I just got back from probably one of the most single amazing events of my life! I am very into Visual Kei music, and so one of the things most definitely NEEDED to do while in Japan was go to a live of at least one band. Not only did I end up scheduling three concerts, I was able to snag a pretty good lineup of artists that I really enjoy! During Golden week, I will be seeing LM.C, one of my absolute favorite bands.
This Wednesday, I will be seeing SuG! I'm not too much a fan, but I think this band a has a lot of potential. At any rate, the live will probably be amazing!
BUT. Tonight, I saw Miyavi, another one of my absolute favorite artists. Here's a sampling of one of his songs!
He's very eclectic, famous for his many style changes, both musically and visually. He's an absolutely AMAZING guitarist, and based on his stage presence, is just an amazingly down to earth person. Also -- he's a very beautiful man in my opinion!
The poster for the tour! He gets the most amazing photos taken of him!So -- the play by play!
As I woke up this morning, I checked Twitter (I follow Miyavi on there) and saw this message:
"IM BACK IN OSAKA WHERE I WAS BORN 大阪もどってきたで"
I just got super pumped up, and I couldn't believe that I was actually going!
After getting all nice and pretty and fashionable for the live...
(I had all kinds of chains and stuff on my skirt and tie...can't see 'em though!)
...I caught the bus to Hirakata-shi, and then the train to Kyobashi. I then had to take the JR line to Osaka. The Keihan line (the train line that is around my immediate area here in Japan) is really easy to figure out and use, but it is famous for being expensive. JR is fairly cheap, but there are SO many stations! And there's lots of different options for which trains you want to take, so to me, it's just extremely confusing. Anyway, I had to take the Osaka Loop line. I had never used the JR line by myself, so naturally, I went the complete wrong direction on the loop line and had to back track. But now I know that you do NOT want to head toward Tennouji if you want to go to Osaka ^^;
I met with my lovely friend Sarah and we made our way to the live house. Yesterday, we got somewhat lost trying to find the place so that we wouldn't screw up and miss the concert today. Interesting thing about Japan -- if you ask people for directions, and the person isn't sure, they would rather give you wrong directions than tell you that they do not know where the place is. Naturally and frustratingly, we received two different sets of directions. And then we ended up finding a taxi driver! Those guys are awesome to ask for directions! They're very willing to help and won't pressure you to take you somewhere. He pointed us in the right direction and we found Shangri-La!
To our surprise, the venue was TINY! For some reason, I expected the concert to be fairly large due to Miyavi's popularity among US VK fans, but apparently he's really not that popular here, even as far as VK goes!
So anyway, we retraced our steps and made it once more to Shangri-La where we found, much to our surprise, someone from Kansai Gaidai! It turns out somewhere around 7 or 8 people all went to the concert, so we hung out in line and such. Merchandise was purchased! I got a really yummy photo book, two hair scrunchies of different colors that are all shiny and have the tour name and miyavi's name all over them, a neato pen, really beautiful photo stickers, a T-shirt, and a sports towel.
Why a towel? At lives for most visual kei bands, they sell towels so that you can wipe off your face as you jump around and enjoy the concert, but they also serve as things you can wave around during certain songs, so it's pretty much a must that you get one of them! It was so hot in there...I used mine well!
I shoved all the stuff in my bag and we waited and waited until they finally started calling people in. There are two types of tickets for these sort of things: A tickets, for fan club members, and B tickets, for peons like me! A ticket people get to enter the hall first, and they call you numerically, so if you bought the first ticket, you get the first position. I think it's a really fair and organized way of doing things personally. There were around 200 A's, and then they moved on to B's. I was B 112, so when I entered the hall, I had to push my way through to get to the front area where all the "moshing" (really just innocent jumping and occasional crowd surges for times when Miyavi leans over the stage or puts his hand out to touch people) happens.
The most wonderful thing about Japanese lives -- you can leave your purse in a big area operating on the honor system and no one will steal anything! I wasn't weighed down by anything as I finally found myself a position within the crowd about five rows away from the front.
We waited and waited and waited, and then finally, the lights went red, the music got loud, and the man of the hour walked on the stage, looking as awesome as ever. He really is amazingly attractive in person just in case anyone was doubting!
Song after song went by, everyone jumping and waving their arms. I discovered I had a lot more stamina then I thought I did for this kind of thing! Maybe it was all the adrenaline and excitement. Anyway, I can't really provide a setlist or anything, mainly because I'm just horrible at remembering the names of songs. The coolest thing about the live though was that Miyavi played old songs as well, but he transformed the songs to fit his current style, which has more of a blues influence.
