Ebisu Guilty, January 11th, 2004
The Flag of Rebellion Tour

This was my longest day ever, I think. Having spent the previous night not sleeping in favor of experiencing the Japanese nightlife, I slept from... hmm... let's see, about 8am to 10am. Then spent the morning being dressed up in traditional Japanese garb and photographed excessively, but we don't need to get into that. With a surprising amount of energy in me, I quickly dressed myself decent, got to Ikebukuro and met Chi and Lauren. It was around 5:15... the live opened at 6, started at 6:30. And my urge to take print club surfaced and we went to the best purikura place in Ikebukuro.

After that was satisfied, it was 5:55 and I'm like SHIT. We high-tailed it over to Ebisu, which was.... farther away than expected. We get there and I whip out my map, and ask the station guy who gives me the WRONG directions, but thankfully Lauren and Chi were looking at a station map when I asked him, so we got there quite all right, although it was cold as all hell. It was probably around 6:30 when we got to the place, but there was a rather long line of old metal guys and gals trailing out of the entrance. But by some lucky twist of fate, so many people were there that they couldn't fit everyone into the place and extended the start time for a while, so we weren't late. But we didn't know that, we were totally confused, so we stood around harassing each other as to who was going to ask what the line was for and everything.

We eventually learn that the line is for day-of tickets, and the people with reservations could go right in. I had forgotten to make reservations. Had they put me on the reserved list after I mentioned the other day that I'd be going? Lauren couldn't fathom why they would. So I had the brilliant idea of pretending I had made reservations and they just lost them so we could get in at the reserved-ticket price... After much more discussion, I drag the two of them down the stairs, and we stand there confused for a few moments, again harassing each other and trying to figure out what was what (there were people everywhere, it was chaotic). Then I go to the yoyaku table and start laughing my ass off because I HAD RESERVATIONS!! Someone was looking out for me. Lauren couldn't believe it. Man the whole situation was fuckin hilarious.

Oh yeah... so, this place, Ebisu Guilty? I was expecting it to be some hole in the wall. Um, NO. It was bigger than most all the visual venues I'd been to, just one big giant room with no obstructions... And OH MY GOD it was single-handedly the most crowded concert EVER. EVER!! (scrolling, blinking text). Apparently the two other bands were really popular, MAJOR metal bands!! (The ticket price reflected that too, grumble.) We got guitar picks for drink tickets... BAD ASS!! It was almost totally old metal guys, and young metal guys... and skanky skanky women.

I assumed Bang-Doll would be first because they are totally out of their comfort zone with this, and I saw a few short girl heads in the front row (well, when I managed to shove people out of the way enough to make it up to the front). You cannot imagine how crowded this fucking place was. I crammed myself up as far as I could get but it was NOT CLOSE ENOUGH and was screaming and cursing loudly because I couldn't get to the first row. I was totally dethroned and SO NOT PLEASED!! (I was actually screaming curses, I got a few head turns.)

I was like... 3 rows back? But like mentioned, this was not Bang-Doll's territory, and no one really knew them except the front row of Ningyou-tachi, and the rest were all old metal guys getting in my fucking way! Raaaaaaaaaaaaawwwrrrr!! I still wasn't 100% sure if they WERE first, but after seeing the Gundam sticker on the amp I realized it must be, and they played the same opening music they always do... I wonder what that song is because it's REALLY rockin.

Anyway, they came out badass-ly (rofl) and started with Delaz, and played the usual Kuu tracks... but threw us TWO NEW SONGS!! *joygasm* Holy shit they are SO AWESOME! One is extremely hardcore in the beginning, and then switches to this amazing jazzy beat, and Ryou does this "sooou" thing that's HOT.. it's just like WHOA, so sooo soo so cool.

