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Gakuensai Kobe 11/06 & 11/07
I was lucky enough to get tickets (along with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lefcadio ) to both of the Camui Gakuen Kobe shows on Saturday and Sunday.
This is mainly a report of Sunday night as being FRONT FREAKING ROW means I have a lot more to say about that one. If there are differences between the two nights though, I’ll make sure to mention them!
This is long so you may want to get a drink and make sure you're seated comfortably!
The venue was an exhibition hall in a convention complex. Gakuensai was at Hall 3, directly opposite Hall 2. On the Saturday, the third annual Kobe Pre-natal and Neo-natal care convention was being held so there were a lot of professional people all dressed smartly in their black suits that were very, very bemused by the sight of several thousand people dressed in random school uniforms. Quite a few of them were coming over and reading the signs and trying to figure out what the hell was going on!
When you leave the Portliner station and walk down the stairs to the hall, the first thing you could see is all of the cardboard cut outs in a row at the side of the venue. There were four of GACKT solo, one with You and Junji, one with Chirolyn and Chacha and one with Gackt, Taya and Furumoto (another Nemuri actor). You could take photos with them (while listening to the band rehearsing) and generally play molest the cut outs in anyway you wanted. One of the GACKT cut outs has him standing with his hands stretched out at his sides, in line with his crotch and there were so many girls posing in front of it on their knees….
I was good though. I just pretended to kiss a couple ^_^
The system to enter the shows is unbelievably complicated to the point that even the staff members have no clue what is happening. I hope the guys in Chiba are more organised! As you enter the ID checks they stamp your hand with a GACKT chibi stamp and after going through the checks and getting your student ID card, they also stamp your ticket with a chibi stamp. Those stamps are so cute! The student ID is pretty impressive too.
So, ID check done and then into the goods area!
To buy the food you need to buy Camui Gold and it comes in denominations of 600, 500, 300 and 200. There was no Stargacks this year because the Tamaly Bar was selling the full Wonda Coffee line and obviously, Wonda didn’t want to compete with coffee infused with GACKT’s erotic essence (they should look into that for their next line of coffee…). The You Curry was nice, the soup, I’m informed, was nice but spicy, the Okinawan doughnuts were hard and kinda stale and the mango pudding looks suspicious but is pretty nice!
There is also the tour goods. We dropped lucky both days and bought goods when there were no queues. They also sold the YFC Bikini DVD there and if you ordered you got a special gift of a YFC crew pass that listed all of the tour dates.
LOOK - THE YOU CURRY BOXES HAVE A CHIBI YOU ON THEM!!!
At 14:00 the doors opened. As the venue was an exhibition hall, it was this big empty, bare room with temporary seating and plastic barriers that were so easily moved. It wasn’t the prettiest of places! On the Saturday night we were sat in row 54... and there were only 58 rows total. Neitherlefcadio or I really cared about our crappy seats though as we knew we had front row for the Sunday.
There was an aisle running down the centre of the arena and this is how GACKT enters – by walking through the crowd. As if our front row seats weren’t good enough already, guess who was sitting on the front row seat next to this centre aisle? Me. LITERALLY THE BEST SEAT IN THE WHOLE ARENA. Seriously, you couldn’t get closer to GACKT when he’s on stage than where I was sitting. It was insane and yeah, we were given so many dirty looks by the other fans when we took our seats!
While waiting for the show to start, we were treated to a random playlist of GACKT songs, unlike other tours where you’re usually tortured by listening to the same piece of classical music on repeat for an hour plus. Both nights the show started at around 15:10 – only ten minutes late. That’s pretty good for GACKT!
The start of the show is heralded by the ringing of a school bell and a lady walked in front of the stage to a microphone to make the announcements. It really is ran like a genuine Japanese High School assembly (I work in High Schools, it was freaky at times) and she called for everyone to stand to attention and bow, just as they do in the schools. The Camui Gakuen school song was played and then the speeches started
Speeches
The first speech was to introduce all of those odd and archaic words that GACKT wants us to use during the show. On the Sunday, the speaker forgot his lines and for wakatta (understand) he said we should use arigataki (thank you). See? Even Japanese people struggle with this craziness! The main word that was overused was kashikomari
After that the principal came out for his speech and he fluffled his lines too. His hair is pretty crazy as he has this comb over that turns into a full length braid with a bow at the end. He swings it around a lot and on Sunday, his bow fell off.
GACKT's Entrance
Then, it’s time for GACKT, Seicho Kaicho to make his grand entrance to the sounds of君が追いかけた夢.
Two staff members ran ahead of him and rolled out a red carpet and the security guard positioned in front of us removed the barricade to my immediate left so that GACKT could reach the stage. It’s absolute MADNESS as he walks through the crowd. There were staff members either side of him running along with rope to stop anyone from the crowd trying to grab him, there were other staff members frantically waving and yelling at the crowd to remain seated, there were bodyguards either side of him (one of which is his American staff member Chris… remember him for later XD) and then in the middle of all the madness was GACKT, simply strolling along at a really slow pace with this smug expression on his face.
Our seats were on the right hand side of the aisle (Chacha’s side) and as he walked past he was literally less than a foot away from me. The smell of Platinum Egoist that followed him was insane. We could still smell it five minutes later. He walked past us and through the open barricade and then turned so that he could walk up the stairs on the right hand side of the stage so we kinda had him walk past us twice. I don’t think I need to say how flawless he looks up close do I? Sure, his foundation is probably an inch thick but still, FLAWLESS.
GACKT then started his speech which I’m pretty sure he had written down on the podium. His eyes kept dropping to this random part of the desk at different times!lefcadio and I discussed this on Saturday and we couldn’t quite figure out why he was doing this so I’m going to throw it out to everyone… He never said “fukinasai” plainly like that. It was always “fuk… i…i…i…inasai” Play on words? It really, really made it sound like he was saying “fucking” when he pronounced it like that as he’d say it in a really deep, breathy way.
