2004.10.20
Shibuya Chelsea Hotel: Bang Doll Oneman

This started off as a disaster. First of all, I was sick. I had a terrible cold and was in really no condition to be headbanging. Then, I had made reservations for 5 people, and every one of them cancelled on me that day. Also, Tracy was just arriving in Japan this day and I was picking her up to take her to my place... I knew I was going to be a little late, but her plane was delayed and I ended up being really late. On top of this, the biggest typhoon of the season was hitting Japan as I took the train to Shibuya. I don't know Shibuya well at all, and had never been to Chelsea Hotel. Clutching my umbrella in one hand, trying to see the little map I had drawn without it getting soaked, with my cel phone in the same hand trying to mail Saiya to ask for directions.... I was pretty miserable.

I ended up finding it on blind luck, going down the one road in Shibuya I knew, and following landmarks from there. The band themselves had been delayed a half hour, I guess because of the typhoon to make up for the people who were going to be late, but I was still about an hour late. I got there, and although had mailed earlier canceling 4 of my reservations, they still had me down for 5 and I felt really bad. I entered the audience and saw nothing but people's backs. Augh! They were pretty much all band guys (they had a HUGE guest list), filling up the entire back section, and they were tall and I was ready to kill myself. I mailed Saiya, who convinced me to push my way through, which I did after the song was over, and found her in the middle. It wasn't too crowded, just that all the band guys were standing in the back, and all the fangirls were in the front, with a vast empty section between the two.

You was wearing a military suit which looked really good on him, and his hair in the full-blown houseplant. Ryousuke had the zebra vest, Gou his baseball jersey, and Ikumi his red vinyl leopard trimmed kimono. Because of being so late, I didn't get to see much... I was pretty disappointed. They had played pretty much all of their new CD (as this oneman was a commemoration of their new CD release of the same day), and near the end threw in some old favorites.

They did an encore or two, and were all extremely happy. It sucks that I missed so much of it, I can't even write a decent report.