I was SO PISSED I couldn't headbang, I kept trying to nudge myself up further but the idiots around me wouldn't budge. So when it was required, I slammed my fist in the air and jumped up and down, stepping on and hitting everyone around me. Serves them right. Extraordinarily frustrating though, you wouldn't believe. But because it was a three-man, their set time was longer than usual, about 45 minutes long. So that was sooo good. But they were also totally out of their fanbase, which made me feel a bit sorry for them. The old metal guys were just kinda confused, Ryousuke MCed telling people to stop staring at them like they're bored and to interact a bit, everyone thought that was funny.

There were two REALLY tall guys in the middle that were either friends or brothers of the band members and were totally rowdy and singing along, being totally hysterical and awesome... One of them even yelled "saikou!!" during a quiet second. For the last song, as usual, they played DAMNED!! (or G-D-D, I prefer it's former title) and Ryousuke stole Ikumi's guitar, and Ikumi sang death vocals like a confused cutie pie. It seems like a normal thing now, Ikumi stealing the mike. It is truly adorable.

1) DELAZ (Them&Us)
2) Downing
3) Bang the HEAD[bst]
4) KILL'EM TREND BASTERD (aka "Kinomi Nana")
5) Oboro no Yakusoku (aka "Inuyasha")
6) UnknownAll
-MC-
7) DUAL PERSONALITY
8) G-D-D

Oh I totally didn't mention costumes! Yeah well they were pretty much the same as last time, but You-chan wasn't wearing the toga :( :( He had on some typically-You-ish vinyl getup and NO HOUSEPLANT!! *gasp* Gou had something written on the shaved part of his head (I think "Kill'em trend bastard"), and Hiroki's hair was one giant ball of POUF! So cute. For Hiroki at least.

When they were done, the speakers started playing Toki, which made me quite happy. They walked on stage again and I thought something might be going on but no; they just have no curtain at Guilty. So after I was done overdramatically singing along to Toki, Chi and I slammed our way to the back to find Lauren, as fuckin CREED played on the speakers... got some Smirnoff Ices and gathered up our large amounts of crap to go sit in the lobby area. If you were faced with such crowdedness and Creed, you would wanna leave too. Ew... Creed... just, why? I'd think the metal guys would have better taste.

We threw our shit in some corner and proceeded to... sit. There were a lot of skanky ladies in mini skirts and Yoshiki-from-the-early-90s hair standing around, and as scary as it sounds... we befriended them! Well, Lauren talked to them, I kinda nodded and threw in a comment once in a while, and Chi sat and smiled. I should stop being so judgemental. There was... the WEIREST thing... one of the nice ladies brought HER TWO CHILDREN to the live.. one was probably 3 or 4, this adorable little boy that WAS WEARING TWO BANG-DOLL WRISTBANDS!! I was gonna cry at the cuteness of it. The other was a little fat baby who would kick his legs like he was dancing every time the door opened and you could hear the music... totally born to go to lives, but before he was actually IN the main live area, without earplugs. That is SO BAD!! What were these people thinking?!

Yeah so anyway, we sat there and talked with the girls, filled out enquette and that kinda stuff. Lauren wrote a funny enquette, she told Ikumi that the kogal (male version) fashion would suit him well, and said Hiroki was loud and insane in the chat (there was a chat for their 5th anniversary we both were in a few months ago), and that she wanted You's hair. I hadn't written one in a while so I told them their new songs rocked and I was sad I couldn't headbang because the people wouldn't move.

Pretty much all the members were out and wandering, except Ryousuke. Ikumi was wearing an ugly shirt and continued changing clothes throughout the night. Hiroki also, and he had these ridiculous red sneakers on that looked like the old Nikes that you pumped up. The two of them had really ugly hats on; it was great. You-chan was standing by the merch table being silent and pretty while we pondered over goods to buy, and it looked like he was buying his own merchandise but uhh actually I have no idea what he was doing. Sadly, oh woe is me... they were sold out of Bang the Head parkas!! *ANGST* So sad... you don't know how much I wanted one of those!! T_T So I bought a brown Rock is My Soul t-shirt. Which just isn't the same but I will still treasure its brown ugliness. I think Ikumi designs their goods.

