GACKT Last Visualive @ Saitama Super Arena ~ 02.07.2016
Another different concert experience aka something other than Johnny's. This year I vote for GACKT because... I feel that I need to watch his live at least once in my lifetime. Only went to the 2nd of July because the extension was announced only much later and AUD is really shitty now.
Last Visualive is a concept concert so the set list and performances are matched to that very theme, and I'm a sucker for concerts with concept. I'm not really familiar with the Moon Saga as a whole, and not exactly very fond of the Yoshitsune story, particularly that war scene. I find Yoshitsune story as a whole is really sad and tragic. The brothers fighting with each other and literally went to war, which Yoshitsune lost, triggered by those people who gossipped and badmouthed around. It shows how fleeting trust can be, even between family. Tackey's Takizawa Kabuki also had that same war scene, the fighting under the rain, but in here it was made based on the darker and heavier tone, plus we have the additional dark magic etc involved here. The whole concert is divided into 4 Act, the first one is the war itself with the ending note of Yoritomo ordering the kill of Yoshitsune, and then we have the dark set with GACKT sporting that 'I dunno how he can even move with that costume' costume plus that super cool mike stand. The 2nd and 3rd act is flashbacks from the first meeting between Yoshitsune and Yoritomo and also the happy times together with Yoshitsune's vassals. Then the last act is back to the 'present' of Yoshitsune's dying moment. I can't really remember clearly on the details because lots of quotations from the Moon Saga play, and they even include the shooting scene from the Moon Child movie (which I find a bit random, but somehow still fits into the whole story).
My favorites in random order will be the koto performance (it looks awesome, nevermind that the costume is so gloomy and GACKT looks like a ghost jamming a koto there), PS I love You (coz I like these kinds of songs from GACKT and I'm bias, plus GACK in white shirt is... enough said), Mai Baby!! -Wooha- (i feel that this song is built for the sake of the concert, it's one of those perfect concert song, it allows whoever sing this song to engage the audiences, which in this concert, we have the taiko DDR, and it's damn fun), same reason for Koi no Friday. Most of the songs come from Act 3 (yeah, the fun part) because I cannot really tell which song is which on Act 1, probably only Arrow and Returner (a fail fan because I've been listening to Shinhwa the past few weeks, GACKT songs was too heavy for me the past couple of weeks).
My seat was not so close but also not too far and I like to sit with the center view so it's all good. The screen is a big gigantic curtain. That red moon on the center is actually a projection which is kind of cool. I didn't know that the stage is actually in the n shape until GACKT ran around during Act 3. The center piece of the stage, which is that gigantic skeleton, was there from start to end, but you'll somewhat forget about that center piece with the help of the background screen, it did make a lot of difference, and I enjoyed it emmensely. Overall, definitely the gimmicks is no where near Johnny's standard, but it works perfectly fine with the concept and purpose. Afterall the selling point is... GACKT, the props are there to amplify his persona on stage (I literally have that impression from Act 1). And I can't compare this concert against the L'Arc en Ciel concert in Singapore a few years back either because this one has a story to tell, hence the setlist is customized to suit the concept, whereas Laruku's concert is like MS station show non stop. And speaking of stop, there's a quite long down time in between act 2 & 3, not sure why that happened. The only reason I can think of is to allow GACKT to recover because after that it's MC time.
Watching GACKT concert reminds me again what makes watching different concerts from different acts interesting to me. The way GACKT work the crowd is another feast to the hearts of fangirls (from effortlessly kawaii to effortlessly kakkoii in split second back and forward and you can't decide which one you like better) and it's amazing how he knows exactly what the fans want at every particular moments.
The fan demographic amazed me as well. We have teens all the way to oji-sans and grandmas (in gothic get up nonetheless), and we also have kids, brought by their parents with the nekomimi cheering for GACKT too.
I'm not sure whether I'll have a chance to be able to see The Last Visualive World tour next year, but I'd love to re-live the moments of awesomeness again.
Concert goods queue, by the time I joined the queue lots of the stuffs were already sold out.
The flowers... have some of the fanclubs as well, including Singapore, HK etc.
GACKT as businessman. Seriously, I thought Johnny's know how to rip you off, but GACKT wins hands down. The food concept has all the sexual innuendos that you need. We have GACKT magnum (a huge long grilled sausage, ehem), GACKT milk (yes it's milk plus ice cream, but hey, you know what that means implicitly, right? LOL), and GACKT blood (it's red lemonade with chia seeds - the pic). And we queued under the blazing sun to get the food. On top of this, we have the sunglasses and the jewelry stalls as well. Those jewelry is damn pricey but it looked so good when GACKT wore it (he wore the red necklace during Act 3).
The loot. I didn't buy a lot because AUD was at all time low against JPY. The concert t-shirt is very nice, really, and the desk calendar is sitting on my office desk. Nevermind if some of those days it'll have pic of GACKT flashing his abs, I'm the only one going to gawk at it and thank god my cubicle is hidden away from the crowd, HA!
