if you take photos in the venue as long as it is either way before the show starts, or long after it is finished. I’ve taken photos from my front row Gakuen seat with staff standing right by me and they didn’t care because it was 30 minutes before show time). The video wall showed a series of clips from GACKT’s history and some really nice English sentences about remembering and making new memories.
It was good English too!
The video wall showed that it was the MILD version for the show tonight and the audience… didn’t really care. The first show that gets the WILD version is going to go… er, WILD.
WHITE LOVERS started and slowly the video wall slid open and around to the sides of the stage (it’s on a circular track) to show the band. The stage was pretty small but with the help of the stairs they all fit! It snowed throughout the song and the snow even reached us (it was almost like soap bubbles up close). The standouts of the song are of course GACKT’s soft “arigatou” and screamed “sayonara.”
REDEMPTION was next. I was distracted by YOU’s still awful miming of the English sentences and the way the lighting was projecting GACKT’s shadow onto the wall of the venue. That was impressive - giant shadow GACKT and giant shadow mic stand.
For GHOST the dancers were out with their masks on. GACKT still mimes it (understandably) and the routine is basically the same as the RRII version, just with a few additions. The curtain at the back parted to show a second video screen and it played the Terminater-less version of the PV, which gives me hope that we’ll get that version on the DVD/Blu-ray of the Best Album.
Next was 絵夢〜for my dear〜. This is one of the songs that will have a re-recorded vocal on the Best Album, and his vocal was definitely very different from the MARS album. For the “wasurenai kara” parts, instead of forcing them or screaming them out like he did on MARS, he lifted his voice into an almost falsetto. It wasn’t quite his falsetto, but it was pretty high up there. It means that the song loses some of the desperation that the MARS version had, but he also doesn’t sound like he’s going to keel over and collapse at any given second so it’s probably a good choice.
It sounded way better than the Drug Party version of it, anyway.
Journey Through the Decade happened, but I don’t really remember much about that one, to be honest! For 白露-HAKURO- the smoke machine was working and GACKT fell down to his knees for the second half of the song (dramatics, not illness).
The stage emptied and then YOU came out alone and stood in Sato’s spot to play a short violin interlude. This was followed by LAST SONG-unplugged-.
My review of this performance can be summed up as follows -
fgdsgfdkjgsofugewafgds,fgdkjfskjdgsifusogefkjgukdgskfds
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing. It was basically the same as The Seventh Night version, only with more dramatic pauses and a few additional parts to make it slightly longer. You could tell it was serious business piano playing as he spent the entire performance with his legs crossed.
This is another song that will have a re-recorded vocal and it seemed to me that he was singing it a little softer and more reserved than he had in the past. I was starting to worry if it meant he couldn’t blast it out like he used to (especially after making a similar change in 絵夢〜for my dear〜) but as the song carried on, his voice became stronger and stronger and yeah, he can still do it. He was absolutely singing his heart out as the song carried on and just blasting it. He sounded stunning. Just his voice and a piano. The entire concert could have just been his voice and a piano and I’d have been happy. Actually, the entire concert could have just been this song stretched out for three hours and I’d have been happy.
After that a cool down was needed so it was time for the traditional mid-concert crazy videos.
For this, we were back at Camui Gakuen with Kaicho and the crew. Sato and Kei seemed confused and kept saying that Kaicho was really GACKT, but Kaicho was adamant that he was Sai-to Kai-cho. Kaicho wants everybody to be as cool and cute as GACKT is, and he played them his favourite MOONCHILD scene as a demonstration. I believe the scene chosen is different at every show, but for this show it was when Sho is eating with Son and Toshi, and spits out his food. Very cool and cute… Kaicho said the scene made him cry.
So, Kaicho has some activities planned to make the senpais into men as cool and cute as GACKT is. Again, these videos are different for different shows, but the one in Ichikawa was the food trial. It consisted of one the guys being trussed up in a harness attached to a wire, handcuffed and then fed oden by one of the other guys.
The first pair, saw Chacha in the harness and handcuffed (by Kaicho, naturally) with the dancer Takashi feeding him. Chacha started with his feet on the floor and was then gradually pulled into the air by a group of the other senpais (the DuelJewel guys, Takumi, Shinnosu and Taya, I think). As soon as Chacha was off the floor Kaicho was trying to spin him in circles and Takashi didn’t manage to feed Chacha anything. Poor Chacha though, that harness looked rather tight around his crotch area!
