YFC @ Shinkiba Day 2 – 9/26

[pyroyale]

I saw YFC again tonight.

After the madness of yesterday and the bruising I received defending my place on the barricade, I was quite glad to have a terrible number. I was planning a nice, relaxing night at the back of the venue and out of harm’s way.

Yeah… right…



My ticket was B104. That means, that all of the A tickets go in before B. There were 1,900 A tickets, so I was roughly the 2,000th person to enter the venue (wow, did I underestimate the venue capacity yesterday, haha). I was expecting to be at the back.

I walked in, and the back was full. The barricade half way down the floor was full. The middle, in front of the vocalist’s platform was full. Yet, in front of Chacha, it was half empty! I pretty much just strolled into the fifteenth or so row without any trouble. I was stood there, unable to believe my luck and looked around again and all of a sudden, all of the space was full and cramped. I have no idea what happened but I somehow found myself in the pit, despite having one of the worst tickets possible.

It looked pretty wild on YOU’s side, but we were all just chilling and standing nicely. Shinya did the first announcement (oi~su!!!) and things were fine. GACKT did the second announcement, and that’s when all hell broke loose.

I have never, ever been in a crowd as wild and rough as that. It was insane. People were falling over during Nine Spiral – the second song! There was a staff member in front of me, but he quickly fell back and stayed out of it.

For the first couple of songs, I saw nothing of the stage. I couldn’t lift my arms to join in the songs or pay any attention to anything other than just surviving. People were pushing from all corners as they’d push towards the centre, only for the centre to then push back.

By Speed Master, I was able to keep half an eye on stage, thankfully, and join in a little but it was still rough as hell. I made the mistake of getting surrounded by guys, and there is nothing fiercer than a male fanboy who wants to be near his aniki. They push, they scream and they don’t care who they knock out of the way.

But, the crowd was constantly moving and I lost most of the guys, thankfully. I still had one behind me for Mind Forest, and he, accidentally I’m sure, ended up with his thigh wedged between mine. Is this a live, or a club? Hahaha. By the end of the song he was stood next to me, and he half had his arms linked with mine. I’ve found though that when it comes to the English parts of the new songs, if you can sing them, the Japanese fans try to get closer so that they can listen. It’s easier to hear the person next to you clearly than the microphones so I shrugged off his arm linking as that, haha.

At this point, I was closer to the centre and maybe eighth row? Then came Mousou Girl. We were all able to do the dance routine, barely, but the pushing became even crazier when GACKT stripped. People were pushing to the left to get closer, people were pushing on the right because that’s where his shirt had been thrown, and it all just collapsed and about a dozen people, me included, ended up on the floor. I had a woman sitting on my feet and I was sitting on someone else and it took a good couple of minutes to extract ourselves from the tangle and get standing again.

Luckily, the Japanese fans are fantastic when people fall. They’ll push you and they’ll put their elbows in your throat, but it’s just because they’re going wild for the music and want to be nearer to GACKT. It’s not borne from aggression or violence, so they will literally stop what they’re doing to help you back up. I had three people yanking me to my feet, and then I helped the woman who fell on me.

The fight for the shirt continued though, and I used that distraction to slip past and end up in the sixth row, directly in front of GACKT. Not bad for such a shitty ticket! By the end of the show, I was third or fourth row and surrounded by girls a head shorter than me! Score!

So, for the audience, the concert was death. On stage, it was fun!

GACKT was in a good mood again, although he wasn’t as bouncy as yesterday. During Vanilla, he turned his back to the crowd and started shaking his ass. He then started groping his own ass and running his hands all over himself. He really, really grabs Jon’s balls. He was squatting down and grabbed him from below, right in-between the legs. There’s no real way to fake that one… I’m sure that by now, GACKT knows whether Jon has had a certain operation done or not… XD

I forget what song it was, but GACKT and Jon were stood side by side and were practically nuzzling each other. If GACKT had turned his head slightly, it would have been a full on Eskimo kiss. They’re just so comfortable with each other now, it’s such an unbelievable change. What are they going to be doing to each other at the final at Makuhari in November???

There was underwear again. Jon had some silver panties that he shoved down his shorts. I was told by nightangel_jai that he later threw them to the crowd, but I missed this bit. There were also some pink panties that he offered to GACKT, but GACKT just kinda glared at them and ignored the offer. He obviously didn’t like the look of them! GACKT did have a pink bra for Vanilla though and he swung it around a few times before throwing it to the crowd.

