16th June 2024: Southwark, the National Gallery and Kamijo at The Garage {London, England, June 2024}

Posted on 6 July 2024 by JBinnacle

According to the weather forecast, there was a chance of rain in London in the morning. When I got up and drew the curtains open, it was actually pouring, so I decided to wait the rain out. When I left the hotel around 9:00 to head to the queue, there was still a bit of drizzle which cleared as I was walking. However, when I reached the venue, I was surprised to find a notice on the door “We reserve the right to refuse entry. Anyone queueing before 16:00 will be refused entry.” Ho-kay, that sign had not been there the evening before – or I would have planned accordingly. I shrugged it off and resolved to make the most out of the morning and early afternoon, and be back at 16:00 sharp. I mean, what else could I do, mope at the hotel?

I took the Underground to the London Bridge stop, in Southwark. The first thing I came across was Borough Market, which had never even been in my radar before – I tend to stay on the other bank of the Thames. The market is an Art Decó building designed by Henry Rose in 1851. As a business, it had been in operation for centuries at the time though, and the building would get many refurbishments in the following years. Borough Market claims to be place for sustainable products with a short supply chain. There were wholesalers, coffee brewers, tapas bars and for some reason a bunch of guys yelling that everyone should try their mushroom risotto. The area was packed, and it was almost impossible to get a good picture.

Borough Market

Next to the market, stands Southwark Cathedral, officially Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie. London has four cathedrals: St. Paul and Southwark are Anglican, and Westminster and St. George are Catholic. Southwark Cathedral has stood in place for at least a thousand years. However, there is a legend that places its foundation in the early 600s, and there is archaeological evidence of a Roman road dating even further in time. The current structure is gothic, erected after the previous building was damaged in an area-wide fire in 1212, then transformed with the passing centuries. In the 19th century it was “remedievalised”, and in the 20th it became damaged by the Blitz and requited restoration. Today, it prides itself in being LGTB-friendly and having a resident cat, Hodge. It is also common that a fox, nicknamed Richard, visits the garden. Not sure either keeps the cathedral mouse- or rat-free, or they are too full with treats from the congregation.

Southwark cathedral - outside and nave

Southwark Cathedral details

After the cathedral, I headed to the actual reason I was in Southwark, The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. The museum is located in the attic of a former church – in other to access it, you have to climb up a spiral staircase with 52 steps, up the bell tower. The church was attached to a medieval hospital, in whose attic (or garret) the apothecaries dried medicinal herbs and stored medicines. In 1822, this garret became an operating theatre, with a huge skylight built in order to let light in – we are talking about a time when surgery was performed without anaesthetics, painkillers or antibiotics. The hospital was abandoned some 40 years later, and the theatre was lost to time, until it was rediscovered in 1952 – it is considered the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe.

The museum has a small collection of pathology specimens, a bigger one of nightmarish medical tools, and a reconstruction of an apothecary shop, with a counter and a lot of herbs, and informative panels. Funnily enough, it also runs through the history of medicine, and the great London epidemics using… rubber duckies. Not collecting rubber duckies is becoming more and more difficult… Anyway, these particular rubber duckies have been painted and modelled over, and next to them there is a list of symptoms. From those, you need to diagnose the duckie with “silent killers of the past” – measles, tuberculosis, cholera…

The duckies were a good comic relief of sorts from the pathology collection and specimens, the pre-science artefacts, and the history underlying at the theatre itself. The theatre had several rows of stands where people watched / learnt from the operation while the patients were awake – allowing the procedures to be public was the only way poor people had access to medical treatment and the good surgeons. Honestly, the idea of surgery is scary enough, but just thinking about amputation without anaesthetics makes me shiver. Especially when you see what was used for it – basically a handsaw – with spectators.

The Old Operating Theatre and apothecary

It was still early afternoon, so I hopped onto the Underground towards Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. I had not seen The National Gallery London since I was a child, and I remembered next to nothing of it, so I wanted to revisit it. The National Gallery, in the City of Westminster borough, dates back from 1824, when the government bought 38 paintings from a private collector – and it has been continuously expanding since then. The current building was designed by William Wilkings in 1832, and opened in 1838. the collection comprises over 2,000 paintings by 750 artists, among them Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Tintoretto, Veronesse, El Greco, Caravaggio, Velázquez, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Canaletto, Goya, Constable, Delacroix, Degas, Monet, van Gogh…

Here’s the fun thing, I always thought I liked the impressionists, but it turns out that seeing Monet’s Water Lilies myself was rather underwhelming. Conversely, I found myself enjoying British landscapers a lot, especially Constable. I spent a few hours in here, looking for the masterpieces, but a lot of them were on loan to other sites.

National Gallery London

At one point I was taking a photograph and a gentleman thought he was on my way. When I reassured him he was not bothering me, he said something akin to “That’s because you’re a professional”. I wonder, a professional what? I was not carrying a camera or anything, just the phone…

I did a run throughout the whole gallery, and I was considering staying at the café for a bite, but… I was rather close to Leicester Square… so I thought I could walk there and check if I could have lunch at Coco Curry or somewhere in Chinatown. The line at Coco was rather short – surprisingly, since the Chinatown Coco is always pretty full. Thus, I decided to wait it out and have lunch there – after all, it is the “iconic” one, and the previous time I had only visited the Bond Street shop. I’m not sure when Coco became the feeling of a taste of Japan, but it is one of my favourite food places.

Coco Curry Leicester Square

I had a bit of extra time. Not much for exploring, too long to just stay at the restaurant. I wandered Chinatown a little, and then got to Leicester Square. I’ve been to the Lego store, and the M&Ms place, but there is also a tea boutique, the TWG Tea Shop which I had never stepped into. I did it this time, and I was really tempted by a few of the green teas in pretty tins. I however talked myself out of buying any, since it would be silly to take them to the concert, and if a water bottle is a hazard, I cannot imagine what would be thought of a metal box.

Instead, I headed back to Trafalgar Square and stepped into the church Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. This ancient church was rebuilt in the 1720s by James Gibbs – though it was originally “in the fields”, in the outskirts, by this time it was already part of the city. It is a simple rectangular nave with Corinthian columns and a vaulted ceiling. The church holds choir concerts every Sunday afternoon, and I sat there listening to the music for a bit. I then I headed off to Charing Cross to take the underground towards the venue and the surprise of my life.

The church of St Martin in the Fields

I arrived at The Garage for Kamijo’s Europa Tour 2024 “The Anthem” at 16:00 sharp thinking the queue would be assembling, but no. Apparently there was some “secret parallel queue” going on somewhere – there were between 40 and 50 people there already, so I only got the 18th place due to my type of ticket. I was a bit disappointed, but oh well, what can you do? Nothing any more, so I did not dwell on it. The promoter had actually sent a schedule in advance, saying that doors would be at 19:00 for the VVIPs and showtime at 20:30. Of course, it would not be followed, but it was good having an approximate timetable.

Queuing was okay, not extremely long since we actually went in around 18:30. There was a lady organising the line and giving out the numbers, and the venue staff were willing to go along that, so even if there was a “secondary queue”, there were no issues that I know of. The venue was a bit weird. There were a couple of stairs and a small hall before the actual concert hall. In that tiny hall, all painted black and stuck between the two fire doors, and under horrible lighting, stood Kamijo and his dazzling smile, ready for the meet and greets and pictures for the VVIPs and handshakes for the VIPs.

Kamijo The Anthem poster

I walked in, he gave me a warm smile, and said ‘bonjour’. I smiled back. I don’t know whether I’m getting old, or that sitting on the floor with Yoshiki was a game changer for my brain. And despite the fact that I’ve been neglecting my Japanese, I was able to convey my message. He was adorable. I said something like “There is no ‘I’ve missed you’ in Japanese, but it’s really been a long time.” A staff took our picture, he said thank you again, I said thank you back, then walked into the venue. I received my signed poster – a grey A4 signed in black. Apparently, gold or silver markers were out of the budget…

The barrier was almost completely full, but I was able to squeeze on the left, amongst the people I had queued with, closer to the centre of the stage than I had even hoped. Truth is that Kamijo tends to go to the right more often than to the left than the right, but since he holds his microphone with the left hand, you don’t see his face, so I was happy with my place. However, the hour and a half until concert started felt pretty long, since I was quite squeezed in. Maybe I should have sat, I don’t know. The concert started around 20:00, and it was no pictures of videos allowed.

The supporting musicians were Hiro on guitar – Hiro was also the guitar in La’cryma Christi, one of the most important V-kei bands in the 90s. Also on guitar came Yohio, a Swedish artist who managed to break into the Japanese scene a few years back – he actually got a lot of hate at the beginning, so good that he received some love. On bass came Ikuo (Bykk Zeichen 88, Rayflower), and on drums Ushi (Vorchaos). I’m not sure who the sound tech was, but he or she deserves to be yelled at – for about the first third of the concert Kamijo’s microphone was powerless, to the point that his voices was inaudible at times. There were a few songs I did not know (or was unable to identify due to the noise), amongst them the song that gives the tour its name: The Anthem.

Sound was so bad that at times I could not hear what Kamijo was saying, much less understand it. However, he sang two of my favourite songs, Moulin Rouge and Eye of Providence, and I was lucky enough that he repeated my favourite line twice. Despite my being amused by his idealisation of Napoleon, there is a line in Sang I (it took me stupidly long to realise that sang is French for ‘blood’) that resonates a lot with me: ‘Just like flying with the wind: no pain, only gain’. He started the song and interrupted himself halfway to make the musicians greet the audience in English. He either forgot he was going to do an emcee, or since he said it was his favourite song, he wanted to sing it twice.

He had fun, and unlike other times I’ve seen him, he indulged in a lot of “fan service” with the musicians, which sent the crowd screaming. Aside from the sound issue, there was one other hiccup during the concert. At one point Kamijo tripped over a wire, stumbled and ended up almost sitting down on the drums, but he did not fall, which was good.

Setlist:
1. 闇夜のライオン (Yamiyo no lion)
2. Conspiracy
emcee, with Kamijo saying he was glad to be back in London, and inviting the audience to go to Paris with him.
3. Moulin Rouge
4. The Anthem
5. Louis 〜艶血のラヴィアンローズ〜 (Louis ~Enketsu no la vie en rose)
6. 運命 (Unmei)
7. Eye of Providence
8. Habsburg
9. mademoiselle
10. CRIMSON FAMILY
11. Castrato
12. Beautiful Rock’n Roll
13. 薔薇は美しく散る (Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru; song by Lareine, Kamijo’s first band)
14. Sang I & emcee, where the musicians said what the tour had meant for them
15. Sang II
16. Nosferatu
emcee
17. Avec toi〜君と共に〜
18. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 1
19. Throne
20. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 2
21. Vampire Rock Star

During the emcees Kamijo said that he was glad to be back to Europe / the UK, and that he was especially happy to be in London. He talked about how great the tour had been, and how amazing an audience we were – though he tells that to everyone anyway. All in all, I had a lot of fun, enjoyed myself, clapped during mademoiselle and even jumped (once, I’m not that crazy) during Vampire Rockstar. Whenever his musicians or himself sing / yell the chorus, the words ‘vampire rockstar’ come out as ‘vampire lobster’. This time, he made the audience yell them all, so considering this was London, it sounded correctly for once.

Snippets pre and post Kamijo's The Anthem concert

After the concert, which lasted a bit over two hours, I bought a sandwich at the open-late supermarket next to The Garage, and headed to the hotel for a shower and sleep. I kind of… forgot to go to bed though. God, I love concert highs, as short as they are. It is always hard to come back to reality, but there was still half a day before that.

12th – 14th October 2023: Yoshiki Classical World Tour “REQUIEM”, London (England, Great Britain)

Posted on 1 November 2023 by JBinnacle

This was my third and last trip to London in these five crazy weeks, and it was again to see Yoshiki. Someone once told me that I love Yoshiki because he appeals to both my wild and posh sides – it is partially true, I guess. It has a lot to do with how many of his lyrics resonate with me, more deeply than I am comfortable admitting sometimes.

I don’t think I would have travelled twice so close in time for any other artist. And believe me, organising this trip was a logistics nightmare. In other circumstances I would have flown out the same day of the event, which was Friday the 13th, but I don’t think that airports in the UK have completely recovered from the Covid chaos, and there are still a bunch of issues – just the previous week to my arrival, a good number of flights were cancelled in Gatwick. Second, the 12th is a holiday where I live, and since it was a Thursday, it kickstarted a long weekend. And last but not least, the 12th is also my parent’s birthday, and they were excited for a big celebratory lunch.

Taking all this into account, I tried to coordinate everything the best I could without breaking the bank. I found the last plane leaving on Thursday the 12th, at 21:50. That gave me time to have lunch at my parents’, then drive off past 19:00 – there should not be too much traffic. I booked the parking lot – the shuttle runs every 15 minutes in the evenings. In the worst case scenario, if my flight was cancelled or too delayed, there was space to manoeuvre on Friday morning. The plane was scheduled to arrive in London Gatwick close to midnight, but I was quite sure it would be delayed, and in order to avoid late-night trains and stress, I reserved a hotel next to the airport terminal – I did not have to worry about dinner as my parents make food to feed a small army. For the following night, I found a “boutique hotel” next to the venue. I booked my return flight on Saturday the 14th in order to avoid the end-of-weekend traffic that would concentrate on Sunday.

Great plan. In the end, something happened and the celebration had to be postponed, so I spent the evening watching the clock, and checking and rechecking both the weather forecast and my luggage – finding something to wear that was nice and still weather-appropriate was difficult. I changed my mind regarding footwear about six times.

Around 19:00 on the 12th, I finally drove to the airport. Considering that the forecast was rain both at home and at London, I took boots in the end, but more comfy shoes for driving. I reached the parking lot and airport a bit earlier than expected, and I found a nice covered spot for the car – which I had to check that it was not reserved a few times. As I entered the international terminal, I was disoriented for a second – since I usually take planes before 7:00, I had not seen the shops open for a long time! It turns out there is a Duty Free just after passport control which I had not even realised before, and that threw me off track for a heartbeat or two.

I had some dinner at one of the fast food stands, and as expected, the plane was delayed. Then it needed an engineer. Then it taxied forever. And after almost two hours of delay, the two-hour-and-a-bit flight to Gatwick was cut short – we landed not even ten minutes late, so we flew the route in a little over an hour. I never knew you could step on it so bad on a plane! I went through passport control and found my hotel – just outside the North Terminal, and much closer than I had calculated. Gatwick was also crazy busy even if it was nearly midnight.

I checked in, and I was surprised that even though it was the same chain I had stayed at next to the O2 Academy Islington, the procedure was completely different. But it went without a hitch, and I was in bed within thirty minutes. I even caught some sleep. For some reason they gave me a room with a sofa-bed aside the regular one.

Leaving in the morning was a bit more complicated. After a much-needed caffeine boost at Costa Coffee, I took the inner airport shuttle from the North to the South Terminal, where the train station is. From there, I found my connection to central London. The good thing is that Gatwick trains belong to a regular line, so they do not require a special ticket, you can use the Oyster card, which I did. The shuttle and train went through awful weather, but when I reached London, rain and wind had calmed down a little. I wanted to leave my things at the hotel because of the bad weather and not to go into any museums with the backpack – just in case. The nice person doing my check in was very stressed that I might want my room – it was before 10:00 for a 15:00 hour check-in. I really just wanted them to hold my luggage. After that was successful, my next step was finding a bank that would exchange a handful of old pounds for new ones. In the end, train, underground, hotel and bank took a bit longer than I had expected and I was running a bit behind my self-imposed schedule.

My first stop was Sir John Soane’s Museum. Sir John Soane was a neoclassical architect – he worked in the remodelling of the Palace of Westminster, but his most prominent legacy is his house-museum. He bought a couple of attached houses in the centre of London, and combined them both as an architecture experiment and to host his collection of antiquities, copies, paintings, and pieces of architectural interest. There was a special Act of Parliament to establish the museum while Soane was still alive, stating that after his death the houses should be kept as they were, to avoid his son selling the collection, as some of pieces were / are worth a fortune. For reference, one of the most important artefacts hosted there is the sarcophagus of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I (Second Dynasty). Adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni tried to sell the piece to the British Museum after taking it from the Valley of the Kings in Thebes. The Museum was not willing to pay what today would equate to almost £200,000, but Soane bought it in 1817 to exhibit it in the basement “sepulchral chamber”, where it still stands today.

Entry to the museum is free, but you are requested to purchase the guide for £3, which I did. The first area you visit is the lovely library, and then you step into the real treasure – the area comprised by “the dome”, “the colonnade” and “the corridors”, where literally hundreds of sculptures, friezes, amphorae, decorative pieces… pile up on one another to the point that everything is overwhelming and fantastically chaotic. Wherever you look, there is something else to notice – whether it is Apollo, a copy of the Farnese Hercules, a pegasus… Then you go down to the basement, and both the “catacombs” and the “sepulchral chamber” are equally cluttered – a pair of Chinese guardian lion-dogs, Aphrodite bathing, a Poseidon head, and of course Seti I’s alabaster sarcophagus, encased in glass, which sucks for pictures but protects it in the super-tight space.

Artefacts at Sir Soane Museum

Sarcophagus of Seti I in Sir Soane Museum

Other spaces include the kitchen – which feels strangely empty in comparison– the drawing rooms on the first floor, and the picture room on the ground floor – with some of Canaletto’s Venetian landscapes, and drawings of ancient monuments. All in all, whenever you blinked, you missed a detail. It was almost stressful, but an amazing place to visit.

Afterwards, I met up with fellow Yoshiki fans A****d and A**i, at the British Museum. They were going there first thing, and we had arranged to get together around noon, but I ran a bit late and only reached them around 12:20. Through that time, they went through the must-dos. We met at the Ancient Middle East and saw a few exhibits about the history of money, one on clocks, Roman Britain, the library… They asked me if there was anything I recommended, and we went past the Moai so I could show them one of my favourite sculptures ever – the Bodhisattva Guanyin [觀音 in Chinese], associated with compassion, in the Chinese Art Gallery. Guanyin sits with one leg up in a very relaxed and informal position compared to other Buddhist imagery, and I just adore this wooden representation.

Artefacts in the British Museum

Around 14:00, we went out for lunch. We tried an okonomiyaki place near the British Museum, but it was unfortunately full, and both my friends had had CoCo Curry the previous night. We walked into Chinatown and we found a self-proclaimed izakaya Japanese restaurant called Oita (Soho). I ordered sushi bento for £16.95, which at first felt a bit expensive, but I had forgotten British-sized servings. It was actually very proportionate size-wise, and came with complimentary miso soup. The bento (“boxed lunch”) itself comprised a small salad, seven pieces of assorted raw fish on sushi rice (tuna, salmon, butterfish, mackerel, squid, prawn and octopus – these last two were no raw, actually), four assorted nigiri (tuna, salmon, butterfish, mackerel), three salmon sashimi, two tuna sashimi, three avocado hosomaki, and some garnishing including cucumber, radish and alfalfa, along with pickled ginger and wasabi. It was really good.

Oita Soho sushi bento

The three of us separated after lunch to go to our hotels and get ready. On my way, I bought a sandwich and a bottle of water from a supermarket to have for the night, and decided to take a shower before changing into concert gear. When I reached my hotel, they showed me around, and told me my luggage was in the room – which it was not. I had to come down again to get it, which embarrassed the staff a lot. The room was posh to the max – I even had a bed with a canopy! Apparently, boutique hotels are “small hotels with a personality” that try to “tailor the experience to the customer”. For me, a hotel is just a place to sleep in, so I’m just happy with them being safe and clean. I can do without the personality, the steeper price, and the surprise extra service charge.

