live report: long version :D
Ok here is a more detailed version of what happened in Kaohsiung over the weekend. MUCC's setlist is correct (I stole it from someone else and it looks right 
) however D'espairsRay's setlist is all over the place. All I know is that the last song was MIRROR, and they may or may not have played BRILLIANT and Closer to Ideal. I find it weird how Lizard was not played, because during the PP tour in Europe they always started out with Redeemer and Lizard back-to-back.
D'espairsRay 6:30pm - 7:30pm (exactly!)MUCC 8:00pm - 9:00pmIntro track from 88-99 tour & Closer to Ideal 10th Anni.
REDEEMER
Grudge
Kohaku
PARADOX 5
Going On!
Bullet
HORIZON
Garnet
Fuyuu Shita Risou
FINAL CALL
Forbidden
MIRRORKyutai -instrumental-
Howling
Gokusai
FUZZ
Oz
Shion
Ageha
Diorama
Sora to Ito
Fukurou no Yurikago
Utagoe
Ranchuu
Libra
In the morning I met up with Marie, who had kindly purchased my ticket for me in advance, and then we did some sightseeing (read: getting lost). It was so hot and humid so she decided to go back to the hostel to change before going to the venue. I went ahead and there was practically nobody there. This was at 11am. And, being the stupid foreigner I didn't know that the tickets were going to be numbered --I thought it was 1st come 1st serve, and that only those people who reserved the tickets from abroad would have the numbered tickets :(
Anyway, I asked random staff guy to take my picture in front of their poster!
Asked around some more and finally got to someone who could explain to me, that they weren't going to exchange our tickets for numbers until about 1pm so I decided to go back to the hostel too.
Then on my way back I was just walking and saw some girls outside a hotel and one of them had the black D'ESPAIRSRAY bag so I immediately stopped. Turned around and asked what was going on.... so...
This was the hotel D'espairsRay and MUCC were staying at Hotel Kingdom D'espairsRay Kingom?.
I AM KICKING MY SELF SO FKN HARD RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THIS IS THE EXACT HOTEL THAT MY TRAVEL AGENT RECOMMENDED TO ME!!!!!! WTF!!!!??!?!?!??
*cries*
I could have been staying at the same hotel as Despa and MUCC
So I chatted with them for a while and didn't even know that MUCC was in a van just there, and only noticed when they had driven off and I could see Yukke, Satochi and the back of Tattan's head. Didn't see Miya because he must've closed the curtain. Apparently Tattan was wearing hideous green shorts, matching shoes and red socks. oh dear...
Then a few minutes later Tsukasa and Zero walked out with their manager, straight past us (like srsly 10cm away from my face!) to go have a smoke. We said "Hi", they said "Hi" back. They were wearing masks over their mouths but you could tell they were smiling as they walked past (10cms~! I can see everything!). So the three of them were just sitting there, no more than 3 metres away from us for what must've been 20 minutes or more... aah how weird
I got out my present should Karyu come out as well, but no he didn't. So around 1pm we took a taxi back to the venue (it wasn't far... it was just too hot to walk!)
By the way, they both have really REALLY nice skin
When we got to the venue (did I mention its a warehouse?) we saw Lu and Shi and their friend who I didn't catch her name. MUCC were rehersing and LAWWLLLL Tattan!
Later on D'espa drove right past us and so me, Lu and her friend chased the van (lol) to the backstage door. At that point I saw Tsukasa and Hizumi had already gone inside and I thought maybe Karyu had as well so I screamed "KARYUUU-SAN~~~!!!" and, ah! he just stepped out of the van carrying a bag and the um, coffin of Micawber (the case looks like a coffin right?). I shoved my present right in his face and he paused for a little while, probably thinking, "how am I going to grab that, my hands are full!". And in that little while I was like 'uwa... messy hair... stubble... omg stubble.... so hot!'
so yeah he eventually took it and said "thank you" and then walked inside. Lu caught Zero and gave him a present as well. When I asked what it was, the present was actually from her friend for Hizumi! So Lu had said to Zero, "please give this to Hizumi" LOL Zero its not for you!!! bahaha
~Mission 1: Accomplished~
So then D'espairsRay were rehersing and well, Hizumi's voice was not perfect. He still sounded sick, but during the live itself, his voice was just flawless. So its such a relief to know he's recovering well
When we eventually got our numbers, I was 371 but somebody wanted to swap with me so she could be with her friend, so I ended up being 335. Getting in was really slow because you had to give up your phone and camera (to claim it back later because no filming allowed). I smuggled my camera inside but kept it in my bag which ended up next to the wall anyway.
