Panikku Channeru & PANIC*ch presents: Meguro Meguru RockMaykan 5 Days
2004 December 16th

Bands in order: Ruvie, Panikku Channeru

Day two by myself... It was a bit more crowded before and I grabbed one of the last remaining seats, a rather bad one in the front corner by the speakers. Once again the band did not start on time, but somehow I kept myself entertained for the extra 40 minutes with a magazine and messing around on my phone. I stood up for Ruvie because I had mild interest in them, but mostly because if I remained seated I would go deaf (being on the sides at Maykan is bad because the speakers are big and loud and painful). So I leaned against the wall and looked cool.

Ruvie was actually much better than I expected. Really good, actually. They opened to some ragtime-style music and launched into a jazzy song that the vocalist did a crazy miming act to. All the fangirls tried to copy him, but he did it like a real miming act, it was quite cool. They were all wearing gothic-punk street clothes. The vocalist had on a fashionable rippy dress with a giant shawl over it. He had washed out pinkish hair. The bassist was wearing a mechanic-style dress with a lot of punk patches on it. Guitarist just had a lot of shirts on. I didn't see much of the drummer besides he had his hair braided on the side in the new cornrow-like fashion many band boys have been doing recently.

In general their music was spectacular. It was much more than just stereotypical visual rock, they were hard rock but still very upbeat, and alternated between hard and very hard. There was also a lot of jazz influence in the music. Pretty unique for today's scene, so it was a welcome change. There was much headbanging, and a lot of energy from stage. The vocalist could scream REALLY well. Insanely well. Just like WOW.

They played a really long set, but also a good number of their songs were long (as in like, 7 minutes opposed to 4 or 5). I will definitely look into them after this.

After their set I snuck up front and stood in the second line in the middle like I had done the previous day. The same crowd was there, and I ended up standing next to the same girl. There was slight chaos when someone spotted a cockroach on the ground, and all the girls in the front screamed and jumped on stage, until some brave young girl brought a bag out and squished it underneath. I would have, as I have no problem with bugs, but I figured I should keep a low profile as to not make anyone more wary of me as I'm sure they already are.

Panikku came out in their Iyagarase plaid and vinyl costumes. It was really neat seeing the costumes in person, they're older so I'd never seen the band wear them before. I can't believe Meguru can wear so many layers on stage and not die from heat exhaustion. I think... he has a tattoo. On his left arm he was wearing several pairs of ripped stockings, one of which being blue fishnets. Beneath the blue fishnets I saw some blue gothic lettering in bands around his bicep. I don't think it was part of the stockings, but Meguru has never worn a sleeveless shirt so I have no idea! He has a little pair of batwings on the back of the costume which I hadn't seen before either, adorable!

They played an unusual setlist, starting with Kodoku mousou. During the MC, Meguru talked about how for this series of lives, each member picked the costumes and setlist they wanted for the night. The 13th was Takumi's choice, 14th Tara's, 15th Tsubasa's, and so on. No one was MCing besides Meguru, so he just stood babbling, commenting that Takumi's outfit was yellow, and Tara's was pink... And that Tara looked good in pink, and that he was sorry for saying that. Hahaha he's too cute. Tara was having problems with his wireless adapter (apparently not fixed since last month), and he kept disappearing behind the amp to get fixed by a roadie. His other bass (which he uses for *ch) is fine, but for some reason he keeps using the broken one. He still had the bandages on his ears.

They ended with two new songs, one being the song they played last at the oneman on the 9th, Esa, and one was new-new that didn't have a title. It's super hardcore with alternating headbanging/stage rushing/arm in the air thing. Crazy fun. And then they did Iyagarase at the very end for more craziness. Meguru actually jumped off the stage and ran around Maykan, it was the best! First he just stepped down and was standing in the front and then he actually ran all the way to the back, and was telling people to come forward more.

There wasn't much moshing due to there not being very many people in the front, but it was comfortable so there were really no annoying schoolgirls trying to hurt us. Well, there were a few, and we got to exact our revenge on them when Meguru tells us to mosh behind us! Watch them all scream and run as we smoosh them into the bars, bwahahaha. It would have been better with more of a group, but it's also nice every once in a while to enjoy moshing without the pain, hah.

1) Kodoku mousou
2) Kako wasure
3) Kuuhaku
4) Rouge
5) Nakigao fetish
6) Love letter
7) Esa
8) New song
9) Iyagarase