OMFG hide memorial summit - 2008/05/04 Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo, JP
Ho.
Ly.
Shit. ((o_O));
OK, let's back up a bit. ~10:00
Woke up, showered, got all ready to go. Hit the ATMs, since we were both broke & knew we'd need cash for goods. Saw a couple of hide cosplayers at OUR station, which was kinda cool, considering we almost never see other people decked out for shows until we're almost there. Took the train to Seibu Shinjuku & had Soup Stock for lunch. Walked over to Shinjuku-eki where most of the decked-out people were. ~12:30
Got to the venue, walked in & around to the goods line, found out not unexpectedly that we couldn't exchange the wrong shirt we'd gotten yesterday, so we got 2 of the other shirts in M & L (they were out of ALL 4 S-size shirts). Still no hand towels, damnit- apparently they didn't leave any for the second day. Or else they did, and sold out that fucking fast. Gar. Headed over to the Luna Sea tent & got a couple shirts there, & then hit the Oblivion Dust tent, which was empty. Girl was talking about the grey HAZE shirt, which she had, but was "too big" (as a Small), and since they had Kids L there, she was thinking of getting that & giving me the S (I'd normally say that'd be way too small, but then again, the FUCK shirt's a S, so, who knows). So the chick behind the counter was looking nervously, & said to the other guy 「英語で？」but then we did everything in Japanese so it was fine. Girl ended up getting the Kids L shirt. Just then NEO (from カラバカ & the shortest live ever1) tapped us from the next booth, since he was there selling goods for part of the day. After that, the guy from the OD booth tapped us again & said (in Japanese) "Um, my company made those shirts (to our Luna Sea shirts from the 12/24 show)- could I take your picture for our web site?" "Um, ok!" Apparently they'd made the nylon hide bags, too, so I held that up as well (since I inevitably ended up carrying it).
1: I guess I never made this its own post, since there wasn't much point, but we went to NEO's show, after the last J show. He was supposed to go on at 9, but said we might want to get there by 8:30. We stopped & ate first, and got there a little before 8:30, but he was already on his 2nd song. Of 4. Oh well. At least the last song was TONIGHT, which was amusing.
Anyway. In the meantime, while we were in line, some guy was yelling そろそろ開演いたしま〜す (The show's gonna start soon), & I was all "WTF?" So I asked the goods chick, who asked someone else, & they confirmed that no, the show starts at 2 like it's supposed to. ~1:00 - heidi (L) (missed) -_-;
By this time we were out of goods land & headed towards the bathrooms. We first looked for vending machines to buy water from, since they were selling them for ¥150 outside the conbinis on the way (when they'd normally be ¥110 there, and ¥120 from the machines), but since you weren't allowed to take anything BUT water inside, all the waters in all the machines were sold out. -_-; So we found some hidden bathroom area & ducked in. I finished rather quickly while Girl was still standing outside the door in line, so I stood there & waited for a while. I started to hear music from the stadium that sounded too loud & echoey to not be PA music, but I couldn't quite tell, except that it was Tell Me. Oh well, it's probably just the PA turned up loud, I reassured myself, & ran over to the other set of vending machines while I waited for Girl to make it through the girl's bathroom line. Of course those were all out of water, too. Finally Girl was done, & we headed inside. Again, I asked at the gate if the show had already started & they were like "Huh? No, it starts at 2." Grabbed a couple waters, and by then it was getting pretty obvious that yes, despite being told otherwise, the show HAD started. FUCK! Ran through security as fast as we could (always annoying how they check your bags when you go through the ticket gate AND into the actual arena, even though barely a minute has elapsed. -_-; Speed-walked up to our seats, trying to get my gear rolling while walking by pushing the buttons in my pocket, but by the time we got there, sat down, & started rolling (the in-the-pocket button pushing had left it paused), the first band had ended. -_-; ~1:25 - Tokyo Yankees (R)
