Leaderboard

Lack-co are in the middle of hosting a series of Monday two-man shows called "ステゴロ" (what does Stegoro mean??) and having never seen Tenten in any of his bands and The Gallo being one of my favorite active VK bands I had to go to this one while I was visiting Tokyo. 東高円寺二万電圧 (Higashi Koenji ni man Den-atsu) is just outside the central Tokyo region defined by the Yamanote Line, but it was a quick trip on a couple trains and Den-atsu is very close to the station when you arrive. To access the venue you first have to descend an outdoor, concrete staircase toward an outdoor landing. The descent actually made me a bit nervous as there was no railing on one side and it was raining at the time. This was a very non-descript entrance from the roadway. After walking down the stairs and making a turn I was looking at a way too-cool-for-school 30-something dude manning the ticket table. Acknowledging that I don't look much like the typical VK fan in Japan, when I asked for one ticket this guy with shaggy hair at the table actually asked me "You know who's playing tonight?" He didn't sound mean about it, I think he genuinely wanted to save me from seeing this show normally reserved for younger women assuming I had just stumbled to the club looking for any live music I could find. I assured him I was there to see The Gallo and he handed me my paper ticket that doubled as a drink ticket. I liked the set up in side Den-atsu as the bar and merch tables were outside the stage area, which meant I could stand pretty much anywhere inside and not be in the way of people trying to sell things. I found a spot in the rear of the club in front of a tiny alcove that was littered with bags belonging to the VK girls in attendance. This was a fairly small club with low ceilings; their website says the capacity is 130 and I'd say this show had about 80-90 people in attendance. The head count reminded me just how niche a scene VK is. I'd consider The Gallo and Lack-co two of the more well-known indies bands, so it was a bit jarring to see the small venue they were playing at even in a giant city. I'm obviously too deep into VK to remember that almost no one cares about this stuff. Obviously The Gallo were going to be playing first... both because Lack-co were hosting the event and because I saw a lot of the girls standing near the stage holding their signature bowl and spoon. One girl near me had a plain bowl with no logo on it that I could see, did I miss something or did this girl just bring her own bowl from her kitchen to clap along with? I think the latter scenario is pretty funny/ingenious actually. I mentioned in a live report from a couple years ago that The Gallo fans kept doing furi during the band's music playing between sets over the club's PA, and during this show the fans clapped along to the bass drum sound check. Gallo fans seem like a fun bunch in general. The curtain was drawn to reveal the band in their latest Gallo-Vuitton all over print leisure suits. Jojo had his hair cascading through the top of a hat with the top cut off and some Day of the Dead skull inspired makeup for a very Tim Burton-y look overall. Andy had his palm against the ceiling atop the stage, and I don't think he was raising his hand to get the crowd hyped but rather to test whether or not he could pump his fist upward during the show (he couldn't without hitting his hand... a lot of the band members had to deal with this and would only throw up their hands while bending backward to afford themselves a little more space.) Some of the audience were even checking to see if they could touch the ceiling. The stage right guitarist (they have names for these positions in VK but I don't remember them) had one of those guitars with no headstock, and it looked from across the room like the end of the neck had dripping red wax poured on it a la a Maker's Mark bottle. The newer guitarist, Nov, passed out paper plates to the audience so that people who didn't bring their own (like me, no I didn't pack my Gallo plate in my luggage) could clap along and the set began with "Belphegor". "Belphegor" has some pretty obvious clapping along portions, so even a noob like me could get the hang of the plate banging fairly quickly. The highlights of the set for me were the fact that they played "Kuroi Ondori" (ok they played the remade version from Nero, but still) which is a favorite of mine, and also the 'circle pit' that Jojo started with himself dancing in the center of the maelstrom playing with a megaphone set to siren mode. The lowlights, if you can call them that, were that two different songs had the audience doing the wave (do we need that two separate times?) and that the MC music was "Tokyo Cinderella" but they didn't actually play "Tokyo Cinderella". Some of the non-bowl-based audience participation that was fun was the crowd stomping on the floor in time the beat and the crowd holding hands and swaying back and forth. Of course a couple songs had the requisite gyaku-daibu portions, and I'm certainly not jumping into the backs of some tiny Japanese girls, but they were fun to watch. Nov was kneeling on the backs of a couple girls during one diving song and slipped off them and stumbled backwards onto the stage. Wajou occasionally tried to demand the crowd participate in the diving like the other members were, but he is way too smiley and couldn't really pull it off. He just couldn't help being happy even trying to look mean. The Gallo ended their set with a really high energy rendition of "Incubus" (which I'm still disappointed has no theremin in the live version) during which Jojo was leaning over the crowd singing and got some feedback when he put his mic in front of the amp and proceeded to give it a disappointed look and bop the amp on its 'head' like it was a recalcitrant child. With The Gallo finished with their set thus began the churning of the crowd as Lack-co fans moved into the frontmost positions and many girls invaded my small space in the back looking to find their bags and check their phones and makeup. It kind of sucks for people in the back, as the polite spot changing for peoples' favorite bands leads to a weird concert-going scenario where the back of a venue is often more crowded than the front, but it is kind of cool that the scene (or just Japanese live music fans?) doesn't require people who want to be up front for the band playing last to endure being crushed through all the other shows as concerts in the west would. Interesting note about Den-atsu: in tearing down the stage between sets (which isn't quite the production at these Japanese clubs where you basically just have to bring your instrument and plug in) the bands/roadies had to move equipment down from the stage into the audience area and out through a side door that wasn't connected to the stage. So after the curtain was closed on The Gallo, a couple minutes later we saw band members bringing things down from the stage to this side door. (from Lack-co Twitter) While The Gallo fans can be identified by their white bowls and spoons, Lack-co fans had all produced blue and red clamshell castanets to clap along with. I have to say these did dramatically change the sound of the crowd applause in a way that might get old, but was kind of refreshing for the first time. Lack-co's intro SE was a piano rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" that gradually morphed into the requisite fist-pounding, techno track. The first member to take the stage was drummer Higiri, and wow I thought I hated his black face, but this blue Alfalfa x Cindy Lou Who hairstyle he was rocking for the show might actually bother me even more (not bother in the same way obviously, but it was not pleasant to look at.) I resolved to avoid watching him as much as possible. The band, except for Tenten who had a Lack-co band tee over a white shirt, were all wearing the red suits with writing strewn all over them from their most recent look. I recognized some of the words scrawled on their suits like 'shine' and 'kimoi' as 'mean things to say to someone'. Very edgy boys. Between not loving their output so far, and the majority of their tracks having titles in Japanese, I didn't recognize much of Lack-co's set list other than a riff here or there. The show did remind me of why I keep giving Tenten's bands chances and will continue to; he is one hell of a charismatic frontman. His sly smiles and confident stage mannerisms had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand and made it so it was hard to pay attention to any of the other members of the band. His best move was when he parted the Red Sea of fans to do a bit of 'everyone run into each other from opposite sides of the venue' but just as the opening in the center stabilized, he jumped down and ran to the cameraman at the back of the venue, struck a pose for a moment, then dove back onto the stage just as the cue for the crowd to go wild hit. Lack-co's set actually resembled a straight up rock show the most of any VK bands I've seen I think. There was very little *furi*, most of the synchronized moves were headbanging, clapping, fist-pumping type stuff that required no direction from Tenten or the band. Tenten even commanded an almost bona fide circle pit during which one girl lost her sweater and it ended up absolutely trampled. In fact, I was a little surprised by how much the show, for lack of a better word, rocked. Lack-co has always seemed like an assemblage of too cute ideas in search of a central theme or melody to hold on to on wax, but live their songs resonated nicely even with perhaps a 'jazz' breakdown a little too often. Milk threw a carton of milk into the crowd as the band were leaving the stage... ride that USP hard buddy. Ivy was fun strutting around the stage and headbanging as usual. I say as usual because I'm pretty sure I saw him at three different shows the week I was in Tokyo, at Lack-co and as a session bassist the other two. When the set ended the girls chanted and clapped in unison for an encore. (Though they appear to be saying "an-ko-re" instead of "an-ko-ru"? I guess the first group that did it had only seen the word encore and not heard it spoken??) They even started up a chant for a second encore that was cut off by the house lights and a voice over the PA system telling them, I'm guessing here, that the show was actually over and it was time to go home. This was a fun pairing for a two-man show as both bands and their groups of fans have pretension-free fun jumping around to some quality tunes. I'll be sure to check out Tenten's next band if I visit Japan again 😉.

