AX Post.
I guess I should make one of these before I get too unmotivated to do so.
Let's see...
Got picked up by Bianca somewhere around 12:30 or so. Headed over to the convention center and parked. Then after walking from the Pike area to the bottom of the Terrace Theater, we discovered a gigantic line that had probably been forming for hours. Bianca dropped off her stuff with the skin-online people (lucky >_o) and then helped me out by finding some of her friends for me to cut in front of before leaving for the DeG/Deftones concert. Stayed there about a half hour and had Stephanie and Andy join us in the line to pick up badges. After about an hour and a half wait the line moved and we got our badge junk and 'goodie bags'...then proceeded to line up in the premier ticket line for hours on end. At some point, my friend Anna joined us in that line and kept us company even though she didn't have to.
I think the line started moving around 4 or so. Very slowly. That was a bitch, considering they were doing it all one by one. Stupid ticket booths.
Jenna came over around what...? 5? I can't remember. We let her and Jesse cut in, waited a while longer, and ended up getting tickets together for the S.K.I.N. concert after discovering that they couldn't pick up the already paid for ticket for Anson without his I.D.; Steph got the SOS ones for Saturday.
Uhh. Then Anna and I followed people over to that weird cosplay chess thing. Hung out at Rainbow Lagoon for a while...and then walked over to the front of the convention center to catch the free bus up Pine Ave. Took that to Long Beach blvd and 7th, and walked all the way to Poly Burger (the burger place by my old high school). We were starving and bought a couple of burgers and fries. Mine was disgusting. Worst burger I've had in years. X_X; Ronni later came to pick us up and take us home since our feet were dead from walking.
Woke up, got picked up by Ming and her friend at about 6:30 a.m.
Went to the con and got Ming's badge right when we got there, since she had registration volunteer hook ups. Then lined up at the premier ticket line all over again for Ming's ticket. Where we ran into Sambo and Anna all over again. wasn't too long of a wait since it was early. After getting those tickets around 9/9:30 or so...we headed out to wait in YET ANOTHER LINE with our friends who had waited til the first day to get their badges -_-; joy. Even though some of them should have gotten them in the mail < /validcomplaint >
Called my dad sometime around 9, had him pick up Bille, who's ride had....not woken up yet.
Uh. It wasn't until about 1 o'clock that we actually got everyone's badge shit out of the way...and then exited only to find...what? A HUGE LINE FOR THE EXHIBIT HALL :DDDDDD
We all said fuck it and sat around outside the front of the con starving. Some of my friends decided to break dance, which they had been doing...all day in line as it was. Somewhere around 2...we noticed that the huge exhibit hall line had just.....dissappered O_o;
So Sambo, Ming, and I...all rushed over to see that the people who had waited in line for the exhibit hall had all stampeded over to the new line forming for free GA S.K.I.N. tickets.
We just lined up in the shade where the premier line had started to form. Got let in around...4? when the concert was technically supposed to be ending---got seated, waited around for them to fill in the seats...Jenna and Anson showed up and sat down next to me. Show finally started around 6 or something. 2 freakin hours late. YEY AX!!! DX
Curtain fell, and the band was revealed. I must say that they put on a rather flashy performance. Only did 4 songs, but they were 4 very very good songs. The line up of Gackt, Sugizo, Miyavi, and Yoshiki, along with Ju-ken (Gackt/Anna Tsuchiya's bassist) was wild. It's not the fact that it was awesome that suprises me...because that was a given. It just worked so suprisingly well together. I'm glad. And Gackt's hip thrusting motions brought sexy back :D
Sugizo--amazing on both guitar and e.violin.
Gackt--vocals were refreshing, falsettos and all. That man had me fooled with all of his ballads...he can still rock the house.
Yoshiki--the man is a crazy drummer and pianist...trashed his drumset at the end, as expected by X-Japan fans
Miyavi--totally in a world of his own ahaha. he was very very entertaining to say the least. I love how he kept trying to get the crowd going.
Ju-ken--plays bass sorta like Miyavi plays guitar. I liked him.
