KAT-TUN 5/8 2pm Shizuoka Concert Report
What a concert experience! I spent a good 2 hours typing it up last night, only to accidentally close the tab and lose everything. Here goes round two of typing up my crazy and amazing KAT-TUN concert experience!
The first challenge was getting a ticket. I balloted for a pair via the fan club, but did not win. Sometimes I think I may be cursed to never win the stupid ballot. So, the day the ticket results released, I stalked my favorite ticket buying website and snagged a pair. However, a few days later, a friend who I didn't even realize was in the KAT-TUN fan club, much less balloting for tickets to the same show I wanted to see, offered me one of the tickets that she managed to win via the ballot. I was all for it and sold the tickets that I bought to someone else. As the concert date approached, my excitement grew until 2 days before the concert when I hit a major snag. My friend decided to trade her extra ticket for a ticket to the show in Osaka rather than sell it to me. Panic! I was now short one ticket with only 2 days to go before the concert. After checking all the ticket buying resources I know about, I couldn't find any tickets available except for a pair of Arena A seats selling for 70000man a ticket. Way out of my price range. So, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to try my luck with scalpers the day of the concert. Yeah, I could have given up and not gone, but I had been looking forward to the concert for forever and really wanted to go. Also, I took pre-orders for goods and there is no way I would back out on getting them for everyone.
Getting to the concert venue was a bit of a pain. It took 4 hours by train and I woke up at 5am to catch the one I needed to take. While getting up that early sucked, the bonus of taking such an early train was 2-fold. One was the amazing view of the sun rising in the Japanese country side along with amazing views of Mt.Fuji. Also, because it was so early, I ended up sleeping for a good majority of the ride (when I wasn't staring out the windows of the train ogling Mt. Fuji). I also got to ride the Shinkansen for the first time! Only for 14 minutes, but it still counts and shaved a good 45minutes off my trip. I got a bit over excited about the whole thing and took a ton of pictures. Once on the Shink, it was actually a bit of a let down as the interior seemed a bit run down. But, it was fast!
I arrived in Aino at about 9:30am and headed straight to the Arena to pick up goods. During my walk to the stadium, I noticed that there were at least 20 or so girls already standing around with 'I want to buy tickets' signs. Given the number of orders I received I knew I would have to go through the goods line at least twice to get everything I would need as the max about of any good you can purchase at one time is 5. Because I arrived so early, there wasn't a line at all, so I just walked up, bought my goods, and packed them in my goods dedicated suitcase. Then I tried to find a place to store said suitcase and was horrified to find out that there is apparently no coin locker in all of Aino. Not at the Arena, not at the huge sports stadium next to the arena, and not at the station. Even my tiny little town in the middle of nowhere has a coin locker so I was shocked. In a desperate attempt to store the suitcase I even tried asking a hotel near the station if they could watch it and was unsurprisingly told no.
After wasting my time trying to find a coin locker and figuring out I would have to drag around my suitcase with me for the day, the next task was to find a ticket. I found what I thought was a good spot, parked my suitcase, busted out the sign I had prepared the night before, and waited. A few words about the sign. I have found that decorated signs tend to work better and get more attention than signs that appear to be done at the last minute. If you ever plan to get a ticket this way, pay extra attention to the cuteness of your sign. Cute or decorated signs definitely get more attention than plain ones. I would also suggest hand written over typed as I had a bunch of people come over and ask if I had written the sign myself. Even though I had a mini heart attack every time this happened, thinking they might sell me a ticket, it did get me more visibility than other girls holding signs, which is always a good thing. Plus, it's fun to have people to chat with during the wait time.
(sign reads: I want to see KAT-TUN. I want to buy 1 ticket. Please take care of me/favor me.)
At first I was approached by sever scalpers trying to sell me ticket, but I had set my max price at 20000yen and they were wanting 35000~40000yen. As the concert approached, I seriously thought about taking them up on their offer, but could tell that they were also considering my max buy price as it seemed like they still had quite a few tickets to sell only 30min before the concert start time. I waited it out though and am glad I did. About 25 minutes before the start of the show, 2 women approached me and asked if I spoke Japanese. I told them I could speak a bit and the negotiations began. It's way nicer to deal with fellow fans than scalpers. I found out that they were a mother/daughter pair and that the mother could no longer attend. They approached me because the daughter wanted to practice her English, so, in exchange for a face value ticket, I provided a little impromptu English conversation lesson that ended up being mostly in Japanese in the end. In truth, hanging out before the start of the show was a really good condition to buying the ticket. I think they wanted to make sure I really was a fan and not someone posing as a fan to buy tickets and then give them to the scalpers. I saw several girls do this and it was really disappointing (including one girl I saw several time when I attended the Break the Record concerts in Tokyo!). My fellow concert goer was really excited about helping me out and asked me how I found out about KAT-TUN and who my favorite member was. I got a pic of us together with her permission as well. Sadly, the tickets were not next to each other for some reason, so we had to split up once inside the Arena.
