Visual_Japan's Xanga

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:57:27 GMT

La la la . . . posting so I don't get deleted . . .

Akibafest 10-28

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:49:05 GMT

So, as most of you can tell by lack of concert-going updates, my life has been kinda lame lately. I found out from going to the Japanese conversation hour that this local club, Jaxx, was hosting a concert for otaku featuring Psychic Lover and Salia. I had not heard of either, but tickets were only 20$ and it was preferable to sitting at home knitting and watching Star Trek (sadly, my Saturday night fun as of late).

I found Jaxx with little trouble - after Japan, ANY concert venue is easy to find - and arrived at 5pm. According to the website updated ON THAT DAY, the doors were to open at 4:30 and the show was to start at 5. Right. Doors didn't open until at least 6:30 and the show didn't start until 8.

Since I'd gone alone, I kept looking for my acquaintances from conversation hour. I was sure they'd come, as I watched them buy advance tickets, but they never did, oddly. So, I mingled with the strange, geeky, and poorly dressed crowd. First some guy named Matt started asking me if I'd been to the last Akibafest. I told him it was impossible as I'd moved to Maryland only recently. He wandered off. I wondered vaguely if was some kind of confused nerdy flirting. Then some very short (as in shorter than me) and very shy black guy started telling me how cute I was and how I ought to have brought my boyfriend and if I didn't have one he'd be happy to be my boyfriend. I told him I had to get to know him first. Mostly he talked about living with his mom (not necessarily a deal breaker) and shonen anime I'd lost interest in ages ago (kind of a deal breaker) and how he had no intention of getting beyond a HS education (at this point, a deal breaker). So then I wandered over to some girl, Sonya, who had just got back from Japan. Strangely enough, she'd gone to Gaidai too! And went to indie concerts! All the time! And we both missed Japan a whole ton! I found a friend. Her friend Ficus was pretty cool too - she was a history major who liked to knit. Yay for meeting random cool people. The first guy, Matt came and talked to us some more - he works at Jaxx, even though he is only 17. So when he found out that Ficus, Sonya, and I were all over 21, he was sooooo randomly (and kind of hilariously) angry.

Anyways, they finally let us into the hall . . . and we got to wait some more after being given a bag of free crap from a car company that was sponsoring the event and other random companies. Don't ask me why a car company would sponsor an event where 95% of the audience is under 25 and probably can't afford to buy a car, but whatever.

The show finally started with a bunch of lame filler. Sonya and I seized the wide-open front row. Yay front row and being able to see! The MCs were dressed as Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth and engaged in a bunch of lame banter. This one guy kept heckling them and demanding that the various sponsors shilling cars and Akibafest goods dance. It was the only thing that made it interesting.

Then there was a costume contest. This HS girl next to me really wanted to win. Actually, she and her friend were really into the whole thing. It was probably their first concert. A girl dressed as an Indian won I think because her clothes were skin tight and she was pretty and skinny enough to pull it off. They gave out more free crap as prizes and raffled some off to the crowd.

Finally Psychic Lover came on stage. At this point, I should mention that I was so concert deprived that anything male, Japanese, more or less cute, and playing guitar would have resulted in fangirling. For that matter, 3 of the 4 would probably suffice but at any rate Sonya and I decided to be shameless fangirls even though the music was too poppy for our taste. On the whole they weren't bad. Most of their songs are opening or ending themes from Power Ranger type shows (there are many of these in Japan) and some animes (including Yu-Gi-Oh). I appointed myself saizen leader and got a bunch of the front to do guitar solo parapara for Joe (Imajo but we all know Joe is a cooler name) and Sonya and I yelled random stuff at them in Japanese, telling them that we knew Japanese, had lived in Japan, liked them, thought they looked cool, and had pretty nails (Joe had the most ridiculous MAN-icure I have ever seen. Multiple colors and rhinestones ^^;;;). Yoffy, the singer, told us we were a great audience, moved him to tears, apologized for being sweaty, and asked us if we liked Psychic Lover or hamburgers better in the most adorable Engrish ever. Apparently he had a really awesome hamburger yesterday? Joe said "sankyuu foa koming!" and had Fred, their translator (and the guy from Japanese conversation) do most of his talking. Yoffy kept calling Fred "my god" which was inadvertently hilarious as Fred is a slightly overweight squirrelly otaku type. Also, Yoffy had manbling and this fringy ass studdy belt thingy that would be the envy of Dir en grey. So, while it was not the greatest music, they were cute and had good energy (Yoffy almost passed out, or so he said - he had Fred translate a Japanese phrase that meant "the more sweaty the man, the more sexy he is" so of course we had to yell "sugoku kakkoi" at him a bunch). It was quite fun.