After a brief speech, a staff member came on stage with a box and GACKT chose the lucky fans who got to come on stage and receive an arm band and a hand shake from him. This year it wasn’t done by row and seat numbers but by the student ID numbers in the cards. On the Saturday night, the first fan called, a man, also received one of the Camui Gakuen brown blazers and the entire arena combusted when GACKT not only gave him the jacket, but also dressed him in it.
Introducing F9
Then it was time to introduce the band and dancers, collectively known as F9. They all came on stage looking deathly serious (other than You, who was trying his hardest not to smile and occasionally failing) and GACKT introduced them all individually. All of them (minus GACKT) took off their ties and threw them to the crowd andlefcadio caught Junji’s tie! We cut it in half so we now have half each and it smells lovely.
Junji, You and the four dancers (Kazuya, Takashi, Wang and Kirt) stayed on stage for a little burst of Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped but then the stage was cleared.
NEMURI
The backdrop changed to a forest scene and three dummies dressed in kimonos were placed on the stage. Furumoto from Nemuri runs on, in Nemuri costume, and we were treated to a Nemuri skit. Both nights he spoke to a member of the audience and asked them where they were from and their name and on the Sunday night, he askedlefcadio ! He said he couldn’t see her properly so he didn’t realise she wasn’t Japanese. He spoke a couple of lines of English but I can’t remember for the life of me what he said… It was basic stuff. On the Saturday night he had the crowd do the deep breathing exercises that the audience is also asked to do during the Nemuri play but that was dropped on Sunday.
Taya runs on too and they had a conversation before stopping suddenly because they can smell Nemuri Kyoshiro approaching – it appears they’ve also been knocked out before by the strength of GACKT’s Egoist! However, it isn’t GACKT that comes on stage but Junji, dressed in a kimono with two rather short katanas and Wang and Kirt backing him up. Junji’s GACKT impression is AMAZING. He has the same expressions, he impersonates the voice reasonably well and is just generally hilarious. He introduces himself as “Junjiro”.
You then came on stage dressed as a merchant with Kazuya and Takashi as back up. Unlike Junji, You really struggles to stop laughing but he plays his part well and the two get into a little war of words which ends when Junjiro just lunges at You. And I mean he lunged at him. You looked a little taken aback by exactly how much force and passion Junji threw into it. Wang and Kirt pull Junjiro back and Junjiro and You decide that there is only way to solve their dispute – DANCE OFF.
Dance Battle
A really funky remix of Fragrance that needs to be released on something at sometime played and each dancer came on individually and had a solo dance. On the Saturday night You was the purple team (Chacha was wearing the purple outfit in his latest blog and GACKT is wearing it in the latest Brother Back update on Underland) and Junji the white team (the same tracksuits as last year) and on Sunday they swapped.
The dance off was amazing. I can’t describe it all but it really needs to be put on a DVD sometime. Each team would take it in turns to dance, firstly to a random piece of music that would then flow into a GACKT song. The GACKT songs would only last for 30-40 seconds and the first half would be spent doing the actual routine and the second half a different dance. They used songs such as Dispar and Storm and then did a big group dance with all six of them. It was fun to see this from the front row because we could see how much Junji and You were concentrating. Junji was counting all of the way through the group dance so that he could keep in time with it all!
You and Junji did their best and it was brilliantly choreographed. Some of the more difficult parts of the group dance were just done by the professional dancers but Junji and You stayed involved, during one part the dancers all arrange themselves into a circle and by placing their legs on each other, they support their weights on just one hand each (it has to be seen to be believed!). You and Junji climb inside the circle and then jump up hugging each other, pressed together from their faces right down to their anklesdoes GACKT know you’re doing that You?
The last part of the dance off is more dances to GACKT songs that are led by You and Junji. They work through Lu:na, Koakuma Heaven and Vanilla and at this point I wasn’t sure if it was still a dance battle, or a ‘let’s mock GACKT and his questionable dancing ability’. The chorus line of EVER began and You, just You, started to do the hand wave motion that GACKT does but he completely over exaggerated it and had the scariest grin on his face (you know that crazed grin GACKT has at the start of the video? It was like that). You acted as if he’d been possessed by the song and had to do the action so two of the dancers tried to stop him… but as soon as they touched him, they started to do it too! The other two dancers then tried to help… only to join in with the hand waving. Only Junji was left and he touched them… but it didn’t work. He tried again… still no hand waving. He tried a third time, started waving and the song ended.
Both nights the contest was judged by a member of the crowd. Junji’s way of drumming up votes (no pun intended) was to charm the audience by talking to them. You’s approach was to run around the stage with his arms outstretched shouting “hikouki” (aeroplane) into the microphone. On the Saturday night it was a female fan chosen so of course, she chose You and got a big hug from him. On the Sunday night You ran into the audience through the centre aisle (so again, he ran right past me) and grabbed a guy who was at least 3-4 inches taller than even You is. There were lots of jokes about his height and I really hoped he’d choose Junji because as much as I love You, he really can’t dance! But no, it appears that You can charm even men because yet again You won.
Junji was able to celebrate losing again by performing GHOST for us. He’s not quite as smooth (or as hypnotic) as GACKT but he does GHOST so well! It’s pretty much the same as the GACKT version but when it came to the “I say we got no guaranty (sic)” line, Junji and all of the dancers had their index fingers in the air and the stupidest smiles on their faces. They reminded me of used car salesmen.
After GHOST, it was interval time.
