We got there around four something (the doors opened at 5:30), so we took pictures in front of the hall and then went to Mos Burger for a quick dinner before coming back and buying some tour goods.
Ame ga kirai desu....-_-' (I don't like rain...) Luckily I brought my panda umbrella with me because the sky was spitting at me when I left the apartment...and then it started raining in Shibuya. (For those of you who can't read Japanese, the sign says "Shibuya C.C.Lemon Hall." C.C.Lemon is a Suntory brand drink...they paid a buttload of money to have the hall named after their drink.)
I bought a t-shirt, of course, for 3000 yen. Here's the front.
It says, "Kagrra, - To the inside of the core tour 2008 - "
And the back.
I also bought the tote bag, since I've been wanting a tote bag so badly, and this was perfect. ^_^ It was 1000 yen.
Anyway, when they opened the doors, we were at first confused as to whether they were only letting in the first floor people or everyone, so we waited a little while and then got in line. There wasn't a rush or anything, since we had assigned seats. We were on the balcony, pretty far back, but since C.C. Lemon Hall is like an orchestra hall, it was a pretty small place, and so we weren't that far back. Just far enough that we couldn't see the band member's faces very well, but I could tell when Isshi (the vocalist) was smiling, since his smile is very...bright? Not the right word, but I think you get the idea. A few minutes after 6, the show started right up without any opening bands, and then they played for three hours with a ten minute break (and short MCs) and then one long MC at the end. I stood for basically the entire time, except when I leaned a bit on the upturned seat edge. Marina sat for the entire concert, and was kind of a downer. But I won't talk about that right now!
The first song Kagrra, played was 四月一日 (April 1). When Isshi was going, "sakura, sakura" I couldn't help thinking, "Of course that's the opening song, hahaa." I don't remember all of the songs they played, though I knew nearly all of them, I think. The only song I knew all of the words to was Utakata, though, haha. I must have played that song a lot in my car. I didn't realize I knew all of the words until Isshi started singing and I was able to sing along for the entire song. It made me very happy. ^_^ Most of the songs I just hummed along. I really liked how they made all of the songs more lively and grungy for the concert, since normal Kagrra, is much softer. But they just exploded on stage! It was amazing! I especially loved how they did 幻影の貌 (I don't know the translation, sorry), which is one of my favorite songs.
Since I don't want to write a novel on this, I'll just tell you about my favorite parts. I absolutely loved it when Shin played the koto during Utakata and...I can't remember the other one(s). But one of the songs he played both guitar and koto, so he stood behind the koto and played his guitar and then switched to the koto and then back again to the guitar all within a few notes. It was beautiful.
I also loved the hand dancing, haha. First people just used their hands as Isshi moved his left hand with them, but then everyone suddenly took out folding fans and did all kinds of things with them...in perfect unision. I kept forgetting to watch the band because I was so distracted by the fans, haha. Then a few songs later, after Isshi told them to take their towels out, everyone waved the towels around in unison. People who didn have towels (or fans) moved their hands instead. Halfway into the concert I figured out the hand movements and did my best to join everyone, lol. As for headbanging...there wasn't a lot of it, but when they played Boufura (I think that was the second song), Isshi was headbanging when he wasn't singing (though somehow didn't mess up his big blond hair), so a lot of the fans were head banging, too. There was one girl a few rows in front of us that was really into the music, and was headbanging more than the people around her...and yet she was dressed in a cute flowered and lace tunic. I love that nearly no one follows the image their clothes give off here. (ie: some guy could be wearing all black, tons of chains, have spiky hair and loads of piercings...and then be really giggly and silly.)
Oh, and I almost forgot. In concert videos, I always see fans bawling their eyes out, and I go, "why in the world would you cry at a concert?" But somewhere between the second and third song they were playing, I felt my eyes tearing up! Aaaaaaah but I didn't cry. I just was pretty close to it. It was at that point when I realized that I was really at the concert, and got a little overwhelmed. *embarrassed* Also when they were playing "Yume izuru chi" I started feeling that way again, because that's the first song I ever heard by them, years ago.
During the MCs I tried my best to figure out what Isshi was saying, but I could only get a third of what he was talking about most of the time. I was able to get what he was talking about, but not get the story or the funny parts when what he was saying was funny. He was even speaking very slowly, and I could understand all of the words he was saying, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. (Why isn't there a better way to say that in English? I hope you get what I am trying to say.) For instance, he talked for a while about hanami and sakura, and at another time he was talking about other countries they were going to have concerts in (I think?), he was talking about New York during another one, and then he was talking about sushi and nattou? I thought I'd heard him say that he hated nattou, but then Marina said that she hadn't heard that, but she heard him say he didn't like sushi. *shrugs* I have no idea.
I really liked that no one made a single sound while they were playing, and also that if they were applauding after a song and Isshi started talking, the clapping instantly stopped so that they could hear what he was saying. He was able to actually talk to them because of that, and when they responded, he could understand what they were saying. Which reminds me! I also loved it when he'd be singing and then suddenly hold the mic out for the audience to sing, and they would sing the lyrics so well. He would give them a little applaud or bow to them to thank them after, it was so sweet.
The stage set-up was relatively simple. There were five large white paper (plastic?) spheres hanging from the ceiling, with the largest in the middle, and the lights put interesting patterns on them throughout the live. There was also writing flashing by them at one point, and even though it was in English, I couldn't make it out. During one song there were flaming torches all around the stage, and They also had tapestries come down from the ceiling, and then during one song (I forget what song, but it was about snow), fake snow came out of the ceiling. I had a feeling it was going to happen before it happened, because in the previous song, the roadies were putting clear plastic over Shin's koto and over a bunch of things by the mic stands while the band was playing. Toward the end of the concert, silver streamers shot out over the audience, but of course none reached the balcony.
Okay, I ended up writing a lot more than I intended...that always happens. And I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of things, too. But super long story short, I thoroughly enjoyed the live and felt like it went by too quickly. I wish I could go to tons of lives, here, but unfortunately the only other one I'm going to is Gazette's. That should be awesome, though. It's in 20 days.
And I'm now only listening to Kagrra, music, though I hadn't listened to them at all in the past few days. I'd been listening to An Cafe's newest song "Cherry Saku Yuuki" over and over. >.> But now I don't want to listen to anything except Kagrra,! Though the songs don't sound nearly as awesome as they did live, now.
OH! I completely forgot to mention this before, and I'd been meaning to. I was really, really impressed by Isshi's live singing. Usually singers don't sound nearly as good live as they do on their albums, since the recording cleans them up and all that jazz, but Isshi's singing was just as perfect live, if not better, because his voice was so powerful. Not only that, but his vocal range is amazing. He hit every single super high note (it'd be high even for me) perfectly, and then he'd go right back down to a really low note without wavering. I was floored a few times during the concert when he got some of those high notes.
Okay, I'm going to stop now before it's too late and I take up the entire blog page. XD I hope you enjoyed reading this!
1 comment:
Ahhhh all I can say is that im super jealous and Im glad you had a good time <3
..I hope they DO go to Newyork!! I would totally go see them there...
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