Live Report 8/31/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Cinema Strip, Cheeky, Mistes, CKroll, Baby, Az:Madius, Dorothy

We were 4th out of 8, so here are the bands I didn't see, to get them out of the way:

CKroll, the scary-looking blue dude is ridiculously nice and down-to-earth


Dorothy


Baby, who were excited to catch me and Ryota playing along to Sugar tunes backstage



before

We took the stage and were pleasantly surprised to see an absolutely full house, and plenty of people up toward the very front ready to rock along with us. They weren't necessarily people who had come just for us, but still, it really helped us feel good. We kept up the energy from the previous live very easily and had a great show. I can't help but grin like an idiot up there, so apparently I've become the "smiley one", which is honestly just fine by me. It's fun up there and I'm not about to hide that.

almost after

We didn't call out enough people to break even, of course, but still it was a great turnout. A few coworkers came out, coupla housemates, and Bunny came out too, which was really sweet of her because Narciss is far for people who aren't me. There were also a couple of other girls who said hello but didn't stick around long enough to chat! :(

We sold a small handful of photo sets and were asked to sign them, which is still surreal, and we got presents of snacks from a few girls.
The Closet Child CD sold out way fast, and "Rose mary" is all given out, so the only available Laverite CD is the free Sephirot/Criticism thing in the indie shops.

By the way, I think I've brought this up before, but it gets asked about a lot, and someone (who?! Thanks!!) kindly explained it in one of the comment threads, but here goes:
We have to pay to play a live.

This shouldn't surprise anyone, but it does. This isn't just a Japan thing, either. Here's how it works.

We enter an agreement with the live house that we'll be able to bring in a pre-established number of people; say, twenty. At the door, everyone is asked what band they came to see, and if they reserved a ticket. We give our reservation list to the front before the house opens. You can also show up on the day and say you're there to see whoever, but reserving gets you a slight discount.

For every ticket we do not sell, we pay for. Sometimes, only 4 people come. Tickets are between 2,000 and 3,000 yen, so you can do the math there. That is, of course, on top of equipment rental and the cost of having a sound and video recording made of our performance.

Back when I was playing in punk and ska bands, however, often times we'd just play for free and if the house made enough of a profit we'd typically get $100 or some chump change, but it was just for kicks and at least we weren't operating in the red so it was all good. I don't know what I'm doing in a VK band, though.

Okay, other bands. Cheeky was a lot of fun as usual, and their vocalist Sadon and I got along really well, and the backstage almost turned into an eikaiwa for a second.

Cinema Strip continues to be ridiculously solid, and since Leo and I have similar performing backgrounds we got along quite well too. He had me teach him some psuedo-moonwalkin' dance moves, so I hope he uses them onstage so I can be like "I taught him everything he knows!"

Mistes are also pretty cool actually, and good dudes. Three of them went to high school with Yue, which we discovered randomly last time we played with them. Pretty neat.

Az:Madius is three chicks and they're certainly no Danger Gang or Exist Trace yet. But, to be fair, we're not exactly a Lareine yet.

Another fun show under our belt. The next live is at Takadanobaba Area on 9/24, and we play first. That's going to be somewhat of an 'audition' live for us, because we've never played at Area before. I've never been there before, even.

That's kind of a ways away, so I've gotta find something to talk about until then!
Work is pretty sweet and stuff on the money side I suppose, but it affords me pretty much no more free time anymore, which is why this report is like a week and a half late. Last night I met up with Masaki after work at our respective half-way-home points for drinks and both of us couldn't believe how much work it took to make a plan to chill out.

Welcome to adulthood I guess!

Political Action Hero

Putin gives us another compelling argument to the idea that he is the reincarnation of the stern Czars of old as he shoots a tiger to protect a camera crew.

Two live reports coming up, and I'd actually love to make more political commentary but the internet just doesn't seem to be the place to do much of it because so much of it goes beyond "healthy debate" and into "tinfoil hat" territory, so I'll stick to tales of awesome like this, and whenever Biden lays the smackdown on anyone.

Live Report 8/24/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Ray, D'LORE, VesuVio, Homura,

We were sixth out of seven bands, and therefore I was up in the dressing room for most of the show and couldn't see most of the bands and can't remember which other ones played that I'm not remembering, but whatever.

With all the free time you have up in the dressing room, you start to go a little crazy. I always have a book or my DS handy, Yue sleeps, and Ryota and I practice guitar. We also doodled a lot in my sketchbook.

Like, seriously, our rehearsal ended at like 2:30 and we didn't go on until 7:30, so we had a lot of time to kill.