WTF? They're starting an hour early, and then throwing in bands that aren't even on the lineup? Gar. OK, fine, whatever. The lead singer had a motörhead shirt, which was amusing, & after the first song a couple shirtless guys w/ full-arm tatoos (& one w/ a pink mohawk) came out with gigantic (~4'x6' on 8' poles) flags w/ 無敵 written in semi-legible cursive. ~1:40 - LADIESROOM (L)
OK, another non-lineup band. The singer had a Dead Kennedys shirt, and the 無敵 flag guys were out again. That's about all I got from them. ~2:00 Dir en Grey (C)
OK, I got me some DeG. But apparently not enough (or at least not enough newer stuff), since I didn't recognize a single song (Girl thinks she might've recognized Filth in there, but who knows). All I can say is that despite them all looking mostly normal now (as opposed to all V系'd out), Kyo looked like a fucking caged animal the whole time. If you saw this guy in a bar looking at you w/ that expression, you'd get the fuck outta there really fucking quickly. Halfway through the set he starts sticking his fingers in the sides of his mouth & ripping them out until he starts drooling blood. Then he repeatedly scratches across his chest w/ a needle or something. A song or 2 after that featured clips on the screens of crazed out geisha-looking chicks having orgies & eating dead baby heads, & conscious mutilated bodies & people drooling & bubbling blood, etc. etc. I sorta expected that sort of thing, but I don't think I've ever seen any of their PVs, so... that was that. Oh, and the 3 crazy psycho girls behind us that were screaming for Phantasmagoria yesterday were back again, all screaming psychotically this time. I guess Dir en Grey doesn't get the anime voice treatment (think Kuno's sister from Ranma). 2:45 - the Underneath (L)
Don't remember much about this band, except they did DOUBT [hide]. Looked vaguely NIN-inspired, w/ the lead singer in eyeshadow & a fishnet shirt. ~3:10 - D'espairs Ray (R)
Opened with POSE [hide], had a song called 'brilliant' in there, but I had to look at the fliers to remember what they looked like. ~3:35 - Mucc (L)
When their logo came up on the screen (oh yeah- before every band they play the intro to DOUBT w/ the "zero, one, zero, one" bit, and a big title montage saying 'hide memorial summit' & a bunch of stuff, then finally the band logo), it was completely unrecognizable, so I didn't know who it was until he said「ムックです」a couple times. 2 of the members had Iron Maiden & Metallica shirts on, which is always amusing. Ended w/ a story about how he heard DICE in a record store once & bought the album, then covered it w/ a guest artist whose name I didn't quite catch, but Girl think's it's Jesse from RIZE's dad, Char. ~4:05 - Oblivion Dust (R)
Right stage, AWW YEAH! And, just as I'd hoped, they included one of the 2 best hide covers from the tribute album.
By this time the stadium was damn near full, and even before LUNA SEA showed up on the screen, everyone was going nuts- people calling out "J------!!" "SUGIZOOOOOO!" "INOOOOOOO!" etc. I turned around at a group of girls yelling for J & flashed my WAKE UP! MOTHERFUCKER muffler towel & they gave me the thumbs up. ^^; So yeah, "LUNA SEA" flashes on the screen, and the crowd roared like a lion. The jam session was awesome. It whipped a horse's ass! After a brief Moonlight Sonata intro, we were treated to:
During In Silence, Sugi was sharing KR's mic, then gave him a kiss & headed off... And we got SCANNER, plus 3 other songs that weren't played at Tokyo Dome (G, In Silence, Blue Transparency). I actually grabbed 4 ribbons out of the air, but apparently Girl had the other end of one of them, & ended up pulling it away, so we both ended up w/ 3. At the end, Sugi threw a water bottle out, and some white guy catches it & then proceeds to hold it up triumphantly, standing on his chair & proudly displaying it to everyone around. Teh LOLZ.
Oh, and before Up To You, KR says:
最後の曲ですが、ここから、もう一度始めるつもりで…
something to the effect of "this is the last song, but- we plan to start again from here..." o____O; I'm still not sure I'm ready to think about what that might mean.
