fade @ FANJ twice (27/9/2012)
I originally posted the report on my personal livejournal, but I decided to post one here with pictures as well.
I also removed all the irrelevant details like how to get to FANJ and focus on fade!
27/9/2012 will now be known as the day I saw fade live for the first time in my life.
So the event was MUSIC FEAST 2 supported by Edison at FANJ twice which is in Shinsaibashi. There were six bands including fade. The band line up for the night was: DIESIRA3, Belmosiac, VERTEX (ウ゛ェルテクス), the NUCLEUS, fade then RevleZ (which I didn't watch cause I went out to wait for the guys from fade to come out!)
So the stage is two flights (or more) of stairs down and the place is small so the stage is REALLY CLOSE. There's a "reservation system" for the first rows, where fans rotate when the bands they like play on stage. Also, if you want to save a spot in the front, you either stand there (if alone), or stand with friends (and take turns guarding the spot), or ask if you can switch spots with people when your band starts playing.
Quite a lot of us were wearing the fade Family shirts but those who weren't had fade towels/homemade fade shirts (with pearls sewn on to say "FADE"). They were scheduled to play at 8:40PM but delays caused them to start after 9PM. After the NUCLEUS ended, the fade fans swarmed to the front to wait for them to start. I peeked under the curtain and saw Noriyuki. The girls next to me saw Godo, but no other glimpses after that. And then the lights dimmed, the curtains rose...and IT BEGAN.
Godo, Noriyuki, Rui and Kansei came out first (in that order, I think) and I was a bit more to the left than center so Godo and Noriyuki were in front of me most of the time (though the stage was so small and the others also came over/they all switched places with the exception of Rui who stayed at his drum post ahaha). Godo was wearing a black tank top, a fedora, shades and only his arms were painted. Noriyuki was wearing a leather jacket and his hair was tied up (that or he was dressed just like the TEN pictures/shoot). I think Kansei was wearing a black top with white thingies (see TEN pictures). Forgot what Rui wore (blue shirt I think; of course they all wore pants but I forgot what kind). Then JON CAME OUT IN A WHITE JACKET like the one for Kings of Dawn with a black V neck t-shirt inside.
Set list from fade_tokyo facebook:
1. Born Ready
2. One Reason
3. From the Inside Out
4. From the Heart
5. REIMEI〜黎明〜
6. In the end
7. Beautiful
8. Close to You (En)
9. コズミカリズム
The night was REALLY just a huge blur to me, I didn't even remember the set list. All I do really remember very, very, clearly was the energy and how it felt. It was amazing. Everyone was singing, jumping, screaming...It's so funny how all the other band's vocalists used this box thingy as a stand but when fade came on they removed it cause Jon is too tall.
fade's set started with Born Ready. I think Jon removed his jacket after the first song and set it aside.
From The Heart: It was either this or Close To You where Jon came over to the left and sang to me for a while. I think it was Close To You though, but he clutched his heart and sang this really emotionally. Oh Jon. It was really as if he was singing it to the fans in the house. He was always smiling and pointing at fans.
REIMEI got everyone crazy when the first few notes/bar started. Jon held the mic out for us to sing a line at the start. There was headbanging and jumping. And moshing.
Beautiful was where Jon asked us to sing along and tried to engage everyone in FANJ, even the people who weren't fans and were lounging around at the back. Also, there was a girl who wrote "Jon fuck me" on her face. She was right in the center the whole show, and during the song, Jon either squat or leaned down and let her grab his arm. (He also posed with her for a very cute/funny picture after the show)
Close To You was special cause he sang it in English!!! Also, Jon asked us to sing along with Noriyuki for the "wooaaaOOOhhh ohhh" bit (around 3min on the track)
And when he said he was singing in Japanese for us...and then said it was コスミカリズム the Japanese fans went crazy and we all sang along.
Some cute moments in between/of the night (I took these off twitter, which is why it seems kind of disjointed)
Japanese fans are so polite and shout Nori-san and add -san but I get caught up in the moment and just scream their names. As the bands take a break in between songs, fans shout their favourite member's names which became a name shouting game. Kinda. It was like JON!!! KANSEI!!! NORI-SAN!!!! Then because there was no Rui, fans shout RUI!!!! And because no one had shouted Godo someone shouts GODO!!!! The cycle repeats till the next song starts.