So finally it's time to go on, and there are so, so few people that come to see us specifically, and it's getting harder and harder to keep our chins up in the face of that, because it just means we have to pay more at the end of the night. But we made a promise to each other recently: no matter what happens, we will have fun, because we've practiced enough to be secure in our playing. Even in the face of mistakes or missed notes, we must enjoy ourselves, so much so that it sucks people in like a tractor beam, even from all the way to the back of the hall.Yeah, it's a bummer to have a tiny fanbase, but you give your all because no one will come to you until you've reached that balance of good playing ability, attractive stage personality, and using your music as a communication tool.
Ultimately, I have to please myself first.

Yue was particularly good that night, and I just focused on enjoying playing my parts, smiling like I know a secret, and trying to make eye contact with everyone in the room.

Everyone was sitting down, except two guys were enjoying us and standing on my side. Gradually, the songs seemed to reach many of the girls, and, sitting down, they did the little hand motions. Honestly? That's enough for me. For now.

But the guys started looking behind them, beckoning some of the girls to come forward. Finally, midway through our set, about ten girls rushed toward the front, enjoying each other, enjoying the silly guys, enjoying us play, sakuing and giving us little heart signs, applauding our ballad, and getting really pumped up as I laid down the funky groove on "Sexy Dance", and did the neat little side-step thing we do in the verses of "Solidarity" along with us.

We got off the stage and couldn't say anything. "What the hell was that?" I finally said. Yue grinned. "I don't know, but it was definitely cool." We turned to Ryota, who always starts off with the bad parts of the performance before saying anything good. "That was kind of the best," he said.

Taking care of money at the end of the night, even the staff was surprised. "Did you know any of those people?" they asked. We didn't. All of them were new. Which meant that they wouldn't count toward our ticket total for the night, but I'd rather have had a great show and have to pay a bunch of money than to play a poopy show and have to pay a bunch of money. Still, a couple of them bought picture sets, a few said they'd be back the next week for the free live, and some even wrote sweet fanmail to us.

One thing I noticed is that Ryota's tell-tale pre-show nervousness is dissipating. He jokes that it's because he was so nervous meeting Kamijo that now playing a show is merely small potatoes.

I'm really, really looking forward to Sunday's show.

"Rosemary" is all "sold out", and 300 copies of the re-pressing of "Sephirot" are in and around the Tokyo area: Closet Child (Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Harajuku, and even Yokohama), Like an Edison, Club Indies, and Third Stage. It's absolutely free, so go pick up a copy.

Tomorrow is the Exist Trace 'revival' live. D:

Flier No. 3

what is wrong with my face

Live Report 8/8/08, Urawa Narciss: Laverite, The Skull**** Revolvers, Mistes, All or Nothing, Zig+Zag, Baby

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.

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.

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.

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!

Second magazine

I'm right next to Kaya!

And not all the bands are shown or named, either! Pretty sweet.

(This is Shoxx by the way)

Schedule Change

For some reasons we had to cancel the 10/5 live, but we've put one in for 10/3 instead. Still at Narciss. Update your calendars accordingly! And if you can't come, you know, just make sure you're facing toward Tokyo at 5:00pm Japan time. :-P

EDIT: Also, a re-pressing of "Sephirot" will be distributed in Tokyo indies CD shops starting from 8/20! So that means, like, Third Stage, Club Indies, Like an Edison. (Limited to 300 and only available in person, sorry. And in this case, "re-pressing" means "we each sat at our respective computers and burned 100 copies each, ourselves".)

Cool stuff. Not the cancellation, though, that's lame. Other stuff is cool though!

First Magazine!

On a hot sunny day like today, I bet you think to yourself, as you wipe your forehead with a copy of V ROCK STAR 3 with the Laverite section removed, "man, I wish a had something to read about Laverite while I kill this unspecified amount of free time I have!" So you head off to the bookstore, but first duck inside a convenience store to buy a drink, which you pay for with two copies of V ROCK STAR 3. You finally find the magazine section of the bookstore, and buy four copies of V ROCK STAR 3: one for yourself, two for friends, and one to line your birdcage, sans the section with Laverite. You find a spot in the shade, sip your drink (what did you buy?!), and read about Laverite, pausing only to reflect on how awesome life is, using another copy of V ROCK STAR 3 as a bookmark for the copy of V ROCK STAR 3 you just bought for yourself.

(also your friends each go buy five more copies each or something)

Live Report 7/26/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Byakura, Oshare Dorobou, Murasaki, Cinema Strip, Cheeky, Jackall, Cloche

8 bands is a little much, but apparently not by VK show standards. Normally the first band of the night is supposed to go down to the stage-level green room to do their hair/makeup and stuff but since the first band ignored that we were left with no table space in the upstairs green room, which meant we got to sit on the floor.

