HALLOWEEN PARTY
October 24, 2003
Omotesando FAB
Halloween Party was fun. ^_^ Of course.
New Sodmy was really nostalgic, and I was SO happy to hear "Refrain" with Mayu for the first time. I did get to see NS with Mayu once, but it was at a multi-band show and they didn't play "Refrain". They sounded *incredible* with both Mayu and Aya playing together, songs like "Advent" having this fabulous full thundering feeling. I think there was some on-the-spot improvisation going on, a couple of times I heard You playing basslines which sounded new but were wickedly cool. They were all in costumes. Aya had a set of masks which he kept on almost the whole time. You had a mesh thingy over his face. Mayu was in a cute bee costume, a small one that made him look like a cute little honeybee. Kamijo was dressed in a Kishidan costume and makeup scars and bruises all over his face. It matched the Kishidan song "One Night Carnival" that they covered as a "new song".
Ribbon was a lot of fun too, although they took too long about getting onstage. They started out playing songs in order from "Beautiful", and then there was some shuffling about on stage and roadies bringing stuff out... No, it can't be! With the stuff out like that, and the band members standing like that, it looks like they're going to play "emeraude"! Kanzaki did an MC, and then they DID play "emeraude"! It was a lot of fun and sounded good, although of course Kanzaki's range is totally different from Kamijo's. Ribbon was wearing costumes too. Kazumi wore a clown costume just like the one Miyabi wore in a recent photo shoot. (Kazumi looked much cuter, though) Luca wore some costume which mostly hid him and I'm still in some doubt as to whether it was actually him, because even though I only saw him in real life once I swear he had a much thinner and prettier face. Kanzaki was wearing visual kei nazi garb, very cool and sexy. Emiru wore a bee costume, and somehow he'd found one that had a huge round bottom (bumblebee?) so the overall silhouette still looked just like a typical Emiru costume. ^^ He had pantalettes peeping out from under it too. ^^
Then Lareine. Emiru and Mayu matched very well in their bumblebee and honeybee costumes. Kamijo had removed the scar makeup and put on what I'm pretty sure is his "Fuyu Tokyo" jacket (over the breeches and boots he'd been wearing earlier). They didn't play a very long set... I remember that they did "Scarlet Majesty", "Gypsy", "Fuyu Tokyo", and "fiancailles"... maybe another song too? Kamijo forgot the lyrics to the beginning of "Gypsy" -- he raised the microphone, opened his mouth, and suddenly had this startled blank look on his face. *LOL* He missed nearly the whole first verse. Mayu and Kazumi kept playing through it but Emiru stopped and turned to look. I think Kamijo actually had to read someone's lips to get back on track with the lyrics. ^^; Mayu made a big mistake during one of the songs too, playing some bizarrely cacophanous riff that made everyone wince and Kamijo go over to give Mayu a playful thwap on the head. After the set Kamijo and Kanzaki came back out and goofed around hugging for a bit... damn, I'm surprised every person in the crowd didn't spontanously have nosebleeds. XDDDDDDDDD
The 2nd part that started at midnight was interesting and fun... There's something about wearing a costume that makes people less inhibited. Both Lareine and New Sodmy have had events in the past in which band members and fans mingled freely, but for this event because everyone was in costume, it was even more informal than those had been. Cameras were permitted at this event and fans were allowed to take pictures not only of each other, but to pose casually with the band members. There were some really cute poses -- I remember at one point two girls dressed as Iria were clamoring cutely to get a picture together with Kazumi. The bar was open and everyone received 5 drink tickets which they could use for either alcoholic or soft drinks. There were two specialty drinks for the evening -- Kamijo Blood, a mild orangey kind of drink; and Kanzaki Blood, a very strong wine. There was also freshly made yakisoba to everyone to snack on.
At the end of the event each of the members had their own specialty thing for fans... Emiru served his specialty takoyaki, which he'd been worrying over all night. Mayu gave short guitar lessons. I watched him teach one fan a little bit of "Solitude". Kazumi wrote something on a board (a poem? I couldn't read any of them) for each fan. And Dr. Kamijo had a "hospital" where he would ask "are you sick?" and then pop "pills" (jellybeans) into fans' mouths.
You HAD to wear something out of the ordinary to go to the 2nd event. Of course there was cosplay and Lolita, but there were also some fans in regular store-bought Halloween costumes. All the usual cosplayers brought their costumes, and quite a few fans who used to do it back in the old days but have since stopped pulled their old costumes out of storage and wore them for this event.