8/29: Panic Day!
Panic Channel Oneman @ Takadanobaba Area

Background: "829" can be read as pa-ni-kku in Japanese, so Panic Channel's oneman was held on 8/29, "Panikku no hi" (Panic Day). I met Chloe and Rimei for our first Panic live. We arrived at almost exactly 5:30 when they started letting people in, and right at my number too! Wow! At the door we were handed the present for the night, a CD signed by the members. Down the stairs were two massive bouquets of flowers (I mean like 6 ft displays), one with a sign saying to Panic, from all the fans, and one was from Cure magazine.

Inside, Area was totally decorated, it was sooo cute! The left walls were covered with big squares of brightly colored fabric, with random posters (like "I love beer") and PANIC*ch stickers safety-pinned on. The right side had ripped, splattered, and graffiti-ed red and white shreds of fabric, with chains splattered with red paint and Panikku stickers safety-pinned on. The floor was covered with balloons, and the front of the stage was plastered with posters. The front of the stage has the headbanging bars, dividing it into 5 sections. Each section had big black-and-white prints of their last photosets, one section for each member. There would be one picture of one member in PANIC garb 10 times all over the place, and then over top another poster of the Panikku look, with "Wanted" written on it. Poor Takumi, he was only wanted for $20, while Meguru was $1,000,000,000!!

So we go down to the front level, which is conspicuously empty. I mean there was NO ONE on the front row; everyone was at least 5 feet back. So we planted ourselves in the middle... Of course a few minutes later some girlie comes over and tells us to move our bags, and then tells us to move ourselves because the front row is taken. We still got really close to the front though. We wait and wait and a really goofy voice tells us not to take pictures etc etc.. they were doing the weirdest voice ever, it was pretty funny. The fangirls all start yelling to each other and suddenly all run into a big huddle, put their hands in, and yell "PANIKKU IKUZO!" and then scream as loud as possible. They did it in 10 minutes again because the band was mad late setting up (at least 40 minutes late).

Then in a matter of seconds the lights go down and loud music starts, curtain ripped open... And dainty little Takumi in capri jeans, a pink frilly tanktop, and high heeled sandals skips on stage and everyone SCREAMS (I'm like, what's that little girl doing on stage? AHHH THAT’S TAKUMI!). And then one after another they come out in PANIC*ch-glory, smiling happier than I've ever seen guys smile, waving and tossing balloons and inflatable soccer balls into the audience. Meguru was wearing jeans and a Super Lovers t-shirt, and the rest of them had variations of the jeans and t-shirt theme.

The stage was decorated with more of the posters, and the drumset was covered in cute stuffed things. They said later they did all the decorating. Aww!

They started off with Sparking. God knows what Meguru was singing, but it was even funnier than on CD. And he was very enthusiastic with his "woah-whoa"s. There was a lot of bouncing, and when he said "yay yay yay" we had to put out one hand in a peace sign, then the other, and them together. Meguru was very big on the hand dancing. Especially for this song, where it turned into just saying "yay yay yay" 50823498 times in lieu of any other lyrics. It transitioned right into Pink Cherry, which was equally unintelligible but awesome anyway. Meguru had a little stuffed chipmunk that he made dance to the song.

Now I've never been a fan of a band whose other fans saku. I mean seriously saku-ing, that thing when you "bloom" your arms out towards them. In place of ANYTHING else. I'm used to the fist in the air, the rock hand, I dunno.. anything besides saku-ing. But that's ALL these girls did. So, I'm a saku-er now. And before the band even started I could tell they were obsessed with hand-dancing. Which was really cool, I mean everyone was always moving and bouncing and being happy. Whenever there was a guitar solo, everyone would wiggle their fingers and shake their hands at whoever was doing it. There was the coolest semi-mosh pit I've ever been in... Everyone would jump up and down throwing their hands up and down, and then started moving around in circles and back and forth just slamming into each other but in a non-violent way. Yay :D But oh man I'm gonna have to see them another 4 times before I get the hand dancing down. A lot of it is the girls' weird creations which I don't feel too compelled to do, but a good portion is just what Meguru's doing to the song.

