Omg it’s been a while since I’ve updated. I looked and saw that my last one was the day after Miyavi and it’s now almost mid-January. It seems I never made that post about the GazettE and Luna Sea that I said I was going to >.< well this is going to be that post and I’m going to post a second one probably (hopefully) in a couple of days with all the going’s on otherwise. SO the concert report! (SIS! AVERT YOUR EYES!... if you’re reading this that is…)
Luna Sea was great! I was on the floor of the Tokyo Dome and right up close to part of the stage. I wasn’t in the front of the stage but I was in a great position- considering there was only two chairs in my row and I was closest to the stage- right beside a railing. The German/French/American people in front of me honestly pissed me the HELL off when I got back to my seat after spending some time in the lobby with Tyesha. I’ve never gotten such weird looks from foreigners before and in fact- in the case of the three German girls- the one saw me and immediately turned to her friend and had her look at me too. I’m almost curious about wtf they were expecting or what they were exactly looking at. I’m an American white girl with blue eyes. You’re GERMAN- you shouldn’t be shocked by this ><!!
Anyways- the concert was great. I felt more like just a music lover instead of a major fan but it was sill enjoyable and they even played Rosier I believe (either that or it was In my Dream… or both XD). And I actually made some new favorites while I was there- though I don’t have a complete setlist of what they played unfortunately. Time is Dead did stick with me though and it became a new favorite of mine due to the concert. I have to be honest though- J, the bassist of Luna Sea, became one of my new favorite people lol. I love Sugizo but J overtook him for the night. At the beginning there was a large choir of people and eventually they all moved away to leave our five band members standing in the middle- it was a stunning opening and led up through a night of memories for those in the Dome I believe- as the members were styled more Visual Kei- more like the original “Lunacy”.
As I’m not a big Luna Sea fan- I can’t tell you what songs they played, save for those that I knew but it was surprisingly harder rock than what I thought it would be. Sugizo and J frequented the platforms nearby me- which made me happy. I think one of the best moments for me (being a fan of bassists) was when Inoran was at the end of the platform near me- Sugizo on the far right- and I’m pretty sure Ryuichi was on the middle one- or still on the stage itself. J decided to follow after Inoran but only moved a little down the platform- with no spotlight on him. It was almost funny when he tried to get my area of the crowd pumped up (on both sides of this platform) and no one saw him. He seemed slightly disappointed- so- it being me and me loving bassists- I immediately did a spastic, bouncy and yelly cheer for him. Idk if it was me or someone else but he seemed to cheer up a little lol. It was also amazing when it was just J and Shinya onstage- where Shinya had just done an amazing drum solo (LOTSA fire) and the bassist proceeded to try and make one section of the crowd cheer for him louder than the others- proceeding to flip the softer section off if he was impressed with the screams from the former section. And I’ll admit that I felt REALLY special at the end of the concert- even if it wasn’t actually pointed towards me but- J walked partially down my platform at the end and basically I cheered as loud as I could for him- slightly bouncing and being spastic at the same time and he smiled and pointed at me (or in my general direction). Overall it was a great night!
…Save for ONE thing. A camera… should be a CERTAIN distance away from one’s face. I had a cameraman come up and take a picture- while I was cheering for Sugizo towards the end of the concert- and the LENSE of the camera can’t have been more than half a foot from my face. I also seem to have popular with the rest of the video and camera men/women- as I found myself being filmed almost constantly. So when the DVD for Luna Sea’s (“Lunacy” at this live) comes out for this concert- be sure to check out some of it and see if you can spot me. Considering how much I was flimed- I’d be shocked if I WASN’T in it.
Onto the next night! Gazerock! YES! I finally got into the hall and found myself very confused and lost- as my ticket said something very different (and I was still tired from Luna Sea and also- I had come down with a mild cold at the beginning of the week >< that did NOT bode well for the concerts) from Tyesha’s and most of what I knew. Come to find out- since I had gone through the gaikokujin ticket sales- I had ended up with a spot on the arena floor once again. Oh man was I estatic! I felt horrible though- as Tyesha had bought a regular ticket and ended up deep in the stands somewhere. She threatened my existence though if I kept apologizing for it so I did stop apologizing… eventually lol.
