This live is good in the way that not only have I heard OF all the bands, I have HEARD all the bands, so I didn't feel like a total doofus not knowing what bands were who, and so on and so forth. I technically went to see Blast, because they're one of my most favorite bands, yet I was a dork and didn't see the email address on their page, so I made reservations through Karimero, who I thought were mighty cool but didn't know too well. So I was a fangirl for one band with tickets for another, definitely not easy for other fans to comprehend.

MayKan is not hard to spot, if you know what street it's on... especially with the massive hoard of fans waiting around outside for their ticket numbers to be called! Apparently, when a band is playing in an "anything-man" (this case being a three-man), you must have your tickets physically in your hand, or you will have to wait at the very end of the line. I should have learned this last year at Brand New. Well, I had my reservations, but no damn ticket, so Mika, Sayaka and I waited around at the end of the line. The guy at the entrance with a MayKan shirt shouted numbers; if you had an A ticket, you were good, and those numbers went up to 200something. Then he started on the B numbers, which weren't good. And then, after going up to 200 again, he called for all those who had no ticket, with a look of pity on his face. In we go.

Okay so first off, RockMayKan gets the big YOU SUCK award as far as live houses go. The place is no bigger than my living room, with around 10 short rows of seats (bah!), 50~100 total, a small area in front by the stage, and a bigger area in back. The stage is about 3 feet off the ground, and there are huge painful speakers on both sides that reach the ceiling. There's a small balcony thing that is a second floor, where some camera people hang.

Anyway, by the time we got in, all the seats were taken up (girls would line entire rows with their bags. Not to save seats for their friends, but because they COULD) and the front space was filled, so I was stuck in the back behind some dude with tall hair. It was only a few minutes until Porori came out. Most of their fans (girls AND boys) were head to toe Super Lovers and/or Sexy Dynamite London, the leading punk brands. And the majority of them had bandanas around their necks, in case you were wondering. I was not surprised when Porori was dressed just the same as their fans. And the name screaming started. Every girl in the audience decided to wail the name of their favorite member (plus –sama in some cases) in unison. It was quite scary. Porori is: Reito on vocals, Ruri on guitar, Yuujirou on bass, and Kiri on drums. Reito wore a mechanic's jumpsuit; Ruri had a schoolgirly green plaid skirt, with pants, t-shirt and so on. The drummer looked like a woman. Not in a cute feminine but still manly way, he looked like a genuine woman. He wore a button down shirt with punk patches and the whole getup. I can't remember what Yuujirou was wearing, or what he even looked like, but I'm guessing he looked like the rest of them, or I'd have remembered.

In any case, I have never seen such a hyper group of boys before. Seriously, they were INSANE. Couldn't keep their feet on the ground, did parapara and half-choreographed dances that looked like they came off a Richard Simmons exercise tape, and Reito had a large light-up wand that he waved around like a traffic director. He would leap across the stage in huge bounds, jump on the drum set, flail himself around, and do "the monkey" dance. He was so intent on getting everyone in the audience to do the monkey with him, that he would wrap the mic around his neck several times so he had both hands free to do so. I was kinda worried that with all the jumping around he did, he'd step on the mic cord and choke himself. But he didn't. He actually hit Ruri and Yuujirou in the face a few times. Ruri also hit Reito in the face with his guitar head when he took it off for no apparent reason (only to put it back on as soon as he did). Reito would high-five the packs of screaming girls, and smack them on the heads. Yuujirou would pretend to shoot them with his finger gun. Reito attempted fanservice with one of them, putting their arms around each other and sharing a water bottle back and forth. They managed to get the fans to interact to extremes; the fans were literally jumping in circles, running around, and waving their arms like there was no tomorrow. They all seemed extremely delighted to be playing at a three-man and couldn't stop smiling, (although they look like the kind of guys who would be elated to get lollypops) "Dundundundun PORORI! dundundundun KARIMERO! dundundundn BLAST! dundundundunddun THREEEEE MAAAAN!!!! ::monkey dance::"

Music-wise, they fit their image well... Happy poppy bouncy rock. They were all good musicians, no complaints. They played... a bunch of songs. Kakurenbo first, and Mother Complex Lullaby was in there somewhere. Only in Japan will you be able to see a band get an entire audience of girls and boys shout "mother complex" like it's completely normal. I thought it was pretty cool, during the part of the song where he talks, says "Mama wa doko doko?? Papa wa iranai..." he stood still (amazing!) at the very front of the stage, got this demented little kid face on, widened his eyes excessively, and wiggled his finger at the "iranai". It was cute in a freakish sorta way. Altogether, they were really fun. I wasn't quite enjoying it as much as I would have under other circumstances (like wearing comfortable shoes and being closer to the stage), but they are the band to see if you just want to go crazy. Actually, I'm kinda glad I was far from the mass of fans, they were scary with their hand dances and running around in circles and so on... it was safer in the back, although mighty loud. I think it was a bad sound system, because it was LOUD. Not like cool rockin' loud, but ahhh microphone feedback loud. Although it could have just been the tunnel effect I got in the back. But they were very fun, very entertaining; they just need to play at venues without seats.

