Outdoors,
A Miserable, Rainy Day.
Indoors, The Exact Opposite.
Part II
now
playing: L'Arc~en~ciel's True (1996)
Okay, time to start the actual live report!
Charlotte
is the first band up, and I've heard that the bands draw straws to
see who goes first... several weeks before the show, I guess, seeing
as how the schedules are printed up in advance, and tend to have some
semblance of order. And for me, when booking gigs in New York, it
was usually just a matter of calling up Noah or Jonah or something
like -- the booking agent at the Continental -- and hearing, "We
already have bands booked from 8pm to 11pm, would you rather go on
at midnight or at 7pm?" (10pm was always the choice time to play,
it being neither too early nor too late.)
So
basically, you can't judge the band from their position on the list.
(This has been confirmed by the number of very cool bands that have
gone on very early; and by the number of less-than-stellar groups
that i've seen in the top slot.) And in saying all this I realize
it's moot, because Charlotte was good, but you could tell they still
need a few more months of playing together before they really start
to take off. And also, as Saya said (who I met up with later in the
day) "That pink guitarist is yummy." So they were cool.
And judging from their flyer, they definitely know how to look the
part; a lot of band members tend to look uncomfortable in front of
the camera, and they're doomed from day one, but Charlotte photographs
really well, wouldn't you agree? (That's their flyer on the top left
thar'.)
By
the time they left the stage 30 or so minutes later, I had noticed
that fellow with the blue ponytails that I had seen in Shinjuku. The
"small world effect" strikes again! I wasn't sure if I was
gonna say "Hi" though. Not out of shyness this time, though
-- just mainly because it seemed kind of embarrassing, somehow. My
thoughts being that there are certain ways to fit into this j-rock
crowd. If you're a girl, there's like a million things you can easily
do.
But
if you're a guy, and you're in the crowd, pretty much you're limited
to a couple piercings, preferably in your face, a little color in
your hair, and maybe some rock-n-rollish pants, with a simple t-shirt
top. (You can't dress in full stage-regalia; you have to be much more
toned down, with your hair down, and more or less "normal".
At least this is my observation, judging from the few guys who attend
the shows and from how the band members present themselves after they
come off stage and join the crowd, which is about half the time. Always,
they are plainly dressed -- ah, except for the funky jrocky footwear!
So
anyway, this guy seemed to be flouting that rule a bit. (Although,
as I've said before, my interpretations of the social order could
be very wrong! We;re all learning together here!) But I decided that
I'd better at least say hello, you never know, he could be very cool,
maybe even in a band in search of a drummer or guitarist <cough
cough>. So I get up, start siddling along towards the front right
side of the stage, and when I'm about five feet away, the lights go
off and the S.E. music starts up and bang, the next band has appeared
on stage and it's way to noisy and dark to speak. So I watch the next
act: Kress Devia!
I
had seen them before and not been impressed; they were much cooler
this time. They did a couple of new songs (new to me anyway), with
some cool changes and shit that really made the songs interesting.
And you see that meter-long ribbon dangling from the singer's wrist?
He drags that over his fans, and they grab it and caress it quite
frighteningly. It's a great gimmick!
The
music is heavy, fast, Kei, the guitarist (also the main songwriter)
makes a couple boo-boos, but overall the show is cool, the singer
is hyper, the bass is solid and defined... bravo! <golf clap, sips
tea>
After
they left the stage, I go up to the blue-haired gaijiin. "Hello!"
/ "What?!" / "Hello! Is that your natural hair color?
<haha>" / "Oh, hi." / "I'm Gordon."
/ "Hi, I'm Steven."
Round
one, over.
Then
I see Saya, seated near Steven, who I see is holding a Hello Kitty
bag despite his mid-20s-ness. Uh oh. (You remember Saya, right? She
was a little nasty last month, when Missy came to town... but a few
weeks before that, at Narciss, she had been cool, and so the jury's
still out on her.) "Hi..." says I. "Hi, what's up?!"
