So starting at the very beginning... Not much to say about day 1, as I spent more of it in airports than anything. Why I had to take a two hour transfer in Cincinnati for a flight from Columbus to Philadelphia, I'm not sure, but so it goes. So yeah, not much to say... flights were uneventful, airport waits were each no less than two hours long, I sat next to a dead ringer Shelley Long lookalike on one of my flights, and I arrived in Philadephia about three hours before the band was scheduled to. Roger showed up a few minutes before their flight was due along with Alwin, the photographer as well as our second driver between the east coast stops. Alwin is very cool. :D
Anyway, BLOOD arrived along with Miwa and Ai pretty much right on time. It was an awesome moment seeing them all again after seven months. ^__^ So after all greetings were exchanged and baggage was claimed, we loaded up in Roger's and Alwin's cars and headed off to Roger's place, where we would stay for the first couple days. One cool thing was how impressed the Japanese clan was by how numerous and clear the stars were out there in the middle of nowhere. Sort of a proud moment for a country girl like me. lol
Upon entering Roger's house, we were immediately bombarded by small fuzzballs. >> Didn't know before that they have a chihuahua and two cats. The little attention whores pretty much took over the entire atmosphere throughout our stay there, running around the house and climbing onto people and yowling/yapping constantly. Not that I minded since I'm a hopeless cat person and the dog was adorable... and let's just say the image of Kiwamu with a chihuahua in his lap gazing up all forlornly at him is just really wrong somehow. :P
Besides the fuzzballs... I was highly amused when Kiwamu showed me the Ohio State sweatshirt he was wearing and asked if that was the university I went to. Couldn't believe he knew that, or could have even guessed. o_o Then came the big souvenir exchange, in which Ai and Miwa especially spoiled me rotten with Snoopy goodies. <3! And apparently no one was tired yet, so everyone sat around for a while chatting and snacking and planning and playing with the pets and etc. Then Fu-ki decided he wanted to watch a horror movie, so Roger brought a few out and he picked The Evil Dead. Not sure if he understood the English, but his running Japanese commentary throughout the movie was quite amusing. :P Besides that... hmm... more randomness, Kaede repeatedly kicked people's butts in some video fighting game, Roger served dinner somewhere between 11 and 1?, random hanging out and relaxing continued for a few hours, certain band members began their week-long habit of demanding KFC >>, and by about 4:30 am everyone finally went to bed.
Friday... was a pretty interesting day, in many ways. I think it started when I woke up for the final time after taking forever to fall asleep and waking up a couple other times in the night... I laid there thinking, wow, I actually slept a good while... then I looked at a clock, and it was 7:30. >> A few other members of our little party woke up early too, but they all went back to bed after an hour or two of chatting, hot cocoa, and miso soup. I decided instead to grab a shower while everyone else was too busy sleeping to be stuck waiting for the bathroom, and by the time that was over I was the only one still awake when Roger decided to make a run to a local supermarket for breakfast eggs, and invited me and Alwin along for the ride. We made our little store run and of course everyone was still dead when we got back. Roger's dad eventually started working on a huge breakfast for everyone, and Roger roused everyone up at 11 am. So we all had breakfast around noon or a bit later, randomness reigned, BLOOD was given the chance to shoot guns :p, and around 1:20 pm we loaded up everything we'd need for the first night's show. The Japanese clan had a few moments of hand-numbing fun with a brief snowball fight :P, and then we were on our way to DC.
The drive ideally should've taken just a couple hours, which weren't too bad since Alwin and I actually talked about a lot of stuff throughout the ride. Did I mention Alwin is very cool? :D Anyway... of course the closer we got to DC, the worse traffic got, so we ended up arriving at our first stop about an hour later than planned. First stop was actually a huge cathedral, where Alwin would do a photoshoot for the guys in their next set of costumes. We had to park a few blocks away from the cathedral in some residential area, which meant the guys had to get into their costumes and makeup in Roger's car while the rest of us just waited around. By the time they were done changing we were worried that the cathedral grounds would close or they'd lose the sunlight, but we made it just in time, and I think the photoshoot went really well. Looking forward to seeing the finished shots. ^o^ Oh, and I have to say that walking the band in full costume from our parked cars to the cathedral, two or three blocks in a residential area, was highly entertaining. Especially the two preteen/teenage girls who walked by staring and then, a few paces later, took off running and screaming while one of them shrieked "DID YOU SEE THAT?!!" Ah, visual kei. XD
Anyway... The cathedral was really cool. Was fun to watch a BLOOD photoshoot in action too. Of course the cold did nothing to make it easier for the poor guys, and the new costumes were not exactly skin-covering... but at least they were amused by some squirrel that kept skittering along on branches and across one wall during one of Kaede's individual shoots. :P But yeah, the setting was really impressive. The cathedral was huge and all ornate and pretty, the garden next to it was nice and roomy with a gorgeous stone archway entrance and pathway and gazebo thing... I would've loved to have more time to roam around the grounds and take pictures of the place on my own camera. A local guy told us that would've been the best time to tour the inside since the setting sun would just be hitting the stained glass windows, and also that one of the windows was made with an actual piece of the moon. o.o So too bad we couldn't spend more time there... but I did at least get one nice shot of the front of the cathedral.