Once they finished their never-ending last song, they threw forty thousand things into the audience and left. I pushed my way up to the front, which was easy since the Karimero fans were slow, and most everyone up front was there ONLY for Porori and they left. So, I ended up in the right corner... near the speaker. ON the speaker. I was second person deep, although one girl appeared out of nowhere and pushed me back so I was the 2.5nd person, and even closer to the speaker. ::cringe::

Curtains opened... no one on stage. Then the back exit door opened, and one by one, Karimero entered. Tsuyoshi first, as drummers always come on first, followed by Koosuke (bass), Nao (guitar), and after a little waiting, Yuuki (vocals). They were wearing black, black, and more black, and all of them had on matching traditional Japanese sandal things (the ones with tatami bottoms and black straps). Very simple image, but very effective. I like it a lot. The bassist had on some neon pink eye shadow (?) all around his eyes. Yeah, bright neon pink, I didn't know it came in that color. It was radioactive, absolutely hideous, and didn't run at all. I'm thinking it was finger-paint. He also had on a chain that hooked from his nose to his ear, which was pretty gross, but sorta his trademark. No bassist fetish could help me be attracted to him (yet he seemed to be the fan favorite). The others, however. *grin* The vocalist looked like Haruhi, a LOT. Absolutely adorable, blonde simple haircut with bangs. He had black eye shadow and red lipstick around his eyes, and in the corner of his mouth, to look like bruises or something... it was cute, but most of it smudged off after a song. Nao hid behind a curtain of hair, but he was quite the tasty one. Tsuyoshi was... ehh... he had a bandana on and black rings around his eyes, typical drummer, nothing special.

They were REALLY fun! Yuuki perfected the manic child act, gesturing and rolling around on the stage (yeah, literally, rolling). He was really into it for the songs, but then dropped the act for MCs, and was downright adorable. "It's hot isn't it? Yeah... it's hot. *giggle* more about the weather. *giggle* Hmm.. *nervous laugh* Ah, this is my first time at MayKan... *goes into the next song*" At the second MC, the mic stopped working (it started chopping everything up), and he found that extremely funny. He made noises into it until they handed him a working one. Then he laughed and bowed and apologized and talked for a while, then screamed "CARNIVAL!" and they played it.

They got the fans worked up pretty well... I guess the monkey dance carried over from Porori, because they were all doing it too. And dancing around in circles. I didn't really know what to do when two solid rows of girls around me, without any sort of cue I could pick up, all hopped around in a circle in unison with their fingers up in the air like they were doing the Hokey-Pokey. Fascinating things, fangirls are. There was a tiny bit of headbanging, but not much. They weren't big on interacting with each other as much, although nothing could compare to Porori's extreme togetherness. Throughout the set, though, Yuuki would ruffle up Koosuke's hair. Koosuke didn't like it too much, but Yuuki would grin in a "comon, have fun" sorta way, and hop off. They played for about 45 minutes. The sound system seemed much better than Porori's, I could actually hear the vocals separate from the music, and the lyrics were discernable enough so you could sing along if you knew the words. Their music style is kinda bouncy, fun rock. Hard but not dark, pretty cute. There's a bit of traditional feel that many eroguro bands have these days, it's unique and enjoyable. Yuuki has an adorable voice, he can convey a lot of emotion, hold notes, and is just an all around good vocalist. There's not much else I can say about them, they were just lots of fun and I'll definitely follow them from now on. Their last song was one that got everyone worked up, then they threw stuff in the audience, and left.

Set list
1) Kazemakase
2) Utsubyou
-MC-
3) Kageboushi
4) Shiigure
5) Yoru no ongakushitsu
-MC-
6) carnival
7) Hikouki no shounen

And then the endless wait for Blast commenced, where I was forced to listen to an old Aerosmith CD. The front cleared out again, so I skipped over to direct center, on the stage. There were actually much less fans at the stage for them, which I found odd. There was, however, a pair of two really weird chicks; they looked to be about in their late twenties, dressed like they were going to a fancy dinner party at the office. They were practicing hand dances... I mean really complex hand dances, one for each song. They parked themselves in the center next to me, and through the 15+ minute setup time, went through each one. Lights down, name screaming (you will never understand the madness of name screaming unless you hear it for yourself), nifty little intro song plays, curtains open, no band, more name screaming... Door opens, Hibiki (drums) comes in. Then Hiderou (bass), then Iori (guitar). At each entrance was a chorus of their name. Long pause. Screams for Yuina. Intro music hits its climax, and a little piano tune kicks in. No Yuina. "YUINA YUINA YUINA!!!" And then he walks in, as the intro music finishes off, looking like he really doesn't want to be there.

