Gackt - 2009/01/06 東京国際フォーラムホールA; Tokyo, JP (aka more of the same, but better)
OK, let me just say that being close enough to actually be able to see Gackt's face w/o binoculars makes a pretty big difference in the amount of fun the show is. When you're too far away to even see his mouth moving, you might as well be watching a movie. Oh well. Kinda surprised they never used the screens to show close ups of him, but then I suppose they would've had to have a multi-camera crew at all times, and it's not like the place is THAT big.. Hell, they didn't even have screens at B-T @ Budokan. -_-; Oh well.
Oh, and the pre-show music? I asked the soundboard guy before the show, & both of us fail Classical Music 101- even though we couldn't identify it, we were at least sure it was Russian. But nope, we even got the country wrong- it was Ravel's "Boléro". D'oh.
Anyway, I suppose I should've expected it, given the amount of choreography, but tonight's set was identical to last night's. It might as well have been the exact same show, except for some slight differences in stage banter when he talked for 20m after the break (this time we got a story about some conversation he had w/ a 90-year-old woman, who insisted he'd come back there again next year, and that she wouldn't die before then). So, then, just a few extra notes to fill in a little bit more of what I already wrote last night.
Pre-post update: it was getting too late to finish this all last night after the show, so I went to bed instead, intending to finish it today. And while searching for images of tour goods, I happened to come across this post w/ a full setlist! So now we have song titles. Yaaay... (And yeah- when I saw the username I was like "Oh god, it's gonna be one of those people", but was pleasantly surprised- a foreign fangirl who can actually be sarcastic & snarky about Gackt instead of taking him (and themselves) way too seriously! ^^;)
Extra bonus notes:
OK, apparently the missing word during the banter the night before was ラジバンダリ, which is a line from a comedy gag, which explains why everyone else was laughing & I didn't get it (1. it's not an actual word, and 2. I don't watch enough Japanese comedy to have picked it up).
There was a 40-something salaryman in a grey suit 1 row & a few seats over that provided much amusement, esp. during the Koakumania dance... lol.
SCHWAG: picked up 2 boxes of chocolates (brought one into work, much to everyone's amusement), the pen/pencil set, 2 stickers, the tour pamhplet, playing cards, & a plethora of ribbons. The cards actually pissed me off when I opened them & realized they don't fucking have Gackt on them! Well yeah, he's on the back of every card, but only the Jokers have him on the front- the rest are this little cartoon dog w/ all these eco-friendly tips on how to use less energy & shit. The picture, of course, showed the Jokers on top, and thus led me to believe that every card, or at least the fucking face cards, would have little cartoon Gackts on them, but noOOOoo. I feel terribly misled, and sorely disappointed. T_T;
Anyway... I didn't get anything from the other side of the flyer- none of the shirts looked that interested, I'm not terribly interested in overpriced jewelry that I'm not gonna wear anyway, and the red armband things? Are you fucking kidding me? Might as well have a goram swastika on them. I dunno- maybe the whole Nazi thing doesn't bother the Japanese since they were pretty much on the same side, but still... there are things that are Just. Not. Right. But anyway... Teh Stuff:
Anyway, that's about it! Next show is 2/2 (no tix for 2/1, but assuming it's going to be the exact same show (and given all the backing music, that there isn't a lot of room for variation in the songs themselves), maybe that's not such a bad thing). After that, there's nothing else on the horizon until the Buck-Tick tour starts in April. Not like I'm looking to top last year or anything...
So, what else has been going on? Well, over the break we finally finished Enterprise, which meant the only ST series left was TOS, which we finally grudgingly started, but, knowing we wouldn't be able to take more than 2 episodes a night, we also finally started BSG, which has been downloaded & waiting to be watched for at least a year now, but we never got around to because we didn't want to switch between (a recent) Star Trek & BSG at the same time. Started w/ the miniseries in one night during the break (I think pretty much right after finishing Enterprise), then managed to make it all the way through season 1 in the next two days (6 episodes the first night & 7 the next, plus #1 of season 2, since, well, we HAD to w/ that cliffhanger there!). And while we suffered through 2 TOS episodes the first night, it's been 1 a night since then- there's just no fucking way I can possibly take any more than that- it's just... GUH. But we're trudging through it anyway, if for no other reason that to be able to get all the references from the other series'.
Anyway, I've been dead tired all week, so I'm gonna try to make it to bed before midnight this time. -_-; Doubt it'll work, though.
