Bands in order: Vishnu, Aliza Marie, Charlotte, Grimm, Vidoll, Fatima, S

Being absolutely insane enough to go to this concert, Chiharu and I took local trains from Kobe to Nagoya. The ride on a bullet train is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The ride on local trains is about 3 hours. The ride on local trains if you get wrong directions can take about 6 hours. Although we expected to arrive there 3 or 4 hours early, we arrived a little late due to misgiving of directions. About 20 minutes after it started. Scared to death we missed Aliza and made this long arduous journey for nothing, I asked a Donuts Record staff girl, who said they still hadn't come on. So we bought the rather expensive tickets and entered.

Quattro is the first live house I've ever seen that is in a department store. It just doesn't make sense. 1st floor: handbags and accessories, 4th floor: ladies' fashion, 7th floor: dark smoky live house.... It just doesn't work! But they made it work. Trying to keep with the traditional grimy cave-like atmosphere, they managed pretty well, except for the grimy part. It was quite the nice place. Except upon opening the massive chain-covered metal doors, you hit the kids standing around in the back. And then can't get to the coin lockers to the right, as way too many people are crammed in the 2 foot space trying to get away from the noise. The room was fairly big, with a pit, tables around one side, a guest section in the back, merch tables in front of that, and a bar to the right. Stage was average height, and there were padded bars across the front.

As we enter, an unfamiliar band is playing. Pretty damn unfamiliar to everyone, I suppose, as there was no one really watching. Their name was Vishnu, as lame as that sounds. They were actually just exiting stage by the time we got to the pit, and only got a glimpse of some of the members. They looked cute enough but I hear they suck musically.

Not having a clue as to who was "first", we got as far up as possible, which was about 4 rows back, still fairly far away thanks to the annoying bars that left a large gap between the stage and fans. This crazy strip-club drum 'n' bass music pumps out of the speakers, and of all bands to not fit the erotic music, Aliza Marie comes out. But actually, they looked SO DIFFERENT it took me a few seconds to realize who it was. Kichiku dyed his hair black and gained a few pounds. Kyouhei looked absolutely completely different from the picture they had on their website (in which he looked like a Matina reject). Satsuki was hiding behind a hat and about 4 tubes of lipstick all over his face. Hiroki was the only one I could tell right off the bat. His costume was gorgeous; some black and white lightly pinstriped shirt with ruffles at the bottom and a black rose corsage. I want it. Kichiku was wearing the love-child of an old crappy t-shirt and a Hawaiian muumuu. God only knows what it was. He also had these crazy white furry armwarmers splattered with fake blood, and some half wraparound skirt on. Kyouhei had on the most unoriginal suit, and Satsuki was wearing a thrift-store Victorian outfit.

They started with an unrecognizable song, which was one riff repeated over and over, with a patterned clapping and fist-thrusting dance. Lot's of "OI!" shouting. According to their setlist, it was Iro o nakushita kodomotachi, but it really wasn't. It was maybe a riff from that song, but even that's pushing it. Then it gradually turned into one of their new songs, Shoudoku. It is extremely catchy and fun.

They followed with Murasaki Sanatorium, which Kichiku messed the lyrics up on. Then Iron Seron Hanron Seron, but it was more like them playing the music, Kichiku screaming the chorus ("Iron! Seron! Hanron seron!") and then no other lyrics, while the audience bounced along, and threw their fists in the air to the beat.

He was absolutely crazy; dancing and running around and just being a happy cute weirdo. With his costume and movement, he looked like a giddy caveman. Hiroki was trying to be badass, just giving the finger repeatedly and not moving much except forward during solos. Kyouhei didn't do anything. He's so boring. And Satsuki was cool, rolling his eyes and tongue around, giving the finger, etc.

Their last song was Amatsubu shitorishitori, which the fangirls created this long ridiculously complicated dance to. The entire song was choreographed so it looked like sign language. Them crazy fangirls. The set was over much too quickly.

