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NEW SODMY
My ticket numbers were okay but not incredible, so we went in after quite a few people had already entered and taken their places. The first thing we noticed when we entered was the CATWALK. Right in the middle of the stage, extending way out into the audience. Oh cool. Oh no. ^^;;; Ohhh... HOW DO WE GET CLOSE TO KAMIJO-SAMA?!!! The areas on either side in front of You and Aya were already totally packed. There was almost nobody in that central area though, because... that catwalk came out 20 feet or more from the stage and no one wanted to be that far away. Argh. What to do? What to DO?! So we stayed at the front of the catwalk and just hoped that it would get used frequently. ^^; The view of the whole stage was really clear, it was just distant... There was a big space between the stage (including the catwalk) and the barrier, with room for photographers to run around. A lot of fans were carrying blue or red roses to wave during the show. They came out in a fog of dry ice. (and they were so far away~) Kamijo wasn't quite in costume... he had the snakeskin pants and platforms, but was wearing a black trenchcoat (no shirt) and big silver cross necklace. You was wearing the suit with the dark floral pattern from the promo photos. Aya was in the same black button-down shirt and loose black pants he wore in Fukuoka. His hair was still in the braids, and he had the black spiderweb pattern scarf from the Raika instore around his head. Hitoshi was again in everyday clothes that I can't recall to save my life. (He's really cool and an awesome drummer, but has no fashion sense. ^^;) Later on they all changed into tour shirts. For the most part, they were far away for the whole show... Now I know some people think Kamijo would probably be happy to plant himself far out in front all by himself, but that's NOT the case. I guess he came out a reasonable number of times, considering that the people in Aya's and You's areas probably couldn't see the tip of the catwalk at all, but it wasn't enough for me. (waah~) He was so far away that the best thing to do seemed to be to wave at him. (Actually, we were so far that we were right in the middle of his vision, instead of under his chin, and he saw when he was being waved at and waved back. That was cool. ^_^) You came out quite a few times too. Aya didn't much... he didn't seem altogether comfortable out there. I'm sure the catwalk will look really cool in retrospect, but it was a wee bit frustrating at the time. There were two photographers scurrying around the stage taking pictures, so I assume there's going to be a live report of this show in some magazine later. There was also a videocamera filming away in the back. During the second performance of "Cat Walk", Kamijo got a little portable camera from a roadie and walked all around the catwalk getting footage of the fans. "Refrain" was even more lonely than before. ;_; It's sad enough hearing it when Mayu's not there to play it just because he's not there... hearing it played without him, knowing that he's not coming back to play it properly again... I love the song, but it was too sad to enjoy it. Kamijo sang "mystery song #1" differently last night. The 3rd line is pretty high up in his range and the 4th is even higher so he has to sing in falsetto. He had some difficulty with the 3rd line and it was nearly inaudible, but he just shifted down an octave to do the 4th line easily, then kept it like that for the next repetition. I think this wasn't planned in advance, but actually it sounded good. ^^ We all know that Kamijo likes to talk between songs, right? Yeah. Sometimes he's plugging upcoming shows or new releases, sometimes he's giving band information. Sometimes it's totally random stuff... This is what he said before "Cat Walk". Kamijo: During this tour one of the roadies' cats had kittens. Congratulations~. You-kun, what's the name of that cat?
For the first encore, You was the first to return. (I'm presuming this is because he quit smoking so doesn't care if his break isn't very long. ^^;) He came back out and chatted for a bit, then had the audience call out for Hitoshi. You chatted for bit more, then they went into their jam. It was different from the Fukuoka jam, although the framework was basically the same. Aya again came back out after a while and joined in. These jams are really cool -- even my boyfriend loved this one. (he doesn't mind being dragged to concerts, but never really gets into them. He liked this, though.) During "actor", mylar squares exploded from either side of the stage and covered everything. It was cooler than streamers, because the squares don't sink down as quickly so the sparkly effect lasts longer. Squares also mean no squabbles between fans fighting for souvenirs. (I've fought for a streamer myself and can assure you it's much nicer to easily grab a handful of squares than to struggle with some other determined person. ^^;) When they landed, they stuck to everything... people's hair, their faces and shoulders, in their bags... People have trouble with that pulling move in mystery song #2! ^^; They get the hand-waving and hand-bouncing just fine, but somehow it seems like everybody just winds up laughing and looking at each other when it comes time to do the pulling thing. (To tell you the truth, I feel silly doing it too. ^^; And I'm shameless when it comes to jumping around at New Sodmy shows. ^^;;;) This was the last song of the show. It was raining after the show, but a group of us stuck around anyway to wave "bye" to the band members as they left. They didn't all leave together this time... a car came out with Kamijo in the passenger seat, they passed by and he waved back at us. Then the car rounded the corner and went down the street a short ways to a parking lot, where somebody blond (there was only one blond in the car) got out and went somewhere. And what did we do? *LOL* Nothing! *ROFL* If it was America, everybody would have run down there after him, but it's not... we only wanted to wave "bye", right? not stalk poor Kamijo-sama. Then the usual kind of white van came out with Aya on our side... he smiled, but didn't wave. SET LIST
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