I was situated about 6th ~7th row in between the guitarist and vocalist, and behind some tall girls. The warehouse was huge and could easily fit at least 1200 people, but apparently only about 450 tickets were sold (it was quite expensive). There was a camera at the middle of the room and it was so cool because as it was being filmed, the footage was being displayed on a huge screen behind the drums. There was also a camera man at the front as well. The barrier was about 1 ~ 1.5 metres from the stage so it felt like we were kind of far.
One thing I didn't like was that the audience was rude. Apart from the usual pushing to the front and getting squashed, people were also shoving each other and I got kicked in the shin. If you don't want anyone behind you, then don't be in the front!! anyway she left and I took her spot at 2nd row (this was around the time of D'espa's 2nd song, so I was in a good spot from then on) And some other girl was wearing a sharp pointy thing in her hair and when someone told her "thats dangerous!" she refused to remove it. Don't be such an ass. We're all there to have fun and nobody wants to be seriously injured ok!
Someone had actually jumped on my foot and I didn't remember it until the next day when I had difficulty walking
I thought maybe 2 of my toes got fractured but they seem fine now. I also have a really sore abdomen and neck/shoulder area... I kind of wanted some bruises to show up, but nope... none yet.
The girls in the front row on the right side woud violently throw themselves backwards -making the 2nd row (moi~) bend back too- and then they'd jump on the rail and attempt to throw themselves over or through the barrier! It was annoying at first but then I got really in to it and um... kind of 'helped' push her harder. I had fun with that, lol. And because of that chaos, the people behind gave us a little room so that when we spazzed, it was crazy!
I swear we could have toppled that barrier had the security guys not pushed back!
There were some of the usual MC's from both vocalists like "we're having fun" "thank you for coming" "you ready to rock?" etc etc which they said in Chinese, English and Japanese. (Apparently really bad Chinese)
For what they were wearing, refer to previous post: HERE (you might have to scroll through the comments for more details)
The BESTEST craziest song of the night: MUCC - Ranchuu!
Towards the end, Tattan got us all to sit down and then he said "on Satochi's count to 4, everybody jump", but then *he* was the one who went "3... 2... 1... GRR" and then... faaaaa!!! jumping like crazy. limbs flying around left, right and centre. headbanging so much that you get whipped in the face by everyone's hair. Oh it was just unbelieveable!
Also because they had been playing their new songs so I didn't expect them to perform one of the oldies
Most BEAUTIFULEST song of the night: D'espairsRay - PARADOX 5, MUCC - Diorama
.
I'm such a sucker for PARADOX 5. Its so beautiful
There was a lot more smoke coming from the smoke-machines during this song which I think created a nice ~mood~ but at the same time it really was quite thick. I'm noticing the guitar more and more this time... the previous times I saw this song -especially in Manchester- I could barely hear ANY guitar at all and was beginning to wonder if he's just faking it
And with Diorama .... awwwwww if you could have just seen Tatsumon's smile when the song started, it was like he was in heavenly bliss -- totally peaceful and kind of nostalgic, I guess. It was very touching to say the least. Especially knowing what this song is about just made me all like awwww.... hug!
More NOTEWORTHY moments:
Of course the 1st songs get your heart racing, but for me personally, D'espa's REDEEMER and Bullet always do it for me, and this time it was no different. Its actually a shame that REDEEMER doesn't sound half as awesome on CD than it does live. Anyway but you could say that for a lot of songs.
Grudge was really fantastic and they had a long intro to it and I thought for a moment "could this be their new song?!?" because it was catchy and dancy, but when it started kjdalkjdkfkjaljd;;lkasldkals;dk!!!!
