December 29th, 2004 @ Motoyawata Route 14
"Fairy Tale"

Bands in order: Genocide, Ganeisha, Otoiro, Benom, KAEDE, Silver

I was going to this live alone because Ren was in Osaka. It was snowing in Tokyo (which is a VERY rare occasion) and very cold and wet and generally icky, but I went to Chiba anyway!! I got to Route 14 at 5:00 exactly and stood in the entrance to the building with two other Benom fans. We have to get the tickets from them beforehand and they didn't give me any special instructions so I assumed those girls were waiting for them and I should wait also. The Benom brigade filed in a few minutes later, and I made a complete ass of myself by dropping my change all over the floor in front of them. But they're sweeties and helped me pick it up. T__T

They went upstairs and we fans followed in the next elevator. I got my big-ass drink (that is one good thing about Route 14, they do not skimp on the amount of cola you get!!) and sat down on the bench near the door, as the opposing wall's bench had been taken up by the first people to come in. There were about 5 people in the livehouse upon starting. Ouch!

The first band was Genocide, and it was their first live. No one was at the stage when the bassist ran of stage and tried to throw candy at people. I felt really bad for them. The few people there moved up to the front area out of politeness but not one was up at stage. The first song the played was "schwein no isu" by Dir en grey, followed by another more recent Dir song. The next three were originals (but sounded like Dir en grey too). The vocalist was wearing a doctor's coat with some spray paint on it. He had a blonde mullet, and sounded exactly like Kyo. The bassist was a short little girl with a green streak in her hair, Sex Pot hoodie and other punky gear. The guitarist was support and also female, wearing a bandana around her face, jeans and tshirt. The drummer was also support, but I didn't get a good look. They were rather good for it being their first live. They definitely were trying hard... maybe the bassist was trying a little TOO hard to be like the Dir en grey live DVDs she probably has memorized.

Following them was Ganeisha, who I went to the front for. More people had come in during the last band, and Ganeisha had a row of fans in the front line, and I stood with a row of other people a little further back against the wall by the trash cans. I had last seen them almost exactly a year ago at Gio's final, had liked them a lot but hadn't seen them since. They totally blew me away though! The guitarist, Hiro, used to have long metal-guy hair, but just recently (very recently, as their photos on the HP of them wearing the same costumes shows his hair long) cut it so it's not only very short, but shaved all around on the sides so his hair is very thin and stringy. He was wearing an h.naoto-looking hoodie and pants, red and black theme. Bassist Yuuya is like a modern nomad (he used to be completely swathed in rags but has updated his look!) wearing flannel pajama pants, an ethnic-patterned hoodie, and hair in dreadlocks and yarn extentions hanging out from his big head cloth. Yes, yes they are going for the Trendkill thing. The vocalist, Kaname, was rather stylish in a naoto jacket with matching tie, frilly white blouse, pearls and Vivienne orb necklace, and shorts with harlequin patterned tights (okay, stylish until those tights). He's very short and adorable, with cropped blonde hair and two tiny lip piercings.

Anyway, their music was AWESOME. They started off with Lagoon, the only song of theirs I know, from Sollen 2. While I didn't know the rest of the set, they still put on an amazing performance. Kaname sings with such emotion, you can really tell he's genuine. He flails himself around, falling to the floor, jumping around, contorting his face and wailing in the most dramatic way. He once got so carried away that the mic cord ended up ensnaring his left leg in several loops, but he simply righted that by jumping up and down, and acting even more psychotic.

He explained "Trendkill" during the MC, and demonstrated the rock hand, asking us to do so because they do it a lot. He said he got it from their "sempai band" (senior band, aka Bang-Doll). They were very hard rock, metally, classic Gio band sound. They don't have a drummer but are one of the few bands that can play totally in-synch with the drum machine so that you can't even tell it's a pre-recording. They were SO good! Arrrg why don't they have any CDs yet?!

After them, I went back to my seat on the bench. Actually, I ran to the toilet as I had drank that whole giant Coke. I hate using the toilet in Route 14... not for any of the typical live house bathroom reasons--it's actually quite clean and has Western-style toilets--but because the toilet is shared between the bands and the fans, so at any given moment you can be peeing with a member of the band you came to see! Or they'll be checking their makeup in the mirror! It is not my idea of a comfortable environment. And just my luck, Kuroe was in there.

Otoiro was next. They were fairly uninteresting. All the members had black on, be it a black suit or a black cloak-like outfit. Four members, one of them was cute... I don't remember anything else, sorry.