Then Salia came up. She was cute in her Goth Loli dress, but super boring. I ended up sitting down with Sonya for the rest of her set.

Finally the show ended and we got into the autograph line. I didn't want to buy anything but the staff said they'd sign my flyer. While talking to Sonya, we realized we both new this one girl Jenn from Gaidai who I went to concerts with. Small, small world. Then I "otsukaresama"ed at Psychic Lover, told them I had fun, got my flyer signed, and drove home.

So, the music wasn't the best but I got to fangirl in the front row and I made some friends who I will hopefully get to do stuff with and had probably the most fun I've had since moving here. ^_^

Dir en grey live 6-10-2007

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:25:19 GMT

So, for those of you who didn't know, Annie and I drove to Albany to visit Areji and see Diru open for the Deftones with Fall of Troy. What follows is an attempt at objectivity - I say attempt because being within a 10-ft radius of any member of Dir en grey turns me into a shameless fangirl - and therefore those people who are easily offended by criticism of any Diru member would best not read it. *cough* Areji *cough*

The day opened at 5am with Areji demanding that we go wait in line. Immediately. In response, I was passive-agressively cranky until 10. For the record, it was somewhat justifiable crankiness since no one else showed up until after 11. And either the Deftones' or the Fall of Troy's bus driver bought five ginormous jugs of Fabuloso cleaner from Dollar General. I probably don't want to know why.

One of the equipment drivers had a smoke and told us stories from 37 years of driving equipment for rock stars. His favorite artists to listen to and work for were Bruce Springsteen and Glen Frey from the Eagles. He also thought Dir en grey were assholes. Although Areji was quite offended by this and later said it was because he was racist, it is entirely possible that a) cultural misunderstanding occured or b) Dir en grey are in fact assholes to the support staff. In all fairness, he seemed to think many of his former employers were assholes.

A little later other fans started to show up. Interestingly enough, it was all Diru fans wanting to be right in the front until an hour or two before the show. According to some of the girls who also went to the NYC shows, the same happened there, so I can only assume that Diru fans are more dedicated/insane than Deftones fans.

One of the NYC fans was the (in)famous Missy of LJ and internet forum fame. In person, she is nice and personable, albeit probably far too obsessed with Die/Diru for her own good. She really doesn't deserve all the crap she gets from other fans, for the most part.

Finally at 6 we got to go into Northern Lights, which probably held less than 400. The show was originally scheduled for the Armory, which Areji said holds about 1200, but was moved because of poor ticket sales, according to the Deftones' driver and one of the show's promoters. There was also a rumor circulating that Dir en grey was only opening as a favor to the Deftones, to help increase flagging ticket sales. Although it's only a rumor, it seems credible since probably 1/2-1/3 of the crowd was primarily interested in Dir en grey. The stage was really really small - between the amps and Shinya's drums, there was barely room for the others to stand - so I would guesstimate it was about 20 ft long. We all got into the front row - Areji in front of Kyo, Annie in front of Kaoru, and me next to Annie in front of Toshiya. The two girls next to me arrived at 5 and were also in the front row, which kind of made Anne and me want to punch Arejikins in the head for making us get up so needlessly early. The entire two front rows were almost exclusively made up of Diru fans.

