Weekend Recap
I hope everybody is doing well with this heat. It was an amazing record-setting day. It was the hottest day ever in Los Angeles for as long as they have been keeping records. It wasn't just the hottest day for Sept. 21. It was the hottest day. Period. Amazing.
First a few administrative things to take care of. I'm canceling the Halloween maze thing for this weekend. It doesn't seem like anybody wants to do it so I'm canceling it so that I can make other plans for this weekend. Secondly, it looks like the old zoo is going to be transformed in to a Halloween attraction. It's going to be the new home for the LA Haunted Hayride. That event will start on Oct. 9. Some people have expressed interest in visiting there and shooting there pretty soon, but it looks like we'll have to postpone all activities there until November at the earliest. I think it will still be in its normal state this weekend so that's probably going to be the last shot at this location until after Halloween. In the meantime, we can do other things and other adventures. OK, on to the weekend recap.
Saturday: X Japan
I've been looking forward to this weekend for so long. Going to two concerts in two days sounded like it would be a fun weekend. I had two awesome bands to see. The early hours of Saturday were spent running errands and going to the gym. I also worked a lot of photos while playing my DVD of X Japan's "The Last Live" to get myself in the mood. I had a ridiculously early dinner before heading out to The Wiltern. I arrived a little before 6PM and managed to get the last legit spot in the parking structure before they started making people park all crazy. Since the door time was scheduled for 6:30, I thought I would be really far back in the line, but it wasn't too bad.
Of course, there was a long delay to get into the theater. It was almost 7:30 before the line started moving. Since it was so late, security was just letting people in--not really taking time to search anybody unless they had a large bag. The opening band was something called Vampires Everywhere! I had seen some of their stuff on Youtube and I knew that they sucked. I went in to take a look anyway. I gave it about 3 minutes and gave up and went back into the lobby. I didn't really quite understand the death metal/autotune thing that they were doing. I had a general admission ticket, but I don't really care to fight for space these days. I'll gladly stand near the back and have my elbow room. I managed to get through the merchandise line and buy a shirt. It was a pretty good use of time.
After I heard that the opening band was over, I went back onto the floor. I've been to many shows at The Wiltern and I always end up standing in the same section. I think it's because it's one of the last sections to fill up and it's never completely jam packed. Also in that section were Mel and Ed from the J!-ENT San Diego team. All of us were supposed to be on the press team for this show and it's nice that they made it out to the show anyway since their fans of X Japan also. I haven't seen them since PMX 2006. rabi was also there, so it was like a little J!-ENT reunion. With the opening band done, we thought X Japan would come out soon, but nope. It was almost another 1 hour wait. It didn't seem like much was going on. Everything was set up. There were no sound checks going on. We were all just standing there and waiting. All this time, they're playing orchestral version of X Japan songs as the mood music and honestly, I felt like going to sleep.
Finally the lights went out and one by one, the band members started coming out and opened up with a new song called "Jade" and then "Rusty Nail" with all the fire and pyro and all that good stuff.
Yeah, there's a lot of Youtube video up now from various sources. It's pretty crazy how good modern digicams are at video these days. I guess the best I can do for the setlist is:
Jade
Rusty Nail
Silent Jealousy
Drain
Piano & Violin Solo
Kurenai
Born To Be Free
Drum Solo
I.V.
X
--Encore--
Endless Rain
Art of Life
If you watch any of the videos, you can hear a lot of English lyrics that were added to the original songs. This threw a lot of people off including myself. We try to sing along but don't know the new English version so it's kinda confusing. I also think Sugizo is an awesome addition to the band. Because he can play violin, it adds a whole different dimension to the live show. He still does the "live long and prosper" Vulcan hand gesture a lot. I remember doing an interview with him a few years ago and we actually talked a little about that. He does like Star Trek.
I really loved this show. These are my idols that I never thought I'd get the chance to see. I loved seeing some of my favorites performed live--"Silent Jealousy", "Endless Rain" (loved singing along to "Endless Rain" along with everybody else). It was also really awesome to get "Art of Life" thown in there, which is my favorite X Japan song. The full version is 30 minutes long so it rarely gets performed live. We got about half of it, starting from the piano solo in the middle. Still, I'll take the short version. I really loved singing along to "I.V" also. I've done that on Rockband enough times to know that song by heart.
The show ended well past midnight. I met up in the lobby with with the i360 crew: chase_the_bunny , talonomega , slave_to_anime , kamuishirou1999 , Ben, Chris along with Karrie and a few others. All of these folks were up in the balcony in their reserved seats. I'm not that old yet. hahaha It was nice to see so many people at this show. I haven't seen some of them in a long time. We tried to figure out where to eat afterward since we were all kinda hungry, but since it was so late, I just decided to go home. Sunday would be another long day.
