Vanguard Night Vol.2 ~真夏の夜のイグ祭り~
It's time for yet another exist+trace live report! This Sunday was Vanguard Night Vol.2 for fan club members~
This live was held at Shimokitazawa Mosaic, the same as the last Vanguard live. And much like the last live, I arrived a bit early to pick up my ticket and then grabbed dinner at First Kitchen before the show. A little while after I returned to the venue, they had us line up by ticket number. The ticket numbers were random and this time I was #90, so I was about halfway back in line. Aki and Tomonori where there too (and Aki almost didn't recognize me because of my new haircut lol). Aki was lucky and was #1 in line, and Tomonori was further back in line than I was. As a result, we didn't get to stand next to each other during the show, but that was okay because we met up after.
I was in about the middle of the crowd this time. It was still a pretty decent view though because the venue was so small. Since this live was matsuri (festival) themed, before the show started the speakers played summer and matsuri themed music. A small number of fans came to the concert in yukata because of the matsuri theme, too! A few of them wore visual kei style yukata and it looked pretty awesome.
The show started soon enough! The band came out and kicked things off with "Vanguard", one of my favorite songs. It was Jyou's turn to plan this live, so I'm assuming that she chose the outfits as well. The girls all had coordinating outfits, various versions of a black button up shirt and white tie and black pants (except in Miko's case it was a black skirt). They all looked really good, especially Omi and Jyou! For whatever reason, I think Omi looked even sexier than usual! It's nice to see the girls in outfits that are a bit simpler once and a while. I'll admit I was slightly disappointed that they didn't wear yukata (because of the matsuri theme), but then I thought about how difficult it would probably be to move around on stage in a yukata. The girls made up for it by dressing in yukata for their cheki pics anyways!
Jyou chose the setlist for this live as well. I thought it was a pretty good mix of older and more recent songs! Jyou even chose some songs we hadn't heard for a while, like "Mirror", "Water", and "Sacrifice Baby". I was quite happy to hear these songs again! They also played a lot of my favorite songs, like "Resonance", "Judea" and "Honey". Jyou also planned well by not including the band's slower songs in the setlist. This helped give the show a lively and festival-like atmosphere.
Jyou did a few different MCs throughout the night. She asked us if we'd done any summer things, like go to the beach, watch hanabi (fireworks) and go to Disneyland, and then lamented the fact that the band hadn't been able to do any of these things. In the MC before "Mirror", she tried to set a spooky atmosphere as the lights dimmed by whispering about the darkness and having us imagine the wind, and then she whispered that she didn't know what else to say. Of course, we all burst out laughing. That's just like Jyou. xD One minute she's so cool and the next minute she's a bit silly. It's one of the things that I love about her though! During another MC, she talked about the yukata cheki pictures they took. She told us that she took pictures in both men's and women's yukata! She also told us the story of how Miko accidentally spilled kakigori all over the floor during the photos lol.
Jyou also showed us the uchiwa (fans) that Omi designed for the live. Omi did the calligraphy because she's really good at it. There were five different kinds of uchiwa, one for each member. Each fan had a different haiku on it describing the band members. They read all the haikus aloud to us, but I unfortunately couldn't understand much of them. It sounded like some of them were pretty funny though.
The girls ended the set by playing "Signal". It didn't take long before they came back for an encore though! The first part of the encore was the results of exist+trace's Virgin karaoke contest. The runner up was invited on stage so that Miko could give her an exist+trace shirt that she'd customized. The winner of the contest was then called to the stage. She was a cute boyish girl named Misaki. She chose to sing "Wonderland" with the band. She did a great job! She had a nice, strong voice like Jyou's and it meshed well with Jyou's as they alternated verses. We all gave her a huge round of applause when the song finished.
Jyou then announced that the band was going to perform a special cover song, but that she had to leave the stage to get ready for the performance first. She asked us who we wanted to be the MC while she was getting ready, and a large portion of the audience immediately started yelling Omi's name. xD Omi doesn't usually seem comfortable talking that much on stage though, so Jyou handed the mic over to Mally. Mally chatted with us for a few minutes while Jyou changed. We tried to get Naoto and Omi (the silent ones) to read their haikus outloud to us, but Mally and Miko ended up reading them to us instead. When Jyou returned to the stage she was wearing a white suit jacket, a white fedora with a black ribbon pulled down over one eye, and a single red rose earring. She was looking really sexy! The band then performed the cover song, which I didn't recognize. I asked Tomonori about it after the show and he said it was an old song by Kenji Sawada, who used to be an ikemen singer back in the day. Tomonori and Aki said they barely recognized it, so I don't feel bad about not knowing the song!