The first band was Fall of Troy. I was very happy that all of the Diru fans had better manners then on the Family Values tour, and politely listened to and applauded Fall of Troy, although most didn't care much for their music. I thought they were only ok - the singer/guitarist's microphone was too soft and their four songs all sounded kind of the same.

After their set, the DJs from the radio station sponsoring the event tried to pump up the crowd. It went something like this:
DJ: Aren't you excited for the Deftones?
Audience: Yay.
DJ: Um, ok, how about Dir en grey?
Audience: YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!
DJ: -.-;; Well, I think we've found this crowd's g-spot . . .
It never ceases to amaze me how oblivious the American music industry is to Dir en grey's popularity here. At some point (I think before?), the two girls next to me started a Dir en grey cheer, which probably confused them even more.

Finally, Diru's roadies (and Nora) finished setting up and GDS started playing. Like good fans, we all jumped and yelled "KILL" in time to the music. Then Diru came out in variations on black t-shirts and tight jeans and everyone (yes, me too, I told you they make me fangirl) started screaming their names too. Then, they played. The set had 10 songs and included in some order:
The Final
Ryoujoku no Ame
Clever Sleazoid
Grief
The III D Empire
Dead Tree
The Fatal Believer
Repitition of Hatred
Merciless Cult
Lie Buried With a Vengance

Overall, they could have played better. For example, Kaoru missed his enterance on one song, swished his hips with an expression of "I'm so cool it doesn't matter", and came in two measures late. His guitar solo in Ryoujoku no Ame could have been louder and he acted too cool to care about playing it right. Kyo repeatedly went flat and missed high notes and skipped lines. Toshiya and Kaoru both took water and towel breaks in the middle of songs.

However, other aspects of the performance more than compensated. At the beginning of Dead Tree, Kyo did an a cappella quasi-Buddhist chant with heavy reverb on the mic - it was awesome! Dir en grey also looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves (probably because they upstaged the Deftones). Kaoru, Toshiya, and Kyo also showed a lot of personality - Kaoru kept doing his "I'm captain awesome" and "rolling hair thunder" moves, Toshiya sent love to his fangirls and hung his bass from the ceiling while playing it, and Kyo made electric eye contact with the front rows.

But I think the best part was energy resulting from the small venue, the enthusiastic fans, and Diru's music. For the entire set, everyone in the front two rows was headbanging, doing furitsuke, and singing along with nearly every song, belting out English and Japanese lyrics alike and screaming "fuck" back at Kyo. I was headbanging so hard I had to hold my glasses on, and I don't even like to headbang. About halfway through, even the Deftones fans joined in, and started a mosh pit and a crush towards the front. I barely held onto the bar and jumped on people's feet to keep my place. The security guys seemed worried we'd pass out, so they passed out water bottles and sprayed water on the fans. Annie claims that her hair remained cute because of the magical properties of Toshiya spit. At the end, Kaoru, Toshiya, and Die threw lots of picks, most falling short of the crowd, so security handed them to us - I got one of Toshiya's and Annie got Kaoru's. It only lasted about an hour, but it was an amazing and exhausting hour.

At the end, because of the jumping and cheering and Areji making us get up at 5am, we went to buy our tour shirts and get water I wisely stashed in the trunk of my car. We were all too dead to even consider staying for the Deftones. And after a shower, a scone, and a nice cup of tea I basked in post-concert happy.

*On a final note, since Annie and I could see every member very well we were able to conclued that Kyo's fishhooking is fake. We could see that the blood was the wrong consistency for mouth blood (intersting fact learned while having wisdom teeth pulled) and did not darken properly once it congealed. Annie suspected as much because to do it night after night would also be extremely painful and make it impossible for Kyo to sing well.