Zassou~Be awake~ was next. It was... rappy. Like it is. And then they tuned their guitars and mopped themselves off and Meguru started talking. Because they had so much time, they talked a LOT. He announced their CD release today, and then everyone clapped, and he went "woooo!" (in this really funny squeaky voice) and everyone was like "woooo!" and he was like "wooooooo!" and it went back in forth a few times, and it was really amusing. After he talked for a while (and said "eeeto" 400 times), everyone wanted to hear Tsubasa so they were all like "TSUBACHIIII! BACHIIII!" and Meguru started squeaking his name too. So they went through it for all the members, all the members talked, and they talked and talked and were funny and weird and giggly. And did the "woooo!" thing a few more times. Meguru acted like they were going to start playing again without Takumi speaking, so everyone started yelling for Takumi and he was all embarrassed and said "hajimemashite" (like, nice to meet you for the first time), so they all made fun of him. Tsubasa's ripped jeans were also a big topic of conversation, as were Tara's broken sandals he got for cheap. In short, they were really freakin cute.

The next song was a new song, and we were instructed to "monkey dance" (yes in those words EXACTLY!). It was very poppy, and bouncy and happy. It was perfect to monkey dance to, but the girls were a little confused and Meguru had to keep doing it to remind them that he wanted them to monkey dance!!! The next song was also a new song, also was fun and bouncy and had a long intro, which of course made a complicated dance to go with it. Right arm out, left arm out, saku, point point point... something like that. Meguru was sooo freakin cute doing it over and over.

Next was Lovely, which was on the CD released today, but since I'm awesome and bought it yesterday and listened to it 20 times I had it memorized already. Meguru gave explicit instructions on what we were to do during the song. They'd be "ichi, ni", and then "oi", and we had to jump/arm motion/whatever else on the oi. Not ichi ni san oi, it was ichi ni oi. It was really cool though, since he gave us such detailed instructions it ended up how we'd all jump on the oi but land on the beat of the music ("ah ii na! ah ii desu ne!" he kept saying). In the middle, they repeated the riffs over and over so we did "ichi ni oi" several hundred times. For the first few, everyone held hands and jumped, but then we started doing hand-hearts towards the members on the oi. And he started squeaking in place of the oi... soo cute.

Last of the PANIC set was of course 829 Serivce. The dance for this included a lot of clapping and bouncing. It was really fun. In the middle, they again repeated the riffs... Everyone would headbang or something, and then he'd start singing "panikku panikku! OI!" and there was horribly intense stage rushing on the OI. The girls in front just threw themselves over the bars to protect themselves from the impact, while us in the second row got our front sides shoved into their butts or whatever part of the bar was exposed, and elbows in our heads and everything. I started jumping straight up with both my knees bent so the fat ugly gyaru who was ramming herself into me would get a gut-full of platform boot. This was repeated many, many, many times, with Meguru getting creative with his "panikku panikku" voices (and said lots of other random things I couldn't make out). They really made the song hardcore, which was awesome. Then he started introducing the members, each one getting a loop of the riff. The guitar part was all dundundundundundun and then we'd all yell "KANA!" or whoever it was, that was repeated 4 times, and then the "panikku panikku! OI!" was done 4 times... And the song ended up about 20 minutes long and by the time they were done happily yelling "bye bye!!", throwing all their water bottles and towels into the audience, everyone practically passed out on the floor.

