Background info! July 7th is the night of the Tanabata festival. Tanabata is a holiday based on the tale of Orihime and Kengyu, a princess and a commoner, two forbidden lovers. According to legend, they were separated because of their relationship, and only one night a year are they able to meet; the night of Tanabata, also known as the star festival. The title of the live translates to "Let's meet on the night when the stars fall," and apparently is a tradition started last year on the same night with the same name. They really went all out on planning this, not only did the live start at 7:07 pm, but the ticket price was 770 yen (70 yen up from last year).

So, I was planning on going to this live with Emi, but due to extremely unfortunate circumstances, she was unable to go. I had an extra ticket that was going to Mika, but Mika didn't get out of school early enough. No one else was free... So I was going in alone. I hauled ass to Ikebukuro after getting off the Shinkansen from Osaka, thinking I was going to be a half hour early. Greeted by a very short line at the door, I was relieved. However, there was a peculiar line of 100+ girls on the bridge across the street from it, so I went to the door and realized it opened at 6, not 6:30, and they were letting girls in, but only girls with tickets, and since I didn't have a actual physical ticket, I was sent to the end of the line....... on the bridge. DAMNIT!!!! This cute staff boy explained all this to me, politely pointing at the line when I say I only have reservations. And then I started freaking out. HOW are all these girls going to fit into Cyber?! There is not NEARLY enough room in that place! And more kept coming! There were probably 150 girls just standing there, if not more!

It took a long time to get in, but it happened eventually. I got in there, halfway down the stairs there are bag checks, pfft, I handed my MD over even though he wouldn't have seen it. I got to the window and the girl was like "nyar, you don't have a ticket, back to the end of the line" and I'm like having a nervous breakdown because I don't know WHY I don't have a ticket if I made a reservation and I want to know where and how the girls got their tickets. So I go back to the cute staffer and pathetically ask how they get the tickets, but it was already established he doesn't understand anything I say, so he handed his cigarette to the nearest staff girl and went inside. He came back, had talked to the ticket girl, and told me it would be ok if I just told her my name, and I didn't have to go to the end of the line AGAIN. Well, one problem solved- if ever you can't get into a live because you don't have a ticket, go to a cute staff guy and babble, looking like you're going to cry, and you'll get in.

I get down the stairs again and walk, pissed, past the bag check guy, who yells at me "wait wait! I need to check your bag!" and I yell back "You already freakin' checked it," waving my #34 you-checked-my-bag-receipt at him. So I get my ticket (number two-hundred eighty five, that's right) and packet and enter the room only to realize I CAN'T enter the room... there are so many people, they're spilling into the entrance. I jammed my way in the back, and there's no way it was legal to have that many people in one room, it was terrible, I couldn't see the stage. We wait, and I end up squished next to a cute guy and the wall, and I step on some bitches' bags because they spread their thousands of bags in a 10 foot radius around them, and were standing on crates. I was NOT happy. Staffers were pushing their way in and going to the second floor, one of them yelling at the girls in the front. More people kept entering the room, and I kept getting pushed further into the wall. There were at least 300 people in that room, and I didn't think there was any hope for seeing any part of Dear Loving.

And then, at 7:07, it starts. And suddenly I'm in the middle of the room.

I guess the front 50 girls were sitting on the floor, and got up, creating a huge vacuum that pushed everyone forward. So there I was, in the middle, with a clear view, and I was happy.

Dear Loving had gone through a significant image change since their last release. They ditched the suits, yay! Masa was wearing a black shirt with a kinda see-through design (it's hard to explain), but was pretty clingy. He had gotten his hair permed, and he looked a little sleazy with it... haha. Not my favorite look of his. Yuki was wearing a red tank top with a tiger on it, cut at the collar. His hair was reddish and spiked out. I never really thought Yuki was attractive from pictures, but in person, he is far from ugly. He has the most gorgeous eyes, and exceptionally defined cheekbones. Very very pretty. And Kuro's head isn't as small as it looks in pictures, either. He was wearing a punk-style t-shirt and short-sleeved jacket thing, although minus the bandana that he wears in the photosets, thankfully. His hair was spikey. Takuya was wearing an army-green jumpsuit with a badge that looked like it said "M*A*S*H" but was one letter different. His hair was down and normal looking. None of them had much makeup on, except Yuki.

