Akasaka L@N, January 3rd, 2004
EllDorado Oneman 5 days -- Yuu Day

I was totally jumping for joy when EllDorado spontaneously announced that they were doing five onemans in a row. Five opportunities to see them! I hadn't seen them since 2001 when I didn't really know anything about them, but since become a big fan and not had the opportunity to catch a gig. There was a theme for these five one-mans: Each night was dedicated to a specific member, for some reason the fans are big on that. Or they are, either way. I think it would be embarrassing to the poor member who has the least amount of fans show up on his night. But either way, I wanted to catch more than one live (especially Yuuki day), but due to a really busy schedule, I could only make this one. It was a total last- minute thing too, like "hmm okay I'm bored with shopping, let's go!" ("let's" in the talking -to-myself kinda way, after Lauren and I were done tearing up Maruione's sale, I was alone)... and I completely forgot to get a map or anything to find out where this livehouse was.

Akasaka is a pretty place, really, and was rather peaceful walking around because there wasn't anybody except a bunch of middle-aged random people out. That, of course, didn't help me, because I was hoping for some visual kei fans to follow to L@N. I got horribly lost. I was almost considering giving up at one point, when an internet cafe appeared out of nowhere. After I drew a little map from the site, I naturally got lost again and ended up at a police box. With the kind policeman's help (and merciless teasing because I thought L@N was pronounced "lon"... it's "lan." Duh.) I arrived only a few minutes early, at the only livehouse I've ever seen in the middle of a bunch of apartment buildings.

I was just laughing my ass off, and half-expecting the live to just not exist at all ... it was the weirdest planned thing... I mean who has 5 onemans in a row and announces it only a short time before, and right after the New Year where no one does anything AND at a livehouse in the middle of a fuckin residential area?! I was very surprised when I actually found the livehouse and they actually were playing. But by then I was too busy laughing to myself about all this, and the fact that the live was 2500yen if you pre-bought OR day-of, made me all like whoooaa @_@. The ticket lady was trying her best to be super friendly and understanding to the loopy gaijin in a track jacket whose brain suddenly stopped making any sense of anything at all. The track jacket was my main concern, actually. I usually don't wear such dorky articles of clothing, and was afraid I'd look like a total fool in a bunch of awesomely dressed people (regardless of the fact it was Super Lovers and had skulls and studs, I bought it more for the amusement value and didn't think I actually looked cool).

I climb the stairs to the third floor and there's a massive drunk-looking guy leaning against the door to get in.... seriously, it just got more and more surreal... I stood there for a second and he stared at me and didn't move at all. So I said 'sumimasen' and he moved over like half an inch, so I could open the door but not actually get my body through it. I decided he was too drunk and/or idiotic to know what was going on, so I just pushed him out of the way with the door. I mean what the hell?

I was handed a commemerative postcard at the door. Ooh special, maybe it was a prize for getting past the drunk guy. No actually it was a really dorky New Year's card with Yuu looking like a fishman on it. Then I actually enter the place and it's like someone's LIVING ROOM. Honestly, my living room is bigger. I counted less than 30 people upon entering, and while more filtered in, if I said 50 were there, it would be a generous estimate. But amazingly, 3 other people were wearing track jackets too! So I didn't feel like such a dork. Tiniest place I have ever been to, hands down. I sat in a corner until the lights dim.

Now I don't care what anyone else says because EllDorado is fuckin badass!!! They immediately got everyone headbanging and going nuts within seconds. It was "Yuu Day" so I gathered from what they babbled about was that the member of the day got to choose the "theme", but I wasn't quite sure what the theme was. I think the member of the night also got to pick the setlist, because Yuu was totally overjoyed at every song they played, and was singing along and bouncing and smiling like there's no tomorrow.