It’s a pretty lengthy interval as they have to set up all of the instruments, including the drum kit and the platform it’s placed on, so everybody goes outside to the cafeteria and goods tent. Both days, Chirolyn, Chacha and the dancers were serving food so on Sunday, we planned ahead and bought some extra food tickets. While waiting in line we metyou_aishiteru who told us that if you’re quick and willing to buy two packs of You curry from the tour goods stand (total cost 1,400yen) then you can meet and greet You but it’s a very limited offer.
Chirolyn was serving the soup, the dancers were serving the curry and Chacha was serving mango pudding so we all bought mango pudding. Chacha is so, so pretty! His hair was straight with a few braids on the side and he was wearing an adorable red apron. You’re able to shake his hand and say a quick couple of words before grabbing your pudding and leaving. It was worth 600yen to get both pudding AND a handshake from Chacha XD
After shaking hands with Chacha, eating the pudding and taking photos with Junji’s tie, we went back inside. We were sat in the front row being quiet and waiting patiently when Chris, GACKT’s bodyguard came over to us. Chris interviewed me andlefcadio during the first YFC show we went to in Sendai as he was interviewing any foreigners he could find and after that, we spoke to him at every other show we went to. After escorting GACKT to the stage he’d remained at the far left of the stage, quite a distance from us so I never expected him to come all the way over to us to say hello.
Is it a bad sign or a good sign when senior members of GACKT’s staff can recognise you from several feet away and actually approach you?! Anyway, he came over and shook our hands and the Japanese fans sat next to Jessica immediately pounced on him for handshakes too XD He spoke to us briefly about the show and asked us if we going to see Nemuri. As you can imagine, the dirty looks we’d been getting due to having the best seats in the house only intensified after we had GACKT’s bodyguard (and I’m 99.9% certain he’s the guy in the EVER PV too) come to greet us. They probably thought our tickets were gifts or something…
Finally the second half of the show, the live, started.
Believe & Desire – LUNA SEA
Heh, GACKT doesn’t know the words to either of these songs. The lyrics to the songs were stuck on the vocalists monitors (a staff member had to run out every 2-3 songs to change them) and GACKT had to keep checking the lyrics, especially whenever a verse or chorus line started. Because of that he didn’t move around too much during these songs but became a little braver as Desire continued. He didn’t sing the “shadows of my love” line in Desire and instead allowed the crowd to. The songs are played pretty much the same as the LUNA SEA versions.
KISS ME - 氷室京介 (Kyosuke Himuro)
Before this song, GACKT spoke a little about BUCK-TICK (last year they performed the BUCK-TICK song One Last Kiss) and then introduced KISS ME. At certain points of the song he wanted the crowd to shout “KAICHO” and he demonstrated the parts before the song started by humming the tune. It was cute! It’s a fun song.
The Next Decade – GACKT
Jeez…. Word of advice GACKT – if it takes you over five minutes to explain the actions you want the crowd to do and they still look so lost that you have to tell them just to “copy everyone else” then either it’s too complicated or your explanation sucks. In this case it was the latter. Firstly, he wanted everyone to do the YFC hand gesture, the devil horns with the thumb sticking out (I think he did confirm that this means ‘I love you’ on Sunday) and then move their hands in time with the music but in an aggressive way, as if you’re shooting the person in front of you. He had You and Chirolyn demonstrate while he made what sounded like half drum, half gunshot noises.
The second action was to jump and yell at specific times. On Saturday he tried to explain this by counting to eight in English, with the jumps supposed to happen on the counts of four and eight but nobody understood because his explanation sucked so he reverted to Japanese. On Sunday the audience understood in English, probably because they’d all been there yesterday. The third action was to full body headbang, the way Job always do and again, we had demonstrations by You and Chacha and later Chirolyn.
The last action was to raise your arms during the chorus line on the longer notes. “You’re the neeeeeeeeeeext (raise), next decaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade (raise)”. GACKT demonstrated this by singing the chorus line in the most bored and monotone voice you’ve ever heard. It was funny.
It sounds confusing but is remarkably simple when the song is playing and GACKT’s doing it all anyway.
ジュリアに傷心 (Julia ni Shoushin) – The Checkers
I think this might have been my favourite performance of the night. It was just so much FUN! The dancers are back, plus Taya, and two extra microphones are set up next to You and Chacha. There are some really deep, baritone backing vocals during the song and the dancers would mime these at those stands. It was choreographed like an old motown number and was a great, easy to follow routine. It was also insane as at different points of the song, two of the dancers would hold up signs that had things written on them. For example, when GACKT sings “heartbreak” a heart was held up that the dancer would then pull apart and ‘break’ and for “Saturday” a sign saying 土曜日 (Saturday) was held up.
READY STEADY GO – L’Arc~en~ciel
The band all removed their blazers and glasses for this song and tied their ties around their wrists. GACKT told us before the song started to remove our neckties and ribbons because it was time to twirl them in the air while jumping around like mad people. GACKT decided to tease those of us down the front during this song by coming off stage onto the stairs on the right side, as if he was going to come fully off stage, but instead just turned his back to us and gave us an awesome view of his ass in those school trousers XD There were a few occasions where You didn’t need to play during the song (Larku are a one guitar band after all) so he was swinging his tie around too.
粉雪 (Konayuki) - レミオロメン (Remioromen)
Before this song started there was a slight costume change as Job all now wore black wool coats over their uniform and GACKT was dressed in a hideous but no doubt very expensive and very real fur coat. He said he was cold! I admit that I only ‘like’ the original version of the song. I think it’s a good song but don’t really have any strong feelings towards it yet GACKT’s version is amazing. He was on top form vocally throughout the whole show and it was never more evident than during this. He sings one of the chorus lines in falsetto (actually, it may be a two octave falsetto as the last line of it is waaaaaaay higher than the rest) and unlike the falsettos at the YFC shows, he did actually do it live. Trust me on that, I was close enough to be able to see his throat and Adam’s apple moving and he really isn’t that good at miming!