The next band to play just completely floored me. They looked rather normal, in suits of varying materials. The first thing the vocalist did was make an obscene motion with the microphone at his crotch. But the fact that they had a MILLION fans going nuts over them when I couldn't even tell who they were, was just bizarre. It turned out to be Charlotte, who believe it or not, seemed to have the biggest fan turnout of the night. They were like a CULT! Everyone knew exactly what dances to do, what to shout at the right moment, when to start jumping up and down with their fingers in the air. I was so totally lost. First of all, they did this thing where the girls would squeal some word; I don't know what it was because of their exaggerated falsetto voices. And they kept doing it over and over. And the vocalist would point and make them do it. Then later, the vocalist would point to a member, say something about him, and the girls would fan their hands in the air and scream their name, as all the lights in the club turned off except for a giant spotlight in the middle towards the crowd. He had them yell each name a few times too. Trippy.

He had a small "Pooh-san" (Winnie the Pooh) stuffed in his suit pocket, and then brought out another puppet one and made him talk. Sooo weird. There was TONS of hand dancing, to an obsessive degree, and so many people were bouncing to the music that the floor shook. Really. I'd love to see how the 6th floor shoppers reacted to stuff like this going on above them. The funniest dance was done to lyrics of one song, which I now know is "Pinfu" from the Yougenkyou –star- album. They'd do the same fist in the air "OI!" thing twice, then make this fishie swimming motion to whatever the words were, then make a peace sign, stick it out and in again, and go "PEACE PEACE!!" But the way he said it was hilarious. More like "peesepeese!" reeeeally quickly. Everyone was giggling. Then we did it a million times.

They were WAY too cute and happy. With cute and happy music. Actually quite good, but I was so damn confused I had trouble enjoying their set as much as I should have.

And I think "Who could possibly come out and follow THAT act?", as the curtain is pulled to reveal four silly-happy normal looking guys. The vocalist had an electric acoustic guitar, and they started with an extremely slow but happy song. Totally, completely anticlimactic. An electric acoustic, jeeze! It was Grimm. For some reason I was under the impression that they were slightly more gothy looking, or at least something other than a bunch of wieners.... But they weren't. The vocalist was way too happy about everything, grinning like he just got his first kiss or something. He would ask the audience to call out their names, or something, and was just ELATED that girls would do what he would say. He had them do it a couple of times. It was quite weird. But not as weird as the bassist, who gets the award for the biggest fashion disaster I have ever seen in my life. Get this: a neon pink and white printed SPANDEX bike shirt, long sleeved. One arm is cut off. Over top, an old preppy pale blue plaid polo shirt that looks like it came from the Salvation Army. The opposite arm is cut off. Over top, an ugly t-shirt, completed with a ripped and sewn back together navy plaid scarf. And then, these atrocious yellow plaid ripped monsters around his wrists. It was just... ~shudder~ In short, they were wieners. Not bad music, but it was really weak, and uninteresting. And they were overall unsettling.

Moving on!

From the songs I've heard of Vidoll, I had a rather negative view on them. Except the song "Ai mai I my", which I really liked. I always thought they were good musicians, just not my type of music. However, due to the fact that so many people think they're awesome, I thought I must simply not be seeing something, I decided to stick to the front of the stage in the middle area for their set. And I was NOT disappointed. Even if their music sucked complete ass (which it didn't), I would have been entertained enough simply by their costumes. I LOVE it when bands know how to dress themselves! Although vocalist Jui's top was made of a weird silver crushed velvet with fake bloody handprints all over, it was still made exceptionally cool by ripping the bottom, and attaching half a crinoline cage onto it. The goofy-looking blonde bassist Rame had a gorgeous dark blue and green plaid Lolita dress, trimmed in black lace with all the bells and whistles of a top-of-the-line Lolita dress. He also had a glittery rainbow painted on his cheek. My favorite, perhaps of the entire night, was guitarist Yukine, who had a leather tanktop on, and attached to one arm-warmer thing was a red velvet bat wing. So when he raised his arm, it just looked so cool. I'm sorry I'm a fashion geek.