I reserved the hotel through Booking, and they got in touch that they wanted payment outside the page. I dislike this, but it is not unheard from. I needed to demand my payment receipt, too, because the page did not generate any. Later, they tried to charge me through Booking again (though in their “defence” this might have been a Booking issue, as it has been hacked). In the end, the image I got from them was that of an overpriced wannabe high-end hotel, but there were too many blunders to consider coming back if I can help it.

At least, the hotel fulfilled the one reason I had chosen it – it was a short walk from the Royal Albert Hall. Considering how badly I felt after the Miyavi concert a couple of weeks before, I was a bit apprehensive this was going to be too much. It was, but not in the worse sense of the word. The recital was emotionally hard on me, as I tend to connect a bit too much with Yoshiki’s music, but fortunately I did not take ill this time around.

I was deeply moved when I attended the first Yoshiki Classical concert in Paris in 2014, but this time my mind was absolutely blown. Back in May, in a moment of fanby weakness, I decided to buy RAH membership (£55) in order to get access to the presale. Despite that, I only managed a sixth-row seat to the side – Arena F – Row 6, Seat 27 (£60). These were sent by post and arrived in physical form in late July. I decided on this delivery method because even if the tickets did not arrive on time, or got lost, I still had the option of “will call” with my ID and the card used for purchase (of course, my bank decided to cancel my cards meanwhile and get me new ones, so I’ve been running around with both working and not-working cards in my wallet for the last couple of months).

Having a RAH account also meant that I was notified about a “Yoshiki meet and greet VIP package” within minutes of its release, which included an exclusive opportunity to meet Yoshiki after the concert in the 1871 Bar, a photo opportunity with Yoshiki, and a piece of merchandise for signing (£150) – I booked it as soon as the email came through, and I think I was the 10th person to buy the upgrade. These tickets were supposed to arrive by post, too, but the venue changed them to e-tickets the week before the show – when I was already antsy about them arriving – “will call” was still an option, but I was restless.

Around 18:15 I left the hotel to walk to the venue to meet A****d and A**i. The Royal Albert Hall is one of the most famous concert venues in the United Kingdom. It was world’s first domed amphitheatre, designed by two civil engineers, Francis Fowke and Henry Y.D. Scott, and inaugurated by Queen Victoria in 1871. The outer structure is built in Fareham Red brick with a mosaic frieze that represents the arts and sciences, and the roof is a glass and wrought-iron dome. It has several halls and a corridor surrounding the amphitheatre, with several bars and other hospitality offerings.

The three of us walked around and found the merch stand, which was a bit underwhelming – two short-sleeve T-shirt models, and a tote bag. I kind of regret not getting the tote now, but I felt I had already spent too much money. A****d was sitting next to me, and A**i just a couple of rows behind. However, upon being shown to the amphitheatre when doors opened around 18:45 for the 19:30 concert, my brain shortcut. Rows 1 to 5 were inexistent. My row 6 ticket was a first row ticket. I was first row for a Yoshiki concert!

Fine, to the side and with some camera equipment in between, but I was first row for a Yoshiki concert. In particular, for Yoshiki’s Yoshiki Classical 10th Anniversary World Tour with Orchestra 2023 “REQUIEM” on the 13th of October 2023.

Yoshiki Requiem Poster 2023

Most seats had a small booklet, and since mine did not, I decided to “steal” it from a still-empty seat – I’m selfish, sue me. Once my brain settled down enough to take everything in, there were two things I noticed – one, that the grand piano in the centre of the stage was not Yoshiki’s trademark glass piano, and two, that his drum set was there. This was not a huge surprise as he had hinted it during the Q&A in September that he wanted to do something with it. We passed the time looking at people come in, being impressed at how fancy some people dressed, meeting other friends, and taking photographs in front of the stage.

Inside the Royal Albert Hall

The concert / recital was intense. Most of the music played had been composed by Yoshiki himself either for his different collaborations or for X Japan. Vocals were entrusted to pop singer Beverly [ビバリー] and soprano Ai Ichihara [市原愛]. Special guests St.Vincent and Ellie Goulding sang their own songs. The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra was conducted by Ward Stare. Ballet dancers from Jlee Productions performed on stage during Forever Love and Swan Lake..

Setlist:

Part 1
   1. Amethyst (orchestra alone)
   2. Tears
   3. Angel
   4. Miracle with Ai Ichihara
   5. Forever Love
   6. Kiss the Sky with Beverly
   7. Anniversary
Part 2:
   8. Drum improvisation while the orchestra played Serenade for Strings (by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) and Symphony No. 3 (by Henryk Gorecki) and Ai Ichihara on vocals
   9. Say anything
   10. Swan Lake (by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
   11. New York by and with St.Vincent
   12. Love me like you do by and with Ellie Goulding
   13. Red Swan with Beverly
   14. Requiem
   15. Without you
   16. OPUS 13 in A-minor (by Felix Mendelssohn)
   17. Art of Life (second and third movements)
   18. Endless Rain

Although the auditorium opened later than it was supposed to, the concert started almost punctual, a bit past 19:30 – which for Yoshiki is a miracle of ontimeness. He had probably done all his interviews the month before. Director Ward Stare came on stage and the orchestra played Amethyst as warm-up – this is the song that was usually heard at the start X Japan’s concerts, before members came in. Yoshiki walked on stage to play piano from the second song on, Tears. The tour title Requiem comes from the song Yoshiki wrote to honour his mother after she passed – he was understandably devastated, and it made sense to start the show with Tears.

Yoshiki playing piano at Royal Albert Hall

Throughout the concert, he alternated piano-playing and talking – most of the talks we had heard before, but a few were new to me. He told us that when he felt that he had managed a great achievement his mother used to bring him back to earth with questions like “have you eaten?” or “did you sleep?”. He explained that she really praised him when he composed Anniversary for former Emperor Akihito. We also had some promotion of the Under the Sky film, and Yoshiki’s champagne line, along with a recap of him being honoured in LA’s Chinese Theatre. There was also some “thank you to my sponsors” talk, and he might have said “amazing” around a thousand and three times.

The first part went more or less as expected – except for the ballet dancers. I did not think we would get them, but I am not going to complain. I did miss Hero, because I really enjoy listening to that one live, but something had to be taken out to accommodate the songs by the special guests. Some people say that he talks too much, but I think that he’s just trying to catch a breather – both physical and emotional. At one point he spoke about an “X Japan song that we would never really hear”, which was heartbreaking. There is a difference between knowing that there won’t ever be any X Japan ever again, and having it confirmed. Both in September and now, we’ve heard him openly say things that usually went only implied, which I think means that we are in a new stage of his artistic career / life.

Yoshiki Royal Albert Hall with orchestra and ballet dancers

For the second act, he pushed himself even harder with a drum solo to start off. He always smashes the drums as if he were trying to get a confession out of them – it is like he has so much anger inside him and the drums are his only way to release it. In a way, it probably is – he always says that he turned to drumming to deal with his father’s suicide, and that is how he expresses himself. But then he goes back to the piano, and it feels that the keys are crying with him.

The acts with St.Vincent and Ellie Goulding, in my opinion, were more promotional than anything else. Both are well-known and established in their own niches – and Yoshiki likes female singing voices because they can hit high notes better, I think – though I miss Katie Fitzgerald and Ashley Knight, to be honest. St.Vincent was okay, Ellie Goulding left me wondering… what she was doing there. Apparently the pinnacle of her career until now has been composing Love me like you do for the film Fifty shades of grey… And I hate to be that person, but both of them could have chosen way better outfits.

The titular song, Requiem, was extremely poignant. It was the piece Yoshiki wrote to deal with his feelings for his dead mother, in his own words, the means he found to stop crying for her loss. Just like he took to drumming after his father’s death, he took to composing after his mother passed. Later, he explained again how the song Red Swan symbolises standing up through the pain and the blood. The original version of this song is sung by vocalist Hyde, and since he was bringing in people from all around the globe, I would have been extremely happy if he had flown him in for it, and I was hopeful for about one tenth of a heartbeat. Unfortunately, you cannot have everything.

Throughout the recital there were sad moments and happy moments, to thank fans, and to remember those who are gone, moments with ballet dancers and with the torch on the phone on, moments to sing and to laugh, and to feel your heart shrink. In the end, Endless Rain with all the audience was extremely special – it never feels that it is going to be, I keep thinking “this time it’s not going to affect me this much”, but it gets me every time.

Yoshiki talking at the Royal Albert Hall

In the end, the show lasted for about three hours, plus a twenty-minute intermission. He thanked the conductor, the orchestra and dancers and the guests, and received lots of flower bouquets. Next to me, A****d managed to give him a Union Jack with a small EU flag sewn into it, which he proudly wore around his shoulders. It’s fun how he is such a huge super star and then he becomes all shy and embarrassed. Or he just… crashes.

Yoshiki with the Union Jack flag, Royal Albert Hall

After the concert was over, we said goodbye to A**i and, A****d and I made our way to the 1871 Bar, where the Post Show Meet & Greet Experience was to take place. We went to one of the doors, but of course then we needed to go to the other one. Eventually we got in, and rather quickly – I was the 20th person in the queue, and got to wait inside the bar. It was upholstered in blue, turquoise and green tones, with the most garish decoration I’ve seen in my life, including mirrors, golden wallpaper, bright plastic deer heads (better than real ones but still gaudy), lava lamps… There were about… four or five sofas, and the whole floor was carpeted in reddish and green / grey tones.

I was a bit nervous – waiting to meet an artist is actually the worst moment of queueing, I feel. To be honest, the first time I saw Yoshiki in person in 2017, my brain went 404 on me and I was not able to utter a word, though in Vienna I did a bit better and got a selfie. I was shaking so badly it came out horrible and moved.

As we were waiting, a staff member came to tell us that we could talk to Yoshiki a little, and that they would take our pictures with him and email the link to us. He explained that Yoshiki had just played a three-hour show and that he was bound to be tired – and how amazing he was. We smirked that we knew that already – most of us were not local, after all. Meanwhile, lights were set up, and signed posters brought out.

Yoshiki arriving for the M&G in the 1871 Bar at the Royal Albert Hall

Once he came in, we clapped and then everything went very fast and very slow at the same time. Everyone got to talk to him a little indeed, ask for an autograph or give him a present. Some people conjure amazing gifts for artists, but I never bring anything for them, because I feel it’s imposing and they don’t need any junk I could get them. However, I was clutching my bad selfie print-out, running through my head what to say. It was finally my turn, and then something I could have never prepared for happened – he declared that he was tired and just sat down on the floor. Not one of sofas. Yoshiki, superstar, just plopped down on the garish carpet of the bar at the Royal Albert Hall.

I have no idea how or why but my brain kicked into gear at that point. Before the staff could react in any way, I asked Yoshiki if it was all right to sit down on the carpet with him – I really did not know if he wanted to have his picture taken on the floor. I’m not sure if the staff and the aides knew what to do, but when he said it was all right, I approached and sat – A****d had stayed behind and was able to document the whole thing, apparently I sat in the proper traditional Japanese way for the conversation.

I thanked him for his music, and told him how his lyrics helped me feel better after a bad situation. Then I asked him to sign the “horrible selfie” – I actually said this – from Vienna. He thanked me for coming back, and I said “no, thank you for coming back”. The whole thing was absolutely surreal. There we were, sitting on the carpet of the Royal Albert Hall, surrounded by dumbfounded staff and… sofas. Photographer Andy Paradise took our picture, and what I saw when I looked at the camera was the photographer crouching, the video-camera person kneeling, someone else also crouching down, and a fourth person coming in with a chair (despite… sofas). I said thank you again, and dragged myself away – the guy whose turn it was behind me also sat down on the floor.

A****d and I got our signed posters, while I clutched to my now autographed bad Vienna selfie, and left the venue. Some people asked questions on the way out, and we explained how it went. When we came out, it was cold, so damn cold. My hotel was a block over, so I asked reception to order a taxi for A****d, and we parted ways, hoping to see each other soon.

I went up to my room to take my third shower of the day, and have my snack. I was so overwhelmed, it was hard to sleep. It was also stupidly cold because unbeknownst to me, I had not closed the window well, and there was an open crack. I burrowed under the bed covers, a towel and a bathrobe, and got some rest.

The next morning, I made myself a hot instant coffee to start off the day, but it did not do much to get my blood pressure up. I vacated the room around 9:00 after asking the hotel to keep my luggage – but considering what had happened the previous day, I made sure I had all the important things with me. I had a nice plan for the day, but I decided to discard it last minute because underground disruptions had escalated – it was not worth it to get stressed due to commuting issues having alternative things to do. Seeing the first red phone cabin will have to wait for another time.

It was still extremely cold when I stepped out. First, I went to see the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, and I crossed to Hyde Park. I also found the Monument to Livingstone. I went around the Royal Albert Hall, and a bit before 10:00, I joined the queue to enter the Victoria and Albert Museum. Whenever I am in Kensington, I always get distracted by the Natural History Museum, so I had forfeited the V&A for a while now. Today was the day to finally explore it.

The Albert Memorial

Royal Albert Hall from the outside

Founded in 1852, the V&A is one of the largest museums in the world – it’s actually the largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design. It covers 51,000 square metres, with 145 galleries and almost three million individual items in its permanent collection. It is a chaotic museum, and yet, it makes sense. The museum is organised by “themes” such as Buddhism, England Middle Ages, metalwork, porcelain, glass, Baroque sculpture… I tried to see things in some kind of logical order, but it was pretty much impossible. Apparently they tried to rearrange it a while back and they just… gave up, as it would diffuse expert knowledge. I found this very interesting, but since this was my plan B, I did not really have time to plan the visit very thoroughly.

Before diving into the galleries, I headed over to the museum café for a gigantic tea-infused scone with jam and proper clotted cream, and a mug of coffee, and sat down at the Gamble Room. When it opened in 1868, it was the first museum café in the world. It is decorated with tiles imitating the Italian Renaissance majolica tiles, columns, golden ceilings, and weirdly modern lamps. After breakfast, I felt a bit more grounded, though I felt a bit off all day.

Scone and coffee at the Gambler Room in the V&A museum

I roamed around the museum for a few hours, and I know that I missed some important areas. I found it difficult to keep track of where I was and where I wanted to go, but I got a bit of a taste of all. I was very impressed by the Cast Courts, where copies of some of the most iconic pieces of architecture and sculpture are kept. These were made in the 19th century, and represent “the truest spirit of the Victorian museum.”

Artefacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum

On the ground floor, I wandered the Korea, Japan, China and Buddhism galleries, and I came across another depiction of Bodhisattva Guanyin, in the same pose but a completely different artistic style. I saw the largest Middle East and Islamic Art collection in Europe, and the adjacent galleries –South Asia (especially India) and South East Asia had a lot of interesting artefacts, too. The sculpture galleries are tantalising.

Other areas I visited included Medieval and Renaissance, Britain though history, ironwork, metalware, gold, silver, ceramics, glassware, jewellery, stained glass, architecture, and I could have gone on and on. But alas, I had a plane to catch.

Artefacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria & Albert Museum

Around 13:00, I left the museum, collected my luggage, and made my way to South Kensington Station amidst the Tube closures of the lines that would take me directly to Victoria. A while back, I had to take a similar alternative route from Earl’s Court due to the wires overheating when I was going to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to watch Wicked. The South Kensington station runs the same Tube lines, so I was able to reach Victoria railroad station at the desired time – even with a line change and more than double stops. I was off towards Gatwick airport on the expected train.

Once there, I went through security without a hitch. I had a snack in the most expensive and unfriendly Wagamama in history – give me Stansted’s Itsu anytime. I wanted something warm because my body gets weird after emotional highs, and I was freezing. I even wondered if I was taking ill again, but no. I was just cold. I did not let either the restaurant nor the chill spoil my mood though, and I might even have had a nap on the plane. By the time I got off, I had warmed up. I cleared passport control, found my shuttle to the parking lot and – aside from the inevitable idiot on the road – there was not even that much traffic, which is good. You know the routine – shower, snack, bed.

I was not ill in the end, just stupidly exhausted. Going back to normal was quite difficult, especially as I still had Sunday free. I did not ever dare look at my phone to see if the photographs were real. A few days later, on the 18th, we received the email with the meet & greet professional photos. I look ridiculously happy, sitting on the carpet ,with a sofa behind me, with who is probably my favourite artist. I feel a bit guilty that I burdened him with my problems – I really hope he forgot quickly. Nevertheless, I am mostly glad that I was able to take these three crazy trips to London without incident. I feel extremely lucky that all three of them worked out, if not flawlessly, without any huge mishap. There is actually another Yoshiki event announced for December, but as much as I would love to go, it is just not in the budget, and I am a bit sad about that. But then I think “I sat with Yoshiki on the carpet of the Royal Albert Hall” and smile.

2nd October 2023: Miyavi’s “Return of the Samurai Guitarist: 20th & Beyond European Tour 2023” {Miyavi in London 2023}

Posted on 17 October 2023 by JBinnacle

When planning this London trip, I booked two hotels – a bed and breakfast for a lower price for the first night, and a more expensive one next to the venue for the night after the concert – I like staying as close to venues as possible, and the second hotel was literally next building over. I woke up on Monday around 7:00, and it took me 20 to 30 minutes to pack all my things. Since breakfast was included, I accepted the challenge of a full English breakfast. I drew my line at tea though. I love tea but I’m a caffeine addict anyway. I need my boost in the morning.

Though London’s public transport was going through a strike period, I was very lucky with both trains and underground – actions and closures were planned for both the day before I arrived, and the day after I left. I took the Northern Line, and headed off to the O2 Academy Islington to wait for the start of the concert. The venue is part of a shopping arcade, so there were readily available toilets and even better, we could wait under cover. This was great as , as there was a forecast of thunderstorms – which ended up breaking around 17:00. The queue was nothing out of the ordinary, I was the fourth VIP to arrive, and the fifth person overall when I reached the area around 9:15.

Miyavi [雅] was born Ishihara Takamasa [石原崇雅] is, above all, a guitarist. He was born in 1981 and debuted in 1999, going solo in 2002, aside from doing collaborations with some of the musicians I follow – Yoshiki and Hyde. Miyavi’s concerts are extremely fun, he is full of energy and he sometimes greets fans one by one when he arrives at venues. He is in general a good person, and a volunteer at UNHCR. He has had small roles in American blockbusters such as Kong: Skull Island and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He is really kind during M&Gs too, and one of the few Japanese artists who actually means “world tour” when he announces a world tour. This time he toured Europe and China tour, a continuation of his 2022 North America tour – this leg was called Return of the Samurai Guitarist: 20th & Beyond European Tour 2023.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist European Tour poster

After around 500 bus manoeuvres and 90 minutes of waiting, we saw him come into the venue around 13:30. The staff filmed, and he waved and said “thanks for coming.” Other times he has shaken hands and stayed for a chat, but I guess he was tired. He was coming directly from Paris after the concert there the evening before. I’m getting too old for queuing all day though, because even if it did not feel extremely long, I was a bit queasy and headachy all day – there would be a full-blown migraine coming at night but, oh well.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London arrival

Around 15:00, the venue’s crowd management staff decided to rearrange the queue. I had a VIP ticket with included a picture, a pass and a “special present” – which turned out to be a wristband. When buying the ticket, the 25 first purchases had an extra autographed picture, but my Ticketmaster decided to freak out and I did not get that one. Oh well. Anyway, security decided to break the queue into two – one for VIP and Early Entry, the other one for General Audience. This caused a bit of a problem when the VIP tickets had to be read, but at that point I was already safely checked in. The worst was the way the placed the barriers, so sitting down on their supporting structure was awkward. Better that than standing though, as that would have to happen later, once in the venue.