1) Hoshi furu yoru ni aimashou

I had no idea what this song was. I thought it was written especially for this live, but some girls were singing along. It was exceedingly cute, typical Dear Loving sound to it, but at the same time, you could tell it was a sad love song. Later, I found that at last year's Tanabata live, this song was debuted. They hadn't played it since then.

2) We are POJIPOKKU

Another song I don't know!? It was a damn hyper bouncy song where they would babble about being "pojipokku" ("pojichibu poppu rokku" condensed into one word, that of course meaning 'positive pop rock'). SO CUTE! It was so bubbly, and everyone was bouncing along, and the lyrics were about the band and like they were telling a story. At one point, all the fans did finger-guns with both hands, pointed at Masa, and squealed "MASA-NYO!"... I was confused, how do they know this song!? I will find this out later.

3) Beauty&Beast

The intro to this song brought an EXPLOSION of energy, and I was now in the front of the room, as everyone slammed forward at once. It was stage rushing like nothing I've ever seen. It was INSANE, I'm serious, NOTHING has been this crazy before, not even orivia with the bitchy fangirls stage rushing, not even Bang-Doll when I nearly passed out from headbanging so much. 300 girls in a room meant for 50 all throwing themselves at the stage and jumping up and down makes for sauna-like temperatures. They didn't care who was in their way, or whose way they got into; everyone beat each other up happily.

4) Koi wa futari de ~Boys to~

They turned the energy down a notch, and everyone bounced happily along to this song. There was a cute hand dance that went with the "koi wa futari de" chorus:

"koi wa": make your hands into a heart shape and stick it out
"futari": put your two index fingers out in the air, and bring them together (like two people, coming together!)
"de": wave your hands out front together, like you're handing a platter to someone (I have no idea how to explain this, but it's in 99% of all hand dances out there)

Now Masa says, "Did everyone get your CDs?" ...Apparently, the day before, they had released a CD free to their fanclub members. It had three songs, two of which were Hoshi furu and pojipokku. No fair! And then he says something along the lines of "Now I know you're all hyper as hell, but please shut up and calm down, it's quiet song time"

5) [to you...]

A song they haven't played in a long time, Masa says. [to you...] is off of their old Identification Card demo tape, which is an exceptionally beautiful slow song with piano parts, one of my favorites. Everyone sways with the music.

And then the band leaves. Then we notice Takuya crouching down really low, playing a drum line very quietly. And it picks up, violently, and everyone goes "oooh!" and then Takuya looks up, grins, and holds up both his arms. The drumming continues. Everyone cracks up. He leaves the set, comes to the front of the stage, and has a comedy hour, most of which I don't remember, but it was funny. Then he goes back behind the drumset and plays a rockin' solo. The rest of the band comes out, looking significantly less sweaty.

6) CLOUDY HEART

He still sounds like he's saying "crowdy car" live. Happy and bouncy.

Afterwards, Masa says he has a very important announcement to make, and the fangirls comment as he talks. They are releasing a CD in September. "Oooh!" And it has four songs "OOOH!!!" And they're going to play one of those songs for us lucky audience members tonight! "YAY!"

7) refrain [the new song]

I honestly don't remember a damn thing about this song. It was supposed to be catchy, which I guess it was because all their songs are catchy, but I don't remember much else about it besides it wasn't bad.

I'd like to take a time-out from the setlisting to say a bit about their stage performance. While they didn't do much switching places and moving side-to-side, there was much interaction with the fans. I found it exceptionally amusing when one member would lean out, and the cluster of fans in that area would condense to half the size as they all tried to touch the hand. They would play on the amps, lean out in the audience, and generally be very friendly and intermingle while still holding the aura of "we're the band, you're the fans" so as not to make you feel you're dancing around for the garage band next door. It was the perfect balance. And they're definitely at a professional level, musically. No blatant screw-ups or sound system horrors.

