Con Report - Warning, written the night of and fairly flaily!
I'm writing this know because lord knows I'll forget certain things and I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. Of course I'm posting this a day late due to the lack of internet but whatever, need to get it down.
First off, I hit the goods line as early as possible today since I'd missed it yesterday. Wait was only about an hour and a half and no snow, but it was REALLY FUCKING COLD. By the time I got to the stations my hands had no feeling because I can't function with gloves on. That made trying to hand over money REAL fun. -___- As such, I pulled a stupid and forgot to get a few things, but by the time I realized it, it was far too late to go back.
I still hadn't gotten my suitcase by the time I left for dome that morning so I went back to the hotel to get it and promptly changed. WEE CLOTHES AND STUFF. XD Yeah, sucker is coming with me this time and so is Katie's so I don't feel so bad being the only person on the train with big luggage.
Anyway, got back to the hotel, changed and did my hair and junk, dropped off the non-essential tour goods and picked up my uchiwa and made it back to dome about right at noon. Met up with Katie2 and Katie #2's teacher and walked around the mall by the dome for a while in a search for big ass Arashi colored hair bows. Sadly, there were none. We did manage to find a big sparkly gold one for Katie #1 for Nino and I found a kind of frilly clip in one for Ohno, so that worked out, at least. We got McDonalds where I had the best thing ever that needs to come to the states now. It was basically an apple pie pocket, but with…creamy potatoes and ham in it. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.
We had to wait like an hour in line for the bathroom there but it was worth it and killed the time until we felt good about going in to get our seats. Teacher and I were in one set of seats and Katie2 were in the other. Pretty much the same view except we were almost straight on and they were more on the side, but also down further. Still no real visibility from the boys, but it was all good.
The concert was, in a few words, fucking amazing. Their audio engineers will not win any awards any time soon and it made me want to beat them with a stick and take over the sound engineering, but aside from that everything was really well done. The opening/entrance was pretty damned epic, I have to say. There was a good mix of live stuff with I'd say minimal vocal overlay. Sho, Jun and Aiba's solos were all overlayed, for sure. Ohno's I'm on the fence about. Katie says it was, but I dunno. I'll have to look at the DVD again. Nino's was 100% live, though, and hilarious. He was so adorable in those huge (ugly) pants trying to climb the stairs and he made us sing the la-la-la's like..5 times in a row. XD He looked REALLY happy and it made me feel all squishyyyy. Ohno's solo made me cry, as did To Be Free at the end, because it was epic.
I don't remember the set list well, at least order wise, which is why I'm jumping around. The album tracks were all good, and for the album they did: Movin' On, Refrain, Let Me Down, Kagero, Mada Ue Wo, Don't Stop, Circus & Summer Splash. Though the last was part of the encore. One big surprise that made me happy was them doing Time Capsule. I adore that song and it was great to hear it, even if the vocals were a bit off on it. They did all of the singles from this past year: Troublemaker, Monster, Everything, To Be Free, Love Rainbow, Dear Snow and Hatenai Sora. Monster had this really neat intro/dance number that was a remix of Re(mark)able plus a bunch of samples from other songs. They mixed truth into that and teased me with it, though they did not perform it. Carnival Night Part 2 was awesome, of course, and out of everyone in that dome there were only like…4 of us that could actually pronounce the v's. XD They also did Hadashi no Mirai and Kotoba Yori Taisetsu na Mono which made me SUPER happy because I've always wanted to be able to do the Hadashi choreo live. *__* Kitto Daijoubu, Pika**nchi Double, & Believe were all really awesome, too.
All of the album tracks were nice and had good choreo, though Circus was…strange. It was REALLY cool with the whole Jun/Aiba 'acrobatic' show at the beginning, but there was so much going on during the song itself that it was hard to really get a look at any of them or what they were doing, just due to too much going on screen wise. Sho did announce the song in English though, so that was pretty damned awesome (and made me tear up as well).
