Hap-py Christ-mas Pup-pet Par-ty!
Note: backdated 'cause it's been 3 freakin' weeks & I'm sick of waiting for Girl to post her J review first. Maybe when she finally gets around to posting hers, I'll throw a link here. Meanwhile, if you happen to stumble across this & she hasn't posted hers yet, better not read it! :P"
Came back to the dorm tonight since I have a thingy tomorrow at school (some grad student research thingy- I get a ¥1500 book coupon or something out of it, so whatever), and the 'net's broken for the whole building, and the guy who normally fixes it is at home in Hiroshima for break. Great. Oh well... gives me some time to write, I guess..
J LIVE @ Yokohama Blitz 12/25
Went to the J show in Yokohama yesterday. Got some tour schwag outside (some keychains that say "WAKE UP! MOTHER FUCKERⒿ" on one side & "FUCK YOU" on the other >_<, a couple tiny WUMF pins, a couple WUMF fabric-stickers (like backstage pass material), a small WUMF bag, and a WUMF/"Jesus, Turn the Volume Up" special tour scarf-towel), grabbed some snacks at a nearby conbini since we hadn't eaten yet, got in line, saw shitloads of people with more WUMF stuff (bags, shirts, sweatshirts, scarves, etc.) than I ever thought could possibly exist, & finally headed in. Again, we got a TON of extra flier/pamphlet sets, which have small (A4/letter-sized) posters in them, for those who are interested.
The venue was MUCH smaller- about the size of the Metro, actually, only cooler, since there wasn't that annoying low-ceiling over the back part (the room was enclosed, & no bars). There were also a few padded rails at various intervals, which helped separate the mosh pit area from the rear of the room That, and the 2nd floor was stadium seating, & went down a few steps along the sides. And although we were slightly left of the left stacks & about 5' back, everyone was still close enough that J's hand was about as big as Gackt was the night before. -_-; And god DAMNIT I'm pissed my DAT was broken, 'cause that wouldn't been a GREAT show to have...
Setlist was as follows:
Evoke the World / Pyromania / Die For You / Gabriel / Living Alone / Crush Course / Blind / Sun Set / Crush / drum solo > death-metal xmas medley // Feel Your Blaze / Get Ready / Fire Star / Blank / Burn Out // We Wish A Merry Christmas (sic) / Break / Champagne Gold Supermarket // .....
After Crush, the rest of the band left while Scott did some drum soloing for a bit. Then some orchestral music came on as accompaniment, followed by a bunch of death metal xmas songs, which he played along with.. imagine a growly Dr. Claw-like death metal voice screaming "JINGLE BEEEEELLLS" and "MEEERRYYYY CHRIIIIISTMAAAAS" over & over against death metal guitars.. quite amusing... then he pulled out a little animatronic drumming panda toy, set it up on the stacks behind him & started it going, then played some more (as if playing along w/ the panda)... then he moved it to the top of his bass drum, & everyone came back out, & J goes 「今日はメンバー一人増えました」 (today we have one more member). heh.
After the 2nd break, J came out & introduced everyone, who each took turns talking (Masa did the growly "MEEERRY CHRIIIISTMAAAAS" thing), & when Scott came out, he looked into the middle of the floor & was like "What is this? Puppets? Happy Christmas? Happy Christmas Puppet Party?" >_< No idea what people were holding up, since I couldn't see over there, although I did see someone more in front of us (on the pretty-far left side) holding up a hide plushie... Then J said something about it being xmas & about giving everyone a special "Christmas preseeeeeeeent...", & how they hadn't done it the night before, but planned this specially, & then launched into a metal version of "We Wish a Merry Christmas". That's right, there was no "You" in there. >_< CGS threw me off, since they stopped in the middle & started doing this long bit w/ the same note played over & over, and then adding some "1 . . . 2 . . . 1 . 2. 1 2 Fuck Yeah!" & then "down, down, up & down", during which everyone in the crowd alternated between a middle finger & a thumb down, before going back into the end of the song (apparently this is normal, but since I haven't heard/seen/watched enough of his live shows, I was unaware). The amount of crowd choreography was downright scary at times, esp. during Pyromania, when suddenly EVERYONE in the entire crowd pulled out their lighters all at once while the lights were down. I guess living in Tokyo & being able to go to every show means you get to know all the little crowd participation thingies...