1) Sparking
2) Pink Cherry
3) Be Awake
4) Date (New song)
5) Kataomoi (New song)
6) Lovely
7) 829 Service

Lucky for us, they know how boring set changes can get, and provided us with entertainment. THE BEST ENTERTAINMENT EVER! They closed the white curtain but not the black one, so it was like a big projection screen... And put on a video for the Eurobeat remix of 829 Service!! Which is like, my favorite song, it's SO FUNNY. "Panikku panyoiku waaaa~" it starts out, and they start showing this bizarre CG stuff of planets and galaxies and swirlies and other techno-like things, and the lyrics waver on the screen... then you see a big swirly thing and Meguru in street clothes appears standing in the middle doing full-body parapara! Which is, I must say, the FUNNIEST THING EVER! Everyone was screaming their asses off. Oh my god.

The whole video was corny CG and then had the members flying across the screen, Tsubasa hovering like a Buddha, etc etc.. And then mid-way it transitions into the trance remix of Love Letter (which is also the funniest) but this time has them in their gothy outfits, flying across the screen with numbers and more corny CG of geometrical hallways and so on. The end of the Love Letter "suki de suki de" starts getting "panikku panikku" mixed into it, and it transitions back into the 829...

The screen splits into four parts which have various city-in-the-night scenes, and then you notice little mini Megurus doing parapara in the streets (SO FUNNY OH GOD). And then for some reason they have someone, we couldn't quite figure out who it was, in a black catsuit with a mask on doing the parapara too (more screaming). Then they screen changes to an orangey-yellow futuristic CG thing, and the members are standing around doing the "shoukai shimasu" thing, they lipsynch it, oh man it was soooo funny when Tsubasa's voice starts warping, they're all pointing and laughing at him, and then all their voices start warping and they're all freakin out. And then there was more flying, and us screaming hysterically. It was the best video I've ever seen in my life. If they don't release it to something I'm gonna cry a lot. [They did, don't worry.]

Then they closed the black curtain and from behind it we could see bright orange and yellow lights so everyone tried peeking under. They then put on a message CD made for today, which like most message recordings was them mumbling unintelligibly and then laughing and guffawing way too loudly. Except this one was long as hell, so everyone kinda got bored and slept on the floor. No really, everyone was sitting down and most of the girls in the front row were trying to sleep. At one point in the message thing, they have one of their songs start up really loudly, so everyone jumped up thinking it was from behind the curtain, and then got all confused when it wasn't. They set up FOR EVER. It wasn't till after the entire message tape played (almost 40 minutes), and a few more minutes of nothing, they pulled the black curtain back for another projection viewing.

It was all clouds with organ-like music playing, and showed credits. I was like wtf why are they advertising? I dunno why, we couldn't even read it with the curtain all lumpy, but then suddenly the music rose to a loud gothy crescendo and a gothed-out Meguru with huge wings appeared hovering in the clouds. Then Takumi, in a white Lolita dress with even bigger wings. They went through the rest of the band, and they flew around, and the music changed to a more industrial sound with Meguru screaming. Then the members appeared on screen individually with a CG background and each one of them did some special move like a video game. Meguru's was a Kamehameha from Dragon Ball. Takumi did some Sailor Moon-esq sparkly dance and pose. Kana breathed fire all over the place. And so on. Then they all started fighting, kamehameha'ing each other, throwing lightning bolts and fireballs. They're sooo random and goofy but hilarious!

Then it was Panikku time!! The curtain was ripped open to reveal them all standing there already, and the stage looked completely different. A huge banner covered the back area where there had been posters with the "konran bangumi" kanji written on it, and there were shreds of material and chains and stuff. All the little cute things were gone from the stage. They immediately exploded into Iyagarase making everyone mosh madly. Of course it was dragged out to three times its length so everyone could go sufficiently crazy. When headbanging is required, we'd join hands with the person next to us, either in pairs or one big headbanging line.

They were wearing new costumes that were really hot. Meguru had a black coat on that had four tails (like a morning coat but two times cooler), with a blue collar and laced up the back with eyelets and blue ribbon. His dark jeans had a tribal pattern in white on the right leg. He was wearing white-out contacts with hair spiked up and had the blue clawed on his neck. The white contacts made him look so much scarier and awesome. Just piercing white. Tsubasa had on a black tube top with a white mini jacket and white pants.