The girls then finished up the show with "オルレアンの少女" and "終わりのない世界". At the closing of the concert, Jyou read us one final haiku she'd created. It was about wanting to perform at Budokan! We went crazy in the audience as the girls said their goodbyes and left the stage. I doubt that exist+trace has a big enough fanbase to perform at Budokan yet, but I hope that someday they can reach their goal! I'm sure it would mean a lot to them as a female v-kei band and it would mean a lot to all of us fans, too.
After the show, I met with Aki and Tomonori. Aki had been front and center, right in front of Jyou this time. She said she felt like she was going to die, being so close to Jyou. xD We all lined up to buy some of the cheki pics that they were selling after the show. The cheki were randomly chosen. I bought three of them and ended up with lovely pictures of Naoto, Miko, and Mally in yukata! I had been hoping I'd get one of Omi, but I wasn't that lucky. I still like the pics that I got though! Here they are:
I left with Aki and Tomonori and we decided to make a stop at McDonald's on our way back to the station. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of food, so I just got a soft-serve ice cream cone. McDonald's realized that they messed up Tomonori's order after they'd given him his sandwich, so we ended up with one extra sandwich. He gave it to me since he and Aki already had sandwiches. It was a spicy masala chicken sandwich, and I ended up eating only a little bit of it since I wasn't that hungry. I didn't think it was that spicy, but Aki tried a bit of it and said it was too spicy. It just goes to show the difference between what Americans consider spicy and what Japanese consider spicy lol. I also noticed that Tomonori and Aki have started calling me "Erin-chan", which made me happy. We talked a bit about our plans to meet up next month for the Buck-Tick concert before we went our separate ways.
This live was a lot of fun! I could tell that the band had played a lot of harder sounding songs this time because I was more sore after this concert than the last one. It's definitely good to let loose once in a while! I'll be looking forward to the next exist+trace live as usual. (I believe tickets for it go on sale this weekend.) I want to follow these girls all the way to Budokan. <3 I hope that they can make their dream of playing there come true some day!
This live was held at Shimokitazawa Mosaic, the same as the last Vanguard live. And much like the last live, I arrived a bit early to pick up my ticket and then grabbed dinner at First Kitchen before the show. A little while after I returned to the venue, they had us line up by ticket number. The ticket numbers were random and this time I was #90, so I was about halfway back in line. Aki and Tomonori where there too (and Aki almost didn't recognize me because of my new haircut lol). Aki was lucky and was #1 in line, and Tomonori was further back in line than I was. As a result, we didn't get to stand next to each other during the show, but that was okay because we met up after.
I was in about the middle of the crowd this time. It was still a pretty decent view though because the venue was so small. Since this live was matsuri (festival) themed, before the show started the speakers played summer and matsuri themed music. A small number of fans came to the concert in yukata because of the matsuri theme, too! A few of them wore visual kei style yukata and it looked pretty awesome.
The show started soon enough! The band came out and kicked things off with "Vanguard", one of my favorite songs. It was Jyou's turn to plan this live, so I'm assuming that she chose the outfits as well. The girls all had coordinating outfits, various versions of a black button up shirt and white tie and black pants (except in Miko's case it was a black skirt). They all looked really good, especially Omi and Jyou! For whatever reason, I think Omi looked even sexier than usual! It's nice to see the girls in outfits that are a bit simpler once and a while. I'll admit I was slightly disappointed that they didn't wear yukata (because of the matsuri theme), but then I thought about how difficult it would probably be to move around on stage in a yukata. The girls made up for it by dressing in yukata for their cheki pics anyways!
Jyou chose the setlist for this live as well. I thought it was a pretty good mix of older and more recent songs! Jyou even chose some songs we hadn't heard for a while, like "Mirror", "Water", and "Sacrifice Baby". I was quite happy to hear these songs again! They also played a lot of my favorite songs, like "Resonance", "Judea" and "Honey". Jyou also planned well by not including the band's slower songs in the setlist. This helped give the show a lively and festival-like atmosphere.
