Tuesday, September 10, 2013

August 2013 Japan Trip: Lives, Shopping, Friends, Loads of Fun! Part 3

So...who are my Visual Kei readers? HAHA!

Like I said, this post will be about my live reports on both SPEED DISK and World's End Daybreak #2 but...well, I'll update the start later on when I'm done with SPEED DISK. I'm afraid I might talk too much again... ahaha 8'D

Update: I talked too much. Alice Nine Anniv Live's report will be in Part 4!

Okay I'll keep quiet now. Let's begin /o/

DAY 2 : SPEED DISK FINAL @ SHIBUYA O-EAST

After our rest from shopping all morning at Shibuya...Mazu and I headed back out to Shibuya again for Speed Disk! I was so so excited. At that time I was a big fan of Mejibray already, so I was really looking forward to their performance ☆ I anticipated the other bands as well of course, I know most of them are quite good! Just that my favourite is Mejibray so...haha!

O-EAST was really quite a walk from Shibuya Station's Hachiko Exit. Much further past 109...in an alley. Don't get me wrong, the live venue is really quite big! Just it's in a secluded area? Well kind of. HAHA.

Look who we met on our way :D She's sooo cute!

O-EAST used to be a very common place where Visual Kei bands would hold lives but not as much anymore, according to my friend. Nevertheless, the place still had loads of Visual Kei flyers pasted up. Also, I was rather overwhelmed by the Japanese fans at first. You know how in Singapore most of the Visual Kei fans actually love to sport the rocker fashion style as well? In Japan, it's rather different. *lol* Maybe it's because the band members like that kind of style, but a lot of them were dressed up really prettily in LIZ LISA-esque clothings! With an exception of some punks here and there ☆ There was even a Koichi (Mejibray) cosplayer at the live venue! Her cosplay was really stunning.


LM.C flyer *^* Maya!!


SID flyer! They were having a live on the same day, haha!

Mazu and I were in the C category, so we waited quite a while before we could go in. Charlie decided to come join us for the live too, but because she only bought the ticket on the day itself, we didn't get to go in at the same time.

When we got in the first thing we had to do was to choose which band we were here for. I swear, if I went for stylish wave MAX. I would have cried choosing which band I was there for because DIAURA, DIV and Mejibray? I can't choose, period. But this was Speed Disk, so I chose Mejibray straight away

We went over to the Royz merchandise booth! Their goods were really pretty, but because I'm not much of a Royz fan, I didn't buy anything for myself. I bought a cheki though, for my friend Shera! ...Which I got Koudai at first. Mazu bought 3 and got Kazuki, Subaru and Tomoya, so she was kind enough to exchange Moru for Koudai! She also gave me another Subaru cheki later on. Thanks Mazu o(>w<)o

Chekis of Kazuki and Subaru! Moru for Shera, Baru for Ryuto :D

The Kameleo merchandise booth was right beside Royz, by the way. I'm kind of beating myself up for not getting any goods back then right now. They were really good, but I wasn't much of a fan until much recently. Plus their goods queue was so long after the live... x(

After we finished our purchases at Royz's booth, we went upstairs to view Mejibray's goods! ...There were no chekis (at first). So the next thing I decided to buy was their photocards, you'll see a picture of one of the sets later in this post! I bought 2 sets for myself, Mazu gave me one set later on. ^^ I also wanted to buy the Meto bear keychain but...I decided to save my money for Alice Nine and Harajuku.

We went into the live venue after happily buying everything we wanted. Haha! It was an all-standing live, so it was almost as chaotic as Sundown. But the Japanese fans are really nice, when you tell them "Excuse me", they'll really move to the side without any qualms and let you in front. Super sweet of them!

And so...after a bit of waiting, it began. Speed Disk Final @ Shibuya O-EAST.

Side note before I begin: Some of the bands, namely Black Gene for the Next Scene, 168 -one sixty eight-, v[NEU] and Royz did not feature their set list for Speed Disk Final @ Shibuya O-EAST anywhere, neither did any fan blog about it, or at least none that I am aware of. As I'm not very well-versed in the song names either plus I have really fantastic selective memory...I do not recall the setlist myself (>__<) I'm terribly sorry!


BLACK GENE FOR THE NEXT SCENE

[L > R] Sala (dr.), Toki (gu.), Ice (vo.), Rame (ba.)