雪の花 (Yuki no hana) - 中島美嘉 (Mika Nakashima)
I’m not a huge fan of the original. It’s a beautiful song but does nothing for me but again, I LOVE GACKT’s version. It starts with a recorded piano backing, like the original, but Job join in and it turns into this epic rock ballad that is just so good. And again, GACKT sounded fantastic.
He really needs to record both Konayuki and Yuki no hana.
There’s a short break and a skit is played over the PA system to entertain the crowd while we wait. While it’s still dark, Chirolyn, You and GACKT all wander on stage and take their positions for the next batch of songs.
The Blue Hearts section.
The band is Chirolyn on bass, You on guitar, GACKT on drums and Junji on vocals. They all still have the school trousers on but have changed their shirts to white, Punk style T shirts with safety pins. The T shirts are all Sex Pistols related as Junji’s has the Sex Pistols logo over a British Flag, You’s shirt has Queen Elizabeth and GACKT’s is Sid Vicious. I forget what Chirolyn’s is (goburei!). You, Chirolyn and GACKT all also have white bandanas around their foreheads, not the type that covers their hair, but the type that just wraps around. It looks good on Chirolyn and You but absolutely awful on GACKT because his hair is so long and so curled now that random locks of hair are just sticking out in all directions.
Junji comes on after the lights are raised singing very sweetly. Junji is amazing throughout this section. He changes the words for comic effect, has so much charisma and is a pretty decent little singer too. Although GACKT kinda sits back and keeps his head down on the drums (seriously, I’ve never known him fade into the background as much as he does during this part) it’s worth looking at him occasionally because whenever Junji is talking or mixing the words up during the openings of the songs, GACKT is in fits of laughter.
終わらない歌 (Owaranai Uta) – The Blue Hearts
The unending song… and yeah… it does go on and on and on… It seemed a lot longer on Saturday than on Sunday though. Towards the end of the song the band stop playing and Junji leads the crowd into singing the chorus line with GACKT on backing vocals. On the Saturday night You got a little mixed up and starting playing the intro to the next song before they’d finished playing this one!
少年の詩 ((Shounen no Uta) – The Blue Hearts
Lots of pumping your fist in the air to this one. I think Junji was mixing the lyrics up again…
リンダリンダ (Linda Linda) – The Blue Hearts
Junji was definitely mixing the lyrics up to this! The original version of the song begins with an acoustic guitar but the Junji version had You playing the chord and then pausing so that his electric guitar didn’t overpower the slower, quieter opening. It also meant that Junji could mess around as much as he wanted to because You was waiting for his cue and wouldn’t play the next chord until Junji sang the correct words. This song is so much fun! It’s so simple and catchy and the audience (and Junji) were going nuts for the chorus lines.
GACKT threw his drumsticks to the crowd and then there was another little break.
X JAPAN section
The band is Junji on bass, Chirolyn on rhythm guitar, You on lead guitar, Chacha on vocals and GACKT on drums. Of course, they all cosplay as X JAPAN as they were in the late 80s and You and Chacha’s wigs are amazing. GACKT’s trousers are pretty amazing too as they’re black PVC (vinyl – like the GHOST outfit) but have one leg missing. On that leg he has black lace tights that are pretty see through and also has a purple coat (which of course he takes off as soon as he gets to the drum kit).
Rusty Nail – X JAPAN
There was something not quite right about this on Saturday but I can’t place my finger on what it was… It sounded much better on Sunday though. Chacha is a great singer and his voice really suits the songs. Chirolyn always looks like he’s solving a really difficult maths problem when he’s playing guitar so I don’t think he’s entirely comfortable with the instrument change. GACKT is a hot mess on the drums and beats the shit out of the drum kit and the extra cymbals to the point that a drum tech is needed on stage to tighten some bolts before the first chorus line is finished!
X – X JAPAN
Or should that be SEX by S.E.X. JAPAN? There’s lots of jumping into the air with your arms making an X and shouting ‘SEX’. It’s a far better performance than Rusty Nail and it’s easy to see they’re more comfortable with this one after doing it last year.
GACKT put his coat back on and threw his roses to the crowd before the encore.
SHAKE – SMAP
FUN. FUN, FUN, FUN! All of F9 are back plus Taya and Furumoto. GACKT and Job are in the same outfits as last year, black for Job and those white baggy trousers for GACKT that he wore in Platinum Box VIII. The vocals are split between all of Job and are mainly handled as duets or trios singing. GACKT gets a few lines on his own, which he sings live, but everything else is mimed and really, who cares? It’s just so much fun! GACKT and You have a little duet in which they link arms to the delight of the crowd and GACKT just has this huge smile on his face throughout the whole song. He loves performing this so much, you can see it written all over his face. The dance is pretty simple but made a bit more GACKTish due to GACKT’s hip thrusts and need to grab his crotch and it’s the perfect way to finish the show.
I can’t even begin to explain how much I enjoyed the Sunday night show. To be front row for a show that is just so much fun and madness was an amazing experience. I really hope that GACKT is able to work some copyright magic and releases a DVD of this tour because everyone should see it. Or at least, the dance battle should surface somewhere. I’ve come out of these two shows absolutely in love with Junji (and not just because we caught his tie!). He was so much fun throughout.
I’ll be going to the shows in Chiba next Saturday and Sunday and although the tickets aren’t as good, although that would be pretty impossible, it’s still going to be amazing.