Once the queue was rearranged, around 16:00, I snuck out to go to the hotel and check in. They gave me a “superior” room which was nice and had pretty views, but the bathroom smelled of sewer – as bathrooms near tidal areas sometimes do. I ate a snack and went back to the queue.

VIPs were admitted a bit after 18:00, with disabled VIP ticket-holders coming in first. There was a lot of trouble with the merch shop as they would not take card and they had no change. I did not want to buy anything, so I went straight to the M&G. After the people around me realised that if they stayed back, they would lose their spot, they quickly rearranged themselves back in the queue. I was happy to let the people who had waited in front of me pass – all three of them.

When it was my turn to see Miyavi, I told him a secret – that he reminds me that good things exist in the world. He said thank you. I am horrible at selfies, so I handed my phone to the staff, and they were happy to take two of them. Afterwards, I went into the venue and found my spot at the barrier, centre but a bit to the right – which was apparently an amazing place for pictures, considering that I had the photographers in front of me through most of the concert. Early Entry came in after all the M&Gs were done, and GA were let in at 19:00. The concert started at 20:00 sharp.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London Rocking out

Setlist:

   1. Selfish Love
   2. WHAT’S MY NAME?
   3. SURVIVE
   4. Ahead of the Light
   5. So On It
   6. In Crowd
   7. Secret
   8. Cry Like This
   9. Tears on Fire
   10. Long Nights
   11. Under the Same Sky (Unplugged)
   12. 君に願いを [Kimi ni Negai wo] (Unplugged)
   13. Girls, be ambitious
   14. 陽の光さえ届かないこの場所で [Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho de]
   15. 咲き誇る華のように -Neo Visualizm- [Sakihokoru Hana no You Ni -Neo Visualizm-]
   16. Fire Bird
   17. New Gravity
   18. Bang!
   19. No Sleep Till Tokyo
   20. Horizon
Encore:
   21. 愛しい人 [Itoshii Hito]
   22. Under the Same Sky
   23. The Others
   24. DAY 1

The concert was extremely fun, as it usually is with Miyavi. As the tour is a bit of an anniversary celebration, he sang a lot of his older songs, along with newer ones. He jumped and twirled and rolled on the floor. He also had moments to sit down and a give us acoustics. At some point, one of his guitars malfunctioned and he went “I guess we’re chilling now.” He spoke about his work with refugees and how he does not understand the British accent to save his life – despite having lived in the US for years. He said that he enjoys being in the country where rock was born. He also said that he had played the venue before – his phone remembered the Wi-Fi password.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London, sitting down and talking

We had an improvised song at the beginning of the encore, since the audience requested Itoshii Hito. He remembered it, unlike when he was forced to google Señor Señora Señorita in Barcelona (2019). Despite being visibly tired when he arrived – and according to the Instagram story getting lost in the venue – he gave his all in the concert, and I am grateful for that. He indeed reminds me that there are good things in the world. At the end of the concert, he was given a Union Jack that he wrapped around his shoulders.

20231002 Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London with the Union Jack bowing

Exit was chaotic due to the problems with merchandising continuing. I would have liked to stay to stay and say goodbye, but I crashed after the concert was over – my headache got worse, and I was really nauseous. I bought some food to take to the room and headed back to the hotel to eat it, take my medication, have a shower, and get rid of the contact lenses. I went to bed as soon as I had finished and, and slept from midnight to around 5:00, when I woke up, vomited dinner – I hope not too much of the medication – and tried to get some more rest. I think I did sleep a bit further, but I’m not sure.

11th & 12th September 2023: 23h 45min in London (England) for Yoshiki’s “Under the Sky”

Posted on 20 September 2023 by JBinnacle

Considering that Japanese musician Yoshiki recently got his hand- and footprints enshrined at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, I guess he’s not one of my obscure artists any more. Yoshiki is a Japanese drummer and classically-trained pianist who, alongside vocalist ToshI, founded the band X Japan in 1982. They started as a heavy metal band, and eventually shifted over towards progressive rock. Their flashy looks probably gave way to what is now called Visual Kei (V-kei) [V系], though they had dropped them in the mid 1990s, before they disbanded when vocalist ToshI left the band basically to join a cult. In 2007, X Japan reunited.

Yoshiki, born Hayashi Yoshiki [林佳樹], is considered one of the most influential Japanese artists of all times. Aside from a musician, he is also a songwriter, composer, producer, and fashion designer. He collaborated with Stan Lee for a special four-issue comic collection called Blood Red Dragon, and with international musicians and bands such as Bono (U2), Roger Taylor and Brian May (Queen), KISS, and Sarah Brightman. He composed the theme of the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, worked on the soundtrack of Saw IV, and has composed music for anime such as Saint Seiya and Attack on Titan. Within Japan, aside from tons of collaborations and solo works, he became “mainstream” when he played a concert to honour former Emperor Akihito upon the tenth anniversary of his enthronement in 1999. He also has a Hello Kitty line named and modelled after him, Yoshikitty. And I’ve been using one of his songs as my alarm clock since roughly 2010 (since 2015 it is Born to be free).

Back in 2017, Yoshiki hosted a Q&A in several cities throughout the world, including Vienna (Austria) for special showings of his documentary film on X Japan. The documentary should have premiered in the scheduled March 2016 concert, but when that was postponed, the film went on to be shown at different events festival. When I went to Vienna, I had already travelled to see it in X Japan concert in London and the Beefeater In-Edit festival in Barcelona (and owned the blu-ray).

In 2020, as the Covid-pandemic lockdowns eased up, Yoshiki organised an online concert on a bunch of rooftops, connecting with different artists and having others over, to celebrate his birthday on the 20th of November . Now, he has made a documentary out of the event, called Yoshiki: Under the Sky, which has “premiered” four times, the third of them in London on 11th September 2023. As the London announcement only came mid-August, it was a challenge to get everything running, but I managed to find doable flights and a hotel near the venue. I was able to buy a second-row seat for the cinema, which was pretty good too.

On the 11th of September, trying not to reflect too much on the date, I left the house around 5:00, and right as I merged into the motorway, it started pouring. There was more traffic than usual because the plane was an hour later, but I managed to make it to the airport a bit before the time I had booked to enter the parking lot – yay accuracy. I went through security and passport control without issues, and had to walk to the end of the terminal for my flight, which was also uneventful. Upon landing at London Stansted Airport, we had to wait for a bus because the escalators were broken or something, but I was outside around 9:30. I bought breakfast at Costa Coffee, and settled to wait for a friend I had met in Vienna, A****d. Her flight was due half an hour after mine, so we had decided to hang out for the day. She agreed to tag along to the Natural History Museum – I wanted to go back to the the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary #NHMxJURASSIC store before it closes down at the end of the month. I really really wanted the rubber ducky cosplaying as a velociraptor, but I feared that if I got that one, I would end wanting to collect rubber duckies… I bought get a limited-edition “opening weekend ticket”, which had been out of my budget on my previous visit, and a titanosaur coin that I had not seen when I visited the exhibit.

A****d had never been to the museum, so we took a tour of the highlights – dinosaurs (of course) and other fossils, the “journey inside the earth” (escalator that goes into the inner core of the planet), the historical building, and Cadogan gallery… Unfortunately, the hall of mammals had recently closed for renovations, so we could not visit that one.

Natural History Museum London

Afterwards, we took the underground and got off at Leicester Square to have a late lunch in Chinatown. We found a little place for lunch. I ordered some rice and duck, which was nice but the duck had a lot of shattered bones. We looked for a place she had known that sold ice cream taiyaki, but sadly we did not find it.

London Chinatown

We located the cinema where the film was showing, Odeon London Covent Garden, but there was nothing going on yet, there was not even a poster announcing the film. After taking pictures, we continued down the block to snoop around the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, one of the biggest comic, manga and related merchandise shops in the world. Luckily, they had few things I wanted badly, and the ones they did were stupidly expensive, so I was able to get away with all my money, yay me!

A****d had decided that she would go back to the airport after the film, but I had taken a hotel a few minutes away from the cinema, right in front of the university and a few minutes away from the British Museum. I dropped by to check in, then we backtracked to Leicester Square as the museum was already closing for the day at 17:00. As we walked by the cinema, they were setting a poster for Under the Sky outside.

We decided to do something a bit silly and headed off to the The LEGO Store Leicester Square, two stories dedicated to selling LEGOs, either in sets, or just blocks. There are also different decorations – for photo-ops – made with oversized blocks, which include Shakespeare in the park, a Bobby, a Buckingham palace guard, a whole Aston-Martin with a Bond sculpture – you can actually go into the car – and lots and lots of Harry Potter. It was a bit disconcerting that they were already displaying Christmas sets!

Lego Shop London

Then, we crossed the street for the M&M’S Store London, which has four floors. The ground one has a recreation of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road, with M&M’S. There was a logo asking “which M&M’S colour are you?” which I thought was a little silly, until I found the orange M&M’S section, whose motto seems to be “I’m scared of what might happen if I relax”. I connected immediately. Next time over I should totally buy a mug or something. Also, there was no Christmas decoration yet, as they were preparing for Halloween. Oh, and they were looking for staff, offering “London liveable wages”.

M&Ms Shop London

We came out and it was 18:00, the Swiss glockenspiel at Leicester Square was chiming. The glockenspiel is a Swiss-themed clock which was built in the 1960s as part of the Swiss Centre, a ploy to drag rich British tourists to the country. The centre failed, and the clock was taken away, but it was eventually restored to the area in 2011. I could have sworn it was playing Poncelli’s Dance of the Hours?

Swiss Clock Leicester Square

Leicester Square is built around a sculpture of Willian Shakespeare, and the gardens around him hold a number of statues dedicated to cinema, Scenes in the Square. We spotted Mary Poppins, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly’s character in Singin’ in the Rain), Charles Chaplin, Paddington Bear, Harry Potter, and an Indiana Jones which is supposed to be temporary. Apparently, there are a few more I should be checking out for, but that’s okay because I’ll be coming back to Chinatown eventually, and it’s just a few blocks away.

Statues of cinema figures in Leicester Square + Willian Shakespeare

We headed back towards the Odeon London Covent Garden cinema, and we reached there around 18:20. Another poster had been put up, and some fans were already waiting. We met another friend of hers, M**, who told us she had found a sitting area inside, so we sat and chatted away for about an hour. The staff was extremely friendly and did not peep a word of complain, even if we did not buy anything.

Yoshiki Under The Sky at Odeon Covent Garden London

Finally, we were allowed into Screen 2 and found our seats. I lost count of how many people tried to get away with ignoring the seating numbers. Nobody did. I had a second-row seat, pretty centred. The film was introduced by some film producer who explained what we were going to see as if we had just accidentally wandered into the cinema.

There was supposed to be a trailer for Yoshiki’s upcoming concert in October, which was not shown. We had a few in-house adverts before the documentary started. Through the film, Yoshiki talked a little about the power of music, and how he had come together with all these great musicians to create a world-class event, very Covid-compliant. All the songs featured were either composed by Yoshiki himself, or had been arranged by him in some way. Perched on an LA rooftop, he mostly played piano, but occasionally he donned the drums.

The narrating thread of the whole film is life. Yoshiki was a sickly child, and his father committed suicide when he was ten years old, so he grew up with the idea of death deeply ingrained in his brain. As the film goes on, he speaks about how music can bring people together, and how it is important to find the strength to go on. Halfway through the film, he talks about recently losing his mother and how he cried for days. At some point a voice is introduced. It is a regular John Doe who once reached out to Yoshiki on Twitter as his dying wife had just entered palliative care. The man asked for some encouragement for her, and he got it, from Yoshiki and a lot of the fans, until she passed away. There was a heart-wrenching Zoom call with the man, who spoke about how overwhelmed he was by all the support he received. Unfortunately, she passed away.

The documentary runs for an hour and a half, and it’s a mixture of the Yoshiki’s thoughts, the performances alongside different artists, each in their corner (or rooftop) of the world, and a bit of conversation with them, or a making-of. I was familiar with most of the featured musicians, but not all.

Sarah Brightman: Miracle. Sarah Brightman has had an extremely long career and is an excellent soprano – my first memory of her dates back to the 1992 Olympics. She collaborated with Yoshiki on Miracle in 2018. I was really sorry I was not able to go to any of her performances back then.

Jane Zhang: Hero. The original version of Hero was sung by Katie Fitzgerald for the soundtrack of Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary. Though Saint Seiya was my favourite anime as a kid, I had wandered away from it. The song featured in the film actually made me want to go to see it, and eventually dragged me back into the world. Zhang did a good job, but I personally prefer Fitzgerald’s version.

SixTONES: Imitation Rain. As a music producer, Yoshiki must have realised a bit ago that the Japanese boy-band panorama was dire. For long years, the boy-idol company Johnny’s Entertaining (JE) had dominated the business, with bands as SMAP or Arashi. However, an extremely protectionist policy and the open secret that the director had sexually abused some of the boys, lead to the company losing power. I have no doubt that this is why Yoshiki decided to create and produce a boy-band, and thus looked for the six young men that comprise SixTONES. Having followed some of JE’s bands back in the day, I can see how they would tap into the niche (serious flashbacks to KAT-TUN circa 2005, to be honest).

Scorpions: Wind Of Change. Formed in 1965, Scorpions paved the way for a great deal of the big names in 1980s hard rock such as Guns N’Roses, Mötley Crüe, Helloween, Megadeth… And Yoshiki is a little fanboy of theirs, of course.

Sugizo: La Venus. Sugizo is one of X Japan’s members, who took over guitar duties after they reunited. While the band was separated, original guitarist Hide died in “mysterious circumstances” – either accidentally or by suicide. For a long time, Yoshiki claimed that Hide’s death was an accident, and on this film he for the first time acknowledges otherwise. Thus, Hide was the second person in Yoshiki’s circle to take his own life. Sugizo, who also plays violin and is a member of an insane number of bands, including LunaSea, is credited by Yoshiki as the reason X Japan could come back together, which made him very embarrassed. They played a rendition of La Venus without lyrics, with Sugizo on violin.

Hyde: Red Swan. Hyde is without a doubt one of the best rock vocalists in Japan. He was originally the voice of L’Arc~en~Ciel, when they were still a thing. He worked alone for a few years, then he and KAZ founded VAMPS, and finally he went solo again. Red Swan was a collaboration between Yoshiki and Hyde for the anime Attack on Titan!, released as “Yoshiki feat. Hyde”. Yoshiki explained how the red swan represents rising even covered in blood. After this collaboration, there was a second single, released as “Hyde feat. Yoshiki” with the song Zipang, in English and Japanese, which I personally find even more powerful. The significance of Red Swan in Under the Sky comes from how many versions there are on YouTube, especially as anime songs tend to be translated. Thus, it ties in with the concept of coming together through music.

St. Vincent: New York. St. Vincent is known for her clear voice and her complex arrangements, with lots of instruments playing a part. She is considered one of the best guitarist in the 21st century. Yoshiki arranged her song New York for piano and vocals, which made it extremely powerful. All LA artists were invited to sing on Yoshiki’s rooftop, as it would have reduced the logistics involved.

Nicole Scherzinger: I’ll be your love. Scherzinger was the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2009, but before that she had already performed with Yoshiki with this very same song.

The Chainsmokers: Closer. They are an American electronic DJ pair: Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, whom I honestly know nothing about other than they do electronic remixes. They have some supporting musicians.

Lindsey Stirling: Forever Love. She is a violinist who performs and dances at the same time. I had never heard of her either, but she did feel the music. Regarding her, Yoshiki said that she made him realise that not all songs need lyrics and vocals. She did a great job.

Yoshiki and fans: Endless Rain. In a way, Endless Rain is the emotional ballad that keeps showing up in anything X Japan related – and breaking people’s hearts. A while back, there was a request on social media for fans to send recordings of themselves singing the song, which were used for the film. Hearing a Ukrainian girl singing “endless rain lets me forget all of the pain, all of the sadness” was soul-wrenching. Once more Yoshiki circled back to the idea of music bringing music together, along with living, just keep living.

Yoshiki Q&A in London, 11th September 2023

The Q&A afterwards was awkward. The guy who carried it out – Toby Amies – had done his homework but it was not a Q&A, it was an interview by someone who had just learnt about Yoshiki, and was curious, so he had a ton of questions, most of them absolutely unoriginal, such as hey, I’ve just discovered V-kei, explain that to me! Or “do you prefer piano or drums?” which we hear every time – I could swear that Yoshiki was a bit annoyed at that one. The only input that the audience had, before Yoshiki was even in, was “are the Last Rockstars coming to Europe?” (we know the answer to that: never) and “When is the next X Japan album coming out?” (we know the answer to that, too: also never), but when the interviewer got around to ask those, he messed them up! At some point Yoshiki explained the meaning of the title “Under the Sky” – basically, we’re not in Heaven yet, we are underneath. As he was leaving, he was kind enough to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

After the film, we took a bunch of selfies with other fans in front of the poster(s), then moved on. I went back to my hotel for a shower and a few hours’ rest. The bathroom was tiny but hot water did its job, and I could not find the cereal bar I had packed for dinner. The bed was extremely soft, and the carpet smelt strongly as England is in the middle of yet another heatwave, and my nose clogged – I need to remember to start packing my allergy pills. I did not sleep much if at all, and I ended up leaving the hotel before 5:00. I had to decide between breakfast at London Liverpool station or catching the Stansted Express at 5:25. I decided to go for the train and have breakfast at the Stansted Costa, so I boarded, found a seat, and settled down for a travel nap.

Ten minutes away from the airport, as we left Harlow Town, the second-to-last stop, there was an announcement. We were informed that the train would terminate at Bishop’s Stortford, the last stop before Stansted Airport. There were technical issues at the terminus platform, and the train could not reach it. Passengers should vacate the train at at Bishop’s Stortford and ask the platform staff for instructions. The instructions were that we had to fend for ourselves to reach the airport as there was no alternative transportation provided. It was chaos for a second, with everybody scrambling for buses, taxies and so. I was near a young woman who was going to Uber and had some extra seats. She asked if anyone wanted to tag along and I said yes. She said it would be free because her company would reimburse her, so I was lucky on that account, and I arrived at the airport a bit after 6:30. I waved my Uber-companions good-bye and headed to Costa Coffee for breakfast, feeling relieved that I had decided against waiting for the 5:40 train in London Liverpool.

After a sandwich and a vanilla latte, I passed security, where I had to go through secondary screening because… no idea. There was like no metal on me whatsoever. Then the scanner complained about me having something in my pocket – my damn handkerchief! Seriously, now. This has happened a few times. Where do people keep their hankies / tissues if not a pocket??

