To give some background. I have been to many events here in Japan, three Kikka handshakes, two of which had signings and one a mini-live event, five of the 'Cool hello'' summer concerts, Idol nation and Akihabara Backstage Pass (which I will explain in tomorrow's entry). So after the last thing I did, I was thinking, well that's it, no more events and a week to go. Most would get disheartened but I have my mates about and places I have not gone so lots to do.
That's until the 28th August, a day after my Birthday (31 now, gulp!) when I got an e-mail from Kikka's e-mail fansite support with lists of events. Dates appeared to be when I was not in japan, until I saw one listed as 30th August! I was like 'oh awesome!' read further and it was a live event, so I was properly going mad but wondering where it was, preparing myself for somewhere like Sapporo which I have no chance of reaching due to no money...
I put the venue name 東京キネマ倶楽部 into google maps... It was in UGUISUDANI! This is literally one stop on the yamanote train line from where I am staying, total out of fucking nowhere choice! Only issue now was getting a ticket, my Japanese is poor with kanji and I noticed some of it talking about going convenience stores and that had me wondering if I had to use those annoying lawson station machines to get a ticket.
Well to find out I drafted in some help, firstly I approached Turbos86 but forgot he was in Canada and that meant I was 13 hours ahead of him! Not reasonable to expect an immediate response! So thus I approached Dean and he got some assistance from his fiancee. Turns out you have to register for some site, then order it, take a slip to a convenience store and job done... Oh boy was this a fucking pain in the shitter!
First it would take my name, then asked for a nickname but wouldn't accept that! Then address and phone number problem, then time out, close all browsers and start again. same problem. Close all browsers, everything is fine apart from my e-mail and my phone numbers! By now I am tearing my hair out getting proper angry, posting stuff on twitter about it, angrily putting down Nino and Dean's joke comments as I wasn't having any fun (sorry guys really ticked me off this did!)
Eventually Dean's fiancee rode to the rescue filling out everything but having it in my name and e-mail, Dean then went one further by getting a lovely screenshot of the e-ticket. 29th August I walk to the 7/11 about 300 yards from my flat, guy puts in the code, prints out a ticket and asks me for cash, job fucking done!
So I kill time by looking more at the event and it turns out to be 'Woodstock Party ライブ had me wondering all sorts of stuff. My excitement hit fever pitch however when I saw that not only was Kikka on the bill... So were The ポッシボ (or The Possibooooo as their towels and shirts say!) This had me marking massively, one of my biggest regrets was missing them in Yokohama, to suddenly have this happen is like the planets aligning and the gods saying 'go on we'll make this guy's holiday!' Absolutely awesome, also on the bill were 青SHUN学園 and テレパシー
I took a look and both seemed quite average but no matter, I was there for the two on the bill. So on to today and after spending the morning in Ueno playing on silent hill arcade and chilling out, I ventured to Shibuya to visit some places. Went to Uniqlo and saw a cool white shirt in my size which was basically drawings of people leaning against each other in different ways to form the kanji for Person. Being a bit of a nerd I just had to buy this! Also went shakey's for all you can eat pizza, 850 yen and it was decent, had about 8 slices, six huge potato scallops, pesto pasta... Yeah , I pigged out a bit lol!
Got back to my apartment and was almost time to go to the gig, so just got my shirt ready and ventured out for water and pocari sweat as per usual for a live gig. Got there about 45 minutes before doors opened so stood outside, briefly talked with Emu before we started being ushered into a line, now the tickets were just numbered rather than a row and seat, yup, standing gig! My ticket was 132 but I still got in and found myself on third row.
However, getting in was the most fucking daft thing ever... We had to use LIFTS! There was just two and they only had a 600kg limit, I weigh about 118, a few more with me and that thing is going nowhere! So after waiting for about ten minutes we finally got in and the venue was actually very nice. It had a sort of theatre feel to it, especially with the look of the stage. Venue was however on the 5th through 7th floors! strange being so high up and at a gig, gave me flashbacks to tower records shinjuku!
So just stood about waiting and one wota was showing off a two-shot polaroid he had of himself and Akkyan from The Possible. cue me getting my mobile out and showing off my two shot from Atlanta with Kikka, gained me a few points for sure.
Eventually lights go off and two MC's come out... One was dressed in proper street clothes (including a shirt saying 'hardcore superstar') while the second wore a fucking dress and hat like a character from Alice in Wonderland... I was now thinking I understood the 'Woodstock' name! Anyway first up were 青SHUN学園 and this group really confused me! There must have been around 12 girls... Half of which had mics, the other half had nothing but their clothes, which were their own shirts signed by themselves, whilst a random guy in his 20's was there dancing with them...
First song was pretty average but my god are their wota loud! They were proper chanting, oshi jumping and fuck knows what else, I know most wota are loud, but there was only about 10 of them I could see in their merchandise and they still managed to be deafening, probably saw videos of me and were like 'that's it!' lol But speaking of being crazy, at one point one wota climbed on another guy's shoulders, cue more outdoor high festival related jokes, and then, staggeringly, actually stood up doing full on wota swinging of his arms. Damned impressive!