This time I also realised how powerful Kohaku is. All this time I've just considered it a medium-tempo ballady song but that night I caught a glimpse of how ~powerful~ and ~deep~ this song truly is. Very lovely and enlightening.
I'm sorry I don't really have much more to say about D'espairsRay -- maybe Im more excited about MUCC since it was my 1st time to see them, but I also think the fact that Hizumi was SHIRTLESS had a lot to do with why I don't remember anything else. He's so sexy that I, as Karyu-mania, thought "dammit Karyu go away! I wanna perv on Hizumi but I can't with you right in front of me!" *flails*
Did I mention that when they took the stage they wore those ridiculous long-nosed masks from the Facebook comment? Oh it was hilarious!! They played the 1st song like that. It was so funny
For MUCC, the one song I was waiting to hear the most was Fukurou no Yurikago!!
OH-MY-GAGA! Seriously I could have died of happiness. It might have also been during this song that someone jumped and then landed on my toes. I remember feeling some pain but you know pleasure kind of takes care of that
Ageha, FUZZ and Oz too are kalsdjkasjdlksajkjfkajklfjl!!!!
A~h, Ageha I just love the ~attitude~ of the song. Not even sure what that's supposed to mean, but it just rocks so hard. And Oz, did I mention Oz? FAAAAARK. We'd heard them rehersing earlier, and the music was great but Tattchan was being a complete dick with the vocals
lol he was just playing around and singing really badly on purpose. He was so out of tune and he sounded like such a hick! But of course he sang perfectly during the live. Yeah, Oz is really kick-ass live. Sorry I've run out of proper words to continue to write this thing. The crowd just went crazy.
FUZZ was great as well. Tattan on the harmonica and everyone (band + audience) jumping and thrashing about together and screaming wo-wo-whoaaa~
Tattan also got the audience to sing a few lines which was really cool!
Surprisingly, Howling and Shion, which I don't usually listen to are just a BAZILLION times more epic awesome omgfaaaackwthbbq than I could have ever imagined live
Its so great that I don't ever want to listen to it on CD/iPod ever again because it will just diminish the amazingness of that performance that night. Making sense? probably not. I don't mean to put down the CDs or anything but it really really honestly does not compare to the lives.
eg: if on CD you rate it a 8/10, then live its a 213213544312120248431/10
The only let down I had with MUCC was that they didn't play Anjelier
How dare they!!?!?!
*sigh* There will be a "next time"! I've got a lot of catching up to do!
At the end of each band's sets, the guys did the usual throwing of picks, drumsticks and water bottles. Zero looked especially ecstatic to be spitting water at a whole new bunch of people. Despite there being about a 1.5 metre gap between the stage and the audience, we still got a healthy dose of Zero-germs
Yummo!
At the end, we picked up our bags and fell on the floor. like "AAH MY LEGS!" etc etc oh
the physical pain of a concert, and the depression that comes afterwards.... its what we all seem to live for
We got outside quickly because I needed to catch Miya to give him the letter from zakur0 , so we went to the backstage door and a van pulled up shortly after. The staff loaded it but then D'espa's manager came out. eeh
I thought they might have left after their set, but then again this is D'espa and they love the attention from fans so they would not have snuck away while everyone was still inside ;DD
And here, Hizumi took a picture of MUCC on stage and put it up on Ameblo!
The guys went in to the van and we waved them goodbye, saying "お疲れ様でした～" Honestly I felt a little embarassed to be waving at Karyu so close, I wonder if at that point he'd already opened my present? Also their camera man took lots of video of the fans as well! yey~
A while later another van pulled up and MUCC packed up and left too. When Miya came out, I tried to give him the letter but was stopped by the staff, so I handed it to them and they handed it to him. We said and waved our goodbyes and then somehow stumbled our ways back to the hostel/hotels T^T
~Mission 2: Accomplished~
The guys went to the night market again (a different one, I assume) and then had to leave early to get from Kaohsiung to Taipei, Taipei to Tokyo. They had already updated their blogs with "ただいま~" by the time I got to the aiport for my flight back to Melbourne.