ALSO THERE WAS A SUPER FUNNY PART WHERE JON ALMOST KNOCKED DOWN AN AMP. This happened quite early on, when Jon came over to the left, next to Noriyuki. He was resting his foot on the amp but leaned over/put too much weight on it and it almost toppled. Jon also has this thing about destroying technology. He killed not one, but TWO microphones. The first one completely died on him while the second broke mid sentence before working again.
And while on the subject of technical problems, Godo has some trouble too, and rectified it by calling a staff over. (One of the earlier bands, Vertex I think, also had techinical problems. The guitarist was trying to either tune his guitar or fix the tension on the strings...which failed and the last string totally snapped off, so he made sheepish faces and tried to play for the rest of the song.)
There was also a very adorable moment when Jon slung his arm around Kansei and pressed their heads together, with the mic pointing at Kansei. Noriyuki also liked to walk to the edge and lean over while playing.
Jon liked to shout "PUT YOUR FUCKING FISTS IN THE AIR!!!" and kept saying how happy they were to be back in Osaka, and how awesome Osaka is, how beautiful Osaka is... There were a few times where he shouted "HEY! HEY! HEY!" and we followed, throwing our fists in the air and screaming along.
Jon also announced the fan club event, and the new tour!! When he said he was coming back to Osaka the crowd went wild!
After the live was also amazing where I bought a TEN towel and fade phone chain + claimed my drink. One of the Japanese fans I talked to earlier said the band members will come out to thank fans later so we wait for them. And wait we did. Noriyuki came out first and as he passed fans we all said Otsukaresama(desu)! He headed for the goods table then started to talk to fans there. Got a picture with him and chatted for a bit. Told him I'm from Singapore and he said he lived in Singapore when he was 6 years old for about two years. He also said they're trying to hold lives in Indonesia and maybe Philippines. (His English is so good!!!)
Noriyuki posing with a fade hairband a fan made
Then Rui comes out and squeals are heard but he disappears and the seconds that he took to walk to one end of the room to the other and back inside was all we saw of him (unless he came out after I left but I don't think so). So most of us are all waiting for Jon and then Kansei comes out a while after, with Jon behind him (and mobbed immediately as he comes out).
Jon and Noriyuki at the goods table
So I go over to Jon to take photos and to present the care package to him (which he spots immediately cause it is a giant red heart box) and Kansei is also there so I take a photo with both of them JON DIRECTED ME TO STAND IN BETWEEN HIM AND KANSEI WHEE. Then he kept saying "great" when I told him what was in the package. Kansei asked me straight away if I was from Singapore and asked if I had sent some message...? I think he remembered me shout "SINGAPORE LOVES YOU" during a break in between songs or something idk I said I tweeted about reserving tix and he replied. He said my English is so good! Better than his! xD
Jon posing with the care package.
Pri asked Jon about his stint as an exchange student in Japan and he stayed for a year, in a dorm, but he said he tried his hardest to not go to school if he could and instead went to clubs and bars and said that was how this all started!!!! We got hugs from him (WHO IS SO NICE TO HUG, OKAY, THEY ARE ALL NICE TO HUG. Well Kansei, Noriyuki and Jon, yes I don't know about Godo and Rui but I bet they are too.) I tell them how awesome they were and just gush incoherent nonsense about how they're amazing and stuff. I go back to get their individual signatures and take solo shots with them :D (Each time I sheepishly go "Oh hi, um, it's me again.")
Noriyuki, Kansei and Jon (who took off his sunglasses after the insistence of fans!)
They are all so nice and Jon kept thanking people for coming (they all did actually) and so cute with fans and happy to pose for pictures and hug people and sign stuff and just talk a lot! That's really nice!! I mean when you're in fandoms like JE where your idols are SO FAR AWAY and always maintaining distance cause they have to, it's SO NICE to be able to talk to the people you love, like actually TALK TO fade. !!!!! And hug Jon twice. I don't even think you can feasibly touch a JE idol...
