Ok, no messing around with pointless intros this time - BLOOD tour 2008 review! (Chicago only, cause darn it, I'm poor -.-)

Sunday mid-afternoon I picked up my kitty (known to most as Morrigan), the sun was shining, the day was young, and we set forth on what should ideally be a six hour drive to Chicago. But does anything ever turn out "ideally"? Noooo, that would be too easy. :P

Now, my car has some issue or other that causes it to guzzle oil, so I had to stop just past the Ohio/Indiana border to put a couple fresh quarts in it. We knew this would come up, so I had a whole case of oil in the trunk ready to go... but unfortunately, my trunk lock chose that moment to get thoroughly stuck, and though we fought with that lock for a good 10 minutes, it would not open. >.> So we decided to just buy oil at the next gas station and call AAA for a locksmith when we got to our motel.

But then, minutes after we moved on from that decision, the rain came. Hard rain. BIG rain. Then some snow filtered into the rain. Then the rain went away and left nothing but a wall of snow to drive through and a sheet of ice to drive over. What does this mean? Crawling along at an average of maybe 30 mph for a good half of the trip's distance, and a six hour drive turning out at least twice that long. Thank God for front-wheel drive.

Anyway, finally got through Indiana and hit the Chicago area, where we stopped to meet an old online friend of mine, Adion. So we pretty much just hung out, had pizza, talked and laughed and hid from the cold for an hour or two. He is a very awesome guy and we were long overdue to finally meet up in person. ^__^ Hopefully it won't be the last time.

We left there around midnight and toddled along through the snow some more... slipped on some ice, missed some turns thanks to all the street signs being covered in snow... and finally reached our motel around 1:30 in the morning. First thing I did was call AAA in hopes of getting my trunk open, but of course they didn't have any contracted locksmiths available at that hour, so we couldn't get our luggage out of the car and had to go straight to bed in our clothes and wait until morning to shower and clean up and everything.

I woke up at 7 am to call AAA, and sadly enough, they remembered me and my dilemma from five hours earlier. >.> They still had all my info and a locksmith was finally available, so they sent him our way, and he arrived around 9 am. So what all did he have to do to fix my solidly stuck trunk lock?

WD-40.

THAT'S IT. *dead*

Anyway, the locksmith was a really nice guy and took apart the lock to check it out just in case, and even helped carry our luggage up to the room, and when he finished up the lock opened smooth as silk... and thanks to AAA it didn't cost me a thing, so it was all good. And as ridiculous as it was, the more I think back on it, the more I laugh at the whole ordeal. ^_^;; So at last we were able to shower and get checked out around 10 am - a little later than we'd hoped, since BLOOD's flight was due to arrive at 10:45, but luckily the roads were clear this time around so it didn't take long to get there.

In fact, their flight was also a few minutes late, so we walked into the terminal just minutes before they landed, and along came Roger leading the band and their entourage toward where we were waiting at their luggage carousel. Finally got to see the band again (except Kaede, who sadly had to cancel at the last minute), reunited with the lovely Ai and Miwa ♥, and Roger introduced me to DJ SiSeN and their guest keyboardist Ryo, who graciously came along to fill in for Kaede. And when everyone was together, we headed outside to where a few cars were lined up to load up everyone and their luggage, and we headed off toward the site of the autograph signing event, Mitsuwa Marketplace.

...Seriously. I COULD LIVE IN THAT STORE. T__T We had some time to look around and hang out before the event started, so Kitty and I did a little shopping while we waited. Among my purchases was a package of natto, something I've been meaning to try for a long time even though I'm pretty sure I won't like it. :P The curiosity was killing me, darn it.

Anyway, then we just sat around in the staff room for a while, did some catching up with Roger, learned that SiSeN is adorable >_<, did some random hanging out and chatting, and then the time came to head out into the store to set up for the signing event. I stayed near the end of the booth where CDs and merchandise were being sold, but Ai and Miwa have become perfectly adept at handling the booth on their own, so I don't think I really made much difference there :P;; I thought I heard one of the fans who came for autographs call me by name at one point to ask a question, but I was probably imagining things... O.o

After the signing event, we decided it was a good time to take everyone out to the food court for some lunch. This place had all kinds of awesome stuff... Korean, Chinese, several booths of different Japanese foods from sushi to noodles to donburi... *_* At first Kitty and I walked through the store toward the food with Roger and SiSeN, which was an interesting experience since he was still in costume so dozens of people kept stopping him for pictures and stuff, which he was perfectly cool with. :3 Then we finally got to the food court and looked over all the menus... and ahh. *died and went to heaven* Unfortunately my "normal" human appetite (and budget *cough*) only allowed me to order one thing, so I just went for the shio-ramen. One of those things that seems so simple and common, but doesn't seem to exist anywhere near where I live, and for some reason I've been craving it for months. That was also the first REAL ramen I've ever had, as opposed to the cheap instant stuff. >.> I'm a sad sheltered boondock Ohioan with no nearby access to any Japanese food other than boxed frozen Chinese buffet sushi, ok? *cough*

Anyway, then we found seats. I sat across from SiSeN, which was fun since he commented on my choice of shio-ramen and made random conversation and told me I was good at using chopsticks (practice pays! ♥) and etc. Have I mentioned he's adorable? >__< Kitty and Roger sat beside me fighting like children the whole time :P, and when they weren't fighting it was Kiwamu and Roger throwing insults back and forth. I'm surrounded by toddlers. >.>

