... i need more icons for this journal
random note: i didn't even know that the mtv movie awards were happening last night, but somehow i *do* know that will ferrel and sacha baron cohen won for best kiss-- go check out the clip on youtube, it made my day.
well, actually, the GOZ VII live tonight will prolly make my day ^_^
i should write about last night's live NOW lest i forget.
無料 lives are free lives where you only have to pay 500円 for a drink ticket to get in. since they're free they're always really crowded and are generally filled with ppl who don't usually come to lives.
i went to see danger gang and i 予約'd with them but it didn't seem to matter... in fact, i think i almost coulda gotten in without paying for a drink ticket cuz the ticket girl was a little out of it (i never got handed a ticket or anything).
but rewind a little-- my approach to urawa!
omg, it was like coming home again. i nearly danced down the hallway to the little underground mall area (cuz i was glad to finally be back at narciss and cuz 'tokyo telephone' came on my mp3 player right then, and even tho it's a rather melancholy song it's got a good beat). i got myself a goma-an taiyaki mostly for old time's sake. i wasn't hungry cuz i'd eaten an onigiri on the way but i wanted a taiyaki dammit! i also stopped in the public bathroom to check my make up, also for old times sake ^_^
i was still about a half hour early for doors but i wanted to wait by the entrance anyway. there was already a bunch of ppl there so i squatted in front of the 'snack bar' across the street for a few minutes until the wind drove me into the shelter of the garage in front of the entrance. while i was squatting in front of the snack bar was when weird faced girl showed up! weird face girl is this japanese girl with... a weird face. i dunno how else to describe it. but she would show up at lives (mostly 無料 ones) and take a place in the front row and just *stand* there, not reacting, with her stupid, weird face! she seems to have gotten a little bit more of a personality now, tho. she was in this horrible pink outfit and her hair is still long but bleached within an inch of its life and she had a little tiara clip in it. i literally started laughing when she showed up (luckily no one had any idea why i was laughing) just cuz of the irony of it. i still dunno if she recognized me or not but at one point we caught each other's eye and did a smile/head bob of greeting but that was about it. she made fast friends with this pair of girls behind us on line who had never been to a live before. they kept saying random phrases in english and i think they were trying to figure out how to talk to me, but i wasn't sure so i didn't butt into their conversation (tho i could have...).
we could hear danger gang doing sound check but then they finished and we were let in. i put my stuff by one of the tall tables in the back (i decided to bum on second tier again). it was a pretty full night, like i said, cuz two rather popular bands were playing (danger gang and this crazy ska-type-band whose name i still don't know cuz they chickened out at giving me a flyer).
Danger Gang: they have *really* come into their own! before, i liked them cuz they were good-for-vk and cuz of the novelty of a 'ladies band', but they've really made themselves into a really good band in their own right!
Waka is still the little bundle of energy she always was but she's switched back to girl-speech while on stage. when last i saw them she was affecting "male" speech (like using boku, etc) on stage, but this time she spoke in ultra-feminine language. it does suit her better and i think she's more comfortable doing that.
Hiko is... KAKOI! like, omg, she's just sooo kakoi. and it's not just on-stage-affected-kakoi-ness. well, some of it is. but you can tell that she is, actually, naturally kakoi like that. she has also become a simply amaaaazing guitarist. her guitar solos were just... woh. (i, uh, might have a new favorite member ::coughs::)
Thera is... orange. i remember when i first saw pictures of the 'orange' and i was like "oh... no..." it's not any better in person >_< i tried, i reeeeally triiiied, but i just don't approve of the orange. i couldn't bring myself to mention it on the enquette, tho. she still has the biggest, doofiest smile in the world while she's on stage, tho, which is endearing.