A****d had not yet departed when I was through, so we could hang out for a little longer – it’s fun that we had only met in person for a few hours in 2017 and we hit off so well. We even had gates in the same area of the airport, so it was cool. This is the first time that I have done the “going to the airport early in the morning” in London, but to be honest there was a 100 € difference between that flight and the next up, since the whole thing was announced and happened so fast. I asked for a refund from the Stansted Express, and now I’m wondering whether to cancel the train for my next trip to London as they’re threatening with strikes on those days… (ETA: I received a full refund, and there was no major incident during the following trip).

The trip back was uneventful except the road was stupidly full when I drove off the parking lot. I napped most of the plane ride, and I had a Coke before 9:00. Talk about living wildly, especially considering how all this happened in 32 hours, and I was in London for less than 24! My only regret was not taking the camera, but I was trying to pack extra-light this time around.

7th – 10th February 2020: Paris (France) for DIR EN GREY & BABYMETAL

Posted on 27 February 2020 by JBinnacle

I organised a weekend in Paris because two concerts conveniently aligned on Saturday and Sunday, and I had Friday free, as well as Monday morning. It was a great mental break that I needed badly. ETA: There were rumours about a flu from China, and some of the airport workers were wearing masks. We had no idea what was about to hit us…

7th February 2020: Through the Strikes

I had found quite a convenient flight that left at 9:00 on Friday for 35 €, which was a great deal. At first, I did not understand why it was so cheap. It turned out, the plane came from South America and it was on a Madrid stopover – so it was pretty much full already. It was a huge aircraft with on-board entertainment. That came in handy when the pilot informed us that we were going to have to wait something between one and two hours to be able to take off due to the air controllers’ strikes in France. But at least we were flying and I had films to watch.

We took off at about 10:00 and our big plane made the jump in just one hour, as opposed to the 2h10 minutes of estimated travel, which meant we were almost on time! Of course, this did not sit well with the strikers, who had us wait first for the parking spot, and then for the stairs to deplane. I finally managed to leave the airport and get onto the train so I reached downtown Paris around 13:00. I wanted to inspect the damage caused to the cathedral Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris by the 2019 fire. My first impression, looking at the main façade and towers, was optimistic, but as I walked round the building, I could see the real damage and reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, it still reeked of burnt wood, probably because they were still pulling out debris. My optimism did not linger long, I’m afraid.

Collage of Notre Dame showing the cranes and scaffoldings in the repairs

As it was sunny, I decided to walk to the Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) and see its windows in good weather. The Sainte-Chapelle is a small two-level chapel inside the Justice Palace Palais de Justice de Paris in the Île de la Cité, smack in the middle of Paris and not far from Notre Dame – actually, both of them belong to the same Unesco World Heritage Site, Paris, Banks of the Seine. The chapel has a lower early Gothic level, and an upper level with impressive stained-glass windows which I love. As the sun was shining outside, the views were stunning.

Collage. Sainte-Chapelle: outside showing the spire, inside with some colourful windows and pointed arches

Collage of the upper floor of the Sainte-Chapelle. It shows different angles of the long gothic windows, covered in colourful glass

The weather was great – especially considering February in Paris, which is always more to the north than I mentally place it. Unfortunately, the forecast for the following day was quite miserable, and thus I decided to just walk along from the Île de la Cité towards the Arc de Triomphe (some 5 km away). On my way, I walked by the Louvre, Les Tulleries, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Alexander III Bridge, and into the Avenue des Champs-Élysées – the Banks of the Seine that the Unesco declared World Heritage.

Collage with different landmarks of Paris - the river, neoclassic palaces, Luxor obelisk, Champs-Élysées.

Finally I reached the Arc de Triomphe, which honours the fallen in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 1836, and you can actually climb it, which I might do some day. From there, I took a train towards Montmartre, where I had booked my hotel. I dropped off my luggage and walked up Square Louise Michel, a sort of urban park which leads up to the church Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (222 steps). There was a pretty carousel Carrousel de Saint-Pierre, and from the square, I could watch the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel against the sunset from the lookout Vue de Paris.

A view of the Sacre Coeur with a classical carousel in front of it

A profile of the Eiffel Tower in a blurry sunset in orange tones

I went back to the hotel for a while during twilight. On the way, I bought a snack in a nearby supermarket for dinner as I waited for the evening to get dark and the lights to come up. When it did, I took my last adventure for the day, and walked off to see the Moulin Rouge while I listened to KAMIJO’s song of the same name. It was a few minutes’ walk away from my hotel, and Moulin Rouge [ムーランルージュ] is one of my favourite songs of his. Since the man is obsessed with France, he has a few songs that fit my weekend. Truth be told, I did consider dinner and a show there, it is after all the most famous cabaret in the world. However, it was a bit expensive and I had read quite a few reviews about bad seats if you are alone. I did not want to waste money, and I did not know how tired I would be that evening in the end – and to be brutally honest,I really had not felt like packing fancy clothes for the evening.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, all lit up in bright red for the night

8th February 2020: Louvre and DIR EN GREY

The weather forecast was accurate, and despite the lovely weather on Friday, Saturday dawned stormy and dark. I decided to go to the Louvre Museum Musée du Louvre, even if I had been there before. It is after all one of the greatest museums in the world.

The Louvre holds so many pieces (over 600,000) that it would be impossible to describe them all, but for me, its core is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period, around the 2nd century BCE, and my favourite piece of art. The Louvre is a national art museum, which opened in the post-revolutionary France in 1793. It exhibits around 35,000 items – Egyptian antiquities, Sumer and Assyrian pieces, Greek, Etruscan and Roman items, Islamic art, neoclassical and Baroque sculptures, a collection of objets d’art (Decorative arts), paintings, prints, drawings… It is located in the former French Royal Palace of the same name.

A collage with several Louvre pieces of art - Winged Victory, sitting scribe, the three graces, Diane washing her hair, Hermaphroditus sleeping, Psyche and Eros kissing, Liberty guiding the people, Venus de Milo

I wandered there for a few hours and I might have lost my way in the galleries a few times. In the end, I managed to (re)visit all the artefacts and artworks that I wanted. Because there are hundreds of thousands of items, but I must always see the Sitting Scribe, the Borghese Hermaphroditus, Canovas’ Eros and Psyche, and the remains of the Gates of Istar. I had a bit of a headache, so I eventually went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for the DIR EN GREY concert and VIP experience in the Élysée Montmartre live house. DIR EN GREY or “Diru” is a Japanese heavy metal band known for its dark themes and scenography that I thought I needed to check at least once (the final verdict was that I don’t need to repeat the experience, but it made for a nice mental break). The band has remained stable since its formation in 1997, and it is composed by Kyo [京] (lead vocals), Kaoru [薫] (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Die (lead guitar, backing vocals), Shinya (drums) and Toshiya (bass, backing vocals).

A dark stage with a drum set. Letters projected on the screen behind the stage read Dir en Grey Tour 20 This Way to Self-Destruction

Setlist:

    1. 絶縁体 [Zetsuentai]
    2. 人間を被る [Ningen wo Kaburu]
    3. Rubbish Heap
    4. Devote My Life
    5. 軽蔑と始まり [Keibetsu to Hajimari]
    6. Celebrate Empty Howls
    7. 赫 [Aka]
    8. Merciless Cult
    9. Downfall
    10. Values of Madness
    11. 谿壑の欲 [Keigaku no Yoku]
    12. Ranunculus
    13. The World of Mercy
First encore:
    14. Followers
    15. THE DEEPER VILENESS
    16. 詩踏み [Utafumi]
Second encore:
    17. Sustain the untruth

Listing of all the concerts in the Dir en Grey 2020 tour

The concert was the final of DIRU’s 2020 European Tour TOUR20: This way to Self-Destruction. When I walked by the venue on Friday evening, around 18:00, there was a small number of people queueing already. I did not care enough to queue all day, and I had a VIP ticket with early entry, so I just headed to the line about 15:00. When the queues were separated and organised, around 16:30, I was VIP number 42. The weather was miserable, and I could have totally skipped the downpour while waiting, but I was lucky enough to be against the live house and not in the middle of the boulevard, where the General Admittance queue was. Doors opened at 19:30 for GA, and the VIP experience was held beforehand. The VIP queue started getting in around 17:30. As present we got a VIP pass and an “exclusive VIP only merchandise item” which turned out to be a scarf – very appropriate with the weather. The experience itself was a group photo with the band. There were five cushioned chairs for the fans, and the band stood behind. They did not say a word, nor interacted with fans in any way, not even acknowledging a hello or a thank you.

Afterwards, I headed for the hall, and I found an almost-barrier spot in the left area, on the second row. The people in front of me let me grab the barrier between them so I had something to hold on while I waited. The special guest was a DJ, who was more focused on getting recorded by his buddy on the phone than mixing music. The main show started a little after 20:30.

DIR EN GREY’s music is quite powerful, with a heavy focus on strings and drums. They also have a huge flare for theatricality and they enjoy the shock factor as part of the aesthetics. The singer, Kyo, donned a Joker-like make-up appearance, with a fake-suicidal attitude on stage, using the microphone to mimic stabbing his chest, or the wires to hang himself. It became a bit disturbing because it was repeated more than once. The act also felt rather distanced, there was very little interaction with the fans. At some point, a pick flew in my direction and the person behind me actually felt me up to try and find it in the folds of the coat I had tied around my waist. That was probably even creepier than the act.

The guitars and bass were tremendously powerful, and the drumming was amazing. The crowd was extremely loud, and the singer, Kyo, later confessed that he had been pretty exhausted and burnt out from the tour, which maybe explained why the concert felt so distanced. The encores were the probably best part of the concert, the part that felt more real and relaxed. After the concert was over, I headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Since I remembered that the area had felt a bit rough when I was there in 2014, this time over I wanted close accommodation so I could get back quickly without needing to use the underground.

9th February 2020: Destroy the Bastille!

Sunday morning was around 2 ºC, and it was windy. I lingered in bed for a while to recover from the previous evening, and then I headed out – I should have brought the merchandise-scarf with me! I saw the Place de la Bastille, where the revolutionary prison used to stand. In the middle of the square stands the “July column” Colonne de Juillet, which commemorates the Revolution of 1830 (which is not the “famous” French Revolution, which happened between 1789 and 1799). A few minutes away, in the Square Henri-Galli, I came across the base of the tower Tour de la Liberté (Freedom Tower), which was unearthed while building the first metro line. There are only a few stones remaining from the foundations, but I’ll take my fun wherever I can – so I stopped and used my music player to find another KAMIJO song, Bastille, just because I could.

Monument to the French Revolution

A few brick stones forming a circle, considered the last remains of the Bastille

It was too cold to wander, but I had a great plan. I headed off to the science museum Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée (Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy Gallery), which was a short walk away. I had read about it and was curious. To be honest, I’m still trying to decide whether it was amazing, or the materials nightmares are made of.

The museum was founded in the 19th century, and it keeps the atmosphere – and the charm – of the old exhibitions. There are stands and wooden cases, and the smell of dust and old paper. The first floor holds a “Cavalcade of Skeletons” – the whole floor is occupied by preserved skeletons of mammals and birds. In the glass cases along the walls, there are taxidermy specimens, preserved animals and dissected specimens. In the far corner, there is “gallery of monsters” with natural oddities. It was enchanting, but at the same time deeply disturbing – especially the male human figure displaying muscles and blood vessels, with a vine leaf on his groin.

The second floor hosts the dinosaurs and other fossils, including a very cool toothed whale, giant crocodiles, a Bernissart iguanodon, a diplodocus, shark teeth… Most of the fossils are either casts or reconstructions – I swear I’ve seen that Irish elk at least three times before. Also, the T-Rex skull was adorably flawed, as it was imagined to be in the 19th century.

The third floor is… ammonite-land. There were cases upon cases of ammonites in different shapes, colours, rocks and materials.

Shots of the museum. Skeletons of animals - fish, oxen, crocodiles, elephants, whale. Fossils: Dinosaurs, fish, toothed whale, shark teeth, snails

After I was done with the museum, I decided it was too cold to wander the neighbouring Botanical Garden. Instead, I headed off to yet another one, the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet – the National Museum of Eastern Arts or Museum Guimet, which holds pieces of art from Cambodia, India, China, Japan, Korea and so on. There was a gorgeous dancing Shiva sculpture, collections of religious artefacts, calligraphy, samurai armours, even modern art and clothes inspired by the Far East. It was a really cool museum I had recently found about and was happy to visit.

Different pieces in the museum: Dancing Shiva, sitting Buddha, Calligraphy in the shape of a dragon, elaborate kimono, samurai armour, Indian goddess

After leaving the museum, I walked towards Trocadero to take the underground. I made a small detour to have a look at the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel, and saw a bunch of peddlers playing shell games with tourists. Someone lost about 400 €, I really hope they were in on the game.

The Eiffel Tower in front of a cloudy sky

Since it was too cold to continue walking around to find something to eat, I decided to get take-out, and I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the BABYMETAL concert. I had never listened to them before, but they are a sensation, the basic ticket was not expensive, and two concerts in as many days seemed convenient. They actually played in the same venue as DIR EN GREY on Saturday, so I found out by sheer coincidence on the live house’s website. At that time, I thought “why the hell not?”. Afterwards, they added Madrid to their Europe tour, so if I had known that beforehand, I might have acted differently. BABYMETAL is one of those insanely-profitable Japanese marketing stunts involving cute girls that had never really been in my radar more than in passing.

Notice with the date of Babymetal's concert

BABYMETAL is a product of the “Japanese idol factory”. It was created artificially to fill a market gap. Three girls were chosen to form an act that would mix the idealised cute idea of girl idols with the heavy metal genre. When they debuted in 2010, the term “Kawaii Metal” was coined. One of the girls left in 2018, so there are two main members and and support dancer on rotation. The members are Nakamoto Suzuka, “Su-metal”, the main vocalist, and Kikuchi Moa aka “Moametal” on back-up vocals and screams. The supporting musicians are called the “Kami Band”.

BABYMETAL’s long-awaited European tour is officially called Metal Galaxy World Tour. The VIP tickets sold for around 170€, and did not even entail a M&G, so even if I had had the chance, I would have not even considered them. Despite that, they sold out, along with the show itself.

When I left the hotel at 9:00, the queue had started organising, and the tour buses were already there. I had no intention to queue or try for a barrier. I had decided to sit back and relax, so I reached the venue around 18:45 for the 19:30 concert. There were tons of people waiting to buy merchandise, but I was good. Thus, I just headed to the floor, and found a spot in the back. Since the venue has sort a bit of an arena and some upper stands, there was a wall I could lean against and it was not the end of the room.

The crowd was quite different from DIRU’s, ranging from good ol’ metalheads to families with little girls between five and ten years old with a bizarre range of in-between: people with fox masks, goth and loli dresses, explicit heavy-metal t-shirts (a bunch of those T-shirts were much less kid-friendly than the show… everything you could imagine. I… don’t think most parents knew what they were getting into, and a few of the kids ended up crying.

At 19:30 sharp, the support act started – a German band called SKYND. Their sound was really good, but their lyrics are based on true crime, which makes them a bit on the disturbing side (and very much not kid-friendly). The name of the songs are all serial killers or similar criminals.

Setlist:

    1. Richard Ramirez
    2. Elisa Lam
    3. Katherine Knight
    4. Jim Jones
    5. Tyler Hadley
    6. Gary Heidnik

At 20:30, the BABYMETAL show kicked off with the projection of the Future Metal video as an introduction of sorts. The musical act relied heavily on the Kami Band, and Su-metal carried the weight of the vocals. She spent the whole one-hour concert jumping and dancing while singing, and her voice did not break even once. If she is not lip-synching, she has the most impressive lungs ever. Both she and Moametal encouraged the crowd, making a lot of eye-contact. Su-metal addressed the audience a lot, even – I think – trying French. The concert was non-stop, and it ended up feeling a bit short, but much better than I had expected. The one annoying thing were the daddies putting their babes up on their shoulders in the middle of the floor, when the kids gave clear signs of not caring or were distressed. But it was fun. Not sure I would repeat unless I made it a thing with friends or something, but I enjoyed the act, and had a good time.

Setlist:

    1. DA DA DANCE
    2. Gimme Chocolate!!
    3. Shanti Shanti Shanti
    4. BxMxC
    5. Kagerou
    6. Oh! MAJINAI
    7. メギツネ [Megitsune]
    8. PA PA YA!!
    9. Distortion
    10. KARATE
    11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
    12. Road of Resistance

A group of girls dressed in black dancing in front of a logo that reads Babymetal

I was back at the hotel before 22:00. Thus, I got a good night’s sleep before I left, once again happy that I had taken nearby accommodation.

10th February 2020: No bells of Notre Dame

My plane boarded at 10:00 so I had to leave early for the airport. The weather was rainy again, so I took the underground to Gare du Nord, and then the train to Orly. As I was riding the train, I had a nice view of the Paris at dawn, but the bells of Notre Dame were not tolling, and my inner child was sad about that. Despite issues with the airport security staff, the stupidly-expensive food, and the general unpleasantness of early-morning public transportation, I made it to my plane without actual problems. As it was a big plane again, I settled down to watch Jurassic World during the flight, because I’m a nerd. Going straight into work from the airport was not fun, but it a small price to pay

I only had three days, but this trip was a very welcome getaway, and even if the weather did not help, I got to do a lot of stuff. I had to discard a few plans and improvise due to the weather. However, there is that film quote, “We’ll always have Paris”. After all, I’ll be coming back for the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. ETA: Or so I thought, at the time of writing the article…

9th – 11th October 2019: Flash Barcelona (Spain) for Miyavi (and friends)

Posted on 11 October 2019 by JBinnacle

This was another of those flash trips, and it worked miraculously somehow. Miyavi’s concert was on the 11th, which was a Thursday. It’s not normally something I can do, but I managed to get away from Wednesday at noon to Friday at noon. So I worked on Wednesday morning, and in the late evening I took a train to Barcelona, where I met my friend C***** and we headed out to the hotel, which… turned out to be pretty bad. It was the closest we found in the general area of the venue for a different price but I draw the line at cockroaches, no matter how small they are. The bed was too soft, it was too hot and in the end we were both up at 6:00 to the point that we decided that we could get to the queue already.

Our tickets were VIP so they included a Meet & greet and a picture before the concert, which is one of the most fun I’ve attended lately. However, the road leading to it, and the organisation, was a bit of a chaos – there was a late-announcement of an opening act, the M&G time was changed and nobody really know what time it really was… It added a lot of unnecessary stress, as bad planning usually does. But in the end, Miyavi is an amazing human being and made up for it all. He greeted us when he came in, and when he left, and he gave his best on stage.

Miyavi kneeling on the floor playing guitar. He is wearing white trousers and a sleeveless black t shirt that reads No sleep till Tokyo

The concert was held in Barcelona’s Sala Salamandra as part of Miyavi’s European Tour No Sleep Till Tokyo. Miyavi, whose real name is Ishihara Takamasa [石原崇雅], was born in 1981, and has been active in the Japanese musical scene since 1999. He started off as the guitarist of the visual rock band Dué le quartz, and went on a solo career after its disbandment. His first album Gagaku was released in October 2002.

Miyavi is known to fans as “the Samurai guitarist”. He has a very particular guitar-playing style, and does not often use picks – he calls this style “finger slapping”. He used to have a very characteristic style, with crazy visuals, piercings, and wildly-coloured hair, but he it tuned after he and his wife Melody had their first child in 2009.