And then I have to leave or miss the last train and be stuck in Shinsaibashi till the first train zzzzzz And I am exhausted. I didn't get enough sleep the night before and all the moshing and jumping and headbanging...never done so much of it in my life. My throat hurts from screaming. But it was all worth it. The next day in school, the only thing I could think of was how amazing fade was, and as I was listening to my fade playlist...the euphoria just caught up with me. Totally not in a studying mood at all.
From a post made a few days later:
I attened my first show at a live house this semester, 27/9/2012 to be exact, and boy, was it an experience. Girls thrashing their hair back and forth, gutteral screaming for the bands they love, head banging, moshing and jumping. The V-kei scene is eyeopening. The J-Rock scene is amazing. The band you've waited for prance onto the stage. You scream for them, feel the energy engulfing you all around, the music starts and you feel it rush through you, around you, enveloping, and you scream and scream somemore. You're asked to "Put your fucking fists in the air!" and you comply and bounce with the energy the band radiates, and you in turn generate more for them to feed off on. It's an adrenaline filled cycle.
When it ends, your ears ring, you're still in a state of denial. Is this the real life? Or is this fantasy? You scramble out the area to wait for the band members to come out and greet their fans. You're bubbling with the aftereffects, too excited to keep still, praise flowing. Then they're there and smiling and asking if you enjoyed yourself. YES YES YES, you reply, babbling on about how amazing it was, the energy, oh the energy. You buy their goods, line up for pictures, steal hugs where you never want to let go. The night is nothing short of euphoric, orgasmic.
Then it ends, but the afterglow remains, the memories and the virtual playback. The feelings, etched on your heart, and you smile yourself to sleep. Their songs make you cry, and you countdown the days till their next live.
Life is never the same again, touched by their spark From the Heart, changed From The Inside Out. Beautiful, isn't it? Carrassing what it feels to be Ever Free, with the band so Close To You, and they're a Million To your One. You're Born Ready for the next time they play. In The End, there is no One Reason for why you love them, and words fail to express how you feel. (It's that silly grin you wear as you listen to their songs, the buzz when watching them and the uncontrollable waves of emotion that overcome you.)
I also removed all the irrelevant details like how to get to FANJ and focus on fade!
27/9/2012 will now be known as the day I saw fade live for the first time in my life.
So the event was MUSIC FEAST 2 supported by Edison at FANJ twice which is in Shinsaibashi. There were six bands including fade. The band line up for the night was: DIESIRA3, Belmosiac, VERTEX (ウ゛ェルテクス), the NUCLEUS, fade then RevleZ (which I didn't watch cause I went out to wait for the guys from fade to come out!)
So the stage is two flights (or more) of stairs down and the place is small so the stage is REALLY CLOSE. There's a "reservation system" for the first rows, where fans rotate when the bands they like play on stage. Also, if you want to save a spot in the front, you either stand there (if alone), or stand with friends (and take turns guarding the spot), or ask if you can switch spots with people when your band starts playing.
Quite a lot of us were wearing the fade Family shirts but those who weren't had fade towels/homemade fade shirts (with pearls sewn on to say "FADE"). They were scheduled to play at 8:40PM but delays caused them to start after 9PM. After the NUCLEUS ended, the fade fans swarmed to the front to wait for them to start. I peeked under the curtain and saw Noriyuki. The girls next to me saw Godo, but no other glimpses after that. And then the lights dimmed, the curtains rose...and IT BEGAN.
Godo, Noriyuki, Rui and Kansei came out first (in that order, I think) and I was a bit more to the left than center so Godo and Noriyuki were in front of me most of the time (though the stage was so small and the others also came over/they all switched places with the exception of Rui who stayed at his drum post ahaha). Godo was wearing a black tank top, a fedora, shades and only his arms were painted. Noriyuki was wearing a leather jacket and his hair was tied up (that or he was dressed just like the TEN pictures/shoot). I think Kansei was wearing a black top with white thingies (see TEN pictures). Forgot what Rui wore (blue shirt I think; of course they all wore pants but I forgot what kind). Then JON CAME OUT IN A WHITE JACKET like the one for Kings of Dawn with a black V neck t-shirt inside.