And after DEARS gave me those tickets, I don’t think I’m ever going to complain about them ever again. Or at least not for a couple of weeks XD
Note - I seem to have been drilled with a stupid number of PMs while I was away at the weekend. I haven't had time to really tackle them yet so if you haven't heard back it's just because I've been busy.
lefcadio ) to both of the Camui Gakuen Kobe shows on Saturday and Sunday.This is mainly a report of Sunday night as being FRONT FREAKING ROW means I have a lot more to say about that one. If there are differences between the two nights though, I’ll make sure to mention them!
This is long so you may want to get a drink and make sure you're seated comfortably!
The venue was an exhibition hall in a convention complex. Gakuensai was at Hall 3, directly opposite Hall 2. On the Saturday, the third annual Kobe Pre-natal and Neo-natal care convention was being held so there were a lot of professional people all dressed smartly in their black suits that were very, very bemused by the sight of several thousand people dressed in random school uniforms. Quite a few of them were coming over and reading the signs and trying to figure out what the hell was going on!
When you leave the Portliner station and walk down the stairs to the hall, the first thing you could see is all of the cardboard cut outs in a row at the side of the venue. There were four of GACKT solo, one with You and Junji, one with Chirolyn and Chacha and one with Gackt, Taya and Furumoto (another Nemuri actor). You could take photos with them (while listening to the band rehearsing) and generally play molest the cut outs in anyway you wanted. One of the GACKT cut outs has him standing with his hands stretched out at his sides, in line with his crotch and there were so many girls posing in front of it on their knees….
I was good though. I just pretended to kiss a couple ^_^
The system to enter the shows is unbelievably complicated to the point that even the staff members have no clue what is happening. I hope the guys in Chiba are more organised! As you enter the ID checks they stamp your hand with a GACKT chibi stamp and after going through the checks and getting your student ID card, they also stamp your ticket with a chibi stamp. Those stamps are so cute! The student ID is pretty impressive too.
So, ID check done and then into the goods area!
To buy the food you need to buy Camui Gold and it comes in denominations of 600, 500, 300 and 200. There was no Stargacks this year because the Tamaly Bar was selling the full Wonda Coffee line and obviously, Wonda didn’t want to compete with coffee infused with GACKT’s erotic essence (they should look into that for their next line of coffee…). The You Curry was nice, the soup, I’m informed, was nice but spicy, the Okinawan doughnuts were hard and kinda stale and the mango pudding looks suspicious but is pretty nice!
There is also the tour goods. We dropped lucky both days and bought goods when there were no queues. They also sold the YFC Bikini DVD there and if you ordered you got a special gift of a YFC crew pass that listed all of the tour dates.
LOOK - THE YOU CURRY BOXES HAVE A CHIBI YOU ON THEM!!!
At 14:00 the doors opened. As the venue was an exhibition hall, it was this big empty, bare room with temporary seating and plastic barriers that were so easily moved. It wasn’t the prettiest of places! On the Saturday night we were sat in row 54... and there were only 58 rows total. Neither
lefcadio or I really cared about our crappy seats though as we knew we had front row for the Sunday.There was an aisle running down the centre of the arena and this is how GACKT enters – by walking through the crowd. As if our front row seats weren’t good enough already, guess who was sitting on the front row seat next to this centre aisle? Me. LITERALLY THE BEST SEAT IN THE WHOLE ARENA. Seriously, you couldn’t get closer to GACKT when he’s on stage than where I was sitting. It was insane and yeah, we were given so many dirty looks by the other fans when we took our seats!
While waiting for the show to start, we were treated to a random playlist of GACKT songs, unlike other tours where you’re usually tortured by listening to the same piece of classical music on repeat for an hour plus. Both nights the show started at around 15:10 – only ten minutes late. That’s pretty good for GACKT!
The start of the show is heralded by the ringing of a school bell and a lady walked in front of the stage to a microphone to make the announcements. It really is ran like a genuine Japanese High School assembly (I work in High Schools, it was freaky at times) and she called for everyone to stand to attention and bow, just as they do in the schools. The Camui Gakuen school song was played and then the speeches started
Speeches
The first speech was to introduce all of those odd and archaic words that GACKT wants us to use during the show. On the Sunday, the speaker forgot his lines and for wakatta (understand) he said we should use arigataki (thank you). See? Even Japanese people struggle with this craziness! The main word that was overused was kashikomari
After that the principal came out for his speech and he fluffled his lines too. His hair is pretty crazy as he has this comb over that turns into a full length braid with a bow at the end. He swings it around a lot and on Sunday, his bow fell off.
GACKT's Entrance
Then, it’s time for GACKT, Seicho Kaicho to make his grand entrance to the sounds of君が追いかけた夢.
Two staff members ran ahead of him and rolled out a red carpet and the security guard positioned in front of us removed the barricade to my immediate left so that GACKT could reach the stage. It’s absolute MADNESS as he walks through the crowd. There were staff members either side of him running along with rope to stop anyone from the crowd trying to grab him, there were other staff members frantically waving and yelling at the crowd to remain seated, there were bodyguards either side of him (one of which is his American staff member Chris… remember him for later XD) and then in the middle of all the madness was GACKT, simply strolling along at a really slow pace with this smug expression on his face.
Our seats were on the right hand side of the aisle (Chacha’s side) and as he walked past he was literally less than a foot away from me. The smell of Platinum Egoist that followed him was insane. We could still smell it five minutes later. He walked past us and through the open barricade and then turned so that he could walk up the stairs on the right hand side of the stage so we kinda had him walk past us twice. I don’t think I need to say how flawless he looks up close do I? Sure, his foundation is probably an inch thick but still, FLAWLESS.