After that, they went out & the house music came on, but everyone kept on cheering & clapping & chanting, and after a while they came back out w/ some champagne bottles & started spraying them into the crowd. Then they wheeled out a big chocolate cake & started grabbing handfuls & flinging THAT into the crowd. o_O; Every time, the crowd was like 「へぇぇ？！」 Scott picked off a few cherries or something from the top of the cake & gently handed them to some people in the very front. J mentioned that they were taping, & said there'd be a DVD coming out soon that'll be part documentary, part live tour clips, & everyone went nuts for the cameras. They then played "....." (nice to hear a full-length version w/o crappy filtering on the first half), during which J grabbed one of the handhelds & taped the crowd for a bit before giving it back, & then the show was over. The crowd looked up & squealed again a bit after that, as one of the camera guys stood on the side balcony & took more crowd shots. Wonder if we'll be able to see us when the DVD comes out... ^^;
J Talk Event @ Tower 12/26
Today was the talk event- got to Tower at around 6:30, and they had us line up on the stairway according to our card numbers- Girl & I were 278 & 279, and Jessica was 260-something, so we saw her on the way up, & then waited while they kept on making us go further & further up the stairs as more people came & filled in the middle of the line. They had a little flier about the upcoming DVD, and another sheet where you could write down a question for them to ask J. Of course, we couldn't think of any that were decent & hadn't probably already been answered in interviews before... oh well. When we finally made it all the way down, they had us herded into a little closed-off area in the store in front of a little recording booth-like thing enclosed in glass, and we turned in our cards & got different ones. I ended up with 238, so apparently 40 people before us just didn't show up. Oh well.
They started w/ a staff guy reminding everyone of the no cameras rule, & then said this event would appear in an upcoming Fool's Mate. Then he introduced a Fool's Mate interviewer, who said a few more things, & then the whole band came in, except for Masa, at which Scott noted 「まさはマクドナルド」(Masa's at McDonald's). >_< The interviewer asked them a bunch of stuff, doing Scott's parts in English (and then teasing him about being able to understand when he replied to a few simple side comments done in Japanese) & translating them back for everyone else. We were pretty close to the back of the little area, but since my head stuck above almost everyone else, I managed to catch Scott's eye at one point, & gave the evil hands, & he smiled & nodded. Masa came in late & apologized for being at McDonald's, etc.
They asked a few questions from people's papers, including a Korean exchange student who mentioned that one of their shows there got cancelled, & asked if they were ever planning to go back. They said yeah, J mentioned getting lots of fan email from Korea & other countries from their web site, & Scott said he wanted to go tour there, since he likes Korean food. Then Masa said he didn't have a passport, & Scott joked about there not being any McDonald's there, so he couldn't go anyway. Talked more about the DVD, then about xmas (how "in Scott's country" it's more of a big family thing, but here it's not, & then he said "but this is my family"), & then everyone said some stuff about what they hoped for the future. Couple of them mentioned wanting to tour overseas, either J or Fujita said they were thinking of doing a show in LA, & then the FM guy asked Scott if he wanted to tour the US, to which he was like "of course" & said something about going home w/ his new family. Everyone said Merry Christmas & Scott did the "Happy Christmas Puppet Party" line again... >.<
Then they were like "We have a special gift for 3 people", & drew 3 numbers out of a box, and those 3 people got to go back into the booth w/ everyone (1 at a time, even) & got a (signed?) t-shirt. x_X; They called all low numbers- one was under 100, and the other 2 were 100 & 101. L4444m3. -_-; oh well. On the way out, we got signed posters. Ate at Pastel followed by parfaits @ Cafe Est! Est! (apparently our new "regular" dessert place, as we've been there 3x now...)
[this part snipped & put in a later post that was posted before this...]
