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Live at Meguro Live Station 01-05-17
Bands in order: Demaria, Philia, Persona, Bang Doll This was my first live, earlier I had called Cameron of GlamJapan, and we set up the date. I went with my two Japanese girl friends, and we met Cameron at the train station. We had plenty of time to kill, so we headed to Third Stage first. After wasting several hours there and at a coffee shop, we went to the live house at 6:20. It had opened at 5:30 (and didn't start until 6:30) but the crowd was, well... non-existent. The original lineup included Secil, but they had cancelled. Not knowing any of them, I bought my ticket in Demaria's name, since Cameron did the same. After a while it started to fill up, but it was about 50 people max. The house itself was underground, with only one entrance (meaning the bands and the fans had to leave the same way). There was a long staircase down, a short landing where goods tables were set up, then a door leading to backstage and a door leading to the standing room. The room was decent size, with a low stage and only a few head banging bars separating the fans from the bands. First up was Demaria. They were pretty visual; plenty of makeup, costumes all black and PVC, vocalist Ayki in teeny little booty shorts and a skirt. Ayki was very dramatic, posing and rolling his eyes back into his head. Their audience interaction was little-to-none, but I guess you can't do much with only a handful of fans at the stage. Between songs, it was absolutely silent. Rather unnerving. Their set was short, and they just kinda did their thing and left. Second was Philia, a group of five hyperactive not-very-visual guys. They were dressed in not much but street clothes, some leather pants, and not even much hairspray. Their music was hard rock to punk rock, and was good but nothing spectacular. Their energy was high, running around the stage and working the small crowd to their best. The next band was my favorite of the bunch, Persona. One of the 5 or so bands named some variant of "Persona" out there, getting info on these guys is virtually impossible. Their flyer and my photos are the only thing proving they actually existed (do I ever regret not getting their demo tape!). They were dressed in an odd but cute array of costumes, which I'm guessing were a last minute image change most likely made by their mothers (the flyer showed them completely non-visual in street clothes). The vocalist, Asagi, wore a PVC/leather mixture with tiny little shorts and knee high boots. Guitarist Lazy had an indescribable red and black vinyl dress thing, with slits up the side and some tacky clashing belt. His hair was done in cornrows. The bassist, Iku, was wearing a typical indies black leather mixture, with an off-the-shoulder top that was decorated in red fur. His boots were red fur too. And I'm not too sure what drummer Ki-chi was wearing, but I'm guessing it was just as odd. Ki-chi was a real fan-favorite, the fangirls there would yelp his name non-stop. One girl held up her camera and he posed, smiling and giving the V sign. While exiting the stage after their set, he tripped (either intentionally or accidentally) and knocked the whole drum set over. Most of the fans were Ko-gals (who I personally hate, and my encounters with them here only furthered my opinions.) They would do stupid little hand dances while the rest of the fans were head banging wildly. After their set, I went out to the staircase to waste some time, only to open the door into Lazy, who was standing behind it. The band was dragging their crap out from backstage, Ki-chi was sitting on the stairs taking his boots off. Cameron took a picture of me with Iku (which is exceptionally cheesy and have no intention of posting it) and then we went back in. Bang Doll was last. Made up of four guys: Ryo-suke (v), You (g), Yuu (g), and To-ru (b). [Although "You" is pronounced like "yo!", the You/Yuu names made for an amusing conversation with my host sister... Her (speaking in broken English): "There are two "you"'s in the band." Cameron: "No, Yo... Yuu.. Japanese is difficult, isn't it?"] They were joined with a support drummer, who was a large, short little man with exceptionally long crimpy hair and no shoes on (he reminded me of a tribal caveman or something). At the beginning of the set, Ryo-suke introduced them all, saying "We are visual kei... our drummer isn't!" which got some laughs out of the fans. Anyway, Bang Doll was crazy, and full of energy. The sound was pretty bad (they played well, it was just a bad sound system) and extremely loud but they were really good. Their visual look was impressive, although Ryo-suke could have chosen a better lipstick color. And Yuu looked a lot like Toshiya from Dir en grey. To-ru had a feather boa that he wore, and would occasionally take off and whip it at the fans like he was going to toss it (tease!). You was at my side of the stage most of the time, and posed for a few pics. ^o^ At one point, To-ru was standing by me, and from the back of the room this fangirl came charging, pushed me out of the way, and began fondling the bass. To-ru got this horrified look on his face and didn't stand near the stage the rest of the set. At the end, Bang Doll brought out Demaria, for an insane chaotic finale of non-stop head banging and screaming. Demaria's drummer, Hiro, had changed into street clothes (although he left his hair up in those cute lopsided pigtails), and Ryo-suke had to reassure the fans that it was in fact Hiro. As they were exiting the stage, You takes his empty drink bottle and chucks it into the audience... only to have it hit me right between the eyes. He did a O.O thing and quickly ran off. And the dork I am saved the bottle ^^; It ended around 9:20, and I hurriedly bought some goods and we left to catch our train. It was extremely fun, but it being my first live, I had nothing to compare it to, and probably would have enjoyed it no matter who played. My money went to: Demaria |