JROCK REVOLUTION FESTIVAL (DAY 01) - LOS ANGELES

[radicalfxcker]

Kagrra,, Duel Jewel, 雅-miyavi-, ヴィドール, アリス九號 -JROCK REVOLUTION-
MAY 25TH, 2007
THE WILTERN LG
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

It seemed that a lot of things were going wrong, they were. First, I was out a ride the last minute because my father didn't want me going Tuesday night. Then I was out a ticket because the JROCK REVOLUTION staff completely fucked me over with my press pass and several others as well, luckily someone else from Tokidoki had an extra one that I can have.
The only option on my going was if I went Thursday night with Whitney and Derek. Which was perfectly fine. At least I got there.
The drive there was amusing. We first stopped at Whitney's mom's house to get the car we would be taking, and then at Derek's mom's house to have dinner. We really started driving at around 11:30PM or so and we arrived in LA at about 4:30AM Saturday.

Pulling up to The Wiltern was pretty interesting. When I walked up, everyone was bundled in sleeping bags and blankets sleeping. I didn't want to call to try and find my group (Allison, Kelynn, Alfred, and Shannon) since they were asleep, so I wandered up and down the line trying to find them. I couldn't after a while, but luckily, when I stopped, I stopped in a way that I can see Allison's bag out the corner of my eye.
So I kicked her awake, she freaked out, Kelynn woke up, said "hi" and went back to sleep and Alfred and Shannon kept on sleeping.

For the rest of the day, until 6PM, we all just sat around or went up and down the line trying to find people. I found and met Sara, Alice, Leslie, and Toge and I saw Shin, Dai, and Kiku again.
There was a lot of drama near the front of the line where we were. Many people were cutting and doing all sorts of things, very blatantly and obvious too. We had to call security so many times on people just to secure our spot. It was really lame too I mean, Allison and I were going to leave the front area right after Kagrra, because they were the only band we came to see that day.
Many times Kelynn and I got bored and wandered to the back of the line to see what was there as well. One of the times, we went and we saw ヴィドール (vidoll) getting out of their van. That was pretty interesting.
Towards 5PM was when everything became completely chaotic. Luckily, security got it somewhat under control by numbering everyone. I was number 22. Which is dumb because there were people up in the front who got a number and they shouldn't have.
Around 6:30PM they were finally letting people in. Allison and I nearly sprinted inside The Wiltern, it was horrible.
The venue was HUGE and gorgeous. It was old, so of course it was, but the inside and the interior was amazing.

----

We got down to the pit line and got our wrist bands. Nao's side was filled as well as Isshi's, but there was still a little sliver of rail left on Akiya's side, so we squeezed out way into that perfectly.
So, I was going to be directly in front of Akiya. I never thought I could say that. This whole event was pretty fucking surreal.
As more people were coming in, they had a large screen come down that had X-JAPAN's last live on it. It was exciting and everyone was cheering. There was one group in the back that started chanting "WE ARE?!" and then everyone would shout "X!"
We thought the show was going to start with no problems, but boy were we mistaken. There was this 12 year old looking boy next to Allison that kept trying to push his way to the front and push Allison out of the way. We were already tired and just wanted to see Kagrra, and we weren't going to take anymore shit. We called security, Allison threatened, we pushed, we did everything we possible could until he left. The girls behind us were so sweet and helped us out. They only asked us originally, if before ヴィドール we could trade places, and we said of course, we were leaving the front after Kagrra, anyway.
We waited and waited and from behind the curtain, we heard someone tuning a bass. It was Nao. Next Akiya and then Shin, he was testing his koto. At that point, Allison and I completely broke down and started crying. The girls behind us gave us hugs and were all "you're going to see Kagrra,, dont' worry" (because that little douche bag next to Allison was still kind of pushing.)
The video above stopped playing. The screen went up. It got dark.

Holy shit the show was starting.