Getting late... need to be up for my 1:00 thingy tomorrow. Then it's back to Girl's, where I'll finally have a good week or 2 of nice, relaxing NOTHING. Must. sleep. now...
Came back to the dorm tonight since I have a thingy tomorrow at school (some grad student research thingy- I get a ¥1500 book coupon or something out of it, so whatever), and the 'net's broken for the whole building, and the guy who normally fixes it is at home in Hiroshima for break. Great. Oh well... gives me some time to write, I guess..
J LIVE @ Yokohama Blitz 12/25
Went to the J show in Yokohama yesterday. Got some tour schwag outside (some keychains that say "WAKE UP! MOTHER FUCKERⒿ" on one side & "FUCK YOU" on the other >_<, a couple tiny WUMF pins, a couple WUMF fabric-stickers (like backstage pass material), a small WUMF bag, and a WUMF/"Jesus, Turn the Volume Up" special tour scarf-towel), grabbed some snacks at a nearby conbini since we hadn't eaten yet, got in line, saw shitloads of people with more WUMF stuff (bags, shirts, sweatshirts, scarves, etc.) than I ever thought could possibly exist, & finally headed in. Again, we got a TON of extra flier/pamphlet sets, which have small (A4/letter-sized) posters in them, for those who are interested.
The venue was MUCH smaller- about the size of the Metro, actually, only cooler, since there wasn't that annoying low-ceiling over the back part (the room was enclosed, & no bars). There were also a few padded rails at various intervals, which helped separate the mosh pit area from the rear of the room That, and the 2nd floor was stadium seating, & went down a few steps along the sides. And although we were slightly left of the left stacks & about 5' back, everyone was still close enough that J's hand was about as big as Gackt was the night before. -_-; And god DAMNIT I'm pissed my DAT was broken, 'cause that wouldn't been a GREAT show to have...
Setlist was as follows:
Evoke the World / Pyromania / Die For You / Gabriel / Living Alone / Crush Course / Blind / Sun Set / Crush / drum solo > death-metal xmas medley // Feel Your Blaze / Get Ready / Fire Star / Blank / Burn Out // We Wish A Merry Christmas (sic) / Break / Champagne Gold Supermarket // .....
After Crush, the rest of the band left while Scott did some drum soloing for a bit. Then some orchestral music came on as accompaniment, followed by a bunch of death metal xmas songs, which he played along with.. imagine a growly Dr. Claw-like death metal voice screaming "JINGLE BEEEEELLLS" and "MEEERRYYYY CHRIIIIISTMAAAAS" over & over against death metal guitars.. quite amusing... then he pulled out a little animatronic drumming panda toy, set it up on the stacks behind him & started it going, then played some more (as if playing along w/ the panda)... then he moved it to the top of his bass drum, & everyone came back out, & J goes 「今日はメンバー一人増えました」 (today we have one more member). heh.
After the 2nd break, J came out & introduced everyone, who each took turns talking (Masa did the growly "MEEERRY CHRIIIISTMAAAAS" thing), & when Scott came out, he looked into the middle of the floor & was like "What is this? Puppets? Happy Christmas? Happy Christmas Puppet Party?" >_< No idea what people were holding up, since I couldn't see over there, although I did see someone more in front of us (on the pretty-far left side) holding up a hide plushie... Then J said something about it being xmas & about giving everyone a special "Christmas preseeeeeeeent...", & how they hadn't done it the night before, but planned this specially, & then launched into a metal version of "We Wish a Merry Christmas". That's right, there was no "You" in there. >_< CGS threw me off, since they stopped in the middle & started doing this long bit w/ the same note played over & over, and then adding some "1 . . . 2 . . . 1 . 2. 1 2 Fuck Yeah!" & then "down, down, up & down", during which everyone in the crowd alternated between a middle finger & a thumb down, before going back into the end of the song (apparently this is normal, but since I haven't heard/seen/watched enough of his live shows, I was unaware). The amount of crowd choreography was downright scary at times, esp. during Pyromania, when suddenly EVERYONE in the entire crowd pulled out their lighters all at once while the lights were down. I guess living in Tokyo & being able to go to every show means you get to know all the little crowd participation thingies...