I have to say though---Miyavi on shamisen (sorry I totally put koto before X_x;) with Gackt and Yoshiki on piano...and Sugizo on violin was definately the high light. Split screen up there behind them. Crazy shit. I got a pretty damn good seat too. Nothing quite like it before. Oh and...I totally caught Yoshiki's drumstick. Majorly made of awesome.
here's a look at what the concert consisted of:
So, after the concert, we all just hung around for a little while. Ran into Koji and Yuko, then got picked up by Anna's mom with Disa and Sunkis. Picked up Bille and went back to my place after a trip to Sally's. Bille cut Disa's hair and then my dad took them all home around 11. Sunkis walked.
Slept in a bit. Got picked up by Ronni around 9:00..headed out and met up with Sambo in line for the Anna Tsuchiya concert at 9:30 or so. Waited there with them, Pepe, Ariana, and Celene. Got our tickets around 10:30? Got inside around 11:30 or so. Waited til like 12:30 or 1 and the concert started after Celene, Pepe, Ronni and I snagged some 4th row seats...dead center. Anna's performance was great. We had been interviewed beforehand and I said I was looking forward to seeing something that would pull me into her music since I'm sort of new to it. And I definately got it. She only played maybe three songs I knew before the concert, but they were all good. And Anarchy for the U.K.? Bad ass. XD Got Ju-ken's waterbottle as well.
The rest of the day was...pretty chill. Hung out under the stairs next to the Hyatt with a ton of my friends who had been...breakdancing all morning. Drew various crowds. Can't wait to find them online. EMC showed up and did a mini demo for their masquerade performance that was going to happen Sunday. Pretty much advertised themselves. Hung out with them a little while got some pictures. Headed back around the break dancing. Which is where I went into the Hyatt to use the bathroom and get some water.
I looked over the balcony with Ronni, Onii, and Anna...and I gasped. They were all confused but I took off running down the stairs and approached the two-toned brassy color-haired man getting into the cab. I was like "are you...are you Sugizo? O_O"
him: "yes." *shakes my hand*
me: "oh my god...um...wow...can I get a picture with you?"
him: *frowns* "oh...no sorry."
me: "oh...sorry..that's okay. A hug?"
him: *confused* *extends hand and shakes mine again laughing*
So random. I nearly freaked after he left and I said thank you. Man. I wish I would've asked for an autograph or something. Ah well...I'm glad to have met him. I've admired him for as long as I've loved Luna Sea. As well as his other project...The Flare. He has a nice grip too. xP
Crazy shit.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out watching people do more breakdancing/flipping/popping/locking...I swear it was like all day. Hung out with Lani for a little while...met her friend Kevin. Bianca stopped by with Chiva and some others...took some pictures with cosplayers and stuff. Went to 7 Eleven for noodles and a slurpy around 11. Didn't end up going home until like 2 a.m.
Lazy day. Had to get up and meet up with schiz at my aunt's house. Hung out in the car while my dad went over car registration stuff with his mom. Headed to Wal-Mart afterwards to get some glowsticks. Then to AX where I met up with Sambo and headed over to where the others were....BREAKDANCING again @_@; hung out a bit before this other crew of breakdancers called SQUIDS and some flipping/ninja group showed up and battled with my friends. Made for awesome film opportunities by AX staff. After all that dispersed we headed up to the front of the convention center where EMC was making their appearance yet again. Watched them do their Ninjas v.s. Pirates advertisement...which was about the same as the day before...except Saturday they were in Battle Royale cosplay. Took some pictures with them and got to play with Xin's paddle while they were selling t-shirts and getting asked for autographs o_O;
Hung with them and then went to get tickets to Masquerade. Afterwards Sambo and I went around the exhibit hall a bit. I met up with Lani and Kevin and Lee...went to Quizno's with them. Ate, and then headed to Masquerade. That lasted from like 8-11 with a lot of glitches and mess ups from the staff. God. AX.
Mm. EMC's performance was great. A lot of flipping and breaking as usual...went off pretty damn well. I really the Sakura with the staff work...I have no idea where she came from, but it was cool. I dunno, not much to say about it. I like seeing my friends perform...and the big screens were cool.
