The
Prettiest Face in J-Rock
now
playing: ABC News with Peter Jennings (on TV)
Hey, we're bombing Afghanistan apparently; last night after Kaggra,
Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi and Tony Blair in Britain were on TV
giving press conferences, and this morning Bush was on... sitting
in front of a window, instead of at his desk, which I guess is supposed
to be symbolic of something...
But
anyway, Kaggra! They were pretty cool; Sung said, "Hey, you should
go see them," and I hadn't been inside On Air East (the bigger
one; On Air West is [all together!] "the smaller one"
[very good], so I went.
But
before that I had to meet up with my new band and trade demos, to
see what songs of each other's we like. A couple of their demos were
midi files, and/or vocal-less, whereas mine were complete songs; I
think they liked most of mine, but they only want to do two of them
(two that I only like a little bit!) But it's all good!
Then
I found out that the concert didn't start til 6pm (I thought 4pm!)
so hit Shibuya a little more; I found a couple cool stores with some
cool jewelry, and for the first time I started paying attention to
the clothing stores around. I found a very cool visual kei fashion
shop in Parco 3 (Parco's a department store, they've got three buildings
in Shibuya, at least). It never even occurred to me to look for clothes.
I'm too big for most, but they had some cool j-rock ties and some
cool bags too (most everyone at these concerts carries their stuff
in these big black bags, with long straps that hang the things low
on one's shoulder, and with patches and other stuff inscribed on the
outside, punk-style. Something about "feeling the moist"
popped up a lot. But Y7000 for a bag? I better shop around a bit more...
I also hit Mandarake, the big anime shop (they have coin lockers that
you have to use -- no bags allowed. But you get your Y100 back when
you re-insert the key.) There was also a Harley Davidson store, but
everything was so damned expensive! Like, double what you'd think
it should be, solely because of the Harley name on the stuff. Screw
that!
I
also hit some CD stores but didn't see much worth while (the Recofan
near On Air East & West had some interesting indies visual kei
stuff that I just didn't feel like taking a risk on). Then I went
back to the club. I spotted Sanae and her friend right by the ticket
booth, so that was cool, and since I was talking to her while I bought
my ticket, I didn't have time to think to myself "Y4000?!?! But
I've never even -heard- a song by them!" So that was good.
In
line, I saw a couple foreigners, Audra and Kimberly (both attending
Waseda University, which is one of Japan's top schools). So we start
talking, ("Oh, you're the one with that site, right?!" --
I love when they say that!) and it turns out it's Kimberly's first
concert in Japan! The revelation of which then allows me to say, "My
first concert was X Japan at the Tokyo Dome" which sends them
spiraling into fits of uncontainable jealousy, mwuah ha ha, and Sanae
shows off her Hide keychains, purchased at the Hide Museum, to their
mutual acclaim.
Also,
it turns out Audra is that stargazerlily@hotmail person in charge
of one of the j-rock webrings. I've talked to her before! The Small
World Syndrome strikes again.
Inside
they had posters for $10, sticker sets and photo sets for $15, and
videos for $30, and I figure I'll buy my stuff -after- the show, when
it's less likely to get crushed, and IF I like the band.
At
6pm, everyone's inside; it's one big room, and if you imagine your
high school gym cut in half, painted grey, darkly lit and filled with
girls in kimonos, you'll have a pretty good picture of what the place
looked like that night. A ramp extended from the stage into center
of the room (more or less). By 6:20, the band still hadn't shown up.
(doors at 5, start at 6; this was the first concert i'd been to that
didn't start right on the money).
Around
6:25 or so, the lights were doused, the screams started up, the few
people that were sitting decided finally to stand, the crowd pushed
gently forward, just a wee bit, and the curtains parted, with Kaggra
standing on the other side, resplendent; they had these shining white
kimonos on that almost glowed on their own.
They
started off with the dullest song of the evening, not a slow ballad
and not a fast speedy tune either, but after they got over that first
hurdle the night improved. The second song saw Ishi, the singer (and
most desired of the members, if the regularity and intensity of the
screams of his name from the audience are any measure), stepping out
onto the ramp, which caused the entire crowd so surge forward a good
eight feet, crushing against the wall the first few rows of people.