And if THAT set wasn't insane enough... ~6:35 - X Japan
They had a ~35-40m break, since they had to change the set on the main stage, and obviously you can't stick anyone between motherfucking Luna Sea & X Japan. So we all sat patiently, until finally the 0-1-0-1 intro started again, a helicopter flew overhead, some music (Amethyst, apparently) plays over the PA w/ an English voice over introducing the band members & then saying "Now... are you ready, motherfuckers?" or some shit like that... World Anthem plays while they continue to walk on/around the stage, and start their set...
After I.V., Toshi jokes about Sugizo joining X Japan instead, but then asks if Luna Sea is better. Yoshiki kicks over his gong for the second time (I forget where the first time was), then heads over to the piano and starts playing the live intro to motherfucking Pink Spider... o_O;
Girl's standing there looking completely fucking confused, while I'm freaking out going "D000000d, it's PINK FUCKING SPIDER!" One of the roadies comes out with hide's yellow/heart guitar and PUTS IT ON YOSHIKI. Who goes up to the front, and SHINYA comes out & hops on the drums! Girl starts sobbing.
And while everyone is wondering how the fuck they can top that, suddenly FUCKLOADS of people start pouring onto the stage: TMR, Mucc, one (more?) of the V-kei guys in a dress from yesterday, and a shitload of other people (I'm assuming all the Spread Beaver guys were there), half of them carrying 無敵 flags.
Oh, speaking of- MOTHER FUCK. After the show, Yoshiki & a few others go around throwing shit out (Y had several PAILS of drumsticks). Sugizo comes over to the right side w/ one of his drumsticks & throws it JUST over & to our right- if Girl hadn't been blocking me into the section I wouldv'e fucking dove for that shit. But instead, where does it land? Right in front of the crazy 3. But apparently too many people had their hands on it at once, including a girl in the row ahead of them, so after the show had completely ended, they snapped the fucker in half over the back of a chair & each took part- the girl in the row ahead, and the most psychotic of The 3. -____-; GRR.
Anyway- back to the show's end. X dragged on almost as long as Endless Rain, w/ practically everyone, including Ryuuichi, TMR, the Mucc guy, & a couple others taking turns going "We Are!" & the crowd screaming "X!!!!!!11eleventy" & jumping up w/ the crossed X-arms. More fireworks shot up, everyone said their thanks, the entire stadium yelled "HIDEEEEE" to the sky a few times, then all the other bands left while the members of X Japan came back out w/ giant 3-4' tall plush dolls of all 5 members, made them bow a few times, & then finally exited. By this point it was 9. The show started an hour earlier AND ran an hour later than schedule. I'm amazed both my memory card & batteries lasted that long. Sure beats the fuck out of DAT! ^^;
After all this we met back up w/ Hide from karabaka- who'd apparently decided on a whim last night after watching the One Night Déjàvu DVD to come tonight, and managed to get a seat in A14 (lucky fucker), & passed us on his way in right before Luna Sea (after emailing back & forth w/ Girl all day)- for our long walk out. It took us well over 1/2 hour to get just from outside the stadium to the station- I wasn't even counting how long it took to get out of the stadium once they called our section. I got to attempt to explain to him the meaning of "Wake Up! Mother Fucker". Headed home on a train packed full of cosplayers, which caused much staring, stopped at Wataminchi for dinner, & came back, where I spent the last 2.5-odd hours writing this (and another hour checking & re-editing -_-;). And fuck, it's after FOUR. And my laptop has no SPACE. We need a SPACE, so we don't feel like some kind of, trapped object in a box.
Something tells me I'll be going to karabaka late tomorrow, if at all... -_-;
Ly.
