Deadly Circus Vol.1 21/11/2014

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

I realized I once promised to post a live report of this gig here as well, I did post it on my tumblr some years ago when I was still in Japan... So I'm posting it here now. Enjoy (don't mind the typos lmao).

 

Just 2 weeks after this I went out for beers with Yayoi, Kenzi, Ruiji (ANti feminism) and the bassist from Youya or Youka (old anarchist records band). I could write about that as well if someone wants to read it.

 

Deadly Circus Vol.1 Shinjuku BIRTH 21/11

NOTE: Pictures at the end of the post.


I arrived at the live house about 30 minutes before doors open. I was surprised by only seeing 8 people waiting inside. I love the look you get as a foreigner when going alone to a visual kei live (I do that from time to time when I want to attend lives that nobody likes :v )  the look on the bangya’s faces is like “you must be lost or something…”. 

Anyway, there were some free distributed CD’s at the entrance (didn’t see what band, but it wasn’t Deadly Sanctuary so I didn’t bother to take any of them). As it got closer to 18.30, we were about 25 people in total, and most of them being women in their 30-40’s lol. I was really surprised, but since the bands were ANTI FEMINISM (been active since 92?), THE PIASS (also 90’s?), GELLONIMO (also 90’s!) and Deadly Sanctuary, I guess it’s natural. It was weird seeing everyone drinking beer, chuuhai and other alcoholic drinks, as most people usually drink melon soda or water (since they are underage most of the time). Also, all around the stage there was fluorescent leaning against the grid (there was 14 to be exact).

ANTI FEMINISM

At 18.40, the background music got shut of (thank god, it was slipknot anyway), and the lights got dim and the first band was about to enter stage. At first I just saw the drummer, guitarist and bassist, and I really couldn’t figure out what band it was. It looked like PIASS or ANTI FEMINISM, but I wasn’t sure since both of them have shitloads of memebers and neither Takayuki or KENZI was on stage. As I looked closer on each member, I saw the drummer wearing a ANTI-FEMINISM shirt though, so I figured it was them. And well, just as I came to that conclusion, the backstage door opened (not at the stage, it was closer to the merch booth). And out comes Kenzi in a hat, blazer and addidas pants, carrying something that looked like a homemade raft, made out of fluorescent. He put them on the ground in the middle of all the fans (basically we made a ring surrounding him), ripped of his blazer, shirt and hat, started screaming to the music and made a front flip, bareback into the fluorescent. 

He got a lot of glass stuck in his back, but he crawled up again, took a fluorescent, broke it on his head and took the rest of it and started eating it. Then he took one more flourescent and went up on stage. They played two songs (for people who are familiar with ANTI FEMINISM, all their songs basically sound the same so I really don’t know the setlist). Anyway, after the two songs, he had a MC. I was really surprised as he was speaking in really really polite japanese (teinei and keigo), I assumed that he would speak casual Japanese because… well, he seems like a guy who would do that. 

Anyway, after that they played about 4 songs, and then Kenzi grabbed a bottle (looked like a water bottle but was obviously gasoline in it) and jumped down to all of us. He stood in the middle and filled his mouth, spat out gasoline and used a lighter so he breathed fire. He did that a couple of times, then he went back up, and the drummer came down instead and while he was doing the same thing, Kenzi was putting on what looked like a Pikachu mask with half of the face of a devil. He brought up a porno magazine and started jerking off (not taking his dick out though lol), while reading it. 

And then the drummer spat fire on Kenzi, so he was sat on fire for a little while and his book burned up. As the drummer went back up, Kenzi told us that they want to show us their feelings now. So the entire band came down from the stage, the drummer last and holding a bag of banana’s which he seemed to have bought a family mart. So Kenzi started handing out bananas to everyone, it seems their fans are scared of him as well, because when he gave a banana to one of the girls he said “BOOM!” and pointed it like a gun, and she got so damn scared lol.  After they finished giving out the bananas he started talking about how banana’s are a good fruit because they contain a lot of energy. When he had finished his banana, he said he wants to make a song with us. So from the speakers, “What’s up people” by Maximum the hormone started playing (lol), and the entire band started head banging and trying to get us to join them… Quite frankly I think most people was scared of him more than anything. 

They then went back up on stage and played most of the setlist without saying anything (no MC’s). Just KENZI doing a little selfharm (scratching himself etc). During the last song he went backstage and came out with a new “fluorescent raft”. This time he put it on the floor, and put a pillow next to it where he put down a pickachu teddybear. He then put his hand on fire, and set pikachu on fire with his hand. Then he did a front flip into the fluorescent again. This time he did run for water afterwards though, so I assume the fire started to hurt lol. After that he went back up on stage, said thank you to everyone and hoped that we would have fun watching the rest of the bands. 


GELLONIMO

There was about 15 minutes time to wait before the next band came up. I really didn’t do anything besides check out the merch. Anyway, next band up was Gellonimo. I don’t really have a lot to say about them, except that the vocalist (Miyabi) don’t pull of visual kei at all. He is too old and looks so tired lol. He was also wearing something that looked like a persian carpet rolled around him with a vest on top of it, which I guess didn’t really help him. The drummer and bassist was fairly young, so I think they are not their original line up. 