Met up with Shi at the airport because we were on the same flight to Hong Kong. We found a kids play-area and decided to make extra special presents for the bands:
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that Tsukasa totaaalllly stuck his tongue out at the audience and licked his lips
) however D'espairsRay's setlist is all over the place. All I know is that the last song was MIRROR, and they may or may not have played BRILLIANT and Closer to Ideal. I find it weird how Lizard was not played, because during the PP tour in Europe they always started out with Redeemer and Lizard back-to-back.
D'espairsRay 6:30pm - 7:30pm (exactly!)MUCC 8:00pm - 9:00pmIntro track from 88-99 tour & Closer to Ideal 10th Anni.
REDEEMER
Grudge
Kohaku
PARADOX 5
Going On!
Bullet
HORIZON
Garnet
Fuyuu Shita Risou
FINAL CALL
Forbidden
MIRRORKyutai -instrumental-
Howling
Gokusai
FUZZ
Oz
Shion
Ageha
Diorama
Sora to Ito
Fukurou no Yurikago
Utagoe
Ranchuu
Libra
In the morning I met up with Marie, who had kindly purchased my ticket for me in advance, and then we did some sightseeing (read: getting lost). It was so hot and humid so she decided to go back to the hostel to change before going to the venue. I went ahead and there was practically nobody there. This was at 11am. And, being the stupid foreigner I didn't know that the tickets were going to be numbered --I thought it was 1st come 1st serve, and that only those people who reserved the tickets from abroad would have the numbered tickets :(
Anyway, I asked random staff guy to take my picture in front of their poster!
Asked around some more and finally got to someone who could explain to me, that they weren't going to exchange our tickets for numbers until about 1pm so I decided to go back to the hostel too.
Then on my way back I was just walking and saw some girls outside a hotel and one of them had the black D'ESPAIRSRAY bag so I immediately stopped. Turned around and asked what was going on.... so...
This was the hotel D'espairsRay and MUCC were staying at Hotel Kingdom D'espairsRay Kingom?.
I AM KICKING MY SELF SO FKN HARD RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THIS IS THE EXACT HOTEL THAT MY TRAVEL AGENT RECOMMENDED TO ME!!!!!! WTF!!!!??!?!?!??
*cries*
I could have been staying at the same hotel as Despa and MUCC
So I chatted with them for a while and didn't even know that MUCC was in a van just there, and only noticed when they had driven off and I could see Yukke, Satochi and the back of Tattan's head. Didn't see Miya because he must've closed the curtain. Apparently Tattan was wearing hideous green shorts, matching shoes and red socks. oh dear...
Then a few minutes later Tsukasa and Zero walked out with their manager, straight past us (like srsly 10cm away from my face!) to go have a smoke. We said "Hi", they said "Hi" back. They were wearing masks over their mouths but you could tell they were smiling as they walked past (10cms~! I can see everything!). So the three of them were just sitting there, no more than 3 metres away from us for what must've been 20 minutes or more... aah how weird
I got out my present should Karyu come out as well, but no he didn't. So around 1pm we took a taxi back to the venue (it wasn't far... it was just too hot to walk!)
By the way, they both have really REALLY nice skin
When we got to the venue (did I mention its a warehouse?) we saw Lu and Shi and their friend who I didn't catch her name. MUCC were rehersing and LAWWLLLL Tattan!
Later on D'espa drove right past us and so me, Lu and her friend chased the van (lol) to the backstage door. At that point I saw Tsukasa and Hizumi had already gone inside and I thought maybe Karyu had as well so I screamed "KARYUUU-SAN~~~!!!" and, ah! he just stepped out of the van carrying a bag and the um, coffin of Micawber (the case looks like a coffin right?). I shoved my present right in his face and he paused for a little while, probably thinking, "how am I going to grab that, my hands are full!". And in that little while I was like 'uwa... messy hair... stubble... omg stubble.... so hot!'
so yeah he eventually took it and said "thank you" and then walked inside. Lu caught Zero and gave him a present as well. When I asked what it was, the present was actually from her friend for Hizumi! So Lu had said to Zero, "please give this to Hizumi" LOL Zero its not for you!!! bahaha
~Mission 1: Accomplished~
So then D'espairsRay were rehersing and well, Hizumi's voice was not perfect. He still sounded sick, but during the live itself, his voice was just flawless. So its such a relief to know he's recovering well
When we eventually got our numbers, I was 371 but somebody wanted to swap with me so she could be with her friend, so I ended up being 335. Getting in was really slow because you had to give up your phone and camera (to claim it back later because no filming allowed). I smuggled my camera inside but kept it in my bag which ended up next to the wall anyway.
