December 25
Sunday

Bringing on the Heartbreak
Part IV -- Merry Christmas

now playing:
Reirou's Mind's Eye (2001)
Gidi's <i dunno> (2001)

Heading back in for the last act, guess who's on stage babbling away? Yes, our weeble-wobbley host, and he's harassing the vocalist and guitarists for Syndrome. And Sin has a beer in his hand, and judging from his jello-like movements and goofy expressions it's not his first, either!

So they talk for a bit, and I think the current question being aired is something like "Who do you wish a Merry Christmas to" or something, meaning, "Who are you dating" or something... because Ruiza is not eager to answer, and the vocalist seems inclined to just picking someone out of the audience, pointing randomly into the crowd like he is, and Sin blurts something that causes this look of terrifying dread to cross Ruiza and the planet Gold Guy's faces, followed by an immense amount of laughter from everyone both on stage and off, followed by Sin turning away from the audience, still laughing, and cowering over on the side of the stage. I have no idea what was going on, I only heard something like dare hito ("what person") in the question, I cold be totally misinterpreting everything, but hell, it was fun.

Then Aioria comes out. They have one good song (it starts with the same cool drum beat as Van Halen's A.F.U. (off 1988's OU812) and gets heavier fast, and the song has a great sing-along chorus as well -- i can still remember how it goes in my head, which is rare two days after the fact! -- but that's about it for great songs from them...

But, of course, we can't forget to mention the furry guitarist -- Misa -- and his two horrible, horrible blunders. First, his guitar goes -so- out of tune that he has to stop and tune it in the middle of a song... and after what must have been an amazingly frustrating minute (you could see him making panicked FULL turns on two of the headstock tuners -- meaning he was several steps out of tune according to his rack tuner... i was gritting my teeth in sympathy for him... ugh, what a nightmare!)... anyway, he just gave up and shoved the guitar at a roadie, and did only some backing vocals for the rest of the song.

Did I mention this was AFTER he banged his head on the stage left roto-spot, which knocked his hat and wig off? Revealing his total baldness underneath? Egads! During the break beforehand, MoSo had said after another gig, Misa had greeted the fans bald -- so losing the hat and wig wasn't like the revealing of some terrible secret -- but still, losing it DURING the set sucks. He continued playing, and kinda laughed it off -- but he also seemed a little less cheery on stage after that. Less bouncy, less smiley.

Both accidents befell him during the same song, and so after the song finally, mercifully ended, he disappeared back stage for a couple of minutes. The Bo-Peep guitarist and Sarino, the vocalist, stalled for a little while, made a few jokes, thanked the audience for coming out and stuff like that... but it was a really awkward time... only maybe 90 seconds in reality but it must've seemed like YEARS on stage.

Then Sarino hits upon a good idea -- you can see his eyes light up -- and he starts chanting Misa! Misa! Misa! Misa! And the whole crowd joins in. And Misa steps back out with one of those ugly keyboards-that-you-wear-like-a-guitar, and looks at the 400+ people around him cheering his name, and smiles, and the entire episode is magically transformed from some unsalvageable wreck of an evening into a fantastic bonding experience between the band and the fans. Stronger ties through shared tragedy. It's positively heartwarming. "A Christmas miracle!"

Afterwards, the show lets out -- at 9pm, way too early. (We thought for a minute that maybe they'd do one of those all-the-members-from-all-the-bands-get-onstage-and-sing-some-shitty-Christmas-carol-or-punk-standard type of thing, but we don't even get that! Just the house lights going up and two guys with brooms converging on the center of the relatively spotless floor. Subtle!