So when the photoshoot ended, we loaded up in the two cars again and continued to the DC venue, Lime Club. An adventure in itself since apparently Mapquest had given Roger bad directions, so he had to call the girl in charge(?) at the venue and have her guide us in. Could tell from the start that this club would be interesting. Of course I already knew it was an S&M club, which was why I had packed my PVC dress and armwarmers and knee-high boots and other stuff to comprise an outfit specially for the event. Figured I might as well blend in, or something. But the club wasn't set to open to the public for another couple hours, and preparations went on... and on... and on. Soundcheck started and they actually had me running back and forth between the stage and the engineer's booth translating and conveying directions and whatnot. That was a new experience, but I guess it worked out well and they were all happy with how things proceeded. Still not sure why they really needed me when all the directions were so simple and easily expressed with gestures or simple English, but oh well? ._. Then it was time to start getting the merchandise booth ready, though we knew it wouldn't be too active since the people coming to this show would be primarily regular visitors to the club, not BLOOD fans. Then the doors finally opened, people trickled in... and throughout the first hour there were only a handful of people in the room, and about 90% were dressed normal or relatively so. By the time that trend turned around and things started looking more... S&M-ish, it was almost time for BLOOD to take the stage. So I ended up not doing the PVC dress getup after all. Sort of felt dumb in my very plain jeans and tennis shoes and blue long sleeved hoodie tee, but at least I didn't draw attention...
It was interesting being at a BLOOD show where the guests weren't ALL hardcore fangirls, though. The atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed, and the guys were actually able to wander around and mingle in the event, in full costume, for a good while before their stage set. Clubgoers also got to watch them participate in what I suppose was one of the evening's attractions - taking turns whipping a topless girl strapped to a rack. >.o
Of course, my first actual duty here was helping to watch over the merchandise booth, but it was quite slow all night since the club was full of regular guests, not hardcore BLOOD fans. At some point while we were hanging around waiting for things to get rolling, the guy from Iron Otaku showed up and decided to get his interview started. So, my first real experience as an interpreter for an audio media interview. This was the one I had been really nervous about, since the last time I did something like this it was for a magazine in LA and did not go very well, mainly because the guys (and myself, admittedly) couldn't be bothered to use the mic right. Doh. But yeah, there's also the fact that Iron Otaku is a pretty big-name show now. But I think the interview actually went pretty well. The guy was really nice, promised to edit out all my stumbles and pauses >>, and since I've been on staff for almost 3 years I knew what most of the band's answers would be anyway so I had a good idea of what to say. Kaede even tapped my arm after they'd easily answered one particular question and said "You know that, don't you?" :P So yeah... hopefully that interview will sound ok on air and I won't sound too weird repeating their answers. x.x; I hate how my voice sounds in recordings...
11:00 finally came, and Ai and I (heh, rhymeage) decided to head up to the barricade in front of the stage to watch the concert. We were actually the first ones to do so, proving how few of the people at this event were actually BLOOD fans... but of course as soon as we took our front and center position, the rest of the crowd piled up around and behind us. Wasn't bad at all though, since the crowd was pretty calm... just a bunch of regular club patrons hanging around waiting for the night's entertainment to take the stage, as opposed to a room full of screaming and pushing and shoving fangirls. Probably also helped that the club had that 18+ age limit.
BLOOD came out to start their set pretty much right on schedule, and the show was pretty straightforward... possibly not as hyperactive and insane as many of their shows, and only about an hour long, but everything went perfectly and it did have plenty of its own little unique moments of coolness. One running amusement was when someone gave Fu-ki a whip and he carried it around for the rest of the show, occasionally whacking the fans with it and later spanking the heck out of the MC guy. :p Wish I could've gotten a picture of that. I did get a few good ones though, such as these...