I was situated about 6th ~7th row in between the guitarist and vocalist, and behind some tall girls. The warehouse was huge and could easily fit at least 1200 people, but apparently only about 450 tickets were sold (it was quite expensive). There was a camera at the middle of the room and it was so cool because as it was being filmed, the footage was being displayed on a huge screen behind the drums. There was also a camera man at the front as well. The barrier was about 1 ~ 1.5 metres from the stage so it felt like we were kind of far.
One thing I didn't like was that the audience was rude. Apart from the usual pushing to the front and getting squashed, people were also shoving each other and I got kicked in the shin. If you don't want anyone behind you, then don't be in the front!! anyway she left and I took her spot at 2nd row (this was around the time of D'espa's 2nd song, so I was in a good spot from then on) And some other girl was wearing a sharp pointy thing in her hair and when someone told her "thats dangerous!" she refused to remove it. Don't be such an ass. We're all there to have fun and nobody wants to be seriously injured ok!
Someone had actually jumped on my foot and I didn't remember it until the next day when I had difficulty walking
I thought maybe 2 of my toes got fractured but they seem fine now. I also have a really sore abdomen and neck/shoulder area... I kind of wanted some bruises to show up, but nope... none yet.
The girls in the front row on the right side woud violently throw themselves backwards -making the 2nd row (moi~) bend back too- and then they'd jump on the rail and attempt to throw themselves over or through the barrier! It was annoying at first but then I got really in to it and um... kind of 'helped' push her harder. I had fun with that, lol. And because of that chaos, the people behind gave us a little room so that when we spazzed, it was crazy!
I swear we could have toppled that barrier had the security guys not pushed back!
There were some of the usual MC's from both vocalists like "we're having fun" "thank you for coming" "you ready to rock?" etc etc which they said in Chinese, English and Japanese. (Apparently really bad Chinese)
For what they were wearing, refer to previous post: HERE (you might have to scroll through the comments for more details)
The BESTEST craziest song of the night: MUCC - Ranchuu!
Towards the end, Tattan got us all to sit down and then he said "on Satochi's count to 4, everybody jump", but then *he* was the one who went "3... 2... 1... GRR" and then... faaaaa!!! jumping like crazy. limbs flying around left, right and centre. headbanging so much that you get whipped in the face by everyone's hair. Oh it was just unbelieveable!
Also because they had been playing their new songs so I didn't expect them to perform one of the oldies
Most BEAUTIFULEST song of the night: D'espairsRay - PARADOX 5, MUCC - Diorama
.
I'm such a sucker for PARADOX 5. Its so beautiful
There was a lot more smoke coming from the smoke-machines during this song which I think created a nice ~mood~ but at the same time it really was quite thick. I'm noticing the guitar more and more this time... the previous times I saw this song -especially in Manchester- I could barely hear ANY guitar at all and was beginning to wonder if he's just faking it
And with Diorama .... awwwwww if you could have just seen Tatsumon's smile when the song started, it was like he was in heavenly bliss -- totally peaceful and kind of nostalgic, I guess. It was very touching to say the least. Especially knowing what this song is about just made me all like awwww.... hug!
More NOTEWORTHY moments:
Of course the 1st songs get your heart racing, but for me personally, D'espa's REDEEMER and Bullet always do it for me, and this time it was no different. Its actually a shame that REDEEMER doesn't sound half as awesome on CD than it does live. Anyway but you could say that for a lot of songs.
Grudge was really fantastic and they had a long intro to it and I thought for a moment "could this be their new song?!?" because it was catchy and dancy, but when it started kjdalkjdkfkjaljd;;lkasldkals;dk!!!!
This time I also realised how powerful Kohaku is. All this time I've just considered it a medium-tempo ballady song but that night I caught a glimpse of how ~powerful~ and ~deep~ this song truly is. Very lovely and enlightening.