As for solos, T.A.B.O.O. made me laugh at Sho attempting to be sexy in the VTR. I mean, it was really nifty but it's SHO and I just…can't find him sexy most of the time. He's just a goofball, especially considering just before that he'd been making faces at the camera and doing the bunny ears he's been doing for the past month or so. Shizuka no Yoru ni had a lot more dancing than I thought it would, and Ohno worked it. Definitely a self-choreo, considering a recycling of a lot of former moves, but still pretty nice. And it gave me goosebumps and made me cry, so it was awesome. That was of course followed by Nino's which was just a huge ball of sugary sweet awesomeness that had me cooing. Even if he was wearing god awful plaid baggy pants. He must have REALLY pissed off every stylist they have, I swear. They just keep putting him in the most ridiculous outfits. Come back to me was just…epic with the MJ game (and Nino being his one-up!) and it definitely was a much better 'live' song than it was on the album, though I knew that would be the case. The camera action was cool, if a little dizzying at times. Magical Song was…. well, it's still my least-favorite Aiba solo, but it was pretty damned awesome. Especially because he did it on the moving stage near us and had a light up suit. XD
As far as staging goes, we all know Jun has this massive affinity for using water in his designs now and…this was no exception. In fact, there was GOBS AND GOBS OF WATER FEATURES. The whole main stage pretty much was, to be honest. The stage set up was really nifty though, with two moving screens and a bunch of stairs and such. Plus having screens on the carriages was a nice touch.
The MC included them ragging on Ohno for trying to be 'fake black' since his face is still tan but the rest of him is Nino-white. There was also talk of Jun's hair being cute and how it would be cute flat, to which Jun was like "bitch, no." There was also Aiba miss-pronouncing Lotus to which none of them would let him live it down. And of course, they told Sho he'd be getting the DVD for his birthday, happy birthday dude, have your own DVD. XD Sho did not really like that idea. There was of course the Kaibutsu-kun skit, which was adorable. Especially when they all 'shook hands' with Kaibutsu-kun and Nino proceeded to pull him in a few times which brought about a little shoving battle. Also, when they were announcing the 3D Movie, Nino decided to read the article in the most ABSURD voice ever. I nearly fell over laughing. Yukai Tsukai Kaibutsu-kun was adorable, as always.
We managed to get them out for a third encore, which was fucking awesome because they did Sakura Sake. I think my arm might fall off after all the waving and choreo I did with the pen light tonight. Oh Yeah and Happiness were especially hard on it. XD
Speaking of Happiness, during it they were split up onto two of the carriages: Sho and Nino on one, Aiba, Jun Ohno on the other. As the two crossed in front of each other, Ohmiya made a play to reach for each other and 'missed' and were both heart broken. It was hilarious. Other interactions included Jun being a squishy on Ohno, Aiba and Nino being all cuddly and then Sho and Nino being the dipshits they usually are together, including the strange 'Sakumiya Mating Ritual Dance' which is just the most god awful thing ever but still hilarious. I really don't know what else to call it because they look like two deformed birds trying to grab the attention of the other.
Sho was pretty spot-on and playful during the concert, too, doing a lot of stupid made-up dance moves which included twirling with the towel.
Speaking of towel… they all had modified tour shirts for the encore, right? Well Aiba's was all holey, so he had on a sweatshirt underneath it. They started picking fun at him and asking him if he was cold and teasing him so he was finally like "fine fine I'll take it off but protect me!" To which…Jun and Ohno held the towel up, which is never a good idea because it was down in 2 seconds leaving a half-naked Aiba giggling and trying to hide. And shooting 'death glares' at them both. AND THEN, somehow during the encores after this point, the one hole in Aiba's shirt ended up ripped across his entire abdomen. They proceeded to make fun of that, too.
I'm still in like, disbelief that I've actually seen them in concert now, seeing as I never actually thought it would ever happen. Did I miss them not doing A-ra-shi? Yeah, but the rest of it made up for it. And their insane level of energy and happiness throughout the whole thing was just…such a mood brightener I'm still smiling and giggling randomly even if it was balls ass cold waiting for the bus to get back.
I think I've covered pretty much everything, I think, and I really need to sleep as it has been a long, long day. BUT AN AWESOME ONE!
嵐最高！
Edit: Something I forgot that came up in another con report: during Kotoba, Aiba started miming singing Ohno's bit with Jun next to him. Jun pushed his mic away and smacked him in the head. PRICELESS. Also, I wasn't able to see either thing from my view, but during Troublemaker, Ohno finally got Nino back for never letting him in line by jabbing his fingers in his ass and making him jump. I'd saw the jumping, but I didn't know he'd done that. Also, Jun apparently molested Ohno at some point, too. Not surprising at all. XD
Today is Harajuku!