Miyavi can compose, write lyrics, arrange, sing, and rap. However, he considers himself a (samurai) guitarist, and he has collaborated with some top-notch artists and vocalists. Back in 2007 he was part of the “ghost” supergroup S.K.I.N., along with Yoshiki, Gackt and Sugizo. Although the band had an official “debut”, they never got any further than a presentation concert at an American convention. Miyavi has also collaborated with a wide range of artists such as Hyde, Seann Bowe or Samuel L. Jackson on his most recent albums. As of recent years, he has started acting, both in American films (Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken or Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and Japanese productions (Bleach or Gangoose). He moved to the US with his family in 2014. Aside from his musical work, Miyavi is also known for being a Goodwill ambassador with the United Nations, working against the Refugee Crisis. He regularly participates in events and visits refugee camps to try and help in whatever way he can – usually with his guitar and some footballs.

After three collaboration albums, Miyavi switched from his own company to a larger distributor and announced the release of No Sleep Till Tokyo in July 2019. Soon after, dates were set for a Japan Tour, North-American Tour, Eastern Europe Tour and Europe Tour..

Tickets went on sale on the 28th of June through the venue’s website. There were two types – General admission and VIP, which included early entry, laminated lanyard, Meet & Greet and picture with Miyavi, using your own phone. Though C***** and I were considering either Barcelona or London, we ended up with VIP tickets for Barcelona.

The week before the concert, the Spanish promoter announced a change of schedule and a Spanish support band. In the days leading to the concert, the Meet & Greet also changed times, along with entry and concert start. VIP ticket holders were worried that GA would come in before the pictures were done and they would lose part of the advantage they had paid for, and thus the Meet & Greet was set to after the concert, only to be rescheduled to before the concert again barely 24 hours before.

The day of the concert, the black tour bus arrived around 12:30, and Miyavi came out a little over an hour later. He was nice enough to come greet the fans who were waiting, and asked how to say “hello” in Spanish. He talked to some people for a little longer and shook hands with everyone waiting before walking into the venue.

Doors opened at 18:40. The Meet & Greet consisted on basically that, you could exchange a few words with him and the manager would take the pictures. Afterwards, we got positioned at the barrier for the concert. The support act Suzy & Los Quattro did not fit much into the mood. The lead singer was all right but she screamed too much for my taste. I am sure that she has her audience, especially considering how much underwear she showed. Finally the main event started – Miyavi brought a DJ and a drummer along, but he took all the weight of the music himself. Clad in a two-piece white suit, flashing his tattoos and sweating like there was no tomorrow, he did not stop for a second – good thing he had plenty of ice water to cool down.

As much as his guitar-playing style, Miyavi has a very powerful stage presence, based on being everywhere at the same time – he jumps and stands and stares and plays the guitar, without a stop, without a breather except for his ice-water.

Throughout the concert, he showed off some Spanish – very well practised, to be honest, but mostly spoke English. Through different emcees he talked about coming back to Spain after eight years, and how he knew the word “eight” is “ococho” because it’s his favourite tequila. He mentioned Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and brought up that he has been shooting films, and how he finally got to play a non villain character – although killing people in films is so much fun. He also talked about his work at the United Nations, and that there were UN representatives and refugees in the venue.

Setlist:

1. Stars
2. Flashback
3. In Crowd
4. Rain Dance
5. No Sleep Till Tokyo
6. Tears on Fire
7. Other side
8. Secrets
9. Guard you
10. Wonderful World
11. Under the same sky
12. Ha!
13. Fire Bird
14. Day 1
Encore:
15. Fragile
16. Señor, Señora, Señorita
17. Long Nights
18. The others
19. What’s my name?

The concert lasted about two hours, in one long act and a short encore. The setlist was a combination of songs from the new album No Sleep Till Tokyo and older albums and singles, . There were very high-energy moments and some heart-wrenching ones. Tears on Fire and Long Nights are excellent pieces of music, but they have a poignant underscore.

Some of the highlights of the night included the rendition of No Sleep Till Tokyo or Under the Same Sky. There was a hilarious moment when some of the crowd asked for Señor, Señora, Señorita and he claimed to have forgotten – then proceeded to google it in order to “sing it if we helped”. Furthermore, The Others was fantastic – but that is one of my favourite songs of his, so I don’t think I’m objective. The final What’s my name with the quip “me llamo Miyavi” in Spanish couldn’t have been more powerful.

After the concert was over, Miyavi came back to stage to high five fans to the very last minute before the venue emptied. Even after a couple of hours, he shook hands with every fan who was waiting on the way to the bus. We waved him goodbye and left, exhausted and happy. My general feeling after this event is that Miyavi is adorable (and huge, I had not realised how much when I saw him in London) and I would love a hug from him. The M&G was over super quickly but he had a smile for everyone and that’s a super nice detail.

We went back to the hotel to catch some sleep and the next morning we met our other friend E****, who had not attended the concert, for breakfast. I took the early afternoon train and I was home for the afternoon-evening shift, so it worked.

Cup of coffee with fern art.

17th August 2019: Oblivion Dust in Ebisu {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 15 September 2019 by JBinnacle

I spent the day at Ebisu [恵比寿], where I got to say hi and meet a lot of known and new people . First, I had arranged a late lunch with my friend with E**chan. Unfortunately, her trains had problems and she was forced to drive to another line station to get from her village outside Tokyo to Ebisu – so in the end it was a very late lunch we had. I spent the time wandering the malls and the Ebisu Skywalk [恵比寿スカイウォーク], which is basically a long corridor without anything to see – the train service was disrupted and we did not know when she would arrive, I did not want to leave the area. She finally made it, and we managed to find some super-nice place in the Ebisu Atre building. By that time, we were starving, and when we caught sight of a traditional restaurant, we went for it. We ordered a katsudon [カツ丼] each, because it looked fantastic – and it was delicious..

Katsudon lunch set: miso soup, a bowl of rice with meat and egg on top, a cup of tea and grated cabbage to share between two people

A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of green tea

Afterwards, we went to the Oblivion Dust’s Gods Of the Wasteland Tour 2019 Gods Of Reborn concert at Ebisu Liquidroom. Oblivion Dust, shortened as “Oburi”, is a three-man Japanese rock band. The current members (none of whom are founding members) are Kentaro “Ken” Lloyd (vocals), Iwaike Kazuhito “K.A.Z” (guitar) and Rikiji Masuda (bass). They usually work with two supporting musicians:Yuji (guitar) andArimatsu / Arly (drums). I’ve often seen both K.A.Z. and with VAMPS.At present, they are touring with guitarist Ryo, as K.A.Z. has broken his hand. Reportedly, he “remains behind the scenes, doing synthesiser work”.

Despite K.A.Z’s broken hand, Oblivion Dust has carried out a sixteen-concert tour during summer, Gods of the Wasteland. There are four different setlists, each played four times:Gods Of Elvis, Gods Of Misery, Gods Of Reborn and Gods Of Butterfly.

Gods of Reborn setlist:

    1. Goodbye
    2. Girlie Boy Imitation #6
    3. Ghost That Bleeds
    4. Sugar Free
    5. Under My Skin
    6. Death Surf
    7. Come Alive
    8. Plastic Wings
    9. Alien
    10. No Medication
    11. Nightcrawler
    12. Crazy
    13. In Motion
    14. Haze
    15. Lolita
    16. Sail Away
    17. Evidence
    18. You

After checking out the merchandise boot, E**chan and I had our numbers called and we went into the floor. We found good spot on the left,, just on the edge of the “mosh pit”, the central area where people jump and dance, and elbow you if you are not careful.

The concert lasted for about two hours, and it was full of energy. Vocalist Ken always amazes me because he does not drink anything, he just grabs bottles of water, dumps the liquid on his head, and then throws them at the crowd.Bassist Rikiji is probably a relative of the Duracell Bunny, and he does not stay still whatsoever. He mimics shooting at people with the neck of his bass, or is busy jumping around. Ryo was all right, but he was… not K.A.Z, which also showed as Ken and Rikiji did have their fun and trolling moments – Ken stole Rikij’s “bass microphone” and and Rikiji just offered him the bass to go with it. Ken also went to “visit” Arimatsu, who was having too much fun to be bothered, and just made some more noise. I mean, Ken seemed to be everywhere at once.

After the concert, everybody was happy-exhausted.I for sure was absolutely drained. E**chan invited me to tag along her and some of her friends for dinner, and we went to a typical izakaya. The food was great, but a bit (all right, a lot) on the expensive side.

The logo of Liquid Room, styled to look like an organic chemistry molecule, with hexagons for Q and Os

Walked distance: No idea, I forgot the watch. But most of what I walked was on the Ebisu Skywalkas I was bored waiting for E**chan since I was early but her train was super-delayed due to the accident (≧▽≦).

16th August 2019: SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 15 September 2019 by JBinnacle

After ~~developing an unhealthy obsession for~~ discovering fesFE[M] when they opened for JUPITER in Madrid in May 2019 I was very happy to be able to catch their act again in Saitama [さいたま市]. I also learnt a lot about the v-kei scene and how it works.

The event was the first day of SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 ~Shikokku no Symphony~ pump up!! [SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 ～漆黒のシンフォニー～ pump up!!] and it was held at Saitama Hall [埼玉会館ホール].

Schedule of the Event, in intervals of 25 - 35 minutes

Although fesFE[M] act was not scheduled until 19:15, I headed off to Saitama early because I needed a same-day ticket, so I was there around 12:15. I did not have any issues getting in, as it was a weekday in the morning. I had originally thought that I would just get the ticket and then snoop around Saitama city, but the event was held far away from most interesting stuff, so I decided to stay and see it all. It was, as I mentioned, an interesting experience.

Stuff I learnt:

I should have taken earplugs as seven hours in a small hall echoes hard
First rows are exchangeable according to which your favourite band is. Nobody bats an eye and people will make room for each other
The bands will sell their own merch to make new fans and even chat to you. They will be very surprised if they get two foreigners in their queue and they don’t know each other
Some of the bands are really good, some of them are really bad

After each show, the “leader” of the band would come out for a small interview. Some of them had to do stuff like playing with beach balls and stuff, but mostly it was promotion for upcoming band activities and stuff.

Ticket. It reads the names of the bands and the number F001

Here’s a curated version of notes I took after each act for the ones I attended:

{mid:night}: They are not bad but the vocalist (although tall) needs more stage presence.

ロクダマカルタ: Was not convinced, but the guitar is dressed as a schoolgirl and the furutsuke is fun.

[Ad]: Female vocalist. She’s good, but there’s something that does not completely click. They stayed the longest for selling their stuff and promoting.

マゼラン: They are really, really good, both music- and stage-presence- wise. I’m so glad I had not realised at this point that they would be outside selling stuff because I might’ve bought all the things.

機械人形歌劇団カラクリ: Didn’t like them

エンヴィル: They are the Kanjani 8 of v-kei. They troll each other really hard and they are fun, with passable music. They wear yukata and each has a different footwear. They also watched like half of the other bands from the back row and cheered like standard fangirls.

DARRELL: Not bad, but too yelly for my tastes

GLARD: They were fun. I got to talk to the vocalist and buy one of their CDs. As I was talking to him, another foreigner decided to talk through me, and translate the price for me? No idea, I think she was just trying to get his attention. The poor guy was very surprised when we did not know each other.

ºCellsius: I like them too, they are really fun (and they are wearing… tartans?).

Avilis: They are cute and bouncy

グレン: They look like a band put together for an anime that would later sing the OP

ROMIO: The male vocalist is very pretty, but I managed not to fall into the trap of his prettiness.

Finally it was fesFE[M]’s turn at 19:15. I moved to the second row (not the first because no idea what the furutsuke are) and I enjoyed the show. It was almost the same they did in Spain when supporting for JUPITER, including Doll in Blueberry Jam. I really loved the vocalist Lion (again) how the keyboardist Jun plays the dollmaster cutting all the ropes and bringing the dolls back together. Also, wow Rensa (drummer) for being able to twirl the baton in his hand for three minutes straight without moving any other muscle.

After the show, Lion came out for his interview and he explained that he would be there on Saturday with his “other” band. I felt tempted to come back, but I had plans for that day already.

Then I went outside to buy some merch, including some polaroids, but unfortunately the band did not come out (ó_ò). I would have loved to see them, but at least I got to tweet at them and some saw the tweet ヽ(^◇^*)/. I talked to some other fans who looked at trading the polaroids, but I did not have any Tohru (bass, aka “the blonde”) and he’s popular. I missed the last band while I was waiting, but it was all right. I decided to head back because I still had about an hour’s worth of train ride.

Walked distance (which no. This is 80% furutsuke): 15324 steps / 10.9 km

3rd August 2019: Higashiyama Sky Tower and ELL {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 15 September 2019 by JBinnacle

In the morning I headed out of the Nagoya centre and to Higashiyama Sky Tower [東山スカイタワー]. This was a bit far out and I had slept in – did I mention tiredness catching up? I also considered the zoo/aquarium but in the end I decided against it.

A collage of the Higashiyama Sky tower, a rectangular building with a cylindrical core, mostly built in glass and metal. The smaller pictures show the view of the park, and the earthquake damper

I had an amazing lunch set in the shopping mall underneath / connected to Nagoya Station on my way back.

Lunch set: cold soba, white rice, breaded prawns, pickles, and green tea

Then I headed out for Electric Lady Land. To increase my chances of actually seeing KAMIJO this summer, I balloted for two concerts of the 2019 Japan Tour Persona Grata through the fanclub Rose-Croix international. I was lucky enough to hit for both. When I arrived at the venue, I queued to buy goods – I only wanted the collectible badge, but ended up getting way too many. I waited around, and this time, the Japanese members of the fanclub were let in before the international ones. We did not get a physical ticket, either, just the passport and the reference ticket were enough.

Notice reading ell. Fits all. Japan Tour 19 Persona Grata. Kamijo. Open 18:30, Start 19:00

ELL is a small venue and we were not many people there for the concert – it was strange that there were so much people in Tokyo to fill up the Blitz, but not enough in Nagoya to fill ELL. It was a more humble concert, with a smaller screen for the projections, but it was fun none the less. I was able to stand close to the stage, but I chose the wrong side – I stood left while KAMIJO donned right. I shall learn from that. The set list was the same as the opening concert, which gave me the chance to appreciate the new songs even better. Even if the hall was smaller (tiny, actually) and thus held fewer people, it felt more energetic as attendees were jumping and yelling further – it seemed like the Blitz opening had felt more formal. Glad I got to attend both concerts, never mind how different and similar at the same time they were.

Kamijo Persona Grata poster

Walked distance: 16231 steps / 11.6 km. We don’t trust this measure either as it counts the furutsuke as walking (≧▽≦).

26th July 2019: KAMIJO’s Persona Grata {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 12 September 2019 by JBinnacle

I woke up, and had some coffee from the convenience shop on my way to the station. I took a train to Tokyo [東京] – the great thing about the JR Pass is that you can ride back and forth as much as you want. The itinerary I have for this time over might not the most efficient in terms of optimising time, but it does maximise the number of concerts I can attend. This was the day of KAMIJO’s the opening concert of his 2019 Japan Tour Persona Grata.

When I arrived in Tokyo, I headed off towards Roppongi Hills. There, I met up with D****e and we had some some delicious yakiniku together for lunch.

Lunch set. Salad, white rice and some raw meat for the grill, along with the sauces to dip

I first saw KAMIJO in Barcelona in 2018. He is a visual-kei rocker from the old school – with the costumes, the backstory and lots of theatricality. He is basically pretending to be Lestat de Lioncourt during the stint he becomes a rock star. I mean, we are the same age. We must have read the book around the same time, so I know where he is coming from.

Since, aside from vampires, KAMIJO is also obsessed with France, a while back he opened a European fanclub. Unlike most Japanese artists’ international fanclubs, Rose-Croix international allows for very real benefits. Since the European chapter is actually located in France, everything was much easier in terms of payments and so on. I was able to ballot for tickets for the Japan tour, and I actually hit for Premium tickets for Persona Grata’s opening night at Mainabi Blitz Akasaka. The tickets included “seating in front of the stage” and special presents. To prevent tickets getting lost in the post, you have a reference number and need to drop by the ticket booth to receive your physical ticket on the day of the concerts you hit for. I was lucky enough to buy the tickets for the two concerts I wanted.

Kamijo Persona Grata poster

After lunch, I went to D****e’s to drop off my backpack and changed, then I set back out. I arrived at the venue around 16:30, and the shop to buy merchandise was already open, but the ticket booth was still closed. I could not claim my Premium goods without the physical tickets, but I looked at the merchandise. I decided that I needed the small lamb plush with vampire fangs Hitsuji Vampire [羊ヴァンパイア], along with some other items, the more important being the booklet.

Around 17:30 I was able to retrieve my ticket – I only had to show my passport to get it. The premium seat guaranteed a “front seat”, which was second row – better than expected. Afterwards, I went to collect my premium “goodies” – a jewellery pouch (I really thought it was a wallet at first), an autographed board, and a mug, all inside a limited-print plastic bag that was given out for purchases over 3,000¥. I think that between second row and the presents, the ticket price was fair in comparison to the regular one.

Kamijo Persona Grata Premium gifts
The tour doubled as an introduction to the new songs for the upcoming singles. Aside from the new compositions, I discovered a few songs I really liked (a lot of my Book Off shopping this year had to do with trying to build KAMIJO’s entire discography)., The concert felt quite special. I enjoyed every second, and having a chair really helped to get some rest when he was off stage and we had the “film” instalments. Unfortunately, the fandom is not too open so I did not get to make any new friends.

There was a large screen on stage where the conducting story was projected. This is another thing that some v-kei artists do, have “plots” for their concerts, and big stories for tours / releases. This is usually done in the form of short films shown throughout concerts, and snippets written on the CDs or DVDs (it’s the original transmedia strategy, I guess – and reading the booklet helped figure things out). It also works to give the musicians a break during high-energy concerts. The story of Persona Grata takes the viewer back to the times of Louis XVII of France. The Count of Saint Germain – whom is never seen, but is voiced by famous voice-actor Tomokazu Seki [関智一] – is a vampire masquerading as alchemist. He created the Émigré, a system to obtain energy from the blood of resurrected corpses. These corpses are a sort of sentient human “battery” who are allowed to meet their beloved ones once more before their final, eternal death. Émigré created an “ideal world” with infinite energy. Time passes and in the present day, the Émigré is working in Japan and being exported to America. The film opens with the Secretary of Energy in the USA killed, delves into the investigation, and culminates with a meeting between the President and the Count, after which the Count’s car is blown up.

After the first instalment of the film, KAMIJO came on stage along with the musicians – Meku (guitar), Yuki (drums) and Masashi (bass).

Setlist:

Intro: Sang-epilogue- (recorded)
    1. [New song]
    2. [New song]
    3. Nosferatu
    4. Emblem (recorded)
    5. Émigré
    6. Vampire Rock Star
    7. Ecstasy
    8. 闇夜のライオン [Yamiyo no lion]
    9. Delta -Interlude-
    10. Castrato
    11. [New song]
    12.The Star-Spangled banner (recorded)
    13. [New song]
    14. Eye of Providence
Encore
    15. BASTILLE
    16. 第四楽章 – Dying Table – [Dai shi gakushou – Dying Table –]
    17. Moulin Rouge
    18. 追憶のモナムール [Itsuoku no mon amour]
    19. Louis ~艶血のラヴィアンローズ~ [Louis, Enketsu no La Vie en Rose]
Ending + Eye of Providence (recorded)

I like KAMIJO because he is fun. He tries really hard to stay in character all the time, but he does not manage, and keeps slipping into being a goof ball. However, he is a great singer. Furthermore, I also like vampires, I’m not going to lie, and he makes for a very pretty one. One of the things I find hysterical is that he uses a goblet to drink at concerts, a member of the staff keeps it full of water all the time.