Then Carmilla, the owner of Manga Cafe and the one in charge of organizing things for the Chicago live (I know these people have official titles, but don't ask me what they are, cause I suck), announced that we should start packing up and heading for the club, so we packed a few additional bags in our car and took off. We were apparently too slow to follow behind the other cars who knew where they were going, but we did have directions at least, so when we made wrong turns we knew how to straighten ourselves out. Unfortunately we were apparently stuck in rush hour traffic longer than they were, so we got there later and had to park a million miles away from the club... and then we had to make a dozen trips back and forth between the club and the car to unpack one bit of luggage, then another, then another, then one forgotten item, then another, then refill the parking meter every two hours since for some dumb reason that was as long as it would stay effective... and by the time the show started, my feet were in such ridiculous amounts of pain, I just said screw it and kicked off my shoes and spent the whole evening in just socks. It was an interesting experience. :P

Anyway... hmm... not much happened before the live, other than the constant trips back and forth to/from the car and setting up the booth and watching sound check. At one point Miwa asked me to help her hand out order forms to people as they got their tickets and entered the club, and she wanted to find whoever was selling the tickets so we could make sure they were handed out together, but we walked around the whole club and asked a dozen different people but nobody knew where or who to keep nearby to hand them out. >_> Finally we talked to Carmilla and decided to just hand them to people as they came up the stairs into the main room. This somehow led to a long conversation about my translating position and the magazine she runs and stuff, and how she's always looking for another translator (I told her to hire me and she said she would, but I doubt I'll hear from her again XD). She was very nice and helpful and sweet, though. ^__^

Not much else to speak of as preparations continued in the club... the opening DJ started to do his thing, people started to filter in, and I watched over the booth while Ai handed out order forms to the guests. In other words I didn't really do anything, since by this time there were only about 5 CDs and some of SiSeN's postcard sets left to sell. This was fine by me; I got to just sit around for a while with my socky-feet off the ground and let them rest for an hour or so. Continued to sit and watch from the back through most of SiSeN's opening set, which was really very cool. o_o I never took much interest in DJs or that particular style of music before, but I really had fun listening to his set (and watching him dance around the stage like the adorable creature he is). There was one unfortunate moment during his set where some idiot in the audience decided to totally disrespect SiSeN and BLOOD and the hundreds of people trying to enjoy the evening by starting a fight, and as a result they were forced to turn SiSeN's volume down for a minute so Roger could call a bouncer over the mic and get things settled... but it was taken care of fairly quickly and SiSeN didn't seem to miss a beat.

Somewhere near the end of his set, Miwa returned from helping the band get into costume and told Ai and Kitty and me that we could head up to watch the concert while she took over, but we couldn't really get close to the front, so we tried to just stand on the stairway along the edge of the room and take a few pictures from there... but the bouncer kept telling us we weren't allowed to stand there, despite the fact that we clearly showed him our staff bracelets and were sticking right against the banister leaving plenty of room for people to still use the stairway. We were told that we could take pictures from the balcony if we wanted, so we tried that, but... um, no. I won't even bother to describe the pointlessness of the view from up there. >_>

So yeah... taking pictures didn't really work at this concert. ;_; This was pretty much the best I could manage:


Isn't he adorable?? >___< This one also amuses me because of the Gloomy bear waving at him. Those who know SiSeN should get it. XD


Wish I could've gotten a full body shot. His costume just... I don't know, makes me happy. ._.

Seriously, those are the only workable pictures I managed to get from the whole show. :\ But ah well, they're cute, and even I'll admit I have plenty of BLOOD photos in my collection as it is ^^;; I didn't get to take any of Ryo, though... not even when he came onstage with SiSeN toward the end of his set *pout*

Anyway, SiSeN's set ended and the time came for BLOOD to take the stage. I tried to put my shoes back on for at least this part of the show, but nope, my poor feet were still in pain so I threw the things back into the corner and bounced into the crowd in my ugly formerly-white socks. XP The best we could do was hang out at the back of the crowd to watch, but that was fine with me - the club wasn't that big, so the view was perfectly fine and I didn't have to get knocked around and banged up and showered with Fu-ki's sweat all night. :P

And as always, they put on an AMAZING show. Their new concept is perfectly suited to the goth club scene, with more dance-able rhythms and darker, heavier melodies, and I think they were really happy to see people taking advantage of that and actually dancing instead of just screaming and shoving for the closest position they could get. In addition to the latest singles, they played several new songs that haven't been released yet, which sounded very cool... as well as a couple of the 2nd period songs and a few from their previous two concepts, the vampire story and Les Fleurs Du Mal. One of the things I love about BLOOD - they 're awesome about mixing the old with the new. *-*

It also felt really different from their usual shows in a lot of ways - probably largely because Kaede was absent (Ryo looked almost exactly like him in his costume and makeup though :P), but also because of the more dance-able goth feel of the music. But of course, some things never change - Fu-ki dominated the stage with flawless vocals and his patented brand of showmanship, Kiwamu fired up the crowd and rocked out on the guitar, and Ryo filled in the melodies beautifully with his keyboard while taking breaks now and then to run around the stage making the fans squeal. :3

Even the MC breaks between song sets were amusing - Fu-ki apologized for Kaede's absence and explained that he was sick, but fans could rest assured that he'd be all right because he assured them with a smile "Don't worry, he won't die." :p During another break Roger stepped out to make an announcement and got into a fight with Fu-ki instead - Fu-ki kicked him in the butt, so Roger threw him into the audience, then he did something to mess with Roger again and got thrown into the audience again. And I really don't think he minded the chances to crowd surf. :P

Then the main set ended and we ran back to the booth to prepare for selling the last CDs and set up for the autograph signing, but of course they came out to play an encore, which turned out to be DTMH. Just when I was starting to wonder why I didn't hear that song in the main set... lol, you knew they'd work it in somehow, eh? So of course both BLOOD and the crowd enjoyed that song immensely as always... Roger took the stage at one point to throw Kiwamu into the crowd, and I was starting to wonder if he'd drowned or something when I didn't see him get up again for several moments... but then he popped up and bounced back onto the stage and all carried on as normal again. :P And then the concert ended and they were joined on stage by SiSeN for final bows before heading back for the autograph signing.