Next up was Kaicho. He was handcuffed by Sato (and how many fantasies were spiked by GACKT handcuffed and tied up so he couldn’t move…) and then he watched in absolute horror as everyone, but mainly Kazuya, spiked his oden and made it as spicy as they could. The look on Kaicho’s face was hysterical - he was really worried about it, but trying so hard to not show that he was worried.
Kazuya was feeding him and he managed to get quite a lot in Kaicho’s mouth, but of course Kaicho spat it back out at him. This happened about three times until Kaicho was so high in the air that Kazuya couldn’t feed him anymore. Kaicho was complaining loudly that the oden wasn’t hot, it was painful. Hahahahaha. Revenge, I think?
It then showed us GACKT watching all of the antics on his Mac in his dressing room. He was dressed and ready to go for the second half and was called to the stage by Chris, the big American staff member (more on him later…). GACKT stood up… and his trousers remained stuck to the chair, leaving him standing there in just a tiny red thong. The camera was static and stuck on showing him from the waist down, but they did protect his modesty (slightly) with a strategically placed chibi GACKT. Still saw some nice hipbones and thighs though! GACKT left the dressing room… and in the mirror was a perfect, uncensored view of his lovely thong clad ass. Nice.
Ahem.
Chris comes into the dressing room properly, picks up GACKT’s trousers to chase after him with them but then pauses and sniffs them. They’re sweet, apparently!
Mid-movie madness over, and the band were introduced by an English voice over to the sounds of the Seventh Night version of U+K. YOU has a million dollar smile that makes the girls weak, apparently (he does, IMO). The band are all in casual clothes now - black jackets for JOB and a red jacket for GACKT. The jackets say on the back…
G ♥
Dz
GACKT loves DEARS. So cute! A good partner to the I ♥ GC t-shirts.
I think the song that they played first was Paparapa. The dance routine was changed up a little, but largely the same as RRII, complete with the dancers having their own little chances to shine. MIRROR followed and the intro is just as annoying as ever. It was made slightly better because the band were on stage this time. GACKT dropped a guitar pick quite early on and had to grab a spare from his guitar. It made no difference to the sound. He snapped, what looked like, at least three guitar strings by the end of the song and that made no difference either. Are you even plugged in there, Dear? MIRROR was pretty much the same as ever with all of the screaming and shouting. GACKT was still pretty strong by the end of the song though, which was good to see. No fainting or staggering around.
I won’t go into big detail on the MC because I don’t remember most of it and don’t want to get anything wrong. GACKT came out for it wearing the neko ears, and most of his MC was about the neko ears and tabloids (that’s not necessarily two different subjects). Of course he did the “okaeri!” “tadaima” bits and teased the different floors. He was ridiculously cute throughout and whenever he did anything cute, the crowd demanded he did it again. He’d pout and complain, but do it anyway. He’s becoming quite good at shutting down crowd members who shout at him when all he wants to do is finish his damn sentence. Let the man talk!
The band introductions were cute and they all wore the ears. Chacha went first and he’s always amusing. Sato was second, and he’s just as cute as a button, isn’t he? Kei followed and he just copied everybody else’s introductions and was then shouting whatever he could think of to get the crowd to reply back to it, in the same way GACKT does the “okaeri/tadaima” chants. Kei even stole Sato’s “ichi, ni, SA-TO!” bit. YOU, GACKT’s good friend of 22 years (did GACKT mention they’d been friends for 22 years at all??? What? He did? About ten times already?) was last. He kinda mocked GACKT a little to begin with, and then started shouting about Disneyland and Mickey Mouse. GACKT cut him off far too quickly. GACKT’s introduction wasn’t really an introduction; it was more a story about his early days with YOU and problems with Singapore Slings. Su-ri-n-GU!
With the MC finally over, GACKT led the crowd in the customary U+K singalong and then the cats were out. VANILLA followed and again, this is another song with a re-recorded vocal. I didn’t really notice anything different with how he sang this one. It was back to being playful though, instead of the so highly sexualised it went past sexy and into funny like it did with YFCz. GACKT still did the “ah-ah” parts, but it didn’t sound like lustful groaning like it did when Jon did it. Sato was initiated into the band by being grabbed by GACKT for some innocent fanservice (that was more like a headlock than a hug due to the awkward height difference).
小悪魔ヘヴン was a blast. The video screen is there and much like RRII, the band get to do solo dances. Chacha and Sato have the easy level, YOU and Kei do level 5 (that seemed easier than Chacha and Sato’s, to be honest) and GACKT gets level MAX. There’s a new level now though, level GOD, and it’s a different band member every show. In Ichikawa it was Chacha and he failed.