The Blitz show was pretty powerful and really good. There was something special about it, something magical. Artistically, KAMIJO showed everything he can do. He did not miss any cue, his voice never wavered, he never hesitated. Every line and twirl and drop were timed perfectly. He hit all his crazy highs and the husky lows, and did not have any issues with songs with completely different tempos back to back. He jumped, made the audience jump, made the musicians jump and fake-bit all the guitarists’ necks. During the emcee, he announced the final October tour, a “trilogy of singles” that would complete the Émigré story arc.

The audience struck me as pretty rather quiet, in comparison with the HYDE concerts I had just attended, where the crowd is a bit… overenthusiastic. In this case, everybody just clapped, but did not scream or speak.

Out of the new songs, I really liked Ecstasy, for which KAMIJO had practised his English a lot. Lyric-wise, I think Eye of Providence hit hard. Of the not-so-new songs, I absolutely adored Bastille. He sadly did not sing Mystery, but it probably did not fit the ongoing theme. Neither did Moulin Rouge, I think, but it is a staple of his. At the end of the nine-minute concert, he said that we all were a family, and coached us to hold hands and jump together with him and the musicians.

Night view of the venue, reading Mainabi Blitz Kamijo

After the concert finished, I headed back towards D****e’s place, and I had some dinner on the way. I must have. I don’t really remember…

Walked distance: 13515 steps / 9.66 km. I don’t believe this for a second, the watch is totally messing up between moving arms doing furutsuke, and walking.

25th July 2019: Sekigahara {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 11 September 2019 by JBinnacle

I was staying in Nagoya for another of the HYDE concerts, but I had a free morning, so I decided to take a train to Sekigahara [関ヶ原], which is a nearby little town, which is really only in the books because in October of 1600 a huge battle in the mountains over there decided the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, which shaped the history of Japan for centuries. It is known as the Battle of Sekigahara, Sekigahara no Tatakai [関ヶ原の戦い]. Basically there were a bunch of samurai clans warring with each other and Tokugawa managed to convince, bribe and slaughter every one in his way until he was the de facto ruler of Japan.

A vermillion gate with trees in the background

I found a map with a route to follow and thus my first stop was the Higashikubidzuka [東首塚] Mound, where a bunch of samurai were beheaded – this was off to a bloody start. Within the same area there were several monuments signalling different events and encampments – which was to mark how most of Sekigahara is laid out.

Collage of the park, showing a marker, some flags and a torii

Then I continued on to Jinbano Koen [陣場野公園], where I could see the Site of the Battle Camp of Tanaka Yoshimasa [田中吉政陣跡], the Site of Tokugawa Ieasu’s Final Encampment [徳川家康最後陣跡], Kibune Jinja [貴船神社], Mitama Jinja [御霊神社].

Collage of the park, showing a marker, some flags, fences with spikes, and a torii. There are trees and overgrown bushes in the background.

It was hot as could be, so I was not going to do the 17-km route, but I did go to the main area, the Site of Sekigahara Battleground – Sekigahara Kosenjō [関ケ原古戦場], along with the Site of the Battle Camp of Shima Sakon (Sasaoyama) – Shimasako-jin ato [島左近陣跡].

The logo of the city of Sekigahara. It can look like the moon coming up from behind a mountain, or a samurai helmet

After that, I backtracked to the Sekigahara Town History and Folklore Museum Sekigahara-chō Rekishi Minzoku Shiryōkan [関ケ原町歴史民俗資料館], which I had missed at first because there was construction in the area. There I could see some weapons and armours and get the whole collection of samurai clan stamps ~~and enjoy the air conditioning~~.

Samurai armours and pennants

I would have liked to go to the Site of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s First Encampment [徳川家康最初陣跡], but it was too far away to walk, so I had to take picture from the train.

A clear in the forest with some white flags

As an interesting anecdote, I found a Thai coin in the battle site, something I would have never expected.

A Thai coin

Once in Nagoya [名古屋], it was time for HYDE concert’s HYDE Live 2019 at the Zepp Nagoya again. As the previous day, it was a fun concert – I stayed at the end of the venue because my entry numbers were so high I had zero chance to find anything mid-venue, but it was all right, it’s not like I’m ever going to do first row in a HYDE concert in Japan. I have accepted that. I had fun anyway, and that is the most important thing.

My impressions were similar to the previous day. The concert made the 2018 tour feel like a rehearsal for this one, or maybe just a way not to “give up” summer touring on HYDE’s part since he has a pretty devout following.

Setlist:
    1. Who’s gonna save us
    2. After light
    3. Inside of me
    4. Underworld
    5. Fake Divine
    6. Two face
    7. Set in Stone
    8. Zipang (Japanese version)
    9. Out
    10. Mad Qualia
    11. Sick
    12. Don’t hold back
    13. Lion
    14. Another moment
    15. Midnight Celebration II
– break –
    16. Duality (Slipknot cover)
    17. Countdown
    18. Ahead
    19. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

After the concert, Sr-san had skipped back to Tokyo, so I just headed off to my hotel to have a shower and relax. I had another concert coming the next day, making it three concerts in a row, so I needed to rest up a little.

Walked distance: 14683 steps / 10.5 km.

24th July 2019: Morning in Kyoto, afternoon in Nagoya {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 10 September 2019 by JBinnacle

After waking up early again (what can be done? Early night → early morning) I walked out the hotel and took another stroll in Maruyama Kouen. Only this time, instead of heading towards Yasaka Jinja and Gion, I continued straight and I found Daiunin [大雲院].

The roof of a pagoda, in oxidized green colour

I continued on to Nene no Michi [ねねの道], which has temples left and right. These temples have little statues that you have to touch for luck, wealth and so on. As I have been feeling so lousy this last year, I decided to find the health one.

Statuettes of the Buddha and local gods

On my way I climbed up the Daidokoro-zaka [台所坂], a bunch of gentle stairs that lead up to Kōdaiji [高台寺], a fun temple with a lot of yokai folklore. It also held some healing sutras, so I took the liberty to make them spin.

Temple with funny-looking lanterns decorated with yokai and ghost faces

From there, I went to Kongoji (Yasaka Kōshindō) [金剛寺(八坂庚申堂)], which is a temple with… colourful balls where people write their wishes. They are supposed to entertain the ‘good faith monkeys’ (Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil) that guard the temple, I guess.

Buddhist temple with a decoration of thousands of brightly coloured pompoms

After that, I walked towards the Hōkanji (Yasaka no Tou) [法観寺 (八坂の塔)], a five-story pagoda.

Five story pagoda

A bit farther, I also found Rokuharamitsuji [六波羅蜜寺].

Buddhist temple exterior

I went down towards the river Kamogawa [鴨川], where I saw some more wildlife – ducks, cormorants, herons (cranes? Have I told you I can’t tell cranes and herons apart?).

Black cormorant standing in the river

Finally – for my Kyoto trip – I walked down the Pontocho [先斗町] Alley before I headed for the station. It is renown for its restaurants, but everything was too expensive for my budget.

Narrow alley with restaurant lanterns and signs

Then I took a Shinkansen to Nagoya [名古屋] as I was going to attend HYDE’s 2019 tour that afternoon. As I arrived too early for 15:00 check in, I headed off to Zepp Nagoya to see whether the goods were out. They were. A girl passed out at the queue a bit behind me due to heatstroke, and that was a bit creepy, but the staff took good cafe of her.

After buying goods, I went to leave my stuff and have a shower at the hotel, then I met up with several friends and even new friends. I enjoyed HYDE Live 2019 much better than the 2018 shows, which felt… somewhat disappointing at the time, almost clumsy and disarranged. Since then, HYDE put out the album Anti in May 2019, so he has found his grounds again. Last year he seemed to be rehearsing / perfecting a few of the songs, and combining them with the echoes of L’Arc~en~Ciel and VAMPS, which only emphasised what we did not have any more – I am still not too happy with the covers of VAMPS songs, especially Ahead, where I miss KAZ’s guitar. And honestly? Not a fan of Duran Duran’s Ordinary World.

Setlist:
    1. Who’s gonna save us
    2. After light
    3. Inside of me
    4. Underworld
    5. Fake Divine
    6. Two face
    7. Set in Stone
    8. Zipang (Japanese version)
    9. Out
    10. Mad Qualia
    11. Sick
    12. Don’t hold back
    13. Lion
    14. Another moment
    15. Midnight Celebration II
– break –
    16. Duality (Slipknot cover)
    17. Devil Side
    18. Ahead
    19. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

As his solo goals, HYDE has set his heart in in the US. Thus, his new music is heavily influenced by American producers and musicians, and completely in English. Though he is mainly a vocalist, HYDE started off as a guitarist, so there is a heavy reliance on powerful strings. To emphasise the fact that he is solo now, he has given his support musicians masks to cover their faces. Or maybe he’s just decided he likes masks as he himself wears a half-mask for the first few songs. He was very active and engaging with the audience, which always makes lives more fun. In general, I enjoyed the act, it was powerful and engaging.

Zepp Nagoya logo

When the concert was over I met up with Sr-san for dinner. We had misokatsu [味噌カツ] in a famous shop, and had a long conversation about the concert and HYDE’s new songs.

Dinner: breaded pork on rice and shredded cabbage

Walked distance: 23305 steps / 16.6 km.

21st July 2019: More Kawagoe. 戦国時代－The age of civil wars－: アコースティックライブ＆CDサイン会 {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on 7 September 2019 by JBinnacle

Sengoku Jidai －The age of civil wars－ [戦国時代－The age of civil wars－] is a visual kei [ヴィジュアル系] bandthat has been active since 2017. It is formed by four members – Kz, the leader on guitar and back-up vocals, Nao-A on main vocals, S.N.D on drums and Date on bass. “Sengoku Jidai” refers to a time between the 15th and 16th century, when samurai clans fought almost continuously for dominance. In a wink to that, the members don samurai-like clothings and sometimes masks. Thing is, we’ve come across two of these people before – S.N.D is Junji, and Date is Ju-ken, both of whom we’ve seen with GACKT and VAMPS. I’d been trying to avoid the band quite actively because I know that I would like them a lot and I have to start controlling the number of artists I support.

I’d been following bassist Ju-ken on social media since I got one of his picks at the Barcelona VAMPS concert, and that was how I found out about this whole thing. Not long before my trip, Sengoku Jidai released a new song, Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華]. It sounded nice, so I went down the YouTube rabbit hole first, and then ended up on the webpage. Over there, I found out that there was a free event in Kawagoe [川越] as part of the new single promotion. And that is why I decided to head over there and try to attend. The event consisted of a “midsummer summer acoustic live”, called Sengoku Jidai – The age of civil wars –: Manatsu no Accoustic LIVE [戦国時代－The age of civil wars－: 真夏のアコースティックLIVE] and a CD sain kai [CDサイン会], which is basically a “meet and get an autograph”. From 11:00, fans had access to a booth to buy a number of CDs of the last two singles: Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華] and Sengoku Enka [戦国演歌], my favourite. You could get as many signatures as CDs you bought. The band would hold a small concert at 14:00, after which you could shake their hands and get your CDs signed, one single at a time. When you bought the CDs, you also got one number to access the “restricted” area for the concert, though anyone around could watch, even from the upper floors of the mall, and you were guaranteed a seat.

The event took place on the lower floor at the Kawagoe Pepe shopping centre. The mall opened at 10:00, and I got there around 10:15. To be honest, I was a bit uncomfortable queueing alone in a completely unknown fandom, having to deal with everything in Japanese. But I told myself it was a rare chance to get to do something like this, for free on top. So after hiding in the bathroom for a few minutes to gather my courage, I went to the queue, where a few people were already waiting. I got a couple of weird looks but mostly I kept to myself and no one bothered me.

The staff arrived not much later. They they built the booth and put up the notices of what was going on. They also brought the CDs and the flyers in. After they opened at 11:00, I got a CD of each of the singles, and I was out of the queue by 11:15, with the CDs and my numbered ticket, sporting #18. The staff must have given around 200 numbers or so before the live started.

Admittance to the concert (one, printed in yellow with number 18 on it) and the Meet and Greet (two, printed in black)

In between the two parts of the event, I made a little escapade to Kawagoe [川越大師]’s Seiya-san Muryōshuji Kita-in [星野山無量寿寺喜多院], which is a Buddhist temple dating back from the 830 AD. It is noted for its hall and its pagoda. It also has a small graveyard with “the five hundred disciples of Buddha”. I was not sure whether last time I had actually been there or not, because I arrived by my almost-trademarked method of getting lost, so I wanted to make sure, and I had a bit over an hour to kill – it was the same place indeed.

After walking around the temple for a while I went back to Pepe for the second part of the Sengoku Jidai event, the live / sain kai. The area of the shopping centre got closed off with tape and “doors” opened at 13:30. The staff had even prepared three lines of chairs, and at the appointed time they started calling the numbers out. Since the instruments were already on the small stage, we knew who would be sitting where. I choose a seat on Ju-ken’s side – the instruments were already on the stage, so it was easy to decide where to sit. As we came in, we were given a little sheet of paper to write what we wanted the band to talk about. The restricted area filled up quickly with all the fans who had bought CDs,and so the live started early, around 13:45. The acoustic was very interesting – I had never been to one, except for a couple of songs at the VAMPS’s Beast Party. This one was also an unplugged.

The live had two songs, a talk session, and two other songs. It lasted for about an hour. The band picked up topics from what the fans had written to talk about and answer question, and there was a lot of teasing among them. They talked about the summer, what they liked doing, what they have been up to, including solo activities and summer festival. They were quite chatty, except for Ju-ken, who plays a persona called “Date” and never speaks – he is very strict and serious – so he just explained, via gestures, that he went fishing. The whole persona thing will be important later. There were quite a few people watching “from the sidelines”, – looking over the balconies from the upper floors, and they received a lot of attention, as prospective fans. The actual live was free, you only had to pay if you wanted an autograph, and the price of the CDs was the standard 1500 ¥, so it was a good promotion strategy. The selling booth remained open for the whole live, and even the later signing session, and it actually worked because some curious did decide to get an autograph.

The songs played were Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華], Sengoku Enka [戦国演歌], Sengoku Ondo [戦国音頭], which is their “introductory song”, I think Tennyo monogatari [天女物語]. During Sengoku Ondo, Nao-A asked us to stand up and dance / do the furutsuke with him – and then he messed up! I was so confused!

There was a bit of chaos when it was the turn for autographs. I almost lost my nerve again, but I had made it this far. I let the most dedicated fans go into the queue first, and I made my way slowly, rehearsing what I wanted to say – in Japanese. The first one to see me was drummer S.N.D / Junji, whose eyes went wide – he has no poker face at all and completely went (O_O)!, wondering what a white person was even doing at their event, I guess. He asked if I was okay with Japanese and I answered that I was okay with simple language. Then, I informed him that I was the foreign factor representation. Then I got Ju-ken / Date – I told him about having his pick from Barcelona. His eyes went even wider than Junji’s. He broke character completely, grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously, as he repeated “sank you, sank you, sank you” (some Japanese people just can’t do the TH sound and substitute it with an S). Kz was equally surprised to see me around and he asked where I was from. Finally, Nao-A hid his surprise better, and he acted quite cute and friendly. I actually… chatted a bit with all four of them. I felt proud of a) my Japanese and b) not freezing out.

I walked out the area and climbed upstairs to snap a couple of pictures. Then, I went back to the queue. I had bought two CDs so I could go through the process twice, and the band remembered me. Kz asked if I was studying or working in Japan, and I said I had travelled there for my summer holidays. Probably, if there had been more CDs, I would have bought all to get them signed.

After all the fans had got their signature, the artists waved at everybody and disappeared into… the adjacent supermarket. All in all, it was a very fun event – it went unexpectedly well, with no problems nor awkward moments. I did not get to make any new friends, but I think the band’s reaction was something priceless that I’ll treasure for a long time.

The band shaking hands and signing autographs

Signed CDs

After the event was finished, I went back to Tokyo [東京]. I kinda got lost so I wasted about an extra hour and a half, and thus I was not at the next hotel, in Shinagawa, until late. Though it was a business hotel – or maybe because of that – it had a huge TV, almost as wide as the 135cm-wide bed I had!

The TV at the foot of the bed is almost as wide as the bed itself, and the bed would fit two people

I bought dinner on the way and enjoyed it in the room. And after a long day, I decided that I was okay with some extra protein – so I tried the conbini boiled eggs. It was an excuse just like any other…

Soft-boiled egg box

Walked distance: 19468 steps / 13.9 km. However this includes the little furutsuke that Nao-A made us do, and that was recorded as pacing, and getting lost and walking for an hour coming out of the wrong exit of a station.

15th – 17th June 2019: Cologne (Germany) for the Gazette

Posted on 18 June 2019 by JBinnacle

Getting from Madrid to Cologne [Köln] was stupidly difficult and expensive so in the end I took an early Saturday-morning flight to Frankfurt and then I booked train tickets (an ICE and a suburban train) to the hotel area in Cologne. My plane took off at dawn (literally) and landed at 9:40, so I thought about booking the train at 10:30.

Sunrise from the still-grounded plane

On a whim of distrustfulness, I decided to book the train for 11:00, which was lucky. While we did land on time, it tookan eternity to reach the terminal, and in the end I arrived in the station just past 10:30. Since I had a bit of time, I grabbed a coffee and a bagel for some ridiculous price, but that kept me going until the evening.

Bagel and coffee

The European plain from the train window

I reached Cologne and went on to the commuter to the venue area, where my hotel was, a short walk away from the station. After checking in, I dropped my things off in an amazing room, and had to do a double take – for a second I was not sure they had given me the right room, because it was way too nice for the price I was paying.

Huge bedroom at the hotel

After changing clothes, I grabbed my bottle of water and off I took a train towards the city centre to visit the Cologne Cathedral Kölner Dom –it took a bit to figure out how to validate the train tickets, but I think I did everything legally. The cathedral has been a World Heritage site since 1996. Its construction started in 1248, but was halted in 1473. The building remained unfinished until the 1840s, when work was picked up again, following the original Medieval plans, and the church was finally completed in 1880. While it was badly damaged in WWII, it withstood the bombings and ever since then, it has been in a constant state of small and not-so-small restorations and repairs.

Cologne Dome

From the Cathedral I walked towards Cologne Zoo or Kölner Zoo. Although it had been drizzling before, at that point it was sunny again, and the walk was nice.

A typical Cologne Street

I decided to go to the zoo because it was the only thing that seemed to be open for long enough to mean value for money. The weather had warmed up and the bunnies were roasted coughs. I got to see some animals I had never seen before, such as Przewalski’s horses, snipes, or a grizzly bear. The zoo has a huge enclosure area, a petting zoo with domestic animals (and cheeky cows), an aquarium and a terrarium with both reptiles and creepy-crawlers shudders.

Some of the animals in the zoo

Then, I walked back to the hotel, stopping by the supermarket on my way – and here I discovered my undoing. The triple chocolate cookies which wrecked my trying to eat healthy stroll. I shall try to find them again in my next Germany trip though. However, I have to say that I had learnt from my being stupid for MIYAVI in London and not eating well through the weekend, so I bought snacks to have the following day.

