Ito

Any one else been to one of these concerts? I just attended one in Chicago this last Sunday at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra...it was just pure awesomeness. Admittedly, it has been a fair amount of time since the last time I have seen a live symphony of any kind, but that probably only added to the experience. I was sitting very close to the center on the third floor (first floor was too expensive and second floor was boxes), I made sure when getting my ticket to pick somewhere that would be in the sweet spot. For those of you who haven't gone to one before, an Orchestra plays the music of final fantasy and video is played on a projector screen over head of Final Fantasy footage. Frankly, while the video added to a few songs (like the Chocobo Medley), I could have done with out it and I found that I spent a good deal of the show just closing my eyes and listening, trying extra hard to take it all in. While I am by no means a classical fan (though I do enjoy it), there is something very different about going to a live of an orchestra vs listening to it on headphones...Something far more than any more musical genre...This is something only enhanced by the fact that most of the pieces that they played have found there way close to my heart already by the hours I have spent playing final fantasy. And while you can argue that while this isn't pure classical, and maybe not as impressive Korsakov, Beethoven, or Chopin, some on Nobuo Uematsu's work has a way of working its way under your skin and really touching you. The first half of the concert was alright in comparison to the second half. Susan Calloway screwed up pretty bad in the beginning Suteki da ne, but the rest was good (though I can't say I care for her voice). The piano version of Those Who Fight was awesome...and of course the Chocobo Medley. But the second half....fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. We started of with Dark World from VI, one I have never played, but damn if this song didn't haunt me...it was incredible. Maria and Draco was a pretty fun song, the opera was a bit different but just made it kind of playful...and I hate to sound stereotypical, but One Winged Angel was fucking awesome. They used the song for the encore and used the entire crowd (around 2,500 people is my guess) to sing the Latin in the song, it was Brilliant. Any other experiences?

The main reason that this idea would never work is one that is tied to basic forum usage. People do not visit subforms nearly as much as they do regular forums. The goal of a forum, in my mind, is to create some form of separation of topics with out being limiting. Hell, I think some of out forums/subforums are maybe too specific. Secondly, I will say this. When Jake and I started Tainted World...god I don't remember how long ago (2005?), both him and I were in to visual kei. While that was true, this forum was about Japanese rock music, our interest just leaned heavily on VK. I think we have hit a mature enough point in this community to realize it is about the fun we have talking, the sharing of music, and the friends we have made, and less about Vk. Hell, I think if you are going to only listen to VK and not open yourself up to any other genres, this probably isn't the best place for you to be. I honestly pride this forum on the mix of musical tastes we have going on, and if the downloads section was segregated in to subforums, I probably would have not found of a lot of the music that I enjoy today. Could the downloads section use some more cleaning up? Yes, of course! Does it need to be split up by genres? Definitely not

Having heard fruity beats I was expecting the worst coming in to this album. There are some songs that down right suck (especially the new version of Void), but Sophia merges well when they work with her style, not when they try to do the same stuff that they used to but just having her on vocals. Stargazer might be the best song because they follow that formula. That said, I still miss the old BSC, Idolator will forever be their best album.

Different Sense turned out to be a far more enjoyable song than I expected. That said, it feels VERY disjointed. Parts of the song just don't seem to fit with the other parts. The begging reminds me of Marrow and just feels like a mess, Kyo's high pitch sequels are almost laughable to me, then at about 1:14 in the flow of the song changes into something far more controlled. The screams shift to the background and Kyo's singing takes the front stage, which sounds like it has improved. That is then followed by a solo, which is pretty cool, but once again, feels kinda out of place (reminded me of ReS). I kinda shift in to a calmer mood and start to enjoy the songs, but as soon as I do, I am snapped out of that by as the guitars pick up the pace and kyo does some scream/rapping. Then we have this weird "talking" section. I can't help but feel like the background screams don't help the song out at all. Then the song slows down again and I start to enjoy it again, it feels far more layered and detailed, there is a lot more to take in and enjoy at there parts, and I feel that they spent a lot more time planning the chorus than any other part of the songs, as it really sticks out as well done to me. Overall I am going to give it a 7 out of 10, it's worth dealing the the mediocre chugging heavy part to enjoy the the other bits of the song. On a side not, I don't really care for the recording/production on the drums in this song. They feel low in the mix and kind of flat to me. I am going to reserve judgement on Tsumi to Kisei for now, but I do enjoy the bass in it.

This is the actual pair, the site I bought them from actually blogged about it since it was such a sick custom skate

Don't you know that you need to put your family on limited profile XD One of my aunts added me on FB, I added her back. Of course, I post status with a lot of swears or inappropriate content in them sometimes, so she posted on one of my status about how I shouldn't post this kind of stuff on my facebook. I told her to unfriend me is she didn't like it, it's my facebook, I do what I want

I loved how the guy with the huge beard said all the bands in such an unamused tone.

New Russian Circles album by the end of the year, I am pumped. I need to check out some of the recommendations here. Also, new Mogwai was really meeeeeeeeeeh/

I don't know, I am the opposite, I enjoy them more now than I ever did, they feel more relevant. They don't need to be "edgy," in fact a lot of their "edginess" kinda turns me off of the show. I personally loved the cynicism episode Well, except for all the shit coming out of peoples' mouths, that kinda stuff is just ugh to me, but it was necessary for the episode to be funny, they just pushed it to the point of "ugh, really" by the end of the show.