I...personally never heard any of BFN's songs before the SPEED DISK live! But because they are quite popular, I've seen Ice's pictures quite often on my Facebook newsfeed. Gorgeous, muscular man, haha! Even more gorgeous in real life.

Ice did a rather long MC while they were up on stage, but before I go onto that...their performance was awesome. I don't know the names of the songs (=3=) but there was this one song where Ice got us all to interlock our fingers together, raise our arms up and jump a round on the spot in a circle at certain parts of the song! What was cuter was that the band members would jump round with us too. Super cute!


During Ice's MC, like all vocalists always do, he didn't introduce Sala (the drummer). Poor drummers always the easiest to tease! 


He went on to comment about how everyone at SPEED DISK looked today, to which he said...


「かわいいみたいなーかっこいいみたいなーみたいみたいなー」


If I had to loosely translate it, he meant "(You all) look cute, (You all) look cool, (You all) look like what you look like."

ICEEEE! x(

Everyone laughed of course! What a dork.


And as every band would at lives, they promoted their upcoming album and live! Firstly their new album, titled 「Dance to Rave ~脳内シェイクなsong達~」which was released on the 28th of August. 


Ice was telling us that we definitely have to buy one, then go for their instore event. After that he changed his mind and said it's okay if we couldn't make it to the instore event, just buy the album anyway!

I probably can't exactly convey the exact way he said it here, but he paused alot of times thinking of what to say while trying to promote the album. It was really cute!


After which Ice went on to promote their ONEMAN live. This translation might not be accurate, but Ice told us to get 2 tickets instead of 1 because it was more worth it. HAHA!


He also solved our problems about who to bring for the live by saying "If you have no friends to bring with you, it's okay! Bring a family member. Your grandmother or grandfather is fine too!"

OH ICE.





DUELJEWEL

[L > R] Natsuki (ba.), Shun (gu.), Hayato (vo.), Yuya (gu.), Baru (dr.)

Firstly I have to apologize to my readers who are DuelJewel fans, I was not a big fan of DuelJewel and am still not a big fan of DuelJewel.

I'm vocals biased (as you all probably noticed by now!) so I did not really enjoy DuelJewel's performance as much as the rest because I did not really favour Hayato's voice (>__<)

Although one thing I did find really cute about the DuelJewel fans was that their hand actions? It was a heart sign! Super adorable.

I have to once again apologize about my short review on DuelJewel's performance, but they really hardly left any impression on me (>__<) ごめんなさい!

Setlist:
1. 62
2. 華唄
3. Ashtaroth
4. DICE
5. It's Just Love

I just remembered, that Shun also threw his pick at me! But I wasn't paying attention because Mazu was talking to me so it bounced off me...there goes a guitar pick. :(


MEJIBRAY

[L > R] MiA (gu.), Meto (dr.), Koichi (ba.), Tsuzuku (vo.)

If I needed to sum this up in one sentence.

...

I've never headbanged so much in my life. HAHAHA

If you're not familiar with Mejibray, they're a super extreme hardcore metal Visual Kei band. If you like screamo and stuff like that, please give them a try ☆

Setlist:
1. トロシナ
2.  アプリオリ
3. black baccarat
4. 枷と知能〜それってとても人間らしいって神様は笑ってるの〜
5. メサイア

At the start of the live, Meto was already on stage. Except well, he was hiding in the platform box thing that the vocalist would use to step on...and creeping out quietly like the cute doll he is. Haha! Koichi and MiA look stunning as usual. You know how sometimes the Jrockers look rather different in real life compared to their pictures? Well not for MiA and Koichi. They were gorgeous and I mean gorgeous. Exactly the same as in their pictures! Tsuzuku was just being his sexy self. That guy is a tease, I swear.

Before they started playing any songs Koichi and Tsuzuku each drank a mouthful of water from their respective water bottles and sprayed showers of blessings on us. Heh, I got both. HAHA!

My eyes were fixated on MiA most of the time because the girl who was standing in front of me was tall. Boo.  (¬、¬) I couldn't really see Koichi or Meto. Missed Tsuzuku a few times when he wasn't on the platform box too!

