spolochon

@platy and @BrenGun : For now I'm kind of exclusive to Zaiko (https://zaiko.io, offering streaming services), because I'm a HUGE fan of Angelo and that's where they do their streamings. Other v-kei or jrock bands do stream there quite often even now, even if I don't -always- follow them. For example, apart from Angelo, I've been able to watch Kiyoharu and Micro Heads 4N's + a few others I forgot before it was too late to buy (such as Galneryus). And yes, it should probably be up to the users to update this part, it would be an insane job to check EVERYTHING regularly. It's just that it would be nice to have a place to announce these streaming concerts, and maybe chat about them a bit?

Hello all, Many bands have started selling tickets for "streaming concerts", that even we can access even from our non-Japanese homes. Of course there is the "Corona-related Livestreams / concert videos", but that is more about videos posted on Youtube, as a treat to fans until actual concerts can start again? There is also the "Events" sub-forum, but it looks like it's been abandoned after the Coronovirus spread (as no one can attend events anymore). In the end, maybe these "streaming lives" could deserve a topic or sub-forum of their own? Or should they be treated as "news" and announced in that forum? I have to admit I rarely come here, and even more rarely post here, but I did expect to see these concerts listed somewhere here. I rarely come here, even more rarely post here, but I consider this forum as one of the very few still active sources of information for visual-kei and Jrock, so... it would make sense to find them listed somewhere? Unless I missed their topic or sub-forum? Thanks!

@Punk I took part in this conference as a student, if I remember well it was a conference about Japanese culture and its impact in general, on France especially but not only. There were speeches about the more traditional part of Japanese culture too, that is why I can be so positive about the original goal of Cool Japan: it was explicit in that person's words, and also by the fact that he didn't try to flatter -everyone- present. I have to say I didn't believe in it so much when I heard that speech, I thought it was some attempt that would be quickly forgotten by the higher ups... but no, it did go until the end. It's when it had to be used that the higher-ups started to bother... The embassy itself doesn't decide much, it's the METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) that makes the actual decisions. And yes, they definitely slow things down... North Korea definitely proved they're a lot more efficient in that field. I didn't get what you mean about the comments on Gackt? Did you read that some people said that Gackt shouldn't care about those public fundings as he is already very successful and wealthy himself? If that's so: even (/especially) for Gackt, a concert can cost a fortune to prepare. The settings, the dances, the musicians and dancers, every little detail (which Gackt is EXTREMELY CAREFUL about) can cost -a fortune-. Even he has to make sure that he won't lose a fortune preparing any concert (which can easily happen, with such overall amounts.) So, yeah... if that's what you meant, these were very stupid comments from very entitled fans. Kpop isn't the only fandom with such fans!

Ok. So Avantasia/Edguy, Angra, Stratovarius, Rhapsody and all those bands are very crappy bands. Thanks for the information, they're actually part of my favorite bands. Or Nightwish and aliked, even if I don't love them so much. (Though I prefer Gamma Ray to Helloween, by far... so, yes, what's happening to Gamma Ray, or not-happening, is sad. But understandable, bills are surely a lot easier to pay with Helloween.) @Demivee Yay, Kai is a lovely person! I met him a few times after concerts, the usual fan-stuff, he's always been very kind and... "opened"? Well, such.

This thread deserves some Dark Tranquility awesomeness. Because their next album will be out on November 20th, and promises to be AWESOMELY AWESOME: (All 3 songs are from said-album)