I think GACKT decided to take some lessons from Kaicho for Graffiti as the dance was the same as the Gakuen routine. The streamers exploded at the beginning of Faraway -星に願いを- and the routine for that was the same as RRII with the hand towels. Like the Drug Party performance, 君が追いかけた夢 started with GACKT singing it acapella. This was his “I love my fans” performance as he was doing his usual signal out to the crowd as he sang. The last song of the main set was STAY THE RIDE ALIVE. He almost gets that crazy high note at the end!
The video at the end had a sweet message written in Japanese. I was busy rolling up the streamers I caught during Faraway -星に願いを- though so I wasn’t paying much attention. For the final song, サクラ、散る, the band are all wearing traditional outfits and hats. If you’ve seen the photo of GACKT in the pamphlet, then you know what I mean. GACKT is seated and singing through a head set instead of a handheld mic and the band all stand with their guitars almost vertical, as if they’re traditional instruments. There is a video from the MOON SAGA play playing on the video wall at the back of the stage and it pretty much gives away the entire plot of the play. There’s been some fancy editing on some of those scenes… Towards the end the stage goes dark and the dancers run on stage in their masks so that when the lights come back up, they’re all seated there. It’s the same idea as the RRII LOST ANGELS performance. I can’t really say much about the song from just one listen though. It struck me as something I’d heard before, but as it’s the spring song that goes alongside 白露-HAKURO- and 雪月花-the end of silence-, that may be intentional.
The song finishes and sakura petals are shown falling on the main video wall as it slides back into place and covers the stage.
A preview for the BEST ALBUMs was played, followed by a short clip of the サクラ、散る PV. It’s very similar to the stage performance. They’re in the same costumes and performing in front of the red gate of a temple.
Then, they played a clip of the CLAYMORE video (I believe this may have been the first show it was played at). OMG. Within two seconds of it starting, me and the two friends I was sitting with had all turned to each other with open mouths. GACKT was wearing something similar to the robes of a Catholic priest, only without the dog collar, and with a rosary around his neck. His hair was slicked back and oddly, half his eyebrows were missing, but it was hot. His eyes are very dark in the PV and he has such mean looks on his face. There’s a blonde woman in it too, dressed like something out of a futuristic computer game (not much in the way of clothes, carrying a weapon and long hair pulled into a high ponytail) and it looked like such a slick and stylised PV. Very different to his usual (honestly, disappointing) PV styles. I cannot wait to see the full thing. It’s going to be HOT.
The three of us left the venue, mainly talking about the CLAYMORE PV, hahahaha. We met up with a couple of other friends and decided that we should record a message for GACKT. That meant tracking down Chris, who usually records the messages. I’ve spoken to Chris so many times over the years that he always remembers me and comes over and says hi. We found him, lingered in viewpoint and sure enough, he came over with his camera to say hi and record us.
The five of us were asked what our favourite song of the night was (three votes for LAST SONG, one for WHITE LOVERS and one for絵夢〜for my dear〜). He was just about to stop recording when I asked if I could just say one more thing. He said okay, so I then thanked GACKT for following OGYD and for retweeting and replying to us, hahahaha. I couldn’t help it. I hope he sees it!
So, with the message finished and recording stopped, Chris said goodbye to us and that he hoped to see us in Yokohama. Then khysmet (and yes, I’m including your name in this!) asked Chris if GACKT’s trousers really were sweet. Chris burst out laughing but eventually said that they were. I think he was a little embarrassed, bless!
The whole show was amazing. GACKT sounded amazing and was strong throughout the show - no fainting and not even any staggering. I was really impressed by Kei’s drumming. He’s pretty awesome. You could really hear the different things he was doing with the songs compared to previous drummers and it was really impressive. I couldn’t hear much of Sato, but he’s cute and a firecracker on stage when he’s performing and able to cut loose a little so he can stay. Chacha and YOU remain as fabulous as ever.
Roll on Yokohama!
Long review is long, apologies in advance.
The show was at the large hall in the Ichikawa Culture Centre and they really pushed the boat out with the sign advertising the show.
The goods line was non-existent and I bought a few things to add to what I had already picked up. I also bought the CD version of -MILD-, purely because I want the cat paw for my phone. I have the DVD box set on order already, so I paid 3,650yen (including postage) just for that damn paw.
Nyan.