GACKT kept on climbing down onto the barricade, and of course he got pulled into the crowd again. This happened just to the right of me, a little further over and I probably could have grabbed him. Grr. YOU (who was on Chacha’s side at this point) and a member of staff pulled him out. He then jumped back in again. There were hands everywhere. Some of them even managed to get all over his neck and jaw, although he was careful not to go fully into the crowd and was always in reach of the staff by the stage. It was a little battle to get him back out the second time though. He did the same on YOU’s side of the stage, apparently, but I missed that. Luckily, he didn’t get scratched up badly, but there did seem to be some marks on his right hip. It’s hard to tell if that was due to the crowd, or just his training or something. I wasn’t really looking for them until after he ended up in the crowd.

U:ZO decided to copy him and dived in on YOU's side at the end!

GACKT started suffering by JESUS. His eyes kept slipping shut and he was staggering around a lot. One advantage of being close is that you can see what happens when the lights go off. After JESUS, Jon walked down the vocalist’s platform first, and GACKT quickly followed him with his hand on Jon’s shoulder to steady himself and help as he walked down those two steps. At the end of YOU ARE THE REASON, Jon had a very protective arm around GACKT’s waist as GACKT turned around and walked across the platform and again, GACKT used Jon as support when he came off the platform. It’s sweet to see, but also a little worrying. GACKT was fine after this though.

The sound set up at Studio Coast wasn’t that good. Both GACKT and Jon were far too quiet where I was, both nights, but especially tonight. I struggled to hear the vocals sometimes and hearing them talk was near possible. But, the set up for the guitarists was AMAZING. I could really hear the individual guitar lines and it was really interesting.

It seems to me, that Takumi is taking the lead on the YFC songs. Usually, with GACKTJOB and last year’s YFC, it’s all Chacha. Chacha is obviously in charge and leading the band through everything on stage, but it really seems to have switched to Takumi. ALL FOR LOVE is all Takumi, he plays the intro and the quieter parts throughout and any harmonies are always Takumi and Chacha. Obviously, END OF THE DAY is Takumi’s song too, as he wrote it, and I would not be surprised if Takumi is all over the writer’s credits when they start to become known.

And I’m not just saying that as a rabid Takumi fangirl, haha. It’s truly the impression that I’ve had over the last couple of nights. But, as a fangirl, I have to say that Takumi’s green contact lenses are STUNNING. I couldn’t take my eyes away from his. Even prettier than GACKT’s current shade of eyes.

That said, YOU gets the solo on the new song, 又、ここで会いましょっ. And boy, does he make it look like it’s a hard solo, haha. I don’t know what’s up with YOU at the moment as he’s coming out of his shell a lot lately. Like his blog stated, he’s Veeted off his armpit and leg hair, he was indulging in some fanservice with Jon and stroking his thigh (much to Jon’s surprise), and he even did a little strip tease for the crowd at the end of the show. He put a YFC T shirt on, rubbed it into his body so it soaked up the sweat, turned his back on the crowd and then shimmied out of it in a rather awkward but cute way before throwing it the crowd. Is he feeling left out of all of this fanservice??

Thankfully though, the crappy microphone set up didn’t ruin my favourite part of the live. I’ve been meaning to mention this since the first 2011 YFC show I attended in Berlin, but there’s a part in ALL FOR LOVE where the music quietens down and falls away, and it’s just GACKT left to sing one word – “sayonara”. Whenever I hear him sing that word with that beautiful voice, tone and emotion of his, it reminds me of exactly why I’m stood there, broke because of tickets and travel and fighting to keep my place. I love that his voice can still grab me like this, despite the long list of lives I’ve been too. It’s why I keep going back and why I’ll continue to do it. Doesn’t matter if the ticket says YFC, GACKT or Camui Gakuen really. It's the same voice.

</fangirling over>

After又、ここで会いましょっ, Jon was motioning to the girls on the balcony to take their tops off. From the look on his face, at least a couple of them must have done so! After his initial “holy shit, they did it” look had gone, he and GACKT were laughing about it.

I love Jon though. He kept staring and smiling at me. I wonder if it was a “gaijin’s unite!” thing, or if he’s seen me so many times lately he’s starting to recognise me… Haha.

By the end of the show, I was far wetter than I had been yesterday, when I had several bottles of water and a super soaker or three dumped on me. It was death in there. It really, really was. I met a girl that I’d originally met at the Berlin live, and she said how surprised she was at how rough Japanese lives are. And they are rough. Far, far rougher than Europe. This stereotype of polite Japanese people applauding is completely crazy.

I don’t know how these shows keep getting rougher and crazier. Every time I think it’s hit the limit, it raises the bar again.