10/31/2004 @ Takadanobaba AREA
AREA Special Halloween Live

Bands in order: The Candy Spooky Theatre, Pumpkin Head, PANIC*ch, 12012, bis

Halloween live! I'd been looking forward to this for weeks! It was such a great lineup, and we were supposed to go in costume, so we did Panic Channel cosplay! Same as mentioned in the previous report, however we also had Tracy with us as an adorable Takumi. Prior to the live we had gone to Harajuku to stand around on the bridge (it was also a Sunday!) but as we went down the street to take purikura, we were stopped by some photographers from Sexy Dynamite London, who were taking pictures of people in costume.

That alone was tons of fun, even if it put us in a huge rush to make it there by 5:00. We for some reason thought the live opened at 5 and started at 5:30, but it actually had opened at 4:30 and started at 5...Oops! At the door we were given the special favor of the night, which was a black totebag screenprinted with a pumpkin "Area Special Halloween live" and all the band names on the back. Cute and useful! We walked in right when The Candy Spooky Theatre was starting.

What a perfect band to start with! Every day is Halloween for them, they're too funny. The whole stage was set up with drapey black things and the lighting was very dark and spooky. The members were wearing what I think is just their normal costumes, which are quite Halloween-y, and the vocalist had giant Mickey Mouse gloves on. We were stuck in the back so we couldn't see much; it was a sell-out crowd and therefore quite people-y.

They had a person dressed up as Frankenstein's monster that stumbled back and forth on stage, and then disappeared. After a few songs, I got shoved violently from behind. I turn around to find the monster had stumbled his way into the audience, and was pushing himself around, not being able to see anything due to his mask. He pushed himself through all three levels of Area, until he got to the stage again and climbed up, then knocked the members around some more. But I'm not quite sure if that was funny or just annoying.

Their music was really fun... exactly what I'd think a band with that name would sound like. It was dark, gothy, with the insane carnival-esque spooky melodies. The bassist played a stand-up orchestra bass. Very unique. I would like to see them again when I could actually see them from where I was standing...

Having a vague idea of the band order but not quite, we wanted to get as close as possible considering three of the bands I wanted to be in the front for. I'd guessed Pumpkin Head would be next, but wasn't sure after that, so we got into the front level to get a good spot after it (people weren't really moving). Between bands they had loud music playing and there was a dancing drag show going on in the third level! How bizarre. So, Pumpkin Head came out one by one, all of them wearing red foam clown noses. And they had a lot of fans in the front. I'd never really had an interest in them, and didn't think anyone else did, I just knew them as the band whose vocalist always had clown makeup on. But after seeing the members I could tell why they seemed so popular tonight! They were all extremely attractive young men! They had the cool spikey flippy hair with red extensions, black costumes with sequins and pointy collars trimmed in red. The drummer was a little Lolita with a tiara and all. They were really cute! Then the vocalist (who calls himself "Frypan") came out in a clownsuit with a giant vinyl bowling pin costume on top, his face painted us as usual.

Their music was pretty good, but it didn't really hook me. There was a lot of bounciness and audience interaction but I just wasn't feeling it and didn't really participate.

Afterwards, I saw a bunch of Panic cosplayers come out of the walls and took that as a good sign PANIC*ch was next. Only problem was I was NOWHERE by the stage. I was far left in the back of the first tier... So I moved into the middle (which wasn't easy) but still couldn't see much. However, all was righted once the band started, and everyone pushed around, and I ended up in the third row. Score!

So the big surprise of the night... Takumi came out in a black Lolita dress, nothing unusual. He was cute; he threw some candy out of an Okadaya fabric store bag (huh?) and went behind the drums. Then Tara came out... and HE was wearing a Lolita dress! Black with white lace, his hair in pigtails... TOO CUTE! And then KANA appeared in a black Lolita dress!! He was grinning madly, his hair in pigtails with a sideways mini-tophat. My goodness! The last person I'd expect to EVER see in a Lolita dress!! Tsubasa seemed to be dressed fairly plainly, in a black top and black pants. Then Meguru made his entrance in a cheesy vampire cape, white blouse and black pants, with his hair slicked back and his right eye blacked out with blood dripping down his face. He was the cutest cheesy vampire ever!!