Although we spent most of our time headbanging, I managed to steal some sneak peeks at the members, specifically Tsuzuku. vocal bias  He is the man of fanservice. I mean, no please, don't start pulling on your pants, don't touch your body, don't lie down on the platform box in the "Draw me like one of your french girls" position while singing--

I believe it was halfway through black baccarat when MiA decided to take a gulp from his water bottle. I was ready to receive another shower of blessings, but instead he threw his bottle...right at me.

Or right at my head to be specific. It knocked me and rebounded away to another fan. OWW MiA OWW

Thankfully, the 2 Japanese girls who caught it were kind enough to let me have the first sip from MiA's bottle (>__<) They're so nice!

Because the last 2 songs on the setlist are some of my favourite songs from Mejibray (especially MESSIAH) I literally screamed out my lungs when Tsuzuku said that they were going to sing it. Cue more headbanging, of course! I really enjoyed Mejibray's performance a lot. Super intense, super hardcore, amazing experience for me! And a painful experience for my head

Oh yeah, did I mention MiA really gave his all for the whole live? By the end of 5 songs he broke every single string on his guitar...and he got hospitalized after for over-exertion, poor baby!


MONOLITH

[L > R] Ryu (vo.), Keita (vo.), Shuuhei (gu.), Takafumi (ba.), HAYATO (dr.)

...Are you trying to guess who is my bias?

HAHAHA JOKING /shot

I used to listen to MoNoLith way back at the start of 2012, although I never really followed up from there. But I knew they are a really good band, so I was really anticipating their performance as well. My bias is Keita by the way. HAHA

Setlist:
1. Gravy Sauce
2. 未来旅行者
3. Love Puppet Party
4. コブラ

I think it was Love Puppet Party which Ryu got all of us to dance together with him! And the rest of the band members, of course. They were super cute on stage, just like BFN~ A lot of running from the left to right, spinning around, getting dizzy but still having fun so I was okay. HAHA

During MC time, Keita kept completely quiet and let Ryu do all the work. But it's okay, because Ryu was being a bubbly bundle of joy and happily telling everyone about how MoNoLith got new costumes! He said that they all really loved the new design, and Keita being the silly boy he is started doing model poses behind Ryu as he spoke about the new costumes. Stop being adorable!

The one thing so special about MoNoLith if you haven't noticed is that they have 2 vocalists instead of 1. Not that it matters much, but it's really cool listening to the difference between Ryu and Keita's voice in real life (and looking at their height difference, when Ryu is standing on the platform box he's only slightly taller than Keita, HAHA). Ryu does more of the screamos~ Keita's voice is perfect.


168 ~ ONE SIXTY EIGHT~

Aoi (vo.)

For those who do not know, this is Aoi from ayabie. 168 ~ONE SIXTY EIGHT~ is a project which he started recently!

My first impression of him was "He really looks like Nao."

Oops.

HAHAHA

Aoi's super cute on stage! Yes, I thought he really looks like Nao because he was dressed like Nao, hair styled like Nao and smiled like Nao, but that's besides the point.

Yuki from Jupiter/Versailles was his support drummer for the live, and Mazu was going crazy knowing that that was Yuki right in front of her eyes. HAHA!

I can't remember the setlist, but I do remember that Aoi sang the title song from his recent single, 「秘すれば花」. And just like in the PV...he had an umbrella. And a fan too, if I didn't remember wrongly! Oh my gosh he was so cute twirling the umbrella around while singing and dancing with the fan too~

Also, his vocals were really really good. There's not much excitement that I remember from 168's live because the songs were really quite mild but I really really enjoyed it a lot! Going to give more of Aoi's songs a try soon ☆


KAMELEO

[L > R] Daisuke (gu.), HIKARU. (vo.), Takashi (gu.), Takeshi (dr.), Kouichi (ba.)


If I had to describe Kameleo in one word, it would be insane.

INSANELY ADORABLE

Although I often saw their videos around Youtube, I never really gave them a try because I was too hung up over DIV, DIAURA and Mejibray and boy do I regret that.

The moment these boys went on stage...they caught my attention immediately.

Why? Well if you study their genre of music carefully...it's pretty similar to that of SuG's, who is my number 1 most favourite Visual Kei band ever.

Setlist:
1. ニート姫
2. 美容整形
3. 戦え、己と
4. ハナゲの王様
5. 捏造ピエロ

Kameleo's songs mixes a lot of pop and techno inside, and along with that came a lot of dancing to songs! For NEET Hime, the starting of the song already had a really cute dance ♪ Hikaru was adorable dancing to it.