Rei's hair, on the other hand, is soooo much better looking in person. on the fliers it looks like it has streaks of grey in it, but in real life it just looks... well, good. again, i was really impressed with how she'd improved as a musician.
they only played 4 or 5 songs, and half of them i wasn't too familiar with (gotta re-listen to their album) but the second song they played was 流れ星と秋の空 and i had forgotten how much i adore that song until they started playing it. waka started it out with a slow accapella version of the chorus and we all began the furi (omg, i love that fuuuuriiii). i got sooo into it.
during their second to last song waka actually climbed off the stage and into the audience and started dragging ppl from the back into the pit. i thought she was gonna skip over me (i was a little off to the side and all) but i guess my enthusiasm was evident from the stage, cuz suddenly i felt this small but insistant hand on my arm *yanking* down to the pit. i looked at her in surprise and got the よろしくね～ face from her. well, when a small and adorable vocalist tells you to get in the pit, you *get in the pit*. so for the last song i was able to really head bang and bop around, altho weird-faced girl was right in front of me (and she's tall, dammit!) and sometimes wouldn't move, which was a little annoying.
actually, i think danger gang is moderately used to foreign fans, cuz they have an english language fansite that they link to from their own page and seem to communicate fairly easily with the webmistress of said page (she speaks japanese, of course).
Sha-ra-ku or however they spell it. to me, they seemed like a band of friends who were like "hey, you play guitar and i can sing halfway decent in karaoke and we happen to know someone who can play drums! let's form a band!" really, i would have nothing more to say about them if they hadn't been the ONLY BAND to get up the balls to come and talk to me of their own accord.
みるきる i was actually considering leaving after the second band cuz i was a little bored and happy at having seen danger gang, but i decided to stay. and then... *they* came on stage.
out of ALL the live houses and ALL the lives they could have been playing at! why miiiine?? what are the chances that they are still together after THREE YEARS and just *happen* to be playing at the 無料 live i'm attending! really, what is the probability that i would possibly see these ppl *again*??
it was the NAMAKUJI BAND!!
basically, this band consists of some girl who begged her bass playing male friend to form a band with her. she sings in an annoyingly high pitched voice and bounces around stage while he plays mediocre bass. nobody cared. nobody wanted to see them. weird faced girl stood up front and thought the bassist was cute. i'd almost feel bad if i didn't want to steal her vocal cords and feed them to a kappa. we happened to see them at some live in ikebukuro cyber a million years ago and the only reason i remember them so well is cuz they had this one song, the chorus of which is "生く～じ、逃げ逃げ！生くじ逃げ～逃げ～" with appropriate immitation-of-running hand movements. of course, those might not be the exact words, but that's what we heard. raw whale? baby whale? run away? what? (actually, i think it might be おみくじ逃げ逃げ cuz that makes slightly more sense, like "run away from the fortune telling!" or some such)
but i wanted to heeear thaaat song. of course, they didn't play it. i was disappointed. i considered leaving again.
that's when i turned around and in walked POODLE GIRL. there are just... no words... i don't even know why she came, none of her bands were playing that night. well, mayhaps she's a fan of the next band...
Skull Fuck Revolvers this is the ska-band. i am actually not sure if that's what their name is, cuz i never got a chirashi and they were too scared of me to give me a enquette (altho two of them danced around me for a good 5 min handing them out. at the time, i was fretting over giving my enquette to danger gang so i didn't pay much attention).
they're japanese ska in v-kei clothing! and they are aaaawesome. they didn't have a real brass section, tho, it was recorded. and the singer looks faaaaar too much like miyabi (and i think he knows it, cuz he has very similar piercings and hair style). the singer was a super-spaz as well and started the set by licking a bar of chocolate and throwing it into the audience (uh, what did he want us to do with it? he'd now licked it and it had fallen on the floor, all open. silly vocalists). for their last song they had someone come out and play electric violin which was just a kick ass addition. at that time the singer squatted for far too long behind his dictator and came back up with more chocolate smeared all over his face. he had waaay too much fun with that chocolate.
oh, and the second guitarist had greasy yakuza-ish hair and an eye patch. just had to mention that.
before the next band waka and thera came out to stand by the danger gang merch table. i totally didn't see them until i almost walked backwards into poor thera. i hadn't realized that the spot i chose to stand in was *right where* danger gang would come out later and hang around. but then, they got mobbed. they're reeeeally popular now. it was difficult even to get my enquette to the staff girl later!