We lined up to get in and the doors opened about ten minutes late. Our seats were pretty good as they were twelfth row, and we were really the first row to be on a proper incline from the stage. The rows in front of us were raised too, but only slightly. Our row seemed a lot higher and as the girls in the eleventh row before us were pretty dull and quiet and we had some very loud guys behind us, we probably stood out even more than three white girls usually would!
Unbelievably, GACKT was only thirteen minutes late. THIRTEEN MINUTES. That’s the same as starting early by his standards. When the lights went down to signal it was starting there was this surprised hush and frantic rustle of bags and things as people quickly had to get ready, hahahaha.
The stage was curtained off by a very impressive video wall (from experience, the staff do not care if you take photos in the venue as long as it is either way before the show starts, or long after it is finished. I’ve taken photos from my front row Gakuen seat with staff standing right by me and they didn’t care because it was 30 minutes before show time). The video wall showed a series of clips from GACKT’s history and some really nice English sentences about remembering and making new memories.
It was good English too!
The video wall showed that it was the MILD version for the show tonight and the audience… didn’t really care. The first show that gets the WILD version is going to go… er, WILD.
WHITE LOVERS started and slowly the video wall slid open and around to the sides of the stage (it’s on a circular track) to show the band. The stage was pretty small but with the help of the stairs they all fit! It snowed throughout the song and the snow even reached us (it was almost like soap bubbles up close). The standouts of the song are of course GACKT’s soft “arigatou” and screamed “sayonara.”
REDEMPTION was next. I was distracted by YOU’s still awful miming of the English sentences and the way the lighting was projecting GACKT’s shadow onto the wall of the venue. That was impressive - giant shadow GACKT and giant shadow mic stand.
For GHOST the dancers were out with their masks on. GACKT still mimes it (understandably) and the routine is basically the same as the RRII version, just with a few additions. The curtain at the back parted to show a second video screen and it played the Terminater-less version of the PV, which gives me hope that we’ll get that version on the DVD/Blu-ray of the Best Album.
Next was 絵夢〜for my dear〜. This is one of the songs that will have a re-recorded vocal on the Best Album, and his vocal was definitely very different from the MARS album. For the “wasurenai kara” parts, instead of forcing them or screaming them out like he did on MARS, he lifted his voice into an almost falsetto. It wasn’t quite his falsetto, but it was pretty high up there. It means that the song loses some of the desperation that the MARS version had, but he also doesn’t sound like he’s going to keel over and collapse at any given second so it’s probably a good choice.
It sounded way better than the Drug Party version of it, anyway.
Journey Through the Decade happened, but I don’t really remember much about that one, to be honest! For 白露-HAKURO- the smoke machine was working and GACKT fell down to his knees for the second half of the song (dramatics, not illness).
The stage emptied and then YOU came out alone and stood in Sato’s spot to play a short violin interlude. This was followed by LAST SONG-unplugged-.
My review of this performance can be summed up as follows -
fgdsgfdkjgsofugewafgds,fgdkjfskjdgsifusogefkjgukdgskfds
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing. It was basically the same as The Seventh Night version, only with more dramatic pauses and a few additional parts to make it slightly longer. You could tell it was serious business piano playing as he spent the entire performance with his legs crossed.
This is another song that will have a re-recorded vocal and it seemed to me that he was singing it a little softer and more reserved than he had in the past. I was starting to worry if it meant he couldn’t blast it out like he used to (especially after making a similar change in 絵夢〜for my dear〜) but as the song carried on, his voice became stronger and stronger and yeah, he can still do it. He was absolutely singing his heart out as the song carried on and just blasting it. He sounded stunning. Just his voice and a piano. The entire concert could have just been his voice and a piano and I’d have been happy. Actually, the entire concert could have just been this song stretched out for three hours and I’d have been happy.
After that a cool down was needed so it was time for the traditional mid-concert crazy videos.
For this, we were back at Camui Gakuen with Kaicho and the crew. Sato and Kei seemed confused and kept saying that Kaicho was really GACKT, but Kaicho was adamant that he was Sai-to Kai-cho. Kaicho wants everybody to be as cool and cute as GACKT is, and he played them his favourite MOONCHILD scene as a demonstration. I believe the scene chosen is different at every show, but for this show it was when Sho is eating with Son and Toshi, and spits out his food. Very cool and cute… Kaicho said the scene made him cry.
So, Kaicho has some activities planned to make the senpais into men as cool and cute as GACKT is. Again, these videos are different for different shows, but the one in Ichikawa was the food trial. It consisted of one the guys being trussed up in a harness attached to a wire, handcuffed and then fed oden by one of the other guys.