Kiwamu rocking as usual
Kaede blew the roof off the place with that bass. o_o
Notice the whip? He didn't let go of that thing through the entire show. :P
And just because I like this one. ^-^
As you can see, BLOOD wore their newest costumes for this show, even though they weren't supposed to be seen by the public until their next tour. They were perfect for the S&M themed venue, though... and a very interesting new image for the band. I have to say Kaede actually almost looks... eh, scary isn't the word... but more Addams Family-ish than his usual pretty little China doll costumes. Different, and very cool. And Kiwamu's wig reminded me of one of the popular old-school images of Toshiya from Dir en grey. *lol* I also have to note that Kaede seems to have become the full-time background vocalist, as he filled the role in almost every song, if not all of them, throughout all four shows in this tour. He really has a cool voice. :D The other two should let him sing lead on a song someday... *pokes them*
Anyway... not sure what other details I can elaborate on, since this was a pretty straightforward live (not counting Fu-ki's whip :P) and I can't recall every detail. But I do clearly remember Kiwamu grabbing my hair at one point and using it to shove me to the side so he could harrass some other fans >.>... then later he was swinging a mic stand around over the crowd and whacked me in the forehead with it, leaving a nice little pink bump that lasted the duration of the tour. *shakes fist at him* Probably happened during DTMH... we all know that song is deadly when played live. Otherwise... hmm... I thought I remembered them playing Fountain of Blood, their track on the Darkest Labyrinth compilation, but Kiwamu didn't include it in his official setlist so maybe I was just remembering it being stuck in my head... O.o But they did do all the songs from Spleen, and I was very happy to finally see Danse Macabre live. *.* Missed that one on the last tour since they only played it in Mexico.
At the end of the regular setlist they left the stage for the obligatory break before the encore. It was when the MC came out to re-introduce them that Fu-ki started going crazy whipping the guy. Made a really funny image too, since he was a totally regular looking older guy, almost even classy looking in his sport coat and stuff. :P But yeah, then came the encore, and I guess that was that. Simple, straightforward, brief show, but everything went really well and the 18+ age limit made for a really pleasant atmosphere free of psychotic pushing and shoving and squeeing and such. Strange, yes... but a great show.
It was after midnight when the concert ended, so I headed back to watch over the merchandise booth for a while, but it remained pretty slow. So after we cleaned up the table and got the band out of costume and stuff, everyone just sort of drifted around between hanging out in the green room and mingling with the crowd in the club. Of course most of my time was spent doing the former. Roger took a nap so he'd be ok to make the 2 hour drive back to his house, while I sat around being my usual quiet, non-interfering self... looking through the pictures on my camera, showing them to Fu-ki and Kaede when they sat by me to look, and chatting with the band when (and only when) they pulled me into a conversation. They all found great amusement in picking on my insomniac habits and labelling me a vampire... >.>
Anyway... somewhere in all this downtime, I discovered that the OSU jacket I'd been using for about 7 years had gone missing. Never did find it. Gonna miss that thing, and it the remainder of the weekend running around the east coast a pretty chilly time for me, but oh well... Eventually the night ended and everyone started loading up the cars to head out, and when all was set, we started on the roughly two-hour drive back to Roger's house. It was after 5 am when we made it back, and about half the party crashed immediately while a few stayed up to shower and groom and chat and play with the pets and stuff, and the last few of us finally went to bed around 7 or 7:30 am.
Day 3 began when Roger trooped through the house waking everyone up at 10 am, planning to be all loaded and ready for the drive to New York by 11. We actually weren't too late getting ready and getting out in that time span, and even had time for a pancake breakfast. It helped that most of us skipped showering, since the plan was to make it to NY in time to check into our hotel and do our showering there before the live, but of course that wasn't to be. We hit the road plenty early, but of course we ended up approaching New York City riiiiiight around when rush hour was about to start. Le dramatic groan. We did see the Statue of Liberty in the distance though. >>;
The drive took up the majority of the day, unfortunately. Like I said... New York City at rush hour. We spent a good hour and a half driving around in circles looking for our hotel (they really need to label their buildings better...), then half that time again trying to find a place to park and get checked in. Of course by that time everyone was feeling a little cranky. Didn't help that we had planned to spend an hour or two in the hotel to freshen up and stuff, but of course it was too late for that, and we had to proceed straight to the Knitting Factory. They had set aside a bigger room for us this time, so the layout was different and the stage was much bigger than the one from last year. Much taller too.
Someone brought back some kind of dinner from Dunkin' Donuts (at least that's what the bags said...), and a few others went for McDonalds, so at least we all got to eat a meal before things took off. :o Then came sound check, which, as many probably know, did not go very well. They made me run back and forth translating between the band and the engineer, which probably wasn't necessary since the woman seemed to have no sense of sound and couldn't tell by herself when whole amps and monitors and mics were completely missing, or when the backtrack completely drowned out Fu-ki's voice... and no matter how many times I and the band told her what we needed, she didn't really do anything about it. So things did not get off to a good start. -_-
Then what... helped sell CDs, didn't pay much attention to the opening band, etc... When BLOOD's turn came around, the lovely Nancy <3 and another helper (in all the chaos I forgot which one, sorry T.T) took over the booth while Roger escorted Ai and me to the front row, which proved to become an adventure itself as the show began and the wild shoving took over. Before we knew it we were both crammed into the corner on Kiwamu's side, just like last year. Ai actually decided to break out of the crowd and return to the booth after just a few songs, but I stuck it out for a while longer.