kaya has been from the jump an artist who loves club/dance/pop music with occasional dalliances in other genres: her VERY FIRST SINGLE, kaleidoscope, fell into this vein. why the fuck are y'all so salty when kaya has said MULTIPLE TIMES that she intends to further explore darker sounds with schwarz stein? that side of kaya ain't going away. the level of ignorance in this thread is fucking ridiculous. FURTHERMORE, while a lot of RPDR queens make campy music, many do not, so i find fault with you equating them all together. ginger minj, jinx monsoon, shea coulee, aja, trixie mattel etc, make "serious music", not unlike kaya. drag music is the closest thing to vk in the west & TBH these queens r much more authentic than a bunch of misshapen scandivanian assholes screaming in broken japanese.

XXX is so talented that he can play guitar, bass, and drums simultaneously.

Vo. BYO (ex-SCREW) new band "KHRYST+" has formed [members] Vocal. BYO Guitar. XXX Bass. XXX Drums. XXX their first live will be at 2018/11/01 at TSUTAYA O-WEST https://khryst.jp/ https://twitter.com/khryst_official https://www.Instagram.com/byo_official

アンフィル(Anfiel) new album "COUNT DOWN" will be released in November

This! I wish he would stop trying too. We all know (have known for a long time) that he has more talent in one of his front lace wigs than any queen out there. I am all for more exposure, just without this western assimilation mess. The song isn’t bad and Kaya looks amazing as always, but I want my Goth synth queen back

Sioux new maxi-single, "cloud nine" will be released on September 5 (1500 yen). [tracklist] 1.beyond 2.無限星 (mugenhoshi) 3.lost things A PV for "beyond" will be coming soon.