The first pair, saw Chacha in the harness and handcuffed (by Kaicho, naturally) with the dancer Takashi feeding him. Chacha started with his feet on the floor and was then gradually pulled into the air by a group of the other senpais (the DuelJewel guys, Takumi, Shinnosu and Taya, I think). As soon as Chacha was off the floor Kaicho was trying to spin him in circles and Takashi didn’t manage to feed Chacha anything. Poor Chacha though, that harness looked rather tight around his crotch area!
Next up was Kaicho. He was handcuffed by Sato (and how many fantasies were spiked by GACKT handcuffed and tied up so he couldn’t move…) and then he watched in absolute horror as everyone, but mainly Kazuya, spiked his oden and made it as spicy as they could. The look on Kaicho’s face was hysterical - he was really worried about it, but trying so hard to not show that he was worried.
Kazuya was feeding him and he managed to get quite a lot in Kaicho’s mouth, but of course Kaicho spat it back out at him. This happened about three times until Kaicho was so high in the air that Kazuya couldn’t feed him anymore. Kaicho was complaining loudly that the oden wasn’t hot, it was painful. Hahahahaha. Revenge, I think?
It then showed us GACKT watching all of the antics on his Mac in his dressing room. He was dressed and ready to go for the second half and was called to the stage by Chris, the big American staff member (more on him later…). GACKT stood up… and his trousers remained stuck to the chair, leaving him standing there in just a tiny red thong. The camera was static and stuck on showing him from the waist down, but they did protect his modesty (slightly) with a strategically placed chibi GACKT. Still saw some nice hipbones and thighs though! GACKT left the dressing room… and in the mirror was a perfect, uncensored view of his lovely thong clad ass. Nice.
Ahem.
Chris comes into the dressing room properly, picks up GACKT’s trousers to chase after him with them but then pauses and sniffs them. They’re sweet, apparently!
Mid-movie madness over, and the band were introduced by an English voice over to the sounds of the Seventh Night version of U+K. YOU has a million dollar smile that makes the girls weak, apparently (he does, IMO). The band are all in casual clothes now - black jackets for JOB and a red jacket for GACKT. The jackets say on the back…
G ♥
Dz
GACKT loves DEARS. So cute! A good partner to the I ♥ GC t-shirts.
I think the song that they played first was Paparapa. The dance routine was changed up a little, but largely the same as RRII, complete with the dancers having their own little chances to shine. MIRROR followed and the intro is just as annoying as ever. It was made slightly better because the band were on stage this time. GACKT dropped a guitar pick quite early on and had to grab a spare from his guitar. It made no difference to the sound. He snapped, what looked like, at least three guitar strings by the end of the song and that made no difference either. Are you even plugged in there, Dear? MIRROR was pretty much the same as ever with all of the screaming and shouting. GACKT was still pretty strong by the end of the song though, which was good to see. No fainting or staggering around.
I won’t go into big detail on the MC because I don’t remember most of it and don’t want to get anything wrong. GACKT came out for it wearing the neko ears, and most of his MC was about the neko ears and tabloids (that’s not necessarily two different subjects). Of course he did the “okaeri!” “tadaima” bits and teased the different floors. He was ridiculously cute throughout and whenever he did anything cute, the crowd demanded he did it again. He’d pout and complain, but do it anyway. He’s becoming quite good at shutting down crowd members who shout at him when all he wants to do is finish his damn sentence. Let the man talk!
The band introductions were cute and they all wore the ears. Chacha went first and he’s always amusing. Sato was second, and he’s just as cute as a button, isn’t he? Kei followed and he just copied everybody else’s introductions and was then shouting whatever he could think of to get the crowd to reply back to it, in the same way GACKT does the “okaeri/tadaima” chants. Kei even stole Sato’s “ichi, ni, SA-TO!” bit. YOU, GACKT’s good friend of 22 years (did GACKT mention they’d been friends for 22 years at all??? What? He did? About ten times already?) was last. He kinda mocked GACKT a little to begin with, and then started shouting about Disneyland and Mickey Mouse. GACKT cut him off far too quickly. GACKT’s introduction wasn’t really an introduction; it was more a story about his early days with YOU and problems with Singapore Slings. Su-ri-n-GU!
With the MC finally over, GACKT led the crowd in the customary U+K singalong and then the cats were out. VANILLA followed and again, this is another song with a re-recorded vocal. I didn’t really notice anything different with how he sang this one. It was back to being playful though, instead of the so highly sexualised it went past sexy and into funny like it did with YFCz. GACKT still did the “ah-ah” parts, but it didn’t sound like lustful groaning like it did when Jon did it. Sato was initiated into the band by being grabbed by GACKT for some innocent fanservice (that was more like a headlock than a hug due to the awkward height difference).
