Japan - Part #5
SCREW concert! I only have merch photos, since I didn't want to have to use a locker if they checked my bag and saw a camera. But, as I said before: they didn't check. XD
We had decided to set off fairly early in hopes we'd get to LIQUIDROOM on time for the merch to go on sale, so that we'd get handshake event tickets. I only found out about the event thanks to Google Translate, by accident, and Visual Shoxx's Japan contact kindly translated the message properly. Get there two hours before the doors open when the merch goes on sale, buy either a version of their latest album or their latest DVD (or more than one), get a ticket, hope they don't sell out, meet them after the show.
I decided to wear a red dress with, of course, my devil horns, SCREW bracelets and wristband. Laura did my make-up for me, and then we made our way into Ikebukuro proper for some purikura. I'll post the puri later on, because I still need to upload them. XD
Anyway, we had looked up directions on how to get to LIQUIDROOM, but unfortunately the directions weren't as clear as we had liked... We ended up taking a right instead of a left and eventually realised we had been walking for too long for it to be the right way, since it was meant to be much closer. Luckily, we found a police box, and here we showed our tickets and asked them if they knew where the venue was. They had no idea, looked on a map, didn't see it. So one of them rang the number on the ticket, but that didn't lead to anything. Instead, they rang yet another number and all we understood from the conversation was "LIQUIDROOM" and "gaijin" (foreigners). XD Then we heard the police officer on the phone go "Aaaah!". He ended the call, showed us a HUGE map of the area and explained in English where we were and where we had to go. In the end, it turned out to be very easy to find. :P So whoops...
We were a little worried we were late, because surely the promise of meeting them would mean there'd already be a huge queue! I think we arrived about half an hour before merch was to go on sale, and there were a total of three people. ...Well, then. Eventually the staff set up ropes and made us all form a queue (I say 'all', but there were still only around ten people by now). I loved how people queued, though: the three girls who were already there first, then us two, then everyone else. So in the order in which everyone arrived. Laura and I were the first to head to the CD/DVD table, asked for a CD and asked about the handshake event tickets. Luckily they spoke some English, and after we showed our concert tickets, we got what we wanted. :P Then we went to the regular merch table, where I bought a bracelet, a Byou shirt (vocalist; every band member had designed their own shirt) and two of the photo/cheki sets (Laura got me another one ♥). After we had our stuff, we went to get something to eat first. By now more people were heading to the venue, most of them with Black Moral stuff. XD Over here that's always a big no-no. :P
When we got back, we had no idea what was going on, so we asked two other foreign girls (German) what we had to do. They told us we should take our ticket to a desk where we'd get a free DVD with videos from the Siesta live the day before (includes the live version of Brainstorm, DIE KILLER DEAD and a barbecue), then we'd get called inside number by number. We were so happy we had numbers B1 and B2, because at least we knew those numbers in Japanese. >.>; We tried to ask someone from the staff about where to stand in the queue when the showed us to go to the front, but he just stared from the tickets to our faces and smiled uncomfortably. I guess he didn't speak English. XDD So we waited instead, and indeed: number by number! I got a bottle of water, because I figured we'd be thirsty (this turned out to be good thinking...) and because we had to buy a drink coin anyway. Remember that if you go to a gig in Japan: you need 500 yen for drinks. XD And you need it, it's not a choice.
We joined the crowd and to our surprise we saw that everyone was stood row by row, with space between the rows so you could step forward and backward without bumping into anyone. Next to me was a tiny Japanese lady who disappeared before the encore, after which I was next to a foreign guy. XD There were only a few cosplayers, including a gorgeous Byou, a Jin and quite a few Rui ones (one who was especially good!). Anyway, the setlist, found on screwmexico's Tumblr:
Red Thread
マスカレード
アウトキャスト
The Abyss
DUALITY
Fester
UNWORDLINESS KINGDOM
death candle
微笑みを亡くした愛と自由
EVERYTHING’S A LITTLE CRAZY RIGHT NOW.
Bring It On
DEVASTATED LAND
明晰夢
Barbed wire
Get You Back
En. 1
FREEDOM OF CHOICE -Drum solo-
Damned!! -Rhythm Session-
スカーレット
VEGAS
Teardrop
enduring memories
XANADU
DIE・KILLER・DEAD
S=r&b
En.2
惨殺Fiction
They were all so beautiful! Byou, well... Obviously. It's Byou. At some point he smeared his very red lipstick all over his face, which stayed there until the end. XDD (The girl in front of us did the same in the queue for the handshake event. So yeah: go hard or go home!) Kazuki had on a hood at first but this disappeared at some point. They were all pretty and so amazing live, but to be honest, I was mostly paying attention to Byou. >.>; At one point he was on his back, just singing along. Weird guy. :P Although I've never been a huge fan of furi, I have to admit it was fun to do with everyone, and I love that you don't have to worry about being hit in the face when you're headbanging, because it's the most organised headbanging in the entire world. Even while jumping from left to right, everyone always ended up in the same place! The band seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot too, which is definitely important!