Since all the CDs they had brought from Japan sold out, they came up with the idea to have fans fill out an order form for one of the three available CDs, and turn it in along with payment in order to get an autograph. This plan seemed to work out pretty well. (Remember to pick up your CDs at Mitsuwa, guys! I think Roger said they'd be mailed to you, but they'll be mailed to Mitsuwa!) So yeah, that went pretty well and the autograph signing went smoothly - a few people started a new trend of having some interesting articles of clothing signed in place of the CDs they weren't able to buy, so it was amusing watching the guys improvise and find space to write on some stuff :P

So again the signing event ended and the club staff cleared out all the guests, leaving the place pretty quiet as we packed up and waited for time to depart again. Not much happened amidst the wait... though it was during this time when Ai and Miwa spoiled me with lots of awesome gifts ;__; Loads of cute little Snoopy goods from Ai and the makings of soba and udon from Miwa... they know my weaknesses, don't they? ホントにありがとう～♥

I even took a picture of the cell phone charm Ai gave me cause it's so darn perfect for my phone...



Why is this perfect? Because when I'm at home, I keep my phone in its own little spot on top of an unburned chocolate-scented candle that I've had for years, which means I have a chocolate-scented phone. And now I'll have a chocolate-scented piece of chocolate cake hanging from it too. AND a Snoopy. >w<

Anyway! Finally it was time to load up and move on to Carmilla's house, where everyone would rest for a few hours until BLOOD had to leave for the airport at 4:00 am. So I brought my car around to park in front of the club in a line with about four others that were waiting to load up people and luggage and take off... we filled up the whole trunk and half of the back seat with as much as we could take, leaving room for one person to sit comfortably in the back, or two uncomfortably ^^;. Ai seemed interested in riding with us, but when she saw that the back looked a little too cramped for two, she and Miwa moved on... so Fu-ki helped himself to the open seat instead. :P Then SiSen walked by and asked if there was room for any more, and Fu-ki insisted that there was, so he hopped in too. Fortunately they're both skinny little things, but it was still a tight squeeze. So we sat for a good while and waited for everyone else to load up and someone to tell us what we were doing... both of the guys had plenty of room to change their minds and find a roomier car if they'd wanted to (I know at least one car hadn't carried any passengers at all), but they didn't... Fu-ki even got out once, but just went to the bathroom and came right back... so uh... I feel loved? XD;

So thanks to those two, even the wait in the car before we left was fun, thanks to lots of random pointless conversation and mutual dissing of Roger's driving. X3 At one point SiSeN tried to ask or say something to me... can't remember what it was, but he was struggling a bit to say it in English, so Fu-ki finally told him that I can understand Japanese pretty well. Guess nobody had told him what my actual staff position was before that... lol *shrug* Anyway, finally everything was settled and our little five-car chain set off for Carmilla's house. I was the last one in the line, of course, but fortunately we hit all the stoplights in time to get everyone through before they turned red (for more than a second or two anyway ¬_¬). We made a stop along the way at a Wendy's to make sure our starving entourage was fed, then hit the road again until we reached the complex where Carmilla lived.

And that's where things got annoying again. There wasn't enough room in front of her place for five cars to park - normally there would've been, but one of the spaces was filled by a pile of snow and ice at least as tall as my car. So I had to drive in circles around the block at least three times until we could settle on a spot, which was of course the furthest one away from her house, so we had to walk bloody block and a half through the cold night and ice-covered sidewalks to get there... then wait for someone to come out and tell us which gate to go in and which door to use... and then make multiple return trips to unload everyone's luggage. But at last everyone got inside and got settled in for the obligatory Last Night of the Tour relaxing and socializing for a few hours before they had to leave for the airport. And as usual, those few hours were among the best times of the whole trip, and one of the few times along with the concert when we could just forget about the previous troubles and annoyances and just relax and enjoy the company.

But of course, most of it was stuff I don't think I'm at liberty to talk about. XD; But I can say that things were actually even more low-key than usual here since Carmilla's son was asleep and making too much noise was off-limits, so mostly the night was dedicated to people taking turns in the shower while everyone else just hung out and talked. There were a couple of girls there who had come along to interview SiSeN with my interpretation, but every time we asked him if he was ready to start he'd just say "OK" and then go right back to doing his own thing... >.> We gave him time to eat, take off his costume and makeup, shower, and whatever else he wanted to do, and meanwhile I plopped myself down on the sofa and closed my eyes to rest for a while. Didn't sleep, of course, but when I opened my eyes Fu-ki was sitting next to me, and since he's so bloody nice and conversational we just randomly talked about a lot of things. I got to rant at him about how long our drive to Chicago had taken, he called Ryo over and sort of re-introduced him to me, and the first thing Ryo did was compliment my Japanese. He's so sweet and cute. T__T