About time, too! (Being squished between a thousand jumping girls
improves the fun-ness of ANY concert!) Up close, you can see why chicks
dig him.
By
the third song he had gotten out his japanese fan and was waving it
around, doing the hand dance thing along with about 1/5 of the audience,
who had all brought their own fans. It was definitely a pretty sight
to behold, all these fans being held high and waved like dogfighting
planes as the band played on; I was dying to take a picture (but cameras
were verboten. Although at the door, when they "searched"
my bag, the guy asked if I had a camera and I said, "Hai",
but he didn't seem to care -- one of the multitudinous benefits of
gaijinity. No else was taking pics either, except for a couple pro
photogs down at the foot of the stage.)
The
lighting for the show was gorgeous; lots of simple but pretty two-color
stuff (yellow and purple, or blue and green), and the dozen or so
tapestries descending from the ceiling, in various sizes and lengths,
were regularly hit with projector images; dolls heads, an old temple,
lots of traditional Japanese imagery (with the band only ever in kimonos,
and with all their names only in kanji, part of their appeal to seems
to be their embracing of Japanese tradition -- I, the first time observer,
concluded... perhaps quite wrongly but there you are).
At
7pm, 6 songs into the show, they left the stage. 10 minutes later
the drummer came out to do his repetitive solo; the bass player came
out 10 minutes after that for a drums-n-bass solo. The bassist spent
part of that solo only a few feet from me, on the ramp, and wow, he
was really attractive! Anyway...
So
the lights went down again and the curtains drew together, and just
before they closed, the bassist didn't this extremely cool flick-of-the-wrist
thing, tossing his pick into the audience. Just the arc of the pic
as it flew, and the pose his body was in, and the angle of his wrist
and fingers (kinda Christ-like, somehow) made it the best part of
the show up until then; and also the timing, for if he had waited
a second more, it would've hit the curtain and he'd've ruined the
whole mystique.
A
roadie set up a mic stand on the ramp, in the dark, but even in the
dark you could see the glint of metal and all the girls started screaming
and cheering again, because they knew, of course, that a mic stand
there meant whats-his-face would be coming out any second. And he
did, all dramatic-like and in a new kimono, with a image of a temple
and the moon projected onto the background, and he sang some weird
enka-style traditional song that was cool but guitarless. And when
the curtains opened again, the whole band, now all changed into their
new, colored kimonos, was ready with the next song. And they rocked
some more and some more and some more.
After
a couple more tunes, another break, and they changed into more raggy
kimonos. Then after just one song, they left again, assumably (to
me) permanently, because who comes out, does one song last song (presumably
as an encore) and then comes out again?! Answer: Kaggra does. But
this time they were in their t-shirts (not for sale at the show, oddly
enough), and in the vinyl boots & pants they had worn under their
kimonos all night. And after a few seconds of the singer saying thanks
for coming and starting to cry -- met with the usual tender cheering
and "ganbatte!"s that crying usually elicits from the crowd
-- they did their ten minute audience-participation song, which seemed
to include a sampled "Hey!" stolen either from Def Leppard's
Pour Some Sugar On Me or that Bon Jovi song that was the first
single of their New Jersey album (Lay Your Hands on Me?)
And then I thought, "Oh, of course, they hadn't done the way-too-long-and-repetitive
song yet, of course the show isn't over!" And so for ten minutes
they had kids leaping on each other and screaming back the falsetto
ay-ya-ya-ya-ya chant, etcetera, ad infinum, and then they shot off
a mass of shiny magenta streamers (which was very cool; the sound
of them being shot scares you at first, but then they look so pretty
falling down) and they also blew cherry blossoms (tissue paper cut
into blossoms shapes, actually), which was even MORE pretty, especially
with the lights and the projectors doing their thing), and then all
of a sudden the gig was over, the doors were opened, and all the cool
night air beckoned everyone out.
Me,
Audra, Kimberly and Atsushi then headed to Kirin City (owned by the
Kirin Brewing Company; the restaurant's tagline is "Beer Communication"!
Good motto.) We hung out there, and found out Kirin City didn't serve
Rusty Nails (we were all big X Japan fans), so we got beers, then
I segued over to Moscow Mules, which are pretty palatable, and I got
home a couple hours later. Cool evening!