Remember the engineer issues they'd had during sound check? The live was even worse. From the first song the backtrack sounded completely off, Fu-ki's voice was barely audible, and I'm sure there were other problems I've forgotten. They got through at least half of one song before I was even able to figure out that it was Oboro - that's how miserable the backtrack and Fu-ki's mic were. >_< So after just two or three songs Kiwamu finally flipped and started yelling instructions into his mic at the engineer... but rather than fix the problem, she got mad and disappeared again. And then the music stopped. But Fu-ki apologized and said "let's try again," so they started over with that song (I Remember You) but they didn't even finish it the second time because the engineer was just not fixing the issues. So Kiwamu made his now-infamous "Sorry about the stupid engineer" comment... and then BLOOD was forced to leave the stage. It was around that time when I finally left the crowd to see if I could figure out what was going on... moments before Roger announced to everyone that the show was over. Not because the band was angry (though they were), but because the venue wanted them gone. >.< Then there was chaos for a few minutes until finally the right words were exchanged and BLOOD took the stage again, apologized for the... issues... and did their best to put on somewhat of a show. They only played a few more songs though, and ones that could be performed without quite as much reliance on a decent-sounding backtrack... and the show ended much earlier than everyone had hoped. Naturally I wasn't able to take many photos at this show among all the madness, and most of the ones I got didn't come out great, so unfortunately I don't have any NY pics to show off here.
So yeah... the NY show did not really go well. But they were troopers and still held the signing event and took photos with fans, and their CDs sold pretty well too. Only to be expected since the fans were thrilled by Kiwamu's outbursts and were totally on the band's side - fortunately, since the guys really needed the extra support at that point. Not much to say about the aftermath of that show... when everything was loaded up, we headed off to our hotel and waited in some parking lot a million miles away while Roger ran in to get us all checked in. We all had some much-needed laughs here as certain band members in their own vehicle (the jeep or van, I forget) decided to have some fun making faces at those of us in Alwin's car. :P
So after a few minutes we were all unloaded and in the hotel. Nancy and her team stayed with me and the other girls, and we all got settled in while the band did an interview in the lobby (I wasn't needed for that one, I guess). Roger did send me down to help break some communication barriers later, but that proved to be pretty pointless as people were just sitting around talking and getting autographs and photos with the band. Not much happened here... the little meet-and-greet session ended, and everyone headed back to their respective rooms for a while. Nancy and her crew went to bed, but Ai, Miwa and I just stayed up all night since 1) it was already so late, 2) we had to leave at 5 am for Boston, and 3) that was the night we had to set the clocks forward and lose an hour of sleep anyway. Evil DST. =_= Wasn't so bad though, since someone ordered pizzas and those of us who were still awake (me, Ai, Miwa, Nancy, Kerry, Trish, Alwin, Fu-ki, and Kaede, at varying points) sat around chatting and eating for a while. Eventually those who elected to sleep retired for the night, and those of us who didn't spent a couple hours repacking and cleaning up until it was time to depart again.
At 4:15 am, the alarm went off and Nancy's crew woke up. Everyone made the necessary preparations, I grabbed my shower, and we headed downstairs to wait for the valets to bring our three vehicles (Nancy and her crew would be leading us to Boston). Everyone was too cold and tired to be very active, so the wait was pretty uneventful. We loaded up and were on the road to Boston about an hour later than planned for some reason, but we were able to move at a pretty fast pace to make up for it. Not much I can say about this trip, though we did learn from the previous two days' escapades that a pit stop somewhere in the middle would be in order... >.> But other than that I don't remember much since I slept like the dead through the whole ride.