Jui is hot. Just thought I should get that out. Really, really hot. And he has a great stage act. Although corny. He brought out a tinfoil crucifix with a baby nailed to it, and over-dramatically, slowly, and to the beat of a song pretended to hammer it. Then hammered his own head. He is so cool. I can't dislike this band anymore. They didn't play any songs I knew... which was understandable since I only know Ai mai by memory. But they did play the song Heroin which I thought was Ai mai with the tempo slowed down 4 times, because the lyrics are very similar (I think actually that Ai mai is a parody of Heroin, because Heroin is really serious and Ai mai mangles its lyrics, speeds the song up, and generally makes it silly.) But their music was really good, or maybe I was too blinded by their amazing stage presence. Either way, their set was awesome. Jui stage dived twice into my area so I got to touch him. W00t.

Next up was Fatima, who I was rather looking forward to seeing. I've never found their music all too exciting, but I liked it enough. They were pretty damn cool, but I don't think Sanaka lives up to his Sex God title. Yeah he's attractive, yeah he wears tight clothes and sticks his hands down his pants, but... eh...

Their costumes were a mix of everything tight, black, and sparkly. Sanaka had what looked like the remains of 4 dead animals and a fangirl strapped to his arm. I really have no idea what it was but it was pretty creepy. 4ge had clashing sparkly things, and these ridiculously adorable sneakers with eyes and a big smile on them. All had light makeup and lots of sparkles. Nothing else was all too memorable, costume-wise. But their performance was really neat. They did tons of choreography, moving back and forth in unison, Sanaka utilizing the mic pole to his full ability, and doing this thing where they'd be in a circle and rotate around and the fans would scream their names... Really cool.

There was also a massive pit of DEATH. People were crushing each other and moshing and headbanging and it was quite painful. This gigantic fat boy was throwing himself at my back as hard as he could, which was totally rude and unnecessary. I ended up kicking behind me every time they called for a stage rush, which got rid of him a bit. I didn't leave uninjured, though. I got an elbow in my eye socket, and smashed heads with some chick in front of me. I'm not sure of the names of most of the songs they played, but the first one they brought out a megaphone and there were all these siren noises. They did play Mr. Imbalance and Humiliate Me More Darlin'. Overall a fun set, I would definitely see them again.

After they were done, the place totally cleared out. We stood up front against the bars. Some chubby girl in a punk getup and towel on her head starting waving a piece of paper and ordering people around. She was apparently arranging S fans in the order of their ticket numbers. Why? I don't know. There was only about 20 of them, if that. They made us move from the front, and placed us slightly to the left in the second row. At first I found this rather bitchy and obsessive, but the girls ended up being rather nice.

So S comes out, all in normal suits except Dai who had the tackiest maroon and gold striped suit ever. Yet it fit his image. They all had these elaborate spiked/poufed hairstyles that were just cool. I'd have to say that S was by far, the best band of the night. They were SO fun, so nice, it was just warm fuzzies all around. They moved around not too much, except Dai who was all over the place. At one point he put his leg on the bar, and Chiharu grabbed his knee to headbang on. The fangirl's ringleader found it hilarious. We bounced a lot, and headbanged some, some rushing, but no "let's see how much pain we can inflict on everyone else." Very friendly. They played a couple songs on their Yojigenzukan album, which I know the lyrics of but not the titles. Heh. At one point he yelled "PINPON DASH!!!" but didn't play the song. For one song that I can only guess at the kanji "Sennenchou", he had everyone sing the lyrics. The chorus goes "sora no tobira sotto akete kuroi umi ga mitai, dakedo ima wa hane o nakushi nagai nemuri ni tsuku" and we repeated it over and over, it was really happy. Dai also kept meeting eyes with me and smiling widely around his microphone. They are a great band.

By the time they were over, we had gotten drinks, and gone to buy Aliza Marie goods, all the other tables were packing up and we didn't get to check out anything else. But Aliza had a very wide selection of goods, including various designs of punk pins, photosets, and their new CD which hadn't even been released yet. The CD came with a signed photo, which you could choose one of two designs (if you bought the CD 5 days later when it was released to stores, there was only one version. Ooh I feel special) And with buying anything, you received a signed setlist, like I got last year.

My money went to: Aliza Marie
My money should have gone to: S
Goods: Aliza Marie's Palette CD, button (green moon version), signed setlist and photograph