Eventually Fu-ki and Ryo moved off to hang out somewhere else, and Kitty and I sat on the sofa chatting with the girl who had come to interview SiSeN. She was almost ready to give up on the interview though, since he seemed to keep getting distracted by other things, but eventually we just went over and sat ourselves down at the table across from him and declared that we were getting started. I was slightly nervous about this interview since I had no previous experience with DJ-related stuff or with DJ SiSeN himself, but in the end it went pretty smoothly. SiSeN was absolutely adorable answering some of the questions too... he actually asked us to wait a minute on a few of them just so he could sit there and get a few giggles out of his system while he composed an answer XD When it was over he very generously agreed to sign an autograph for a friend of the interviewer's who couldn't come because she'd broken her foot, and then I finally got bold enough to ask him for an autograph for myself too, which I kind of squee-ed over for the rest of the night. ♥

So yeah... not much else to speak of here. After the interview I pretty much spent the rest of the night sprawled in my corner of the sofa watching everyone chat and occasionally being pulled into conversations, but before we knew it 4:00 rolled around and it was time to load up and get everyone to the airport.

This was another slightly annoying experience, since apparently my car was now the only one still parked in that row almost two blocks away; apparently at some point the other four cars had either left or moved closer. Roger kept trying to make me look like some kind of idiot by telling Kiwamu I didn't know where my car was. Thanks, Roger. ¬_¬ I knew exactly where it was, I just didn't know where I was supposed to take it since the direction they were pointing me in led straight into a locked gate. >__> But yeah... finally we (myself, Kitty, and again Fu-ki and SiSeN) headed toward my car, while along the way Fu-ki and I chatted some more about random stuff - impressions of the concert, sadness over Kaede, the awesomeness of Ryo, dissing Roger some more :P, Chicago being nowhere near as cold as he expected >.>, etc... the little brat decided to pick up a snowball which ended up getting chucked at my head, and when I turned around and called him out on it he just pointed to the car and said "Oh, there's the car :D" >___>...

Soooo, yes. Everyone piled into the car and we were off to the airport, which didn't take long... and for once the weather was pretty clear and traffic was light, so it felt like we were there in no time. Even though they were a good 2 hours early, for some reason they all seemed in a big hurry to get inside and get checked in, so there were no big long emotional partings this time - just waving and casual goodbyes and stuff. Fu-ki was pretty much the only one who stopped and actually waved longer and said more than just "byebye" to me... Kiwamu had already gone in but came back outside to give Carmilla a hug, then he just waved at me and ran inside again... and that was pretty much the end of that.

By now it was about 5:00 am and we hadn't slept more than a couple hours out of the past 48 or more, so we went back to the motel we'd stayed in Sunday night just to crash for a few hours before the looooong drive home. When we finally felt somewhat alert again, we showered and loaded up and headed out - and stopped at Mitsuwa again before we left. I'm going to miss that place. ;_; We looked at manga and magazines and bought more snacky stuff and returned to the food court for lunch... and I FINALLY got to eat oyakodon, another one of those things I've been craving that's all over the place in Japan but impossible to find anywhere near where I live... and it was SO GOOD. I was so depressed when I couldn't even finish more than half of it because my stomach was still in travel mode and my appetite was nil. T___T I WANT MOREEEEEE.

But oh well... finally we broke away from the paradise that is Mitsuwa and set off on what should've been the six hour drive back home, but again it turned into more like ten hours - this time because of rush hour. =__= It rained the whole time too, but not so much that I had to slow down drastically or anything. So it was, what, around 2 am when we finally made it back to Kitty's place, so I helped her unload stuff and decided to continue on my way home while I was still awake and alert, and thus finally made it back home a bit after 3:00. And as soon as I took the key out of the ignition, all the adrenaline instantly drained out of me and I was hit by this massive wave of dizziness >.>, so I pretty much crashed as soon as I got all my stuff hauled inside.

And that pretty much does it for my experience with BLOOD USA tour 2008. Very sad that I couldn't make it to the entire tour, but by just driving to Chicago I was able to help the band even more by driving people and luggage around, so it all worked out. The amazing concert and the opportunity to hang out with everyone again made all the annoyances and long road hours worth it. Also, Kiwamu told us later that it was the best tour BLOOD has ever had, which is still incredibly rewarding even though I was barely able to help at all this time. ^__^; Can't wait till next year's tour - and I swear by that time I WILL have enough cash to attend the whole thing. >o< *determined pose*

Ok... I'm going to make an attempt at putting together a little review of my second experience touring with BLOOD during their Darkest Labyrinth vol. 1 tour. This time I actually took pictures, so even if it's not as detailed as I'd like it to be, at least you'll have visuals. That's what everyone really wants anyway, right? :P

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

And thus, just over a year later, I return from my 6th and 7th respective BLOOD concerts. As usual, they were amazing! And my whole experience with this first LES FLEURS DU MAL tour was made even more memorable as I got to travel with the band as a full-fledged staffer. Unfortunately for you guys, this also means my review this time will be relatively short and mostly just cover the concerts themselves. But that's the one part of a BLOOD tour that really matters, right? :P

So, where to begin... first I should say that, beginning in LA, I was able to meet lots of friends that I had previously only known through the internet, starting with the lovely BLOOD Berry webmistress Ai, who traveled all the way from Japan to see BLOOD's American tour. They were also joined by their Japanese agent Miwa, whom I had first met last year in Mexico. I was really happy to spend time with them both throughout the week ^o^ Then after we were settled in LA I got to meet Connie, Krystal, and Reiko-chan, who all rock. <3 And of course we are all indebted to the members of lo:lita, who provided lodging and food and rides and just great hospitality in general for all of us during our LA stay. Huge thanks to you all!