the singer of the sucky band was also out by this point, still wearing his wretched purple pants and yellow shirt, and doing a not-so-good job of hiding his "i tawt i taw a gaijin" face. but he was still too scared to way lay me so i ignored him.
since everyone was swarming in the area i *had* been standing in, i yoinked my bags and moved to the other side of the live house. the singer and guitarist of the sucky band practically played jan-ken-pon to decide who would come talk to me. so the guitarist finally came over and gave me a chirashi with their next live written on it (it's in july, so i definitely can't go... not that i would go even if i could...) and was all like わあ！日本語うまい！ and asked me to fill out their enquette. i didn't *want* to fill it out but... he asked me >_< luckily, right then, the lights went down and the next band started.
99 cube i kinda got stuck down on the floor *right in the center* so i stood there and got stared at by the vocalist the whole time. well, i was right in his line of sight, he didn't have much of a choice. they were actually a decent band and i enjoyed them. their image was kinda like old kagerou, so was their music a bit i think. i was glad i had decided to stay till the end.
that band ended and i sat down to fill out sha-ra-ku's darn enquette. i really, really had nothing to say to them and i didn't *want* to say "er, i didn't really like you at all". so i wrote some stupid messages to them (but yes, i actually *did* write ベルトをちゃんと使ってね to the vocalist. i hope there's not another "what do you meeean by 'polka dots'?" incident, but i haven't gotten any mail-maga yet so i think i'm safe). the guitarist came over and waited around near me while i filled it out and as soon as i looked up he took it from me, and gave me yet *another* flier. i felt a little bad cuz he was being really nice and the band *does* have some potential, and on their chirashi they actually look really put together (i dunno what happened to their costumes that night o_O).
so i stood around for a whole play-through of "no woman, no cry" (the song they play at narciss which generally means "ok, leave the live house now!") feeling really awkward and stupid while danger gang got mobbed by everybody. i wanted to talk to them, at least say お疲れ様でした but just... chickened out. there were too many ppl and the darn ska-band was just as scared of me as i was of danger gang and sucky band was standing *right there* so i kinda just gave up. i would have gone back to ska-band's goods table and attempted to talk to them if i wouldn't have had to have gone by namakuji-singer to do it. she scared me ;_; oh, PLUS there was this random male gaijin there (he had tooootally been dragged along by his japanese girlfriend) who managed to way lay waka right in front of me! i was like "aaargh, damn you and your japanese abilities!" except, y'know, without actually saying that.
that's when i made my mad dash for the door, having to say お疲れさま to the singer and guitarist of the sucky band on my way out. i then ran into every other member of the sucky band in the ally between narciss and the megane-ya. why were they all out theeeeere? more お疲れさま's until i made it to the mcdonald's for a traditional after-live dinner of chicken nuggets, fries and vanilla milkshake. oooh, they don't have sweet n' sour sauce anymore but now this new selection of funky japanese sauces. i just got the 'curry' flavor, thinking it would taste weird and i wouldn't like it but... it was actually reeeeally good! it totally tasted like curry and i used a lot of it. all of the tenin then conspired to be sweeping up in the basement right where i was sitting so i used the bathroom quickly and left.
i kept thinking, jokingly mind you, that i was leaving early cuz i *swore* the kami were conspiring to have one of the members of the sucky band be on my train with me. *just then* i look up and there aaall the members are, crossing the street right in front of narciss >_< i seriously slowed down and kinda hid behind a group of sararimen in front of me and they didn't see me. the one good thing about the purple pants/yellow shirt outfit was that it was easy to spot from afar. i decided not to push my luck anymore and made a mad dash for the train station.
it was a good ride home and i felt more myself than i had in a while, despite chickening out with demachi. i swear i will do it for the session band live! i swear!
ok, so i'm gonna regret it later, but i'm putting off finishing this entry cuz... it's almost 11 and i don't feel like sitting around all day before my live again! i wanna go to shibuya and scout out where i'm supposed to meet komako. ::squirms:: going noooooow. yaaaay, finished the live report!
well, actually, the GOZ VII live tonight will prolly make my day ^_^
i should write about last night's live NOW lest i forget.
