Romance Kakumei Shubousha Enzetsu
March 14th, 2004
Meguro Rock May Kan
This Lareine show was nostalgic in all kinds of ways. The first nostalgia I got was New Sodmy nostalgia, because the show was at Meguro Rokumeikan, where I saw many New Sodmy shows. But Rokumeikan is the livehouse where Lareine basically got started. They used to do a lot of shows there, particularly the most important ones of the "Blue Romance" period. And although I wasn't going to Lareine shows then, I could still feel some of that nostalgia even before the show began, from having seen the live photos and short video clips of that "Blue Romance" era.
It opened with the speech part. Mayu, Emiru, and Kazumi were all in military costumes. Mayu and Kazumi stood at each end of the stage holding a flag, and Emiru stood in his usual place holding a Something. (a book? a turnip? I cannot remember! >_<;) Kamijo was in the middle behind a red-velvet covered podium, which had a pile of what looked (at least to me) like a selection of flowers he'd plucked from audience members in concerts past. Actually, now that I think about it, that might well be exactly what they were... it seemed humorous when it first occurred to me, but it would suit the feeling of the concert really well. He was wearing a red spangly outfit with cloak, which I'm pretty sure was the monarch costume from "Fuyu Tokyo" era, except it was without the feathers and high collar, and his hair was pulled back into a looooong ponytail. Behind all of them was a big flag that said "The World of Romance".
I can't summarize the speech, sorry. ^^; Towards the end, Kazumi and Mayu swung their flags out so they were over the audience, then brought them back. Some moments later, Kazumi turned and went to stand in back beside Emiru. Mayu continued to stand looking blankly out at nothing in particular, until he gave a sudden start and looked at where Kazumi had been; and then with as much dignity as he could muster hurried to the back to stand beside Kamijo.
After the speech was the live itself. Kamijo changed into his white military costume and with the long ponytail he really looked just like he used to in "Fleur" days. It really had the feeling of that time seeing him like that on the Rokumeikan stage! And they played two songs which I've never heard performed live before and was thrilled to hear -- "Kisetsufuu" and "Blue Romance". ^_____^ "Kisetsufuu" was great and "Blue Romance" is AWESOME live! "Blue Romance" seriously kicks ass live! Mayu's guitar sounds SO much harder live than on either of the CD versions and Emiru's bass was fabulous. And the drums! You can get an idea of how cool the drums are meant to be on the EP version (that's the one on "Reine"), so just imagine THAT pounding rhythm in a live setting and you'll start to get an idea of how amazing this song was.
For the first encore, some of the fans did something that got us in trouble... (NOT ME! I wasn't one of this group!) We Lareine/New Sodmy fans have no sense of rhythm. ^^;;; We sang the singalong part of "Fleur" so badly at the Christmas show that the band actually stopped the song and gave us a lesson on rhythm. ^^;;;;
So as most of the fans were struggling to get an "encore" chant going, doing the best they could despite their TOTAL inability to keep a beat, a small group on the other side began singing something. ^^; I knew it had to be something from a Lareine song and yet it took me several minutes to figure out what it was, because it was THAT off-beat and THAT off-key! It was the "dekiru koto nara ima sugu ni mo anata ni fleur" line that we always sing during "Fleur"! If it had been even REMOTELY on-key I would have figured it out instantly! It was sad. Then some fan with a massive voice (and a sense of rhythm) started another "encore" chant, possibly with the goal of drowning out that dismal singing. And lots of other people picked up on that, lending their voices... yet the singing was still audible during the breaks, and the "encore" and the singing were at different tempos...
And then Kazumi came out and announced that instead of doing "encore", there would be some practice. ^^;;;;; The rest of the band followed and Kamijo gave us instructions. The male fans were to sing in this tone, the female ones to sing in their usual range. Naomi played some notes on the keyboard to set the key. Kazumi played a beat. And so we practiced that "dekiru koto nara" line over and over and over again until it sounded okay and Kamijo declared us finally skilled. ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
So when they played "Fleur" for real, we were somewhat better... @_@; However, I still have no faith in my ability to keep a beat on my own (I know I can't do it ^^;) and I REALLY do not trust the voices of the other fans to provide a reference. So I did my best to NOT listen to them and instead watched Kazumi's lips as my guide, because he's always singing along. Whatever rhythm HE sets must surely be right.
Oh, and then there was "Kaze no Yuuwaku". ^^; It's a headbanging sort of song, although Lareine fans aren't the sort of fans you expect to see headbanging. But the band wanted us to do it tonight. Kamijo egged the crowd on until the left side of the audience WAS headbanging and doing it pretty well, but on the right side there was none... This may in part have been my fault for being the person who stopped the line of headbanging from the left. I know how to headbang Japanese-style and I can do it well if I choose to. However, not only is it extremely difficult to whip butt-length hair about, it's liable to cause massive annoyance to fans in a 5-foot radius. I refuse to headbang.
In the middle of the "you WILL headbang" segment New Sodmy's devilish "let's see what kind of embarrassing things I can make the fans do!" Kamijo made a reappearance. He resurrected one of the moves from that little song that always went after "Cat Walk". It was one of the moves that took the place of the pulling-whiskers one (>_<;) and only lasted one show. Anyway, point is, it's a silly move, and while we can sorta bring ourselves to do it during a silly kind of song that's filled with other silly moves, we REALLY feel dumb doing it during the headbanging part of "Kaze no Yuuwaku"!
During the 2nd encore break, no one sang or started an "encore" chant. Instead they stuck to the time-honored and impossible to mess up tradition of calling band members' names at random intervals.
The last song was "Saikai no Hana" of course. And my faithful bouquet of blue roses that I've been carrying since last year's Nagoya show was finally laid to rest where good blue roses go... in front of Kazumi's drum kit. I never thought a bouquet of fake flowers could get worn out, but I waved that bouquet at so many shows that the coating on the stem started to come off! And I wondered, "is this supposed to happen? Isn't Kamijo supposed to steal the flowers before they can get in this state?" Poor hardworking flowers! But he finally stole them tonight and sent them to blue-rose heaven. I hope they're happy, they deserve it.