~tour Miss CARMILA~
August 02, 2000
Nagoya Club Quattro
We arrived at Club Quattro around 1:00 PM, hoping to see Lareine go in, but they'd already entered the club and were busy doing soundcheck. There were only a few solitary cosplayers milling about, so we left for the nearby hotel. At the hotel, we exchanged more gifts, changed clothes, and went to buy artificial roses at the fake flower shop next to the hotel.
The artificial flowers are practically mandatory at a Lareine show. Each fan carries a flower, symbolizing her favorite member, and holds it up during the show. Blue roses for Kamijo, red roses for Machi, lilies for Mayu, and marguerites for Emiru. I had a bit of trouble finding the perfect blue rose... the only individual blueish roses were a sort of acquamarine color, and just not right. The only azure roses available came in a fat bouquet, which I settled for because after all, I love Kamijo-sama so much... ^^;;; And for the next couple of hours we wandered about between the hotel and the club, taking pictures with whatever cosplayers we ran into.
At 6:00 the doors to Club Quattro opened, and we ran to take our places. And we stood there for an hour, getting more and more cramped. By the time the show began, my feet already hurt.
Then the show started! The first song was "Dir En Gray", and the crowd went nuts! Everybody in front of me (not many, since I was in the 4th row) moved forward, and everyone in back started piling up. Everyone's arms and flowers went straight in the air... and stayed there, because we were packed so closely together that we couldn't put them down. ^^; A Kamijo cosplayer next to me (shrieking at the top of her lungs, "Kamijo-sama! Kamijo-sama!") elbowed me in the head a few times, and some crazed fan in back put both her arms around my neck and shook them wildly. Looking to the left, I saw nothing but heads, flowers, arms, and hair... to the right, the same. But when I finally managed to get my face untangled from the hair of the girl in front of me, I saw... Kamijo-sama, less than 10 feet away, glowing in the lights.
Kamijo's SO much more beautiful in real life than in the photos! He has very delicate and fine bones, and is extremely slender. His hair was mussed with some kind of gel, so it had a wet look even at the beginning of the show. He was wearing new acqua-colored contact lenses, which unlike most colored lenses, didn't have the usual shading, and so they looked like mirrors, or like a cat's eyes before a flashlight. And he has a very intense gaze, so when his eyes swept the crowd, it was like we were being seared by laser beams. (Really!) Actually, he was unearthly. He's so beautiful that it seems like he can't possibly be human, because no real person could be that perfect. But I could see the tiny beads of perspiration on his face and neck, soaking through an already-thin shirt and making it transparent... (don't get me started on that shirt!) He was wearing the "Miss Carmila" cross around his neck, and a Fleur fanclub ring on his left hand.
From where I was, it was extremely difficult to see any of the others. So all I can tell you about what Mayu, Emiru, and Machi looked like during this show is that they wore the white costumes (from the "Lillie Charlotte" poster) during the first part, and the black costumes (from the recent photos) during the latter part.
Midway through the show, the crush was too much and I left the jam-packed area directly in front of the stage, and retired to the bar area for water and a cigarette. Most of the cosplayers with the really elaborate costumes were standing in the back, so as not to get their lovely dresses trampled or torn, and to be able to see the whole stage. There were a few staff members lounging by the bar, and on a whim I composed a short message (mentioning this site) to Lareine and gave it to one of them to give to the band. I didn't expect him to do anything more than tuck it in his pocket and forget about it, but to my surprise he went right backstage and dropped it off.
After the show, we milled about for a while buying goods and chatting with people. When the staff chased everybody out of the club, we wandered downstairs and plopped down outside the door, being exhausted and sore. A beautiful Kamijo cosplayer (who'd I'd asked to take a picture with before the show) asked me to pose with her for her friend's camera. After a while, we noticed that the staff seemed to be bringing equipment through the small crowd, and packing it into a small minivan. o_O If the equipment was coming through this way, the band might too, right? ^^; So we waited some more. Finally the staff shooed everybody back, and after a long expectant pause, Lareine walked through and jumped in the van. Machi smiled, and Kamijo waved to the fans. Everybody waved back, and the van left. And then we did too...
Overall, I think this show had the most energy. There was definitely an element of sadness, but for those of us who were planning to be at all three shows, it also kind of felt like a beginning. And it was the longest show. They played for two and a half hours, and included all the songs played at the other lives. This was the only show with "Tsukiyo no Kageki" and "Billet".
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