Anyway... I spent the first half of Tuesday in either airplanes or airports before finally meeting Roger, the band, Miwa, and Ai and heading off with everyone to spend the evening taking it easy. Took some of the party to Yoshinoya and later to McDonald's, stopped at various stores and stuff (including Amoeba Records, the CD shop that all the guys had a ball skimming through), did two interviews, got some tacos to eat back at the apartment while everyone just hung out, then gave up for the night and turned in for a few brief hours of sleep. Nice range of tastes between Yoshinoya, McD's, and Del Taco, huh? :P And those interviews seriously put my interpreting skills to the test, and I'm not sure if I passed... ^^;;; But I think it was great practice, at least.

The real tour activity began on Wednesday, when we all loaded up and headed to the LA Knitting Factory in at least 3 separate cars driven by members of lo:lita. We did see some cool Hollywood landmarks along the way, like the Chinese Theater and part of the Walk of Fame (and the previous day we had seen the Hollywood sign in the distance), but sadly there wasn't time to take pictures or anything. We got to the club before the doors were officially open, and the first several moments there were spent meeting people and learning where everything was and stuff... and in my own case, interpreting between club staff and the band members and starting to take a few pictures, as Roger had left me in charge of taking shots with his camera to post on the TR blog (i'm still waiting to see those... :P). Roger and I also took Fu-ki outside at one point to see where the line of fans was already forming, 4 hours before the doors even opened, and were amused but not too surprised that nobody recognized Fu-ki and mobbed him or anything. >.> Anyway, soon enough the band took the stage for the evening's first sound check, which was pretty interesting to a dork like me who had never seen a full sound check before. It was especially cool to me because that was when I heard Les Litanies de Satan from their upcoming album for the first time, and it sounded like a really great song. Can't wait to hear its finalized version o_o

Eventually BLOOD's sound check ended and the time came to set up the merchandise booth while the opening bands went through their sound checks and I ran around taking various pictures for Roger where possible and stuff. The venue provided pizza for all the bands and staff to chew on while we waited around as well. Eventually the band was ready to head off to get into costume and stuff, and then around 5pm the doors opened and fans started filing through and buying CDs, which kept us occupied fairly well until the first (or maybe even second) opening band took the stage. The band whose members were cool enough to give us lodging and rides everywhere, lo:lita, went on first... also happened to be their first show ever, and they went over very, very well. We were really happy for them. ^_^ The next two bands, Secret Secret and The Last Dance, I sort of failed to pay attention to, though they were increasingly popular with the crowd. Plus, somewhere in that time frame, poor Connie lost track of her cell phone T_T, so we spent much of the other bands' stage time looking for it and fretting over it and such. Anyway, I also have to say Roger did a great job in between the bands' sets as the MC/DJ. I think he was surprised that so many Californians knew and loved him so much. :3

BLOOD's turn on stage finally came, though I wasn't expecting much as a spectator since I was pretty sure I'd have to remain sitting behind the booth while they performed. I could see the stage fairly easily from the booth though, so I wasn't too worried. But as it turned out, the lovely Krystal (and Rob, I think) had agreed to watch the booth so Ai, Connie, and I could go watch with the rest of the crowd - and BLOOD and Roger even saw to it that we were escorted right to the front row. o.o In particular I think they really wanted Ai to have a front row position since she had come all the way from Japan for them, but Connie and I were sent ahead as well to keep her company. Not to mention to keep the poor dear from getting trampled by all the rabid American fans twice her size. x.x With no barricade between the slightly elevated stage and the floor, it was a major chore getting to the front row even with Roger escorting us (some guys cussed us out along the way lol), and it turned out only Connie and Ai could squeeze into the front, so I basically stood behind them trying to be their bodyguard... but I could still see perfectly well over their heads. :P;; I also didn't bother taking either of my cameras since I had been told flash photography was prohibited, but as it turned out I had been misinformed or something, and flash cameras were fine at the LA live but prohibited in NY. Oh well... I learned soon enough that it probably wouldn't have done me much good to have the camera anyway, as will soon be explained...

Not sure how much of a live report I can make out of this, actually, since I didn't take pictures and can only provide a setlist (borrowed from Kiwamu's blog). Buuuuut we'll see what happens... and I'll start with the setlist:

1. THE FUNERAL FOR HUMANITY
2. BLIND
3. Unforgiven
4. I remember you
5. Forever lost
6. Awakening
7. VOICES
8. Wings of The Rebellion
9. NEVERMORE
10. VENGEANCE for BLOOD
11. byakuya
12. morphine
13. sweatest disease
14. D.T.M.H.

So, the actual live. Needless to say, BLOOD was received with extreme enthusiasm, and we learned fairly quickly that we might as well have entered a mosh pit. Long story short, it's just a tiny bit of a chore to enjoy a concert when you're constantly fighting to keep yourself and your friends from getting flattened. >.o They still put on a great show though, with only minor problems scattered around like a screwy DVD playback and a shortened setlist due to the discovery that the club would be closing earlier than we had realized. Among the 6 songs they eliminated were all the ones they had planned to do from the brand new album, which was sad... but for the most part, everything went off quite well.