Shit. ((o_O));
OK, let's back up a bit. ~10:00
Woke up, showered, got all ready to go. Hit the ATMs, since we were both broke & knew we'd need cash for goods. Saw a couple of hide cosplayers at OUR station, which was kinda cool, considering we almost never see other people decked out for shows until we're almost there. Took the train to Seibu Shinjuku & had Soup Stock for lunch. Walked over to Shinjuku-eki where most of the decked-out people were. ~12:30
Got to the venue, walked in & around to the goods line, found out not unexpectedly that we couldn't exchange the wrong shirt we'd gotten yesterday, so we got 2 of the other shirts in M & L (they were out of ALL 4 S-size shirts). Still no hand towels, damnit- apparently they didn't leave any for the second day. Or else they did, and sold out that fucking fast. Gar. Headed over to the Luna Sea tent & got a couple shirts there, & then hit the Oblivion Dust tent, which was empty. Girl was talking about the grey HAZE shirt, which she had, but was "too big" (as a Small), and since they had Kids L there, she was thinking of getting that & giving me the S (I'd normally say that'd be way too small, but then again, the FUCK shirt's a S, so, who knows). So the chick behind the counter was looking nervously, & said to the other guy 「英語で？」but then we did everything in Japanese so it was fine. Girl ended up getting the Kids L shirt. Just then NEO (from カラバカ & the shortest live ever1) tapped us from the next booth, since he was there selling goods for part of the day. After that, the guy from the OD booth tapped us again & said (in Japanese) "Um, my company made those shirts (to our Luna Sea shirts from the 12/24 show)- could I take your picture for our web site?" "Um, ok!" Apparently they'd made the nylon hide bags, too, so I held that up as well (since I inevitably ended up carrying it).
1: I guess I never made this its own post, since there wasn't much point, but we went to NEO's show, after the last J show. He was supposed to go on at 9, but said we might want to get there by 8:30. We stopped & ate first, and got there a little before 8:30, but he was already on his 2nd song. Of 4. Oh well. At least the last song was TONIGHT, which was amusing.
Anyway. In the meantime, while we were in line, some guy was yelling そろそろ開演いたしま〜す (The show's gonna start soon), & I was all "WTF?" So I asked the goods chick, who asked someone else, & they confirmed that no, the show starts at 2 like it's supposed to. ~1:00 - heidi (L) (missed) -_-;
By this time we were out of goods land & headed towards the bathrooms. We first looked for vending machines to buy water from, since they were selling them for ¥150 outside the conbinis on the way (when they'd normally be ¥110 there, and ¥120 from the machines), but since you weren't allowed to take anything BUT water inside, all the waters in all the machines were sold out. -_-; So we found some hidden bathroom area & ducked in. I finished rather quickly while Girl was still standing outside the door in line, so I stood there & waited for a while. I started to hear music from the stadium that sounded too loud & echoey to not be PA music, but I couldn't quite tell, except that it was Tell Me. Oh well, it's probably just the PA turned up loud, I reassured myself, & ran over to the other set of vending machines while I waited for Girl to make it through the girl's bathroom line. Of course those were all out of water, too. Finally Girl was done, & we headed inside. Again, I asked at the gate if the show had already started & they were like "Huh? No, it starts at 2." Grabbed a couple waters, and by then it was getting pretty obvious that yes, despite being told otherwise, the show HAD started. FUCK! Ran through security as fast as we could (always annoying how they check your bags when you go through the ticket gate AND into the actual arena, even though barely a minute has elapsed. -_-; Speed-walked up to our seats, trying to get my gear rolling while walking by pushing the buttons in my pocket, but by the time we got there, sat down, & started rolling (the in-the-pocket button pushing had left it paused), the first band had ended. -_-; ~1:25 - Tokyo Yankees (R)
WTF? They're starting an hour early, and then throwing in bands that aren't even on the lineup? Gar. OK, fine, whatever. The lead singer had a motörhead shirt, which was amusing, & after the first song a couple shirtless guys w/ full-arm tatoos (& one w/ a pink mohawk) came out with gigantic (~4'x6' on 8' poles) flags w/ 無敵 written in semi-legible cursive. ~1:40 - LADIESROOM (L)