I know quite a few people who were definitely into VK "in the old days" and are mostly into Kpop now, saying they lost interest in VK because there's nothing so great anymore, got boring and all. As far as I know, they enjoy the fun of kpop, mostly (even if they liked the darkness of some vk bands... I guess growing up can make you yearn for lighter stuff, as your life gets dark enough as it is). Also, let's face it: back in the days, many VK fans considered the musicians as SUPER GOOD. I mean technically good. As in considering Dir en Grey's Die or Karyu as some of the best guitarists ever. And so on for very liked bands. While, let's be honest... the melodies can be nice, that's one thing, but they're extremely rarely so good technically? So, well... now they enjoy the dance, which can be very good indeed, and the happy-light mood of the songs. Why not, to each their own. And many VK fans enjoyed the bands for the musicians' faces, it was most obvious when concerts were played in our countries: unsurprisingly, they now praise the good looks of Kpopmusicians. "To each their own". Special bonus: they can see some bands quite often, and in large venues. @Punk The Japanese government was very hypocritical (probably not for the first time, on different matters): 10 or 15 years ago now, they launched a program called "Cool Japan". It was aimed at promoting Japan as a "soft power" (to be understood as "culture power" in diplomatic terms). I was at a conference where some Japanese official in my country presented it, a few months before it was actually put into place, and the aim really was to promote anime, music, manga and other culture products consumed and enjoyed by youngsters. It was meant to help fund their exportation, through different grants / financial incentives. But for whatever reason (I don't even want to think of the possible reasons), things changed when it was put in place: I only ever saw it used to promote the classical culture of Japan (tourism for the oh beautiful landscapes, traditional ceramics, no and other traditional types of theater, and so on.) From our end (countries where the culture would have been exported), when we got in touch with the Japanese officials (embassy and such), the answer was that the demand had to be made from Japan. But the Japanese artist or organisation never -asked- to go abroad, they were always contacted first or at most contacted people abroad to know what conditions could be offered for "that act" to be exported: they wouldn't ask money for the export to happen because they wanted to be paid for the export. "Japanese pride". To sum up, it was everyone's fault. Although we can note that the government found ways for "traditional culture" to be funded by the Cool Japan program, while it appears it never applied such efforts for the "youngsters culture".

Angelo uploaded their 2019 live vide on Youtube (or most of it?): My apologies if someone posted it already, but I didn't find it? Anyway: IT'S GREAT! (I'm not the most objective person when this band's concerned but... yeah, it's great. Save for the first 10-15mn, as always with them, even in the Pierrot days.) And it's online until May 31th - 23:59 (Japanese time, of course).

Kind of the contrary to me. Not that I'm into them doing super heavy tune, but as I'm more into heavy/rock/metal things in general, the video for Infinity gave me some hope and I was close to try and buy the album... then the samples for the other songs left me most cold! Not "bad" per se, but very easy-listening/poppy... Well, at least the single definitely does the job!

I noticed that in the recent "hand motion videos" he didn't look so "into it" / as if he was having much fun anymore, so... I have to say I'm not so surprised. But yes, it clearly is a major loss for the band... I quite liked Administrator, -before- they got this oh-so-uninteresting singer (= basically, I liked/loved the demo songs that had been published on their Myspace page, and that's it). In Lezard, they had one of the very few visual-kei singers that do sound interesting (and in key) (my apologies, but well, quite often...): I hope they can find another singer that sounds good... So far Riostar Records has been good at finding decent singers, so... maybe? Let's hope... And best of luck to Lime in the future, hoping he joins another band someday soon.

Even in Japan they never got so famous, even if some famous musicians liked them indeed. And let's be honest, their latest releases were not as interesting (or good) as what they used to play... as if they wanted to act/look young. They didn't get so famous playing what they played in the old days, so they tried to sound a bit different? Even that didn't work... so my personnal bet is that, after a while, they got fed up (or some of them did) and they decided to stop the band. At least I would totally understand it if that was the reason. Gackt showed a few times that he likes this band indeed, too bad that it wasn't enough to bring the band fans, at least in Japan.

More precisely: Acid's singer had to stop, because of some lungs disease which name I forgot. Anyway: for this disease, you usually need to be operated on once... twice at most. And he had to undergo surgery three times for this: at the third, he said "ok, stop, I obviously can't have that thing going on and keep on singing..." I was at the concert where he announced his departure and explained the disease: you can trust me when I say he was far from happy about it... Then, the lead guitarist left too, I don't remember he did anything after Acid. Other members didn't see the point in continuing the band with the singer and main guitarist/composer (if I remember well) out: Acid stopped its activities. The drummer, bassist and second guitarist started Needless Lyrics, for which they hired a singer... who was ok in middle range notes, but his voice was very nosy: often got on my nerves. The music was very sweet-mellow anyway, nothing like Acid. They stopped their activities and played their last live in early 2011. From what I know, none of the ex-Acid or Endless Lyrics members are in band right now.