Onto the show! Normally at the start of any concert, I try to get a picture of the stage, but the staff were being hard core and I didn't even get the smallest chance to take one. The best I could do was a picture of the stairs leading up to my seating section. The ticket I got was really nice and in what would normally be the VIP section. This worked out really well for me as there is a lot more space in that section so the suitcase wasn't an issue. Anyway, the stage had a large brick wall setup with KAT-TUN written faintly across it and that was about all you could see.
The concert started with a bunch of Juniors (later identified to be Kansai Juniors, which explains why I had no idea who they were) trying to get the crowd pumped up. It didn't work out that well though as everyone was waiting for KAT-TUN to appear and started chanting for them to come out. Before any live appearance happened, there was a series of video clips introducing the band members. These clips were amazing! They were all decked out in samurai-esque warrior outfits with the usual Johnny's flair and did various special Street Fighter like moves. After all the members were introduced and did their warrior move thing on screen, the in-the-flesh versions all busted through the brick wall that was setup on stage wearing the outfits in the videos. I love, love, loved the outfits and am super sad that none of the concert goods have any pictures of the band wearing them. The first song was Fall Down and during it they ditched the cool costumes, which isn't surprising as they looked hot and heavy. Really liked the shirt Koki was wearing underneath the outfit. It was a white button down with a big, sparkly, purple splotch on one side. I think it was only the second time I've heard Fall Down. I liked it the first time and now that I've heard it live can firmly place it into the love category. It's way better than Going! and I wish it had been released as the new single instead. After Fall Down was Real Face, which the audience gave a great scream for, followed by One Drop, Keep the Faith, Hell No, and Love Yourself.
Then the solos started up. I'm not so good at identifying the solo songs as I prefer the group ones, but I did my best. First it was Kame on the drums. He was totally into and smiling the whole time. He got the crowd fired up and had everyone chanting what I could only make out to be 'why' with him. Then he introduced Koki who started singing I Don't Miss you while dancing with a bunch of Juniors. At one point, he ended up kneeling on top of two Juniors as they crawled around on all fours. It was funny and kinda sexy all at the same time. Later, two of the Juniors lifted him up as if he was sitting on a chair. Guess someone has to abuse the Juniors in Jin's place. Then One on One started up and Maru made an appearance. The TV screen during this time was flashing pictures of members from past concerts. After One on One Maru did a solo medley. I hate the medleys cause it's way harder for me to identify the songs, but I know I heard Key of Life, Shooting Star, and Answer in there. Maru also did a dance with 2 Juniors. While they danced, the TV screen showed a delayed/choppy version of the live dancing. It was actually really interesting. He also did a dance where 2 white images of him were projected on the large center stage screen while he danced in front. Way to be your own backup dance Maru! He did another song after the dancing, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. Then is was Junno's turn. He sang Love Music. The outfits for the song were really blah. Very plain clothes for him and the Juniors were wearing some type of black and white stripe sailor get ups. Not to my liking. But there were big giant multi colored spots lights that kept flashing on and off and that was fun.
Then there was a brief intermission from the singing for KAT-TUN TV! There was a bit of promo for Going! and the boys did various TV spots. Kame did some kind of cooking one and looked adorable standing in front of a little grill in an apron. These spots were apparently quite funny, but Japanese humor is often lost on me and I didn't really get it. Then the boys came out in their Tengu masks, except for Koki who was wearing a Mexican wrestler type mask and bounced around on 5 tiny trampolines They played the Yamanote game where they had to name something green (to those not in the know, the Yamanote is a train line that loops around Tokyo and is identified by it's green color). While they played, they held a giant balloon attached to an air pipe. Once they said something green, they could let go of the balloon and the next member in line had to grab it. The balloon burst during Kame's turn. Ueda took initiative and started teasing him and poking him on the cheek. Super cute! Then all the other members did the same and flipped his nose down while he stood there looking despondent. He looked really sad to have lost. The other members also teased him about his lack of reaction to the balloon popping.
After the game, they all posed along a gray wall and then 'disappeared'. The screens then showed them going through some kind of time warp thing and when the next song, Don't You Ever Stop, started up, they popped up on the stage from various areas, including flying in from above, and seemed to perform various super power moves. Ueda seemed to blow something up even! Then Rescue started and boy was this song hot! Literally! They had these giant flame machines that were spitting out giant fire balls into the air. It was a very cool effect. There were also multi colored flames rising from the floor. Then Lips started and they got these strange twisted metal mic stands that could spit out smoke. It almost look like the were firing fire-hydrants at each other and the crowd. Kame. and I think Junno, attacked Koki with their smoke gun mic things. I assume this smoke was pretty refreshing as Koki didn't seem bother by getting pelted and in fact raised up his shirt. Later, Ueda attacked Kame from behind with his and it nearly lifted Kame's shirt off!
Can't remember what the next song was cause my mind was blown by what happened during the song after, GOLD. The boys went around the Arena on platforms along the stand seats, which is where I was sitting and Kame's stand stopped right in front of me! If he reached out his hand and I reached out mine, we could have touched even! All the other members pasted by just as close, but none of them stopped..sad.