At this point two venue staff came in but he had already climbed down, they began the usual 'oh against health & safety, you're not allowed' I just went "get outta here!" and another wota shouted it after them which I found funny (Especially as I said it in english and so did this wota!)
Second song is where things got even more bizarre... The guy goes offstage then comes back dressed as a high school girl student (cue me preparing to vomit, if it wasn't for me sweating nearly everything out due to 35 degree outside heat I would have!) Music again is quite average but the wota and the girls interaction just made it a good laugh, before, bizarrely, half the group left the stage and actually came into the crowd!
Not just to wave, oh no, they actually had everyone form a ring around them and do dancing. I ended up right at the front of one outer ring so thus I had these idols literally two feet away shouting for us all to go for it. This involved at one point some dance move that is hard to explain... err... Imagine a pub night where at the end there is sing-song. Everyone stands in a line and a person places their left arm behind person to their left and right arm behind the person to their right, thus forming a sort of wall of people. usually everyone then sways to some mid-paced music and roar drunkenly before staggering home... Well this was similar, except everyone was in a circle rather than a line, and instead of swaying side to side, we were leaning backwards and then forwards in tandem... I truly had imbibed something by this point, I had to have, it was just too fucking random!
Still the idols hung around and did high fives to everyone (including me, three or four them were up for double high-fiving me for some reason!), then for the third song a second dude comes out singing, then jumps into the crowd, who suddenly start something akin to a circle pit whilst he is being crowdsurfed in the middle. Security again tried to get in and I am just like 'no chance, give up!'
After they left the stage/crowd brief MC on stage with them, so I took the first drinks break before テレパシー came on. I had heard a couple of songs and they had this odd gimmick of air guitaring on cardboard cut outs of guitars. I haven't heard of that since the new wave of british heavy metal scene circa 1979!!
But at first they actually came out in pink cheerleader outfits carrying pompoms and did the song cheerleading style. Hmm... Air guitaring cheerleaders, I'd even watch soccer if that became a staple thing! Their gig was ok, songs were pretty decent semi-j-pop/punk, though lacking the utter awesomeness of Buono! or even the power of Passpo it was still highly enjoyable.
One thing I will say is once their cut-out guitars were picked up it did become quite cool, I am sure Pukovnik_krv wouldn't like their inability to even try and air the technical playing, but they did show the attitude. One member priouetted whilst playing along, another did some nice guitar screeching faces. Plus a really awesome moment was when three of them threw their guitars and the other members caught them and carried on, shades of many an 80's stadium rock band right there!
Usual MC which wasn't that interesting followed before it was time for The ポッシボー When they came on stage I nearly passed out, they went for this semi-chic/office look. With Hashimon and Mororin sporting leather shorts and suit jackets, Robin this rather sparkly evening top and skirt, whilst Akkyan had a suit jacket and smart skirt combo. Goto didn't stand out so I don't remember what she wore (sorry to any of her fans for that!)
They kicked off with their newest single 'be ambitious!' which is a corking track with an awesome PV. Crowd were realy into this with the chanting along. After this they did a song I had never heard which was similar in pace to Ijiawru Crazy love but lacking the same impact, still they made up for this with their next track 'Nasty!' which has a rather smooth lick in the leads and some nice shifting in the dance beats. One thing I will say is that Mororin is not very good live. I really struggled at times to hear her. However, Hashimon, Akkyan and Robin really do a great job, and Goto has also improved a lot since I last saw any real footage of them, so great encouragement there.
Next song was 'Banzai my glory' (can never remember the full title!) And this song is where I got pleas from the crowd to fully join in with what they do. This is not to say I wasn't chanting or anything, I was, it is just that I very rarely oshi jump. For those who know me there is a good reason for this... I am rather tall, clocking in at 6'2 or around 187/188 centimetres. When I oshi jump about nine rows temporarily lose all vision.
Add to this that the gig is standing only and there is possibility (no pun intended!) for something disastrous. But the crowd insist I go for it, so I did. Thing about this song, if you have ever seen the PV, is that at the main chorus the PV is of all members getting some serious air on a trampoline and doing all sorts of poses and moves... Well the crowd took this as an instant invitation to be oshi jumping, I did a few must have easily cleared the highest achieved by wota by at least a foot, so yes, the U-stream might have been nothing but a guy in a yellow shirt with a backpack strapped to him in this song for a bit!
Following this they did 希望と青春の光 now this I saw live on an episode of Tsuntube where the girls had these glowing balls they held in their hands and due to their formation they could do these awesome arm movements that caused brilliant trailing light effect and fans had them to recreate it. I was content to just raise my arm and chant but one wota actually borrowed me a jury-rigged star shaped thing that did lights exactly the same! That was awesome and really helped me get into this really rather awesome energetic song. The girls did the same dance I had seen on Tsuntube and being there you really got to appreciate the effect, I think once it goes through a camera filter it tones to down, here you get the raw unchecked fusion of the light which just makes it more cool, added to which they sounded amazing.