After the first song, Hikaru shouted into the microphone 「好きなメンバの名前を呼んで!」 or "Shout your favourite member's name!" and I heard a lot of people screaming for Daisuke. Well, I was at Daisuke's side plus how can you not love a cute blur guy right? Whilst the screaming continued the Kameleo members each took a goodie bag from on stage and started giving presents out to us. More like throwing them to us but whatever, same logic! I caught none. It was loads of tidbits, by the way! I guess it had some kind of meaning behind it since they just sang NEET Hime after all, HAHAHA (If you don't get me, watch Kameleo's NEET Hime PV on Youtube!)

 For the third song, Tatakae, Onore to , Hikaru first taught us the dance to the song, it went like...

「1、2、パンチ!1、2、アッパー!1、2、パンチ!1、2、エルボー!」


"1, 2, Punch! 1, 2, Upper(cut)! 1, 2, Punch! 1, 2, Elbow!"

After he was sure everyone had learned it, they started the song. I still couldn't remember but whatever, I danced along anyway! It was so fun following them! Not to mention everyone was doing it together! 

Before they began the fourth song, Hikaru did a really short MC about it being Takeshi's birthday! Well, one day before the live, but it didn't matter ☆ He got us to all say "Happy Birthday" to Takeshi~

So Hikaru then announced that since it was Takeshi's birthday the day before, they would sing a special song. Takeshi started on the drums and...the next moment he jumped out from his seat with a microphone! Guess what, it's a song where all the Kameleo members sing! Hikaru commented "Isn't this special!?" HAHA!

Cue inflatable watermelon balloons and a pink dolphin balloon too from backstage. The members threw it out at us, by which we threw back as well at them of course. Oh, and halfway through the song...Koichi came out to play as well. ☆

Hikaru then handed Koichi the pink dolphin balloon, saying that it was in Koichi's favourite colour, pink! ...Which after that Koichi placed it on the stage floor and started riding on the dolphin. I'm just.

After the live I really went to listen to Kameleo--! And now I regret not buying any of their merchandise. Well even if I wanted to after the live the queue was crazy long!?


v[NEU]

[L > R] Kayuu (gu.), Hixro (gu.), Mitsu (vo.), Rei (dr.), Takumi (ba.)

FYI: Kayuu is gorgeous

I don't remember much of v[NEU]'s performance on a whole but...Mitsu is crazy.

I mean CRAZY!

Like Kameleo's performance, we did quite a lot of dancing, they sang milder the songs as well but...

during their second last and last song, Mitsu technically got up to the very front of the stage, and bent over so that the fans could touch his hair. I was somewhere in the front so I kind of got pushed with the crowd, and I managed to get a drop of Mitsu's fabulous sweat with the side effect of my wig getting displaced on my head in the process. HAHAHA I fixed it back on immediately--

I also realized that this post is getting rather long so I'm going to try keep this more compact omg 


ROYZ

[L > R] Kuina (gu.), Koudai (ba.), Tomoya (dr.), Kazuki (gu.), Subaru (vo.)

Royz.

was.

EPIC.

Yes, I don't know their setlist but whatever! I really enjoyed their performance! It wasn't as intense as Mejibray of course, but I really really loved Subaru's voice.

Kuina looked like a darling angel as well, he was grinning so widely throughout the whole live!

There was a lot of BaruMoru, MoruKuina, KuinaKoudai moments onstage! ...Poor Tomoya left out behind at the drums...

I also got a peek of Kazuki's nipple when he was on the platform box thing doing his guitar solo. HAHA I feel like I just violated Kazuki. I'm sorry Shera 8'D

What left the biggest impression on me was the finale song of Royz' performance ☆ Which they obviously called everyone out!