小悪魔ヘヴン was a blast. The video screen is there and much like RRII, the band get to do solo dances. Chacha and Sato have the easy level, YOU and Kei do level 5 (that seemed easier than Chacha and Sato’s, to be honest) and GACKT gets level MAX. There’s a new level now though, level GOD, and it’s a different band member every show. In Ichikawa it was Chacha and he failed.
I think GACKT decided to take some lessons from Kaicho for Graffiti as the dance was the same as the Gakuen routine. The streamers exploded at the beginning of Faraway -星に願いを- and the routine for that was the same as RRII with the hand towels. Like the Drug Party performance, 君が追いかけた夢 started with GACKT singing it acapella. This was his “I love my fans” performance as he was doing his usual signal out to the crowd as he sang. The last song of the main set was STAY THE RIDE ALIVE. He almost gets that crazy high note at the end!
The video at the end had a sweet message written in Japanese. I was busy rolling up the streamers I caught during Faraway -星に願いを- though so I wasn’t paying much attention. For the final song, サクラ、散る, the band are all wearing traditional outfits and hats. If you’ve seen the photo of GACKT in the pamphlet, then you know what I mean. GACKT is seated and singing through a head set instead of a handheld mic and the band all stand with their guitars almost vertical, as if they’re traditional instruments. There is a video from the MOON SAGA play playing on the video wall at the back of the stage and it pretty much gives away the entire plot of the play. There’s been some fancy editing on some of those scenes… Towards the end the stage goes dark and the dancers run on stage in their masks so that when the lights come back up, they’re all seated there. It’s the same idea as the RRII LOST ANGELS performance. I can’t really say much about the song from just one listen though. It struck me as something I’d heard before, but as it’s the spring song that goes alongside 白露-HAKURO- and 雪月花-the end of silence-, that may be intentional.
The song finishes and sakura petals are shown falling on the main video wall as it slides back into place and covers the stage.
A preview for the BEST ALBUMs was played, followed by a short clip of the サクラ、散る PV. It’s very similar to the stage performance. They’re in the same costumes and performing in front of the red gate of a temple.
Then, they played a clip of the CLAYMORE video (I believe this may have been the first show it was played at). OMG. Within two seconds of it starting, me and the two friends I was sitting with had all turned to each other with open mouths. GACKT was wearing something similar to the robes of a Catholic priest, only without the dog collar, and with a rosary around his neck. His hair was slicked back and oddly, half his eyebrows were missing, but it was hot. His eyes are very dark in the PV and he has such mean looks on his face. There’s a blonde woman in it too, dressed like something out of a futuristic computer game (not much in the way of clothes, carrying a weapon and long hair pulled into a high ponytail) and it looked like such a slick and stylised PV. Very different to his usual (honestly, disappointing) PV styles. I cannot wait to see the full thing. It’s going to be HOT.
The three of us left the venue, mainly talking about the CLAYMORE PV, hahahaha. We met up with a couple of other friends and decided that we should record a message for GACKT. That meant tracking down Chris, who usually records the messages. I’ve spoken to Chris so many times over the years that he always remembers me and comes over and says hi. We found him, lingered in viewpoint and sure enough, he came over with his camera to say hi and record us.
The five of us were asked what our favourite song of the night was (three votes for LAST SONG, one for WHITE LOVERS and one for絵夢〜for my dear〜). He was just about to stop recording when I asked if I could just say one more thing. He said okay, so I then thanked GACKT for following OGYD and for retweeting and replying to us, hahahaha. I couldn’t help it. I hope he sees it!
So, with the message finished and recording stopped, Chris said goodbye to us and that he hoped to see us in Yokohama. Then khysmet (and yes, I’m including your name in this!) asked Chris if GACKT’s trousers really were sweet. Chris burst out laughing but eventually said that they were. I think he was a little embarrassed, bless!
The whole show was amazing. GACKT sounded amazing and was strong throughout the show - no fainting and not even any staggering. I was really impressed by Kei’s drumming. He’s pretty awesome. You could really hear the different things he was doing with the songs compared to previous drummers and it was really impressive. I couldn’t hear much of Sato, but he’s cute and a firecracker on stage when he’s performing and able to cut loose a little so he can stay. Chacha and YOU remain as fabulous as ever.
Roll on Yokohama!