OK, another non-lineup band. The singer had a Dead Kennedys shirt, and the 無敵 flag guys were out again. That's about all I got from them. ~2:00 Dir en Grey (C)
OK, I got me some DeG. But apparently not enough (or at least not enough newer stuff), since I didn't recognize a single song (Girl thinks she might've recognized Filth in there, but who knows). All I can say is that despite them all looking mostly normal now (as opposed to all V系'd out), Kyo looked like a fucking caged animal the whole time. If you saw this guy in a bar looking at you w/ that expression, you'd get the fuck outta there really fucking quickly. Halfway through the set he starts sticking his fingers in the sides of his mouth & ripping them out until he starts drooling blood. Then he repeatedly scratches across his chest w/ a needle or something. A song or 2 after that featured clips on the screens of crazed out geisha-looking chicks having orgies & eating dead baby heads, & conscious mutilated bodies & people drooling & bubbling blood, etc. etc. I sorta expected that sort of thing, but I don't think I've ever seen any of their PVs, so... that was that. Oh, and the 3 crazy psycho girls behind us that were screaming for Phantasmagoria yesterday were back again, all screaming psychotically this time. I guess Dir en Grey doesn't get the anime voice treatment (think Kuno's sister from Ranma). 2:45 - the Underneath (L)
Don't remember much about this band, except they did DOUBT [hide]. Looked vaguely NIN-inspired, w/ the lead singer in eyeshadow & a fishnet shirt. ~3:10 - D'espairs Ray (R)
Opened with POSE [hide], had a song called 'brilliant' in there, but I had to look at the fliers to remember what they looked like. ~3:35 - Mucc (L)
When their logo came up on the screen (oh yeah- before every band they play the intro to DOUBT w/ the "zero, one, zero, one" bit, and a big title montage saying 'hide memorial summit' & a bunch of stuff, then finally the band logo), it was completely unrecognizable, so I didn't know who it was until he said「ムックです」a couple times. 2 of the members had Iron Maiden & Metallica shirts on, which is always amusing. Ended w/ a story about how he heard DICE in a record store once & bought the album, then covered it w/ a guest artist whose name I didn't quite catch, but Girl think's it's Jesse from RIZE's dad, Char. ~4:05 - Oblivion Dust (R)
Right stage, AWW YEAH! And, just as I'd hoped, they included one of the 2 best hide covers from the tribute album.
- 限界破裂 [hide]
- Microchipped
- Never Ending
- Radio Song
- Designer Fetus
- 24 Hour Buzz
By this time the stadium was damn near full, and even before LUNA SEA showed up on the screen, everyone was going nuts- people calling out "J------!!" "SUGIZOOOOOO!" "INOOOOOOO!" etc. I turned around at a group of girls yelling for J & flashed my WAKE UP! MOTHERFUCKER muffler towel & they gave me the thumbs up. ^^; So yeah, "LUNA SEA" flashes on the screen, and the crowd roared like a lion. The jam session was awesome. It whipped a horse's ass! After a brief Moonlight Sonata intro, we were treated to:
- Precious...
- G.
- Déjàvu
- SLAVE
- SCANNER [hide] 「愛とリスペクトを込めて…」- awww yeah!
- In Silence
- Blue Transparency
- ROSIER
- TONIGHT
- WISH (ribbon GET! x3!!!!1)
- Up To You
During In Silence, Sugi was sharing KR's mic, then gave him a kiss & headed off... And we got SCANNER, plus 3 other songs that weren't played at Tokyo Dome (G, In Silence, Blue Transparency). I actually grabbed 4 ribbons out of the air, but apparently Girl had the other end of one of them, & ended up pulling it away, so we both ended up w/ 3. At the end, Sugi threw a water bottle out, and some white guy catches it & then proceeds to hold it up triumphantly, standing on his chair & proudly displaying it to everyone around. Teh LOLZ.
Oh, and before Up To You, KR says:
最後の曲ですが、ここから、もう一度始めるつもりで…
something to the effect of "this is the last song, but- we plan to start again from here..." o____O; I'm still not sure I'm ready to think about what that might mean.
And if THAT set wasn't insane enough... ~6:35 - X Japan
They had a ~35-40m break, since they had to change the set on the main stage, and obviously you can't stick anyone between motherfucking Luna Sea & X Japan. So we all sat patiently, until finally the 0-1-0-1 intro started again, a helicopter flew overhead, some music (Amethyst, apparently) plays over the PA w/ an English voice over introducing the band members & then saying "Now... are you ready, motherfuckers?" or some shit like that... World Anthem plays while they continue to walk on/around the stage, and start their set...
