pyroyale: (Hyde - PWND!)
This is going to be a really quick and brief L’Arc~en~ciel review (by my standards anyway) because I can’t remember what happened in each song or how it all fit together. It was just two plus hours of absolute awesomeness.


The lucky and very shiny ticket!

The concert and a few photos )
Set list )

It was such an amazing show. I wish I’d gone to both nights but I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to go to the Sunday show and make it home in time for work on Monday. As it happened, I would have had the time so I’m gutted I passed on a Sunday ticket. But, I’m glad to have been a part of the 20th L’Anniversary, if only for one night. As soon as the DVD is announced I’m pre-ordering it!

brb

May. 27th, 2011 08:48 pm
pyroyale: (Hyde - guitar)
Going to Tokyo tonight to see L'Arc~en~ciel tomorrow. SOOO EXCITED. They're one of the few bands left on my "must see" list.

It's going to be a cheap weekend... because the summer is going to be VERY expensive.

Good luck to everyone who is after GACKT European tour tickets today. I'm planning on going to Berlin, Budapest and Moscow (grrrrr... I don't want to talk about Moscow right now) with [livejournal.com profile] aku_rin and as Budapest went on sale early, I know we already have those tickets.

Hopefully, we'll get the others too!

Back Monday, although I suspect I'll check in before then as I can leech [livejournal.com profile] shinimegami21's wifi on Sunday XD
pyroyale: (Default)
The suitcase is packed (again).

I have everything I need (I hope!) and will be heading out to Heathrow airport shortly.

One of my first tasks when I get back to Japan is pay for my tickets to see Miyavi and Matenrou Opera that I booked online yesterday. Both in the same venue (only two days apart too!), the same one I saw the Kiddie in, and it only holds 250 people standing. Living in the country, away from big cities, has it's advantages. Can you imagine being able to get tickets to see Miyavi in a 250 capacity venue, out of a public sale, if I lived in Tokyo?

I imagine by the time I get home I'll be tired and ready to sleep for a fortnight.

(Ah, 6th January - the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Bye, bye Santa!Nemuri icon *sadface*)
pyroyale: (Default)
There will be a covers album released next month which sees the best of the current Jrock and Visual Kei bands covering the best of Jrock and VK bands of the 1990s

This is D's cover of Malice Mizer's 月下の夜想曲



I really like D, and this is very much in their style of song and I LOVE the original so I'm kinda confused over whether I like it or not :-/

In making it into a D song with the heavier guitars, they've completely ripped out the feeling and playfulness which was such a large part of what made the original (and most of the GACKT-era Mizer stuff) so much fun and so good. They've changed the music so much but the vocal melody is pretty much exactly the same so it sounds kinda odd and doesn't quite work.

But, I don't hate it. After a couple of listens it's starting to grow on me. I think I'm going to treat it as a brand new song and not compare it to the original XD

I suspect that a lot of Malice Mizer fans are going to hate D for this but really, it was never going to sound any different.
pyroyale: (Default)
Late report is majorly late, but hopefully there’s still some interest!

I attended the Chiba campus of the Camui Gakuen tour on Saturday and Sunday so here’s a brief (by my standards anyway!) review, with a bit of the Gazette at the front.

The Gazette - briefly )

Saturday - night buses, DisneyLand and seedy internet cafes )

Sunday - seat upgrades, fun with cut outs and stress )

After the Kobe shows and the amazing experience of being first row and centre, I kinda didn’t want to go to Chiba. I knew that the shows wouldn’t be as good for me and it was really only the opportunity to meet up with people there that was making me excited about it. I’m really glad I did go though – the shows were still sooo much fun and I met more people than I thought I would.

I think that the enjoyment you get out of seeing GACKT in Japan is 50% due to GACKT, and 50% due to the other fans there, be they his foreign fans or his Japanese ones.
pyroyale: (Tigger - Halloween)
I just bought a ticket to see the Gazette in the Tokyo Dome on Boxing Day.

I fly out to England the next day from Tokyo so it's no hardship to go up a day earlier and I've always wanted to see a show in the Tokyo Dome.

And the total amount of money I want to spend on goods at the Gakusai shows currently stands at 14,700yen (plus food stuffs). It'll probably grow when I'm there and see everything, it usually does.

(Yes, this is a pointless post, I just wanted to use my Halloween Tigger icon before it was too late!)
pyroyale: (Default)

Just got back from seeing VAMPS.

This will be quick because I'm on my iPhone and because I'll be reviewing the show for Askew Magazine in some capacity.

As they got me into the show for free, on a guest pass, it's only right they get the exclusive!

Anyone going to see them during their World Tour will have an awesome time as they're amazing. I knew them very well as a recording band but knew nothing of them as a live band and I really enjoyed it.