I pretty much hung with Lani and Kevin after that since everyone left right after. My dad came to pick me up, we circled around and picked up T.K. who needed a ride. Went home after that.
The last day. Got there around...11 or so? Ronni picked me up. We went and got a Monday badge for him since he hadn't gotten it before. Went straight to the exhibit hall since i had only been once so far that weekend for about...15 minutes. Hung out with him and Yuko and Koji for a little bit...looked at some colored contacts. Bought a sword. Ran into Xin who did a random wallflip out of nowhere. Also ran into Pierce and K.C. with Anna. Headed outside to hang with breakers for a little while...ended up totally passing out on a bench on T.K.'s lap for about an hour and a half. Went across the street where Disa paid $44 for two large pizzas after that T_T; Yeah. Pretty much ate and then sat around in the shade by borders. Headed over to the arcade at the Westin for the last couple of hours. Played some DDR and a few other things. Headed out with Ronni, Anna, and Sunkis....and randomly drove over to Kelsie's to hang out and pick her up. The day ended with playing hackey-sack in Cerritos Mall outside of a Hot Topic until closing.
Talk about a weird weekend. Met a lot of new and interesting people. I also have a few people to get back to now that AX is over. Overall...it was fun. But it reeked of epic fail with all of the lines and shit. AX really should limit the attendance when they move it to a smaller venue. Bastards. So unorganized. It was expected, but it's been the best AX so far with all of the events considered. I'm glad I didn't limit myself to the exhibit hall the way I've done in past years. Ups and downs. It appears that next year's will be held at the LA convention center according to the closing ceremonies announcement.
Other than that---Gab is now in CA...hopefully I'll be able to see her since she'll be up near Fresno for over a month. It's still pretty damned far though. Ugh.
And.....I'm not quite sure what I think of Gazette's new album. Yoshi thinks it sucks...but I dunno, a lot of the songs are pretty good. I will admit though, there are a few that have me going "wtf Ruki?". I'll have to give it an extended lesson.
With that said...this post has been dragged on long enough.
Later,
Momo.
Let's see...
Got picked up by Bianca somewhere around 12:30 or so. Headed over to the convention center and parked. Then after walking from the Pike area to the bottom of the Terrace Theater, we discovered a gigantic line that had probably been forming for hours. Bianca dropped off her stuff with the skin-online people (lucky >_o) and then helped me out by finding some of her friends for me to cut in front of before leaving for the DeG/Deftones concert. Stayed there about a half hour and had Stephanie and Andy join us in the line to pick up badges. After about an hour and a half wait the line moved and we got our badge junk and 'goodie bags'...then proceeded to line up in the premier ticket line for hours on end. At some point, my friend Anna joined us in that line and kept us company even though she didn't have to.
I think the line started moving around 4 or so. Very slowly. That was a bitch, considering they were doing it all one by one. Stupid ticket booths.
Jenna came over around what...? 5? I can't remember. We let her and Jesse cut in, waited a while longer, and ended up getting tickets together for the S.K.I.N. concert after discovering that they couldn't pick up the already paid for ticket for Anson without his I.D.; Steph got the SOS ones for Saturday.
Uhh. Then Anna and I followed people over to that weird cosplay chess thing. Hung out at Rainbow Lagoon for a while...and then walked over to the front of the convention center to catch the free bus up Pine Ave. Took that to Long Beach blvd and 7th, and walked all the way to Poly Burger (the burger place by my old high school). We were starving and bought a couple of burgers and fries. Mine was disgusting. Worst burger I've had in years. X_X; Ronni later came to pick us up and take us home since our feet were dead from walking.
Woke up, got picked up by Ming and her friend at about 6:30 a.m.
Went to the con and got Ming's badge right when we got there, since she had registration volunteer hook ups. Then lined up at the premier ticket line all over again for Ming's ticket. Where we ran into Sambo and Anna all over again. wasn't too long of a wait since it was early. After getting those tickets around 9/9:30 or so...we headed out to wait in YET ANOTHER LINE with our friends who had waited til the first day to get their badges -_-; joy. Even though some of them should have gotten them in the mail < /validcomplaint >
Called my dad sometime around 9, had him pick up Bille, who's ride had....not woken up yet.