GACKT then started his speech which I’m pretty sure he had written down on the podium. His eyes kept dropping to this random part of the desk at different times!
lefcadio and I discussed this on Saturday and we couldn’t quite figure out why he was doing this so I’m going to throw it out to everyone… He never said “fukinasai” plainly like that. It was always “fuk… i…i…i…inasai” Play on words? It really, really made it sound like he was saying “fucking” when he pronounced it like that as he’d say it in a really deep, breathy way.After a brief speech, a staff member came on stage with a box and GACKT chose the lucky fans who got to come on stage and receive an arm band and a hand shake from him. This year it wasn’t done by row and seat numbers but by the student ID numbers in the cards. On the Saturday night, the first fan called, a man, also received one of the Camui Gakuen brown blazers and the entire arena combusted when GACKT not only gave him the jacket, but also dressed him in it.
Introducing F9
Then it was time to introduce the band and dancers, collectively known as F9. They all came on stage looking deathly serious (other than You, who was trying his hardest not to smile and occasionally failing) and GACKT introduced them all individually. All of them (minus GACKT) took off their ties and threw them to the crowd and
lefcadio caught Junji’s tie! We cut it in half so we now have half each and it smells lovely.Junji, You and the four dancers (Kazuya, Takashi, Wang and Kirt) stayed on stage for a little burst of Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped but then the stage was cleared.
NEMURI
The backdrop changed to a forest scene and three dummies dressed in kimonos were placed on the stage. Furumoto from Nemuri runs on, in Nemuri costume, and we were treated to a Nemuri skit. Both nights he spoke to a member of the audience and asked them where they were from and their name and on the Sunday night, he asked
lefcadio ! He said he couldn’t see her properly so he didn’t realise she wasn’t Japanese. He spoke a couple of lines of English but I can’t remember for the life of me what he said… It was basic stuff. On the Saturday night he had the crowd do the deep breathing exercises that the audience is also asked to do during the Nemuri play but that was dropped on Sunday.Taya runs on too and they had a conversation before stopping suddenly because they can smell Nemuri Kyoshiro approaching – it appears they’ve also been knocked out before by the strength of GACKT’s Egoist! However, it isn’t GACKT that comes on stage but Junji, dressed in a kimono with two rather short katanas and Wang and Kirt backing him up. Junji’s GACKT impression is AMAZING. He has the same expressions, he impersonates the voice reasonably well and is just generally hilarious. He introduces himself as “Junjiro”.
You then came on stage dressed as a merchant with Kazuya and Takashi as back up. Unlike Junji, You really struggles to stop laughing but he plays his part well and the two get into a little war of words which ends when Junjiro just lunges at You. And I mean he lunged at him. You looked a little taken aback by exactly how much force and passion Junji threw into it. Wang and Kirt pull Junjiro back and Junjiro and You decide that there is only way to solve their dispute – DANCE OFF.
Dance Battle
A really funky remix of Fragrance that needs to be released on something at sometime played and each dancer came on individually and had a solo dance. On the Saturday night You was the purple team (Chacha was wearing the purple outfit in his latest blog and GACKT is wearing it in the latest Brother Back update on Underland) and Junji the white team (the same tracksuits as last year) and on Sunday they swapped.
The dance off was amazing. I can’t describe it all but it really needs to be put on a DVD sometime. Each team would take it in turns to dance, firstly to a random piece of music that would then flow into a GACKT song. The GACKT songs would only last for 30-40 seconds and the first half would be spent doing the actual routine and the second half a different dance. They used songs such as Dispar and Storm and then did a big group dance with all six of them. It was fun to see this from the front row because we could see how much Junji and You were concentrating. Junji was counting all of the way through the group dance so that he could keep in time with it all!
You and Junji did their best and it was brilliantly choreographed. Some of the more difficult parts of the group dance were just done by the professional dancers but Junji and You stayed involved, during one part the dancers all arrange themselves into a circle and by placing their legs on each other, they support their weights on just one hand each (it has to be seen to be believed!). You and Junji climb inside the circle and then jump up hugging each other, pressed together from their faces right down to their ankles
The last part of the dance off is more dances to GACKT songs that are led by You and Junji. They work through Lu:na, Koakuma Heaven and Vanilla and at this point I wasn’t sure if it was still a dance battle, or a ‘let’s mock GACKT and his questionable dancing ability’. The chorus line of EVER began and You, just You, started to do the hand wave motion that GACKT does but he completely over exaggerated it and had the scariest grin on his face (you know that crazed grin GACKT has at the start of the video? It was like that). You acted as if he’d been possessed by the song and had to do the action so two of the dancers tried to stop him… but as soon as they touched him, they started to do it too! The other two dancers then tried to help… only to join in with the hand waving. Only Junji was left and he touched them… but it didn’t work. He tried again… still no hand waving. He tried a third time, started waving and the song ended.
Both nights the contest was judged by a member of the crowd. Junji’s way of drumming up votes (no pun intended) was to charm the audience by talking to them. You’s approach was to run around the stage with his arms outstretched shouting “hikouki” (aeroplane) into the microphone. On the Saturday night it was a female fan chosen so of course, she chose You and got a big hug from him. On the Sunday night You ran into the audience through the centre aisle (so again, he ran right past me) and grabbed a guy who was at least 3-4 inches taller than even You is. There were lots of jokes about his height and I really hoped he’d choose Junji because as much as I love You, he really can’t dance! But no, it appears that You can charm even men because yet again You won.
Junji was able to celebrate losing again by performing GHOST for us. He’s not quite as smooth (or as hypnotic) as GACKT but he does GHOST so well! It’s pretty much the same as the GACKT version but when it came to the “I say we got no guaranty (sic)” line, Junji and all of the dancers had their index fingers in the air and the stupidest smiles on their faces. They reminded me of used car salesmen.
After GHOST, it was interval time.