All of the people with guest passes were put together on the front row of the balcony, starting from the far left on Ju-ken's side. I had the first seat and next to me was this woman in her 50s who was talking to herself before the show started and then turned into a rabid HYDE fangirl as soon as the live began. She annoyed the fuck out of me throughout the whole thing.

Ju-ken had a MC before they did Hunting and when they launched into the song there was no HYDE. He then burst through the doors on the balcony and did the song there, only 1-2 feet away from the first seat in the first row.

Unfortunately for me, this was on the OTHER side of the balcony.

DAMN YOU AGING IN REVERSE MIDGET!!! IF YOU'D BEEN THE OTHER SIDE YOU'D HAVE BEEN 1-2 FEET AWAY FROM ME!!!!

I'm sure they picked that side because of us with the guest passes being the other side but damn... I wanted HYDE next to me!

Oh well.

Now to shower and sleep so I'm ready for Tokyo, GACKT and bikinis tomorrow.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

pyroyale: (Default)
Yet another YFC live and yet another report.

Are you getting bored of these yet?

Pre concert at the Darts stand )

The concert - I hope they have some industrial strength super glue because they're going to need it on Sunday to keep GACKT on his damn horse )

After the show )

I don't know how GACKT is going to make it through this week.

8/19 - YFC in Sapporo
8/20 - YFC in Sapporo
8/21 - nothing (but realistically, probably travel to Niigata and more rehearsals)
8/22 - Kenshin festival
8/23 - YFC in Tokyo
8/24 - YFC in Tokyo

And of course, YFC again on 8/28 and 8/29. The days inbetween will probably be rehearsal days for those.

The man really is insane. Someone needs to drag his ass to bed and keep him there for at least a week.

I fly back home to Okayama-ken tomorrow. My holiday and GACKT stalking following is pretty much finished now other than a short trip to Tokyo next Sunday for the Bikini live. I've had such an awesome time with [livejournal.com profile] lefcadio and have met so many amazing people from LJ, the Dears Mansion and just random people we've picked up along the way.

GACKT has the most awesome and friendly people as fans. He really, really does.
pyroyale: (Default)
I got back just over an hour ago from the first of the GACKT/YFC shows in Sapporo.



It was an epic day and night and was highlighted by GACKT's amazing tattoo placement and the most surreal yet awesome GACKT experience I've ever had.

YFC! YFC! )

I promise that I will post more from this trek around Japan than just GACKT. We saw some wonderful things in Sendai that I will share eventually!
pyroyale: (Default)
I went to the YFC live again tonight (8/14).

But I'll come back to that later.

[livejournal.com profile] lefcadio and I met up with [livejournal.com profile] khysmet this morning and we had coffee, ice cream and a nice long chat. We also visited the Darts stand here in Sendai again, which makes it the third visit for Jessica and me this week. That poor guy who works the stand never gets time to finish the solitaire game he has open on his laptop because we keep interrupting him. They've managed to sell a lot of goods this week though!

Ashleigh had tickets to the live and was meeting up with a Japanese friend of hers so we parted ways after a couple of hours and Jessica and I went for a wander around Sendai and ended up right next to the Zepp again. We were stood there, sheltering from the heavy rain (a typhoon is blowing past and we've been getting caught in the very edges of it) and staring at people starting to queue for the tour goods and it was really depressing.

To be *that* close to another live, but to not have tickets...

So, we decided that we'd try and get tickets. We dropped really lucky as we immediately found a Japanese woman selling a ticket. We then made a sign, stood in everyone's way, and waited for someone with a spare ticket to come along.

And they did.

WE GOT TICKETS!!!

As neither of us had expected to go to the show today, we needed to pop back to the hotel to change and grab things. While there, I checked my emails and a few things online... including the DEARS Staff Blog. I don't think I need to say too much about that other than that I nearly cried when I saw it. I'm not an overly sentimental person and really don't cry too often but knowing that GACKT saw it, and it made him smile... It nearly got me. All of that hard work - that fortnight of not getting to bed before 3AM any night because my bed time clashed with the rest of the worlds awake time.. It was all worth it.

We went back to the venue and I stopped off in a shop nearby to get some cute stationary (it had BUNNIES!) and I wrote a little message to GACKT, just acknowledging the blog and saying how happy I was that it made him smile. I put it in his present box again ^_^

My ticket was on the balcony and it was surprisingly close. I had a good view of the stage (I was actually able to see You for more than 30 seconds this time!) and didn't have to worry about my bruise getting bashed around. It's a great way to see the whole live properly and everyone around me was just as enthusiastic about the show as the people in the pit, other than these two American girls who either sat down or stood still throughout the whole thing. They really let the foreigner side down :-(

Despite the good view and the enthusiasm of those around, I didn't feel as connected to the band as when I was down the front. I really missed being in that crushed sea of people and being able to catch the eye of the band.

