2011/05/19 INORAN - 恵比寿 Liquidroom; Tokyo, JP
So with the J 5 Days over, I plowed through a week of work, stayed up all night Friday at Buck-Tick Night, hit the Apple Store on Sat. to replace my broken iPhone (lock button was semi-broken & had to be mashed down), picked up an iPad for sheet music use so I can finally convince myself to start doing more piano (although Girl has already taken over the thing & put half-naked J as the default background pic, of course -_-;), & then had Luna Sea "Night" all day on Sunday, where I got to play 30 freakin' songs on account of being the ONLY guitarist to show up.
And then I got sick. WAY sick. Theoretically it started on Saturday when my nose started running like a waterfall, & continued on Sunday until my drugs kicked in, but then on the way home I was suddenly freezing cold, despite it being quite reasonable out. Pretty much slept ALL day Monday & Tuesday, getting dragged out of bed & onto the couch to eat & stuff... Threw up Tuesday at 2:30am, agreed to be dragged to the doctor, who not surprisingly said "not much we can do, just rest" (yay trekking way out to Shimokitazawa IN THE RAIN for that -_-;), & only finally started feeling marginally better on Wednesday. At which point Girl started getting sick (even after having just been sick w/ something else a couple weeks back, and claiming that she almost never gets sick -_-;). Unfortunately, since I slept pretty much all day Monday & Tuesday, come Wednesday night, I could. NOT. Sleep. Seriously. Despite going to bed around midnight, I don't think I managed to fall asleep until nearly 4. Usually it takes me no time. Serves me right for getting my rest in. -_-;
So, Thursday I was still a zombie at work, but by evening it was time to head to Ebisu for INORAN. Haven't gone to an INO show since 2008, when we hit a couple Shibuya shows in April. As primarily a J & Sugizo fan, w/ Girl much heavier on the J side, we just don't go to the other members' shows as often- with a few exceptions, like KR's record-breaking 100+ song Budokan show. But LUNA SEA had reformed, & INO had just released a new album, so we figured it was worth checking out again. And damn, I'm glad we did.
First off, INO's new album is a bit of a departure- not only is everything in English, but the whole album is a lot more raw & heavy- I could seriously imagine J singing some of these at his shows (and apparently I'm not the only one who's had that thought). The live band was a stripped-down 4-piece, with only himself, a drummer, a bassist, & a keyboardist/DJ- not even a 2nd guitar. And yes, he's playing his guitar again (I'd seen some vids from earlier shows where he didn't even have one- wtf?)
The show started with a black MC (RAH-D, apparently) coming out & pumping up the crowd for the live Ustream feed, which had been twat about a bit earlier, along with " A SECRET GUITARIST"- considering he'd just been posting pix of him & Sugizo at some recent interviews, and I couldn't imagine who else would warrant such a "secret" pre-hype, I pretty much called it back then. My top 2 favorite tracks from the new album got played in the first third of the show, and it was probably around then that, while trying to copy the rest of the setlist from the tiny sheet attached to the ustream camera's viewfinder about 6' to my front-left, I saw the bottom right corner: "*SUGIZO". Ha. Knew it. But then it was just spoiler, and I know I'd have to wait til the end of the show... d'oh. Oh well. RAH-D came back out for a couple more songs & rapped/shouted along. When the last song finally did come, it was worth it- Sugi came out, bowed, posed, & then did his thing- muted wakka-wakka fills & spacey solos, while the crowd went even more nuts than they already had been.