Music started to play slowly in the background. It wasn't anything in particular. Although, it sounded a lot like the menu music that they play on the Sara DVD. The curtain came up. An image that said "K A G R R A," came up across the back. Allison and I started crying harder.
Izumi was the first to come out. He was wearing this shirt with a belt that was embellished with traditional looking things. He wore these black bands that had kanji on them and sandals. His hair was up like it was from the "Ouka Ranman" days a little. It was also tinged blue again. Allison and I were screaming and yelling "IZUMI!!!!!" as loud as we possibly can.
Shin came out, his hair was pulled back in a kind of pony tail. He wore this kind of cream colored jacket with a type of kimono top under. Cream colored pants. He wasn't wearing any shoes either. He came up to the center of the stage with his arm up, I thought I was going to lose my voice I was shouting "SHIN!!" so hard.
Nao. Nao came out, all bouncy and energetic as usual. He was wearing a purple kimono top with black pants and no shoes. Allison had tears completely running down her face. Nao is her favorite after all and she was finally seeing him in the flesh.
Akiya was next. He looked a lot like his Miyako days. He had those cloth like dreads sitting on the top of his head. He wore a short sleeved jacked over a red shirt and black pants that looked like they had the kanji for "Akiya" on them. He wasn't wearing shoes either. Akiya is my favorite. So of course I was screaming "AKIYA!!!!!!!!" as hard and as loud as I could. It seemed like he heard me, because he came to the front and looked down a little bit before picking up his guitar and taking his post.

Isshi. looked AMAZING. His hair was poofed and he had his long extensions back in. His kimono looked like "Ouka Ranman". It was a kimono top with matching pants and the sleeves reached the floor. He was wearing tall platforms.
He walked to the center. Stopped and took in the crowd. He was smiling the entire time.

-SE-
M1. 恋綴魂
M2. 在りし日の微傷
~MC~
M3. 鵺の哭く頃
M4. 妖祭
~MC~
M5. うたかた
M6. 愁

恋綴魂, this was such an amazing song to start out with. I was really surprised when they did. Isshi, ready with a fan started his usual dance of swaying his fan right to left. Allison and I forgot to pack our fans, so instead clapped our hands from left to right. The crowd picked up on it and started doing the same. Allison and I were doing it and singing along with so much energy and enthusiasm that Akiya would stare in our direction for minutes at a time. Especially when he came to the edge for his solo, we were yelling and he looked at us smiling and nodded.

在りし日の微傷, I don't remember any instance of them ever playing this song live. Either way it was so beautiful. The lighting that used for this song was interesting. At the beginning they did it in a way that made it look like twinkling. Isshi was still so smiley and happy that people were enjoying them selves. It rubbed off on the other members.

~MC 1~, Isshi brought out a piece of paper that had his MC on it. It was all entirely in English. His speech was something along the lines of -
"We are Kagrra,"
"We hope you enjoy Kagrra,"

鵺の哭く頃 , another song that surprised me. Naturally the whole set list did, really. I really think that they choose these songs carefully. The ones with the most audience interaction. The most movement. I know I was doing it with as much energy as possible.

妖祭, this was the song were we had the most interaction with Akiya We'd be doing all of the hand movements and he'd watch us/ me intently and nod his head and all sorts of things. I really just think that they didn't expect us to know all of these movements, especially when you do them at the same time as Isshi.

~MC~, Isshi brought his paper out again. This time he said -
"Please never forget Kagrra,, for we will be back"
"These are our last songs, we dedicate them to you."
All of this he said very slowly and with care, so that we'd understand him. It was really sweet and amazing.

うたかた, I -KNEW- they were going to play this song. Obviously. I wanted them to, but then I didn't. It's too beautiful not to play, but that in turn makes me very emotional and...yeah. And what happened? Allison and I busted out crying again, this time Akiya saw. We were hold hands and then had our other hands in the air moving to the music and singing along with tears running down our faces. Akiya would stare and he sang along too. He'd look every now and then and then nod his head.