Sunday: Muse
I got home at about 1:30 in the morning. I went to bed fairly quickly and woke up at about 8AM. For me, waking up at 8AM is my idea of sleeping in. There was plenty to do before tonight's concert. During the morning and early afternoon, I managed to do my laundry and get FPAC photos posted up on super-no1.com. It was also nice to watch some football. I haven't really had the chance to watch a lot except for Monday night. I've been on adventure time on Sunday and I've definitely enjoyed that. I finished with all of my "work" at about 2:30. I took a shower and headed out to Little Tokyo to kill some time before the show. No weaboos today. They must not like the heat or were all out at OC Japan Fair or something. It was basically Yogurtland, looking at books and an early dinner before heading out to Staples Center.
Except for the general admission line, lines to get into this show weren't bad at all. There are a lot of entrance so that helps. At least I got in really early unlike the SM Town concert where I was almost late getting into the building. There were a lot of merch stands which is nice. There was absolutely no line at the one I went to and getting merch was really quick. It was nice to hang out on the outdoor patio on the upper concourse for awhile. There's a nice view of Nokia Plaza from there and lots of people were out there taking photos and stuff. I went in for the opening band, Passion Pit, which was definitely an improvement over Vampires Everywhere! They were pretty good. Muse came on a little after 9PM. Things ran a bit more smoothly at this show. There were no mysterious delays.
Setlist:
Uprising
Resistance
New Born
...Supermassive Black Hole
Neutron Star Collision
Interlude + Hysteria
Nishe
United States of Eurasia
Ruled By Secrecy
Bliss
Helsinki Jam
Undisclosed Desires
Starlight
Plug In Baby
Time Is Running Out
Unnatural Selection
Encore:
Exogenesis Symphony: Part 1 (Overture)
Stockholm Syndrome
Man with a Harmonica + Knights of Cydonia
I had pretty much the same seating as SM Town concert. The view of the stage was pretty good and you can see a lot of stuff going on as far as roadies moving stuff on elevators and trapdoors between and during songs. I found that stuff to be very interesting. Arena shows, although less intimate, really kick ass. I love massive stages with a lot of moving lights and lasers and stuff like that. Once again, I loved this show. I loved singing along to some of the songs. I still had some voice left for today. Muse is a great live band and definitely worth checking out.
The show ended a little after 11PM. Outside Staples Center you can take your pick of whoever you wanted to buy a street hotdog from. "HOTODOG! HOTDOG! HOTDOG!" hahaha I wanted one, so I got one. I got home at about 12:30, which was nice since I had work today.
So that was it for concert weekend. I saw a lot of awesome things and heard a lot of good music and thankfully, not too much really horrible music. I don't think there will ever be another weekend like it. Conventions don't count. I know people who went to one show or the other, but I don't know who else did both shows. One of the best weekends of my life. I'll never forget this one.
First a few administrative things to take care of. I'm canceling the Halloween maze thing for this weekend. It doesn't seem like anybody wants to do it so I'm canceling it so that I can make other plans for this weekend. Secondly, it looks like the old zoo is going to be transformed in to a Halloween attraction. It's going to be the new home for the LA Haunted Hayride. That event will start on Oct. 9. Some people have expressed interest in visiting there and shooting there pretty soon, but it looks like we'll have to postpone all activities there until November at the earliest. I think it will still be in its normal state this weekend so that's probably going to be the last shot at this location until after Halloween. In the meantime, we can do other things and other adventures. OK, on to the weekend recap.
Saturday: X Japan
I've been looking forward to this weekend for so long. Going to two concerts in two days sounded like it would be a fun weekend. I had two awesome bands to see. The early hours of Saturday were spent running errands and going to the gym. I also worked a lot of photos while playing my DVD of X Japan's "The Last Live" to get myself in the mood. I had a ridiculously early dinner before heading out to The Wiltern. I arrived a little before 6PM and managed to get the last legit spot in the parking structure before they started making people park all crazy. Since the door time was scheduled for 6:30, I thought I would be really far back in the line, but it wasn't too bad.
Of course, there was a long delay to get into the theater. It was almost 7:30 before the line started moving. Since it was so late, security was just letting people in--not really taking time to search anybody unless they had a large bag. The opening band was something called Vampires Everywhere! I had seen some of their stuff on Youtube and I knew that they sucked. I went in to take a look anyway. I gave it about 3 minutes and gave up and went back into the lobby. I didn't really quite understand the death metal/autotune thing that they were doing. I had a general admission ticket, but I don't really care to fight for space these days. I'll gladly stand near the back and have my elbow room. I managed to get through the merchandise line and buy a shirt. It was a pretty good use of time.
After I heard that the opening band was over, I went back onto the floor. I've been to many shows at The Wiltern and I always end up standing in the same section. I think it's because it's one of the last sections to fill up and it's never completely jam packed. Also in that section were Mel and Ed from the J!-ENT San Diego team. All of us were supposed to be on the press team for this show and it's nice that they made it out to the show anyway since their fans of X Japan also. I haven't seen them since PMX 2006. rabi was also there, so it was like a little J!-ENT reunion. With the opening band done, we thought X Japan would come out soon, but nope. It was almost another 1 hour wait. It didn't seem like much was going on. Everything was set up. There were no sound checks going on. We were all just standing there and waiting. All this time, they're playing orchestral version of X Japan songs as the mood music and honestly, I felt like going to sleep.