Kana's outfit was really cool, black with white ripped gauze all over it, lace-up arm cuffs. His hair was spiked up everywhere and he had the most glittery pink eyemakeup ever. Tara was wearing very little; a teeny little zip-up top (half black and half white) that revealed most of his torso, with contrasting black/white arm bands, and a rippy skirt. He had a huge wad of black and white yarn hair falls, and a butterfly belly ring. He also had furry animal slippers on. Takumi was, of course, in a completely white Lolita dress, with feathery gloves and a white corset. It was like a totally different band, they all scowled and looked evil... No more happy fluffy boys!

When the slow midi-music in Iyagarase came on, they all froze and were absolutely still for the entire duration. After the last chorus, they went right into a new song, which was less angry and more bouncy.

The MC, unlike the ones before, was just Meguru, saying "eeto" a lot, but without smiling (or trying not to at least), and no one else joining in and being wacky. He did announce another oneman though, which rocks. After "II DESU KA?!"-ing the audience, they broke out into Kako wasure. He instructed everyone to jump (ue! ue!) so everyone started jumping up and down, which lead to the funny little bumper-car mosh pit. The furitsuke for the chorus was one I'd seen the girls practicing earlier, which was kinda funny as they made wrist-slitting motions. Clear was next, and the girls had made up the most overly complicated dance, I didn't even try. They ran off stage the second it was over, leaving Takumi on the drumset.

He then produced the most amazing drum solo I've ever heard from anyone. And then smiled, pounding on the bass drum, and pointed his stick into the audience. Everyone didn't know what to do for a second, but caught on and yelled "Takumiiiiiiiiiii!" He then repeated this... playing an amazing solo, pausing, pointing his stick. Every time he pointed his stick we'd all yell "TakuMIIIIIIIIII!" and he obviously liked it, making us scream his name no less than 50 times. His last solo was the coolest, playing the double bass drum faster than I thought humanly possible. (And he wasn't wearing any shoes!) After he'd fluffed his ego enough, he started giggling and told the members they could come out any time now. Kana was standing on the side grinning amusedly. They didn't move, so he started talking and being cute.

Eventually the rest of the members came out, in different outfits. They were Yankee outfits! The long coats with embroidery. They were all red with black embroidery, except Meguru's, which was bright blue with red embroidery. They said in huge kanji down the back the konran bangumi thing, with random words (poems?) on the front and their names on the chest. Some of them had more things down the arms and such. They were really cool!

They played Love Letter, which was fun and stuff. Oddly enough, at the "boku no asoko" line, everyone started pointing at Meguru's crotch in unison. That was unexpected. At the end, Meguru turned to Takumi and told him to go change his outfit because he didn't match. He jumped up and ran away, bowing. Meguru started talking, and they couldn't keep up the tough guy act for very long and were soon joking and laughing again. Kana started squatting on the ground ("Yankee zuwari") and Meguru was making fun of him, telling him he wasn't a Yankee (but they were wearing the outfits!). The girls started calling for other members to talk, and they went around.

While Meguru was babbling to Tsubasa at one point, Kana creeped up behind him and stood straight against him, towering over him by at least 6 inches. Meguru was barefoot, making him even shorter. Kana yelled "chiccha!" (like, SUPER small!) and everyone laughed. Then Takumi ran out buttoning his outfit, so they had Takumi come over and stand back-to-back with Meguru in a height contest. They were nearly the same, everyone was shouting out who they thought was taller. One of the members took their guitar and put the neck over top their heads. It was so funny. XD I think Meguru was actually taller by like half an inch, but they declared Takumi the tallest. After talking for a while longer, Meguru said they'd play a new song. It was along the lines of Clear, melodic and kinda dark, a pretty song. They played like the song ended, but then quickly picked up with a hard riff that lead to a lot of screaming and moshing. I'm not sure if it were part of the new song, or just a completely different new song. But it was pretty insane and awesome. Then they left stage, and everyone chanted for an encore.