Anyways- since I DID get another foreign ticket- I was- once again- surrounded by foreigners… save that it wasn’t so bad this time around as most were nicer and less rude than what had happened the previous night. For this one- I was on the opposite side of where I had sat the last night- though it seems that there are three pillar things… I’m not sure… all I knew what that while I was on the right side of the stage the last night- I was on the left side of the stage- in FRONT of the stage this night. The middle platform wasn’t that far away to my right (just a section over) and the stage wasn’t TOO far in front of me- probably about the same distance from the last night.
So- onward and forward! I don’t have a setlist for this one either- but I knew a LOT more songs… less than I should’ve (as I was lacking in listening to the new singles and tend to just stick to my MP3 player (which did NOT include a lot of the songs that they played unfortunately). I felt like a mega-Gazerock failure had happened on my part ;_; but it was still a great concert. I have to say that the performance of this night as compared to Lunacy the previous was almost incomparable. It was an amazing laser show lol. I’m being quite serious when I say such a thing- we started off with outlining the background box before the band walked out and then the concert started after a few words. There was IMMEDIATE headbanging… which I joined in on ^.^v I’m such a bad child. I’ll be honest. I’d buy a DVD of this simply to see what I missed while I was headbanging. There was also lovely fanservice onstage between different band members. One of the hardest things for me- who doesn’t watch the live videos for GazettE or ever been to any other of their concerts- was picking up on the puri (the hand/body movements that the fans make to songs- I’m almost sure that puri refers solely to the hand movements but I’m using body here for a reason).
The highlight of the night for me was hearing Pledge though. I CRIED. The song is already so beautiful and then to hear it live in such a matter… it was overwhelming. Another highlight was Bathroom right after it… it felt like I had been sucked into another world with that song. As the song started- a beam of white light shot down the middle of the area- over the platform to my right as the intro began playing and the beam slowly opened up and looked like a piece of the sky- pure white though with clouds floating through/across it. It was something so vivid and beautiful- I really did feel as if another world had just appeared above my head and I couldn’t help but simply stare and allow myself to be pulled along. An absolute FAVORITE song of mine, Filth in the Beauty was also played and there was LOTSA fire with this one too. The entire audience called for an encore together “An-co-re! An-co-re!”- clapping our hands on the re to make sure that we kept together for the GazettE to come back out. And they did- performing a SIX song encore, followed by another two song encore, which included, of course, Linda. Now Linda has one of the MOST complicated puri I’ve seen in my life- one where you clapped and jumped in time with the music, which tended to be hard to do sometimes after being so exhausted from the rest of the concert. But it was so much fun for that song that I just let myself go- even though my arms and neck were screaming for mercy from my energeticness. I had to keep telling myself that I wasn’t tired- that I didn’t need to sit and relax for a bit- that I could keep going. The final song was Miseinen and I was happy to hear it. Kare uta had played right before- so both of these songs seemed to just completely calm the audience down.
At the end, Ruki spoke about how long of a journey this was for them and how happy they were to be in the Tokyo Dome at this time- tripping over his words as his throat caught with tears. And even though I know I didn’t understand the words at the time- I felt the same as he did- his emotions reached out and touched all of us. I felt the tears welling up in my throat and I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t cry. Then I watched as each band member broke down in tears on stage and felt myself crying as well- especially after Reita curled up onstage in an attempt not to cry- pulling his hood over his head and turning away from everyone as Ruki spoke. Aoi left and came back a few times but all in all- I’ve never felt so moved by a group of people before in my life. It was a wonderful experience that I’m so happy I could be a part of. An amusing anecdote to everyone crying was the fact that I watched Uruha’s makeup run on one of the big screens while finding out later that my makeup had stayed perfect lol.
Overall, it turned into one of the best experiences of my life and I’m happy that I could go to such an event. Both events actually. It was worth the next week of being laid-up in bed with pain and exhaustion. So that’s my concert report! I will update again soon so that things that AREN’T music take priority in this blog again lol.
- One Happy American