Then I raaaaaaan to the front for Benom! There were four other girlies who all crowded around Haiji's side. I stood next to them, which placed me dead center. Yet somehow this was not as horrifically embarrassing as when I was in the front for Bang-Doll. Right before they started, a couple more girls and the staff girl and roadie filled in the rest of the front line to my left. Benom came out in matching red jerseys and be-boy caps. It was so dorky and adorable! Haiji actually got on stage by walking through us and stepping over the amp, instead of using the stage entrance. Kuroe on the bottom had only a pair of ass-tight leggings with boxer shorts over it. He has the skinniest stick legs ever! He had his fake eyelashes and white contact in, and a matching red track jacket too. Iori had ripped jeans on, he actually looked really good for a change. Haiji looked like someone bukkaked black on his face, it was his WORST makeup to date...black all over his mouth and nose and eyes, just WHAT was he thinking?! Yuu had a fishnet shirt under his jersey and his hair in a little side ponytail. Cuuuuuuute.

They started with Another Hero and Maid (yesssssss), Kuroe told us to dance! He was making great use of the little stools the roadie had put on stage, putting one foot on them and leaning out into us. He was very animated, did a lot of pointing and eventually threw his hat off to headbang a lot. During Sei strip there wasn't enough people to mosh properly, but we bounced around and it was good. They played a couple new songs which were stage-rushy fun. We tried doing hand motions for some songs (mostly the roadie started them hahaha) but no one's in time with one another! Kuroe would start waving his arm for us to do so, but then he'd stop and apparently none of the fans have any sense of rhythm so it would go to hell. But they're not really a furitsuke band, we just headbanged a lot! Kuroe was jumping around like madman, and at one point he jumped so enthusiastically he fell on his ass and almost slid into the drumset. He started laughing and headbanging instead.

There was a big announcement during the MC: they were doing a tour of eight lives and if you went to all three you got a present from the band. They're also doing a second press of Another Hero with a bonus track! Yay! Haiji's joke of the MC was that they were (keep in mind Japanese people pronounce v's and b's the same) "v-k... no, not visual kei... B-kei" (be-boy style!). So silly!

The highlight... Roadie was taking pictures for the website, and he was taking one of Yuu during a guitary part, so Yuu stuck his drumstick out at him, and then when he was done he crossed his sticks in the air, and then stuck it right at me and looked at me and was like :D and I was like :D and nearly died. It was the happiest best smile EVERRRRRR! Oooh I'm in love.

Their last song is always the best, it's super headbangy and goes on for a long time.

1) Another Hero
2) Maid
3) Sake to onna to botanyuki
4) Sei strip
5) Happy Song
6) Doku ringo

I scurried back to my stuff to find someone sitting on my jacket and taking up my whole space. Well, I wanted to see KAEDE again anyway, so I stood right before the drop-off to the front section and watched them. They were even better than I remembered them. They're so damn cute, like happiness manifested into a band. I remembered their costumes this time. The bassist, Hide, was wearing a white Putumayo blouse and little bow-tie, with a mini hat and plaid skirt-pants. He has cute blonde hair and was wearing glasses with glasses chains. Guitarist Shutarou (? I think, his kanji are unusual), aka the happiest boy ALIVE, had a black suit with small tribal patterns painted down the front. He paints what looks like a bird nose pattern on his nose. Kinda weird but cute, I remember he did that last time too. The drummer Kazu had a plain white blouse unbuttoned, tucked into black slacks. I can't remember what the vocalist was wearing.

They were suuuper happy and suuuuper fun. They have one song where they jump in circles and the guitarist smiles so wide you just can't help but smile too. They look like they have so much fun on stage! There's another song with a jazzy beat, really heavy bass line. Hide puts his pick in his mouth and plays the whole song with his fingers. Very cool. They posted the setlist on their site so even though I'm not at all familiar with the songs, I'll post it here anyway.

1) Byousatsu (yuki no shikai no warusa ni byousatsu version)
2) Liar
3) Happy Maker
4) Kuuchuufuyuu
5) Call
6) Spirit tears

During "Happy Maker" he asked everyone to sing along, saying "Happy maker", although I had no idea that's what it was at the time due to bad pronunciation! So, they were exceptionally cute and fun, I look forward to seeing them again.

Last band was Silver, who attracted a very large crowd (they all seemed to have come in during KAEDE's set), a lot of them seeming to be... older. I had already seen them and did not like them at all, so I spent their set cleaning out my purse. HAHA. No seriously, they're just as bad as they were when I saw them at FAB, if not worse. They are sooo corny trying to be cute but it just doesn't work when you're pushing 30! They had the disco lights on stage, along with a TV playing loops of their names and faces. There's nothing even really good about their music. The only catchy song is the one where they jump in circles the entire time. It's good, but doesn't make up for all their other annoying and/or mediocre songs. They played an encore, which made them even worse. And to top it off, the drunken ugly mulletted bassist made a rude comment to me after the show. So Silver can suck it! I only stayed because I had presents to give Benom.

When they were finally done, all the bands came out hawking for enquette. It was chaotic and kinda awkward. I wanted to stay after and talk to Benom but the show had ended at 10:15 and it was COLD outside! It was a very awesome live though, if only Silver wasn't there.