I’ll start with one thing. I’m not fully recovered yet in the slightest. My ears have stopped ringing, but my throat still hurts, and my muscles ache. My mouth also aches, but that’s too be expected from eating 3 packets of grape Mentos in the queue. GACKT was truly a God up on stage at the O2 Academy, and he put one of greatest and entertaining performances I’ve seen live. Sadly, I do have some negative experiences of the event, which does put a hamper on things, but I’ll save that till the end. I also read on another review that GACKT himself looked close to collapsing at points. While I must thank him for carrying on, I’d much rather he takes a break – I don’t want to see him go down whilst trying to entertain us. His health is far more important.

The gig opened with an announcement from GACKT’s secretary ‘Oz’ (or Osu, not sure), warning us that we had to be manly and such. Pretty epic, especially the number of “motherf*ckers” he managed to belt out xD. And warning us that, in the case of an emergency, we were all to stab ourselves in the gut and commit “harikiri”. LOL. After about half an hour, and a five minute warning from Oz/Osu, GACKTJob walked onto the stage, to loud cheers from the crowd, and then the man himself entered – looking pretty awesome with his 2010 hairstyle slightly modified – he had half of it braided back. And with his eyes wide, staring out into the crowd, it began. The opening riffs blasted out, and we dived straight into ‘斬～ZAN～‘, including the audience screaming out “Zan!” at appropriate times, and plenty of headbanging. ‘Dybbuk‘ followed, with similar treatment as the crowd screamed “Dybbuk!” You’ll have to excuse me for not mentioning certain songs, as some completely slipped my mind, while I focused on my favourites (Flower :3 )

Can I add here that Chirolyn is an amazing bassist? He had an awesome stage presence – it’s the mohawk! – and really kicked some ass with his playing style. My favourite part of his playing was seeing him start smacking his bass against his thighs to get it ringing. Awesome! As a bassist myself, I love watching other bassists, so having him right in front of me was pretty epic. He came atop the podium with You and on his own a few times just to groove which was great.

GACKT’s newest single ‘EVER‘ also made it’s first appearance here – which was a real privilege, after I’d been hoping for it since I heard the preview! Very guitar heavy, which I really liked. Can’t wait to own that one! Around here, GACKT broke into an English speech (it was wonderful to hear him speak in English, rather than the tiny snippets on Youtube) about how we are “different colours. From different countries.” Yet we are like “one family” and how “destiny has brought us to this one night”. Oh man. Powerful stuff. Don’t get me crying! :3

As the music began to draw to a close, GACKT yelled out “JESUS!” followed by a roar from the crowd, as the riffs started up. Never had the urge to join in been more apparent, as practically everyone joined in for the chorus and parts of the verses. ‘Jesus‘ ended similar to the -ЯRII- version. Awesome. (And for Gacktpause on Twitter? I rocked out as much as I could in my tiny space just for you! :D )

Finally, with silence falling over the crowd, my most anticipated song began, as GACKT began to slowly the sing the chorus with the crowd joining in. Four drum hits later and ‘Flower‘ truly began. It was heavenly. No other word for it! I joined in with as many of the lyrics as I could, all the while gasping for air and water (which was thankfully provided by Chachamaru courtesy of a spraying bottle to the face :D ). Towards the end, GACKT held his microphone out for us to join in with the song. I tried my best to sing along, but it was so faint, noone else joined in! Which is kind of humiliating… But still, I loved every minute of it.

Sadly, I don’t remember much of the encore as I was close to passing out as GACKT left the stage – a point I will expand upon soon. However, GACKT played the new ‘Uncontrol‘ remix (available on the YFCz album and his newest single ‘Ever‘! As the song finished, GACKTJob got a hold of the England flag, holding it high as GACKT promised to return if we all promised to come back. With that, he waved farewell to his ‘family’ and left the stage, leaving us with Chirolyn who is possibly now the greatest bassist ever. He threw a number of picks into the crowd, hyped everyone up, and then, whilst devil horning it up, pulled his shorts down and waddled off the stage in his underwear. Legend!

Unfortunately, now comes the negatives. And it is here that I realise how very dissapointed in this gig that I am. And that’s partially my own fault for getting so hyped up on what I thought would be a perfect gig for the month and a bit before. But there were a number of issues that really dragged this gig down.