Oh, and the pre-show music? I asked the soundboard guy before the show, & both of us fail Classical Music 101- even though we couldn't identify it, we were at least sure it was Russian. But nope, we even got the country wrong- it was Ravel's "Boléro". D'oh.
Anyway, I suppose I should've expected it, given the amount of choreography, but tonight's set was identical to last night's. It might as well have been the exact same show, except for some slight differences in stage banter when he talked for 20m after the break (this time we got a story about some conversation he had w/ a 90-year-old woman, who insisted he'd come back there again next year, and that she wouldn't die before then). So, then, just a few extra notes to fill in a little bit more of what I already wrote last night.
Pre-post update: it was getting too late to finish this all last night after the show, so I went to bed instead, intending to finish it today. And while searching for images of tour goods, I happened to come across this post w/ a full setlist! So now we have song titles. Yaaay... (And yeah- when I saw the username I was like "Oh god, it's gonna be one of those people", but was pleasantly surprised- a foreign fangirl who can actually be sarcastic & snarky about Gackt instead of taking him (and themselves) way too seriously! ^^;)
- (intro film) - the main VO is stuff like "Who are you? Who am I? Why was I born?" etc., & apparently all the GacktBorg-being-built scenes are memory flashbacks. There's also some lines like "If there is a god in this world- please tell me... Maria!"
- Jesus
- uncontrol
- Suddenly - OK, the one w/ the pages of words (in English) flying forward continuously? I thought the Japanese word was just appearing randomly when they sung it, but it actually appeared over the same word in English as it was in the "page" of text, replaced it, and then flickered back to English. lines 愛しい声を、優しい声を、アナタの声を、聞かせて〜
- No Reason - yep, title confirmed. sorta fastish rock, minor key
- In Flames - line continuation: もう一度君は花びらのように…
sfx: war/machine gun sounds - Sayonara -ЯR II ver.- - you could totally hear that the wine glasses were plastic when the other guy (don't remember which) set them on the piano. And I thought last night's violin cabinet was opaque, but tonight's was clear.. *shrug* Oh, and being close enough to see his mouth moving made the song a lot easier to sit through. I might actually be able to listen to the mp3 now w/o skipping it! Maybe... :P"
(sfx: more war/machine gun sounds) - Dance - instrumental (dunno if that's an actual song title, or just what was written on the setlist to indicate what was going on); the 12-heads-in-a-mass thingy - they acually were all joined- it was basically one big black sheet w/ the heads all sticking out of it.. but it was pretty obvious which were controlled by actual heads rather than hands.
(set change)- robot frames brought in - Ghost - first "the band are robots" song- the helmets are now slightly more reminiscent of X-Men's Cyclops, only w/ a bit bigger red area- still like the Cylons I guess, but not doing the KITT swish.
- Blue Lagoon - water tanks & dancing black-vinyl caped Cylons song- at the beginning, a "soldier" brings out a nude female torso impaled on a pike, which Gackt fondles during a couple lines. chorus psuedo-tab (numbers are whole notes): ..3.3.3.32212.3.|..3.3.3.32212.1.:||
- Oblivious - Last Song-esque song; first line 暗闇の中に遊ぶ子供達が / chorus last line: 君の名を叫んでいた
(film clip) - English lines: (listens, hears bomb approaching) "Get down!" then, on the radio: "Delta One, this is Zero" (oh yeah, the Cyborg's name is Zero >_<) "Do you copy? What happened? Delta One?".. & then after they talk (in Japanese) & he gets cut off, "Delta Two?!" Some of the other (ja) VO lines were about "It's not about who's friend or foe, I just wanted to end this ugly war."
- My Father's Day - "neo universe" chorus, gtr riff pseudo-tab: 22..11..44..11..:|| I guess the title makes sense w/ the last "Thank you, Dad" on the screen >_<;
- Mirror20m of banter & band intro. this time the intros were all "If this was 戦国時代 (JP "era of war")、 he would be... a horse!". "Cha-chan" was "the princess he'd have to protect" (last night he was the "big sister" o_O; ...nevermind, I really don't wanna know).
