HALLOWEEN PARTY
October 31, 2002
Meguro Rokumeikan
One thing -- this was a REALLY great show for me because all 3 of my current favorites played and even the bands I didn't know extremely well were ones I liked a lot. If I'd been able to pick the lineup myself, this is it. How cool is that?! ^_^
The evening began with Kamijo coming out to welcome everybody. He came out wrapped in a dramatic black cape over a sparkly black vest and white shirt, looking very elegant and appropriate. He spoke just a few short words, and left before we'd gotten our fill of watching him.
Aiorosu was the first band of the night. They're S to M with a different vocalist and a harder edge. The singer is named Aoi and I don't know him from anything else. He was, as the name might suggest, dressed in an extravagant *blue* costume. Michiru was dressed rather simply in a red velvet Christmasy jacket, with his hair hanging loose and straight. Hidezo was sexy as always in a slinky black thing. Kazutake wore a big plush beaver costume without the head. (very silly and cute! ^^) Hiroki was in light blue satin -- it looked kinda like a dress, but I couldn't really tell with the drums in the way. The first songs they played had a much harder feeling than S to M's melodic pop sound and were new to me. Then they did S to M's killer instrumental, with all the lunging. I had a lot of fun, in my usual spot under Michiru's nose. Especially since, although Rock May Kan doesn't have a bar so there's no space between the audience and stage, Michiru was careful this time about keeping his guitar out of fans' faces. For their last song, they did "Mujuryoku".
Next was Chanton L'amour. This was a surprise! The vocalist turned out to be Machi himself! He did the songs from "L'horloge". It was hard to hear him, though. I think he was very nervous about singing. One of my friends said she saw his hand trembling as he held the microphone. He and the support musician performed the whole set seated. The support musician played syn. guitar for the first song and bass for the next. I thought his face looked remarkably like Mana's, although he never turned so that I was able to get a full view of it. Machi was wearing a curly blond shoulder-length wig with a tall gold crown, a white blouse with some black ribbons, and a long gray skirt. I wish his voice had been louder... I think he was on key, so he didn't need to be nervous.
S came on afterwards. They were fun as usual. I can't see any traces of their previous visual image anymore -- they wore totally ordinary casual clothes, but I still think it suits them better. Dai had his black hair styled in a 1950's-ish pompadour, which was the most any of them had done appearance-wise. I think they got the best reaction of any of the non-Lareine-member bands at this event. Even if you've never heard them before, they're fun and charming.
As soon as the curtains closed for them, I made my way up to the front, aiming for a spot between the left side and center. Wasn't able to get any closer than the end of the space before the the seats begin. It wouldn't have been the last row as there was room for somebody behind me, except that I was tall and nobody wanted to stand there if they could help it.
The next band was Ribbon. This is going to sound terrible... really bad... but when I first heard their CD, I wondered how they would sound live with only one guitarist to play the parts. And now they have two support guitarists, and the sound is just as rich and intricate as one could hope for. Although, Luca was the one who created those riffs... *sigh*
All 3 members wore black feathered wings with little flickering red lights in the back. Kazumi I hardly saw at all, between him being a drummer and Emiru and Kanzaki to either side of me. (I picked that spot to stand specially!) Emiru wore the same pink dress from last night, this time with the cute little black hat. He's so cool... Kanzaki wore some kind of black dress-like thing with some chains and bandages. He's quite tall -- over 6 feet -- and it really adds to his stage presence.
The intro music was "Rosetta Stone" of course, and they went right into "Territory". Kanzaki is NUTS and was all over the place. Anyway, for this song he was just being an extremely energetic performer.
The 2nd song was "Mayonaka no Kuroi Taiyo". Did I mention that Kanzaki is NUTS? And BIG? He came flying off the stage, his chest landing right smack in my arms; and with nobody behind me to help absorb the impact and distribute the weight (other people had his legs, but that's not the heavy part of him), I stumbled backwards and down, desperately trying to hold him up so he didn't break his nose on the seats. I think he's damn sexy and would normally have been quite happy to be landed on if I didn't have to hold so much of him, but it's impossible to appreciate such a nice armful when you're thinking "oh NO, his teeth are about to be knocked out and it's because I'm not strong enough!"
Amazingly, he seemed to be okay and scrambled over seats and fans alike in a straight line for the back of the livehouse, continuing to sing the whole time, while a frantic roadie tried to catch up with him. He vanished out an exit, and appeared moments later on the upper balcony. He sat on the railing with one long lanky leg dangling down as he leaned over to sing to the crowd with a wicked gleam in his eye. Fortunately, he didn't decide to take the shortcut off the balcony and instead took a back route when he returned to the stage to finish the song. Then he did an MC and handed his wings to a fan. The wings were probably all broken anyway from his adventure through the crowd. The last song was "Kyokutou no Koibito", which was very cool and relatively uneventful, aside from Kanzaki dropping his microphone and generally boiling over with too much restless energy to do anything in a normal-looking manner. I hope they do another show soon. Even with 2 weeks worth of terrible lingering muscle pain from catching Kanzaki the giant, they're still a lot of fun. ^^
Then, it was time for Lareine. Kamijo came out alone. He wore his costume from the new pictures and it's absolutely gorgeous. The coat has to be new -- I've never seen the "Lillie Charlotte" coat in real life, but this one is definitely dark navy blue and I don't think it would be possible to make it look like the royal blue of the LC one even under bright lights. It's a stunning fabric. And the lace on his cuffs and neck is exquisite. It must be handmade and terribly expensive. I've never seen such beautiful lace before.
He did "Ano hito no aishita hito nara" with the same simple piano music as at the New Sodmy shows. As always, his singing was very powerful and emotional. This is definitely a song I like much better live than on CD. Near the end of the song, he began singing the chorus without the microphone, then held it out to the crowd who all joined in.
Then roadies scurried across the stage adding microphones and pieces of mystery equipment. Could it be...? ^^ And then Kamijo said the next song would be the last, and that Emiru and Machi would join him for it. *_* And that this would be the last song of the Halloween Party.
And "Lillie Charlotte" began. Oh, it was so nostalgic! Just like last night, much of the performance was the same. Machi, still in his blond wig and crown, twirled one drumstick as he played the electric drumpad with the other. Emiru did unclear things with his turntable. Just like before, during the verse Kamijo put his arm around Machi for a while, until the end of the verse when Machi raised his arm and leaned back. During the first chorus, Kamijo went over to Emiru too. And in what I thought was a really funny nod to the feeling of being back in the Romance Kakumei live, during the second "show window" part Kamijo turned his back to the audience, just like when he climbed up the stairs then. And of course all of them flung out their hands and then folded them in prayer at the usual times.
Machi tossed out his two drumsticks at the end. And to my shock, the second drumstick came floating gently through the air right to me! I clutched it tightly until the other fans' greedy grasping hands gave up on trying to steal it. Yay~! I've never caught a drumstick before! It's not one of the custom Machi sticks he used before, but a red one that says "Nobu Saito model Tama".
We didn't want them to go and the crowd lingered for a long time hoping there would be an encore, but we all knew it was unlikely... It was such a short set, but a wonderful treat.