After that, they went out & the house music came on, but everyone kept on cheering & clapping & chanting, and after a while they came back out w/ some champagne bottles & started spraying them into the crowd. Then they wheeled out a big chocolate cake & started grabbing handfuls & flinging THAT into the crowd. o_O; Every time, the crowd was like 「へぇぇ？！」 Scott picked off a few cherries or something from the top of the cake & gently handed them to some people in the very front. J mentioned that they were taping, & said there'd be a DVD coming out soon that'll be part documentary, part live tour clips, & everyone went nuts for the cameras. They then played "....." (nice to hear a full-length version w/o crappy filtering on the first half), during which J grabbed one of the handhelds & taped the crowd for a bit before giving it back, & then the show was over. The crowd looked up & squealed again a bit after that, as one of the camera guys stood on the side balcony & took more crowd shots. Wonder if we'll be able to see us when the DVD comes out... ^^;
J Talk Event @ Tower 12/26
Today was the talk event- got to Tower at around 6:30, and they had us line up on the stairway according to our card numbers- Girl & I were 278 & 279, and Jessica was 260-something, so we saw her on the way up, & then waited while they kept on making us go further & further up the stairs as more people came & filled in the middle of the line. They had a little flier about the upcoming DVD, and another sheet where you could write down a question for them to ask J. Of course, we couldn't think of any that were decent & hadn't probably already been answered in interviews before... oh well. When we finally made it all the way down, they had us herded into a little closed-off area in the store in front of a little recording booth-like thing enclosed in glass, and we turned in our cards & got different ones. I ended up with 238, so apparently 40 people before us just didn't show up. Oh well.
They started w/ a staff guy reminding everyone of the no cameras rule, & then said this event would appear in an upcoming Fool's Mate. Then he introduced a Fool's Mate interviewer, who said a few more things, & then the whole band came in, except for Masa, at which Scott noted 「まさはマクドナルド」(Masa's at McDonald's). >_< The interviewer asked them a bunch of stuff, doing Scott's parts in English (and then teasing him about being able to understand when he replied to a few simple side comments done in Japanese) & translating them back for everyone else. We were pretty close to the back of the little area, but since my head stuck above almost everyone else, I managed to catch Scott's eye at one point, & gave the evil hands, & he smiled & nodded. Masa came in late & apologized for being at McDonald's, etc.
They asked a few questions from people's papers, including a Korean exchange student who mentioned that one of their shows there got cancelled, & asked if they were ever planning to go back. They said yeah, J mentioned getting lots of fan email from Korea & other countries from their web site, & Scott said he wanted to go tour there, since he likes Korean food. Then Masa said he didn't have a passport, & Scott joked about there not being any McDonald's there, so he couldn't go anyway. Talked more about the DVD, then about xmas (how "in Scott's country" it's more of a big family thing, but here it's not, & then he said "but this is my family"), & then everyone said some stuff about what they hoped for the future. Couple of them mentioned wanting to tour overseas, either J or Fujita said they were thinking of doing a show in LA, & then the FM guy asked Scott if he wanted to tour the US, to which he was like "of course" & said something about going home w/ his new family. Everyone said Merry Christmas & Scott did the "Happy Christmas Puppet Party" line again... >.<
Then they were like "We have a special gift for 3 people", & drew 3 numbers out of a box, and those 3 people got to go back into the booth w/ everyone (1 at a time, even) & got a (signed?) t-shirt. x_X; They called all low numbers- one was under 100, and the other 2 were 100 & 101. L4444m3. -_-; oh well. On the way out, we got signed posters. Ate at Pastel followed by parfaits @ Cafe Est! Est! (apparently our new "regular" dessert place, as we've been there 3x now...)
[this part snipped & put in a later post that was posted before this...]
Getting late... need to be up for my 1:00 thingy tomorrow. Then it's back to Girl's, where I'll finally have a good week or 2 of nice, relaxing NOTHING. Must. sleep. now...