In other news, I miraculously managed to get through eplus' "wah, too busy" screens and actually get general sale tickets to 坂本真綾, which I've been trying to do for ages now, so yay on that (and yay for having the sense to add an extra show when Every. Other. One. Sells. Out). And also, l-tike sucks ass on its Schwarz Stein sales- not only do they use a numberic login ID instead of your email address (like every other freaking web site in the 21st century), and not only do they prohibit your browser from storing your login info, and not only do they require your ID, full name, DOB, phone number, AND A FUCKING SECRET QUESTION/ANSWER combo to reset your password (apparently they're of the "MOAR SECURITY, fuck usability" school of thought -_-;), once you finally DO manage to log in, the only payment options are either credit card (don't have), or sign up w/ some weird payment site (called "chocom", which is exactly what I was about ready to do) that will only let you register with an email that's tied to a paid ISP account or a Japanese cell phone (i.e. no iPhone mail). So I took the train to Shinjuku, found a Lawsons, used the machine there to order my tickets, went up to the counter, paid, got my tickets printed out right there, and made it back home, all in less fucking time than I'd spent fucking around on their web site. Seriously. For as awesome as Teh Intarnetz are sometimes, they can Really. Fucking. Blow. But hey, yay for conbinis! -_-;
And then I got sick. WAY sick. Theoretically it started on Saturday when my nose started running like a waterfall, & continued on Sunday until my drugs kicked in, but then on the way home I was suddenly freezing cold, despite it being quite reasonable out. Pretty much slept ALL day Monday & Tuesday, getting dragged out of bed & onto the couch to eat & stuff... Threw up Tuesday at 2:30am, agreed to be dragged to the doctor, who not surprisingly said "not much we can do, just rest" (yay trekking way out to Shimokitazawa IN THE RAIN for that -_-;), & only finally started feeling marginally better on Wednesday. At which point Girl started getting sick (even after having just been sick w/ something else a couple weeks back, and claiming that she almost never gets sick -_-;). Unfortunately, since I slept pretty much all day Monday & Tuesday, come Wednesday night, I could. NOT. Sleep. Seriously. Despite going to bed around midnight, I don't think I managed to fall asleep until nearly 4. Usually it takes me no time. Serves me right for getting my rest in. -_-;
So, Thursday I was still a zombie at work, but by evening it was time to head to Ebisu for INORAN. Haven't gone to an INO show since 2008, when we hit a couple Shibuya shows in April. As primarily a J & Sugizo fan, w/ Girl much heavier on the J side, we just don't go to the other members' shows as often- with a few exceptions, like KR's record-breaking 100+ song Budokan show. But LUNA SEA had reformed, & INO had just released a new album, so we figured it was worth checking out again. And damn, I'm glad we did.
First off, INO's new album is a bit of a departure- not only is everything in English, but the whole album is a lot more raw & heavy- I could seriously imagine J singing some of these at his shows (and apparently I'm not the only one who's had that thought). The live band was a stripped-down 4-piece, with only himself, a drummer, a bassist, & a keyboardist/DJ- not even a 2nd guitar. And yes, he's playing his guitar again (I'd seen some vids from earlier shows where he didn't even have one- wtf?)
The show started with a black MC (RAH-D, apparently) coming out & pumping up the crowd for the live Ustream feed, which had been twat about a bit earlier, along with " A SECRET GUITARIST"- considering he'd just been posting pix of him & Sugizo at some recent interviews, and I couldn't imagine who else would warrant such a "secret" pre-hype, I pretty much called it back then. My top 2 favorite tracks from the new album got played in the first third of the show, and it was probably around then that, while trying to copy the rest of the setlist from the tiny sheet attached to the ustream camera's viewfinder about 6' to my front-left, I saw the bottom right corner: "*SUGIZO". Ha. Knew it. But then it was just spoiler, and I know I'd have to wait til the end of the show... d'oh. Oh well. RAH-D came back out for a couple more songs & rapped/shouted along. When the last song finally did come, it was worth it- Sugi came out, bowed, posed, & then did his thing- muted wakka-wakka fills & spacey solos, while the crowd went even more nuts than they already had been.
- No Name
- Super Tramp
- Your Light is Blinding
- Santa Ana Afternoons
- Parallel Reality
- can you hear it?
- identity
- 千年花
- I'll be there
- Determine
- Rightaway (w/ RAH-D)
- Nasty (w/ RAH-D)
- Unstoppable
- 時化
- raize (w/ SUGIZO)
In other news, I miraculously managed to get through eplus' "wah, too busy" screens and actually get general sale tickets to 坂本真綾, which I've been trying to do for ages now, so yay on that (and yay for having the sense to add an extra show when Every. Other. One. Sells. Out). And also, l-tike sucks ass on its Schwarz Stein sales- not only do they use a numberic login ID instead of your email address (like every other freaking web site in the 21st century), and not only do they prohibit your browser from storing your login info, and not only do they require your ID, full name, DOB, phone number, AND A FUCKING SECRET QUESTION/ANSWER combo to reset your password (apparently they're of the "MOAR SECURITY, fuck usability" school of thought -_-;), once you finally DO manage to log in, the only payment options are either credit card (don't have), or sign up w/ some weird payment site (called "chocom", which is exactly what I was about ready to do) that will only let you register with an email that's tied to a paid ISP account or a Japanese cell phone (i.e. no iPhone mail). So I took the train to Shinjuku, found a Lawsons, used the machine there to order my tickets, went up to the counter, paid, got my tickets printed out right there, and made it back home, all in less fucking time than I'd spent fucking around on their web site. Seriously. For as awesome as Teh Intarnetz are sometimes, they can Really. Fucking. Blow. But hey, yay for conbinis! -_-;