Last Visualive is a concept concert so the set list and performances are matched to that very theme, and I'm a sucker for concerts with concept. I'm not really familiar with the Moon Saga as a whole, and not exactly very fond of the Yoshitsune story, particularly that war scene. I find Yoshitsune story as a whole is really sad and tragic. The brothers fighting with each other and literally went to war, which Yoshitsune lost, triggered by those people who gossipped and badmouthed around. It shows how fleeting trust can be, even between family. Tackey's Takizawa Kabuki also had that same war scene, the fighting under the rain, but in here it was made based on the darker and heavier tone, plus we have the additional dark magic etc involved here. The whole concert is divided into 4 Act, the first one is the war itself with the ending note of Yoritomo ordering the kill of Yoshitsune, and then we have the dark set with GACKT sporting that 'I dunno how he can even move with that costume' costume plus that super cool mike stand. The 2nd and 3rd act is flashbacks from the first meeting between Yoshitsune and Yoritomo and also the happy times together with Yoshitsune's vassals. Then the last act is back to the 'present' of Yoshitsune's dying moment. I can't really remember clearly on the details because lots of quotations from the Moon Saga play, and they even include the shooting scene from the Moon Child movie (which I find a bit random, but somehow still fits into the whole story).
My favorites in random order will be the koto performance (it looks awesome, nevermind that the costume is so gloomy and GACKT looks like a ghost jamming a koto there), PS I love You (coz I like these kinds of songs from GACKT and I'm bias, plus GACK in white shirt is... enough said), Mai Baby!! -Wooha- (i feel that this song is built for the sake of the concert, it's one of those perfect concert song, it allows whoever sing this song to engage the audiences, which in this concert, we have the taiko DDR, and it's damn fun), same reason for Koi no Friday. Most of the songs come from Act 3 (yeah, the fun part) because I cannot really tell which song is which on Act 1, probably only Arrow and Returner (a fail fan because I've been listening to Shinhwa the past few weeks, GACKT songs was too heavy for me the past couple of weeks).
My seat was not so close but also not too far and I like to sit with the center view so it's all good. The screen is a big gigantic curtain. That red moon on the center is actually a projection which is kind of cool. I didn't know that the stage is actually in the n shape until GACKT ran around during Act 3. The center piece of the stage, which is that gigantic skeleton, was there from start to end, but you'll somewhat forget about that center piece with the help of the background screen, it did make a lot of difference, and I enjoyed it emmensely. Overall, definitely the gimmicks is no where near Johnny's standard, but it works perfectly fine with the concept and purpose. Afterall the selling point is... GACKT, the props are there to amplify his persona on stage (I literally have that impression from Act 1). And I can't compare this concert against the L'Arc en Ciel concert in Singapore a few years back either because this one has a story to tell, hence the setlist is customized to suit the concept, whereas Laruku's concert is like MS station show non stop. And speaking of stop, there's a quite long down time in between act 2 & 3, not sure why that happened. The only reason I can think of is to allow GACKT to recover because after that it's MC time.
Watching GACKT concert reminds me again what makes watching different concerts from different acts interesting to me. The way GACKT work the crowd is another feast to the hearts of fangirls (from effortlessly kawaii to effortlessly kakkoii in split second back and forward and you can't decide which one you like better) and it's amazing how he knows exactly what the fans want at every particular moments.
The fan demographic amazed me as well. We have teens all the way to oji-sans and grandmas (in gothic get up nonetheless), and we also have kids, brought by their parents with the nekomimi cheering for GACKT too.
I'm not sure whether I'll have a chance to be able to see The Last Visualive World tour next year, but I'd love to re-live the moments of awesomeness again.
Concert goods queue, by the time I joined the queue lots of the stuffs were already sold out.
The flowers... have some of the fanclubs as well, including Singapore, HK etc.
GACKT as businessman. Seriously, I thought Johnny's know how to rip you off, but GACKT wins hands down. The food concept has all the sexual innuendos that you need. We have GACKT magnum (a huge long grilled sausage, ehem), GACKT milk (yes it's milk plus ice cream, but hey, you know what that means implicitly, right? LOL), and GACKT blood (it's red lemonade with chia seeds - the pic). And we queued under the blazing sun to get the food. On top of this, we have the sunglasses and the jewelry stalls as well. Those jewelry is damn pricey but it looked so good when GACKT wore it (he wore the red necklace during Act 3).
The loot. I didn't buy a lot because AUD was at all time low against JPY. The concert t-shirt is very nice, really, and the desk calendar is sitting on my office desk. Nevermind if some of those days it'll have pic of GACKT flashing his abs, I'm the only one going to gawk at it and thank god my cubicle is hidden away from the crowd, HA!