2011/07/31 Schwarz Stein - 高田馬場AREA; Tokyo, JP
After 6 years of living in baba, and 5 years of shopping at Seiyu & hearing music thumping from underneath it, and seeing V-kei guys hanging out back around the corner while they loaded/unloaded their gear and/or took smoke breaks, I finally went to AREA, the tiny venue less than 10m walk from my apartment. It's probably the smallest venue I've seen a "real" band at (i.e. not a cover live event). It's also quite possibly the show I've seen the most other foreigners at- and yes, that includes Gackt, BUCK-TICK & LUNA SEA at huge venues! (OK, maybe like, Foo Fighters had more, but of Japanese bands? This one.) Of course, it's a lot easier to pick them out when you can pretty much see everyone in the room at a glance, but still.. Anyway.
I first heard Schwarz Stein at the music store in SF's Japantown in what must have been 2003- they had a display & listening booth set up, and they looked pretty cool, so I listened to a bit, & it RULED. Sort of a dark, gothy electro w/ baritone vocals (damn close to my own range- too bad they only have 6 songs in the karaoke systems). I grabbed the album & single played the shit out of it. I got the next album (as well as a couple FAKE? CDs) thru CD Japan, and filled out the last missing single when I got here. Alas, by the time I got to Japan, they'd already ceased activities.
So imagine my extreme excitement when CD Japan sent me a "New Release from Your Favorite Artist" email that included "Schwarz Stein/[TICKET] Schwarz Stein - Only one day resurrection 'Recurrence of Hallucination' TICKET". Due to l-tike (Lawson ticket) being a complete and utter dumbshit, I ended up having to take the TRAIN to the nearest Lawson to order (and get) the tickets, which actually took less time than I'd spent fucking around on the web site. And they said Teh Intarwebz were "progress". -_-;
Anyway, the show itself was great. The venue's pretty small, & apparently used to be a movie theater, so the floor is angled down w/ steps every few feet or so, w/ the stage at the bottom. Which meant I never saw anyone's feet (unless they were at the back of the stage), but could see well enough for everything else. Kaya wore a black corset-dress thingy w/ black vinyl hot pants, sheer sleeves, & a tiara, while Hora went simple w/ a black shirt, tie, vest, & pants. No crazy elaborate tubes & horns. :( The set was a good mix of their released stuff (which, I suppose, isn't that hard, considering there's only really about 20 songs w/ words) mostly from their first album & 2 singles, plus 1 track & the opening SE from their 2nd, as well as some stuff from their new mini-album, which was released that night. Plus one song (黒揚羽) that Kaya appears to have sung before, that I don't see on any releases...
Hora & Kaya after the show. Yes, those are both guys. :P"
- Testament（SE）
- Perfect Garden
- Rise to Heaven
- Queen of Decadence
- PREDICT -Rosen Clarion-
- GENUINE -Reccurence-
- transient
- 黒揚羽
- beautiful the Virgin
- CREEPER
- Syphilis and Disorder
- Succubus
- HYPNOS
- SIRIUS -Hallucination-
- Current
- New vogue children
Hora alternated between a makeshift key-tar (w/ black tubes), a regular keyboard, and death-growl vocals, while Kaya sang & handled most of the MC (although Hora said a few words micless at first, and eventually grabbed his own mic & said shit like "Shut up!" & "You guys are weird..." lol). Oh yeah- and Kaya totally made fun of the current V-kei scene, w/ all the cute happy-looking guys looking like Johnny's members- "Oh, but I like them.... their faces, at least..." And poked some more fun at all the furi (insane coordinated hand/arm movements that seem to go along to Every. Freaking. Song. Yes, it's fine to do it when he is guiding you to. But ALL the songs?? No.) It also seemed like he had a cold or something, since he kept coughing & sniffling between songs... Hora just stood there looking ominous for the most part, occasionally doing a little head shake thing, and occasionally breaking into smile when he just couldn't help it anymore. Ahhh...
I missed the goods line on the way in, & was going to grab it after getting my mandatory drink, but the line was already going back out & up the stairs, so I waited until after. The CD came w/ a free signed picture. W00t! After that was some quick dinner at Saizeriya, then home. Here's hoping they do more stuff together!