Cloche I think we've played with before; they sounded pretty good from backstage.

We were next, and for the first three songs, something was just. not. clicking. And Yue forgot the words during "My Love Remains", and even though I tuned just before we started, maybe I didn't stretch my new strings enough because I kept going sliiiiightly out of tune (it doesn't take that much to bother me, though) and of course I can just reach out and bam tune the thing back up but I'm up there thinking when exactly do I have a space in the song to do that, because I'm too busy rocking too hard...

Finally, "Solidarity" got us pumped up, and the crowd, sweet things who had been pretty decently energetic the whole time, got even more into it. It really made up for the other three songs. "Criticism" took us out on a bang, much like the big Sumida River Fireworks show that we were all missing out on that night.

A band called Jackall went after us, and they were heavy and metally and kinda punky and they had a chick singer with a killer death voice and a guitarist that looked a bit too much like LM.C's Maya, stylistically, and did well in the face of guitar strap problems. (Buy strap locks if you even briefly entertain the thought of playing live!)

Cheeky is on Narciss's label, and they're pretty fun. Lots of personality. Some of it a bit gimmicky, but they're solid.

Byakura are awesome and nice and stuff and shhhh don't tell anyone but I think Ryota is diggin' on their bassist but that's okay because if Miko didn't exist I'd probably be eyeing their singer, and Omi always talks some time out to have a chat with me and I'm really glad they're on a label now, because they've worked for a very, very long time to get where they are. They played a lot of songs I hadn't heard before, three of which I assume are their two final 'amateur' singles and then their first Sequence Records release.

If Cinema Strip isn't the next big VK band, then I will eat my hat. The vocalist, Leo, is formerly of Genshoku Atom, a band I raved about ages ago here, and I also spoke highly of Cinema Strip when I saw them before. Leo's movements are meticulously performed with tons of energy, twirling his wireless mic coolly, and a killer voice that I would honestly put up on my top vocalist list for plain ol' talent. And the rest of the band just has such tight riffs and backup singing. They are beyond solid; they drive the music right into the pocket. It is sick.
Seriously, guys. Cinema Strip.

Oshare Dorobou's vocalist Miyuu, my buddy, is so fun to watch. And very funny.

Finally at nearly 9:00 (half an our behind schedule, thanks to compounding of tiny problems over the night), Murasaki took the stage. I actually dig them; like I said before they're sorta Sid-ish. When they finished just past 9:30 they got an encore, and then the show ended, at nearly ten. Yer killin' me!

M was there, as were Holly and fuzzurin, who are all seriously ridiculously cooler than me, and chatting with them is easy breezy. Holly gave us presents and drawings because she's cool like that; seriously fanart is awesome because they make me look 100x better.


Earlier this week, I had a freelance job in Harajuku, and we went to Yoyogi park to scout locations. While there I ran into some coworkers, and we made plans to go out for drinks later in the evening. We headed over to Ueno park and found this nifty outdoor beer garden kind of place and had a good time. The bartenders took an interest in me, we got to chatting, and one of them said he knew a girl he wanted to introduce me to; could I be back here at 4 the next afternoon? Why not? I thought; I could use a break and to meet new people.

I went back at 4, met the girl, had a nice little time, then she went home. I stayed to finish my drink and pay, and then someone sat down next to me. I recognized him as Masaki, from the session band Kanabun who we played with a couple of months ago, and also former singer of Sulfuric Acid. We finally got to talk one-on-one, and we hit it off immediately. He started call various friends of his in high VK places and telling them "Dude! I'm here with Jimi!!" and they'd say, rightly, "who the hell is Jimi" because there's no reason those guys would know me, and then he'd explain, and hand the phone off to me. One person remembered me, which unexpectedly made me very pleased and marked the beginning of a change of heart.

Anyway, from there Masaki and I skip to a little restaurant, then to another bar to play darts (I beat him both times), then to karaoke, and then finally to an awesome ramen shop to wash away the pains of drinking, and finally off home.

This guy is hellbent on making sure his new friend meets all the right people and gets himself out there, so he invited me to a party that happened on Friday night. In addition to the just plain ol' really good people you meet at random places like that, there was also Ryo of Rentrer, Ryohei of Megamasso, Zero from Ghost, Sora from Kazoku, three guys from Ruvie, the guy that took our band photos back in January, and a couple of other guys from a couple of other bands whose names I have either forgotten or can't find evidence of their existence so I'll refrain from embarrassing myself. There were also tons of really sweet hair/makeup staff people. Miyuu was also there, and we both offered each other condolences that we'd basically be getting no sleep for the live we both had the next day.