Hibiki is wearing... I forgot, something black and something on his head. Hiderou had a stylish suit on (but not like salaryman suit, a cool one), with his hair lightly poufed up. Iori was wearing 40 layers of stuff. The bottom layer was what looked like a sarong skirt, with a black see-though mesh skirt over it that was printed with tigers... He had a few shirts on, the top one being a black mesh tanktop. His hair was blonde, kinda mowhawked up, with a long braid hanging off. Yuina was wearing red tights with black fishnet over, a sorta see-through black wrap skirt, two or three tight tight tight tanktops (top one being black with spider print), a transparent black ruffled button-down jacket/cardigan, and a red mesh scarf around his neck. In fact, while shopping at the KERA Shop AULA a few days later, I saw half of what Iori and Yuina were wearing, on sale (in case anyone wants to cosplay their atrocious outfits, most of it was Sexy Dynamite London, and this other, fairly cheap brand which had a logo in unreadable English).

Now I was so close to the stage, just about all I saw the whole time was Yuina's crotch. Not that I'm complaining. Damn that boy is skinny. Like, exceptionally malnourished. Anyway, I was craning my neck to see his face most of the time, but he was more interesting than Hiderou or Iori, so I dealt with it. He had on his usual makeup... very precisely painted on. He was wearing a lot of it. He actually has quite a weird-shaped face, I noticed, which makes his face unique in photoshoots, but strange up close.

They started with Child Play, and he didn't sing the "la la la", which makes the song what it is, and annoyed me beyond belief, since that is possibly my most favorite song of theirs. They play 10 songs in total, (which is every one of their released songs, including the scratchy bonus track on Ura, called D&G) and Yuina did not look happy for one minute. Attitude problem, much? The whole band didn't move, at all. For Distortion, they got closer to the stage, but for most of the time they just stood there. I did not see the left side of Iori, at all. Although Yuina did sit facing the drums on the floor to take a drink from his water bottle, and took off the jacket, and at one point his butt was in my face. But yeah, that was the extent of his moving. His tattoos were very interesting, though. His right bicep had a massive purple tattoo, of a spider web with this diesel spider/crab/scorpion on it, and printed on it was his birth year, birth date, and blood type. He is 25, born October 27th (1976) and is B-type blood. ::nod:: Seeing that I figured all that out (and memorized it!) while they were playing should give you an idea of how interesting they were to watch.

I was fairly disappointed.

They flew through the set in under 45 minutes, HE DIDN'T EVEN MC! It was a "grumble grumble next song". The girls next to me seemed quite entertained, but I think that was more from their precisely choreographed hand movements to EVERY SINGLE SONG. They made no eye contact with the fans; Iori would look intently at his guitar and sweat buckets, occasionally glancing up, whipping his braid around, and pouting an "I'm too sexy for you" look, Yuina mostly stared at the back wall... although Hiderou gave me some shifty, nervous glances often. The roadies who lined the wings also looked at me funny, possibly because of my singing along to nearly every song, although they could have been staring in fear of the girls beside me. Some vocalists like it when you sing along, others don't. Yuina didn't.

Okay, well, on the positive side, they played excellently. If not for the few parts where Yuina decided not to sing, it sounded right off the CDs. Wonderfully clear, tight, and professional. It made a lovely MD recording. Now I can't decide which is better: marvelous sound and boring-as-all-heck performance, or not quite as good sound but fun to watch. I might have to go with fun to watch, because one of the things I like best about going to lives is the ability to get into it and go crazy. Watching them live was no more exciting than watching a live recording on video. The extent of moving around I did was the slightly violent hand motions that go along with Distortion and Saddy.

They finished with Saddy, and without even extending the song to get everyone headbanging, Yuina stormed off stage and the rest of them followed. I think the rest of the fans felt the way I did, for they all started an encore chant. "AN-KO-RU! AN-KO-RU!" clapping and so on. We continued this for about 5 minutes, and then the lights went on, and everyone grumbled and wandered off.

Maybe it was a bad night, or Yuina was extremely pissed about something, but if it wasn't... I'm worried. With the experience they all have, they should know how to work an audience. It would be normal coming from little fledgling bands that have no fans, but from a group like them, I expect some interaction!

Set list
1) CHILD PLAY
2) Shade of Phantom
- tuning -
3) yanderu.
4) CRY*BABY
5) Happy Birthday?
6) Metamorphose
- MC -
7) Violet color's
8) D&G
9) Distortion
10) Saddy

Well, I left feeling very unfulfilled. Maybe I had too high expectations for Blast, but I really anticipated a better time. It probably wasn't the best, either, that they followed two bands that cranked the energy up to breaking points, so it was terribly anticlimactic. But jeeze... they could have put a little effort into it.

The goods for all three bands were poor. CD-wise, Porori hadn't released anything, and everything Karimero had released had be sold out, so there were only photosets and stickers... I actually couldn't get near Karimero's table, so I had no idea what they were selling. A photoset would have been nice, though. Before I went, I was planning on buying photosets of Blast, but afterward I just didn't feel like it. (Yeah, I'm a pouty brat). Porori and Karimero got nice happy enquettes from me, and well, Blast did too, because I didn't feel like writing, "you disappoint me" on it. Hopefully, next time, it will be better, or Blast will play first so it's not a big letdown energy-wise.

My money went to: Karimero
My money should have gone to: Karimero
Goods: Nothing
Souvenirs: Good MD recordings...?