Jyou did a few different MCs throughout the night. She asked us if we'd done any summer things, like go to the beach, watch hanabi (fireworks) and go to Disneyland, and then lamented the fact that the band hadn't been able to do any of these things. In the MC before "Mirror", she tried to set a spooky atmosphere as the lights dimmed by whispering about the darkness and having us imagine the wind, and then she whispered that she didn't know what else to say. Of course, we all burst out laughing. That's just like Jyou. xD One minute she's so cool and the next minute she's a bit silly. It's one of the things that I love about her though! During another MC, she talked about the yukata cheki pictures they took. She told us that she took pictures in both men's and women's yukata! She also told us the story of how Miko accidentally spilled kakigori all over the floor during the photos lol.
Jyou also showed us the uchiwa (fans) that Omi designed for the live. Omi did the calligraphy because she's really good at it. There were five different kinds of uchiwa, one for each member. Each fan had a different haiku on it describing the band members. They read all the haikus aloud to us, but I unfortunately couldn't understand much of them. It sounded like some of them were pretty funny though.
The girls ended the set by playing "Signal". It didn't take long before they came back for an encore though! The first part of the encore was the results of exist+trace's Virgin karaoke contest. The runner up was invited on stage so that Miko could give her an exist+trace shirt that she'd customized. The winner of the contest was then called to the stage. She was a cute boyish girl named Misaki. She chose to sing "Wonderland" with the band. She did a great job! She had a nice, strong voice like Jyou's and it meshed well with Jyou's as they alternated verses. We all gave her a huge round of applause when the song finished.
Jyou then announced that the band was going to perform a special cover song, but that she had to leave the stage to get ready for the performance first. She asked us who we wanted to be the MC while she was getting ready, and a large portion of the audience immediately started yelling Omi's name. xD Omi doesn't usually seem comfortable talking that much on stage though, so Jyou handed the mic over to Mally. Mally chatted with us for a few minutes while Jyou changed. We tried to get Naoto and Omi (the silent ones) to read their haikus outloud to us, but Mally and Miko ended up reading them to us instead. When Jyou returned to the stage she was wearing a white suit jacket, a white fedora with a black ribbon pulled down over one eye, and a single red rose earring. She was looking really sexy! The band then performed the cover song, which I didn't recognize. I asked Tomonori about it after the show and he said it was an old song by Kenji Sawada, who used to be an ikemen singer back in the day. Tomonori and Aki said they barely recognized it, so I don't feel bad about not knowing the song!
The girls then finished up the show with "オルレアンの少女" and "終わりのない世界". At the closing of the concert, Jyou read us one final haiku she'd created. It was about wanting to perform at Budokan! We went crazy in the audience as the girls said their goodbyes and left the stage. I doubt that exist+trace has a big enough fanbase to perform at Budokan yet, but I hope that someday they can reach their goal! I'm sure it would mean a lot to them as a female v-kei band and it would mean a lot to all of us fans, too.
After the show, I met with Aki and Tomonori. Aki had been front and center, right in front of Jyou this time. She said she felt like she was going to die, being so close to Jyou. xD We all lined up to buy some of the cheki pics that they were selling after the show. The cheki were randomly chosen. I bought three of them and ended up with lovely pictures of Naoto, Miko, and Mally in yukata! I had been hoping I'd get one of Omi, but I wasn't that lucky. I still like the pics that I got though! Here they are:
I left with Aki and Tomonori and we decided to make a stop at McDonald's on our way back to the station. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of food, so I just got a soft-serve ice cream cone. McDonald's realized that they messed up Tomonori's order after they'd given him his sandwich, so we ended up with one extra sandwich. He gave it to me since he and Aki already had sandwiches. It was a spicy masala chicken sandwich, and I ended up eating only a little bit of it since I wasn't that hungry. I didn't think it was that spicy, but Aki tried a bit of it and said it was too spicy. It just goes to show the difference between what Americans consider spicy and what Japanese consider spicy lol. I also noticed that Tomonori and Aki have started calling me "Erin-chan", which made me happy. We talked a bit about our plans to meet up next month for the Buck-Tick concert before we went our separate ways.
This live was a lot of fun! I could tell that the band had played a lot of harder sounding songs this time because I was more sore after this concert than the last one. It's definitely good to let loose once in a while! I'll be looking forward to the next exist+trace live as usual. (I believe tickets for it go on sale this weekend.) I want to follow these girls all the way to Budokan. <3 I hope that they can make their dream of playing there come true some day!