The unusual costumes seemed to make the members quite relaxed and happy. Well, not like they're not always happy... But Kana seemed exceptionally genki in his little dress. Meguru said "He may be skillful (at guitar) but he's so ugly!" about Kana. Poor guy! I, as usual, was pretty much only focused on Meguru so I wasn't really aware of much that the other members did, but I hear that Kana's underwear was visible at one point.

Regardless of the gothic costumes, they played as PANIC*ch tonight. The setlist was a different mix than the usual, and was lots of fun. For the last song, he started off on the 829 "Panikku ikuzo..." but then immediately jumped into Kodoku Mousou to fake us out! For some reason in the beginning of the song, the front row girls parted and no one reclaimed the spot, so I happily got to be front row for Panic with no objections from the fangirlies!! I was so happy. Also quite happy that the cannonballs weren't out, and even though there was the usual pit for Kodoku, I didn't get my guts mashed out onto the front bar. But I did get my head petted by Meguru!! Twice! Happy happy.

1) Date
2) Sparking
3) Zassou ~be awake~
4) Kataomoi
5) Kodoku mousou

In the end they threw some more candy, and I got a Chupa Chups lollypop from Takumi.

Afterwards we stayed in the general vicinity for 12012. There's not much to say about their set because they're always pretty much the same... I mean they totally kick ass and are always awesome, they just never really do anything out of the ordinary. They seemed shyer tonight though... not as much "TOUCH ME!" and hanging into the audience like they often do.

1.BURN
2.mippei sareta hi
3.Gallows
4.un insomnia
5.news paper
6.Venom

We really needed something to drink afterwards, so took this set change opportunity to use the drink ticket. It was probably a bad idea to drink a rum+coke really quickly on an empty stomach, so Ren and I were both kinda tipsy. We couldn't get back to the first level of course, because of the crowd and people sitting on the stairs like asses, so we stayed in the second on the far right. Not knowing what band was coming out, we watch intently as the first member walks on stage with a giant pumpkin mask covering his head, and a black cape. He takes it off and I recognize him as Seika, drummer of bis. The rest of the members entered stage in the same fashion.

I really wanted to be on Shunsuke's side, but there was no way we could move... So we just jumped around like little kids with a couple other girls, as most of the people around us weren't moving at all. They were really good live. I had been listening to them since their formation, but this was my first time seeing them live. They played all the songs on Freestyle Rock, the order of which I cannot remember besides Never Land was last. Maru's live voice isn't quite as steady as it is on CD, but Shunsuke is still a bass god. Yaaay I love them even more now.

Not knowing much about Ayabie, we decided to go buy goods and leave early. In the lobby and I stood around looking awkward and slyly tried to put my birthday present for Meguru in the enquette box without anyone looking (we made cookies and chocolates for hours the night before... they're embarrassingly ghetto looking but they're SO GOOD I hope he doesn't think I poisoned them or something and doesn't eat them, Cuz I'd have eaten them! They're kahlua truffles!) and the staff girl is like "THANK YOU!", then takes it out of the enquette box and asked who it was for, but I wasn't paying attention so all the fangirlies around started asking me, it was cute.

And then Tracy takes out Count Fartula, a vibrating Dracula plush who farts and says corny things like "Ah the wing beneath my wings!"...It's the funniest thing ever, so we were getting the fans to pull its finger and they were like "ah kawaii!" cuz they couldn't hear it farting. And then she decided to give it to Tsubasa, so she handed it over to Panic's staff girl, who squealed in disbelief "For Tsubacchi?!" and then pulled its finger and proceeded to crack up hysterically.

I hope Tsubacchi enjoys his Count Fartula, cuz we miss him already.