The encore started with Jin on his own, joined by Rui later on for their rhythm session. Rui's voice was a lot deeper than I expected somehow. O__O Not that I've never heard him speak before, on DVDs and in comments, but it seemed deeper! Laura and I were kind of emotional while singing along to XANADU, because we both love it when that happens. ♥ Rui looked like he was close to crying and just asdfghjkl I always love how artists look when the fans sing along. Of course we sang along to S=R&B as well, and that was the song where people were crowdsurfing and basically going insane (though still in an organised fashion!). After that, quite a few people moved towards the back so we moved towards the front and enjoyed the second encore. ♥ Although my feet were about to drop off and we were sweating our asses off, I was sad to see it end. :(
We thought it was over, but then the curtains shut and a video started playing. Everyone sat down on the floor for this, which was... unexpected. But it gave a nice, cosy atmosphere. They played the PV preview for CAVALCADE, showed info about the single, mentioned the new tour final and the mystery announcement for December 2014. There was quite a lot of murmuring and some soft "eeehh?" after that, because of course we all wanted to know what this announcement was. :P
Then the lights went on and everyone left, but of course we once again had no idea where to go. >.>; Luckily we found the German girls again and they told us to stay in the lobby outside the concert hall and then SCREW would eventually appear. It didn't take long for the staff to put us in an organised queue and rope everything off (can I just say that the staff guys we saw the most were adorable? one was kind of geeky cute, the other had long hair and was just cool!). It took ages for them to come out, so we decided to sit down, as some other people were doing. Of course, shortly after this the band came out and stood behind the tables that had been set up. The first girl to go threw up her arms and ran at them, which made me wonder if she was going to give them a hug (because if she had, I would've tried :P), but by the time she reached Jin she had calmed down. It was then that we realised we'd get to talk to them and thought "oh, crap". We also saw some people being dragged off by the manager because they were taking too long, but as we said to each other: at least that wouldn't happen to us!
Jin shook my hand, saw the horns and said "Ah, very nice!" I couldn't really hear what else he was saying, though I think he was saying something about himself in English. Right now I wonder if perhaps he meant he has them too, because I'm sure I've seen him with them on. >.> But he was nice! Next up, Manabu. As I said before, he was an awkward bunny, and didn't say much except for pointing at the horns and saying something about them. He mostly looked uncomfortable. XD The Byou fan in front of me was taking a while, so Manabu and I just stared at each other awkwardly while I tried to smile so he'd know I wasn't going to jump him. He was wearing really cool contacts and I thought of saying something about them, but he looked so uncomfortable that I didn't want to scare him while pointing at his eyes. ^^; Then Byou! He didn't just shake my hand, he kept hold of it! Well, he pointed at the horns very happily, then pulled a confused face, so I showed him how they were staying up, but after that we went back to our hands. He spoke very quickly in Japanese while I admired how incredibly gorgeous he is, even up close and with make-up messed up (not like I had any idea what on earth he was saying). Then I felt hands on me and I was dragged off by the manager. ...*coughs* Byou continued to talk, had my arm at an awkward angle as he still held my hand, and then shouted "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!" which I could just return before I turned to Rui.
Rui was... adorable. XD I held out my hand and he grabbed both of them and swung them up and down, saying: "Thank you! Arigatou!" I tried to tell him I had seen them in Europe (he seems to know English best, that's why), but he didn't hear me properly so he shoved his face forward so I could talk in his ear instead, so I shouted "EUROPE" and he seemed to understand that, at least. :P Next was Kazuki, whose hand immediately went to one of the horns and he then tried to speak to me. When it was time for me to go, he said "I love you!" Before I could wonder if he had said what I thought he had, he repeated himself. So I replied with "I love you too!" and left. >.> I had intended to wait for Laura, but we weren't allowed to linger, so I waited on the stairs instead. When we left, we were handed a bunch of flyers and then we made our way back with me barely able to function. I didn't even feel the pain in my feet anymore. :P ...Well, not at first, at least. I don't really remember what happened after that, but I assume we ate and showered? And yeah, it was awesome. :) So amazing. I want to go again.