Ahem ahem. Anyway. Yeah, can you tell I didn't care about the other two bands there? AZRAEL's name is way too similar to 398948 other band names. We watched them on the closed circuit TV. But mostly amused ourselves with the little kids. The ladies applauded me for going to see Bang-Doll repeatedly although I lived in America. *proud* Eventually Ryousuke did come out, looking like he was about to die, dragging a massive Gundam backpack. I said "otsukaresama!" and he said "Oh Krys!" like he always does, and kept on dragging the bag along out the door x_x;;; (Me: that's totally a giant Gundam bag. Lauren: that's wicked embarrassing)

This is called "demachi", or waiting for the band you like to come out after their set of a concert. And this was a particularly uninteresting demachi night. So a few hours later... Well, Lauren and I decided to see a bit of the third band, Galneryus. I had actually really liked the songs of theirs I sampled beforehand, although it sounded exactly like 70s hair metal... the guy totally has the voice down. (Later on the Bang-Doll diary, Ryou even mentioned how the other bands were such true metal bands in "high key"). But they wear these ridiculously awesome armor costumes. There really is no need to describe them further; they were a metal blast from the past. And there's nothing wrong with that, it was an interesting change from the usual.

So we went to open the door and it was like... rush hour commuter train. People fell out when we opened the door. We seriously couldn't cram ourselves into the room. We just... didn't fit. It was THAT crowded. The staff guy didn't like the fact that we had the door open, so he CLOSED the door so we were forced into the room. Closed it ON me. It was so crowded and horrible!! But I mean the band was good, it was just all these crazy metal guys who are TALL... and we couldn't see anything, so after like half a song we went back to the lobby. (This band played a REALLY long time, probably 2 hours) It was much safer in there, and you could actually see the band on the TVs. As much as I'm not too keen on visual fangirls, they don't take up the room that crazy old metal guys do.

It sucked because I do like Galneryus, but I didn't want to risk my life trying to see them from the very back of the club. So we went back to where we were, I could see them better on the TV anyway. Upon return to the land of less-crowdedness, we found Chi drawing in her sketchbook to amuse herself, and I eventually convinced her to draw mini Bang-Doll. She started --they were SO cute-- and the fan...ladies that were chatting with us started obsessing over it. So over the course of the next 10 or so minutes, she sketched this adorable thing of them all wacky chibi form, while I described their hair and costumes to her (since she wasn't even able to see the band on stage when they played, and she was only a few rows behind me!)

Well the fans found it so awesome that after making sure all their friends saw it, they had to show all the members. Showed Hiroki first while she was still working on it, and he yells "OH NICE!" in English... gahaha I nearly died. Then once she was totally done, they wanted the members to sign it. So they found Gou and he signed it, he thought it was really cool. The girls called You-chan over and he was like awww. The little boy was standing by him, and You-chan says to him "Which do you think is me?" and the little boy pointed at the picture of him... OMG!! That was just... SO FREAKIN CUTE!! He signed a lot, with the date and venue and everything. You-chan is so gorgeous with his hair down and no makeup on, holy crap.

Then Hiroki came back... well he never really left but he wandered towards our corner again. He was pretty drunk I think, and was like "Derherr which is me?" to the picture. Uhh the one with the drumsticks, maybe?! So he signed "Hiroki on drums"... And then they found Ikumi, and he was just as drunk but not as amusing as Hiroki (plus Hiroki had a giant vinyl puffy pimp coat on over his Bang parka and his hair like a giant pom-pom sticking out from under the hood... which just rocks) and also said "Which one am I?" and signed it nonchalantly and stumbled off.

By then it was some time past 10, and there wasn't much else to do... Galneryus was on their 2nd or so encore, and people started leaving. Ryousuke was the only one who hadn't signed the picture and the fan seemed adamant about finding him but then wandered off with a bunch of empty beer bottles and never came back. We put our coats on and a billion people come out of the audience at once, and one of them was Ryousuke but he high-tailed it out and disappeared so we never got him to sign it. Outside we saw the lady with the two kids again, we wanted to say bye to the baby but he was asleep, so we just left.

What a weird night.