Their final track followed this but I am unsure what it was, it's one of those annoying tracks I have heard but not got the title of it anywhere in my head. Really nice rock track which the fans got the towels out for. All this time I was second row so really close and able to soak it all in. Did all I could to not rip a person's towel from their hands.
After this they did their post-gig MC and talked about how they enjoyed seeing all the fans earlier dancing with 青SHUN学園, Hashimon was especially complimentary and even had a brief go. Once they left the stage four fans walked off the barrier... Yup! Instantly I was there and not only on the barrier, I was DEAD CENTRE of the stage!
Cue the Kikka chants and on she came, adorned with the same outfit she wore at idol nation and when in the states, she looked as gorgeous as ever. What she opened with surprised me, it was a medley of Kikkake wa you, hapi rapi sunrise, konna watashi de yokattara and darling to madonna. All sorts were sort of 60% length so a long and interesting opening. Great to also see the on the fly change of the chants from the crowd and Kikka did her trademark of getting us to sing the likes of 'aru kamo ne?' during this, which threw me back to Atlanta again ^__^
After this she did a mid-gig MC and she spoke about it was great to see The ポッシボー at the event as she considered them sort of family since they were all eggs together. I liked that a lot as I think they graduated into NGP only a few months after Kikka joined but there obviously is some friendship there for her to say that!
Why is Hashimon pointing a gun at Kikka's head?
Following this she did her best of album exclusive track 八月の花火 and it is still a wonderfully different song. Very nice mid-tempo pace and some nice long pauses where I once again chanted Kikka and had wota join me which was awesome. After this she shocked me by doing To Be. I was not expecting this at such an event but it was so cool to see her do the song with the tough vocal delivery and lack of pace, meaning it was all about her. On stage she had the occasional hand move, but mostly this felt like the sort of song where standing at the mic stand would have been enough. Still, she carried herself well through it.
Afterwards pace picked up with her once again doing Time to Zone which was a nice reignition of the gig and some very simple chanting, before she ended with a song I have enjoyed for a long time... Mizuiro. This was really great live as she had the crowd towel spinning like crazy and of course we all shouted our fucking lungs out too!
Once this ended the post-gig MC occurred and at first the guys were complimenting her on her delivery in such a song. The MC dressed like Alice in wonderland character spotted me at this point and was a tad surprised I was there! Afterwards they asked Kikka to speak English since she had been to America. she began to cheat and literally use the same phrases she did whilst there. "My name is Yuu Kikkawa, I am a Japanese singer" They stopped her laughing saying that as obvious due to where we were and she should say something else! Cruel bastards! Plus 1000 points :P
She responded after a moment to think by saying, with a drawl as bad when I speak Japanese, "did you have fun with me?" I'll ignore the million and 1 innuendos you can draw from that and simply state we cheered, at which point the three of them looked at me so I just went '英語すごい！ (Amazing english) which made Kikka happy, guys didn't seem sure so I just shouted "Trust me I should know!" which got half-laughs, mainly as they probably only understood one word lol
After this all groups came on stage and were joined by some dude in a huge outfit dressed as an egg! I was like WTF? And it turned out to be some morning exercise thing and does dances with idols/performers. So cue the whole group being asked to take part! Kikka also got referred as sensei at one point and forced to perform in the centre. Cue me cheering as I was right in front of her! Afterwards her and Goto had a conversation and giggled, no idea what was said though.
Finally after this lights went up before the stage area was cleared, then bizarrely three sets of tables were pulled out and partitioned by flimsy barriers. Cue Theポッシボー and Kikka being directed to their tables. Due to not carrying more than 2000 yen on me; earlier I had been forced to choose between them... No contest, I adore The ポッシボー and would have loved to meet them... But Kikka is my first place and was not going to miss a handshake with her on my final few days in Japan!
Thus I found myself somehow third in line which was good as only had one ticket so less people to clutter the place afterwards! Before this Robin and Hashimon looked and spotted me, it probably took them by surprise as they were waving so I waved back and gave a thumbs up which Hashimon reciprocated, nice bonus end to the evening since I was theoretically blowing them off... Oops!!
Anyway I went up to Kikka and said in english that her english was fabulous, she replied with thank you and constantly signalled with 'ok' to which I was like yeah you're good, she smiled alot and then I was kicked out of the table area! Cue the end of an awesome evening, I'd have liked them to have ended it later since both Kikka and The ポッシボー are over 20 so can legally work past 9pm but wasn't to be. With a little editing of the MC's they could have given the groups more time but I can't argue. I have been extremely lucky whilst out here. Kikka, The ポッシボー, up up girls, morning musume, c-ute, berryz kobou, s/mileage, juice=juice... All have been witnessed live, some handshaked, others signed merchandise... No I cannot complain at that!
So now I am getting ready for bed, my missing days blog will be released probably tomorrow, nice relaxing day with friends ahead of my last day in japan :-( Been so awesome, wish it wouldn't end. Until next time *sets sail*