This. I honestly was like "what is this?" when I was listening to the sample. Tsumi is sludgy as hell and I feel like this song has potential...Kyo guttural growls are pretty meh though. Hope everything else is interesting enough to compensate. That said, the jury is still out, considering these are only short, low quality samples.

THIS. Didn't really care much for their latest stuff. QFT If they can release something like those releases, I will be a happy man.

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU http://nooooooooooooooo.com/ Seriously, dammit. This is one of the few bands that I would actually be sad over their disbandment...I was already tired and meh because of how dreary it is over here today, but fuck. I will still love them and they will probably be forever my favorite jrock band, both in studio and live (though I haven't seen a ton of Japanese bands live). I hope Hizumi gets better......

you look good in glasses!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww yeah!

Easy, I cheat and use flash

I feel that this console needs it's own new thread separate from E3 XD Talk about weird. I am not sure about this new system at all, it feels like it will fall into the same category of gimmick that the wii eventually did. On the plus side we did finally find out that we are getting 1080p graphics. Nothing was said about 5.1 or 7.1 that I know of. The graphics look to be pretty good, but we don't really know how good and if it will be better than that of the PS3's or 360's. We also found out that more third party developers will be supporting the will, most likely because of the improved graphics and dual analog sticks it will be far easier to port games over to the wiiu. So maybe Nintendo won't be left as far in the dust this time. Also, there is the price. There is no way that this system will be able to come out at a cheap price point, and the controllers themselves will most likely be fairly expensive. What worries me the most is looking down when I am playing games. Let me explain why the screen on the controller seems pointless to me for a lot of reasons. I am playing Zelda and I want to switch items. So I go to my inventory by looking down at my controller. If I am in an action situation I am gunna want to pause anyway. If I am not I will just look down. But how is this any quicker or more efficient? If I had pressed pause I would already be there and I wouldn't have to take my head from the screen, which I think arguably lowers immersion. I feel like I can say this with some bit of experience from my logitech keyboard (G15). It has an little screen on the top that normally displays stats when I am playing an FPS. Do I ever look down at it? No, it is faster just to press tab and look there than glace down, quickly read my stats, then look back up. I reserve final judgment until I actually play the system, but man, I am really not sure about this one.

It starts today! I watched Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft's press conferences today at work, the fun is just beginning (Sony's is on in 15 min). Microsoft's: Started off alright and then went down hill. It was very very Kinect-centric, which frankly, I don't give a damn about (nor do most hardcore gamers). No doubt people are jumping up and down about Halo 4 and Anniversary though. Other than that, not much to speak of. GoW but nothing new there. I would give them a ow rating this year. EA's: Pretty good. Battlefield 3 looks spectacular, about 100x better than Modern Warfare 3, which looks cool but is feeling very stale. Open Beta...fuck yeah. SSX was nice, but I would have really like to have seen more than just a short trailer. Also, can we be told whether there is gunna be skiing in it, I will be massively disappointed if they don't. Sorts games I don't care about so I kinda just zoned over them. I have never been a fan of bioware, but I'll be damned if the Mass Effect 3 stuff didn't make me want that game. Over all pretty good conference. Ubisoft's: I will get to this later, but it pretty the presentation pretty much sucked. Time for Sony's!

I just started playing these games yesterday and FUCK. They are freaking hard! I am working my way through Imperishable Night right now, and I can get about 40% of the way through on normal. I get some seriously eye strain after playing them because they are so hard and I am concentrating so much...but for whatever reason, they are really fun, lol. Anyone else play them?

Right now it is "invite only." You can request a invite for right now, I am kind of surprised I actually got in, to be honest. I know that the beta is limited, but I honestly doubt when it goes official, google is gunna take away the privileges of the beta users, they have never done anything like that before.

I figured this was just as appropriate forum as any to post this thread in. So, who's got the google music beta and how are you liking? I am currently cramming mine full of tunes, it is gunna take forever to upload all of my music, though. I am really enjoying the service though. I think that I am going to enjoy it even more once I use it at work though, I won't have to bring over all my music on a flash drive to put it on the computer or use my ipod. It shall be full of win. Now hopefully last.fm will make a scrobbler for it.

How did the results turn out? (I voted several times btw).

SOCKS!!! XD

I am pretty darn sure I remember you then XD As for my own business, hopefully it will happen eventually, I want to get some experience in the business world first before I go ahead and start my own company.

Relentless, what you are saying is purely rumors. The fact remains if their tour did bomb, it was only their very last tour or they would not have come back. And while, yes, it probably was expensive, they are a band on a major record label, most likely the label was the one eating the costs, not the band. What you are saying just sounds very odd. The fact that you are calling Hizumi a faker is just plain dumb too. If he was faking and they needed money, he would just say he is better and the band would come back from hiatus, go on tour in Japan, make another album, and with it make more money. That all said, I hope someone gets some video of this live, I think it would be really fun.

I will do this when I get home. I know that I won't be able to tell this on my parents computer speakers, but my home setup is fairly decent and so are my headphones, so I think that will give me a greater chance of telling the differences.