1) Campers. The venue sent out a notification at the beginning of the month telling people not to camp, as they will refuse to invite J-Rockers to the UK in the future. So what did 30 imbeciles do? Camped 9 DAYS before the gig started. And they were not punished. No, they were welcomed inside and allowed to stand right at the front for the entire god damn show. And of course, campers leads to point two:

2) Queue jumpers. When you get to a gig at 7am, you like to think that you’re going to get a good spot near the front. Unless the campers decide to invite all of their friends to join the queue with them. And despite the head of security’s warnings, the queue jumpers still managed to sneak back in and get right to the front. Pathetic.

3) Fangirls. THIS is what caused the camping. The ridiculous number of 14-16 year old girls thinking, if they camped, GACKT would be proud of them. This was claimed on a Facebook page for the event. Wrong. You’re breaking the rules, and pissing the other 750 members of the queue off. You also think that by demanding he come on stage when he may not be ready that you are a fan? Baka. But the fangirls were out of control at this event. I have to wonder how many showed up primarily because of GACKT’s looks or because he was a Japanese artist. None seem to have taken the time to look into “Yellow Fried Chickenz”, demanding GACKT to play Vanilla specifically for them when both he and his band have not rehearsed for it? Come on, think of others here. From the moment I set foot into the venue, pushing and shoving began, with everyone ending up so tightly compacted that buckets were being sweated from everywhere. Leading to my least favourite point:

4) The Crowd. For the most part, it was horrendous. By the end of the first track, we were so tightly compacted from the damn pushing that jumping became impossible, and moving your arm from by your side to ‘rock position’ took about 2 minutes of unsticking the person in front, to the side and behind you. I saw 5 people pass out from the heat and had to be dragged over the bar and out of the venue to cool down. I also nearly went down just prior to the encore and had to crawl my way to the side of the room, which – amusingly – got people to move back, as if to say ‘I don’t want you collapsing on me’. The everyone for themselves mentality was definitely there. There was no crowd control, not enough water getting passed out, crap air conditioning, and security wasted way more time on getting cameras then trying to stop the crowd from a mass collapse. It didn’t help that I was one of 3 boys down the front, constantly trying to stop younger girls in front from being crushed. Fights also developed over GACKT’s shirt and tie when he threw them into the crowd – I think the shirt was shredded over the course of about 20 minutes, whilst the tie was – fortunately – cut by a sensible few (well done Rachael!). It was truly a smelting pit, and after 2 songs just became ridiculous thanks to how hard it was to move, stay cool, and breath.

So did I enjoy it? I’m still half and half. While I loved getting to see GACKT outside of Japan for the first time, the crowd really ruined it for me, which is a big disappointment – thanks primarily to how excited I’d been during the lead-up. I hope that, if GACKT shows up again, the crowd can behave a lot more maturely and enjoy the music, rather than demand GACKT marries them. It pains me to be this negative about an artist performance that I was really looking forward to, it really does. And ultimately, no one is going to learn any moral lessons from this – campers will still be dicks, and fangirls will continue doing the same thing without thinking of the consequences. And I feel really bad about thinking this way, especially after GACKT’s amazing speech about how we are all “like family”. I’m sorry, man. T_____T

But GACKT, you were fantastic. I do hope to see you again in the UK. Just… maybe I’ll be standing a bit further back with an ice bucket. And a 4-way riot shield.

More importantly? On behalf of the smaller number of real fans at this gig – Thank you so much for this privilege of getting to see you in person. It’s an experience not to be forgotten in a hurry. And please take care on the rest of your tour!

I thought last week was hectic with all the Expo lead up and the spending of money. This week, during my school half-term, created a whole lot of extra hectic-ness thanks to a certain announcement on June the 1st.

On the night of Monday 31st, whilst laying in bed at about 10pm preparing to shut down and go to sleep, I got an e-mail from NeoTokyo. And contained in it’s contents was an announcement. An announcement so epic, so amazing, so brain-fryingingly insane, that sleep went out the window.

Gackt f*cking Camui is doing a Europe Tour.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~ *fangirls*

I spent most of the week trying to find out details, watching the price slowly going up, watching the event vanish from the venue, calling up the venue to find out what the fudge was going on, watching the event go back on until Saturday when priority tickets went live at midday.

Now, O2 Priority tickets generally don’t sell out all that fast [I THINK]. I remember when I went to see Utada I was able to get 3 priority tickets about 2 hours before general ticket release. And general tickets sold out within the hour, which was odd. However, for GACKT… they were sold out in 5 minutes. 5. FREAKING. MINUTES.