- Rusty Nail
- SCARS
- Silent Jealousy
- (Yoshiki piano solo)
- Without You (Yoshiki & Toshi)
- 紅 (piano intro) - more ribbons! snagged 2 more!
- Endless Rain
- I.V. (w/ Sugizo!)
After I.V., Toshi jokes about Sugizo joining X Japan instead, but then asks if Luna Sea is better. Yoshiki kicks over his gong for the second time (I forget where the first time was), then heads over to the piano and starts playing the live intro to motherfucking Pink Spider... o_O;
Girl's standing there looking completely fucking confused, while I'm freaking out going "D000000d, it's PINK FUCKING SPIDER!" One of the roadies comes out with hide's yellow/heart guitar and PUTS IT ON YOSHIKI. Who goes up to the front, and SHINYA comes out & hops on the drums! Girl starts sobbing.
- PINK SPIDER [hide] (w/ Sugizo, Yoshiki on hide's guitar, 真矢 on drums) ASF:LKAJSG:LKAJHSG
- BELIEVE (Luna Sea + X Japan; 真矢 on guitar, Yoshiki on drums)
And while everyone is wondering how the fuck they can top that, suddenly FUCKLOADS of people start pouring onto the stage: TMR, Mucc, one (more?) of the V-kei guys in a dress from yesterday, and a shitload of other people (I'm assuming all the Spread Beaver guys were there), half of them carrying 無敵 flags.
- X with:
- all of X (Yoshiki on guitar)
- all of Luna Sea (真矢 on drums)
- Mucc's lead singer (on vocals) & guitarist (in the Metallica shirt)
- Takanori (TMR) on vocals
- countless others from both days' bands, running around the entire width of the stage, some w/ 無敵 flags
Oh, speaking of- MOTHER FUCK. After the show, Yoshiki & a few others go around throwing shit out (Y had several PAILS of drumsticks). Sugizo comes over to the right side w/ one of his drumsticks & throws it JUST over & to our right- if Girl hadn't been blocking me into the section I wouldv'e fucking dove for that shit. But instead, where does it land? Right in front of the crazy 3. But apparently too many people had their hands on it at once, including a girl in the row ahead of them, so after the show had completely ended, they snapped the fucker in half over the back of a chair & each took part- the girl in the row ahead, and the most psychotic of The 3. -____-; GRR.
Anyway- back to the show's end. X dragged on almost as long as Endless Rain, w/ practically everyone, including Ryuuichi, TMR, the Mucc guy, & a couple others taking turns going "We Are!" & the crowd screaming "X!!!!!!11eleventy" & jumping up w/ the crossed X-arms. More fireworks shot up, everyone said their thanks, the entire stadium yelled "HIDEEEEE" to the sky a few times, then all the other bands left while the members of X Japan came back out w/ giant 3-4' tall plush dolls of all 5 members, made them bow a few times, & then finally exited. By this point it was 9. The show started an hour earlier AND ran an hour later than schedule. I'm amazed both my memory card & batteries lasted that long. Sure beats the fuck out of DAT! ^^;
After all this we met back up w/ Hide from karabaka- who'd apparently decided on a whim last night after watching the One Night Déjàvu DVD to come tonight, and managed to get a seat in A14 (lucky fucker), & passed us on his way in right before Luna Sea (after emailing back & forth w/ Girl all day)- for our long walk out. It took us well over 1/2 hour to get just from outside the stadium to the station- I wasn't even counting how long it took to get out of the stadium once they called our section. I got to attempt to explain to him the meaning of "Wake Up! Mother Fucker". Headed home on a train packed full of cosplayers, which caused much staring, stopped at Wataminchi for dinner, & came back, where I spent the last 2.5-odd hours writing this (and another hour checking & re-editing -_-;). And fuck, it's after FOUR. And my laptop has no SPACE. We need a SPACE, so we don't feel like some kind of, trapped object in a box.
Something tells me I'll be going to karabaka late tomorrow, if at all... -_-;