I was exhausted, so I think I was out at 22:00, which helped being awake at 7:00 the next morning. Thus, I just headed off for the venue E-Werk, and settled to queue for the concert. Japanese Visual kei (V系) rock band the GazettE [ガゼット (Gazetto)] was formed in 2002 and achieved its current configuration in 2003. It is formed by members: Ruki (ルキ) on lead vocals; Uruha (麗) on lead guitar; Aoi (葵) on an insane amount of support guitars (two on the same song, almost at the same time); Reita (れいた) on bass, keyboards / piano; and Kai (戒) on drums. Though they are signed with Sony Records, they claim to be completely self-produced.

In December 2018, the Gazette announced that they would continue their Japanese Tour abroad as Live Tour 19 THE NINTH: PHASE #04 -99.999-. It originally spanned North and South America, and Europe, and later in April some Asian dates were added. I originally planned to go to Munich (travelling was easier and cheaper), but I could not get VIP tickets, so switched to Cologne instead. General Admission was reasonably priced (45€) with crazy shipping costs (+4.50€, since they were all printed out and pretty). VIP Tickets (300 per concert), included early entry (one hour before GA and two hours before the show), a VIP present, and a handshake with the band for 170€ (+4.50€ in shipping costs), exclusively distributed through ME-shop, which was a pain and not easy at all.

The Gazette World Tour dates

The Cologne concert at E-Werk would be held at 20:00, which placed entry at 19:00 and VIP entry at 18:00. I reached the queue around 8:00. The venue is a repurposed industrial building with a capacity for 2,000 people in a lower-floor arena and a sort of balcony around it which also allows for visibility. There were already staff walking around, and the venue even had portable toilets outside for queuing fans. At that time, there were maybe 60-70 people waiting in three queues – VIP, GA, and something called “regulars” who went in last.

Everything ran smoothly, with the three lines in front of the doors, up until 16:00 when security arrived. They decided to rearrange the queues, and created chaos. Fortunately, since most of the fans were German, and they enjoy order, at least the VIP queue was reorganised neatly and quickly – respecting the arrival numbers. Around 16:30, the VIP tickets were checked and switched for bracelets, and the holders ushered to a secondary waiting area where we were not even allowed to sit down until doors opened around 18:15. Due to this, I had to stand for two hours straight without leaning on anything, my back was killing me. I decided that I either made it to the barrier, or I would head upstairs for a good view. When I came in, I received the VIP present – a banner with the band logo on it– and I was find a first-row spot to the left of the stage, in front of Aoi (guitar). The concert ran about 15 minutes late due to a technical problem with a wire / monitor. Good thing I found a barrier spot indeed.

The concert was very high energy. The music was so loud my ears were still ringing three days later. Most of the setlist was from The Ninth album, which makes sense. My personal favourite live song was The Suicide Circus .

Setlist:

99.999
Falling
Ninth Odd Smell
Gush
Agony
The Suicide Circus
虚蜩 [Utsu Semi]
その声は脆く [Sono Koe wa Moroku]
Babylon’s Taboo
Dogma
Incubus
Ugly
Abhor God
Filth in the Beauty
Inside Beast
Cockroach
Tomorrow Never Dies

I was very impressed by Reita’s stage persona / antics, how he stood on stage and moved. I almost caught a pick that he threw, but by that time my right arm was completely useless as the person behind me kept trying to push me away from the barrier to take my spot. My wrist brace is actually broken due to having to hang on from her shoving. But she was not successful

Aoi was muchbetter than I expected, and at some point he was playing two guitars for the same song, the acoustic and the electric, without any apparent effort – he hung both from his neck and played whichever one he needed. I could not see much of Kai, and Uruha was most of the time too far away. And unfortunately Ruki favoured going to the right, but he has a very powerful body language.

After the concert, the VIPs were pushed– literally – to an area in the back of the venue to wait for the meet and greet in a different room. I got handshake with both hands from all of them, if memory serves me correctly the order was Kai, Uruha, Ruki, Reita and finally Aoi. I told them that it had been very fun, that they had done a good job and none of them batted an eye at my Japanese. They were really nice though, in a high contrast from stage personas.

Afterwards, I just headed off back to the hotel, and directly into the shower, because I was sore all over. Good thing I still had snacks from my supermarket run. I think this was the first time I have actually though “I’m getting too old for this”.

On Monday morning, my paranoia had me early at the station, and that was good because apparently my suburban had been cancelled.￹￹￹￹￹￹￹ Being early, I was lucky enough to be able to catch a completely different one – not sure if legally. I did not get caught if it wasn’t, but I made it to Cologne central station and caught my ICE without any further stress. As the station is located next to the Dome, I was able to say good-bye.

Cologne Dome from the train

As I had a window seat again, I also had quite a few nice views from the plane, and made it home without any issue.

An aerial view of a reservoir with turquoise water

18th & 19th May 2019: Madrid (Spain) for Jupiter (and fesFE[M]!)

Posted on 20 May 2019 by JBinnacle

The weekend started extremely early on Saturday, when I took the first bus out to Madrid, and I think I was there around 7:30 to meet my friend C*****. She had been having a rough time and she had asked me to “keep her head off things”. Up until a couple of days before, we did not even know whether she would be able to come to the concert, so I had a whole plan up my sleeve. Unfortunately, a couple of steps backfired slightly. The main event – which we had been planned since the previous December – was Jupiter’s concert for the ZEUS Europe Tour on Sunday the 19th, but we made a whole weekend out of it. I was not actively following Jupiter at the time of the announcement, but C***** and I decided to attend because Madrid is easy and convenient, well-communicated and an opportunity to spend a weekend decompressing somewhere. As the time drew near and we could access more material, the excitement built up – I also managed to find the album they were promoting and it sounded really well, actually.

Her bus arrived earlier on Saturday than mine, and when we met, we decided to have breakfast at the coach station, to catch up and to give shops and so on the time to open up. When it was a reasonable time, we took the underground to drop our luggage at the hotel – the lovely EXE Moncloa. I had selected it because it was near the concert venue, and I hoped that we could hang out the terrace and the swimming pool, which unfortunately did not open until June. After getting rid of the luggage, we rode the underground towards the neighbourhood of Chueca, where I had looked up a bunch of Goth apparel shop which were right up her alley and… did not open at 10:00 as the internet said, but at 12:00.

Fortunately, other shops were already open and we were able to pass the time amicably. We were actually close to the Telefonica building, so I suggested we headed up there for the TeamLab exhibit, which I had already seen, and I thought she might like the digital art.

Teamlab logo and digital art: Waves, butterflies in red and green, and a dripping circle as if it were painted with a brush. All of them are light or bright colours on black.

Afterwards, we moved onto Callao Gourmet Experience for a snack. I wanted to introduce C***** to the Niji Mochi shop, and we also shared a chocolate ice-cream shake.

Mochi and coffee with whipped cream

Afterwards, we were shopping for a little longer before we moved on to have lunch. I had a surprise for her. While I care little to nothing about Korean food, she is a fan of everything Korean. Thus, we hit one of the best Korean restaurants in Madrid, called Seoul. I gave her free reign to order for both of us and we shared, though being honest, the only thing I enjoyed was the green tea at the end.

Lunch: fried dumplings, roasted meat, rice with vegetables, and green tea.

After lunch, we went on and found an underground station. We rode towards the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, National Archaeological Museum, although we had not realised that it was museum day so instead of a quiet exhibition I was used to, we had to deal with a ton of families! On the bright side, it was free, though. The museum, which shares a building with the national library Biblioteca Nacional, was founded in 1867, at a time when creating national museums had become popular among European governments. It was the start of the development of archaeology in Spain. I remembered it from the time I was a kid, dark and with wooden floors, but it was recently renovated with wide spaces and modern interiors.

Exhibits at the archaeological museum: bones from a mastodon, boar statue, lady statue, Neanderthal skull, Roman mosaic of an octopus, Horus statue, Iberian stelae, primitive animal that looks like a boar or a bull carved out of stone, Grecian vase

C***** was tired from spending all night in the bus, so we left the museum and headed back to the hotel to finish our check in process and then catch a break. On the way, we stopped and bought a few snacks for the following day because you always have to be ready for a post-concert low.

We had to look for a place to have dinner, and I found a few interesting places. There were not one, but three Japanese restaurants in the area where we were staying. One of them required queueing and sounded quite self-important, so we were left with two options. We decided to try one in the evening and the next for lunch the following day. Thus, I booked a table at the nearby Naniwa. We had some decent sushi, chicken, and takoyaki… then ordered takoyaki seconds because we had a discount (and I was hungry because I barely picked on lunch).

Dinner: sushi, fried chicken, octopus balls, chicken skewers

The next morning, we headed to the venue Sala Copérnico door around 9:00 and upon seeing nobody queueing yet, we went to have breakfast at a nearby café. Then, we walked around the Moncloa park area, mostly chatting, until we went back to the venue – no queue. And later went back to the venue – no queue. And afterwards, we went back to the venue again, just to find there were still no people in the queue.

Coffee and bread breakfast

In the end we ~~ran into the supporting bands~~ went to have lunch to the second Japanese restaurant in the block, Morikaen. It was around 13:30 as we were heading there, and I said something along the lines of “I feel sorry that they’ll arrive and there’s nobody here to greet them”, and as we turned the corner we almost literally ran into the whole crew coming out of the bus. Talk about timing. They looked tired so we just walked by, but we were rather sure that we had been noticed. On our way to the restaurant, we walked past a family all clad in “Sunday church clothes”, and their small girl wearing aaaall white just stared at us – in rock-goth black clothing – with pure envy in her eyes. Here’s to you, little one. You’ll get there too.

Lunch was all right – tuna tataki, tonkatsu, takoyaki. A bit more expensive than the previous day’s dinner, but we also ordered higher-class ingredients and more complicated dishes.

Lunch. Tuna tataki, rice and chicken, breaded pork, octopus dumplings

Jupiter is a Japanese band who define themselves as “melodic metal band”. It could be said that it is a visual kei symphonic power metal, which means they combine a very particular image (or a bunch of images, the most iconic being Hizaki’s Baroque-inspired dresses) with a subgenre of metal that combines hard drumming, metal guitars, and elements of classical music. On the 22th November 2018, Jupiter announced their new album, a Japanese Tour, and a European Tour, ZEUS Europe Tour. Bassist Rucy left between the announcement and the album release due to creative differences, and I really thought they would cancel the tours, but luckily everything went ahead. The remaining members – guitars Hizaki and Teru, current vocal Kuze, and drummer Daisuke were joined by support bassist Shoyo.

Schedule for the tour

There were two promoters involved for this concert. The local promoter, which in Spain was Madness Live, sold general admission tickets – they have a clean and neat webpage and buying from them is easy; I got ours on the 12th of December. The other, Editions Hikari, was in charge of coordination of the European tour, general information, and ticket upgrades. I think they are one of the worst organisers I have ever come across.

Hikari announced those upgrades in January. There would be VIP experiences, on sale on the 14th of February. Besides that there would be two kinds of upgrades, there was no real information about them until a few days before the sale. The best tickets were called “Venus Premium” (40€ face value + 5€ reservation costs) included autographs + handshake + backstage access before or after the show or soundcheck access (if possible) + photo with 1 member taken by a professional photographer (sent by e-mail later after the tour) + priority access to the merchandise, and there were five per show. The “Venus” upgrade (25€ VIP + 3€ reservation costs) comprised autographs + handshake + priority to the merchandise, there were 20 available per show. Getting the tickets was chaotic, but in the end, C***** managed to buy the two Venus Premium tickets we wanted – luckily. A lot of people did not even find out about the option to upgrade. In the end, the backstage pass / soundcheck was not available for any concert in the tour, and the priority access to the merchandise was impossible in Madrid due to the two independent promoters. Either of the VIP upgrades granted the option to buy an “Instax” (Polarid) photograph with the whole band at extra cost.

Hikari’s Facebook instructions were that Venus and Venus Premium ticket holders had to go to the merch booth – to which they supposedly had priority access – at the beginning of the concert. However, as the access to the actual venue was controlled by the local promoter ticket, there was no way they would access the merch booth with any kind of priority unless the managed to somehow skip the queue. Any kind of communication with Hikari was impossible as “they could not check emails, Facebook messaging, nor reply to comments.” However, they still made posts, and that is how we found that the CDs which Jupiter brought to sell at the merchandise booth were confiscated by customs’ officers before the first concert!

On the 10th of May, we received an email form the local promoter, Madness Live, informing us that the door timing had been changed and they were nice enough to send us the following schedule: Doors at 19:00, VII ARC (German support band) at 19:15; fesFE[M] (Japanese support group) at 20:20; Jupiter at 21:30. There was no information on the upgrades, because they had no clue about those, as Hikari was in charge. The day of the concert thus arrived and we had no actual about that, except for rumours and comments of what had happened in previous concerts. That was why, even if there was no queue, we had decided to stick around Sala Copérnico instead of heading into the city centre.

Eventually, after lunch, I decided that I was too tired to keep going up and down the streets, so around 16:00 we settled at the venue doors until they opened so we could get into the chaos that was the concert. At 16:30, other people arrived, so we got talking – that was how we found out that many people had never even heard about the upgrades. Doors opened around 19:00 – without any kind of priority access to the merchandise, nor separating VIPs and GA. C***** and I decided to divide and conquer – she went to secure a spot on the first row, while myself checked in at the merch booth to get the Instax tickets with the whole band.

That is when I saw the lousy, half sheet of paper taped there saying “Venus and Venus Premium ticket holders, gather at the merchandise booth at 20:00”. That placed the “Venus experience” in the middle of the support act, which meant either having very good friends who saved you the first row spot, or sacrificing it. We decided to give the place up and find somewhere more convenient so we could move about. Without holding spots for the VIPs, this was totally unacceptable in my opinion, especially since there had been no early entry, or priority merchandise. A bunch of people who did not want to buy anything missed out on what they had paid for.

The first support band was VII ARC. They were okay, a bit of stereotypical German heavy metal. I can see how they might appeal to the general metalhead crowd, but it feels that they were chosen because “they dress up sometimes”, and Hikari thought they would fit. It is formed by Kay (vocals), Fū (lead guitar), Bena (guitar, screaming), Grazel (Bass) and Z’ev (drums), and they could probably fit a bit on the “visual” style, but they did not bring any distinctive gear.

VII Arc playing in Madrid

At 20:00, as fesFE[M] prepared to take the stage, the Venus Premium and Venus ticket holders gathered around the merch booth and we were ushered past a barrier, towards the bar. There, we had to wait for about 10 minutes while the second support act started. A Japanese staff lady with little to no English came to “check” the Premium tickets and “sort of explain” to us the whole thing. First the Venus Premium would be shown backstage one by one for the one-on-one photograph – there were four of us, we never knew if the fifth was never sold, they did not come, or they missed the whole experience. Afterwards, we would come out again and joined the regular Venus for the autographs and handshake, then the Polaroid would be taken for the ones who had bought it. We were ushered past a curtain and the backstage door towards the mess room where the remains of the lunch buffet were.

As I entered, I caught sight of Shoyo, the support bassist, who was sitting down on a low mattress in a room to the left, looking bored. I greeted him in Japanese, and he greeted back. C***** turned to see whom I was talking to and her eyes were wide. I asked Shoyo if he felt lonely, he said a little. Another attendee who also spoke Japanese asked for a picture (beating me to it, actually) but he said he was not allowed.

The conversation died out when it was time to go into the private band area for my picture with one of the members. As I walked in, there was Kuze to my left, Daisuke to my right and Teru and Hizaki in front of me, Teru dead centre and Hizaki a little to the right. I was asked whom I wanted my picture with and chose Teru, as I had long ago decided that I would if I could. He smiled and posed with me, then he shook my hand. I have got to learn to look into Japanese musician’s eyes when I talk to them.

We said good-bye to Shoyo on the way out, and almost left, but it was now time for autographs, handshakes and Instax. I pulled out the CDs I had brought for C***** and myself, and I got to shake hands with all four of them and receive the band’s autographs. Since the CDs the band brought had been seized, we might have very well been the only ones in the whole country that produced some official material for signing. Then, we took the Instax and the staff would ask with a thumbs up sign “okay?” to check the picture was good, before we left.

CDs signed by Jupiter members

All in all, the band was very friendly and amazing, but the timing and organisation was horrid. We lost out first row – despite having “priority access”, and we missed half of the fesFE[M] concert. As Copérnico has two levels though, we found a nice spot at the stairs that connect both, and I could lean against the handrail to watch the rest of the act.

fesFE[M] is a relatively new visual kei band where all the members take up “doll” personas. Their career in 2017 and released their first mini-album in May 2019, just in time to come over to Europe for Jupiter’s tour. For each album / season, the band dons a doll theme, and they were currently on the “horror genre” dolls. The members and their doll types are: Lion [リオン], vocal, Distress Coppelia doll (from the namesake ballet, dressed as a bloody bride); Aito [アイト], guitar, Apathetic Prince doll; Zeno P [ゼノP], guitar, Bloodthirsty Child Killer doll; Toru [徹], bass, Emotional Princess doll; Rensa [蓮沙], drums, Psycho Butler doll; and Jun, keyboards, Scalded Dollmaster doll (dressed as a nun because… reasons?).

The first time I heard a song by fesFE[M], I was not extremely impressed – the PV was a bit too creepy. However, they are really good in person, even with the bad sound quality and reverberation in the venue – and the fact that we missed about half of their act. They were really engaging. The whole visual part was amazing, and the coordination was great! Their music was much more powerful live. The band played some songs from their mini-album enseMble autoMata: Doll in blueberry jam [Doll in ブルーベリィジャム], Arachne ni haitoku wo [アラクネに背徳を], Psychological stolen heart, and Freiya [フレイヤ].

Fesfem live in Madrid

The Jupiter concert was as expected, very energetic and fun – it actually went beyond expectations. Our spot was really good in he end, a bit raised, without getting pushed, and we actually watched the concert next to fesFe[M]’s bass Toru. Sometimes he smiled and waved at us, and we waved back without fail.

Kuze, Jupiter’s vocalist held his ground better than I thought he would be able to. I was kind of impressed when I listened to the Jupiter single Theory of Evolution and later to the album Zeus: Legends never die. While we were expecting the guitar and metal power, Kuze’s voice range in the recording was rather wild, and I did not think that he would be able to keep it up live, especially on a final concert after touring both Japan and Europe. He proved me wring, and he held all his notes and his vocal range, just like the recording. He had practised his English a lot and learnt the MCs, but he switched to Japanese quite often, and he spoke too fast for me to get! He did a great job even with songs that had been released in the previous vocalist’s time.

Daisuke was pretty much hidden by his own drums from where we were, but we did see him bounce a couple of times. Hizaki was on the other side of the stage from us, and he looked divine in his Baroque dress. I don’t understand how he can even move in those clothes, much less play guitar or crouch, which he did so a few times in order to interact to first-row fans. A couple of times I did fear for his safety as someone grabbed either him or the guitar. Most of the songs that were played were his. It’s fun to imagine what he would be thinking when writing “die, die, die, go fuck yourself”, when he presents as such a beautiful and innocent lady, but it surely was fun to yell.

And finally, Teru had a blast. He kept twirling around as he played, his stud-leather coat swirling around him. He played with a huge smile on his face all the time and he gave off the vibes that he was having a lot of fun. He also interacted with fans a lot.

