I was stolen from my Jeffy. :(
Unknown "Misa-Misa" Panicky - 15 years, 11 months, 16 days ago

HEY ALL! SORRY FOR MY HELLA-LONG ABSENCE!

I'm finally back in Japan and settled it. It took me a really long time to get internet set up at my apartment because you have to mail-order it and stuff. It's weird. Anyway, sorry for the neglect. I love and have missed you all!
Unknown "Misa-Misa" Panicky - 16 years, 14 days ago

I ♥ JEFF. I wish that I could make him feel better whenever any HP drama upsets him.
Unknown "Misa-Misa" Panicky - 16 years, 2 months, 16 days ago

wow...so my concert report got cut off. here's the rest yo!

8.Lock on you- I'm not crazy about this song on the Natsuoto single, but I really enjoyed it live. Teru really began doing his crazy stage antics and mic stand tricks on this one.

9.SORRY LOVE- I love this song. It's one of the best ballads they've done in a long time. I always feel a bit bad when they release ballads because playing them must kill Jiro and Hisashi a little bit inside, since they really shine on faster, more complex songs, but this one has a really good beat and opportunity to play more complicated notes. I play bass and I have a hard time playing the bassline to this one. Jiro does lot of crazy notes and rests for their slower songs. Like HOWEVER...zomg I can't do it. Sorry for the tangent. Moving on...oh yeah, I cried the entire song.

10.HOWEVER- Of course. This is Teru's main live song. He didn't cry, par usual. I was surprised. But all of the girls in the audience did lol.

After this I figured it was about half way through the concert, so it should have been getting close to SHUTTER SPEEDS time. So I yelled out Nihongo de, "Play Shutter Speeds no Teema!" I'm not sure if my yelling had anything directly to do with it, but Jiro backed up and almost tripped over his floor amp/sound control pedal unit afterwards.

11.KUCHIBIRU- All I could think about was how much DIE needed to be there to play the keyboards for this song because he rocked it back in the day. I hoped they would play MORE THAN LOVE since they played this, but we were denied the pleasure.

12.KANOJO NO "Modern..."- At first I was worried that the show only had a few songs left because KANOJO usually comes right at the very end, usually during the encore, ya know? It was amazing. During the "Kimi no sekkusu, drugs, rock and roll" bit everyone in the audience yelled it out loud with Takuro.

13.SHUTTER SPEEDS NO TEEMA- GAHHHH Jiro did the BEST bass solo he's ever done in a live performance here before he started the song. He shredded it for a good two or three minutes. Amazing. I cried again. And he sang really well! You could tell he was a bit nervous. Up until this point, he hadn't ventured downstage much; only a few times. But he totally played to our side of the audience for most of the song. Nick was saying that he was watching me sing along to the whole song, but I doubt he singled me out that much. But it's nice hoping that he noticed at least.

14.PEAK HATESHI NAKU SOUL KAGIRI NAKU- OH GOD YES!!!

15.BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

Encore
1.SOUL LOVE- Perhaps one of the main highlights of the show was when Teru introduced this as "SOULLY LOVE" then proceeded to crack up, embarassed, before correcting himself.

2.ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLE

3.SUFFRAGETTE CITY- I'm pretty sure that my best friend and I were the only people in the audience singing along with this song, let alone recognized it right away. Perhaps it's because we worship David Bowie. Anyway, Teru seemed pleased with the fact that at least two people understood.

4.ACID HEAD- Finally Takuro got his shining moment, and all was well.

I really have no complaints other than that it went way too fast! Instantly, I regretting not being able to go to all three lives. I cried when I realized it was over. I actually have been crying all week. Whenever anyone asks me about it, I just break down into tears of joy. It's like the Beatlemania phenomenon. Fortunately, I'm going to the PREDATORS live in Zepp Tokyo in November, so I'll get my Jiro fix soon. And apparently there's going to be an EXPO 2009. Totally going to that.

Hisashi didn't seem to make eye contact with the audience at all. Maybe he was shy. That was the only other thing that saddened me. Oh, and I wanted to steal Jiro's amazing black and sparkle-y silver pinstripe pants.

As far as merch goes, I'm happy I added another GLAY shirt to my collection, but I wanted a towel, darn it! Hopefully next time around they'll come with a full arsenal of lovely things to buy.

What fulfilled me the most was seeing how utterly surprised, pleased, and moved the entire band was that so many people had come to support the first show, especially the fact that most of the audience was made up of non-Japanese and that so many of us knew all of the songs they played. And they promised that they're coming back soon! Well, I'm sure that on behalf of all of us GLAY fans in the USA, we're definitely holding them to that!

Unknown "Misa-Misa" Panicky - 16 years, 2 months, 24 days ago

GLAY IN SF CONCERT REPORT

Seeing GLAY pretty much melted my brain. Sadly, I only went to the San Fran show (moving to Tokyo kinda makes you freak about saving your money), but I'm proud to say that I was at the first show! Anyway, here's my report, even though it's a week late. I just haven't been able to digest the fact that it really happened! I don't think I've cried tears of joy like this before!

Oh right, so be prepared for a lot of Jiro-loving and a touch of fangirliness. To be honest, I payed the most attention to him. Everyone once it a while I would look up and be like, "Oh hi, Hisa. I totally forgot you were standing right there" and whatnot haha.



So Tuesday my friend and I made it from my aunt's house in Burlingame down to Japantown. I was so proud of my Jiro shirt that I made for the occasion.