Uh. It wasn't until about 1 o'clock that we actually got everyone's badge shit out of the way...and then exited only to find...what? A HUGE LINE FOR THE EXHIBIT HALL :DDDDDD
We all said fuck it and sat around outside the front of the con starving. Some of my friends decided to break dance, which they had been doing...all day in line as it was. Somewhere around 2...we noticed that the huge exhibit hall line had just.....dissappered O_o;
So Sambo, Ming, and I...all rushed over to see that the people who had waited in line for the exhibit hall had all stampeded over to the new line forming for free GA S.K.I.N. tickets.
We just lined up in the shade where the premier line had started to form. Got let in around...4? when the concert was technically supposed to be ending---got seated, waited around for them to fill in the seats...Jenna and Anson showed up and sat down next to me. Show finally started around 6 or something. 2 freakin hours late. YEY AX!!! DX
Curtain fell, and the band was revealed. I must say that they put on a rather flashy performance. Only did 4 songs, but they were 4 very very good songs. The line up of Gackt, Sugizo, Miyavi, and Yoshiki, along with Ju-ken (Gackt/Anna Tsuchiya's bassist) was wild. It's not the fact that it was awesome that suprises me...because that was a given. It just worked so suprisingly well together. I'm glad. And Gackt's hip thrusting motions brought sexy back :D
Sugizo--amazing on both guitar and e.violin.
Gackt--vocals were refreshing, falsettos and all. That man had me fooled with all of his ballads...he can still rock the house.
Yoshiki--the man is a crazy drummer and pianist...trashed his drumset at the end, as expected by X-Japan fans
Miyavi--totally in a world of his own ahaha. he was very very entertaining to say the least. I love how he kept trying to get the crowd going.
Ju-ken--plays bass sorta like Miyavi plays guitar. I liked him.
I have to say though---Miyavi on shamisen (sorry I totally put koto before X_x;) with Gackt and Yoshiki on piano...and Sugizo on violin was definately the high light. Split screen up there behind them. Crazy shit. I got a pretty damn good seat too. Nothing quite like it before. Oh and...I totally caught Yoshiki's drumstick. Majorly made of awesome.
here's a look at what the concert consisted of:
Click to viewSo, after the concert, we all just hung around for a little while. Ran into Koji and Yuko, then got picked up by Anna's mom with Disa and Sunkis. Picked up Bille and went back to my place after a trip to Sally's. Bille cut Disa's hair and then my dad took them all home around 11. Sunkis walked.
Slept in a bit. Got picked up by Ronni around 9:00..headed out and met up with Sambo in line for the Anna Tsuchiya concert at 9:30 or so. Waited there with them, Pepe, Ariana, and Celene. Got our tickets around 10:30? Got inside around 11:30 or so. Waited til like 12:30 or 1 and the concert started after Celene, Pepe, Ronni and I snagged some 4th row seats...dead center. Anna's performance was great. We had been interviewed beforehand and I said I was looking forward to seeing something that would pull me into her music since I'm sort of new to it. And I definately got it. She only played maybe three songs I knew before the concert, but they were all good. And Anarchy for the U.K.? Bad ass. XD Got Ju-ken's waterbottle as well.
The rest of the day was...pretty chill. Hung out under the stairs next to the Hyatt with a ton of my friends who had been...breakdancing all morning. Drew various crowds. Can't wait to find them online. EMC showed up and did a mini demo for their masquerade performance that was going to happen Sunday. Pretty much advertised themselves. Hung out with them a little while got some pictures. Headed back around the break dancing. Which is where I went into the Hyatt to use the bathroom and get some water.