Merchandise:
I'm so sorry for the length! It was just so good and I couldn't shut up about it. :P I really hope to see them again, be it in Japan or in Europe or both. Preferably both. Yes. Now to become a Siesta member! And a big thanks to the German girls who so kindly helped us out. :)
Next update: the indie concert of the next day and perhaps the day after too. I'll see how long the first part is. :P
We had decided to set off fairly early in hopes we'd get to LIQUIDROOM on time for the merch to go on sale, so that we'd get handshake event tickets. I only found out about the event thanks to Google Translate, by accident, and Visual Shoxx's Japan contact kindly translated the message properly. Get there two hours before the doors open when the merch goes on sale, buy either a version of their latest album or their latest DVD (or more than one), get a ticket, hope they don't sell out, meet them after the show.
I decided to wear a red dress with, of course, my devil horns, SCREW bracelets and wristband. Laura did my make-up for me, and then we made our way into Ikebukuro proper for some purikura. I'll post the puri later on, because I still need to upload them. XD
Anyway, we had looked up directions on how to get to LIQUIDROOM, but unfortunately the directions weren't as clear as we had liked... We ended up taking a right instead of a left and eventually realised we had been walking for too long for it to be the right way, since it was meant to be much closer. Luckily, we found a police box, and here we showed our tickets and asked them if they knew where the venue was. They had no idea, looked on a map, didn't see it. So one of them rang the number on the ticket, but that didn't lead to anything. Instead, they rang yet another number and all we understood from the conversation was "LIQUIDROOM" and "gaijin" (foreigners). XD Then we heard the police officer on the phone go "Aaaah!". He ended the call, showed us a HUGE map of the area and explained in English where we were and where we had to go. In the end, it turned out to be very easy to find. :P So whoops...
We were a little worried we were late, because surely the promise of meeting them would mean there'd already be a huge queue! I think we arrived about half an hour before merch was to go on sale, and there were a total of three people. ...Well, then. Eventually the staff set up ropes and made us all form a queue (I say 'all', but there were still only around ten people by now). I loved how people queued, though: the three girls who were already there first, then us two, then everyone else. So in the order in which everyone arrived. Laura and I were the first to head to the CD/DVD table, asked for a CD and asked about the handshake event tickets. Luckily they spoke some English, and after we showed our concert tickets, we got what we wanted. :P Then we went to the regular merch table, where I bought a bracelet, a Byou shirt (vocalist; every band member had designed their own shirt) and two of the photo/cheki sets (Laura got me another one ♥). After we had our stuff, we went to get something to eat first. By now more people were heading to the venue, most of them with Black Moral stuff. XD Over here that's always a big no-no. :P
When we got back, we had no idea what was going on, so we asked two other foreign girls (German) what we had to do. They told us we should take our ticket to a desk where we'd get a free DVD with videos from the Siesta live the day before (includes the live version of Brainstorm, DIE KILLER DEAD and a barbecue), then we'd get called inside number by number. We were so happy we had numbers B1 and B2, because at least we knew those numbers in Japanese. >.>; We tried to ask someone from the staff about where to stand in the queue when the showed us to go to the front, but he just stared from the tickets to our faces and smiled uncomfortably. I guess he didn't speak English. XDD So we waited instead, and indeed: number by number! I got a bottle of water, because I figured we'd be thirsty (this turned out to be good thinking...) and because we had to buy a drink coin anyway. Remember that if you go to a gig in Japan: you need 500 yen for drinks. XD And you need it, it's not a choice.
We joined the crowd and to our surprise we saw that everyone was stood row by row, with space between the rows so you could step forward and backward without bumping into anyone. Next to me was a tiny Japanese lady who disappeared before the encore, after which I was next to a foreign guy. XD There were only a few cosplayers, including a gorgeous Byou, a Jin and quite a few Rui ones (one who was especially good!). Anyway, the setlist, found on screwmexico's Tumblr:
Red Thread
マスカレード
アウトキャスト
The Abyss
DUALITY
Fester
UNWORDLINESS KINGDOM
death candle
微笑みを亡くした愛と自由
EVERYTHING’S A LITTLE CRAZY RIGHT NOW.
Bring It On
DEVASTATED LAND
明晰夢
Barbed wire
Get You Back
En. 1
FREEDOM OF CHOICE -Drum solo-
Damned!! -Rhythm Session-
スカーレット
VEGAS
Teardrop
enduring memories
XANADU
DIE・KILLER・DEAD
S=r&b
En.2
惨殺Fiction
They were all so beautiful! Byou, well... Obviously. It's Byou. At some point he smeared his very red lipstick all over his face, which stayed there until the end. XDD (The girl in front of us did the same in the queue for the handshake event. So yeah: go hard or go home!) Kazuki had on a hood at first but this disappeared at some point. They were all pretty and so amazing live, but to be honest, I was mostly paying attention to Byou. >.>; At one point he was on his back, just singing along. Weird guy. :P Although I've never been a huge fan of furi, I have to admit it was fun to do with everyone, and I love that you don't have to worry about being hit in the face when you're headbanging, because it's the most organised headbanging in the entire world. Even while jumping from left to right, everyone always ended up in the same place! The band seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot too, which is definitely important!