The live itself wasn't much different. GACKT's fake tattoos were still on his chest although they were lower today, just above his nipple, and You had one on his arm too. Again, GACKT sounded great and was very bouncy although he seemed to struggle at the end of Flower slightly. To be honest, I'm starting to think that's part of the routine as it's the same every damn night...

As I was leaving the venue I caught up with Ashleigh and we went outside. We walked past that member of staff who had previously interviewed us and despite the fact that he was filming someone else, when he saw me he waved and said "hi" before I did.

Is being so easily recognised by staff members a good thing or a bad thing?

Jessica caught up with us and had another fan with her, a girl originally from Greenland of all places. Our staff member friend with the camera showed up again with an older, more serious business type looking Japanese man and Ashleigh and the girl from Greenland were interviewed while Jessica and I stood and watched.

After that, we decided to try and watch the band leaving again. We made our way to the back of the venue in the pouring rain and joined the other fans there. We were getting drenched but then a really, really, really cute Zepp staff member gave us an umbrella! How cute is that?

After about 20-30 minutes of waiting, we saw JOB walk out of the stage door and get in their van. They drove past and Chacha was sat by the open window, all smiles and waves as normal. Chirolyn was behind him and he waved at us but Junji and You were sat on the other side so we didn't see them.

Last time it took a further 30-40 minutes for GACKT to appear. This time, it took about five minutes before he was heading out of the stage door and was waving to us all from underneath his white fedora and shades. His van drove past and he FINALLY, opened his damn window and waved at us all. He didn't look as tired tonight which is probably why he was quicker and happy to open his window.

Jessica found the cute staff member to hand the umbrella back but he told her to keep it. WHOO!! FREE UMBRELLA!

The three of us then decided that we needed food and karaoke so we found a karaoke place, ordered some food (including the chewiest pizza ever created and a cafe au lait without the cafe) and sang GACKT songs for two hours.

What a way to spend a Saturday night!

Tomorrow Jessica and I fly to Sapporo for, er, two more YFC shows. Jeez, by the time the Swimsuit Festival is finished on 8/29 I'll have been to 7 YFC shows. That's kinda insane. Damn you GACKT for scheduling so much of your tour during my holiday!!!!

Top of the to do list in Sapporo is to find out the name of that staff member. I wanna be on first name terms with one of GACKT's staff, haha!

Now, I need to go pack my cases again.
pyroyale: (Gackt - YFC)
Consider this the abbreviated version of events. A longer version may surface somewhere eventually.

YFC @ Zepp Osaka, 2010.07.04



Before the gig )

Read more... )

Birthday celebrations with cake! )

And that's the short version?! Eek.

I really need to go food shopping but it's 35 degrees and my apartment has lovely air conditioning. I might open all of those YFC cards instead... I haven't opened one yet. My willpower is amazing me.
pyroyale: (Ruki - oh shit)
Just had an email through to confirm that I've 'won' a ticket to see the Gazette in Okayama in August.

I say 'won' because I still have to pay for the damn thing, it just means I was successful in the ticket lottery.

The venue is pretty small too as it only holds 1700 people. It's gonna be murder.

So far, August is potentially gonna look like this -

8/11 - Gackt in Sendai
8/12 - Gackt in Sendai
8/17 - the Gazette in Okayama
8/21 - Jack in the Box in Tokyo (MUCC, girugamesh, alice nine, VAMPS, SID etc - hopefully!)
8/28 - VAMPS in Osaka (hopefully!)

I might swing by Niigata on 8/22, depending on what's happening there and might also fit in a trip to Korea on 8/3 if money and visa issues allow.

How am I gonna afford all of this?! The travel to Sendai and back is going to be around 55,000YEN on it's own *cries*
pyroyale: (Hyde - bitch)
As I've been so slack in doing any work whatsoever for Askew over the last few months I'm gonna pimp the fact that I actually *have* now done something for them.

You can read my review of the VAMPS single 'ANGEL TRIP' here @ the Askew Magazine website

Go. Read.

In fact read every article on the website - they're all good.
pyroyale: (Gackt - Zero)
No official snow day today but due to how bad the little roads around my house are, I've given myself a snow day.

I tried - I dug my car out and even drove it but after it refused to stop when I asked it to and started to drift into what could have been oncoming traffic I gave up.

I felt a little guilty about flaking out of work but felt slightly better when a DHL delivery van had similar trouble and got stuck trying to turn around at the end of my street.

Although I must admit that I did feel bad for the driver because the reason he was driving down my street was to deliver these -



Girugamesh's artwork is awful isn't it? I have the limited edition version with the DVD but I have no clue what's on it, other than a couple of PVs.