And yes, I got a ticket. :3

General tickets see release on Tuesday at 9am for £42, so if you want to go I would advise being present for the beginning of ticket sales – they are not going to last very long.

For everyone going, I look forward to seeing you on July 16th at the O2 Academy Islington, when the YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz tour comes to the UK. And holy crap, the Islington isn’t going to be standing after we rock the house down, GACKT-style.

Just due to my disbelief in the situation of epic-epicness here. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~

That is all for now. :3

Hey folks! I’ve got a very late write-up of a very good gig for you today – Abingdon Boys School Live @ The Underworld, Camden.

Now the atmosphere prior to the concert was electric. A huge queue circled the entire venue in the pouring rain, as camera crews ran around to get footage for the Abingdon Road Movies DVD. The sound check could be heard through two side doors. Fangirls were squeeing. Smiles were all around despite how wet we all were. And then the great crowd were finally allowed in, and we descended like Valkyries upon The Underworld’s stage. Discarding wet bags and jackets, me and Josh managed to get pretty good standing places in the midst of the mosh pit. The lights went down as an instrumental of Sweetest Coma Again played in the background. And finally it started, with a huge great “squee!!” from the assorted fangirls.

The mighty Abingdon Boys School – Sunao, Shibasaki Hiroshi, Toshiyuki Kishi, support members Ikuo and Kozy Hasegawa, and of course the Godlike Takenori Nishikawa – took to the stage, and let the riffs rip with Strength. Now this was my first proper gig, and I’d never seen such an enthusiastic crowd – we jumped, sang along and headbanged along to practically every song as the Headmasters played their hearts out. It was amazing. Takenori would frequently let us know how happy he was to be here in London, to which the crowd energetically responded. I recall reading an interview by the boys before they started the tour, stating how they were uncertain about how Europe would respond to them – I think we made a good impact, as Takenori promised he’s be back again “real soon”. Another energetic response.

Music-wise, a large selection of their older songs and b-sides were played, alongside some of the newer singles from Abingdon Road. Particular crowd favorites included Howling, which really kicked off the mosh pit as Takenori threw his glasses into the crowd. Jap, with it’s highly energetic atmosphere created a partying mood, as the whole crowd joined in with the clapped beat. Freedom and Innocent Sorrow saw a great response as the crowd sung along. Fre@K $HoW, while being a b-side, saw a great response as Takenori screamed out “Fuck!” and practically raised the roof. It was truly sensational. The crowd were also highly lucky to see a crowd-surf by Takenori – it went slightly wrong when a section of the audience collapsed under him, and security struggled to pull him out, but it was still amazing. He even asked me if I was ok, which I was overly thrilled with ^______^ Setlist below:

1. Strength
2. Freedom
MC
3. Howling
4. Nephilim
5. Via Dolorosa
6. Valkyrie
MC
7. Fre@K $HoW
8. JAP
9. INNOCENT SORROW
MC
10. Kimi no Uta

Encore
1. From Dusk Till Dawn
2. stay away
3. Athena

Enjoy a video of my highlights from the gig – you’ll have to excuse the cutting out, as my normal camera died, and I had to resort to my iPhone which… didn’t really capture the essence of the gig as well.

Some other highlights, provided by other crowd members with better cameras.

Overall, a fantastic gig, and I really hope to see them come back this year, to see what else they can bring to the party. Rock on, a.b.s. Rock on. Now, you wait until you see all my Abindon Boys School stuff xD

Image from Utada.com

Now February 12 was quite an important day. Why? It marked the first time Utada Hikaru performed live in London. When tickets went on sale back in November, they were sold out within the first 5 hours. An extra show date was even added. Was it worth it? Oh yes.

First notes, Utada has a great sense of humour. She regularly interacted with the audience, making jokes and responding to the many questions shouted out from the crowd. She even shared some personal thoughts regarding the weather and her short time in London – at one point saying she’d like to live here (as you can imagine, that caused for some loud whooping!).

The music too was very, VERY good. The live band were excellent, adding some extra flair to her songs, and her voice was amazing too. I wasn’t sure about some of the newer songs on her newest album, but the live versions were much, much better. So much so, that I went out and bought the album afterwards x3

Music wise, there was a selection from across her career. Newer stuff like ‘Apple and Cinnamon’ and ‘Come Back to Me’ was intermingled with older favourites like ‘Automatic’, ‘Simple and Clean’ (“Sugoi~”) and an awesome Japanese/English mix of “Passion” and “Sanctuary”. There was even an incredibly awesome rock song that I didn’t know the name of – I was later told that it was a cover of Placebo’s “The Bitter End”. Holy crap!