Kitties

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:58:02 GMT

So, lately I have been kinda stressed about grad school, which means I've been knitting excessively. It's weird. Knitting and Diru seem to be my best form of stress relief . . . anyways, here are some pictures:

This is a kitty I made for Kathichan and sent her at school:
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/Visual_Japan/P1010211-1.jpg[/IMG]

And here is the (better) one I made Annie. Sorry, Kathie! Yours was the first kitty, so it doesn't look as cute as this:
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/Visual_Japan/P1010214-1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/Visual_Japan/P1010216-1.jpg[/IMG]

And finally, a Klein Bottle (Yes, knitting a Klein bottle does officially make me a math nerd):
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b111/Visual_Japan/P1010218.jpg[/IMG]

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:51:56 GMT

This is the most terrifying picture of Gackt I have ever seen:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i302/gakkuhai/rawr-leopard.jpg

New Diru Single & USA tour

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:02:09 GMT

The new Diru single has been leaked! You can all download it here:
http://forum.occult-proposal.net/viewtopic.php?t=225

Personally . . . I think it's excessively screamy. The guitar riff is kinda cool. Maybe it will grow on me. Or not. It's not one of my favorites.

Also, Diru is doing a solo tour in Februrary, although none of the dates are even remotely close to Ohio. Here is the info:
http://www.free-will-america.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=204&Itemid=167

I can't go . . .*weeps*

VOTE FOR DIRU

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 02:27:04 GMT

ON MTV!!!
Vote here. Often. Give the boys some love:
http://www.mtv2.com/#series/10896

More Uploads

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:50:58 GMT

These are especially for Arejikins ^_^

Klack - Intifada 2004 PV
http://www.sendspace.com/file/aj8lom
Ok, I don't like Klack that much. I only downloaded this because Areji <3-ed them much the one time he saw them. The PV strikes me as overdone Bush-bashing, until the very end. The end is golden.

Siva - Riot
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5W48ZALT
Siva has been rocking my world. I love this song. It's so catchy, and fun, and I really really really want to go (Japanese) mosh to it at a concert.

Happy Halloween, Minna-san!

Uploads . . .

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:03:06 GMT

I don't know if anyone downloads these, but if you do comment so I do know, and can upload more, k?

1. Miyavi - Selfish Love PV
I am not usually a fan of teh Meev, but I must admit some of his recent releases (Kimi ni negai wo, Senor Senora Senorita) have pretty much rocked. And after watching Selfish Love, his latest, I could not but think that I had grossly underestimated his guitar skills. It's just Miyavi on accoustic but his guitar solo is so rich it sounds like a whole band. And the song is fun too. Go Myv.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A7Z7BQFQ

2. Merry - Ringo to Uso PV
I have had this song in my head so many times now . . . but somehow I never get sick of it! Merry's at their best instrumentally, and Gara sounds fantastic (and from a translation on the Merry LJ communnity, the lyrics pretty much rock too!). Although Gara still hasn't managed to stop shopping in the ladies department, Merry has a great sense of style too.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WCKOPFLK

3. Gazette - Filth in the Beauty PV
This is being uploaded for its sheer WTF-ness. It is sort of like a duet between Korn and Mariah Carey, if you can imagine such a thing, but slightly less jarring because Gazette is as pretty as the girl singing. Maybe Gazette is attempting to court Japanese Hip-hop fans? Well, regardless of what they're trying to do, it's pretty much . . . special.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/55a7wb

Family Values Tour

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 13:06:27 GMT

Well, first live report in a while . . . I should have done one for Konono No. 9 but I never got around to it. At any rate, I did see Diru on the FVT in Cleveland so here you go ~

Annie and I arrived at around 3, bought our CDs for the meet and greet, and I got the t-shirt with glow-in-the-dark skeletons. I'm sorry Diru, but I can't bring myself to wear decaying zombie nazis in public.

Then we watched band #5 of the six opening acts. I believe they were screamo. As I do not listen to screamo, I cannot be sure. But it involved lots of screaming so I think it was. And they failed to make me ever want to listen to screamo. It also says something when the guitarists can randomly stop playing to flip their guitar around in the air or take a drink of water and the music sounds exactly the same. The best part of the act was the MCs, which I can only describe as motivational speaker with turret's syndrome. In other words "Hey you f*ckers! Are you here to have a f*cking good time? Today is such a great day! Let's f*cking do it!" I was cracking up.