無料 lives are free lives where you only have to pay 500円 for a drink ticket to get in. since they're free they're always really crowded and are generally filled with ppl who don't usually come to lives.
i went to see danger gang and i 予約'd with them but it didn't seem to matter... in fact, i think i almost coulda gotten in without paying for a drink ticket cuz the ticket girl was a little out of it (i never got handed a ticket or anything).
but rewind a little-- my approach to urawa!
omg, it was like coming home again. i nearly danced down the hallway to the little underground mall area (cuz i was glad to finally be back at narciss and cuz 'tokyo telephone' came on my mp3 player right then, and even tho it's a rather melancholy song it's got a good beat). i got myself a goma-an taiyaki mostly for old time's sake. i wasn't hungry cuz i'd eaten an onigiri on the way but i wanted a taiyaki dammit! i also stopped in the public bathroom to check my make up, also for old times sake ^_^
i was still about a half hour early for doors but i wanted to wait by the entrance anyway. there was already a bunch of ppl there so i squatted in front of the 'snack bar' across the street for a few minutes until the wind drove me into the shelter of the garage in front of the entrance. while i was squatting in front of the snack bar was when weird faced girl showed up! weird face girl is this japanese girl with... a weird face. i dunno how else to describe it. but she would show up at lives (mostly 無料 ones) and take a place in the front row and just *stand* there, not reacting, with her stupid, weird face! she seems to have gotten a little bit more of a personality now, tho. she was in this horrible pink outfit and her hair is still long but bleached within an inch of its life and she had a little tiara clip in it. i literally started laughing when she showed up (luckily no one had any idea why i was laughing) just cuz of the irony of it. i still dunno if she recognized me or not but at one point we caught each other's eye and did a smile/head bob of greeting but that was about it. she made fast friends with this pair of girls behind us on line who had never been to a live before. they kept saying random phrases in english and i think they were trying to figure out how to talk to me, but i wasn't sure so i didn't butt into their conversation (tho i could have...).
we could hear danger gang doing sound check but then they finished and we were let in. i put my stuff by one of the tall tables in the back (i decided to bum on second tier again). it was a pretty full night, like i said, cuz two rather popular bands were playing (danger gang and this crazy ska-type-band whose name i still don't know cuz they chickened out at giving me a flyer).
Danger Gang: they have *really* come into their own! before, i liked them cuz they were good-for-vk and cuz of the novelty of a 'ladies band', but they've really made themselves into a really good band in their own right!
Waka is still the little bundle of energy she always was but she's switched back to girl-speech while on stage. when last i saw them she was affecting "male" speech (like using boku, etc) on stage, but this time she spoke in ultra-feminine language. it does suit her better and i think she's more comfortable doing that.
Hiko is... KAKOI! like, omg, she's just sooo kakoi. and it's not just on-stage-affected-kakoi-ness. well, some of it is. but you can tell that she is, actually, naturally kakoi like that. she has also become a simply amaaaazing guitarist. her guitar solos were just... woh. (i, uh, might have a new favorite member ::coughs::)
Thera is... orange. i remember when i first saw pictures of the 'orange' and i was like "oh... no..." it's not any better in person >_< i tried, i reeeeally triiiied, but i just don't approve of the orange. i couldn't bring myself to mention it on the enquette, tho. she still has the biggest, doofiest smile in the world while she's on stage, tho, which is endearing.