MC time. They chatter about each other being sweaty. I find it scary how Yuki is sweating buckets from every pore on his body except for his face, which is porcelain dry. Some makeup he has on. Masa asks Kuro, in an attempt to get him speaking, "hisashiburi no Cyber wa dou desu ka?" (How is it to be back at Cyber again?) To which Kuro replies "kaze ga tsuyoi" (the wind is strong). Everyone laughs and looks at him weirdly, and Masa walks to his side, seeing if the air conditioning was blowing exceptionally hard on his side or something. But Yuki couldn't get over the fact that Kuro is a nutcase, and decided he had to re-state the conversation... in English! Well, he tried. "Masa ask question Kuro 'Saiba is..... dou desu ka?'" He laughs along with everyone else. "Kuro answer question 'kaze ga tsuyoi'" Everyone laughs again. Did he try to explain that for my sake? He definitely saw me, and definitely saw my clueless look through most of their joking around. Hmm, I will never know.

So an hour into it, Masa says "Last three songs!" and everyone says "EEE??? But it's so early!"

8) Bind hand and foot

I thought the stage rushing in Beauty&Beast was bad. That was nothing. This was pure unfiltered madness.

The chorus of the song goes like this:

I'm for love I'm for love I'm for love
nukedasenai... yamiyo no naka tsuki ni terasare
I'm for love I'm for love I'm for love
joudan desho?! mada ittenai no ni kienai de

During the "I'm for love" repetition, everyone thrashed themselves around with no abandon. After "nukedasenai", there's a slight pause. During that pause, everyone, in unison, launched themselves as far as possible towards the stage, fists in the air. Same goes for after "joudan deshou?!". It was, in fact, SO CRAZY, that halfway through the song, Masa actually told everyone to stop doing it, because girls in the front were leaving after being crushed silly. So for the rest of the song, we just stuck our fists in the air and jumped as high up as we could, instead of forward.

9) Jump!!

This song isn't really my favorite on CD, but it was a lot of fun live. As the title implies, there was a lot of jumping going on. Half-hearted jumping, however, because everyone was such an overheated, sweaty, disgusting mess, that expending any more energy would have caused the building to burst into flames.

10) Koi wa futari de ~Girls to~

I still don't understand why they have two songs that are exactly the same. Boys to and Girls to are basically the same song with different lyrics, although even the lyrics are similar. It would have been nicer to hear a different song, but it was fun nonetheless, and the same hand dances we done to the same chorus.

"That's the end! No, really! Bye!" says the band, and exit after throwing picks and assorted stuff into the audience. Everyone stands, drenched with sweat, mopping themselves off and fanning up each others' shirts. There is commotion in the middle, which I assume is for somebody's pick. But no, too many people are involved. I turn to see a large circle of people around a girl, who is lying on the floor and very much unconscious. Two staff members dart in and drag her out. And then everyone forgets about her, and starts chanting for an encore.

Encore 1

Ten minutes later, when all hope seemed lost (haha), Dear Loving re-entered, all wearing black Dear Loving t-shirts, except Takuya, who was wearing a black tank top with a white flower printed on it. And suddenly, the first two rows of girls brandished party poppers, and blew sparkly streamers all over the stage. Kuro's birthday is the 12thof July. And the members were all genuinely surprised at the fact that the fans remembered and celebrated (I don't know why...). So we all sang Happy Birthday (or "Happi baasday", as they say in Japan) to dear Kuro-kun, and someone brought out a cake, a cute little one with strawberries on it. Kuro was all shy, but quite happy about it. He daintily ate the strawberries off the top, one by one, it was the cutest thing and everyone was squealing about it. Afterwards, Masa says that they will play the last song.

1) Lose ~kono keshiki no mukou e~

This song is awesome on CD, and even better live. Very powerful, it was so fun. Everyone went berserk again. And were all awfully disappointed when it was over. But, Masa said, because we surprised them, they'd play one last song.