I'm sorry I don't really have much more to say about D'espairsRay -- maybe Im more excited about MUCC since it was my 1st time to see them, but I also think the fact that Hizumi was SHIRTLESS had a lot to do with why I don't remember anything else. He's so sexy that I, as Karyu-mania, thought "dammit Karyu go away! I wanna perv on Hizumi but I can't with you right in front of me!" *flails*
Did I mention that when they took the stage they wore those ridiculous long-nosed masks from the Facebook comment? Oh it was hilarious!! They played the 1st song like that. It was so funny
For MUCC, the one song I was waiting to hear the most was Fukurou no Yurikago!!
OH-MY-GAGA! Seriously I could have died of happiness. It might have also been during this song that someone jumped and then landed on my toes. I remember feeling some pain but you know pleasure kind of takes care of that
Ageha, FUZZ and Oz too are kalsdjkasjdlksajkjfkajklfjl!!!!
A~h, Ageha I just love the ~attitude~ of the song. Not even sure what that's supposed to mean, but it just rocks so hard. And Oz, did I mention Oz? FAAAAARK. We'd heard them rehersing earlier, and the music was great but Tattchan was being a complete dick with the vocals
lol he was just playing around and singing really badly on purpose. He was so out of tune and he sounded like such a hick! But of course he sang perfectly during the live. Yeah, Oz is really kick-ass live. Sorry I've run out of proper words to continue to write this thing. The crowd just went crazy.
FUZZ was great as well. Tattan on the harmonica and everyone (band + audience) jumping and thrashing about together and screaming wo-wo-whoaaa~
Tattan also got the audience to sing a few lines which was really cool!
Surprisingly, Howling and Shion, which I don't usually listen to are just a BAZILLION times more epic awesome omgfaaaackwthbbq than I could have ever imagined live
Its so great that I don't ever want to listen to it on CD/iPod ever again because it will just diminish the amazingness of that performance that night. Making sense? probably not. I don't mean to put down the CDs or anything but it really really honestly does not compare to the lives.
eg: if on CD you rate it a 8/10, then live its a 213213544312120248431/10
The only let down I had with MUCC was that they didn't play Anjelier
How dare they!!?!?!
*sigh* There will be a "next time"! I've got a lot of catching up to do!
At the end of each band's sets, the guys did the usual throwing of picks, drumsticks and water bottles. Zero looked especially ecstatic to be spitting water at a whole new bunch of people. Despite there being about a 1.5 metre gap between the stage and the audience, we still got a healthy dose of Zero-germs
Yummo!
At the end, we picked up our bags and fell on the floor. like "AAH MY LEGS!" etc etc oh
the physical pain of a concert, and the depression that comes afterwards.... its what we all seem to live for
We got outside quickly because I needed to catch Miya to give him the letter from zakur0 , so we went to the backstage door and a van pulled up shortly after. The staff loaded it but then D'espa's manager came out. eeh
I thought they might have left after their set, but then again this is D'espa and they love the attention from fans so they would not have snuck away while everyone was still inside ;DD
And here, Hizumi took a picture of MUCC on stage and put it up on Ameblo!
The guys went in to the van and we waved them goodbye, saying "お疲れ様でした～" Honestly I felt a little embarassed to be waving at Karyu so close, I wonder if at that point he'd already opened my present? Also their camera man took lots of video of the fans as well! yey~
A while later another van pulled up and MUCC packed up and left too. When Miya came out, I tried to give him the letter but was stopped by the staff, so I handed it to them and they handed it to him. We said and waved our goodbyes and then somehow stumbled our ways back to the hostel/hotels T^T
~Mission 2: Accomplished~
The guys went to the night market again (a different one, I assume) and then had to leave early to get from Kaohsiung to Taipei, Taipei to Tokyo. They had already updated their blogs with "ただいま~" by the time I got to the aiport for my flight back to Melbourne.
Met up with Shi at the airport because we were on the same flight to Hong Kong. We found a kids play-area and decided to make extra special presents for the bands:
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that Tsukasa totaaalllly stuck his tongue out at the audience and licked his lips