At the end, Utada threw out some balls which she’d signed, as well as drawing her Kuma mascot on them. I would of liked to get one, but the crowd managed to be too tall. It’s hard being at the middle-back T____T

The crowd… hmm, kind of lifeless for most of it. I was stuck behind two rather large people who didn’t really move. Not once. Madame Tussaud’s renting crowds out now? There was the occasional fist pumping, and the crowd towards the front seemed to be going crazy. But towards the back, it was really hard to get energetic with so much lifelessness going around. *shudder*.

Overall though, a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good gig, and a fantastic first appearance in the UK. I would of liked to get photos, but the people at the O2 Academy were pretty strict – every camera was confiscated I believe. Still, a live DVD is supposedly coming of the event, which should be pretty awesome. I hope she comes back some time!

EDIT: Found a tracklist for the concert – might have to make this into a playlist, much like I did with abingdon boys school.

1 Crossover Interlude
2 On and On
3 Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – FYI
4 Poppin’
5 This One (Cryin’ Like a Child)
6 Passion/Sanctuary
7 Sakura Drops (keyboard)
8 Stay Gold (keyboard)
9 Devil Inside + Kremlin Dusk
10 You Make Me Want To Be A Man
11 The Bitter End (Placebo Cover)
12 Apple and Cinnamon
13 Come Back to Me
14 First Love
15 Can You Keep A Secret
16 Automatic
17 Dirty Desire

-ENCORE-
1 Simple and Clean
2 Me Muero

My next two Kamen Rider Decade Albums have arrived – SONG ATTACK RIDE First and the Kamen Rider Decade First OST.

Now, surprisingly, I am reviewing both of these CDs a day earlier than release. How is that possible? Because CDJapan have astonished me with incredibly fast delivery time. One day, to be precise, and this is before the Japanese release. I love mail.

Let’s start with the SONG ATTACK RIDE First Album. When I first learned of the album, I had anticipated it to just be the original theme songs only. Then I heard RIDER CHIPS and Shuhei Naruse were on board doing remixes of the openings to Kuuga, Kiva and Ryuki (in the order their worlds appear on Kamen Rider Decade). And they’ve done a pretty good job.

Now, the most important thing to note here is that the remixes aren’t completely new creations, as I initially believed. Essentially, they have the original vocal track, but with new background music provided by the aforementioned artists. It’s an interesting idea, and is pretty unique.

Firstly, the RIDER CHIPS versions. We start the CD with “Kamen Rider Kuuga!”. The song starts off with an acoustic guitar, but slowly builds up, so by the second chorus it has become more alike to light rock. And, in all honesty, it works for the song. I feel sorry for RICKY though, because his role is pretty limited during the album. He provides additional vocals, and only really joins in for the “No fear! No pain!” part of the song, and has a similar role through the album. I think, in a way, it’s nice that Toei and Avex haven’t gone over the top with recreating these songs.

“Break the Chain” from Kiva is the next RIDER CHIPS song, and compared to Ryuki and Kuuga it doesn’t stand out all that much. It lacks the heavier sound that Kiva had, and the violins are missed. However, it sounds pretty cool after listening to it a few times. I think the solo is the best part of the song, and Yoshio Nomura did a good job in recreating a sound similar to some of the solos performed by Ayano and YUJI from TETRA-Fang.

Lastly, “Alive a Life”. I personally love this track. It takes what made the original good and improves on it. RICKY had a slightly bigger role here, joining in for more of the chorus and I think that had some effect on the final version. The guitar work sounds good, and the presence of Keyboards during the chorus captures the original essence of the song.

Next up, the Shuhei Naruse versions. Shuhei features Ayano on guitar, so it’s almost a mini TETRA-Fang reunion! Anyway, Shuhei’s version of “Kamen Rider Kuuga!” starts quite similarly to “Double Action ~Sword Form~”, ironic considering Shuhei’s involvement with Den-O. It’s a pretty different version, making use of Shuhei’s multiple keyboard skills, and Ayano’s crazy guitar work – featuring another one of his awesome solos.

Similar to the RIDER CHIPS version, I feel Shuhei’s version of “Break the Chain” is his weakest. It’s gone for a much slower approach with some unique voice samples. I would have thought this version would have been much faster and more akin to the TETRA-Fang performances from Kiva, but it turned out quite differently. It’s a nice song, but not what I’d really expect from Kiva.

