live report 君は鋭く (Kimi wa surudoku) @ Takadanobaba Area 2016.6.02

[The Reverend 3566]

The super long name for this show seems to have been: 

君は鋭く。「panorama3echoes」
発売記念主催
「残響、攪拌、振動覚について vol.5」

 

(if any mods read this... I wasn't sure if this was the right forum for my own live reports... seems like the focus is on translations. Move it if there's a better spot)

 

I'm in Japan for a little bit, and of course that means hitting some VK shows while I'm in town.

 

On this particular Thursday night I went to see a band I really like (君は鋭く。) and a bunch of other bands I didn't know at all. This isn't a full fledged narrative live report... but rather some thoughts and first impressions about each act. And of course since this was a VK show in Tokyo I followed the rules about no pictures and have none to share... other than this one of some flowers in the lobby for the show:

 

 

Let's start with a bit about the venue. Takadanobaba AREA. The most defining feature of this live house is that there are three tiers of the concert floor with bars at the front of each, helping give everyone a good view. Another positive aspect of AREA is that the bar is outside the main floor (and I imagine the merch could be also but since this show was pretty sparsely attended they had that taking up the highest tier.) I watched all the bands because the whole experience is pretty novel for me, but I could imagine hanging out outside the stage area near the bar if I didn't like the band playing (or if I wasn't there by myself ha). On to the show:

 

コントラリエ (Contrary?) - Such a baby band. A little too ‘cute’ for my tastes (singer had a sock puppet thing on his hand the whole time). If I had some advice for this band it would be to not spend 6 minutes of a 20 minute set talking after playing two songs when nobody knows who you are. Gotta give us a reason to care before you start chattering about *whatever* (I should note I don't speak Japanese at all... but the audience did not seem particularly captivated by the MC either).

 

黒乃うさぎ (kuronousagi) - Cringe-worthy embarrassment. 8-bit garageband angura  kei (?). This was just the singer.... and his one fan in attendance. At its peak tonight AREA only had about 50 people in it, but Kuronousagi had literally one person on the bottom level of the floor nearest the stage. He tried to bribe people to come down and participate with candy…. but ended up just handing it to that one girl and having her give it to the people in the back. I actually didn’t completely hate it.. but I came for a rock show and this guy was doing goofball karaoke.

 

Bask in the Deep - like a 180 degree turn from the last act (at least tonight's lineup was very diverse). Very pro, not VK at all except for a really slouchy top and cardigan on the singer/guitarist. Bassist had some sick runs. Finally got my head bobbing some.

 

ジグラット (Ziggrat) - Is this the same band as the one around like ~5 years ago?? I could’ve sworn they looked like an Aicle copy band at some point with lots of bright colors and happiness. Now the vocalist was wearing a polka dot dress but he was definitely going for a darker kinda ugly on purpose thing and the guitarists were wearing gallo esque black with white stripes get ups. (in stark contrast to the vocalist the guitarist was super pretty and could actually pass as a girl). Was fairly heavy and fun… but I was confused for most of the show about who this band was because I swear ziggrat used to look sooooo different. (One fun thing... instead of an 'MC' the vocalist did this little show wherein he pulled out two tea mugs and drank some water from each, then made a girl from each side of the audience come take them. No idea what it was supposed to be about, but I guess a couple people got a cool souvenir.)

 

カラビンカ (Karabinka) - Unlike Contrary, this band didn't say one word to the crowd and barely even looked up at them. A three piece very angura (I say that mostly because they had white face paint and a noisy kinda punk sound) band with a girl bassist. The guitarist/singer was super focused on the ground in front of him but did make a ton of noise with his guitar and sang with a ton of passion. They came out, played their hearts out for four songs… and left abruptly. That’s how you play to an un-friendly room (not that they didn’t have fans… I just mean when there are more people who don’t know you than do… give the unfamiliar as many reasons to like you as possible and as few to dislike you.) They were selling, and wearing, nooses of different colors at their merch table, I can't believe another VK band hasn't done this yet.

 

マルコ (Marco) - IDK, not bad or great... some or all of the members of this band definitely love Merry.

 

君は鋭く。(Kimihasurudoku) - The band I came to see. They had only released three songs before this show... but one of them (Stargazer) is a favorite of mine. Earlier in the show after the first band an older lady and younger girl came up to me in asked me in broken English (no offense intended, it was still wayyyyy better than my Japanese) what band I was there to see. When I answered 'kimi wa surudoku' they both smiled big smiles and asked me again to make sure of what I said. Unless I find out otherwise I'm going to assume this lady was someone in the band's mom because she was very happy that I said I liked them... she then went over to their merch table and grabbed a wrist band and insisted I take it. She was sweet (and gave me some free swag!) Related; @JRD will kill me or herself if she finds out how little I paid for a couple of their live-limited releases at the end of the show.

 

Their two vocalist set up was fun. I'm not one to participate in all the choreographed dancing and headbanging but when they played one of my fave songs ever I was definitely bouncing and raising my fist when appropriate. The vocalist with glasses had to keep taking them off to headbang like he wanted to. They made some announcement as they were leaving about something ( i think a show or release in December.... I'm probably wrong but I thought I heard 'juu-ni gatsu') that had two fans in front freaking the fuck out. Didn’t play that long for hosting the event… but I guess they don’t have a ton of songs haha. I had a lot of fun during their set.

 

All in all my biggest complaint about the show was that they definitely did it at too big a venue. It was never even 20% full. I saw some cool bands I need to check out and some I'll definitely be ignoring. Not a bad night.

[emmny 4139]

yAS rev!!! whats next on ur live hitlist?

[Biopanda 2675]

Awesome live report! Also for oldschool cred, the vocalist of カラビンカ is actually ありすがわありす of Missalina Rei fame XD

[The Reverend 3566]

Thanks for reading and enjoying guys!

 

11 minutes ago, Biopanda said:

Awesome live report! Also for oldschool cred, the vocalist of カラビンカ is actually ありすがわありす of Missalina Rei fame XD

 

What? Really?? I wouldn't have ever made that connection.

 

24 minutes ago, emmny said:

yAS rev!!! whats next on ur live hitlist?

 

Im going to the black swan later today.... And (you'll be excited for this) Emmuree on Monday.

[emmny 4139]

Just now, The Reverend said:

Thanks for reading and enjoying guys!

Im going to the black swan later today.... And (you'll be excited for this) Emmuree on Monday.

u are living my dream, headbang extra hard for me at the TBS live!! im expecting an essay for the emmuree live...tell me EVERYTHING!!!jk have fun!!!! :)))