I looked over the balcony with Ronni, Onii, and Anna...and I gasped. They were all confused but I took off running down the stairs and approached the two-toned brassy color-haired man getting into the cab. I was like "are you...are you Sugizo? O_O"
him: "yes." *shakes my hand*
me: "oh my god...um...wow...can I get a picture with you?"
him: *frowns* "oh...no sorry."
me: "oh...sorry..that's okay. A hug?"
him: *confused* *extends hand and shakes mine again laughing*
So random. I nearly freaked after he left and I said thank you. Man. I wish I would've asked for an autograph or something. Ah well...I'm glad to have met him. I've admired him for as long as I've loved Luna Sea. As well as his other project...The Flare. He has a nice grip too. xP
Crazy shit.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out watching people do more breakdancing/flipping/popping/locking...I swear it was like all day. Hung out with Lani for a little while...met her friend Kevin. Bianca stopped by with Chiva and some others...took some pictures with cosplayers and stuff. Went to 7 Eleven for noodles and a slurpy around 11. Didn't end up going home until like 2 a.m.
Lazy day. Had to get up and meet up with schiz at my aunt's house. Hung out in the car while my dad went over car registration stuff with his mom. Headed to Wal-Mart afterwards to get some glowsticks. Then to AX where I met up with Sambo and headed over to where the others were....BREAKDANCING again @_@; hung out a bit before this other crew of breakdancers called SQUIDS and some flipping/ninja group showed up and battled with my friends. Made for awesome film opportunities by AX staff. After all that dispersed we headed up to the front of the convention center where EMC was making their appearance yet again. Watched them do their Ninjas v.s. Pirates advertisement...which was about the same as the day before...except Saturday they were in Battle Royale cosplay. Took some pictures with them and got to play with Xin's paddle while they were selling t-shirts and getting asked for autographs o_O;
Hung with them and then went to get tickets to Masquerade. Afterwards Sambo and I went around the exhibit hall a bit. I met up with Lani and Kevin and Lee...went to Quizno's with them. Ate, and then headed to Masquerade. That lasted from like 8-11 with a lot of glitches and mess ups from the staff. God. AX.
Mm. EMC's performance was great. A lot of flipping and breaking as usual...went off pretty damn well. I really the Sakura with the staff work...I have no idea where she came from, but it was cool. I dunno, not much to say about it. I like seeing my friends perform...and the big screens were cool.
I pretty much hung with Lani and Kevin after that since everyone left right after. My dad came to pick me up, we circled around and picked up T.K. who needed a ride. Went home after that.
The last day. Got there around...11 or so? Ronni picked me up. We went and got a Monday badge for him since he hadn't gotten it before. Went straight to the exhibit hall since i had only been once so far that weekend for about...15 minutes. Hung out with him and Yuko and Koji for a little bit...looked at some colored contacts. Bought a sword. Ran into Xin who did a random wallflip out of nowhere. Also ran into Pierce and K.C. with Anna. Headed outside to hang with breakers for a little while...ended up totally passing out on a bench on T.K.'s lap for about an hour and a half. Went across the street where Disa paid $44 for two large pizzas after that T_T; Yeah. Pretty much ate and then sat around in the shade by borders. Headed over to the arcade at the Westin for the last couple of hours. Played some DDR and a few other things. Headed out with Ronni, Anna, and Sunkis....and randomly drove over to Kelsie's to hang out and pick her up. The day ended with playing hackey-sack in Cerritos Mall outside of a Hot Topic until closing.
Talk about a weird weekend. Met a lot of new and interesting people. I also have a few people to get back to now that AX is over. Overall...it was fun. But it reeked of epic fail with all of the lines and shit. AX really should limit the attendance when they move it to a smaller venue. Bastards. So unorganized. It was expected, but it's been the best AX so far with all of the events considered. I'm glad I didn't limit myself to the exhibit hall the way I've done in past years. Ups and downs. It appears that next year's will be held at the LA convention center according to the closing ceremonies announcement.
Other than that---Gab is now in CA...hopefully I'll be able to see her since she'll be up near Fresno for over a month. It's still pretty damned far though. Ugh.
And.....I'm not quite sure what I think of Gazette's new album. Yoshi thinks it sucks...but I dunno, a lot of the songs are pretty good. I will admit though, there are a few that have me going "wtf Ruki?". I'll have to give it an extended lesson.
With that said...this post has been dragged on long enough.
Later,
Momo.