1) Iyagarase
2) Rouge (New song)
3) Kako wasure
4) Clear
5) Takumi drum solo
6) Love Letter
7) Kuuhaku (New song)
8) Nakigao Fetish

They re-emerged a few minutes later, all wearing matching Sex Pot Revenge tshirts. They were funny shirts, with two handprints on the chest with "sexual harassment" written underneath, random Sex Pot logos, and d-rings and such. (And I bought one a few days later :X) Meguru had a panda puppet and was making it talk, the girls were yelling names so he started making it say "Bachiii!!!" (the girls would yell it back) "Taraaaaa!", and then said something random like "Ishiaki", and the girls yelled it and he was like "why'd you say that!?". Then threw it into the audience for a wicked fight. After announcing various things, he said they were playing another new song called Setsuna.

The intro was very long and beautiful, and at the first line I almost started screaming with excitement. It was the bonus track to Clear, the amazing acoustic song that I am so obsessed with. They turned it into a full song! It was sooo pretty and emotional. Meguru was seriously pouring his heart in it, it was so wonderful. He almost looked teary at the end. Everyone clapped (it was that pretty). I later just about died with joy when I realized the free CD we'd gotten at the door was a recording of Setsuna.

There was more talking, and after screaming and working the crowd up a bit, they spontaneously burst into the middle of Kodoku mousou, starting with "dakishimeta". This lead to one of the wildest pits I've been in. Everyone would do the bumper car thing, and then start stage rushing. It was again much like the prior when the girls in the back would just run and throw themselves at the front row with intent to hurt the others as much as possible. But this went on forever. With our bumper car-ness, we would end up hopping all over the whole front area, so I could be right in the middle in front of Meguru, or all the way against the right wall. I was thrown into the front row a few times, but near the end ran to the corner to avoid the big nasty girls. Girls were joining hands and running around together. Rimei and I ended up grabbing hands and spin-hopping around, and then throwing ourselves to the front in unison. It was really fun.

The members were going up and high-fiving and touching everyone that grabbed at them (yay I touched Meguru :D). I was really surprised just how much they interacted, and they seemed to be genuinely enjoying it all. They weren't playing fan favorites, they weren't acting too good for everyone... they were just FUN!! It actually kinda weirded me out at first because I'm not used to band members being so smiley and just THERE! Near the end, Tara came to the front so everyone started grabbing at him, and he grabbed as many girls' hands as possible and ran towards the left, dragging the entire right hand section of the audience with him! I've never seen anything quite like that but it was really funny, because there was NO ONE left on the right, we all just ended up smushed in the left. All the members were laughing about it, as all of us stood stunned as to how we got across the room. Then Meguru spewed blue crap all over himself, Tsubasa took his shirt off, and they ended the song happily.

Afterwards, a slow instrumental of Setsuna came on, and they gave their heartfelt speeches. They all joined hands, and we all joined hands, and jumped up together. Yay. Then they picked up boxes on the floor that roadies had brought out, which were covered in flyers. The boxes were filled with random crap, like balls and coloring books and stuffed animals and glow-stick bracelets, and they started tossing the junk into the audience. I caught a postcard from Meguru; it was an invitation card for the oneman, with their cartoon selves on it, and signed by Meguru.

Encore
1) Setsuna
2) Kodoku mousou

They all left, and everyone started ripping the stuff off the walls, scouring the floor for any picks or stray items, when I scoured the floor for two of my earrings that had come out while headbanging. I found them both and someone else's, heh. And that was the end. They were selling a whole slew of new photosets, phone straps, and stickers, and were giving out big posters if you bought the new CD releases. I had already bought them both but when I saw the huge awesomeness (and signed!) of the Iyagarase poster, I had to buy it again. I am now officially insane.