It’s a pretty lengthy interval as they have to set up all of the instruments, including the drum kit and the platform it’s placed on, so everybody goes outside to the cafeteria and goods tent. Both days, Chirolyn, Chacha and the dancers were serving food so on Sunday, we planned ahead and bought some extra food tickets. While waiting in line we met
you_aishiteru who told us that if you’re quick and willing to buy two packs of You curry from the tour goods stand (total cost 1,400yen) then you can meet and greet You but it’s a very limited offer. Chirolyn was serving the soup, the dancers were serving the curry and Chacha was serving mango pudding so we all bought mango pudding. Chacha is so, so pretty! His hair was straight with a few braids on the side and he was wearing an adorable red apron. You’re able to shake his hand and say a quick couple of words before grabbing your pudding and leaving. It was worth 600yen to get both pudding AND a handshake from Chacha XD
After shaking hands with Chacha, eating the pudding and taking photos with Junji’s tie, we went back inside. We were sat in the front row being quiet and waiting patiently when Chris, GACKT’s bodyguard came over to us. Chris interviewed me and
lefcadio during the first YFC show we went to in Sendai as he was interviewing any foreigners he could find and after that, we spoke to him at every other show we went to. After escorting GACKT to the stage he’d remained at the far left of the stage, quite a distance from us so I never expected him to come all the way over to us to say hello.Is it a bad sign or a good sign when senior members of GACKT’s staff can recognise you from several feet away and actually approach you?! Anyway, he came over and shook our hands and the Japanese fans sat next to Jessica immediately pounced on him for handshakes too XD He spoke to us briefly about the show and asked us if we going to see Nemuri. As you can imagine, the dirty looks we’d been getting due to having the best seats in the house only intensified after we had GACKT’s bodyguard (and I’m 99.9% certain he’s the guy in the EVER PV too) come to greet us. They probably thought our tickets were gifts or something…
Finally the second half of the show, the live, started.
Believe & Desire – LUNA SEA
Heh, GACKT doesn’t know the words to either of these songs. The lyrics to the songs were stuck on the vocalists monitors (a staff member had to run out every 2-3 songs to change them) and GACKT had to keep checking the lyrics, especially whenever a verse or chorus line started. Because of that he didn’t move around too much during these songs but became a little braver as Desire continued. He didn’t sing the “shadows of my love” line in Desire and instead allowed the crowd to. The songs are played pretty much the same as the LUNA SEA versions.
KISS ME - 氷室京介 (Kyosuke Himuro)
Before this song, GACKT spoke a little about BUCK-TICK (last year they performed the BUCK-TICK song One Last Kiss) and then introduced KISS ME. At certain points of the song he wanted the crowd to shout “KAICHO” and he demonstrated the parts before the song started by humming the tune. It was cute! It’s a fun song.
The Next Decade – GACKT
Jeez…. Word of advice GACKT – if it takes you over five minutes to explain the actions you want the crowd to do and they still look so lost that you have to tell them just to “copy everyone else” then either it’s too complicated or your explanation sucks. In this case it was the latter. Firstly, he wanted everyone to do the YFC hand gesture, the devil horns with the thumb sticking out (I think he did confirm that this means ‘I love you’ on Sunday) and then move their hands in time with the music but in an aggressive way, as if you’re shooting the person in front of you. He had You and Chirolyn demonstrate while he made what sounded like half drum, half gunshot noises.
The second action was to jump and yell at specific times. On Saturday he tried to explain this by counting to eight in English, with the jumps supposed to happen on the counts of four and eight but nobody understood because his explanation sucked so he reverted to Japanese. On Sunday the audience understood in English, probably because they’d all been there yesterday. The third action was to full body headbang, the way Job always do and again, we had demonstrations by You and Chacha and later Chirolyn.
The last action was to raise your arms during the chorus line on the longer notes. “You’re the neeeeeeeeeeext (raise), next decaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade (raise)”. GACKT demonstrated this by singing the chorus line in the most bored and monotone voice you’ve ever heard. It was funny.
It sounds confusing but is remarkably simple when the song is playing and GACKT’s doing it all anyway.
ジュリアに傷心 (Julia ni Shoushin) – The Checkers
I think this might have been my favourite performance of the night. It was just so much FUN! The dancers are back, plus Taya, and two extra microphones are set up next to You and Chacha. There are some really deep, baritone backing vocals during the song and the dancers would mime these at those stands. It was choreographed like an old motown number and was a great, easy to follow routine. It was also insane as at different points of the song, two of the dancers would hold up signs that had things written on them. For example, when GACKT sings “heartbreak” a heart was held up that the dancer would then pull apart and ‘break’ and for “Saturday” a sign saying 土曜日 (Saturday) was held up.
READY STEADY GO – L’Arc~en~ciel
The band all removed their blazers and glasses for this song and tied their ties around their wrists. GACKT told us before the song started to remove our neckties and ribbons because it was time to twirl them in the air while jumping around like mad people. GACKT decided to tease those of us down the front during this song by coming off stage onto the stairs on the right side, as if he was going to come fully off stage, but instead just turned his back to us and gave us an awesome view of his ass in those school trousers XD There were a few occasions where You didn’t need to play during the song (Larku are a one guitar band after all) so he was swinging his tie around too.
粉雪 (Konayuki) - レミオロメン (Remioromen)
Before this song started there was a slight costume change as Job all now wore black wool coats over their uniform and GACKT was dressed in a hideous but no doubt very expensive and very real fur coat. He said he was cold! I admit that I only ‘like’ the original version of the song. I think it’s a good song but don’t really have any strong feelings towards it yet GACKT’s version is amazing. He was on top form vocally throughout the whole show and it was never more evident than during this. He sings one of the chorus lines in falsetto (actually, it may be a two octave falsetto as the last line of it is waaaaaaay higher than the rest) and unlike the falsettos at the YFC shows, he did actually do it live. Trust me on that, I was close enough to be able to see his throat and Adam’s apple moving and he really isn’t that good at miming!