<big smile, stands up to join the peg-legged conversation me and
Steven are having>
And
so we get to talking, and she's happy as a clam, genuinely friendly
and very enthusiastic about the bands on tonight, smiling all over
the place, headbanging, taking photo after photo, just jovial as could
be, and the tone for the evening is set. And Steven, it turns out,
is on a week's vacation, and spent the last couple nights seeing hardcore
bands. This is his first visual kei show.
I must
admit, he certainly got into it; he was bouncing up and down with
everyone else, and even did the hand-dances a couple times. Badly!
But I'm still... jealous?! I just can't do that; I can headbang, and
kinda half-bounce, but you, um, er, can't watch the guitarists' technique
if you get to excited... <lie>
Next
band: Reirou. As the rhythm guitarist walks out, Saya observes, "Ooh,
the shorts are much to short on that guy. That's a good thing,"
and I just go, "yup." What the hell else am I supposed to
say?!
So while
she's busy drooling in his direction, I spend most of the gig studying
the lead guitarist, who does just enough sweep-picking on a white
Ibanez JEM to be cool without overdoing it and becoming boring. Possibly
the best guitarist of the night, depending on your taste.
The
singer, meanwhile, was doing his best impersonation of T.M. Revolution,
with a glittering gold shirt and red pants and girly-bob hairdo, and
their was definitely a bit of T.M.R. vibrato in his voice, unless
I was just imagining it... the look was a big change from his last
appearance, I hear, and also quite different from the photos on the
demo tape, so that I didn't even recognize the band's demo tapes on
sale after the show, when their staff was selling 'em. I was like,
"Who are they?!" to their staff... totally clueless.
Saya
finally straightened me out ("that was the band with the bassist
I assaulted" she reminded me -- long story. I think she said
"Molested," though, not "assaulted." I forget.)
Like
Kress Devia, Reirou got the crowd whipped up nicely. It was a really
fun time, and the songs had some cool double-stops and cool audience-fists-in-the-air-type
bits too (but in Japan, fists-in-the-air bits aren't actually fist-in-the-air
bits. They're throw yourself at the stage bits, where a half dozen
or more girls take a running leap at the stage, and crash it, or more
accurately, crash into the girls headbanging in the front row. It's
easily more dangerous than crowd surfing, and when they're in those
foul bo-peep dresses, hilarious. I mean, imagine all the cop movies
you've seen where they bust a door down by throwing their weight against
it with a short running jump. That's what's going on at these lives.
Ooh, only there's also a mosh-like elbow smash involved too, where
they lift one arm up at a 90-degree angle and then bring it down,
usually into thin air but sometimes into a person's neck.
After
all that, it was time to get some beer, so I headed into the lobby,
which is crowded between sets and this intermission is no exception.
I waited in line, got a Malts (the "Milwaukee's Best" of
Japan? i.e., cheapish but goodish) and met up with Charlotte, who
were loosely gathered among a few girls chatting, and congratulated
them on a cool show and by the way how about a photo? To which they
stoically (but happily, I believe) agreed. Already they're acting
famous!
Have
I ever mentioned that when I talk to band, the general area around
me tends to become quiet and observe the interaction? It's kinda cool.
But today, that kind of silent pause was more widespread, and more
blatant (whereas normally it might just be a tilt of the head, now
it had become a whole body-turn). Was it because I was with the dancing
blue-haired guy? Or because they had seen me several times before
-- this is my eighth live -- and were now finally getting used to
the fact that I was an actual fan and not one of the weirdo perverts
that stalks them? My guess is... ah, I dunno!
I also
got a pic with Kress Devia, who, like the Charlotte band members,
were in plain clothes and just hanging out with the fans. It was also
at this point that it struck me: the singer (and everybody there)
are just kids! On stage, they all seem kinda ageless, but in real
life, jeez, they're not even legal to drink in the States yet! (Drinking
Age in Japan: 20.) And just for reference, when I say "kids,"
i don't mean it disparagingly. Quite the opposite, because I've met
more intelligent teenagers than I have intelligent 30-year-olds by
far.
Okay,
I'm three bands into an eight band set... and I haven't even gotten
to the adorable girl band yet (Yes! A girl kei band! Awesome!)
Can
you tell this is going to be loooooooooong?!