Set list from fade_tokyo facebook:
1. Born Ready
2. One Reason
3. From the Inside Out
4. From the Heart
5. REIMEI〜黎明〜
6. In the end
7. Beautiful
8. Close to You (En)
9. コズミカリズム
The night was REALLY just a huge blur to me, I didn't even remember the set list. All I do really remember very, very, clearly was the energy and how it felt. It was amazing. Everyone was singing, jumping, screaming...It's so funny how all the other band's vocalists used this box thingy as a stand but when fade came on they removed it cause Jon is too tall.
fade's set started with Born Ready. I think Jon removed his jacket after the first song and set it aside.
From The Heart: It was either this or Close To You where Jon came over to the left and sang to me for a while. I think it was Close To You though, but he clutched his heart and sang this really emotionally. Oh Jon. It was really as if he was singing it to the fans in the house. He was always smiling and pointing at fans.
REIMEI got everyone crazy when the first few notes/bar started. Jon held the mic out for us to sing a line at the start. There was headbanging and jumping. And moshing.
Beautiful was where Jon asked us to sing along and tried to engage everyone in FANJ, even the people who weren't fans and were lounging around at the back. Also, there was a girl who wrote "Jon fuck me" on her face. She was right in the center the whole show, and during the song, Jon either squat or leaned down and let her grab his arm. (He also posed with her for a very cute/funny picture after the show)
Close To You was special cause he sang it in English!!! Also, Jon asked us to sing along with Noriyuki for the "wooaaaOOOhhh ohhh" bit (around 3min on the track)
And when he said he was singing in Japanese for us...and then said it was コスミカリズム the Japanese fans went crazy and we all sang along.
Some cute moments in between/of the night (I took these off twitter, which is why it seems kind of disjointed)
Japanese fans are so polite and shout Nori-san and add -san but I get caught up in the moment and just scream their names. As the bands take a break in between songs, fans shout their favourite member's names which became a name shouting game. Kinda. It was like JON!!! KANSEI!!! NORI-SAN!!!! Then because there was no Rui, fans shout RUI!!!! And because no one had shouted Godo someone shouts GODO!!!! The cycle repeats till the next song starts.
ALSO THERE WAS A SUPER FUNNY PART WHERE JON ALMOST KNOCKED DOWN AN AMP. This happened quite early on, when Jon came over to the left, next to Noriyuki. He was resting his foot on the amp but leaned over/put too much weight on it and it almost toppled. Jon also has this thing about destroying technology. He killed not one, but TWO microphones. The first one completely died on him while the second broke mid sentence before working again.
And while on the subject of technical problems, Godo has some trouble too, and rectified it by calling a staff over. (One of the earlier bands, Vertex I think, also had techinical problems. The guitarist was trying to either tune his guitar or fix the tension on the strings...which failed and the last string totally snapped off, so he made sheepish faces and tried to play for the rest of the song.)
There was also a very adorable moment when Jon slung his arm around Kansei and pressed their heads together, with the mic pointing at Kansei. Noriyuki also liked to walk to the edge and lean over while playing.
Jon liked to shout "PUT YOUR FUCKING FISTS IN THE AIR!!!" and kept saying how happy they were to be back in Osaka, and how awesome Osaka is, how beautiful Osaka is... There were a few times where he shouted "HEY! HEY! HEY!" and we followed, throwing our fists in the air and screaming along.
Jon also announced the fan club event, and the new tour!! When he said he was coming back to Osaka the crowd went wild!
After the live was also amazing where I bought a TEN towel and fade phone chain + claimed my drink. One of the Japanese fans I talked to earlier said the band members will come out to thank fans later so we wait for them. And wait we did. Noriyuki came out first and as he passed fans we all said Otsukaresama(desu)! He headed for the goods table then started to talk to fans there. Got a picture with him and chatted for a bit. Told him I'm from Singapore and he said he lived in Singapore when he was 6 years old for about two years. He also said they're trying to hold lives in Indonesia and maybe Philippines. (His English is so good!!!)