Out came Kameleo in yukatas (the shorts kind, are they still called yukatas?) and their inflatable balloons, DuelJewel, MoNoLith, BFN, v[NEU] and Mejibray... Meto was wearing a fluffy lolita skirt and fishnet tights, and MiA styled his hair into cat ears plus drew whiskers...(〃・・〃)

It was crazy fun, I swear! While Subaru was singing, all the other vocalists were trying to sing along with him...but they didn't know the lyrics because it was a Royz song. It was incredibly funny looking at Mitsu hold up a paper of the lyrics of the song while singing into the microphone while Ice took sneak peeks from beside him and tried singing along as well. HAHAHAHA

Remember the pink dolphin balloon from earlier? Well, Subaru took the dolphin while standing on the platform box thing...and started humping it. I was just...yeah. You can imagine my expression.

ohgawdSubaruwhy

And then he threw it back at us! So I touched a dolphin balloon that got ridden by Koichi and humped by Subaru!?

I can't remember who it was, but if I'm not wrong a member of v[NEU] went over to Meto and lifted up his skirt, by which Meto reacted to by doing a sexy pose with his hand trailing up his fishnet tights. Hahaha no. Meto stop.

While Royz were to finish the finale song, everyone went off stage. Koichi didn't notice it at first, so he was still wondering about onstage until he realized everyone was gone. That cutie.

After the finale song, Subaru invited everyone back up on stage again to do their final thank you's and jump!

It was really cute because Subaru told us to hold hands with each other, and then raise our arms into the air.

And within a moment of thought he changed his mind and told us to put our hands down. The Jrockers too, of course! And then raise them up when we jump!

...And then he changed his mind again and said it's better up in the air to begin with after all. Oh my goodness MAKE UP YOUR MIND SUBARU! XD

Jump!
oh look the pink dolphin


Honestly speaking, I don't think there will ever be another all-standing live that I can take so many amazing experiences from again. All 8 bands which performed were super stunning in their own ways, whether I did really appreciate them or not! HAHA

The togetherness of the fans was so touching as well. Unlike in Singapore, the fans really give way to you when they know that your favourite band is the one performing next on stage, as long as you politely ask them to make way for you to move in front! Regardless of whether you know each other or not too, the fans will help you to find out who's going up on stage next by taking peeps from under the curtain *lol*~ And hold each other's hands at lives whilst dancing to certain songs! That sense of unity, I don't think it's very possible to get in any all-standing lives in Singapore, haha!

This post is getting rather long. As I thought, I won't be able to fit my live report on Alice Nine's Anniversary Live into this post... I'm sorry guys! I hope you enjoyed reading my live report on SPEED DISK's Tour Final though. It was a very amazing experience for me, and I really wanted to share it with all of you!

And now, it's 4.30AM. I'm so tired. I've been typing since 11.45PM!

I think it's about time I head to sleep.

Goodnight, readers!

Stay tuned for more parts the next few days!



♥~Yumi.












I BET YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT ABOUT THIS

THANK YOU FOR OVER 2000 PAGEVIEWS!

Although this might not mean much to other people, all your pageviews mean a lot to me. I'm no professional blogger, but I take pride and joy into crafting every post on this blog for the sake of my readers. I use this blog to remind myself of all the fun things I do in my life and how I can share my joy with all of you as well. So thank you for always supporting me, it really makes my day much better than it already was.

As a token of appreciation from me, I present to you...

FIRST MINI GIVEAWAY
MEJIBRAY PHOTOCARD


Are you a fan of Mejibray like I am? Or maybe after reading my blog post, you've gotten interested in them? (Please check them out they're really awesome) 

As a way of saying thank you to my readers, I will be holding a Mini Giveaway featuring ONE of the four photocards above! These photocards are one of a set that I bought during the SPEED DISK's live at Mejibray's merchandise booth!

The winner of the giveaway will get her favourite band member's photocard, of course.

This is a mini giveaway...so I'm sorry if you were expecting to get all 4 cards! (>__<)

HOW TO JOIN: 
1. Simply tag me @Inamura_Yumi and share my blog URL on Twitter with the following format
"Have you joined @Inamura_Yumi's mini Mejibray giveaway? Check it out @ inamura-yum1.blogspot.sg ! My bias is ____"
2. Make sure your account is not put to private or else I won't be able to see it!
3. The winner will be selected at random on 
http://www.random.org/ !

RULES: 
1. Anyone from every country is allowed to join my giveaway.
2. Make sure you have the permission to DM your mailing address to me should you win the giveaway, or else I will not be able to mail the photocard to you!
3. Please do not tag me on Facebook for the giveaway. Twitter only, thank you!
4. This giveaway will end on 20th September 2013

I wish you all the best of luck, and have a good night!

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