Where to begin with smaller details... the new costumes look very cool, for starters. Much simpler and more elegant than the insane extravagant costumes from the Vengeance era... simple black and white, some ruffles and lace... though unfortunately for them there was also a lot of velvet or something resembling it (the black bits; all the white was more satin-y or something). They were absolutely soaked in sweat within just a few songs. And Kaede couldn't keep his hat on for more than 10 minutes as it kept slipping and sliding and shifting around until he finally just ditched it and went with the wig alone.

And other stuff... hmmm... all the theatrics were pretty much the same as they've always been, with Kiwamu biting Fu-ki during The Funeral For Humanity, Fu-ki taking his revenge in Unforgiven by dragging him around by the hair and then snapping his neck, and easily the cutest: Fu-ki taking a little walk across the stage with Kaede during Nevermore and then starting to do the same with Kiwamu before shoving his hand in his face and pushing him away... as seen in the Live in Mexico DVD, basically. But cuter because unlike in the video Kaede was typically smiley the whole time. :P

Some of the cooler details... of course it was great hearing some of the Vengeance 3 songs live for the first time, specifically all except Caught in the Spiral (the one I was most hoping to hear T_T oh well). Can't really remember any specific entertaining details from them or any other song, though, except the "theatrics" I mentioned earlier. Lots of stage diving during DTMH, of course... ooooh yeah, and it was amusing when Fu-ki announced that their CDs were on sale at the booth and told everyone "You must buy them *growly voice* AAAAALLLL." :P

In general, each of the guys did an extremely good job. Fu-ki's voice seemed to be at the best I've heard it yet in concert, Kiwamu pulled off some sweet guitar riffs and cool slidey effects (like in Unforgiven) and stuff, and as usual Kaede just rocked the house on that bass. Honestly, the energy he gives off when he's playing that thing is unbelievable. And he seems to be coming out of his shell, so to speak, a little more than I've seen in previous BLOOD shows... for example, he actually let fans touch him on several occasions, though he of course didn't go for all the stage diving of Kiwamu and Fu-ki. Also, he actually *gasp* used a microphone. Only to accompany Kiwamu in growling "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" in DTMH, and the "Dust, dust, dust" thing in Sweetest Disease, but still, it was new to me. >>

Soooo after an hour and 10 minutes BLOOD's set ended, and we actually found room to breathe and stretch again after being cramped and squished and shoved around for so long as all the fans rushed back to the merch booth for the signing session. So then it was back to the chaos of selling CDs for a while... though that part of the night did go a lot faster than I expected. Was easily the most chaotic though, as fans jostled for positions in the very roughly created "line" to buy CDs and get autographs and take photos ans etc. And early in that time frame somewhere was when I finally had a chance to meet and talk to Reiko-chan, who is an absolute sweetheart. <3 When the CD vending finally settled down we mostly just sat and talked and cuddled while the venue cleared out. :D And also discovered a new kind of fanservice... ^_~

As the crowds thinned out, I learned that the venue hadn't quite sold out, but came close - something like 245 out of 300 tickets sold. Which explained the density of the crowd in such a mid-range sized club. Great for BLOOD, though. :D There were also a couple unpleasant moments in which I or one of the other girls were sitting around waiting for our next assignment when some drunk from the bar (as opposed to a concert-goer) would sit nearby and try to hit on us. Didn't get anywhere though, of course. If they had tried anything Roger and/or Kiwamu would've sent heads rolling. :p

Anyway... things continued to calm down, and I sat on the padded bench thingy next to Kiwamu to take Roger's place as his "backrest" while Roger had to go off to take care of something. Roger's orders. >> Kiwamu apparently decided he didn't need a backrest anymore though. :p Oh well, worked out even better for me because just minutes later Kaede strolled along and plopped himself down in the scant few inches of space between me and Kiwamu, and practically sat right in my lap while leaning against me cuddling and petting my hair and stuff. :P;; Reiko took a picture with Roger's camera, which he will hopefully get to me very soon... *pokes him*

But eventually he got up and life went on >>... so I mostly talked with Reiko and fretted with Connie over her lost cell phone (which, thankfully, did turn up later *relief*) until the time came to pack up and head out. I was set to ride back to Rob's apartment with Krystal, Connie, and Reiko, while everyone else went in a couple other cars, which meant more hanging out and cuddling time with Reiko <3 lol... I think we nearly sent Roger into orbit with our nose-rubbing thing that he interpreted as a prelude to a make-out session... *snicker* Anyway, we all finally got back to the apartment, where I parted ways with Connie, Krystal, and Reiko and prepared for a sleepless "night" of hanging out with the bands and the girls and Roger and etc for about 4 hours, until we all had to leave for our flight to New York.