2) I can't love

If this song wasn't my most favorite song of theirs before I saw it live, it is now. It's an emotional song, but the feeling is magnified so much more live. And then, near the end, Masa sang the first part of the chorus, and then stuck the mic out towards the audience, since everyone was singing anyway. So we all sang the chorus

"Oh I can't love motomereba tooku mata inakunaru kuseni...
Oh I can't love anata ga nokoshita kizu ga kienai kara"

and then he started it over again. We continued repeating the chorus for I don't know how long; it was so incredibly sweet and touching I can't explain! Think how Toshiya starts crying in the Dir en grey Osaka Jo live video when Kyo makes the audience sing Garden. Just like that.

They leave, and no one wants them to, so we start another encore chant.

Encore 2

They re-enter after a few minutes, jokingly pretend to be irritated that we won't let them go. Masa takes the mic and talks and talks and talks some more, about very random things. Like the fact that this day was the last day we would see his hair permed (yay!) because he was getting it straightened, and it was the last day their photosets were going to be on sale (so you better buy them now hint hint). And he called us all Orihime and said that they would end with Hoshi furu again, because it's only proper.

1) Hoshi furu yori ni aimashou

The same song, once again, with the mirrored disco ball turning slowly over the crowd. Awww.

They sent us off by making it clear that they WERE positive, pop, AND rock, making their hands into heart shapes while saying so. And with a final goodbye, the exited for real.

And then 250 girls realized they had absolutely no fluids left in their body, and rushed to the drink counter, all at once. The poor barkeeps were mixing drinks as fast as they could, which was surprisingly fast considering the amount of girls in line. Some were being bratty and cutting in front of everyone, but no one really cared what anyone else did, and by pushing politely I got to the counter in under 5 minutes. And I was faced with two menus, both of which were entirely in katakana. One contained the normal list of sodas and alcohol, and one was a list of special drinks each band member chose. My mind was running on one thought "HYDRATION!" and could not function well enough to speed-read katakana, so I pointed to the first drink on the list, Takuya's. They asked me for another 100 yen, why I didn't know, but I could care less and handed it over. I didn't know what it was, but it was good, and I just about downed the sucker as soon as they handed it to me. Then I wandered over to the goods table to see what they had to offer.

There were postcard-sized photosets, all of which were exceptionally goofy and expensive, so I didn't bother. They had Loose Vision and the two Koi wa futari de CDs for sale. There were small posters of the Hello postcard (them sitting on a bench with suits on), and a "chibi t-shirt" which had their name printed on it in sparkly pink writing, and other Engrish in sparkly purple. It was 2500 yen, which I would have gladly thrown away (purely for the amusement value of having a teeny t-shirt with Dear Loving's bad English on it), had I the cash on me. There was not much else to catch my interest (besides the fact that the staff girl was using her cel phone as a calculator to give change), so I wandered outside only to find my mom attending to the girl who had passed out. Apparently, the staffers who had brought her out didn't know a damn thing about emergency medical... stuff, and they just about did everything they could to worsen her condition (putting a plastic bag over her face? What were they THINKING?!).. And if my mom hadn't been walking past Cyber at the exact moment they were dragging the girl up the stairs, they probably would have killed her -.-; I sat there on the stairs outside the place with the cockroaches, and was fully entertained when Mom tells me they gave me a rum and coke and throws it away (so THAT'S what the extra 100 yen was for, alcohol! They should know better than to give dehydrated underage girls alcohol, as it only makes dehydration worse, but it's already been proven that these guys know nothing about health...), so I raid her purse and go back in because I just HAD to have that chibi t-shirt. It really is tiny... Now there are girls around the country wearing tight revealing t-shirts with their name across the chest! Clever boys, they are.

Overall, one of the best lives I've been to. The audience interaction was great, energy high, and there's nothing more satisfying than beating the crap out of fangirls while listening to one of your favorite bands. Couldn't have asked for a better time.