4月24日 - 神戸 Kobe
So last night Erin and I went to the bar with her friends.
The club is called Atom, and it's in Shibuya. The first thing you notice is that it's not in a very big building. That's fine by me; Evolution is also not in a very big building, and I like it fine. However. Atom is actually a pretty big club. They have three dance floors; I only saw the main floor and the hip hop floor (which is not my thing). The first floor of the club, at street level, is where the lockers are. At 3$ a pop they are kind of expensive, but the relief of being able to just lock up your shit and ignore it is totally worth it. The dance floors actually start on the fourth floor. And everyone gets really into the music; in fact it's almost more like a concert than a club. It's really fun. And it's really loud. So I was deaf in one ear before the concert today. Now i"m even more deaf in one ear...Fun fun.
GOt home around six am, slept for a couple hours, and then got up again so we could head to Kobe.
Slept the entire train ride.
I was a sleepy ninja.
When we finally got to Kobe, we debated not staying at the hotel, but in the end the fact that I desperately needed a shower and the hotel has a masseuse that is available until two am kind of won us over. IN fact I've already had my massage, and Maura's getting hers now. And it's two am.
We grabbed some food, and then headed over to the Venue.
Kobe Varit is a pretty small basement venue; a capacity crowd would probably only be three fifty, maybe four hundred. Osaka was still the only show to sell out, but I think the Kobe kids did a pretty good job. A bunch of people came from other cities; we talked to a kid from Nagoya, and there were a ton of people from Osaka.
The show was crowded, and high energy, and Miyavi once again played Gravity for us. Still creepy and beautiful all at once. We did lose one girl to the heat; she passed out at the end of kimi ni negai wo, right before Superhero. Miyavi wrapped up the song (he only had three words to sing) while Yumi held the girl up until the staff could get to her. Miyavi asked everyone if we were okay, and when we didn't respond right away he said he wouldn't continue until we said very clearly that we were in fact okay. Which of course we did tell him.
The encore was again 3 songs; "mawaru mawaru sekai wa mawaru", "Sakihokoru hana no you ni neo visualism", and "girls be ambitious"
Yumi started crying when girls be ambitious started, and I can't say I didn't understand; this is the last time I'll see her until...I don't even know when. We'll of course get to email and stuff, but that's totally not the same. She's our little super hero, rocking out harder than everyone. Some of the other girls with us were also crying and I got a little teary eyed myself. We ended up standing a little back from the front, Maura the only one with dry eyes, holding on to each other while Miyavi sang.
He of course noticed his gaijin consoling the Japanese kids, and he gave us a little smile. When he finished, and was out shaking hands with the kids, Maura and I grabbed Yuuga's legs (one each) And hoisted her up in the air so she could shake his hand. She was pretty much resting on top of the three rows in front of us; and Miyavi had finished shaking hands when he saw her and winked at us, stretching his hand all the way out to touch hers. Yuuga promptly burst into tears when we let her down. It was pretty touching; actually. I'm okay with not touching miyavi...I mean...yeah...even when I CAN reach out to touch him, I don't usually bother.
After the show we headed outside for demachi; this time the crowd was much bigger than the rest; and Miyavi must have been pretty tired; he came out first and the van took off with only him in it; sad for Bobo and Coba, since we all pretty much booked it after that. Well, after Maura and I made some faces at him through the front window of the van...No idea if he saw us...probably. We're kind of tall.
Made friends to two cosplayers, though I forget the name of the guy who we've seen at a few shows (matsuaka, nagoya, and now kobe), but the girls' name is Kuga, and she was a dear. She's from Osaka.
Now we're back in the hotel, after taking photos with yumi and her friend, and getting massages to make up for the abuse of tour. It's expensive, but if it's only once, then I think its probably worth it. So ready to sleep. Will be out like a light, most likely.
Only three more shows to go; and no day trips back to tokyo till the end of tour. Tomorrow we're making the long commute to Sapporo...
It's gonna be a long day. But worth it. Worth every second.
And I'm still looking forward to the vancouver and seattle and portland shows. Not sure how I'm gonna feel about being NOT front row at portland...but I'll survive. As long as I'm off to the right, it should be okay. Miyavi should still be able to see that yes, one of his gaijin from tour is still there.
I wish I could do the whole us/canada tour with him. I wish I could have done the whole japan tour with him.