We had been informed by Razor of lo:lita about the attempted terrorist strike in a London airport and all the delays it was causing in airports around the world, especially in America where airports immediately decided to ban the carrying of liquids in carry-ons. So it shouldn't be a big surprise that we ended up taking to the sky almost two hours later than expected. All the ridiculous security junk actually didn't delay us at all, though; problem was, our flight was overbooked and we had to be moved to one an hour and 45 minutes later. I was surprised at how calm Kiwamu was during this whole mess... here Roger and I were freaking out, but Kiwamu, of all people, didn't seem concerned at all. He even told Roger "Don't worry, baby." :P So finally we got all that taken care of, crawled through security which was of course ridiculously tight, waited at the gate, boarded the plane, and zonked out until we landed in New York City. Well, everyone else did, anyway. I managed about 2 hours in dreamland. I hope I enjoyed it because it would be the second AND last sleep I would have all week until my flight home. >>

Anyway, from the airport the band and Roger went straight on to the Knitting Factory with Kathy of Purple Sky Magazine, another wonderful person/organization we are all majorly grateful to for providing and paying for all our lodging and rides and arrangements, and her very sweet brother came to take the girls and myself there in a separate car. Only in New York does it take an hour to travel 16 miles on the freeway. x.x So after the longest short drive I think I've ever sat through, including passage through part of Chinatown, we finally arrived at the club. There was already a fairly long line at the door... but of course, we were arriving a couple hours later than planned so it was almost time for the doors to open. x.x So we got in and saw that the others had already almost finished setting up the merch booth, and Kiwamu told me they hadn't had time to do a sound check at all. They'd barely have time to do a quick line check right before their turn on stage.

But there wasn't much time to worry about details since the doors opened to admit all the photographers and other press people, and shortly afterward the rest of the crowd started filing in and the CD vending began. Got to see Suz somewhere in that span for the first time in 2 years, which was cool. ^^ The first annoyance we had to deal with in this show was that for some reason everyone just HAD to pay in bills no smaller than $20, which meant we always came up short on smaller bills and had problems giving people change. Apologies to those who had to wait ages for us to dig out fives and ones. ><; But oh well... Ai and I were on our own at the booth for a long while since Miwa had gone back with the band to get them made up and costumed, and Roger was busy running around being the coordinator and MC/DJ (which paid off as, once again, he did an excellent job). Again I didn't really pay too much attention to the opening bands, Ghost Orgy and Annie's Grave, partially because of the CD vending duties and partially because I just wanted to see BLOOD have their turn and be sure that everything would go smoothly despite the VERY tiny stage and cramped conditions and lack of sound check and stuff.

Finally the last opening band finished their set and BLOOD was able to do a quick line check before getting started. Ai and I went to the tiny backstage room to see if any help was needed and make sure it would be ok for us to watch the show from the crowd again; we had already been told that the band had arranged someone to take over the booth for us, but we thought we'd have to settle for somewhere in the middle of the room since the audience was packed into such a tiny space and we were sure we'd never be able to squeeze in close. But the guys were awesome enough to have the security dudes push the front few rows back a few inches so we could just step off the stage directly into the front row. And yeeeeah... right from the start I knew it was going to be a fight for survival. It was actually fortunate that we were right by the wall on Kiwamu's side of the stage, with Ai standing between it and me, so when the crowd got too forceful I could reach my left arm over Ai's head and brace myself against the wall to keep from being shoved around and knocked down. Because given our positions, if I had been knocked off balance, I would've taken her with me, and since she was half the size of most of these American fans I was seriously worried that she'd get flattened. x_x But I guess I did my bodyguarding job well enough, since both during and after the show she told me she was just fine and had no problems at all with the moshpit-worthy conditions.

Soooo finally BLOOD was ready to get started. The first several songs went by pretty much as I've come to expect, and things started out pretty much the same as the previous day's show... not too much to speak of in the way of amusing theatrics (besides the ones I mentioned in the LA report) and stuff. But a bit less than halfway through the set, things finally started to go insane.

Did I mention the audience space was very small? And that of all the 200+ people in the crowd, about 90% seemed to think they had a right to be in the front row, which was wide enough to fit maybe 10 people? Yeah... those security guys were nowhere near enough to keep the pushing and shoving under control. A couple of times they literally threw themselves at the people in the front and center in an effort to forcibly shove the entire crowd back by a foot or two. It worked for about 10 seconds at a time... but apparently not enough. At one point, maybe a little less than halfway through the set, almost the entire front few rows finally bent under the strain and sent a large group of people crashing to the floor, and much of the front row was flung right onto the stage. They literally stopped the show at that point and were considering cancelling the rest altogether. >< But fortunately no one was hurt and things were straightened out so the show could go on. And the first thing that happened upon resuming was Fu-ki asking the crowd "Are you ok?" Thoughtful of him, at least... too bad he and Kiwamu just made the situation more insane from then on by repeatedly stage diving and crowd surfing. >.>

Anyway, suppose this is a good place to throw in the setlist, borrowed again from Kiwamu's blog...

1. THE FUNERAL FOR HUMANITY
2. morphine
3. BLIND
4. Unforgiven
5. I remember you
6. Forever lost
7. Awakening
8. Se lever
9. VOICES
10. Wings of The Rebellion
11. NEVERMORE
12. VENGEANCE for BLOOD
13. byakuya
14. oboro
15. Spleen
16. Le Revenant
17. Les Litanies de Satan
18. Under The Sensual Moon...
19. sweatest disease
20. D.T.M.H.