After that was a band called 10 Years or something like that. They were better. They had melody and actual singing, which made me happy. Although their music wasn't really my thing, I probably wouldn't mind hearing them again. Towards the end I was a bit distracted by fleeting glimpses of Kaoru and Shinya backstage, which was cool until these singularly obnoxious teenage Diru fangirls started screaming about it in the middle of 10 Years' set. I was so embarrassed by their rudeness, and then to make it worse they started trying to push forward for Diru IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SET. I managed to scoot away and attempted to ignore them as much as possible, but I could tell Annie was really getting pissed and I felt so bad because I wanted her to be getting excited for Diru and Kaoru.

Finally Diru's roadies (cute Japanese roadies, for the record, possibly appearing in future indie bands like Gara and Daisuke, you never know . . . ) started tuning Shinya's drums and rearranging the amps. Then they started playing G.D.S., and like good Diru fans we all jumped and yelled "kill" really loud at appropriate intervals. I was sort of isolated from the others which was good because I was away from the obnoxious fangirls but bad because I felt even more ridiculous for fangirling at Diru. Oh well. It's Diru. Will mosh/fangirl/be a dork for Diru. The setlist was:
(song from WTD I don't listen to much)
(song from WTD I don't listen to much) <- one of these two was Saku, Annie thinks.
The Final
Ryokujou no Ame
Dead Tree
Merciless Cult
(new song)
(another song from WTD I don't listen to much, prolly Kodou)
I apologize for sucking at setlists . . . Kaoru did his "Captain Awesome" pose after the second song, and we all cheered, although the people in front of me speculated that it was only because of his Metallica T-Shirt. At any rate, the audience seemed to get more involved for The Final, or at least I did. As I wasn't in Japan, I didn't feel nearly as stupid singing along in Japanglish, although I probably annoyed the people in the row in front of me. Ryokujou no Ame was outstanding, and in addition to Kyo puking blood the music seemed to make the non-Diru-fangirl crowd pay more attention. Dead Tree was also beautiful in its understated way. The new song also sounded very promising. However, an otherwise good performance was again marred by the idiot fangirls - they kept trying to charge more towards the center, and one girl's mother, who was in her 40s and SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER, even tried to help push through other fans in the middle of the set. I was disgusted by it, and I know the people around me were too. I can only hope that people further back were not completely turned off to Diru by the Diru fangirls being obnoxious. And it is not that I am used to polite Japanese fans, the other audience members were not nearly so rude for the other acts I saw.

Afterwards we rushed to the meet & greet tent to meet Diru. Now all throughout the day the FVT staff kept saying that at the meet & greets you could take pictures and have the band sign the CD you had to buy to get in. I didn't expect this for Diru, having read the internet reports, but a lot of other people in line seemed to. It was definitely false advertising. Even the staff were making fun of the rules: "You can't take pictures; they're like monkeys in the zoo; they'll get scared and run away if you try to take pictures." Toshiya and Shinya finally arrived. I had planned to tell them thank you for your hard work and how much I liked Dir en grey in Japanese, but the line was pushed along so fast that all I could do was shake hands and say "Otsukaresama deshita" to them. I felt like they seemed very cold and unfriendly, but perhaps it was the sunglasses, the rush, and that Shinya doesn't strike one as a particularly friendly person in interviews etc. so I shouldn't be too surprised. I got the impression they only did the meet and greet because everyone else on the tour did and they were told they had to; however, I think they should have at least signed autographs. Even though they don't speak English and have a lot of obnoxious fans, I don't think that would have been too much to ask nor require any talking.

So I think in conclusion I would have to say the concert was mixed. The performance itself was very good despite the lack of audience involvement, but the fangirls and the meet & greet were very disappointing.