One thing is for sure.
Nine shows isn't enough.
The club is called Atom, and it's in Shibuya. The first thing you notice is that it's not in a very big building. That's fine by me; Evolution is also not in a very big building, and I like it fine. However. Atom is actually a pretty big club. They have three dance floors; I only saw the main floor and the hip hop floor (which is not my thing). The first floor of the club, at street level, is where the lockers are. At 3$ a pop they are kind of expensive, but the relief of being able to just lock up your shit and ignore it is totally worth it. The dance floors actually start on the fourth floor. And everyone gets really into the music; in fact it's almost more like a concert than a club. It's really fun. And it's really loud. So I was deaf in one ear before the concert today. Now i"m even more deaf in one ear...Fun fun.
GOt home around six am, slept for a couple hours, and then got up again so we could head to Kobe.
Slept the entire train ride.
I was a sleepy ninja.
When we finally got to Kobe, we debated not staying at the hotel, but in the end the fact that I desperately needed a shower and the hotel has a masseuse that is available until two am kind of won us over. IN fact I've already had my massage, and Maura's getting hers now. And it's two am.
We grabbed some food, and then headed over to the Venue.
Kobe Varit is a pretty small basement venue; a capacity crowd would probably only be three fifty, maybe four hundred. Osaka was still the only show to sell out, but I think the Kobe kids did a pretty good job. A bunch of people came from other cities; we talked to a kid from Nagoya, and there were a ton of people from Osaka.
The show was crowded, and high energy, and Miyavi once again played Gravity for us. Still creepy and beautiful all at once. We did lose one girl to the heat; she passed out at the end of kimi ni negai wo, right before Superhero. Miyavi wrapped up the song (he only had three words to sing) while Yumi held the girl up until the staff could get to her. Miyavi asked everyone if we were okay, and when we didn't respond right away he said he wouldn't continue until we said very clearly that we were in fact okay. Which of course we did tell him.
The encore was again 3 songs; "mawaru mawaru sekai wa mawaru", "Sakihokoru hana no you ni neo visualism", and "girls be ambitious"
Yumi started crying when girls be ambitious started, and I can't say I didn't understand; this is the last time I'll see her until...I don't even know when. We'll of course get to email and stuff, but that's totally not the same. She's our little super hero, rocking out harder than everyone. Some of the other girls with us were also crying and I got a little teary eyed myself. We ended up standing a little back from the front, Maura the only one with dry eyes, holding on to each other while Miyavi sang.
He of course noticed his gaijin consoling the Japanese kids, and he gave us a little smile. When he finished, and was out shaking hands with the kids, Maura and I grabbed Yuuga's legs (one each) And hoisted her up in the air so she could shake his hand. She was pretty much resting on top of the three rows in front of us; and Miyavi had finished shaking hands when he saw her and winked at us, stretching his hand all the way out to touch hers. Yuuga promptly burst into tears when we let her down. It was pretty touching; actually. I'm okay with not touching miyavi...I mean...yeah...even when I CAN reach out to touch him, I don't usually bother.
After the show we headed outside for demachi; this time the crowd was much bigger than the rest; and Miyavi must have been pretty tired; he came out first and the van took off with only him in it; sad for Bobo and Coba, since we all pretty much booked it after that. Well, after Maura and I made some faces at him through the front window of the van...No idea if he saw us...probably. We're kind of tall.
Made friends to two cosplayers, though I forget the name of the guy who we've seen at a few shows (matsuaka, nagoya, and now kobe), but the girls' name is Kuga, and she was a dear. She's from Osaka.
Now we're back in the hotel, after taking photos with yumi and her friend, and getting massages to make up for the abuse of tour. It's expensive, but if it's only once, then I think its probably worth it. So ready to sleep. Will be out like a light, most likely.
Only three more shows to go; and no day trips back to tokyo till the end of tour. Tomorrow we're making the long commute to Sapporo...
It's gonna be a long day. But worth it. Worth every second.
And I'm still looking forward to the vancouver and seattle and portland shows. Not sure how I'm gonna feel about being NOT front row at portland...but I'll survive. As long as I'm off to the right, it should be okay. Miyavi should still be able to see that yes, one of his gaijin from tour is still there.
I wish I could do the whole us/canada tour with him. I wish I could have done the whole japan tour with him.
One thing is for sure.
Nine shows isn't enough.