2012/11/13 BUCK-TICK; 渋谷公会堂; Tokyo, JP
Uh-oh, I'm skippin over shows again... just so hard to write about a whole weekend of SP shows. >_<; oh well. We'll just ignore the fact that I flew back to CA to see another band, and focus on the ones here in JP. XD
Tuesday was BUCK-TICK at 渋谷公会堂, whose name recently reverted from the co-branded CC Lemon Hall (our first show there since the name changed back). And once again, I was smacked in the face with the realization that I really need to stop skimping on B-T shows. See, the FISH TANKer's (fan club) pre-order for the -next- tour ended that afternoon, and I went through the usual "Ehhh, we're going to too many concerts lately, we don't haaave to see aaaalll of the B-T ones..." Which is a fairly big departure from nearly every other band (SP, LUNA SEA, J, Sugizo, FAKE?, Oblivion Dust...), which are generally more along the lines of "SEE ALL THE SHOWS!!!1" (OK, to be fair, B-T tours way more often than all of those, except maybe J, but still...) Considering I'm in a band called LUNA-TICK that covers LUNA SEA and BUCK-TICK, you'd think I'd be more like "BOTH Tokyo shows!" every time they play 2 days in a row here (but still "reasonably" skipping the Yokohama one(s)), but noooo. Well, I'm learning. To be fair, it's kinda hard to order a bunch of tickets for an album tour before the album even comes out, esp. since BT go through some pretty big stylistic changes between albums, but anyway. Onto the show!
Managed to arrive just at 7 & find our seats, in the last row (14) of the front section, just right of the rightmost aisle. Fortunately the show started 4m late, so we didn't miss any of the intro, which, honestly, wasn't all that special. Instead of the usual Theme of B-T, there was just... something obviously fairly forgettable, since I can't remember how it went at ALL, along w/ some ok imagery of space & a giant fetus on the screen (to go along with the whole "dreaming space" album title/concept). The stage was set up with staggered platforms for Toll & U-ta with a small staircase between them, a large projection screen behind it and 2 low-res LED screens along the sides coming forward at a diagonal, and then 4 more long, narrow low-res screens which lowered down, which had these weird, fat stalactite-like things hanging from the bottoms.
The band came out in the usual order- U-ta bouncing out with his full-body jumping-jack waves, Toll following behind with a more reserved nod, Hoshino & Imai strolling out, and Sakurai joining last. As usual, the costuming was... interesting (I even made some rough sketches in the brief periods of not-complete-darkness). XD Sakurai was in bright red pants, knee-high, shiny black boots, a black coat with wide, red shawl lapel going all the way down over a black sleeveless shirt and black, elbow-length gloves, and a black & silver peaked cap (I'm guessing the "Checker Cab" one from recent photoshoots). Hoshino had the usual black low-neck shirt & jeans, a black leather jacket w/ studded lapel & some kind of shiny striping on the arms, and a grey plaid shawl draped around the waist. Oh, and his hair was slicked back and slightly pompadour-ed up, which I don't think I've seen before. Imai had a fringy iridescent maroon jacket & leggings, fringy boots, and a greyish shirt. Toll wore a shiny blue jacket & maroon pants, U-ta a crushed red/black jacket w/ plain black sleeves (from what I could tell). After the first break, Sakurai came out in black pants and an all-black jacket, minus the elbow-gloves, & after the 2nd, U-ta & Imai were in band t-shirts.
All of the new album was played (though not all at once/in order), along with a decent mix of older stuff- 見えない物 in particular was a nice change, haven't heard that one in quite a while. Actually, haven't heard it since the first Budokan show we hit in 2007! SANE -Type II- was quite nice as well, since they'd played the old version last year, but hadn't played the new arrangement since it came out. And we were almost gonna play that at our show on Saturday, too, but decided to cut it since we had too many songs... *sigh* The hanging screens went up & back down once or twice, as well as a large, semi-circular track of lighting that wrapped from the front corners of the stage around the back, which tilted up from the rear to about 30 degrees or so. I'm guessing there's a "no pyrotechnics" rule at Koukaido, so the flames were relegated to the screens for 極東. Most of the other footage was stars/space-themed, from what I remember, except for the thin, hanging screens showing fishnet & knee boot-clad legs during 夢路 (I think)...
- エリーゼのために
(I: Dazzler / H: NSG-HH) - LADY SKELETON
(I: black SG) - ONLY YOU
(H: Jazzmaster) - 人魚
(I: ES-type / H: NSG-HH) - 夢路
(H: acoustic) - Long Distance Call
- 極東より愛を込めて
- Jonathan Jet Coaster
(I: white BT-Stabilizer) - 見えない物を見ようとする誤解 全て誤解だ…
(H: JM) - 夜想
(I: Dazzler) - SANE -Type II-
(H: NSG-HH) - 禁じられれた遊び -ADULT CHILDREN-
(I: black BT-MM / H: JM) - INTER RAPTOR
- MISS TAKE
(I: bk SG / H: NSG-HH) - CLIMAX TOGETHER
(I: red BT-MM) - Coyote
(I: ac / H: ac / U: upright) - TANGO Swanka
(I: bk SG / H: NSG-HH) - Ash-ra
(I: white BT-Stabi) - 君のヴァニラ
(I: red BT-MM / H: NSG-HH) - 独壇場Beauty
(I: Dazzler) - 夢見る宇宙
(I: silver POT / H: JM)
Hit the goods line after the show, which was very difficult to see since the line came in from the side, so for a while all I could see was the tour book. The shirts were folded up on the table & stacked on top of each other, AND wrapped in plastic, making it very hard to actually see them, and the ones on display hangers were way on the other side. Didn't see anything too terribly interesting, though, and I figured they'll have most of the same stuff at Budokan, which will hopefully have a more accessible goods line anyway (albeit more crowded, given the much larger venue). Saw a few rather pricey items that nearly put Luna Sea goods to shame- a Sakurai-designed T-shirt for ¥9500, and a stole & something else for over 10k. Ended up w/ the tour book (which they wouldn't let me see the inside of, even though they weren't wrapped in plastic or anything *eyeroll*), a pick set, and a pack of 'trading cards'.
Well, that's that- up next is LUNA-TICK, aka MEEEEE! :D