Finally the lights went out and one by one, the band members started coming out and opened up with a new song called "Jade" and then "Rusty Nail" with all the fire and pyro and all that good stuff.
Click to viewYeah, there's a lot of Youtube video up now from various sources. It's pretty crazy how good modern digicams are at video these days. I guess the best I can do for the setlist is:
Jade
Rusty Nail
Silent Jealousy
Drain
Piano & Violin Solo
Kurenai
Born To Be Free
Drum Solo
I.V.
X
--Encore--
Endless Rain
Art of Life
If you watch any of the videos, you can hear a lot of English lyrics that were added to the original songs. This threw a lot of people off including myself. We try to sing along but don't know the new English version so it's kinda confusing. I also think Sugizo is an awesome addition to the band. Because he can play violin, it adds a whole different dimension to the live show. He still does the "live long and prosper" Vulcan hand gesture a lot. I remember doing an interview with him a few years ago and we actually talked a little about that. He does like Star Trek.
I really loved this show. These are my idols that I never thought I'd get the chance to see. I loved seeing some of my favorites performed live--"Silent Jealousy", "Endless Rain" (loved singing along to "Endless Rain" along with everybody else). It was also really awesome to get "Art of Life" thown in there, which is my favorite X Japan song. The full version is 30 minutes long so it rarely gets performed live. We got about half of it, starting from the piano solo in the middle. Still, I'll take the short version. I really loved singing along to "I.V" also. I've done that on Rockband enough times to know that song by heart.
The show ended well past midnight. I met up in the lobby with with the i360 crew: chase_the_bunny , talonomega , slave_to_anime , kamuishirou1999 , Ben, Chris along with Karrie and a few others. All of these folks were up in the balcony in their reserved seats. I'm not that old yet. hahaha It was nice to see so many people at this show. I haven't seen some of them in a long time. We tried to figure out where to eat afterward since we were all kinda hungry, but since it was so late, I just decided to go home. Sunday would be another long day.
Sunday: Muse
I got home at about 1:30 in the morning. I went to bed fairly quickly and woke up at about 8AM. For me, waking up at 8AM is my idea of sleeping in. There was plenty to do before tonight's concert. During the morning and early afternoon, I managed to do my laundry and get FPAC photos posted up on super-no1.com. It was also nice to watch some football. I haven't really had the chance to watch a lot except for Monday night. I've been on adventure time on Sunday and I've definitely enjoyed that. I finished with all of my "work" at about 2:30. I took a shower and headed out to Little Tokyo to kill some time before the show. No weaboos today. They must not like the heat or were all out at OC Japan Fair or something. It was basically Yogurtland, looking at books and an early dinner before heading out to Staples Center.
Except for the general admission line, lines to get into this show weren't bad at all. There are a lot of entrance so that helps. At least I got in really early unlike the SM Town concert where I was almost late getting into the building. There were a lot of merch stands which is nice. There was absolutely no line at the one I went to and getting merch was really quick. It was nice to hang out on the outdoor patio on the upper concourse for awhile. There's a nice view of Nokia Plaza from there and lots of people were out there taking photos and stuff. I went in for the opening band, Passion Pit, which was definitely an improvement over Vampires Everywhere! They were pretty good. Muse came on a little after 9PM. Things ran a bit more smoothly at this show. There were no mysterious delays.
Setlist:
Uprising
Resistance
New Born
...Supermassive Black Hole
Neutron Star Collision
Interlude + Hysteria
Nishe
United States of Eurasia
Ruled By Secrecy
Bliss
Helsinki Jam
Undisclosed Desires
Starlight
Plug In Baby
Time Is Running Out
Unnatural Selection
Encore:
Exogenesis Symphony: Part 1 (Overture)
Stockholm Syndrome
Man with a Harmonica + Knights of Cydonia
I had pretty much the same seating as SM Town concert. The view of the stage was pretty good and you can see a lot of stuff going on as far as roadies moving stuff on elevators and trapdoors between and during songs. I found that stuff to be very interesting. Arena shows, although less intimate, really kick ass. I love massive stages with a lot of moving lights and lasers and stuff like that. Once again, I loved this show. I loved singing along to some of the songs. I still had some voice left for today. Muse is a great live band and definitely worth checking out.
The show ended a little after 11PM. Outside Staples Center you can take your pick of whoever you wanted to buy a street hotdog from. "HOTODOG! HOTDOG! HOTDOG!" hahaha I wanted one, so I got one. I got home at about 12:30, which was nice since I had work today.
So that was it for concert weekend. I saw a lot of awesome things and heard a lot of good music and thankfully, not too much really horrible music. I don't think there will ever be another weekend like it. Conventions don't count. I know people who went to one show or the other, but I don't know who else did both shows. One of the best weekends of my life. I'll never forget this one.