one repo bby!!
so it's 3:15pm on the 13th over here in dear old Japan which means I'm now kind of in a sensible enough mind set to give you lot a repo!!
As an aside before the cut I did start writing a little 'moment by moment' thing in my Pod notes while I was hanging about Osu kannon, but then my battery died so it sort of never got finished...should you want to see it then let me know and I'll post it next entry (post Ito b-day seems the most likely for this, but I'm sort of hoping I get motivated to at least do some form of run down Friday...we'll see)
anyroad
So this concert marked the first time that I've actually had to activly buy a Japanese train ticket on my own steam...oh I had a phrase all perfected to use on a staff member but thought it'd be somehow easier to use the machines being as they have an English option (for this you can also read "I kind of got spooked out of asking for a ticket because I feared my Japanese sucking!!)
I stared at the list of ticket options...didn't see one for Kanayama station at all...gave up...stormed off and then had a sudden brain wave
"Oh...the yen ammounts on the side are for charging onto your ticket, kind of like a paper Pasmo"
Once I got that it was ease itself to charge up the 600yen that I knew a one way journey to Kanayama to be (thank you Google maps rout finder/hyperdia/Kondo-sensei for drumming this fact into my head all of last week otherwise I think I might have been stranded right at that first hurdle, lol) and roll my way out to the station.
From there a transfer onto Nagoya's amazing subway network, the purchase of a Manca card (Nagoya answer to Pasmo/sucia) and I was at Osukannon station.
Here's where my ground work paid off as wikitravel research meant I knew I wanted exit 2 while extensive google maping of the area ment I knew I had to sort of double back on myself once I hit highstreet level in order to find the venue.
(by this I mean you come out of the stairway and bascially go back the way you came, but this time on land rather than underground...or get to the top of the steps, turn so that you're facing away from the road and towards the cute little clothes shop and then bare left...)
As far as first impressions of a venue go the Ell (or Electric lady land to give it it's full title) pretty well kept up the tradition of underwelmingness that Japan seems to have going with me at the moment. (NB: this is first impressions alone and the fact that the Boxx was amazing to me doesn't count because a)it's been romanacised in my head thanks to SC and b)it's never actually been somewhere I've seen a band play which is what I'm going with here...)
Anyway being as I'd gotten there at about 9:00 and the concert wasn't until 18:00 (with doors opening at 5:30) I then set about killing time.
Let me tell you Osu kannon really is the place to do that! Not only is the nearby temple (just head out of exit 2 and head away from the ELL, it's pretty well signposted almost straight away) pretty gosh darn well dramatic thanks to it's intense redness but the undercover shopping area that trails off from it is HUGE!!
I seriously managed to spend 3 hours alone here browsing, eating and generally having a good time!
Then there's the wide park just outside of the Nagoya science museum/planeterium (carry on down in a straight line past the ELL and several traffic lights...basically head for the trees that you start seeing on the horizon!!) which had such a chilled atmosphere and was great for people watching!!
Evenutally I gave in entirly at about 4:00 and lurked about the ELL...which meant watching staff setting up the que line, being ammused that all the ladies I saw were older than me (or at least looked as such) and the two men I spotted had obviously been dragged along by boyfriends!!
Once I was in line and the proud owner of merch #1 for the night (program) I not only got to spy on Babbi's bouncy hair through a window just over head but actually got asked a few nice little questions by another lady on line.
Eventually 5:30 came and we were ussured in through the doors and round into a sort of square area with a vauge hint of roundness about the edges, which was aproximatly the size of maybe a decent sized classroom...I know that there were at least 100 ladies ahead of me in the line and perhaps 3 or 4 more behind and it was in no way filled so maybe room for 200 at a push??
Anway I secured the rest of my merchendise (one t-shirt, a parker with translated Goodnight Evolution lyrics scribed across it, an f66 key strap and finally the aniversary dvd) and then I settled into my spot.
(one vauge aproximation of said spot/peoplage:
)
Eventually the lights dimmed, the blue spot came on and everyone rolled out...the tension built and then there he was.