During the MC he talked about being a bandman is tiresome and tears on you a lot. So he prefers just running his shop (which is a visual kei bar in Kabukicho). He told everyone to please come by after the gig. And then the guitarist asked if we would get nomihodai from him (free drinks for a fixed amount of time). He was thinking for a while and said something along the lines of “… well if they pay for it” followed by Bakkayaro. Their music was fairly OK though, I had only heared one song from them some years ago on a compilation album. Their music was kind of a mix of punk and thrash metal (bands like Kuroageha comes to mind). So it was still very nice to listen to, even though they looked like crap. Their set was very short (15-20 minutes) and I know for sure that they played “HUMAN REBEL” and “NO”

THE PIASS


After Gellonimo, there was the obligatory “wait for the next band”-time. So I checked out the merch more, and decided to buy Anti feminism’s best of album. I really liked their performance, and I really haven’t listened THAT much to them. Anyway it was 3000 yen and I payed her with a 5000 yen bill. She didn’t have change so she had to leave for a little while, only to come back with Kenzi lol. It was kind of fun because he seemed super appreciative of me buying his CD, so he gave me a lot of stickers and photos (which actually was sold at the table for 300-500yen each) for free. At one point I thought he was done giving me stuff, so I went off only to hear him call me back (lol) to give me some more. It was quite amusing, and very different from how I saw him as earlier (from seeing him live). He seemed like a very kind and nice guy and I will probably visit his bar some time soon. 

Soon after I was done at the merch table the next band took place. Sirens started shouting and PIASS came out on stage. Of course last was Takayuki. And 80% of all people there seem to have come mainly for THE PIASS. Sadly, they did not play any songs I was familiar with. So I can’t say I was very impressed… Takayuki was cool, and had a nice stage presence and I like that he use a megaphone to shout in. Also their outfit’s was really awesome, especially Takayuki’s. He wore a white “La'mule-ish” dress with blood. A blazer looking thing on top of that, white shoes and brown/purple-ish hair. As I already wrote, I was not familiar with their songs as I have only listened to their first album which was released… 20 years ago? And they didn’t play songs from that album so.. They had a lot of fun furi’s, and they were definitely the highlight of the evening for most of the people (so it seemed). 

Deadly


When PIASS was done, about 40% of the crowd left. And for a while I thought I was going to be left alone to watch the band I actually came for. Fortunately, new people came in (Yuuga wrote at twitter when approx time they were about to start, so people dropped in at that time). Most of the people that entered (I found out later) was fans of Yuuga. When the light turned off,  a instrumental version of MASTRUBATION started playing. Out came their drummer, guitarist and bassist. Followed by Yuuga (and this point all his fangirls were yelling “YUUUUUUGA SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! YUUGA YUUGA YUUGAAAAAAAA” lol). After Yuuga, came of course Yayoi. 

He was dressed in a white doctor-ish coat with blood on it. He was also wearing a black wig and had black eye-liner and red lipstick. When Yayoi came out on stage I heard the girl next to me say to her friend “futotteita yo ne” (which basically means “he got fat, right?”) lmao. It was true though, but, not being a visual kei artist means he can eat whatever he wants again I guess lol. I was very surprised with Yuuga, after all the rumours that has been going on at international communities (Yuuga being a agressive guy) only to find out he seemed kinda calm. Also his looks was very different from what I expected since I haven’t been following him since he started “THE.” (early GOKIBURI). And at that time he was fat as well lol. 

He looked very much in shape, and I am definitely going to check out GOKIBURI as soon as I get the chance (if they can update their damn schedule some time soon…………). After the instrumental S.E., they started by playing HOMESICK CHILD, followed by Mastrubation. After that they had a S.E. were Yayoi basically just said thanks for coming, and presented their schedule for the coming month since they are a time limited band. They then played, what I think was a new song. Then it was time for MC… I can’t recall exactly what he said but Yuuga also spoke a little bit. At some point he was trying to get us to yell “SEX” ), like he does in one of their songs (I think it’s in “Suck my dick!!”?). Then they did a band introduction (Yayoi saying everyones name, along with respective member having a small solo, about 10 sec or so). Of course all the girls got batshit insane when it was Yuuga’s turn. After the MC they played they played their last song which was either a new song or a song from their split “EMPEROR” with ANTI FEMINISM. I haven’t listened that much to that release so I am not 100% sure. 

When Deadly was finished, a lot of the band members went to their merch booth (no members of Deadly did that though). Kenzi was at the ANTI FEMINISM booth, Takayuki at PIASS booth and well… I think it was SHUN (a guy who works at Yayoi’s bar) who was at Deadly’s booth. I have never bought checkis before, but I decided to try and do it because I really wanted a picture of Yuuga and Yayoi. When I was going to buy the checkis, I went up to the booth and Takayuki thought I wanted to buy PIASS merch, but when I didn’t he looked kind of disapointed lol. When you are buying checkis you can’t see what photo you choose. So you can get any member (basically roulette I guess). 1 checki was 500 yen, so I bought two. Unfortunately both checkis was of 一斗 (no idea how to pronounce his name) but it’s the other guitarist (who is also a part of Yuuga’s GOKIBURI) he still looks cool though so I am still happy. Since most members was outside, I figured it was going to take some time until the “big session” started, and it was already getting very late and I was tired. So I decided to skip it. When I went out I remembered the distributed CD’s and thought that if they are still there I’ll grab one. Unfortunately they were all gone. :x 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Takadanobabaalien