Anyway, they were all totally awesome looking with their new visualness (I had also had quite a shock to open the latest visual magazine a few days prior to see they had completely dropped the suits look and gone back to being leather + fishnets visual... damn these guys are spontaneous!). Although Tomo had an outfit on that would put Ikumi to shame... a full leopard-print CATSUIT! With cat ears and a tail, and extra furry leopard print fur on his arms and legs and a little skirt of it. He had his hair in two giant poufs that was just the cutest thing ever, I think he's my favorite member now just because of that outfit. The stage was so small and ceiling so low that his hair touched the lights, and I don't know how Yuu didn't split his head open on one, he was bouncing so much.

Yuuki was wearing a deconstructed one-shouldered tank top that was a mixture of black fabric and a kimono-style red and gold floral pattern. Very interesting. He also had purple fur cuffs and a choker. His hair was all spiked up punk style, he looked pretty damn cool. Yuu was wearing a girly punk outfit with a pleather pleated skirt and hair extentions. Shunsuke had a schoolboy's outfit on; complete with a schoolbag he kept under his arm for a while, even while playing. And of course I never remember what the drummers wear, sorry Shoki.

Yeah so... At the time I was thinking they decided to play like every song I DIDN'T know... the first one was like, wtf I have no idea what this is... and everyone's going nuts and headbanging and hand dancing and I'm like nooo~~! Luckily I was behind a guy and a girl who didn't do anything, so I didn't look like a total reject. I didn't want to get in the front since I'm not 'in the scene' so I was about 3 rows back... which was still close considering the place is as big as a cardboard box. I now know a lot were new/debut songs, and songs that were very recent live-only releases, so I feel like a better fan now, haha.

[Thanks so much to Sumire for providing a setlist!!]

1. Kamisama no usotsuki
2. Machiavellism
3. Rasen theater
4. Refrain
5. Mohohan
6. Miseinen
7. Fukai
8. Subculture
9. Kokyu [new song from Yuu version of Refrain]
10. Kinjirareta asobi
11. Wadatsumino uta [another Yuu version song]
12. Yogorecchimatta kanashimini

I was happy they did play a good number of songs off Flying Dragon. None from AULA besides Machiavellism so I was at a loss because I didn't know many outside those two albums. But of all the songs to play from AULA, Machiavellism is my favorite (and one of my favorite songs in general), so that was awesome. For all the songs, there was a lot of headbanging, and a lot of really complicated hand dances. At first I just watched, but I eventually I tried to do the dances too. Most bands just have simple one-two patterns, but these were difficult! Really fun though, I kept messing up but once I got the hang of it, it was quite enjoyable.

Somehow, Kinjirareta asobi is much more tolerable live... The song drives me insane because he says "flashback" way too many times and I always skip over it on the CD. But Mohouhan and Miseinen are my two favorite songs on Flying Dragon, so I was happy. And all the other songs, whether I knew them or not, were just as fun to listen to and watch. They're not a band that will keep you bored for more than a few seconds.

After Yogore, they "left", and there was the whole encore fahl-de-rahl, but the fans didn 't seem too enthusiastic about screaming "an-koo-ru!" since they knew the band was gonna come out one way or another. After way too much time, Yuu resurfaced because everyone was yelping "YUUUUU!!! YUYUYUYUYUUUUUUUUU!!", man they're some scary hyperactive chicks. He was just grinning ear-to-fuckin-ear, the man was so happy. He kept saying 'thank you' over and over, at a loss for anything else to say. So the girls insisted he sang, and he's like, "ME SING!? !?" The stagehand handed him his guitar and he gleefully complied, strumming this cute little melody and making up lyrics that are like "Thank you... Thank you so much... I can never forget your smiling faces... Thank you... lalalala" etc. And he was giggling and singing off-key the whole time, he was a little embarrassed but that just made it all the more adorable .

Then they ask him for an encore, so he plays this hardcore riff and does the same thing... it was very cute. Eventually the other members came out and made fun of each other. Shunsuke had changed from his weirdass schoolboy uniform to a business suit, with his hair parted way to the side, and big geeky salaryman glasses. Everyone freaked out and he started pushing his glasses up on his nose really geekily, and says he's a salaryman... and there was much joking around. And he had a small genki drink [a vitamin/nutritional drink popular with salarymen after they stay out all night] bottle that he drank out of ridiculously. Oh man he's one disturbing character.

