January 9th, 2005 at Shibuya Lamama
Antifeminism Hosted Event

Bands in order: Edokko, Baby Shitter, SECIR, calorZe, Ichigo Hatake, nine, Phylia, Antifeminism, Deadly Sanctuary, Panic Channel

I'd have to say tonight was the worst live ever! It was an Antifeminism event, and it seems the only requirement of the bands to be invited was to play as loud and noisily as possible and SCREAM. I don't know why Panic was shoved in there. I didn't expect the other bands to be good, so I figured we'd leave after Panic played. Hah hah. We did. Because Panic was LAST. Uhhhhhgh.

Shibuya Lamama is a little hole in the wall. We had just come from the Maruione snap, wearing no coats because we didn't have anything to match our cyber outfits. I was wearing a sleeveless dress. It was one of the coldest days of the year, with the wind blowing at hurricane speeds. Smart, yes. Using the map from the site, we ended up getting lost in a part of Shibuya I've never seen in my life. Turns out the map had us going a totally ass-backwards way. It's actually across the road from the road you turn into to get to O-East/West, then down 40 side-streets...nowhere near where we started going.

We finally found the place and huddled on the floor being cold. It was tiny, and a weird shape. The stage was in the corner of the room, with a raised walkway leading from the backroom to the stage. There was a large, long piece of black fabric that the roadies would run out and hold across the area so we wouldn't see the bands setting up, but we could still see either under or over it depending how they were holding it. Panic's two roadies Yukki and Dachi were actually roadie-ing for ALL the bands that night; holding the curtain and moving stuff around. I don't know how they got stuck with that, but what hard working boys!

Edokko was first, and they were crap. They were one of those bands that play 30 second thrashy screamy songs. No drummer. All of them wore Yankee outfits or something similar, faces caked in white makeup. One guitarist had neon green hair and a neon green kimono with a Japanese headband. The other one had his face completely criss-crossed in lines and kanji. They were really, really bad, but thankfully didn't play a long set.

The next band was possibly the saddest I've ever seen. Their name was Baby shitter (yes, that's right). It was a vocalist and a bassist, with everything else on pre-recorded track. The vocalist had long blonde hair and tried to be cutesy; the bassist has very short hair and was probably trying to be cutesy too but it failed miserably. Now bands MIGHT be able to pull off having none of the instruments they need and still be good by having actual pleasant music and a nice vocalist, but Baby shitter didn't even try. The vocalist didn't sing. He commanded. Their songs consisted sorely of him yelling at the fans to headbang, or stage rush, or saku at him. He did not sing a damn thing. Yet their surprisingly large amount of fans did not seem to notice or care, and happily complied with his repetitive demands.

Next was SECIR who was a bit of a pleasant change. They had improved a lot from when I last saw them. They had themed costumes; everyone was in red and black. Karin had dyed his hair back to black and looked really drag-queeny (not in a bad way), and Yukiya still had a giant feather boa. He was wearing some bizarre tight black shirt with floppy red sleeves; I think some sort of deconstructed kimono. But they looked good as a band, and they played well, and Yukiya actually sang. Yay!

I was waiting in line for the bathroom for a long portion of calorZe's set, so I don't remember much. They were all visual-tastic in their short shorts and PVC stuff and dyed spiked hair. It was somebody's birthday so all the fans popped streamers at him. But they were also a screamy crap band that sucked a whole lot (but not as bad as the first two). They were loud and hurt our ears. I commented after their set that three years ago I would have been so excited about how cool they were, because they really had the old-school visual look, and they had the movements, the energy on stage... but now they were not impressive, they were just BAD!

Ichigo Hatake was a session band made up of various guys no one seemed to care too much about. They only had two people watching them at stage which was a shame because they were probably the best of the crap bands tonight. They played real music and the vocalist actually sang. They were catchy rock, and were fun. Not wearing much but suits or street clothes, and the vocalist had black lipstick on. This made for the most amusing experience because he sang with the mic really close to his mouth, which ended up smudging his lipstick up off his lips, so it looked like he had a Hitler mustache. Everyone noticed this and the entire band (and us) was laughing their asses off, but no one had the decency to tell the poor guy. So it remained that way for the entire set!

