Monday, June 02, 2008

Live Report 5/31/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Vagu Project, Mamono, Rakan, Karate Bakabon Sono Go, Murasaki, Mezmerize

Saturday was a long night that started off quite promising when this arrived at Narciss:

Photobucket

Yue's company had sent that to us, and it was beautiful, smelled wonderful, and caused a bit of buzz.

Photobucket

We were scheduled to go first, so I took the opportunity before we went on to do a little video interview:




Yue and Ryota have been ill with Bubonic something or smallpox maybe, and it really showed in their performances. I tried to make up for things, but that can be tough on your own. The crowd was a little less energetic than we've had in the past, but honestly as long as there are smiling faces I'm more than pleased.

Photobucket

In fact, Alicia and a friend were there, which was just so awesome! She and I have been to many-an Exist Trace live and it's always good to see her. Also in attendance was blog commented Lisa who is now officially the coolest Rock Japan Elec-tric reader (although I welcome other contestants). She is just here on vacation and she managed to fit in a dinky little Laverite show in between stuff like, you know, Dir en grey and D'espairsRay and stuff. I cannot bow low enough to express my thanks to those who have and who will come out to support me, and often more than once! It was great meeting her finally.


Photobucket

After us was Rakan, whose drummer took a liking to me and especially my staff girl, and at the end of the night after I'd washed off my makeup finally noticed that I was not Japanese. I don't look Japanese in the slightest so I'm constantly baffled as to these band guys' reactions. Maybe just because we all look so funny to begin with.
Anyway, from the brief bit of their set I saw, Rakan was a bundle of energy. I was envious.



Photobucket

After them were mah dawgs Vagu Project, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, and they were very, very pleased to see me. It was great hanging out with those guys in a totally different context; backstage Yui hung out with us and he showed me his cool mixing board... he was putting finishing touches on a new song they were debuting that night, and it sounded really, really good. It was a slower-tempo'd rock ballad sorta thing, with some really fantastic lyrics and great vocal harmonies from Ryo... it was a very tightly-constructed song.


Photobucket

Mamono was next, and as you might predict, they were completely normal, gentle guys outside of costume and absolutely insane on stage. They probably had the biggest crowd of the night, I'd wager. They used a lot of smoke and lights in their set, and created a neat little world on stage. They reminded me a lot of Schwarz Lilie, with some of that overly Tim Burton-y layer removed.


Photobucket

Murasaki played "Zan", I think, and then a cover version of "Nagori Yuki" (Mucc's was better) and I went and changed clothes and took care of money stuff.

But then there was a session band called "Karate Bakabon Sono Go", and Dan (formerly of Ensoku, also mah dawg) was on drums. The guitarist had a goatee and he generally had a goat-like appearance and that was neat. They were very strange.


Photobucket

Last was Mezmerize, who formed in January and are breaking up next month. If we last past July we can officially say, "hey, at least we outlived Mezmerize." Also they played a Kagerou song.


The Narciss staff wanted us to take the flowers home, so we wrapped up 4 bunches in brown paper and Yue, Ryota, our staff girl, and I each got one. On the way to the station from the live house, as we ran into various girls who had been at the live, I gave each one a white rose from the bunch.

Photobucket

These are a couple of the things a couple of fans brought for us... the akafuku was delicious! (The Aquarius was already ours, though. :-P)

Nachi, my buddy from all the ET lives (and who told Miko that I'm in a band when I pretty much expressly didn't want to tell her what a jerk even though he's awesome) came out to see us and I was so happy! I seriously love that guy and wish you all could meet him.

And then I got seriously ill coming back home and man yesterday did not feel good at all. But that meant I got to stay home and look for jobs, so that was nice I guess?

Our next live is on 6/15, and we're playing a new song. The guys say that with the bassline I wrote it sounds "L'arc-ish", which I take as a compliment.

Everyone who came out to see us is a winner! And just by reading about it, you're a winner too. :)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww, Elec, that video was awesome! You should do that more often! Since we're all losers who can't be there, it lets us imagine we're not losers and that we're there. XD

-Kyu

Catherine said...

I'd love to go see you, but hey I'm only a kid with no money. haha. I really enjoy your blog though, it's awesome that you yourself made it into a band. The video looks very interesting and I look forward to watching :D

Anonymous said...

it's awesome reading more and more of your reports as time goes along. Can't wait to read more :)

Anonymous said...

I really love reading your live reports. I know I don't post much but I enjoy reading your blog and support you in LAVERITE. The video was so cute, I was smiling the whole time!

Kay

Anonymous said...

I love reading this stuff, Elec. Really awesome. I wish you guys the best of luck; see you in July!

(word verification: dysuck)

Anonymous said...

nice vid. You seem like you are having a blast. Keep it up!

haru said...

Awww, it's so sweet abou you giving roses to the girls...XD

Anonymous said...

You guys need to put out a demo or something.

Anonymous said...

Poor guitarist of yours, he looks very tired in this video.
I hope we can see some vid of you guys live soon. :P

Anonymous said...

Love the video...yeah, I agree with the other comment-ers you should do those more often. When I get to Japan, I'm gonna come see one of your lives...they sound amazing.

Miss Thrillz said...

Laura likes the new outfit. XD

Anonymous said...

your japanese don't sound bad.
It's amazing to hear the switch
to english which has such a difficult
pronunciation, amazing.
You look pretty sugizesque, good look! (and good luck!)

/a

Anonymous said...

Dude I love reading your live reports! The video and the fact that you gave flowers to your fans is awesome as well. If I ever get a chance to go to Japan I'd definitely would show up to see one of the LAVERITE lives. XD Wish you guys the best of luck! :D

Anonymous said...

totally pumped to see you guys on the 15th!

And I forgot to ask you again, do you know if VP is playing any other shows in June?

Anonymous said...

Hi Jimi, thanks for the shout out!

It was great seeing you guys live, but too bad that Yue and Ryota were dead : (

Actually, I thought the show as a whole was pretty good in terms of having bands that did more than just look pretty - I really really loved Vagu*Project (if I wasn't back in the US of A already I'd so be their #1 gaijin fangirl, 'cause not only are they wicked awesome but Ryo is a sweetie) and Mamono was really cool too in a kind of refreshingly nonstandard VK way.

And kind of randomly, I think I saw your the Japanese guy you hung out with at Exist Trace shows at the D'espairs Ray show. Hmmm, great minds thinking alike?

じゃあ, がんばってねえ!