- U+K
- 小悪魔Heven [sic] - (ha, "little devil heaven") hand-DDR song- there's a break mid-song where it switches to just the accompaniment track (slightly more techno-y) & the whole band faces the screen & does the hand motions w/ everyone (this is when the levels go up), then they grab their instruments again & continue/finish the song. Oh yeah, 2 of the cat suit people from U+K are out for this, doing the dances (but, since they're facing the crowd & not the screen, they don't always match up- oops! ^^;)
- Papa lapped a pap lopped - I forgot to mention the dancers were breakdancers
- Faraway - 忘れないから-esque song. Possibly called "From Far Away", since it says several times "I just wanna say, from far away" & "From far away, I love you". Another line snippet is 君の場所に届けるまで
- Flower in the War - the vi-IV-I-V song- that part is pretty slow & deliberate, but then the beats double during the verses & chorus
- 君のためにできること - being in row 13, and right along the aisle, we had absolutely no problem getting ribbons this time. I managed to catch 7 (more like, hold my hand up & let them fall into it), Girl got 6 & picked up 3 more off the floor & seat... a bunch of girls ran down the aisles to grab big piles of them after the break. They're printed with the ЯR II logo (the ЯR is even red!), then "GACKT LIVE TOUR 2008-2009 Requiem et Réminiscence II 〜再生と邂逅〜", twice. Nice! Printed ribbons are always much nicer than plain (stupid J :P"). Too bad I didn't get one of the sparkly TMR ribbons at the hide summit. :P" Damnit, now I'm gonna start regretting not going to the 「野郎ライブ」(guys-only show) last month again (apparently it's a yearly thing (see very bottom of post)?). ^^;
- Lost Angel - この手で抱きしめて眠れるのなら / 君を忘れはしない / fake snow (no new notes here)
(final film clip) - oh yeah- the doctor totally drools while he's kneeling on the ground crying & apologizing to the dead CyberGackt before running off... and when Gackt's eyes flicker back on & he looks at the picture, it cuts back to his eyes, which apparently produce milk for tears.
Extra bonus notes:
OK, apparently the missing word during the banter the night before was ラジバンダリ, which is a line from a comedy gag, which explains why everyone else was laughing & I didn't get it (1. it's not an actual word, and 2. I don't watch enough Japanese comedy to have picked it up).
There was a 40-something salaryman in a grey suit 1 row & a few seats over that provided much amusement, esp. during the Koakumania dance... lol.
SCHWAG: picked up 2 boxes of chocolates (brought one into work, much to everyone's amusement), the pen/pencil set, 2 stickers, the tour pamhplet, playing cards, & a plethora of ribbons. The cards actually pissed me off when I opened them & realized they don't fucking have Gackt on them! Well yeah, he's on the back of every card, but only the Jokers have him on the front- the rest are this little cartoon dog w/ all these eco-friendly tips on how to use less energy & shit. The picture, of course, showed the Jokers on top, and thus led me to believe that every card, or at least the fucking face cards, would have little cartoon Gackts on them, but noOOOoo. I feel terribly misled, and sorely disappointed. T_T;
Anyway... I didn't get anything from the other side of the flyer- none of the shirts looked that interested, I'm not terribly interested in overpriced jewelry that I'm not gonna wear anyway, and the red armband things? Are you fucking kidding me? Might as well have a goram swastika on them. I dunno- maybe the whole Nazi thing doesn't bother the Japanese since they were pretty much on the same side, but still... there are things that are Just. Not. Right. But anyway... Teh Stuff:
Anyway, that's about it! Next show is 2/2 (no tix for 2/1, but assuming it's going to be the exact same show (and given all the backing music, that there isn't a lot of room for variation in the songs themselves), maybe that's not such a bad thing). After that, there's nothing else on the horizon until the Buck-Tick tour starts in April. Not like I'm looking to top last year or anything...
So, what else has been going on? Well, over the break we finally finished Enterprise, which meant the only ST series left was TOS, which we finally grudgingly started, but, knowing we wouldn't be able to take more than 2 episodes a night, we also finally started BSG, which has been downloaded & waiting to be watched for at least a year now, but we never got around to because we didn't want to switch between (a recent) Star Trek & BSG at the same time. Started w/ the miniseries in one night during the break (I think pretty much right after finishing Enterprise), then managed to make it all the way through season 1 in the next two days (6 episodes the first night & 7 the next, plus #1 of season 2, since, well, we HAD to w/ that cliffhanger there!). And while we suffered through 2 TOS episodes the first night, it's been 1 a night since then- there's just no fucking way I can possibly take any more than that- it's just... GUH. But we're trudging through it anyway, if for no other reason that to be able to get all the references from the other series'.
Anyway, I've been dead tired all week, so I'm gonna try to make it to bed before midnight this time. -_-; Doubt it'll work, though.