Gekkou
and Friends
now
playing: Shedde's demo tape (2001)
So
off I went to see Gekkou last night (Sunday, that is) at Meguro Rock
Maykan.
Got
to Meguro around 5:00.
Searched
for visual-fan lookin' peeps.
Found
a crew of girls definitely on their way to some show somewhere...
"Rock Maykan doko desu ka?!" And so we're off to Rock Maykan,
and I mention that I'm coming to see Gekkou. They get all excited
-- some of them have seen Gekkou FORTY times ("14 times?"
"40 times!" "FORTY times?!!"). Then Mika remembers
me: I'm the camera guy from the show at Narciss three months ago,
right? Yup, c'est moi!
When
we get to Maykan, I realize I've been here before -- visiting Third
Stage, with Cameron, months and months ago. I didn't go inside, we
just walked past it and he pointed out how it's cool to come see a
show, and then afterward (Because shows end early usually -- 9pm or
so) you can pop into Third Stage next door and grab a demo tape or
CD if you feel like it. (I went in afterward, but all the used CDs
cost MORE than new CDs! By 20%, 30% and more... screw that!)
At
the door, I step up to the ticket girl, and she's like, "Can
I help you?" (I'm only in jeans and a t-shirt, not very visual-lookin')
and I'm like, "Yeah, Gekkou mitai!" (I wanna see Gekkou!)
so she's like, "oh!" And i get my ticket, head downstairs
(all the stairs and walls are at 60% and 120% angles or something,
like the place was built into a triangular shape rather than a square.
Normally that'd be cool, but for now it's just ugly!
The
ticker price was only $20, and it turns out only four bands are playing.
Gekkou's headlining. And they rock, of course. There's something about
how the songs seem familiar to you even if you've only heard them
once before. That is very cool. Also, they put on a good show and
engage the audience well, even if, like tonight, you've got only 20
people or so in the crowd.
The
audience area is also very different from other clubs: there are seats!
It's lke a mini movie-theater, with eight rows of faded purple seats,
14 seats per row. There's also a staff-only balcony, and also a very
cool staircase leading downstairs (mainly to the toilets) that has
all sort of cool jrock graffiti. Little touches like that make a place
memorable, ne? The death metal on the P.A. played quietly between
sets is also kinda cool, no doubt the soundguy is trying to convert
some of these girls to "real" music (apparently visual kei
is regarded in the same way as 80s glam metal -- with little respect.)
Other
bands: Shedde, Artistic Suicide, and Endless. Endless is new and young
and promising but they need to get some more shows under their belt,
that's my thinking anyway. But the three girls at the front cheering
them on and headbanging seemed to be having fun!
Artistic
Suicide's lead singer, during a break in the set, said "Visual
Kei yamemashita" ("We stopped doing Visual Kei") which
gets a laugh -- they're all in streetclothes, more or less (fancy-ish
streetclothes, but still, nothing like what the other bands are doing,
and no makeup). They're okay, a little too blues-based for my current
taste. Actually, a lot of their song parts didn't go together very
well either -- kinda frankenstein-ized feeling, with mismatched verses
and bridges and choruses. But they were popular with the fangirls,
and the lead guitarist played a Gibson Flying V rather cool-like.
But I also couldn't here his solos -- he needs to crank that volume
a bit for them.
Shedde,
the third band to go on, is heavier, and also attracts a good share
of the crowd, and the singer is having a good time on stage, which
I always like to see -- I've always preferred smiling band members
sharing the fun they're having on stage with the audience; the performers
that look too cool or too bored to be there always struck me as pricks,
kinda. (Looking bored or cool is okay, but TOO bored or TOO cool is
overdoing it and is just being insulting: "Ugh, I don't want
to be here performing for you guys, I'm too cool." Puh-lease!)
Having
said, that, Shedde were pretty cool, though drummer-less, like a lot
of bands. But still, you really NEED to have a drummer to be a real
band, ne? The one guitarist for Shedde, on stage right (looking from
the audience) reminded me of Scotti Hill from Skid Row. Just an observation.
And
that's about it.
Random
additional observations:
There
were some actual little girls at the show. Like 10, or younger. In
those Bo-Peep dresses. Scary. (Seriously, they were not even close
to junior high school. I only assume they were there with older sisters
or something, I hope.)
Also,
in between each set, the Rock Maykan puts the house lights on full
blast It totally ruins the mood. Because, of course, bright, full-on
house lights mean "It's time to go home." They really need
to bring them up only halfway at most, if that. It's a small complaint,
but the whole live house coolness thing is so fragile, every little
bit helps.
For
example, Y400 Beer -- from a machine. And amazingly, none of the fangirls
bought any beer. Can you imagine an American high school kid seeing
a beer machine, unattended, unguarded, and NOT buying every can available?!
The
seating at the venue ruins any sense of excitement, but it is pretty
comfortable and nice while you're waiting for your band to come on.
I've often discussed whether I'd pay to see my favorite bands in a
more blues-club-like setting (you know, with seats -- so instead of
standing among a sweaty throng of metalloids, I could sit at a tiny
round candlelit table in comfort with a drink). The answer is, now,
I wouldn't. Sitting makes everything boring, and I don't like any
boring music!
And
lastly: I think Rock Maykan and Narciss are linked somehow, because
there was lots of cross-advertising for both clubs. Which I guess
is good?
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