Our first stop in Boston was Nancy's apartment for a brief rest and a place to chill before heading toward the venue, Middle East. The hall was a little on the small side, and had sort of an old, dark look to it, but it worked quite well. There wasn't much to do while they looked everything over and started sound check and things, but it was amusing when the guys ended the sound check by clapping and grinning ear to ear at the engineer while repeating such praises as "OK! Very good! PERFECT! :DDD!" *amused* Then, hmmm... I guess that was when Ai and I decided to walk down to the McD's around the corner and pick up lunch for ourselves, then almost immediately after we got back the merchandise booth was open for sales and the evening began. The opening band, Absynthe (Absinthe?), played a very cool set. ^^b
Can't recall much else happening before BLOOD's turn came. Ai and I headed up onto the stage where Miwa helped clear a space for us to step down into the front row. The Boston fans were very cool about this <3 Thanks, folks! m(_ _)m And of course, after a few minutes, BLOOD took the stage and the show began. Now, the Boston live was easily the closest to an ideal BLOOD live out of the three they did up to that day. The crowd was wild (but considerate, again, since they were so cool about letting me and Ai cram into the front row), the sound was perfect, the set was good and long, they played a great encore... everything was perfect. I didn't even end up soaked with sweat since it was a pretty chilly day and the excitement of the live was just enough to make it comfortably warm.
As for details... I do remember Fu-ki taking a brief MC break to tell the crowd about the engineer in NY being "fuck" (lol) and how much happier they were in Boston since the sound was perfect, which the fans just ate up. He also took a couple opportunities to crowd surf, more thanks to the other guys' pushing him off the stage than his own volition, but of course he enjoyed it anyway. :P And I'd swear nearly every time I looked toward Kaede he was looking in my direction - yet when I tried to take pictures of him, half the time all I got was his back. >> Don't know how he does it. But overall I did get some pretty good shots in Boston. Not nearly as many as in DC, but far more than I did in NY or LA. But I think I was too close to Kiwamu (close enough to see the calluses on his fingers actually >.o), because in most of my pictures of him the flash didn't kick in and all I got was the red and yellow stage lighting, and I was too busy enjoying the show to mess with camera settings. But here's a small selection that came out pretty good:
I got several nice Fu-ki shots... this one wasn't the sharpest, but I just love the pose :D
One of my better close-ups *_*
I was able to clean up most of the bad lighting in this one... look at him go! :3
Anyway... awesome set, of course. 2nd period songs included Byakuya, Oboro, and Sweatest Disease... which was actually the case at all four shows, I think, but you know... was too preoccupied with the show to write down setlists and knew Kiwamu would later anyway. And one of the encore songs was Maria, which made me happy. Still love seeing that song live. It was especially cool this time because Kaede switched places with Kiwamu and spent pretty much the entire song right in front of me, where I had a clear view of his incredible bass riffs. Seriously, the biggest reason why I love seeing Maria live is because it's one of the few songs where he really has a chance to rock the house down on that bass, and it's so awesome to watch. Sadly the pictures I took of him then came out all glowy and weird, just like the Kiwamu ones when he was in front of me, but oh well... point is I got to see Kaede's Maria performance up close and it absolutely rocked. Thank you Kaede~ ^w^ There was also a moment during one of the encore songs where Kiwamu and Kaede stood back to back rocking away, which is always fun to see. I got a picture but it's blurry and fudged up. u_u
So after about an hour and a half or two hours or something, the show ended and it was back to the merchandise booth to handle the rush of fans grabbing up something to get signed at the autograph/photo session. That went pretty much as could be expected... though it was funny when someone wanted Roger in a photo with the band and he actually swept Kiwamu up off the ground and cradled him in both arms for the picture. *snerk* Whoever owns the camera that shot ended up on, I want to see it! XD
Eventually the crowds cleared out and things quieted down a bit, and it was time for me to interpret another interview. This one was for an anime radio show, I believe, and amusingly the interviewer seemed to be even more inexperienced and nervous than I was, the poor guy. It went pretty well though, I think. Hopefully I'll be able to hear it someday.
Anyway, then things were pretty low-key as the band hung out with the street team for a while. With the crowds cleared out the place was starting to get cold again, so I grabbed the sweatshirt I'd been using in place of my lost jacket and put it on. Now, I'm weird, and when I wear sweatshirts normally I... well, wear them normally... but when I wear them just as a jacket over my regular clothes, I prefer them inside-out. So I was hanging around with my inside-out sweatshirt on, and Fu-ki and Kaede came over to point out that I was wearing it inside-out. I said it was intentional, they asked why, I said I just liked it that way. Doesn't sound too amusing, but I had to include it since it started another trend with the band that lasted for the rest of the tour (along with demanding KFC and discussing my sleep routine). Or another excuse for them to pick on me, I should say. >.> In fact, the trend picked up again very shortly after, when everyone was outside waiting to load up in the cars that would take us to the next destination, but this time it was Kiwamu and Kaede. Kiwamu seemed to understand that I just liked the look and feel of inside-out sweatshirts, but Kaede kept saying "You just did that by accident, didn't you?" and "She's lying, she actually put it on wrong" no matter how many times I told him it was intentional. >>
So then everything and everyone was finally loaded up and we all headed back toward Nancy's apartment to relax and clean up for a few minutes before her friend Sarah's parents treated everyone to dinner. The ride was entertaining as we kept looking behind us to see Roger's jeep on our bumper, with him at the wheel still covered in the makeup one of the band members (I assume) had given him that reminded everyone of The Crow. :P So after the brief rest stop at Nancy's, we continued on to dinner at a nice sit-down Japanese restaurant in some sort of mall that had all kinds of Asian shops and stuff. The dinner was a great time - good food, good friends, lots of conversation and laughing and fun torturing people with wasabi and squid :p, I finally had my first takoyaki and nigirizushi (yes I'm deprived), I got to embarrass myself in front of the band with my pathetic chopstick-wielding skills >>;... and I got to share a "kanpai" with BLOOD. Not sure why, but that made me really happy. :D
When dinner was over everyone made sure to thank Sarah's family for providing it for us <3 and loaded up to go our separate ways for the night. Ai and Miwa and I were dropped off at our hotel while everyone else went back to Nancy's, we did the repacking necessary to have things ready for our flights the next morning, and *gasp* went to bed. I slept about four hours, which was the most I got on any night of the whole tour. Score!