Finally, “Alive a Life”, and once again done pretty well. Ayano features very prominantly, and the song sounds much heavier, which works well for the song. Shuhei has attempted to make the song his own, and it is obvious that he’s enjoyed making it more as it sounds a lot better than “Break the Chain”. Between this and “Kuuga!” however, I feel Kuuga wins outright.

The album ends with the original versions of the songs in all their glory – “Kamen Rider Kuuga!” by Masayuki Tanaka, “Break the Chain” by Tourbillon and finally “Alive a Life” by Rika Matsumoto.

Overall, I think the album is very enjoyable and produces a unique taste of the original songs, providing something different from the originals, but capturing the same spirit. Well. All except Kiva, which I felt lacked the necessary style.

Now, the next SONG ATTACK RIDE album is to feature the openings to Blade, Faiz and Agito, in that order. Which song from Blade I’m not too sure – probably Nanase Aikawa’s “Blade Brave”, as “Elements” by RIDER CHIPS feat. RICKY would seem kinda odd. But, we shall find out next month.

Next up, the Decade OST. After listening through it a few times, I can safely say it is enjoyable. Mostly all the tracks featured so far in the show are there, sounding very nice in their extended, unspoilt-by-dialogue format.

The OST comes with 45 tracks, including the TV Size version of Journey through the Decade. It’s amusing to listen too, as a few tracks contain the odd beat the sounds VERY similar to songs by TETRA-Fang – so far I’ve noticed similarities to Silent Shout and Eternity Blood. This is probably Shuhei’s doing, as he and Kōtarō Nakagawa are the OST Composers.

So far, my favourite track is ‘KAMEN RIDE’ (track 2), the main Henshin theme for Decade, remixed for the Ride the Wind single release with power guitars. This track must be one of the show’s main themes, as there are various songs through the OST featuring the same melody.

Overall, it’s a nice soundtrack to listen too, with some interesting themes such as “KAMEN RIDE” and the “FINAL FORM RIDE” songs. I’m not brilliant with OST reviews, so this is the best I’m going to manage.

Yes, my SIC Ryuki has no arms. It was a tragic defect at birth. With birth meaning when I opened the box. Poor guy.

The first two Kamen Rider Decade music releases – Journey through the Decade and Ride the Wind.

Now, generally I don’t do music reviews – I never know where to start. However, I’m going to take a shot at it with the first opening and ending theme for Kamen Rider Decade.

Let’s start with Journey through the Decade. Personally, I feel the song is perfect for Kamen Rider. And being performed by Gackt just adds to that. It is slower than most of the other Heisei Rider themes (except perhaps Hibiki’s second opening), yet it still works really well for the series. Want proof?

The song retains Gackt’s unique voice, and it’s quite a surprise to discover he didn’t write it. The music itself is very cool, building up to a strong rock ballad feel. Extra songs contained on the CD include two remixes – a guitar and keyboard remix named the ‘Distort RIDE’ and an orchestrated, beautiful sounding remix called ‘Symphony RIDE’. The CD also contains the Instrumental version, and in my copy’s case a DVD featuring the Music ‘film’.

Now, Ride the Wind. It’s… different, I’ll give it that. It doesn’t have the same rock feel that comes with many of the previous Kamen Rider series – it lacks what Rider Chips and Tetra-FANG provided for past series. It’s also a lot softer, performed instead on an Acoustic guitar, giving it a somewhat Spanish feel, and a keyboard.

A lot of people have said how they dislike the song, however I feel it has grown on me. The chorus does sound very crowded, and that’s my one dislike. Along with Inoue’s voice, there’s a group of people shouting lyrics out in the background that kind of takes away from it. However, as I say, it does grow on you eventually. So that’s not a bad thing.

Also included on the CD were two other tracks – the traditional Instrumental version and a track called ‘KAMEN RIDE. power guitar edit’. This is essentially a remix to Decade’s henshin theme, performed on guitar (surprise!) and it sounds pretty awesome. Worth a listen to!

In regards to the title, I only put MP3 on in hopes of attracting some views, sorry for that! ^__^;
If you’re interested in buying a copy, take a look on CDJapan. Journey through the Decade is selling for 1,200-1,800 Yen depending on version, and Ride the Wind is selling for 1,200 Yen.

Hope this has been of some help, expect another CD Review sometime this week when the next two Decade CD’s arrive – OST 1 and the Sound Attack Ride 1 CD, featuring new remixes of old songs by Shuuhei Naruse and Rider Chips. Should be awesome.