Miyavi's MC moments were quite amusing. My Japanese isn't good enough to catch everything he said or anything, but every now and then, I'd get a joke and laugh along with everyone else! There was one moment where he looked around and said, in fairly good English "There are a lot of foreigners here today!" to which we responded by raising our arms and cheering! Which leads me to a fangirl moment:
Miyavi looked at mostly each every foreigner who had an arm raised and asked us all where we were from. Miyavi looked me in the eye, and I got to tell him that I was from America. Please be jealous now. XD
He said something awesome, about how whether we're from Brazil, or a America, or Russia, or Amagasaki (a really rural area in Japan that someone made a joke by saying they were a foreigner for coming from there), that he wanted us to all have fun and rock out. Which I most definitely did!
And then, some poor Japanese guy passed out during the concert. His friends supported him and were trying to get him out of the super crowded room, and Miyavi was doing his awesome MC thing and trying to get him some help. But the staff couldn't be seen anywhere, so Miyavi is just like: "Can someone help him please? Staff....Staff~♪? Where's the staff? Shangri-La~?" It was actually rather funny! He was concerned about him and you could tell, and so was everyone else, but he did a good job of keeping everyone's spirits up!
Another time, Miyavi starts playing a little game with the support members. During his talking, if he says "ha!" the members have to all play a note/chord/drum beat in unison. But it was unpredictable -- the members were really perceptive though. Then he did a sequence where he held up a certain number of fingers for however many times he wanted them to do the notes and it was super fast paced and fun to watch!
During another MC, Miyavi talked about how Osaka is his hometown, and that because of that, his grandma was there! He motioned over to her, and she was the most adorable teeny tiny traditional old Japanese lady! Miyavi informed us all that this was only the second of his lives that she attended, to which she corrected him that it was in fact her third time -- he laughed and apologized. And then he asked "楽しんでいる？" or something ("Are you enjoying yourself?") and she just looked at him and smiled, obviously not hearing. So he asked again....and again: "楽しんでいますか?" (more formal way of saying "are you enjoying yourself?") to which she replied "あります！" (There exists). Miyavi just starts laughing and asks "What exists?" and he gave up. He then sang "Love me Tender" for her in English, and it was really wonderful. It made me cry a little bit honestly.
More songs happened, and then we moved into this really emotional bit toward the second half of the show. He sang a slow version of Kukuru dedicated to his daughter, and it was really moving. He then sang three or four new, unreleased songs, which were absolutely AMAZING! I can't wait for them to come out. Anyway, during this part of the show, I just got really emotional. Because of Visual Kei music, and therefore partly because of the man performing right before my eyes, so very close -- closer than I had ever imagined I could be to him -- I became a Japanese major. I was able to be there, standing there in that tiny room jumping and sweating and screaming and laughing in Japan. I wonder if musicians ever truly know the effect they have on people's lives? Anyway, so I was crying a bit, but it was a happy crying. Miyavi is really good at making eye contact with each and every person in the room, and he gave me this look during this part that was just very encouraging.
After all of that, I made him a heart with my hands and he saw and said something to me, but I couldn't really make out what it was. But it just seemed like such a personal environment, and I wonder how many people were feeling the same kinds of things that I was feeling at that exact moment.
There was a break, and then Miyavi comes out on stage to tumultuous cries from the crowd, carrying an electic hair trimmer. Then a staff person lays a towel on the stage, and Miyavi motions the keyboardist over and proceeds to shave his head! The clippers were pretty bad though, so the guy's hair just looked like a mess in the end, and he only shaved the top, which Miyavi explained was very Samurai-like. It was rather amusing to watch!
More songs! More emotions! Then it was time for the live to "end" -- we were all showered with water from his water bottle and a lucky fan caught it -- he also spit water all over us, not like we complained or anything! He went offstage, and thus began the cheers for an encore. My abdomen area hurt from yelling so much, but I cried out "An-ko-re!" with everyone and "Mi-ya-vi!" with all my heart until the encore began! We got to wave our towels for one song, then he did the song that I put a video up for at the top, which was really fun because everyone was singing along! I believe the show ended with an awesome, updated version of "Girls Be Ambitious," which I got all emotional during again.
Afterwards, we sat outside and chatted about how awesome the evening was, met some cool people, and then went home! When I got back, I went and checked Twitter:
MIYAVI_OFFICIAL IMMA GETA SOUND CHEK サウンドチェックいってきまーす
MIYAVI_OFFICIAL THE DOOR S OPENIN OSAKA 開場しまーす
MIYAVI_OFFICIAL U READY OSAKA? 大阪、準備はいいか？
MIYAVI_OFFICIAL HAD A CRAZY TIME IN OSAKA 大阪、ただ、ただ、熱かった、、、！！
Anyway, I don't think I'll ever forget tonight! It was the best thing I've done here and I'm so glad I was able to experience it! I laughed, I cried, and I rocked out. I only hope that the next two lives will be as great as this one -- if so, I will probably be the happiest girl in Japan!
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