The next day started out tremendously frustrating, but despite some... special moments, ended on the best note I think I could've asked for. We checked out of our hotel at 4:30 am, Alwin drove us along behind Nancy's van to the airport, where we all stood around parting ways for a while before I went off to my own terminal (I was too late booking my flight so I had to get one separate from the band). I must've really been dead that morning, because I really have no recollection of anything that happened there other than saying goodbye to Nancy and her friends, and Alwin. Except I think that was when Fu-ki decided to make a couple more smart comments about my inside-out sweatshirt, ending with something like "You're starting a new trend, that's gonna catch on everywhere now." :p
Then I went off to my own terminal and made it to my gate in plenty of time, but my flight was delayed because they couldn't find the bloody crew. It finally took off and landed at my transfer point in New York... exactly seven minutes after my connection to LA had already taken off. GRR. So I had to be rebooked for the next flight, which was three hours later. Fortunately I didn't miss anything important in LA, except a few hours of quality low-key chill time with the band and a fun shopping run that I learned of when Fu-ki proudly told me he'd bought over $200 worth of CDs and DVDs... *sigh*... but oh well, I guess...
Made it to LA around 2 pm local time, took a shuttle from the airport to Union Station, took the rail to a station just a few blocks from Rob's apartment, took a bus to cut that distance down further to about one block, and walked the rest of the way to his apartment dragging along all my luggage in the 80 degree LA heat. Not comfortable. Razor of lo:lita came down to let me in when I reached the apartment, and when I came in I was greeted with surprised rounds of "Hey, it's Becky!" from the LA crew and "Long time no see!" from the band and other staff. Connie was already there, so I finally got to see her again. ^-^ Then I pretty much fell onto the bed set up in the middle of the living room and stayed there a while, exhausted and soaked with sweat. But it wasn't long at all before they decided to start loading up, so I quickly changed (halfway anyway) and freshened up a bit and we were ready to head to the Knitting Factory. While we sat around waiting for the cars to be loaded, all three of the guys caught me at varying points to ask what had happened with my flight. Besides Fu-ki's sadistic laugh upon hearing about the mystical vanishing crew, I was all touched that they seemed so concerned. :P
Then we finally loaded up and proceeded to the Knitting Factory, where we had to wait around outside for a few minutes to be let in, but eventually we got everything and everyone inside and started making preparations. So people ran around getting ready, Roger and Rob shot video footage, Roger handed the camera over to me to shoot some of their soundcheck, Roger walked around carrying Kaede in front of him and Rob on his back, which I was not able to capture on camera because the battery was low. Not fair. >< Connie and Ai went out to pick up burgers from Burger King, and Connie ended up feeding me half of hers and leaving most of her fries up for grabs... so yay, my first meal of the day!
Can't remember much else for a while... but from then it wasn't long before Connie got word that Krystal and Reiko had arrived, so we went outside to meet them and I got to greet and huggle and cuddle my Reiko-chan again. ^___^ also finally got to see Krystal again there, and she gave me this really cute Easter basket she and Connie had put together for me. :D I've been fattening up nicely on all that candy ever since, you two XD Then after a few minutes the club started letting people in, so Connie and I had to hurry back inside and start manning the merchandise booth.
Things started out slow, of course... At some point Miwa brought down slices of pizza for each of us, and when she told us how huge the pizzas were we got all curious and wanted to see them, so we went up to the green room to take a look... and they were in fact monstrous. Probably a good 4 feet across and they had ordered THREE of them. *blink* Was funny when Kiwamu asked me if pizzas that huge were standard in America. Um, no. :P So yeah, then we went back downstairs and the relative slowness continued.