愁, the piano starts and Isshi mutters "Last song..." into the mic. I was immediately depressed because I didn't want it to ever end. As this was their last song, they put their heart and sole into it. It was really special, especially since Shin came over to our side this time. We were happy that we did so we started yelling "Shin!" "Shin!" to him and he acknowledged with a big smile and played with even more energy. Then Isshi came over and did that thing were he bends down with his hand on his chest and sings to an area. We smiled and sang with him the whole time and he smiled back at us. There was then a point were he would sing, and then hold out the microphone for the crowd to sing back. Everyone did, it was AMAZING. After the part was over, he gave everyone a thumbs up and the song ended.

They did the usual thing were they throw their picks and drum sticks into the crowd, sadly one of Akiya's flew right over my head, but it was all made up for because he then crouched down and stuck his hand out and started grabbing and holding hands. He grabbed mine and Allison's.
Then they left stage.

Allison and I cried again in joy and we turned around so we could leave front and the girls behind us gave us hugs.
We left pit and went into the lobby to get a drink and think about what had just happened.
Allison went to go sit by the pillar while I got merch. During that time, we saw Gara of メリー (merry) walk past and gave us a funny look. Mostly likely because it was visible that we were just crying.
One of the people filming for some kind of japanese music show or what have you (most likely for the DVD) came up to us and asked us "How was Kagrra," I broke down again and told how it was and he thanked us and went on his way. I'm curious as to how it's going to look...

Something really weird then happened again while everyone went back inside to watch Duel Jewel perform. Allison looked up while I was turned around and she said "HEY LOOK, it's Yuu". I turned around and instead of seeing Yuu, I saw Tetsu (both from メリー).
They were standing by the bar minding their own business, getting a beer. When we saw that they were just standing there, we decided to go over and try and converse with them. I let Allison do most to all of the talking, since I'm not very good at starting conversations or talking to people. We just went up, said hi and they shook Allison's hand. I was standing next to her wondering what the hell I could say, but then Tetsu stuck out his hand for me to shake it. I did and then went on to Yuu and we went on our way with Tetsu saying "BAI BAI~" as we walked away.

It was really surreal, again. Yuu still lingered around not doing anything and then Tatsurou came out to get a beer also. We went over again to Yuu, since we didn't have anything that he could sign, we asked if we could get a picture with him on my phone. I think he thought that we meant something else though. The conversation went a little something like this -

"Yuusan, pi..picture?" (pointing to phone)
"Oh-, camera?"
"yes"
"ehhhh....nononono, sorry."

Except, he answered back in japanese, which I thought was odd since we asked in English. We weren't assholes or anything though. He said no, so we thanked him again anyway and went away and didn't bother him for the rest of the night.

After that though, we left to go get in line for the second day.

----

Although, I wasn't there for the rest of the performances, here was the set for each band -

DUEL JEWEL
-SE-
M1. 華唄
M2. リインカネーシュン　フロウ
M3.「カミソリ。。。」
M4. Mxxder Marble
M5. Tales

(thank you to kikuye_chan for correcting me!)

雅-miyavi-
-SE-
M1. Selfish Love
M2. 自己愛、自画自賛、自意識過剰 (Instrumental)
M3. Neo Visualism
M4. Kabuki Boys
M5. Rock and roll is not dead
M6. Are you ready to ROCK?

ヴィドール
M1. nevaeH
M2. …サンガコロンダ!!
M3. 透明ナカゴ
M4. Chocoripeyes
M5. 人魚

アリス九號
M1. ヴェルヴェット
M2. RED CARPET GOING ON
M3. 闇ニ散ル桜
M4. 九龍 -NINE HEADS RODEO SHOW-
M5. ハイカラなる輪舞曲
M6. 春夏秋冬

AFTERWARD
We immediatly went out side and got in line for day two. We had to wait a long while though for Kelynn, Heather and Myra to get out, since they didn't leave like we did. They were coming around with a list to cut down cutting. When they did come, Allison and I went to Denny's, which was a HORRIBLE idea since we were so emotionally drained. We were falling asleep while we were eating.
I then went with Myra to our hotel room to get blankets and we washed our hair. We then came back and went to sleep on the street.

...CONTINUED~