However, I hate to suggest that Kiwamu was wrong about his own setlist, but I swear I don't remember them playing Under the Sensual Moon. O.o And they definitely DID play Maria. Last minute substitution? I also thought Le Revenant came before Spleen, based on the few lyrics I could pick out, but I could easily be wrong about that... buuuuut oh well ^^;;

Performance-wise... again the guys did an awesome job, especially given the crowded conditions and lack of a full sound check beforehand. Only problem I noticed was that Kiwamu's guitar or amp or something seemed to just disappear a few times, briefly and sporadically. Was sort of worried when it happened right before his big solo in Vengeance for BLOOD since I knew he would be tearing the place down in rage if he couldn't play his solo. x.x But fortunately the crew was on the ball and got it working again just in time. What else to say performance-wise... again, they did play more songs here than they did in LA since they didn't have to shave down the setlist this time. Not as much of it at least, if at all. One of the songs they played in NY but not in LA was Maria (I'm certain of that, dangit >>; ), which was also the only 1st period song they played, and which I was very pleased to see live again. And they did play 3 of the new Les Fleurs Du Mal songs near the end, which was awesome. *_* The band seemed to really get into them as well, which I'll get into more later. :P

As for random little details... already mentioned the usual vampire story theatrics of Funeral, Unforgiven, and Nevermore... and also just like the previous day Kaede seemed to be coming out of his shell and getting closer to the crowd and, again, actually using the mic during those same parts of DTMH and Sweetest Disease, and I think a similar part in Les Litanies de Satan as well. And not sure if they were "theatrics" or just random cool/amusing/dorky moments, but they really seemed to have a ball while they played the newest songs. Such as when Kiwamu and Kaede did a lot of really awesome guitar and bass riffs standing back to back and just totally rocking together. *_* It's always cool to see the guys play off of each other like that... flashbacks to the classic 2nd period days, I guess. And I believe it was during the second of the 3 new songs when Fu-ki leaned out over the crowd as he likes to do, and Kaede strolled up and stood with his back to Fu-ki's and leaned back against him to deliberately push him into the crowd. And since this happened just inches away from me I saw the little evil smirk on his face as he did it. He's such a brat. XD But Fu-ki got his revenge shortly after that by sneaking behind Kaede, jumping onto his back, and just sitting there hanging on his shoulders for a few moments as he continued singing. But Kaede, freaking amazing performer that he is, just WENT ON PLAYING as if nothing was happening. o___o Only difference was it put a smile on his face. :P But dang, talk about a powerhouse...

And by now I can only remember a few other little amusements from the NY show. Such as when Kiwamu picked up a HUGE bottle of water, like 1.5-2 liters, and went to splash the crowd with it... but he forgot to take the lid off first. XD Fu-ki also took off the black overcoat part of his costume sometime in the second half of the show (cause don'cha know all the fangirls wanna see their J-boys strip >.>)... and can't remember if it was before or after that when he came over to our corner and leaned against the wall right in front of Ai while she fanned him with her sensu (folding fan) during an instrumental break of one song. The look on his face was pure bliss. :P There were also a few amusing moments when Roger, from the back of the stage, aimed his video camera at the guys and they put on some very... special faces and gestures for it. Though I know that I also appeared frequently on that video since I was right in the front and literally within just a few feet of both the band and Roger's camera at all times, so not sure how much I'm looking forward to seeing that video if he decides to use it for anything. >.> Anyway... hmmm... can't remember any other specific details right now, so moving on...

The live finally ended, so Ai and I rushed back to the merch booth to sell more CDs and get everything in order for the signing session. Again this part ended pretty quickly and fans started to clear out while the band posed for some photos with people and met the NY street teams and stuff. But that was pretty much it for the night; the club continued to wind down and finally we boarded our separate rides back to our hotel, and that was the end of the US tour. And since it was already past 1am by the time we all got back to the hotel, and since the guys wanted to be out of the hotel on the way to the airport by 4, once again I don't think anyone really got any decent amount of sleep beyond a quick catnap. I know I didn't even bother trying. >>

So after a mere 3 hours in our hotel, just long enough to shower and rearrange our luggage and chill for a few minutes, the girls and I headed down to the lobby at 4am to wait for the guys. It didn't take long after they joined us for their own ride to arrive, and a few minutes later a second car arrived for the girls and me, so we all parted ways with Roger and went on to the airport. I must've conked out for a little while on the way because I seemed to remember hearing that our airport was an hour away but it felt more like 15 minutes. x.x

Anyway, we reached the airport, and I was quite pleased to find that my airline terminal was only two counters down from BLOOD's, which meant I could stay with them right up until they reached the security checkpoint with plenty of time to head back and check myself in (my own flight was almost 4 hours later). They seemed pretty pleased with that arrangement too since, as they put it, if there was any trouble like there had been at LAX the day before I could be their translator and help them through it. >.> Nothing like that happened though, fortunately.

Eventually the massive line through security shortened until I had to go my own way and leave BLOOD and the girls to proceed through to their gate. Again they were all incredibly sweet and gracious right up to the final goodbyes, even buying me a Burger King breakfast, and I headed back to my own check-in counter feeling truly pleased with every experience I'd had throughout this tour. This was my first time really traveling with the band and following them as a staff member, and getting to spend time with Ai and Miwa and all my friends in LA made it all that much more awesome. They all really made me feel warmly welcomed and like part of the family, so to speak. I can't wait to see them all again. :D But best of all, I know for certain that the band and the girls were all VERY happy with their experience here in the states. The girls had fun and were completely impressed with everything even though they didn't get to do any real sightseeing, all the guys commented on how there were no serious problems, and fearless leader Kiwamu had nothing but good things to say about the way everything had gone, and made sure to VERY clearly and frequently express his gratitude to Roger as well as to me. They all did, really. Knowing they were so happy with the experience had to be the most satisfying part of the whole tour, I think. ^^

So that pretty much wraps up my report of the LES FLEURS DU MAL tour in America. I managed to get a longer report out of it than I expected. *laughs* Anyway, stay tuned, because I actually do plan to FINALLY post some album reviews here in the near future... :3