The first band, Secret Secret, took the stage... and I think it was somewhere in that time frame that Krystal and Reiko came in and kept us company while things remained slow at the booth. Shortly after that lo:lita took the stage and played an excellent set. I tried to take a picture of them on stage (with my phone since I was trying to save my camera's space), but it didn't come out well at all. *pout* And yeah... not much else to speak of as it wasn't long before BLOOD's scheduled stage time came around.
Miwa came down to relieve us of the CD selling duties so all of us - myself, Ai, Connie, Krystal, and Reiko - could move up to the front together. Roger led us in about halfway, but it was not easy fitting everyone in, and the best we could do was cram Ai and Connie into the middle, followed by me, with Krystal and Reiko roughly centered behind us. But talk about cramped... I still feel bad for sort of taking over the front row, but... the band and Miwa and Roger did want us in front and went to the trouble to make sure we were taken there, you know? But ah well. It was painful, but we managed to squeeze in.
Soon enough BLOOD came out and the madness ensued. This was easily the most insane live of the tour, and probably even the most insane BLOOD live I've ever attended. Painful for us, but perfect for them. They played an awesome set, as expected, and had a great time using every possible moment to fire up the crowd more and more. I learned pretty quickly that photography was sort of a lost cause. >> But oh well... made it easier for me to fully enjoy the show and stand firm to try to keep the smaller girls in our entourage from getting trampled. Didn't help much. x.x
Anyway... hmm, what to say about the live itself... er, they rocked? Honestly can't seem to express any better detail than that. They rocked. Wild, wild, burning hot, sweat-soaked, absolutely rocking show. And since I was in the center in front of Fu-ki, I was almost constantly showered by his dripping sweat throughout the night. >> He also used my shoulder as a support to reach out further into the crowd at one point, and of course took a couple of crowd surfing trips. Kiwamu did something similar to Fu-ki, using me as a support, except he used my head. >> All three of them stayed really close to the edge of the stage throughout the show, even Kaede, allowing as much hands-on interaction with the crowd as possible, which of course drove the fans crazy. They all went through dozens of water bottles too, leaving the majority of the crowd thoroughly soaked. Kaede shot the contents of two water bottles at a time all over me at one point. >.> Was fun when some fans squirted them back though :P And I believe this was also the show where Roger gave Kaede the video camera at one point, so Kaede went off to film Fu-ki, who of course made dippy faces and tried to eat the camera and stuff. XD
As for performance notes... ah... you know, when you attend four concerts four days in a row with little to no sleep in between, things all start to run together. x.x; But I believe this was the one where Kiwamu laid down on the floor during one of the harder songs and did his floor spinning thing that we all remember from the end of the Funeral for Humanity PV. :P This was also the first and only show on the tour where Fu-ki removed both the jacket and shirt of his costume and spent most of the live topless. Fans encouraged him to take off his pants too, but he retained that shred of modesty. :p
Yes... this was one very wild concert. Our five-member group's positions in the crowd were constantly jostled around... in the beginning Krystal and Reiko were behind me, then Reiko was hanging on my back and Krystal was to my right, then Reiko was to my left, then Krystal was to my left and Reiko was in front of me, then Reiko was on my right... etc etc. X.x I came out of it with so many bruises all over my knees and shins from being mashed against the riggings in front of the stage. Good times. Oh, and did I mention Roger swung by near the end of the set and handed me his camera to shoot some audience-perspective footage? That made the rest of the show quite interesting. I wouldn't have kept shooting until the camera ran out of space if I'd known they were going to wrap up the show the way they did...
Of course, when the main set ended they came back out and played a couple songs for an encore. Again one of the songs was Maria, and again Kaede moved over to a spot kinda between Kiwamu's and Fu-ki's normal positions, which gave me a chance to watch him tear up that bass up close and personal again. <3 Maria live is bloody awesome and it's all about the bass. Thanks, Kaede :D Anyway... then after a couple songs they left the stage again... but that wasn't enough. For the first time in I don't remember how long among all the BLOOD lives I've seen, they returned for a second encore. But they didn't play any songs for this one... just wandered around revving up the crowd and squirting water and touching fans and patting heads and shaking hands and the like. Kaede also stopped by to fluff my hair for a while... >.> And finally, they all lined up together on the stage with Roger and took a lovely final bow, another thing I haven't seen them do in a long time. And I was too slow with my camera to get a picture, and Roger's camera was full. >_< Oh well... I did get a few nice shots at this show, despite the insanity...
Rawr. I love these action-y shots.