Rei's hair, on the other hand, is soooo much better looking in person. on the fliers it looks like it has streaks of grey in it, but in real life it just looks... well, good. again, i was really impressed with how she'd improved as a musician.
they only played 4 or 5 songs, and half of them i wasn't too familiar with (gotta re-listen to their album) but the second song they played was 流れ星と秋の空 and i had forgotten how much i adore that song until they started playing it. waka started it out with a slow accapella version of the chorus and we all began the furi (omg, i love that fuuuuriiii). i got sooo into it.
during their second to last song waka actually climbed off the stage and into the audience and started dragging ppl from the back into the pit. i thought she was gonna skip over me (i was a little off to the side and all) but i guess my enthusiasm was evident from the stage, cuz suddenly i felt this small but insistant hand on my arm *yanking* down to the pit. i looked at her in surprise and got the よろしくね～ face from her. well, when a small and adorable vocalist tells you to get in the pit, you *get in the pit*. so for the last song i was able to really head bang and bop around, altho weird-faced girl was right in front of me (and she's tall, dammit!) and sometimes wouldn't move, which was a little annoying.
actually, i think danger gang is moderately used to foreign fans, cuz they have an english language fansite that they link to from their own page and seem to communicate fairly easily with the webmistress of said page (she speaks japanese, of course).
Sha-ra-ku or however they spell it. to me, they seemed like a band of friends who were like "hey, you play guitar and i can sing halfway decent in karaoke and we happen to know someone who can play drums! let's form a band!" really, i would have nothing more to say about them if they hadn't been the ONLY BAND to get up the balls to come and talk to me of their own accord.
みるきる i was actually considering leaving after the second band cuz i was a little bored and happy at having seen danger gang, but i decided to stay. and then... *they* came on stage.
out of ALL the live houses and ALL the lives they could have been playing at! why miiiine?? what are the chances that they are still together after THREE YEARS and just *happen* to be playing at the 無料 live i'm attending! really, what is the probability that i would possibly see these ppl *again*??
it was the NAMAKUJI BAND!!
basically, this band consists of some girl who begged her bass playing male friend to form a band with her. she sings in an annoyingly high pitched voice and bounces around stage while he plays mediocre bass. nobody cared. nobody wanted to see them. weird faced girl stood up front and thought the bassist was cute. i'd almost feel bad if i didn't want to steal her vocal cords and feed them to a kappa. we happened to see them at some live in ikebukuro cyber a million years ago and the only reason i remember them so well is cuz they had this one song, the chorus of which is "生く～じ、逃げ逃げ！生くじ逃げ～逃げ～" with appropriate immitation-of-running hand movements. of course, those might not be the exact words, but that's what we heard. raw whale? baby whale? run away? what? (actually, i think it might be おみくじ逃げ逃げ cuz that makes slightly more sense, like "run away from the fortune telling!" or some such)
but i wanted to heeear thaaat song. of course, they didn't play it. i was disappointed. i considered leaving again.
that's when i turned around and in walked POODLE GIRL. there are just... no words... i don't even know why she came, none of her bands were playing that night. well, mayhaps she's a fan of the next band...
Skull Fuck Revolvers this is the ska-band. i am actually not sure if that's what their name is, cuz i never got a chirashi and they were too scared of me to give me a enquette (altho two of them danced around me for a good 5 min handing them out. at the time, i was fretting over giving my enquette to danger gang so i didn't pay much attention).
they're japanese ska in v-kei clothing! and they are aaaawesome. they didn't have a real brass section, tho, it was recorded. and the singer looks faaaaar too much like miyabi (and i think he knows it, cuz he has very similar piercings and hair style). the singer was a super-spaz as well and started the set by licking a bar of chocolate and throwing it into the audience (uh, what did he want us to do with it? he'd now licked it and it had fallen on the floor, all open. silly vocalists). for their last song they had someone come out and play electric violin which was just a kick ass addition. at that time the singer squatted for far too long behind his dictator and came back up with more chocolate smeared all over his face. he had waaay too much fun with that chocolate.
oh, and the second guitarist had greasy yakuza-ish hair and an eye patch. just had to mention that.
before the next band waka and thera came out to stand by the danger gang merch table. i totally didn't see them until i almost walked backwards into poor thera. i hadn't realized that the spot i chose to stand in was *right where* danger gang would come out later and hang around. but then, they got mobbed. they're reeeeally popular now. it was difficult even to get my enquette to the staff girl later!