The encore started with Jin on his own, joined by Rui later on for their rhythm session. Rui's voice was a lot deeper than I expected somehow. O__O Not that I've never heard him speak before, on DVDs and in comments, but it seemed deeper! Laura and I were kind of emotional while singing along to XANADU, because we both love it when that happens. ♥ Rui looked like he was close to crying and just asdfghjkl I always love how artists look when the fans sing along. Of course we sang along to S=R&B as well, and that was the song where people were crowdsurfing and basically going insane (though still in an organised fashion!). After that, quite a few people moved towards the back so we moved towards the front and enjoyed the second encore. ♥ Although my feet were about to drop off and we were sweating our asses off, I was sad to see it end. :(
We thought it was over, but then the curtains shut and a video started playing. Everyone sat down on the floor for this, which was... unexpected. But it gave a nice, cosy atmosphere. They played the PV preview for CAVALCADE, showed info about the single, mentioned the new tour final and the mystery announcement for December 2014. There was quite a lot of murmuring and some soft "eeehh?" after that, because of course we all wanted to know what this announcement was. :P
Then the lights went on and everyone left, but of course we once again had no idea where to go. >.>; Luckily we found the German girls again and they told us to stay in the lobby outside the concert hall and then SCREW would eventually appear. It didn't take long for the staff to put us in an organised queue and rope everything off (can I just say that the staff guys we saw the most were adorable? one was kind of geeky cute, the other had long hair and was just cool!). It took ages for them to come out, so we decided to sit down, as some other people were doing. Of course, shortly after this the band came out and stood behind the tables that had been set up. The first girl to go threw up her arms and ran at them, which made me wonder if she was going to give them a hug (because if she had, I would've tried :P), but by the time she reached Jin she had calmed down. It was then that we realised we'd get to talk to them and thought "oh, crap". We also saw some people being dragged off by the manager because they were taking too long, but as we said to each other: at least that wouldn't happen to us!
Jin shook my hand, saw the horns and said "Ah, very nice!" I couldn't really hear what else he was saying, though I think he was saying something about himself in English. Right now I wonder if perhaps he meant he has them too, because I'm sure I've seen him with them on. >.> But he was nice! Next up, Manabu. As I said before, he was an awkward bunny, and didn't say much except for pointing at the horns and saying something about them. He mostly looked uncomfortable. XD The Byou fan in front of me was taking a while, so Manabu and I just stared at each other awkwardly while I tried to smile so he'd know I wasn't going to jump him. He was wearing really cool contacts and I thought of saying something about them, but he looked so uncomfortable that I didn't want to scare him while pointing at his eyes. ^^; Then Byou! He didn't just shake my hand, he kept hold of it! Well, he pointed at the horns very happily, then pulled a confused face, so I showed him how they were staying up, but after that we went back to our hands. He spoke very quickly in Japanese while I admired how incredibly gorgeous he is, even up close and with make-up messed up (not like I had any idea what on earth he was saying). Then I felt hands on me and I was dragged off by the manager. ...*coughs* Byou continued to talk, had my arm at an awkward angle as he still held my hand, and then shouted "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!" which I could just return before I turned to Rui.
Rui was... adorable. XD I held out my hand and he grabbed both of them and swung them up and down, saying: "Thank you! Arigatou!" I tried to tell him I had seen them in Europe (he seems to know English best, that's why), but he didn't hear me properly so he shoved his face forward so I could talk in his ear instead, so I shouted "EUROPE" and he seemed to understand that, at least. :P Next was Kazuki, whose hand immediately went to one of the horns and he then tried to speak to me. When it was time for me to go, he said "I love you!" Before I could wonder if he had said what I thought he had, he repeated himself. So I replied with "I love you too!" and left. >.> I had intended to wait for Laura, but we weren't allowed to linger, so I waited on the stairs instead. When we left, we were handed a bunch of flyers and then we made our way back with me barely able to function. I didn't even feel the pain in my feet anymore. :P ...Well, not at first, at least. I don't really remember what happened after that, but I assume we ate and showered? And yeah, it was awesome. :) So amazing. I want to go again.
Merchandise:
I'm so sorry for the length! It was just so good and I couldn't shut up about it. :P I really hope to see them again, be it in Japan or in Europe or both. Preferably both. Yes. Now to become a Siesta member! And a big thanks to the German girls who so kindly helped us out. :)
Next update: the indie concert of the next day and perhaps the day after too. I'll see how long the first part is. :P