Next was nine, another screaming band. I really can't tell them apart in my memory made poor from too many bad vocalists screaming my brains to mush. Their music wasn't so bad but their vocalist was a particularly nasty screamer.

Then it was Phylia, who wore the same Yankee outfits they were wearing when I saw them a few months ago. They were good, but played a particularly heavy and loud short set. Lots of headbanging, I don't think the keyboardist actually played anything, but used the keyboard to brace himself on while headbanging. They only did three songs, but the last was the memorable one where they say "koi koi koi" or "oi oi oi" or something similar when everyone echoes it and wiggles their fingers in a "come here" motion at the stage. It's cute. They're a good band but could have benefited from a few clicks down of volume.

By now I was totally frustrated and just wanted Panic to come on... Nope, not yet. I think the only reason they put Antifeminism in the middle was because no one would stay till the end to watch them. Antifeminism, for those who aren't familiar, is a session band that will never die. Formed and run by Kenji from the Dead Pop Stars, the member lineup has been constantly changing since 1997. Many many band members have participated in Antifeminism, probably more for tradition reasons than anything else. Tonight's lineup included Takayuki from the Piass (gu), Katsura from Vinett (dr), and some guy from Nine on guitar.

I personally think Kenzi should just stop trying. Antifeminism is CRAP. They play the same two chords over and over, and Kenji just barked into the microphone for the longest set of the night. He couldn't even scream properly (he is old, he's actually going bald), so the vocalist of Edokko sat hidden in the corner (although we could see him from where we were standing) with a mic to scream for Kenji. Pathetic!

Kenji's exciting antics included lighting fireworks into the crowd, lighting his gloved hand on fire, and lighting a pig's head on fire. I thought we were all going to die. Not only were the fireworks unreasonably loud and startling, but... what was he thinking!??! How horribly dangerous is that? Livehouses are the biggest fire traps in Japan, and Lamama one of the worst; does he WANT to burn the place down and kill us all? Not to mention burning pig head didn't really smell too great.

It was just awful. They also MCed forever, and just wouldn't shut up. Sure it was their event so they should have had a long set, which is why they should have been LAST. They said Panic was next- they lied!

Deadly Sanctuary was the last in the line of crap. All I know about them is that I hate Yuuga. They were very noisy, although the vocalist did actually try to sing. This was a fruitless attempt, because the mic was not loud enough to compete with the thrashing guitars. Yuuga definitely acted like Yuuga, although he didn't have the power seat being guitarist, he still managed to command his section around pretty well. Still not sure why, as he's even fatter and uglier than the last time I saw him. His fan section was all writhing and grappling for him to touch them. Lame.

Finally, we went to the front, frustrated but still excited for Panic Channel. Sadly, they played the shortest set of the night. Only four songs! I don't remember the exact set list, but they played Rouge and Love letter, and didn't play Kodoku Mousou. Lamama's sound system was bad, but no one got screwed over as much as Panic did. Kana's guitar didn't work. It piddled out midway through the second song, and they couldn't get it working steadily. It would skip in and out through the rest of the set. Rouge without Kana's guitar is a very sad thing.

But regardless, we danced and jumped around and headbanged, and Meguru was full of gothy energy. Saburo was full of sexy. They were wearing their usual costumes, with Saburo wearing a suit and firey contacts. He had completely dropped his shy appearance and was all attitude. There was a little crowd interaction, and Meguru petted Ren's head for the first time ever (she'd been holding a grudge against him since he elbowed her at the oneman in November).

As we exited into the freezing cold night, we checked the time to find it was shockingly after 11. Panic's set was so short because lives usually HAVE to end at 11 (so people can get home before the trains stop running). The other bands had taken so long, they ran over, so Panic being the last had to forfeit their time. It was indeed a disappointing set, though not by any of their faults.

I can't believe we were there subjected to crappy bands for over 6 hours.