The first of our 3 shows in August! (Good LORD my eyes are round...)
Baby was up first but I didn't see them and they were down in the downstairs dressing room the whole time so yeah.
All or Nothing were crazy guys, cracking jokes left and right, and a couple of them had pretty strong Kansai accents. Didn't get to hear them, unfortunately, but they caught our rehearsal and when we were finished, they told us how much they liked the song "Solidarity", which was really nice of them. We talked to them a lot more in the dressing room, and I played Dream Theater tunes with their guitarist, and then we gave up because it's impossible.
All or Nothing were crazy guys, cracking jokes left and right, and a couple of them had pretty strong Kansai accents. Didn't get to hear them, unfortunately, but they caught our rehearsal and when we were finished, they told us how much they liked the song "Solidarity", which was really nice of them. We talked to them a lot more in the dressing room, and I played Dream Theater tunes with their guitarist, and then we gave up because it's impossible.
We were 3rd, and initially things were going well. We didn't draw that many people who were there for Laverite, but other people in the hall seemed to be enjoying it, doing the hand thingies and responding well when I looked out at them and smiled.
The show was not without its problems. We played fantastically, I thought; a huge step up from the previous live. I felt really good about my performance, having honed and studied my own movement as Masaki taught me. We've each got our distinct personalities in the band, so I guess I'm the happy one.
Just before "Criticism", Ryota misstepped and changed his sound bank; during the intro of the song he frantically tried to get back to the right program. I put some more flourish on the bass tapping part to fill in the sound. Luckily there was at least one other guitar part being played with the synth parts through the PA, so it didn't sound too dead. Ryota pulled a nice save, doing a cool slide and coming in just in time for the main riff.
Just before our last song, the PA guy (some older guy no one had ever seen before) screwed up the cue we'd gone over perfectly in rehearsal and instead of fading out the previous backing track, faded in to our final song, which meant that keyboard parts were playing along their merry little way without us. After a brief moment of panic, at the same moment, like a cartoon, all three of us shrugged our shoulders and just came in for the second pass of the phrase. I thought it was a killer save, and in fact I often think mistakes are forgiveable if the band can cover well and not fall apart. We don't fall apart.
Ryota was very displeased, however. He'd also overshot the opening of "Sephirot" and his sweep-picking in the solo was, in his own words afterward, "complete and utter crap". The girl in charge of lights, a Narciss staffer we're familiar with, came back and apologized to us for the missed cue. Honestly every single staff person there is very sweet to us. After she left, comforted by Yue and I, Ryota made the good point that he wished the PA guy would apologize himself. He didn't.
Personally I don't mind all that much. Sure, I'd like to put on the perfect live, and I think we can, but if things happen things happen. I dunno, maybe I'm having too much fun up there.
The show was not without its problems. We played fantastically, I thought; a huge step up from the previous live. I felt really good about my performance, having honed and studied my own movement as Masaki taught me. We've each got our distinct personalities in the band, so I guess I'm the happy one.
Just before "Criticism", Ryota misstepped and changed his sound bank; during the intro of the song he frantically tried to get back to the right program. I put some more flourish on the bass tapping part to fill in the sound. Luckily there was at least one other guitar part being played with the synth parts through the PA, so it didn't sound too dead. Ryota pulled a nice save, doing a cool slide and coming in just in time for the main riff.
Just before our last song, the PA guy (some older guy no one had ever seen before) screwed up the cue we'd gone over perfectly in rehearsal and instead of fading out the previous backing track, faded in to our final song, which meant that keyboard parts were playing along their merry little way without us. After a brief moment of panic, at the same moment, like a cartoon, all three of us shrugged our shoulders and just came in for the second pass of the phrase. I thought it was a killer save, and in fact I often think mistakes are forgiveable if the band can cover well and not fall apart. We don't fall apart.
Ryota was very displeased, however. He'd also overshot the opening of "Sephirot" and his sweep-picking in the solo was, in his own words afterward, "complete and utter crap". The girl in charge of lights, a Narciss staffer we're familiar with, came back and apologized to us for the missed cue. Honestly every single staff person there is very sweet to us. After she left, comforted by Yue and I, Ryota made the good point that he wished the PA guy would apologize himself. He didn't.
Personally I don't mind all that much. Sure, I'd like to put on the perfect live, and I think we can, but if things happen things happen. I dunno, maybe I'm having too much fun up there.
Next up were The Skull **** Revolvers, whose name still rubs me the wrong way so I don't write it out. They've gotten better, less out-of-tune, and I have to admit they put on quite a show. Violinist needs to ditch the music stand and not look so dang bored, though! He's way too outclassed otherwise. They had a small handful of girls from Europe there to see them, one of whom, a sweet Finnish girl, talked to me and told me how much she enjoys reading Rock Japan Elec-tric! AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOME
Ooh, almost forgot about Zig+Zag. They were theatrical. Robes and masks and lots of orchestral music, songs that were borderline prog in their meandering, a tiny scary little female vocalist with a staff with a crow on it that she waved around and looked like she was going lop off the heads of the girls in the front row. Their bassist wore a full white mask and a bowler hat, which is at least something because otherwise he had a short, normal haircut. The guitarist had loooooooong Mana-like locks and was a very good player, as was the drummer. They frustrated me a little bit because some of their stuff was so cool and really unique, and then some of it was gimmicky and I wished they'd left it back in 1997.
Ooh, almost forgot about Zig+Zag. They were theatrical. Robes and masks and lots of orchestral music, songs that were borderline prog in their meandering, a tiny scary little female vocalist with a staff with a crow on it that she waved around and looked like she was going lop off the heads of the girls in the front row. Their bassist wore a full white mask and a bowler hat, which is at least something because otherwise he had a short, normal haircut. The guitarist had loooooooong Mana-like locks and was a very good player, as was the drummer. They frustrated me a little bit because some of their stuff was so cool and really unique, and then some of it was gimmicky and I wished they'd left it back in 1997.
Mistes also had a couple of performance hiccups at first, but again they covered well. The two guitarists went to the same high school as Yue, so they caught up on old times, mentioning old teachers and old friends.
On the 24th we're playing with Suicide Ali, so that's nifty. Also, one girl who came showed us the Closet Child omnibus! I kinda want a copy too, just to hear the comment we recorded!
Off to rehearsal today!
Off to rehearsal today!
1 comments:
Not 100% on this, but I think Wolf and I might have seen Zig+Zag last year...
If it's the same band I'm thinking of, the vocalist girl cracked a raw egg into a cup then made a girl from the audience drink it. It was pretty funny.
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