Encore 1:
13. Casino star
14. Zetsubo sho
15. Tengoku e no passport

Casino star is an awesome funny song about gambling and becoming rich, from Flying Dragon... There's a line in it where he says (translated) "A devil and an angel could be having sex and I wouldn't even care" and when it got to the "sex" part, Yuuki totally went like he was gonna mime doing Tomo in the ass, they were assuming the position... but then he kicked him in the butt instead. That was hilarious. But I dunno how many other people saw that, because Shunsuke was hamming it up, doing a ridiculous dance and attracting all the attention. He's so weird!

For the encore finale they played Tengoku e no passport and I FREAKED out cuz that song is totally badass and I'd always imagined it would be a great live song... so I let loose and started headbanging. Up till then I hadn't at all; just tried to do their corny hand dances for every song and bounced wildy with everyone else. So yeah that was totally rockin, even though it's hard to headbang without having anything to hold on to! The whole time, 5 other girls had done this arm-crossing thing where they headbanged in a star shape. Nifty. The song really has a live feel to it, even on CD, and I'd always imagined they'd do certain typical live thingies to certain parts. And the band did do the whole stage side switching thing and hand motions I thought they'd do to the song! It was awesome.

At that point I would have been totally satisfied, because it was the perfect song to end on... but of course they did another encore. This one took twice as long... we must've been sitting around for a half hour clapping and yelling 'an-kooo-ru!' until my hands felt like they were bleeding... Actually the girls got quite bored with that and mostly resorted to seeing who could scream "Yuu" the loudest or the weirdest way. I swear EllDorado fans are the strangest, happiest bunch of fans I've ever encountered. In a good way.

So once they finally decide they're ready, Yuu comes out again, all giggly, and says "thank you" 9584958 more times, and the girls in the front row are telling him to do stuff, like bend over backwards while playing guitar, and to headbang. And he's all shy like "noo that's weird!" but eventually cranks out a hardcore riff and starts to headbang. Very cute. Then the rest of them come out (minus Shunsuke) and make fun of each other again. And then Shunsuke strolls out a few minutes later in a schoolGIRL uniform, loose socks, and his hair in pigtails. Ahhhh it was so disturbing! Everyone was screaming... They announced him as their new female bassist, Shunko-chan. Oh lord are they funny.

16. Chain gang
17. EGOIST
18. DAYDREAM

There were some cool movements to Chain gang, but sadly I cannot remember them. EGOIST starts, and people begin to headbanging insanely. Then suddenly one of the girls from the front line RUNS to the back and grabs someone, and her and three other girls grab hands and start headbanging in a circle. It's one of those songs they repeat endlessly to wear everyone out at the end. So the pattern of the song was something like... everyone headbangs, then does this arm-waving thing, then headbangs, then does the arm thing... you get the idea. The first round there's about 5 girls in the headbanging circle, and next time around then they join with the other 5 group-star-headbanging girls that have been doing it the entire time, and after that they just grab anyone who's in the way. So after a few loops of the chorus, pretty much the ENTIRE audience were all holding hands and headbanging in a huge circle. It was absolutely hysterical, with the way the song alternates... you grab on to two people and headbang for 10 seconds, then let go of their hands, face the stage, do the arm motions, then turn around, hurriedly grab the person next to you again, etc... and they dragged the song out for like 20 minutes... it was so cool. Dizzying as all hell, of course, but everyone was smiling and laughing and clinging on to each other for dear life.

They are REALLY a fun live band... holy crap. Soooo much interaction and energy through the roof. As cool as they are though, they have shitty expensive tour goods. I totally would have bought a t-shirt if they weren't 3000yen, and a WRISTBAND WAS 1500!! WHY!? Wristbands should be 500yen, 800 pushing it. They also had towels and postcards. The postcards were 1500yen, what a rip. So I didn't buy anything. But anyway, it was tons of fun, and the fans are so nice. I'm really hooked now. Yay! ♥