Noriyuki posing with a fade hairband a fan made
Then Rui comes out and squeals are heard but he disappears and the seconds that he took to walk to one end of the room to the other and back inside was all we saw of him (unless he came out after I left but I don't think so). So most of us are all waiting for Jon and then Kansei comes out a while after, with Jon behind him (and mobbed immediately as he comes out).
Jon and Noriyuki at the goods table
So I go over to Jon to take photos and to present the care package to him (which he spots immediately cause it is a giant red heart box) and Kansei is also there so I take a photo with both of them JON DIRECTED ME TO STAND IN BETWEEN HIM AND KANSEI WHEE. Then he kept saying "great" when I told him what was in the package. Kansei asked me straight away if I was from Singapore and asked if I had sent some message...? I think he remembered me shout "SINGAPORE LOVES YOU" during a break in between songs or something idk I said I tweeted about reserving tix and he replied. He said my English is so good! Better than his! xD
Jon posing with the care package.
Pri asked Jon about his stint as an exchange student in Japan and he stayed for a year, in a dorm, but he said he tried his hardest to not go to school if he could and instead went to clubs and bars and said that was how this all started!!!! We got hugs from him (WHO IS SO NICE TO HUG, OKAY, THEY ARE ALL NICE TO HUG. Well Kansei, Noriyuki and Jon, yes I don't know about Godo and Rui but I bet they are too.) I tell them how awesome they were and just gush incoherent nonsense about how they're amazing and stuff. I go back to get their individual signatures and take solo shots with them :D (Each time I sheepishly go "Oh hi, um, it's me again.")
Noriyuki, Kansei and Jon (who took off his sunglasses after the insistence of fans!)
They are all so nice and Jon kept thanking people for coming (they all did actually) and so cute with fans and happy to pose for pictures and hug people and sign stuff and just talk a lot! That's really nice!! I mean when you're in fandoms like JE where your idols are SO FAR AWAY and always maintaining distance cause they have to, it's SO NICE to be able to talk to the people you love, like actually TALK TO fade. !!!!! And hug Jon twice. I don't even think you can feasibly touch a JE idol...
And then I have to leave or miss the last train and be stuck in Shinsaibashi till the first train zzzzzz And I am exhausted. I didn't get enough sleep the night before and all the moshing and jumping and headbanging...never done so much of it in my life. My throat hurts from screaming. But it was all worth it. The next day in school, the only thing I could think of was how amazing fade was, and as I was listening to my fade playlist...the euphoria just caught up with me. Totally not in a studying mood at all.
From a post made a few days later:
I attened my first show at a live house this semester, 27/9/2012 to be exact, and boy, was it an experience. Girls thrashing their hair back and forth, gutteral screaming for the bands they love, head banging, moshing and jumping. The V-kei scene is eyeopening. The J-Rock scene is amazing. The band you've waited for prance onto the stage. You scream for them, feel the energy engulfing you all around, the music starts and you feel it rush through you, around you, enveloping, and you scream and scream somemore. You're asked to "Put your fucking fists in the air!" and you comply and bounce with the energy the band radiates, and you in turn generate more for them to feed off on. It's an adrenaline filled cycle.
When it ends, your ears ring, you're still in a state of denial. Is this the real life? Or is this fantasy? You scramble out the area to wait for the band members to come out and greet their fans. You're bubbling with the aftereffects, too excited to keep still, praise flowing. Then they're there and smiling and asking if you enjoyed yourself. YES YES YES, you reply, babbling on about how amazing it was, the energy, oh the energy. You buy their goods, line up for pictures, steal hugs where you never want to let go. The night is nothing short of euphoric, orgasmic.
Then it ends, but the afterglow remains, the memories and the virtual playback. The feelings, etched on your heart, and you smile yourself to sleep. Their songs make you cry, and you countdown the days till their next live.
Life is never the same again, touched by their spark From the Heart, changed From The Inside Out. Beautiful, isn't it? Carrassing what it feels to be Ever Free, with the band so Close To You, and they're a Million To your One. You're Born Ready for the next time they play. In The End, there is no One Reason for why you love them, and words fail to express how you feel. (It's that silly grin you wear as you listen to their songs, the buzz when watching them and the uncontrollable waves of emotion that overcome you.)