Jupiter Live in Madrid

Setlist:

Arcadia
Last Moment
Angel’s wings
Drastic Night
Bring me out
Show Must Go On
No cry no more
The spirit within me
Tears Of The Sun
Memories of you
B.L.A.S.T
Blessing of the Future
Zeus: I. Legends Never Die / II. Conversations with God
Symmetry Breaking [Encore 1]
Theory of Evolution [Encore 2]

While the concerts were a lot of fun, the whole event was stressful due to the abysmal organisation. I actually feel a bit ripped off, because they did not deliver a lot of what they had sold in the upgrades. At least C***** and I are lucky enough that we managed to get our pictures, autographs, and saw the concert from a relatively good place. All in all, Jupiter are amazing, they were super nice, and so were the guys from fesFE[M]. The concert was great, and we don’t regret going for a second.

After the event, waved at Toru for what we thought was the last time. When lights went on, we also saw Rensa, who stopped for us when we told him he had done a good job. C***** and I decided to pool our money together to buy the CDs fesFe[M] had brought – and not got seized. Apparently, it is typical that the entry-level bands hang around merchandise booths after concerts, and we were lucky enough that they agreed to sign the CDs and take a photo with us. Lion was extremely surprised and nice – or acted so. He complimented me on my poor attempt of Japanese and complied with what we requested.

CD signed by Fesfem members

Finally, C***** and I headed back to the hotel, and we went home the next day – fortunately we left from the same bus station so we could maximise our time together.

Hikari took a few days to send out the VIP pictures, but they eventually arrived on the 1st of June. Getting them was also hard, and amateurish – they wanted to put them in a Google Drive link and post that on Facebook. At least we got them to send them via email, citing European Data protection laws at them… I really, really hope to avoid this promoter in the future, but if I do, I’ll be on the lookout in order not to miss anything.

21st & 22nd September 2018: The Vampire Rockstar in Barcelona (Spain)

Posted on 9 October 2018 by JBinnacle

I first heard about KAMIJO when someone handed me a flyer for his Paris concert when I was there to see Yoshiki Classical, back in 2014. I did not give that much more thought as I obviously don’t live in Paris. However, tickets for KAMIJO’s Sang Project Act III Europe Tour came out around my birthday this year, and I decided to get them as a present for myself – there was a concert in Barcelona, on a Friday. I had a good connection there, it was the weekend, and the tickets were not expensive. Thus, I bought the ticket, the VIP upgrade (early entrance and Meet and Greet) and the memorial photo ticket (individual Polaroid with him), a grand total of 68 €.

KAMIJO is a Japanese “visual kei” singer, both solo and with the band Versailles. Visual kei (V-kei) is musically similar to rock, though sometimes it leans closer to heavy metal. Singers and bands often don a particular style, the “visuals”, usually associated with some kind of fictional backstory (however, most of them tone “the look” down as they become older). KAMIJO has adopted the persona of an 18th-century French vampire which fits both his solo activities and the ones with Versailles. However, the illusion shatters as his French is worse than his English, despite how hard he tries.

Kamijo Sang Europe tour dates and venues

Between getting the tickets in May and the concert in September, I ordered and listened to the album KAMIJO was promoting, Sang. I recognised influences from older V-kei bands Malice Mizer and Moi dix Moix – both of which have the same vocalist, singer MANA. However, there was something more up-beaty to it that took a couple of listening sessions to fully embrace. In the end, I decided that I liked it pretty well.

Although the original reason why I decided to go to the concert was convenience, the whole thing was a pleasant surprise. I also took the chance to meet with my friends E**** and K*****, who live there. Thus, on the 21st, I took the first train to Barcelona, and I arrived a bit before 10:00. I went over to the queue at Sala Apolo, a venue in the centre of town and I was the sixth person there. I made some nice acquaintances at the queue who held my spot when I ran to the hotel to check in, around 15:00 (with 15 – 20 people at the queue).

Apolo venue façade

As I arrived at the hotel, a man walked in behind me. I did my check-in and the person behind the desk asked me for “the gentleman’s ID too”. I blinked – I had a single room, a reservation for one and he thought we were together? Weird. The guy was actually looking for a hotel for the night without a reservation, and I sure as hell was not going to share my nice, soft bed.

I went back to the queue to wait the evening away. We did not see the tour truck nor the band come in – nor out afterwards – but the venue has an underground car park, so they probably just drove in there VIP doors were scheduled for 18:00, but did not open until around half-past. I think this was one of the nicest queues I’ve ever been in. By the time the venue opened, we had already sorted ourselves into a VIP and a GA line, everything ran very smoothly. However, we were very few – probably not even 300, and most of the tickets had VIP upgrades.

After doors opened, we were shown into the actual hall, the smallest of the three the Apolo has. There was no separation between the actual floor and the low stage – there was no barrier, and we were going to be close. We had to wait in the queue for the Meet & Greet, and after we were done, we would be able to either go to the goods or take our places at the stage.

Once all the VIP ticket holders were inside the hall, KAMIJO appeared to say hi. One by one, we went to him, shook his hand and talked to him for a few seconds. He was very kind and smiled a lot, and he mostly answered “yes” to whatever he was told in any language.

I took on first row, a bit to the left. My spot was kept when I went to buy some merchandise, and we were so few that even when the concert started there was no push (unfortunately, that might mean he will not come back…). The stage was all set, including a perfect glass of water, formal tableware style, he’s above utilitarian water bottles, apparently.

Kamijo Barcelona stage

The fun part was that I was close enough that I had to be careful not to actually hit KAMIJO when he wanted us to reach out to him. The tour story revolves about the Émigré, an innovative energy system that transforms human blood into energy. This system was created by “Louis”, who is over 200 years old, and is exploited by the Count of Saint-Germain during the French Revolution. I am not completely sure how this makes sense, but I’m sure it does for people who have been following him for longer.

The live interweaves narration with recorded and actual songs, building on that outline. At times the instruments and reverberations were a bit too loud. However, most of the concert was okay. After all, this is KAMIJO’s solo project, designed so his voice is the most important thing. There were four of us in the middle of first row who had to wave and cheer with caution or we would literally smack the artist. When he twirled and turned, his velvet coat flew around and we had to be careful he did not hit us on the face with it. I had never been so near a performing artist in my whole life – I could also take a photograph of the setlist.

Setlist:
[Recording] SE あらすじ Scenario narration
1. Theme of Sang
2. Nosferatu
3. Émigré
[Recording] SE Blood Cast セリフshort narration
4. Vampire Rock Star
5. Bastille
6. Symphony of The Vampire 第五楽章「Sonata」
7. 闇夜のライオン instrumental
[Recording] SE Delta with narration
8. Castrato
[Recording] SE Ambition
9 Sang I
10. Sang II
[Recording] Intro as narration
11. Sang III
[Recording] SE mademoiselle
Encore 1
12. 私たちは戦う、昨日までの自分と
MC
13. Mademoiselle
Encore 2
[Recording] Emblem narration (guillotine)
14. Moulin Rouge
15. 第四楽章「Dying-Table」
16. Vampire Rock Star

Kamijo Barcelona 2018 setlist

For the first, and I don’t think this will ever repeat, so quite probably the only time in my life, I got to experience a singer singing to me. He reached out during Mademoiselle. And next thing I know, he’s cupping my face, pulling my chin up and looking into my eyes to the verse do you want to be a princess reaching out to me into les affairs d’amour?. I also got a high-five later, and he was gentle when he noticed my wrist brace, while other people told me he was high-fiving hard at that point – or maybe he just brushed me because he miscalculated.

One of the funniest moments of the concert was the MC. Apparently, last time he was in Europe with Versailles, KAMIJO fell and twisted his ankle in the concert before Barcelona. Instead of cancelling, he continued the tour, and sang in Barcelona with crutches spray-painted in gold, or sitting down. This time he was very adamant to tell us “I can sing on my feet! No need for…” and he forgot the word “crutches” and proceeded to mimic those. Then, he hopped all around the stage like a very fabulous kangaroo.

After the show, we had some time at the hall, without being herded or anything, before we lined up for the photograph with the artist. As you reached the head of the queue, they checked your tickets – and kept them – and took your personal stuff. We could shake his hand again and get the Polaroid taken. I reached out for the handshake saying thank you, and he pulled on me so he could wrap his other arm around my waist for the picture. I think because I was just the right size for this, compared to him and his platforms.

A few of us stayed behind for a while after the pictures were done, but we did not see anyone leave. I walked back to the hotel before it got too late, and headed straight for the shower, then the bed. All in all, the concert was extremely – and unexpectedly – fun, even if (or because?) we were few. I really expected him to be much more stuck-up due to the “vampire persona” act. People at the queue were very nice, too.

The following morning, I went out to meet my friends E**** and K*****. We went to an Asian restaurant and ate some really great food, with very good conversation until I had to go back to the station to take a train home.

4th September 2018: また今度 with a red rose petal (HYDE LIVE 2018, Strike 3) {Japan, summer 2018}

Posted on 7 October 2018 by JBinnacle

First thing in the morning, after D****e left for work, I got packed (hoping that my suitcase did not get lost again). Later, I went to Odaiba [お台場] on my own as she was working. It was my last HYDE live for the season, and my last day in Japan, too. It was windy and it rained on and off, but it was not bad especially considering that there was a super typhoon in Osaka that had slammed a ship against a bridge and cut down communications to the airport… I mean, compared to that I won’t even complain that my hairdo went to hell because woah there. I just had to not worry about my own flight a few hours later.

I checked out the Venus Fort to check if there were any new goods, but as there were not, I moved on. There are two exhibit rooms about cars in the area. One deals with newer and racing cars – MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase [メガウェブトヨタシティショウケース].

A collage with some cool and futuristic-looking car. The logo reads MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase

The other one is quite the opposite, and focuses on classic and historical cars – History Garage [ヒストリーガレージ].

History Garage classic cars.

It was at this time 12:55, so I hurried to the giant Gundam that stands in front of the Diver City. I wanted to check whether it moved at 13:00 and I was lucky. It changed its helmet and all (≧∇≦).

Gundam robot looking up to the sky. it is white and taller than the two-story shopping centre behind it.

After that, I went to eat get some food. The food court in the shopping centre was not too busy as it was a weekday, so I decided to sit down and have some ramen. I really love the way they prepare eggs for ramen, so I wanted ramen with egg. Unfortunately, could not read the super long name of the ramen to save my life, so I just asked for it using the number. The girl just turned to the kitchen and ordered ‘tamago’ (egg), which was pretty frustrating.

Ramen bowl with algae, chasuu (pork), spring onions and noodles

Once I had eaten, I went to see the waves, because even if the typhoon was making its effect known, and I am still fascinated by hot storms. Odaiba is, in the end, an artificial island in the middle of the bay, so it makes strange patterns sometimes.

A cargo harbour with unsettled sea

And I got a drink at Starbucks.

Starbucks plastic cup. It says thank you and it has a smiley face and a heart

I joined the people wait for HYDE to come in, waved hi at him, and thought that he did not look too awake. Afterwards, I decided that I had not spent enough in this trip (sarcasm). Thus, I went to buy something else: since I liked HYDE’s opening act STARSET, I wanted to get their CD and M&G experience, which included a handshake and an autograph. I felt that they had done an awesome job and deserved the credit and the cheering.

Once D****e made it, we went inside. By now, I had figured out what I had found amiss on Saturday and Sunday regarding HYDE’s live 2018 and made peace with it. Or maybe it was just my last day, and I really wanted to enjoy myself. I found a good spot in Zepp Tokyo – one thing I really like about going to converts there is that they keep the barriers up to separate the areas of the floor. That allows me to lean onto something and I don’t need to stay back to have something to hold on to, so I can get rather close even when I’m tired or sore. This time it was even better – since I was closer than usually, I managed to find a petal from one of the roses HYDE threw as goodbye at the end.

STARSET’s setlist:
1. Frequency
2. Carnivore
3. Gravity Of You
4. Telescope
5. Monster feat. HYDE
6. Ricochet
7. Bringing It Down
8. My Demons

HYDE’s setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Lion
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

After HYDE’s concert was over, I put my rose petal away, and I found my way towards the STARSET M&G. They were were extremely nice. We were around ten people, and they paid attention to each of us and they shook our hands (whoops, I forgot to take my wristband off). They were pretty patient and nice to everybody. Even after they left the venue, they were willing to sign items for people who had not purchased their merchandise (even though 3,500 ¥ for CD and signature is almost a gift).

Zepp Tokyo Venue from above

Starset CD with the band's autographs

A red rose petal

Finally we got home and D****e helped me so I got my trains sorted out to go to the airport the following day.

Night view of Tokyo, with Tokyo Tower lit up

1st September 2018: HYDE LIVE 2018 @ Odaiba, Strike 1 {Japan, summer 2018}

Posted on 4 October 2018 by JBinnacle

In the evening, the first concert of the HYDE LIVE 2018 tour took place in Odaiba [お台場]. Luckily, I was going to be able to attend three shows in a row. Since it was a Saturday, we decided to make “a day” out of the concert and headed towards the area. There was an offer going on, so buying ten Yurikamome tickets would be cheaper than going to the three concerts using the usual underground system, so we decided on those.

The concert was in Zepp Tokyo, next to Venus Fort. And what do you do before a concert? Queue. In Europe it is so you get in first, in Japan, since tickets are numbered, you do not do so. You queue to buy goods, because they sometimes run out – at least that’s how people justify it. Unfortunately, not all the announced goods were on sale yet, which was disappointing. At least we did not get a sunburn while waiting, as we were prepared for rain and thus carried an umbrella-turned-parasol against the merciless sun.

After we had bought our goods, D****e and I went to have lunch at the Venus Fort. We surveyed the places and ended up in a yakiniku place which was almost empty, and still had a long line of people waiting to get in. Things I’ll never understand. Food was good, though.

Yakiniku lunch – a dish of uncooked meat, the grill to cook it, rice, broth, and pickled vegetables

The concert was HYDE’s new solo project. After VAMPS disbanded a few months back, this was my first concert watching him. It was a strange situation, because the feelings were very bittersweet. It seems that HYDE has been trying hard to do damage control on the band break-up and has put a couple of singles out this summer, along a bit of a haphazardly-organised tour. He could probably not afford a show-less summer.

This time there was an opening act, progressive-rock band STARSET, who have a very distinctive style that I liked pretty much. The band itself is composed by four men: Dustin Bates (lead vocalist), Ron DeChant (bass), Brock Richards (lead guitar) and Adam Gilbert (drums). They were touring with two back-up members: Mariko M (cello) and Siobhán Cronin (violin). DeChant, Richards and Gilbert played their whole set wearing full-astronaut suits, and I have no idea how they did not die of heatstroke.

STARSET’s opening act took around 45 minutes. They were opening for HYDE as part of their promo in Japan – they actually collaborated with him for a re-recording of one of the band’s hits, Monster. At first, the audience had no clue about when and what to chorus, but it caught up quite quickly. When lead singer Bates managed to get the interaction he wanted, he visibly brightened up, which was cute.

Setlist:
1. Frequency
2. Carnivore
3. Gravity Of You
4. Telescope
5. Monster feat. HYDE
6. Ricochet
7. Bringing It Down
8. My Demons

After the STARSET show, there was a short intermission, and then not a countdown to zero but a “countup” to 666, which may have lasted about five minutes. In total, maybe about 20 minutes.

Setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Lion
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

There was something weird in the show, something amiss that I was not able to put my finger on until later. It felt… incomplete. Disconnected. Zipang was like a power-ballad lacking power, there was something strange about Devil’s side, HYDE’s guitar was the most powerful one in Ahead. It took a while to put my thoughts in order to understand. On the one hand, it felt that HYDE had half an album ready, and filled the rest of the concert up with other songs that he owned the rights to. On the other hand, it felt that what was played was either not completely arranged or not rehearsed enough. It was not that the musicians were bad, they just felt… out of synch. Like… there was “noise” where there should be music, and each of them was playing a different tempo.

In contrast to the music, someone had put a lot of thought on the visuals. The stage was decorated with a cyberpunk background, with a lot of neon and LED lights. HYDE was also going with a mask theme. He used one when he came out to echo STARSET’s Monster, and he kept the mask on for the fist couple of his own songs, and all his supporting musicians wear them too, they don’t take them away. He also brought in a retractile throne that went to the centre of the stage and back, so he could appear from behind it, or sing sitting (or flopped) down. This show is about HYDE and HYDE alone – he wants to feel like “the only one” and have exchangeable musicians, it feels.

Among the new songs, my favourite was Out – the lyrics read something akin to “I’m not afraid of standing out. A hundred devils messing with my head again. I won’t pretend, I won’t back down, I’m not afraid of standing out”, and they resonated in a way usually only Yoshiki’s songs vibrate with me. I think I could have done without the VAMPS songs though, but I guess that without a whole ready album, HYDE sang whatever he owned rights to.

Also, I think I bought too many goods: a python necklace, gummies and gaccha.

Hyde's tour truck

After the concert, we just went home to get some rest.

25th August 2018: Niigata + Otohige {Japan, summer 2018}

Posted on 27 September 2018 by JBinnacle

D****e and I went to Niigata [新潟] to attend Otohige, a summer music festival.

I took in a few things:

Golden Bomber are fun (well, this I knew already). Sho got hit for real a couple of times
Wagakki Band are fun too. I have given them money
I can’t go to arena moshpit without anything to hold on. Too painful.
Being on third row for HYDE should be amazing but it sucks if you can’t see HYDE and all your body hurts due to pushing and shoving.
I shall avoid macro festivals that do not have seats. If there are seats and arena, I will stay at the seats
Japan summer rain when everything hurts is not nice.
Painkillers and yummy yakiniku can make things better. Eventually.

This was not such a great experience for me as going into the pit turned out to be a good decision, causing a flare. I’ve decided to avoid festivals from now on.

23rd August 2018: 疲れた {Japan, summer 2018}

Posted on 25 September 2018 by JBinnacle

After nine days on the go, mostly with the backpack on, today I took it easy as my body kind of hurt. I went for a stroll down Ikebukuro [池袋], popped into the music shops in the neighbourhood, and looked at yukata. A yukata [浴衣] is the simplified version of a kimono [着物], usually worn in summer. It is less elaborated as it has fewer layers, and it is usually sewn from printed fabric rather than embroidered one. As so, it is rather more affordable than the real kimono – most people in Japan will own at least one yukata.

I went into the ALTA Ikebukuro super shopping centre. There, I found a super beautiful, super expensive high-class yukata. I absolutely fell in love with it, but it was completely out of my budget – it was embroidered with actual silver threads. After that, it was really hard to find something else I liked.

After a few more shops, I did find a yukata in Shinjuku [新宿]’s Tokyo 135º. Ironically, I found this shop in Shinjuku ALTA, right in front of Shinjuku Station Kabuki-cho exit (this is the building that used to have the huge Kimura Takuya billboard). It seemed that the sales ladies were quite used to tourists. The assistant did not press me, and she actually offered to take a picture of me before I actually told her I would buy the yukata.

My choice was exactly what I was looking and aiming for – it has a dark background and a bit of a “goth” design, with roses in different shades, from dark red to pink.

Coming back, I got lost in Shinjuku Station. Like, very lost. Then I realised that to get to the “South Exit” you have to actually come out of the building and find it outside. Live and learn. The great thing about getting lost in Shinjuku Station was that I found all the TOKIO panels for their new video game commercial. Including one low enough to be able to “take a selfie” with Nagase.