First off, I hit the goods line as early as possible today since I'd missed it yesterday. Wait was only about an hour and a half and no snow, but it was REALLY FUCKING COLD. By the time I got to the stations my hands had no feeling because I can't function with gloves on. That made trying to hand over money REAL fun. -___- As such, I pulled a stupid and forgot to get a few things, but by the time I realized it, it was far too late to go back.
I still hadn't gotten my suitcase by the time I left for dome that morning so I went back to the hotel to get it and promptly changed. WEE CLOTHES AND STUFF. XD Yeah, sucker is coming with me this time and so is Katie's so I don't feel so bad being the only person on the train with big luggage.
Anyway, got back to the hotel, changed and did my hair and junk, dropped off the non-essential tour goods and picked up my uchiwa and made it back to dome about right at noon. Met up with Katie2 and Katie #2's teacher and walked around the mall by the dome for a while in a search for big ass Arashi colored hair bows. Sadly, there were none. We did manage to find a big sparkly gold one for Katie #1 for Nino and I found a kind of frilly clip in one for Ohno, so that worked out, at least. We got McDonalds where I had the best thing ever that needs to come to the states now. It was basically an apple pie pocket, but with…creamy potatoes and ham in it. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.
We had to wait like an hour in line for the bathroom there but it was worth it and killed the time until we felt good about going in to get our seats. Teacher and I were in one set of seats and Katie2 were in the other. Pretty much the same view except we were almost straight on and they were more on the side, but also down further. Still no real visibility from the boys, but it was all good.
The concert was, in a few words, fucking amazing. Their audio engineers will not win any awards any time soon and it made me want to beat them with a stick and take over the sound engineering, but aside from that everything was really well done. The opening/entrance was pretty damned epic, I have to say. There was a good mix of live stuff with I'd say minimal vocal overlay. Sho, Jun and Aiba's solos were all overlayed, for sure. Ohno's I'm on the fence about. Katie says it was, but I dunno. I'll have to look at the DVD again. Nino's was 100% live, though, and hilarious. He was so adorable in those huge (ugly) pants trying to climb the stairs and he made us sing the la-la-la's like..5 times in a row. XD He looked REALLY happy and it made me feel all squishyyyy. Ohno's solo made me cry, as did To Be Free at the end, because it was epic.
I don't remember the set list well, at least order wise, which is why I'm jumping around. The album tracks were all good, and for the album they did: Movin' On, Refrain, Let Me Down, Kagero, Mada Ue Wo, Don't Stop, Circus & Summer Splash. Though the last was part of the encore. One big surprise that made me happy was them doing Time Capsule. I adore that song and it was great to hear it, even if the vocals were a bit off on it. They did all of the singles from this past year: Troublemaker, Monster, Everything, To Be Free, Love Rainbow, Dear Snow and Hatenai Sora. Monster had this really neat intro/dance number that was a remix of Re(mark)able plus a bunch of samples from other songs. They mixed truth into that and teased me with it, though they did not perform it. Carnival Night Part 2 was awesome, of course, and out of everyone in that dome there were only like…4 of us that could actually pronounce the v's. XD They also did Hadashi no Mirai and Kotoba Yori Taisetsu na Mono which made me SUPER happy because I've always wanted to be able to do the Hadashi choreo live. *__* Kitto Daijoubu, Pika**nchi Double, & Believe were all really awesome, too.
All of the album tracks were nice and had good choreo, though Circus was…strange. It was REALLY cool with the whole Jun/Aiba 'acrobatic' show at the beginning, but there was so much going on during the song itself that it was hard to really get a look at any of them or what they were doing, just due to too much going on screen wise. Sho did announce the song in English though, so that was pretty damned awesome (and made me tear up as well).