Black leather dominated the first look, from his shiny jacket to the trousers covered in zips (so many zips...all of which lead me to predictable...ahem...areas of his body) and the thigh high boots.
Indeed it was so shiny and captivating that it actually fooled me into thinking he looked pretty heathy until the jacket came off and the shirt (white and fluffy in a very odd way) got untucked at which point I was all "hang on...you're scary thin again aren't you??"
I can't give you an acurate blow by blow set list but I rememeber Jumping like mad when Sandy came on the speakers, actually tearing when he sang goodnight evolution, screaming when he put on sway game and going absoultly crazy for the final amazingness of Bulldog 66!!
As to the VS tracks themselves...each took on a new life live and Joker espeically played well to his more quirky sense of dramatics, indeed for both that and 99blood (which came before) he went into this whole sort of "i'm possessed by the music, watch me be sexy for the heck of it" thing...which had me lol if only because he seriously actually licked the mike!!
The new band members each add a new element into things and it was great to hear Rin joking about with them, if only because it's clear how hard he was trying to make them feel right at home in his 'family'!
Abiding memories for MC's were Rin being all "the stage is tiny, I almost fell off earlier, plus you guys are really grouping me today...which I love..." a story about how Babbi's poofy hair had used all the hair spray so that Naomi (the new Pianist) couldn't spike his hair up and thus be taller than him and another story about how everywhere they've gone on tour Hiro-pon (the new basist) has ordered Pork cutlet udon to eat.
The most amazing thing for me was that I actually did feel like Rin noticed me there...indeed I'm placing money at him having winked at me (or at least in my direction) as well as deliberatly comming my way for various English themed sections o' songs...maybe to see how it should actually look, lol!
All in all an utterly amazing night and you bet I'd do it again (and again and again and again and again)
oh and one final aside on the way out the second time around the precious darling smacked his head...pfffffffffffffffffft
and for those curious here's how I was on the evening itself:
(oh and basically crossposted to the sc com so appolgies for any duplicats!!)
As an aside before the cut I did start writing a little 'moment by moment' thing in my Pod notes while I was hanging about Osu kannon, but then my battery died so it sort of never got finished...should you want to see it then let me know and I'll post it next entry (post Ito b-day seems the most likely for this, but I'm sort of hoping I get motivated to at least do some form of run down Friday...we'll see)
anyroad
So this concert marked the first time that I've actually had to activly buy a Japanese train ticket on my own steam...oh I had a phrase all perfected to use on a staff member but thought it'd be somehow easier to use the machines being as they have an English option (for this you can also read "I kind of got spooked out of asking for a ticket because I feared my Japanese sucking!!)
I stared at the list of ticket options...didn't see one for Kanayama station at all...gave up...stormed off and then had a sudden brain wave
"Oh...the yen ammounts on the side are for charging onto your ticket, kind of like a paper Pasmo"
Once I got that it was ease itself to charge up the 600yen that I knew a one way journey to Kanayama to be (thank you Google maps rout finder/hyperdia/Kondo-sensei for drumming this fact into my head all of last week otherwise I think I might have been stranded right at that first hurdle, lol) and roll my way out to the station.
From there a transfer onto Nagoya's amazing subway network, the purchase of a Manca card (Nagoya answer to Pasmo/sucia) and I was at Osukannon station.
Here's where my ground work paid off as wikitravel research meant I knew I wanted exit 2 while extensive google maping of the area ment I knew I had to sort of double back on myself once I hit highstreet level in order to find the venue.
(by this I mean you come out of the stairway and bascially go back the way you came, but this time on land rather than underground...or get to the top of the steps, turn so that you're facing away from the road and towards the cute little clothes shop and then bare left...)
As far as first impressions of a venue go the Ell (or Electric lady land to give it it's full title) pretty well kept up the tradition of underwelmingness that Japan seems to have going with me at the moment. (NB: this is first impressions alone and the fact that the Boxx was amazing to me doesn't count because a)it's been romanacised in my head thanks to SC and b)it's never actually been somewhere I've seen a band play which is what I'm going with here...)