Then it was MC time. Kame came out in a towel and with a water bottle with the Tour logo, however these goods weren't for sale at the goods tents....maybe a preview of World Tour goods? They talked a lot about Shizuoka and had a whole discussion about what it was famous for. They brought up green tea and Mt. Fuji. Then Ueda majorly earned my love when he asked if Mt. Fuji really was in Shizuoka and then they talked about Yamanashi, which shares Mt.Fuji with Shizuoka. I'm from Yamanashi and was happy to even know that KAT-TUN knew my ken existed, as many Japanese people seem to forget it's even there. So thank you Udea for getting KAT-TUN to even mention where I live. Yay! There was more stuff, but they were all really hyper and talking way too fast for me to keep up. At some point the Kansai Juniors appeared and did their intros. I kinda zoned out during this part. There was something going on about one of the Juniors being 19. Mostly it was just one of the Kansai Juniors doing most of the talking and teasing the others. KAT-TUN also joined in the teasing fun. Then the Juniors sang, but I can't for the life of me figure out what song it was. In my extremely sparse notes I wrote 'stay gold' so if that can help anyone identify it, please do let me know.
Next up was the one song I was anticipating most, D-motion. I love this song! I love the beat, I love the lyrics, I love the energy, and I love how it makes me want to get up and dance! However, I did not love the fact that Jin wasn't there to sing it. I think his voice really makes the song, so it was a bit of a let down. As he is my favorite member, it was kind of a let down the whole concert, but I try not to dwell on these things. It was still fun and I still enjoyed the song. Next was a medley during which I caught Way of Love, 7 Days Battle, and On Your Mind. I love that last song in particular, but again, think it was missing something without Jin.
Then it was back to the solos, starting with Ueda. He sang Shot. I'm no so familiar with this song, but I enjoyed his performance. Then it was the solo I was anticipating the most, Kame's! I loved his solo performance from BtR and was really looking forward to another good showing and was not disappointed! The theme was Vampires and the song Lost my Way. He appeared dancing all sexy like behind a large screen in a black cape and showed off his blood stained lips and new fangs. Then he burst through
the screen and mask covered Juniors appeared. The did a set of super sexy coordinated movements, and then Kame 'bit' several of them. At one point, a Junior was lying on his back, on the ground and Kame straddled the poor kid. The Junior struggled, but Kame held him down and then leaded over all sexy like and drank his blood till he slowly stopped struggle and 'died'. There was also a part during the solo where Kame gets 'shot' and a you can see a flash and hole appear on his white shirt. I think around this point something went wrong. You could tell there was Junior who was missing from the formation dancing and when he did appear he passed off this white capsule that latter burst into flame in Kame's hand. I assume something happened and he didn't get the capsule at the right time so they had to improvise cause it didn't seem to be something the audience should see. Can't be for sure though. Anyway, I can't wait to see how this solo plays out in the Tokyo Dome where they can add in cooler effects.
The song abruptly ends with Kame at doctor Maru's dentistry. He tries to drill Kame's teeth and Kame throws a tantrum, pouts, and storms out while calling Maru a baka. Then Maru does his beatboxing. Very well done! At one point during it, he made what I can only describe as a kissy-face and the audience when crazy, so he did it again at the end of his beatbox for good measure.
Next up was No Matter Matter and then Going! Still not liking this song much, even live. I guess you just can't like them all. Then it was the song I have dubbed Aishiteru as I can't ever remember it's actual name. They wrapped it up with Wilds of My Heart, Peacfuldays, and Bokura no Machi.
Encore was expected as they hadn't thrown out any goods into the audience yet and they always do that. Also, no streamers. They always have those too. Songs were She Said, Jumpin' Up, the song I call the KAT-TUN chant song, and then Smile. Goods were thrown (sadly not towards me) and streamers released (also not towards me) , as expect, during the encore. One exciting note, Kame had been teasing the crowd during the MC by fake tossing the towel around his shoulders. He actually threw it to an audience member during the encore! I am so jealous of whoever manged to get that towel! There were no calls for a second encore and I doubt they would have done one anyway as they probably had to prep for the 6pm show.
After the show, I tried to find the girl that sold me the ticket, but couldn't find her. Outside was a mad house with all the people leaving and the people from the 6pm show waiting to get it. I hit up the goods line one more time to pick up the last of the goods I needed. This time there was a line, but, while it looked ungodly long, it went really quickly. Two thumbs up for the speedy goods staff in Shizuoka! I wish the line at the Dome went nearly half as fast. On my way back to the station I spotted someone selling paparazzi pics of what I assume was the Niigata or Fukuoka concerts and picked up a few pics. Then it was 5hours back home on the train.
So....that's all. Here's hoping I manage to post it before I accidentally delete it again cause I don't think I have it in me to type it up a third time. I'll update later with some of those paparazzi pics of the concert I snagged.