the singer of the sucky band was also out by this point, still wearing his wretched purple pants and yellow shirt, and doing a not-so-good job of hiding his "i tawt i taw a gaijin" face. but he was still too scared to way lay me so i ignored him.
since everyone was swarming in the area i *had* been standing in, i yoinked my bags and moved to the other side of the live house. the singer and guitarist of the sucky band practically played jan-ken-pon to decide who would come talk to me. so the guitarist finally came over and gave me a chirashi with their next live written on it (it's in july, so i definitely can't go... not that i would go even if i could...) and was all like わあ！日本語うまい！ and asked me to fill out their enquette. i didn't *want* to fill it out but... he asked me >_< luckily, right then, the lights went down and the next band started.
99 cube i kinda got stuck down on the floor *right in the center* so i stood there and got stared at by the vocalist the whole time. well, i was right in his line of sight, he didn't have much of a choice. they were actually a decent band and i enjoyed them. their image was kinda like old kagerou, so was their music a bit i think. i was glad i had decided to stay till the end.
that band ended and i sat down to fill out sha-ra-ku's darn enquette. i really, really had nothing to say to them and i didn't *want* to say "er, i didn't really like you at all". so i wrote some stupid messages to them (but yes, i actually *did* write ベルトをちゃんと使ってね to the vocalist. i hope there's not another "what do you meeean by 'polka dots'?" incident, but i haven't gotten any mail-maga yet so i think i'm safe). the guitarist came over and waited around near me while i filled it out and as soon as i looked up he took it from me, and gave me yet *another* flier. i felt a little bad cuz he was being really nice and the band *does* have some potential, and on their chirashi they actually look really put together (i dunno what happened to their costumes that night o_O).
so i stood around for a whole play-through of "no woman, no cry" (the song they play at narciss which generally means "ok, leave the live house now!") feeling really awkward and stupid while danger gang got mobbed by everybody. i wanted to talk to them, at least say お疲れ様でした but just... chickened out. there were too many ppl and the darn ska-band was just as scared of me as i was of danger gang and sucky band was standing *right there* so i kinda just gave up. i would have gone back to ska-band's goods table and attempted to talk to them if i wouldn't have had to have gone by namakuji-singer to do it. she scared me ;_; oh, PLUS there was this random male gaijin there (he had tooootally been dragged along by his japanese girlfriend) who managed to way lay waka right in front of me! i was like "aaargh, damn you and your japanese abilities!" except, y'know, without actually saying that.
that's when i made my mad dash for the door, having to say お疲れさま to the singer and guitarist of the sucky band on my way out. i then ran into every other member of the sucky band in the ally between narciss and the megane-ya. why were they all out theeeeere? more お疲れさま's until i made it to the mcdonald's for a traditional after-live dinner of chicken nuggets, fries and vanilla milkshake. oooh, they don't have sweet n' sour sauce anymore but now this new selection of funky japanese sauces. i just got the 'curry' flavor, thinking it would taste weird and i wouldn't like it but... it was actually reeeeally good! it totally tasted like curry and i used a lot of it. all of the tenin then conspired to be sweeping up in the basement right where i was sitting so i used the bathroom quickly and left.
i kept thinking, jokingly mind you, that i was leaving early cuz i *swore* the kami were conspiring to have one of the members of the sucky band be on my train with me. *just then* i look up and there aaall the members are, crossing the street right in front of narciss >_< i seriously slowed down and kinda hid behind a group of sararimen in front of me and they didn't see me. the one good thing about the purple pants/yellow shirt outfit was that it was easy to spot from afar. i decided not to push my luck anymore and made a mad dash for the train station.
it was a good ride home and i felt more myself than i had in a while, despite chickening out with demachi. i swear i will do it for the session band live! i swear!
ok, so i'm gonna regret it later, but i'm putting off finishing this entry cuz... it's almost 11 and i don't feel like sitting around all day before my live again! i wanna go to shibuya and scout out where i'm supposed to meet komako. ::squirms:: going noooooow. yaaaay, finished the live report!