I have learned a lot this week, and so much of it has really changed my outlook on everything from my approach with other people to band stuff to life in general. It's not that I'm throwing my old philosophy out the window, just that the shape is changing, maturing, and with that comes a determination to be contagious--to allow the positive spirits I may have to infect those I want to help, or do something for, or be with.

SO, there was a problem with the magazine, and since they couldn't coordinate with Luna Sea's schedule for the cover story it went to Alice Nine and it will be on sale on the 29th. Also, don't forget the Summer Sampler, and please send all your queries about it to Closet Child's English site because I know nothing! Also don't forget our lives at Narciss on 8/8, 8/24, and 8/31; the 8/31 one is 1000yen for all-you-can-drink soft drinks and then no ticket charge!

Then 9/24 at Takadanobaba AREA, and back to Narciss for 10/5 and 10/19. Tell your friends, of which you have a zillion because you're all beautiful, charming rapscallions.

Summer Sampler

tee hee


Laverite contributed "Sephirot" and a comment track to the Closet Child Original Free Sampler!

The campaign starts on 8/1, and the first 1,500 people who spend over 3,000 yen at Closet Child will get the CD free.

The CD has tracks from Kaya, Irokui, Guruguru Eigakan, Black:List, Art Cube, AILE, Since1889, auncia, LAVERITE, MarBell, Ancestral, and Byakura.

The deal is available for all Closet Child shops and apparently online sales as well.

Looks like they'll advertise this in magazines too.

I am beyond nervous about this. :)

LIVE REPORTS 7/1~2: LAVERITE, Oshare Dorobou, OZxBONE, Murasaki

I'm very sorry for the delay, folks-- My cousin was here until a few days ago, and since then I've been plowing through work, planning out a cool interpreter position, and other things that have to do with being a superhero.

On the 1st, we played with Oshare Dorobou, who have some catchy tunes and a very interesting and very funny vocalist, Miyuu. He came down to the backstage area just before we went on, gave us free copies of their new single, and then handed me his business card. I gave him a copy of "Rosemary" and my card as well. We're buddies and hung out last weekend for some drinks and it's nice to have made a new friend.

We also played with OZxBONE again, who are down to three, but somehow they seem way tighter as a three-piece. It's been cool getting to know those guys more and more as we keep playing with them.

There was also Murasaki, who are really nice dudes and reminded us of Sid, in a good way. (I'm one of those guys that likes Sid, okay?)

Yue overslept because of a dreadful work schedule and therefore we couldn't draw straws for performance order, and we had to go first. I didn't really mind, and Ryota was only slightly peeved, but when Yue finally showed up he felt the need to do a bunch of situps as a penance.

Me and Henderson, who never really quite figured out the timing on my camera.

Alicia came and gave us home-baked cookies. And they were delicious. And not just because of the M&M's, or because of the home-bakedness (although that was certainly a factor), but because of the LOVE AND COMPASSION that made every last morsel moist and chewy. Like cookies should be. She joined the elite inner circle of People Who Gave Us Stuff and Really Didn't Have To, and It's such a blessing to have people like that, to help make you feel like you're doing something right.

Other than those three bands, I have a really hazy memory of who else played, so I'm really sorry.

Henderson took a lot of pictures too, and you can click on them for big:

First, a few from the studio:

Narciss in the morning:

Backstage, just before going on:

Waiting for us to come onstage:

LAVERITE performing:









OZxBONE:






Henderson was a real help, carrying equipment, being someone to talk to to while away the long hours, and he got a bit of attention on his own. I'm glad he took some photos, and though the scene is certainly not his scene (he's much more of a high-end street fashion/hip-hop kinda dude), he said he appreciated the experience.


Some of my housemates were cool and went various places with us to provide him with some contact other than just me.

And us at the airport just before he went through security :(

SO. Here's our live schedule so far:

7/26, 8/8, 8/24, and 8/31 at Narciss; 9/24 at Area; 10/5 and 10/19 at Narciss again, and I'm secretly and selfishly hoping that some fan in October knows it's my birthday on the 8th and says something. :)

That magazine goes on sale in a week or so, and there are a few other things coming up.

And check out this lineup for 7/26! LAVERITE, Byakura, Oshare Dorobou, Cinema Strip, Ibaraki Akudou Chaban Gekidan Cheeky, Murasaki, Cloche, and Jackall. Eight bands, which is insane, but it should be crazy cool.

Thanks for all the emails and comments and just generally being way nicer than y'all are obligated to be. :)