Anyway being as I'd gotten there at about 9:00 and the concert wasn't until 18:00 (with doors opening at 5:30) I then set about killing time.
Let me tell you Osu kannon really is the place to do that! Not only is the nearby temple (just head out of exit 2 and head away from the ELL, it's pretty well signposted almost straight away) pretty gosh darn well dramatic thanks to it's intense redness but the undercover shopping area that trails off from it is HUGE!!
I seriously managed to spend 3 hours alone here browsing, eating and generally having a good time!
Then there's the wide park just outside of the Nagoya science museum/planeterium (carry on down in a straight line past the ELL and several traffic lights...basically head for the trees that you start seeing on the horizon!!) which had such a chilled atmosphere and was great for people watching!!
Evenutally I gave in entirly at about 4:00 and lurked about the ELL...which meant watching staff setting up the que line, being ammused that all the ladies I saw were older than me (or at least looked as such) and the two men I spotted had obviously been dragged along by boyfriends!!
Once I was in line and the proud owner of merch #1 for the night (program) I not only got to spy on Babbi's bouncy hair through a window just over head but actually got asked a few nice little questions by another lady on line.
Eventually 5:30 came and we were ussured in through the doors and round into a sort of square area with a vauge hint of roundness about the edges, which was aproximatly the size of maybe a decent sized classroom...I know that there were at least 100 ladies ahead of me in the line and perhaps 3 or 4 more behind and it was in no way filled so maybe room for 200 at a push??
Anway I secured the rest of my merchendise (one t-shirt, a parker with translated Goodnight Evolution lyrics scribed across it, an f66 key strap and finally the aniversary dvd) and then I settled into my spot.
(one vauge aproximation of said spot/peoplage:
)
Eventually the lights dimmed, the blue spot came on and everyone rolled out...the tension built and then there he was.
Black leather dominated the first look, from his shiny jacket to the trousers covered in zips (so many zips...all of which lead me to predictable...ahem...areas of his body) and the thigh high boots.
Indeed it was so shiny and captivating that it actually fooled me into thinking he looked pretty heathy until the jacket came off and the shirt (white and fluffy in a very odd way) got untucked at which point I was all "hang on...you're scary thin again aren't you??"
I can't give you an acurate blow by blow set list but I rememeber Jumping like mad when Sandy came on the speakers, actually tearing when he sang goodnight evolution, screaming when he put on sway game and going absoultly crazy for the final amazingness of Bulldog 66!!
As to the VS tracks themselves...each took on a new life live and Joker espeically played well to his more quirky sense of dramatics, indeed for both that and 99blood (which came before) he went into this whole sort of "i'm possessed by the music, watch me be sexy for the heck of it" thing...which had me lol if only because he seriously actually licked the mike!!
The new band members each add a new element into things and it was great to hear Rin joking about with them, if only because it's clear how hard he was trying to make them feel right at home in his 'family'!
Abiding memories for MC's were Rin being all "the stage is tiny, I almost fell off earlier, plus you guys are really grouping me today...which I love..." a story about how Babbi's poofy hair had used all the hair spray so that Naomi (the new Pianist) couldn't spike his hair up and thus be taller than him and another story about how everywhere they've gone on tour Hiro-pon (the new basist) has ordered Pork cutlet udon to eat.
The most amazing thing for me was that I actually did feel like Rin noticed me there...indeed I'm placing money at him having winked at me (or at least in my direction) as well as deliberatly comming my way for various English themed sections o' songs...maybe to see how it should actually look, lol!
All in all an utterly amazing night and you bet I'd do it again (and again and again and again and again)
oh and one final aside on the way out the second time around the precious darling smacked his head...pfffffffffffffffffft
and for those curious here's how I was on the evening itself:
Click to view(oh and basically crossposted to the sc com so appolgies for any duplicats!!)