The word going around is that the new X album is being aged in the very same barrels

i feel like you can make a good case for IBIM with -273.15℃/tiamat/IBIM (the song)/(+this coma/lie/before you know it even though they're rare now) because they're enjoyable live, but if they never played anything but New Psycho from Inferiority live again i wouldn't be mad lmao. on the other hand, if they stopped playing outrage/killing cunt/invader!!!/F.A.K.E./unelma i would never forgive them. the one thing i can say about lynch. fans is i can never predict which albums they'll say are their favorites or even which songs they enjoy live the most. for their most recent fanclub tour where they played their entire discography, there was a bingo sheet going around where you put the 9 songs you wanted to hear the most at the shows you attended. most of the cards i saw all had very different picks...

schwarz stein are literally releasing an album this fall tho

Chocolat's cuteness was nice but this is 2 much I can't say the song isn't catchy though. And the gay storyline is sweet. I really wish Kaya would quit trying so hard to appeal to Western drag fans though; it's too forced.

it's not lynch.'s fault that Ryo had better things to do

big if true x

I've been wanting to write some of this stuff out forever because I'm a huge digital packrat and I like to archive these types of things... I don't think any of this has been written out anywhere before, but I'm not sure how much people actually care about the fan culture part of VK here, especially the Japanese fan culture, and especially the online Japanese fan culture. But, just in case any of you are also level 50 Turbo Nerds I thought I should post it here. I hope this is a sensible place to put it?? this piece is WAY too long for how lame the subject is and i'm so sorry tl;dr: tanuki is old as fuck and there used to be another tanuki and forums are dead, long live tanuki edit: fixed a number i screwed up

Dr.リィク (Riiku) is ex-StellaNova-->ヴァイオレット (Violet) (LyieK.)

🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁

holy fuck 🦁

Vo.ミラ (Mira) (ex-シアン (Xian)(彪牙/Hyuga)-->Mummy) has joined アンドゥー (UNDEUX) at 2018/5/9. Their new mini-album "不適切ナ、ボクラノ雑音集 (Futekisetsu na, Bokura no Zatsuonshuu)" will be released at 2018/7/18. (2 type, 5 tracks, CD only, 2100 yen)

aww, he sucks

I wanted to be Italian but I'm Brazilian hahaha

Yeah, I'm thinking the actual CD might be a collection of the demo songs and maybe a couple more tracks... so hopefully at least a mini album! edit: Just found a pic of the 'demos'... yep, they're literally just cards, lmao. And someone's already selling this set for ¥8000 on Yahoo, damnnn. btw today's the tour final at Shinjuku LOFT, so let's hope they'll announce the CD soon afterwards~

Thanks!!

I highly suggest a new pair of glasses asap.

Lyrics: http://vocaloidlyrics.wikia.com/wiki/外見と内面_(Gaiken_to_Naimen) [It's a Vocaloid cover (prod. すこっぷ)] pls give Shougo views, he updates once in a while even while in アンフィル.

Ryutaro is straight up looking like Shiina Ringo in that second pic Kenken looking fine as always

Did anyone notice that they turned off commenting on their latest MV? Lmao. Last time I checked, a lot of people were bashing them for being rip-offs so I guess they had enough of those. (ノへ￣、)

okay but who remembers the morphine series that was so fkin amazing +1

you must be new here

No one's posted White Veil from his youtube channel yet? I'll do the honors then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZXa4hombas

ZIN 2nd single, "僕等の場所で" (Bokura no Basho de) will be released at his live on August 30 at Takadanobaba CLUB PHASE for 1500 yen. [tracklist] 01. 僕等の場所で (bokura no basho de) 02. IRIS

Eh. They simply had more charm in their mysterious, who-the-fuck-are-these-members-and-what-the-fuck-is-this-band phase. At least they sort of stayed true to the "what-the-fuck-is-this-band" part

moran's jen:ga is a good start x

i have high hopes for this one! Matsupoiyo (the complete maxi single) was a masterpiece but everything else he did was just OK to me...

japanese fans: mako san sugoku kakkoiii foreign fans on YT: You Copied Everyone You Unoriginal Fucks Burn In Hell Disgusting

I AGREE. NOTHING BUT LOVE.

Can we talk about how Mako fucking slays OMG ❤️ And the other guys ill drop a spoiler cuz images are large

HOW DID THEY RIP OFF NINTH JUST AFTER IT CAME OUT....LEGENDS ONLY

His first single "Gothic/White veil) will be released on 2018.07.01. (1500 yen) Tracklist : 01.Gothic 02.White veil

Well, I applaud him for confidence and guts. But imho he isn’t unique, but if he can serve good music and management team, he may able to have good solo career

Does he have a actual fanbase? (Besides himself I mean)

Side project klaxon! The other dudes are knee deep in CROSS VEIN album promo for now so maybe after that's done? Besides, how else ZIN gonna eat now he's lost TERU's artisanal pastries?