Again Fu-ki proved easiest to photograph. Hard to avoid when he jumps right into the middle of everything. :P
I like the bat accessory thingy o.o
So finally it was over. My poor Reiko-chan was somewhere near the floor by this point x_x, so I had to help her up and have her hold on to me as we fought our way back to the merchandise booth. But we survived, pretty much... Amd after a few minutes the band came out and lined up next to us for the usual signing and photo sessions, and somewhere during that span Kaede asked me "Tanoshikatta? (Was it fun?)" to which I replied "Sugoku! (REALLY fun!)" So he was all happy and giggling and "Yay~" while fluffing my hair again. >> And one cute moment in the autograph session was when a little girl who looked about... 7? came to get her autographs and greetings and stuff. The band loved her. :D
Then the time came for Krystal and Reiko-chan to leave. T.T So I broke out of the booth for goodbye hugs and clings and stuff, then back to business at the booth... At some point near the end a girl who recognized me from somewhere online, whom I later found out was the one known as tabitha, came back to take a picture of the two girls and me, and left us a box of cookies. Girl Scout Thin Mints, my all-time favorite. o___o So I squee'ed over that for a bit, and then she pulled out a second box and handed it over too *____* Much heartage emission! Thank you tabitha!
Anyway, I guess that's pretty much all there is to speak of. The signing session wrapped up, the club cleared out, the band changed and packed up, and I crashed in a chair barely able to move and nearly falling asleep while everyone else bustled around getting things cleaned up. Sorry for my uselessness, folks. u.u So eventually we were ready to go, but we had to wait around outside for a while to wait for our rides and stuff.
Upon returning to the apartment, the first order of business was the interview for... All Nippon? something like that... which was carried out downstairs in a lounge-ish area of the building. This was actually the hardest one for me since the questions were written down and I had to read them in English, then quick-change them in my head to Japanese for the band. Never would've expected the website interview to be harder to interpret than the two radio ones, but there you go. >.o At least the guys seemed to understand my position though... Fu-ki commented when it was over that it must be hard to read the questions and translate them verbally on the spot like that. The words on the paper sort of get mixed up with the words in your head and blah. It's always such a relief to be reminded that the guys understand my plight when I flub up while speaking Japanese. o_o;
The rest of the night in Rob's apartment was probably the most fun of the entire tour, even though half the party fell asleep and all the rest of us did was sit around watching videos and chatting and hanging out. But hey, it's often the downtimes that yield the most entertaining conversations and golden moments, right? Especially when those moments involve a Japanese visual band and their translator swapping Japanese and English lessons with each other. It's surprising how many hours of fun and hilarity can come from that simple little concept. And one of the memories I think I will carry with me for a lifetime was singing half of O'ha Rock together with a certain member of BLOOD. XD
Anyway, sometime around 7 am or so things finally quieted down. Most of the clan who wasn't asleep already went out to the living room to crash, Roger woke up and came in to join me and Rob and Jade in wakefulness, my giggly adrenaline high subsided and I lay dead on the bed for a while, and then around 8 am the time came to wake everyone up, and we all had about an hour to get everything packed and ready to take to the airport.
When we reached the airport I found that my terminal was right beside the band's and Roger's, so we could all stay together until they were all checked in and heading into security. That took about a half hour, during which time Kaede told me he'd forgotten about half of his English lessons from the previous night and then went on to pick on my inside-out sweatshirt again. >.> Kiwamu also told me that overall he was pleased with the way the tour had gone, despite the messes in New York, and he was grateful to all the fans who supported them even more in the aftermath of that little piece of hell. And like the last tour, there was various conversation with the band in general right up to the last minute when they reached the security checkpoint, where everyone exchanged hugs and handshakes and goodbyes and "otsukaresama~"s and we went our separate ways. Roger took off for his gate, I took off for mine, and after a couple more essentially uneventful flights I was back home, dead tired, and thoroughly satisfied.
Overall? It was an awesome experience. There was that period of freaking out in New York, some painfully long hours stuck in traffic, and that annoying flight delay on the way to California, and there were moments where I sort of felt like there wasn't much for me to contribute and I ended up just sitting off by myself watching instead... but better than trying too hard to stick my nose into things and just getting in the way, I figure. Didn't get to spend as much downtime hanging out with BLOOD as one would expect considering it was a four-day tour, but the few times I did have were the stuff lifetime memories are made of. And the concerts, barring New York of course, were no less than perfect. In the end I have no complaints - this was just another amazingly successful BLOOD tour.
And this was another review that came out longer than I expected. o_o; If anyone actually made it this far, feel free to check out my full Darkest Labyrinth vol. 1 gallery for all of my concert photos, and see y'all at the next BLOOD tour! :D