The Gackt single is a nice package though. 3 discs (1CD + 2DVD) and has a nice little booklet with interviews with Gackt and Masahiro and with Gackt alone. There's also some nice behind the scenes shots from the PV shoot but I'm not going to scan it. It's a lot like the DIABOLOS booklet where the pages are so bloody stuck together that the only way to get a good quality scan would be to risk tearing it apart.

The Journey Through the Decade and The Next Decade PVs are included and there are SIX, yes SIX different versions of the Stay the Ride Alive PV.

My favourite by far is the Stay the Ride Alive multi angle version GACKT angle one.

It's just Gackt.

No cuts to the hobo orchestra (who get their own version of the PV).

No cuts to Masahiro (who also gets his own version).

Just Gackt.

Marvellous.

And other than one single cut and change of shot about 20 seconds in it's all shot with ONE camera, no cuts. It's very, very well shot really as it's all filmed by the crane camera so there are lots of sweeping shots over the scene which flow into close ups and then sweep out again.

The Behind the Scenes clip is pretty fun too, mainly because of the usual stunt bike riding.

I think I'll listen to Girugamesh now.

Day off work tomorrow. I was planning on shopping but now, I think I'm just going to stay in the warm!
pyroyale: (Gackt - peace sign)
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I have two (well, three I guess).

Firstly there is Iron Maiden at Donington in 2003.

It was the first year of the Download festival and nobody really knew what it would be like. The line up was awful and it was boiling hot so it resulted in the 50,000 strong crowd spending most of the day lying around on the hallowed dust hills that had once been grass. I was really disappointed in the lack of the atmosphere but then Maiden came on and everyone came alive. It was as if everyone had come to the show for Maiden and Maiden only and as someone who genuinely *had* only gone to see Maiden, it was an awesome experience.

And the other one (two) would be, of course, Gackt at Saitama Super Arena this July.

Why was it magical? .... It's been two and a half months since those shows and I was hoping that time would give me some perspective but I'm still kinda in a daze. Which is crazy because I've been to DOZENS of concerts over the years by so many different bands and I've never been affected like this before. It was just such a show in this fantastic little world... When I finally get my hands on the DVD I think I'll just cry my way through it.

I honestly think Gackt has broken my brain and dammit, I want it fixed.

I had to work today and it was the most pointless 8 hours of my life. I answered five queries, took one complaint call and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how many days off I could take over Christmas without borrowing any leave from next year. Such a waste of time.
pyroyale: (Gackt - out of music 4)


Random thoughts -

Engrish for the win!
Yep. That's definitely been written by the Kamen Rider people again.
Nice guitar work.
Hot, hot! Love the hair <3
NO! Don't hit him in the face!
Ooh, glowy arm.
Look how high he kicks his leg ^_^
Kick their asses Riderman!
Don't go easy on her because she's a woman! (Seriously. WTF self?)
How did his sunglasses survive all of that?
Nice bike.
Ka-boom!
Ooh credits.
"Hoodlums"?
"Black man"? o_O
Aw, he singled out Masahiro for a thank you.
Let's play it again!

And if anyone hasn't seen it yet go HERE Now. Full download of the WOWOW Requiem et Reminscience II broadcast (that I was at! I haven't seen myself yet).

You're a star [livejournal.com profile] tenshin26100

Bootlegs!

Jul. 3rd, 2009 10:10 pm
pyroyale: (Gackt - peace sign)
There’s a bootleg audio recording of Gackt’s shows at Makuhari Messe floating around.

I have a copy of it mainly because I have this weird little obsession with bootlegs. I literally have BOXES of them, mainly Iron Maiden related, and although I don’t trade and collect as much as I did a couple of years ago I still pick them up whenever I can find them.

I’m trying really hard not to listen to it though.

It’s one thing to read reviews, to see photos and wobbly snatches of film footage but I really don’t want to spoil the arena tour by listening to it.

It’s only one week until I’ll be at the Saitama shows avoiding the cameras and falling over my feet to 小悪魔ヘヴン and I’ve successfully avoided any heavy duty spoilers so far but I can feel my fingers twitching to press PLAY and listen.

My flight is on Tuesday. I can resist until then, surely…?

Agh.

(Ooh, two posts in one day again. Go me!)
pyroyale: (Hyde - guitar)
And in news that will be of no interest to anyone on my F-List apart from me and possibly one other person (if I've judged their music tastes right!) there is the possibility that the Queensrÿche album 'Operation : Mindcrime' will be taken to Broadway

If that happens - I'M THERE.

Best. Album. Ever.

And that's coming from someone who, with the exception of a couple of songs, has hated every other thing Queensrÿche have ever recorded.

Now I need to go to bed as I have to be up for work in about 6 hours :-(

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