As for solos, T.A.B.O.O. made me laugh at Sho attempting to be sexy in the VTR. I mean, it was really nifty but it's SHO and I just…can't find him sexy most of the time. He's just a goofball, especially considering just before that he'd been making faces at the camera and doing the bunny ears he's been doing for the past month or so. Shizuka no Yoru ni had a lot more dancing than I thought it would, and Ohno worked it. Definitely a self-choreo, considering a recycling of a lot of former moves, but still pretty nice. And it gave me goosebumps and made me cry, so it was awesome. That was of course followed by Nino's which was just a huge ball of sugary sweet awesomeness that had me cooing. Even if he was wearing god awful plaid baggy pants. He must have REALLY pissed off every stylist they have, I swear. They just keep putting him in the most ridiculous outfits. Come back to me was just…epic with the MJ game (and Nino being his one-up!) and it definitely was a much better 'live' song than it was on the album, though I knew that would be the case. The camera action was cool, if a little dizzying at times. Magical Song was…. well, it's still my least-favorite Aiba solo, but it was pretty damned awesome. Especially because he did it on the moving stage near us and had a light up suit. XD
As far as staging goes, we all know Jun has this massive affinity for using water in his designs now and…this was no exception. In fact, there was GOBS AND GOBS OF WATER FEATURES. The whole main stage pretty much was, to be honest. The stage set up was really nifty though, with two moving screens and a bunch of stairs and such. Plus having screens on the carriages was a nice touch.
The MC included them ragging on Ohno for trying to be 'fake black' since his face is still tan but the rest of him is Nino-white. There was also talk of Jun's hair being cute and how it would be cute flat, to which Jun was like "bitch, no." There was also Aiba miss-pronouncing Lotus to which none of them would let him live it down. And of course, they told Sho he'd be getting the DVD for his birthday, happy birthday dude, have your own DVD. XD Sho did not really like that idea. There was of course the Kaibutsu-kun skit, which was adorable. Especially when they all 'shook hands' with Kaibutsu-kun and Nino proceeded to pull him in a few times which brought about a little shoving battle. Also, when they were announcing the 3D Movie, Nino decided to read the article in the most ABSURD voice ever. I nearly fell over laughing. Yukai Tsukai Kaibutsu-kun was adorable, as always.
We managed to get them out for a third encore, which was fucking awesome because they did Sakura Sake. I think my arm might fall off after all the waving and choreo I did with the pen light tonight. Oh Yeah and Happiness were especially hard on it. XD
Speaking of Happiness, during it they were split up onto two of the carriages: Sho and Nino on one, Aiba, Jun Ohno on the other. As the two crossed in front of each other, Ohmiya made a play to reach for each other and 'missed' and were both heart broken. It was hilarious. Other interactions included Jun being a squishy on Ohno, Aiba and Nino being all cuddly and then Sho and Nino being the dipshits they usually are together, including the strange 'Sakumiya Mating Ritual Dance' which is just the most god awful thing ever but still hilarious. I really don't know what else to call it because they look like two deformed birds trying to grab the attention of the other.
Sho was pretty spot-on and playful during the concert, too, doing a lot of stupid made-up dance moves which included twirling with the towel.
Speaking of towel… they all had modified tour shirts for the encore, right? Well Aiba's was all holey, so he had on a sweatshirt underneath it. They started picking fun at him and asking him if he was cold and teasing him so he was finally like "fine fine I'll take it off but protect me!" To which…Jun and Ohno held the towel up, which is never a good idea because it was down in 2 seconds leaving a half-naked Aiba giggling and trying to hide. And shooting 'death glares' at them both. AND THEN, somehow during the encores after this point, the one hole in Aiba's shirt ended up ripped across his entire abdomen. They proceeded to make fun of that, too.
I'm still in like, disbelief that I've actually seen them in concert now, seeing as I never actually thought it would ever happen. Did I miss them not doing A-ra-shi? Yeah, but the rest of it made up for it. And their insane level of energy and happiness throughout the whole thing was just…such a mood brightener I'm still smiling and giggling randomly even if it was balls ass cold waiting for the bus to get back.
I think I've covered pretty much everything, I think, and I really need to sleep as it has been a long, long day. BUT AN AWESOME ONE!
嵐最高！
Edit: Something I forgot that came up in another con report: during Kotoba, Aiba started miming singing Ohno's bit with Jun next to him. Jun pushed his mic away and smacked him in the head. PRICELESS. Also, I wasn't able to see either thing from my view, but during Troublemaker, Ohno finally got Nino back for never letting him in line by jabbing his fingers in his ass and making him jump. I'd saw the jumping, but I didn't know he'd done that. Also, Jun apparently molested Ohno at some point, too. Not surprising at all. XD
Today is Harajuku!