雪の花 (Yuki no hana) - 中島美嘉 (Mika Nakashima)
I’m not a huge fan of the original. It’s a beautiful song but does nothing for me but again, I LOVE GACKT’s version. It starts with a recorded piano backing, like the original, but Job join in and it turns into this epic rock ballad that is just so good. And again, GACKT sounded fantastic.
He really needs to record both Konayuki and Yuki no hana.
There’s a short break and a skit is played over the PA system to entertain the crowd while we wait. While it’s still dark, Chirolyn, You and GACKT all wander on stage and take their positions for the next batch of songs.
The Blue Hearts section.
The band is Chirolyn on bass, You on guitar, GACKT on drums and Junji on vocals. They all still have the school trousers on but have changed their shirts to white, Punk style T shirts with safety pins. The T shirts are all Sex Pistols related as Junji’s has the Sex Pistols logo over a British Flag, You’s shirt has Queen Elizabeth and GACKT’s is Sid Vicious. I forget what Chirolyn’s is (goburei!). You, Chirolyn and GACKT all also have white bandanas around their foreheads, not the type that covers their hair, but the type that just wraps around. It looks good on Chirolyn and You but absolutely awful on GACKT because his hair is so long and so curled now that random locks of hair are just sticking out in all directions.
Junji comes on after the lights are raised singing very sweetly. Junji is amazing throughout this section. He changes the words for comic effect, has so much charisma and is a pretty decent little singer too. Although GACKT kinda sits back and keeps his head down on the drums (seriously, I’ve never known him fade into the background as much as he does during this part) it’s worth looking at him occasionally because whenever Junji is talking or mixing the words up during the openings of the songs, GACKT is in fits of laughter.
終わらない歌 (Owaranai Uta) – The Blue Hearts
The unending song… and yeah… it does go on and on and on… It seemed a lot longer on Saturday than on Sunday though. Towards the end of the song the band stop playing and Junji leads the crowd into singing the chorus line with GACKT on backing vocals. On the Saturday night You got a little mixed up and starting playing the intro to the next song before they’d finished playing this one!
少年の詩 ((Shounen no Uta) – The Blue Hearts
Lots of pumping your fist in the air to this one. I think Junji was mixing the lyrics up again…
リンダリンダ (Linda Linda) – The Blue Hearts
Junji was definitely mixing the lyrics up to this! The original version of the song begins with an acoustic guitar but the Junji version had You playing the chord and then pausing so that his electric guitar didn’t overpower the slower, quieter opening. It also meant that Junji could mess around as much as he wanted to because You was waiting for his cue and wouldn’t play the next chord until Junji sang the correct words. This song is so much fun! It’s so simple and catchy and the audience (and Junji) were going nuts for the chorus lines.
GACKT threw his drumsticks to the crowd and then there was another little break.
X JAPAN section
The band is Junji on bass, Chirolyn on rhythm guitar, You on lead guitar, Chacha on vocals and GACKT on drums. Of course, they all cosplay as X JAPAN as they were in the late 80s and You and Chacha’s wigs are amazing. GACKT’s trousers are pretty amazing too as they’re black PVC (vinyl – like the GHOST outfit) but have one leg missing. On that leg he has black lace tights that are pretty see through and also has a purple coat (which of course he takes off as soon as he gets to the drum kit).
Rusty Nail – X JAPAN
There was something not quite right about this on Saturday but I can’t place my finger on what it was… It sounded much better on Sunday though. Chacha is a great singer and his voice really suits the songs. Chirolyn always looks like he’s solving a really difficult maths problem when he’s playing guitar so I don’t think he’s entirely comfortable with the instrument change. GACKT is a hot mess on the drums and beats the shit out of the drum kit and the extra cymbals to the point that a drum tech is needed on stage to tighten some bolts before the first chorus line is finished!
X – X JAPAN
Or should that be SEX by S.E.X. JAPAN? There’s lots of jumping into the air with your arms making an X and shouting ‘SEX’. It’s a far better performance than Rusty Nail and it’s easy to see they’re more comfortable with this one after doing it last year.
GACKT put his coat back on and threw his roses to the crowd before the encore.
SHAKE – SMAP
FUN. FUN, FUN, FUN! All of F9 are back plus Taya and Furumoto. GACKT and Job are in the same outfits as last year, black for Job and those white baggy trousers for GACKT that he wore in Platinum Box VIII. The vocals are split between all of Job and are mainly handled as duets or trios singing. GACKT gets a few lines on his own, which he sings live, but everything else is mimed and really, who cares? It’s just so much fun! GACKT and You have a little duet in which they link arms to the delight of the crowd and GACKT just has this huge smile on his face throughout the whole song. He loves performing this so much, you can see it written all over his face. The dance is pretty simple but made a bit more GACKTish due to GACKT’s hip thrusts and need to grab his crotch and it’s the perfect way to finish the show.
I can’t even begin to explain how much I enjoyed the Sunday night show. To be front row for a show that is just so much fun and madness was an amazing experience. I really hope that GACKT is able to work some copyright magic and releases a DVD of this tour because everyone should see it. Or at least, the dance battle should surface somewhere. I’ve come out of these two shows absolutely in love with Junji (and not just because we caught his tie!). He was so much fun throughout.
I’ll be going to the shows in Chiba next Saturday and Sunday and although the tickets aren’t as good, although that would be pretty impossible, it’s still going to be amazing.
And after DEARS gave me those tickets, I don’t think I’m ever going to complain about them ever again. Or at least not for a couple of weeks XD
Note - I seem to have been drilled with a stupid number of PMs while I was away at the weekend. I haven't had time to really tackle them yet so if you haven't heard back it's just because I've been busy.