My friend said she wasn't crazy like me and therefore didn't want to wait more than a few hours, so she went exploring while I got in line around 11 or 11:30am. I can't really remember. There were only maybe 15 people ahead of me in line, if that. But it was cool waiting that long (I've waited longer before for shows!), because I made some pretty awesome new friends. So after a few hours of talking about favorite songs, performances, goods, etc... they pretty much declared me a GLAY encyclopedia. Also, having made friends, it was easy enough to go off in pairs and whatnot to make bathroom and food runs. Around 2pm or so, my new buddy, Mai, and I ventured off to the main Japantown building so she could get a takeout obento and I could find the restroom. Not even 15 minutes later, while we were waiting for her food, her friend called to say, "OMG YOU JUST MISSED TERU JIRO! THEY JUST CAME IN THE VAN!!!!" Well, Mai being a Teru fan and me worshipping the ground Jiro walks on (because he's godly like that), we were both pretty much in tears, I would say. But we rushed back, thinking that it would at least be cook to see Takuro and Hisashi when they got there. Well...15 minutes later, another black very-obvious van pulled up, and of course everyone rushed to the litte gate/entrance thing to see them. Maiko, one of the Japanese girls I had befriends and practiced my Nihongo with, grabbed my hand and we rushed up too. We stood further in along the gated area to where the stairs led up, since no one was there and we could definitely get a good look. Well, guess what? Jiro was actually in that van! Apparently no one in our group that had seen the first two arrive realized it was Hisashi in the first van since the back of his hair was bleached, so they assumed it was Jiro. So when Jiro walked by (and I'm surprised I even found the words) I said, "Gambatte kudasai!" to which he turned, gave that goofy smile a la EXPO 2004 cookie picture, and replied, "Arigatou." As a result, of course I gave Maiko's hand a crippling squeeze, screamed like the fangirl that I am, and started to cry. I didn't cry noticeably- that came later haha. But I shook for the next half hour once we'd gotten back in line. So I saw Jiro and I was happy. Plus the fact that he acknowledged my existence pretty much completed my life.

They also had some staff come out and ask everyone in line where they had come from. Apparently the band wanted to know how far people had traveled just to see them, and to see how many non-Japanese had showed up. It really surprised them that 70% of the audience were American! And they had photographers come out and take pictures of all of us in line, huge shots and little group shots.

My friend joined us around 5pm I would say. I was surprised no one complained/noticed that she got in line with us even though she'd come late. The doors were supposed to open at 7pm but around 7pm the had us stand up and smush closer together towards the door. Apparently, the people that had Live Nation tickets were supposed to be able to go to the front of the line and get in early. Luckily, only like, 5 people had LN tickets so the security didn't really press the matter. Mai and Kat had them, so they jumped up a bit further than us. They let us in kind of late, around 7:25, which ended up not being a big deal since that meant we wouldn't have to wait for the show to start at long. The security, as a lot of fellow members have mentioned, was psycho. They not only checked bags at the door, if any of the security saw people messing with their phones in a manner that looked like they could possibly be taking pictures, they confiscated them or made people go check them in at the coat check desk. So needless to stay I chickened out and stuffed my phone in my pocket. But the nicest part was that we got to be in the front! And we weren't separated from Mai and Kat after all! And I made sure I was on the Jiro/Hisashi side of the stage of course.

Japanese are typically very anal about being punctual, so it amused me that GLAY came on 15 or 20 minutes late. But when the lights went down I pretty much went into shock, I think. They came out and all looked hella-fine (but they always do so this really shouldn't have surprised me). Maybe it's because they all look exactly like they do in every magazine/CD jacket. Usually celebs don't look as good in person as they do in photos, right? But they did- all of them.

Set List with some commentary:


So I pretty much guessed every single song on the set list, almost in the right order while talking with Maiko and Nick in line, which actually surprised me. I honestly can't stand it when audience members who're in the front row use their cameras to take pics of the set list before they even start. It kind of ruins the joy of being surprised and overcome with joy when the band starts to play a song you really love. But I was happy that I didn't see anyone try to do that. A girl close to us just asked how many songs were on it, which was cool. It made me glad to know that they were playing a good 2 hours worth of music. My memory may not be serving me correctly, but all of which I describe happened, but I may be putting them in the wrong order or slightly with the wrong song. I pretty much suck at remembering this sort of thing when I'm in shock and on the verge of tears >.<

1.VERB- They came out with so much energy, which is just what GLAY is all about.

2.YUWAKU- You could tell they were really surprised that the non-Japanese audience members knew the whole para-para arm movements and everything.

They did the first MC here. Teru started off in English and then about a few sentences in he goes, "Nihongo daijoubu?" Of course everyone laughed and was like "yeah!" Whenever I watch the live dvds I have a hard time figuring out what he's saying because of the feedback and such, but in person it's a lot easier to understand his Japanese.

3.GLORIOUS- I was looking forward to this song, particularly because I knew I'd get to hear Jiro sing backup vocals.

4.IKITEKU TSUYOSA

5.GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR- TOTALLY surprised that they played this one! I don't think they've played this one since HIGH COMMUNICATIONS 2003! Dr. Moog and Giant Strong's conversation in the bridges were all scrambled though. Very strange but amazing nonetheless.

After this song they got really quiet so Teru could do another MC. I took the opportunity to scream out "Jiro daisuki da yo!" He must have heard and recognized me because he looked at me and smiled, then kinda did this little embarassed head-shake thing. Then he did this little hand gesture thing for everyone to listen to Teru and not pay attention to him. So humble, so cute.

6.STARLESS NIGHT- Of course, Teru took the opportunity to make the audience participate. You know how in the HIGH COMMUNICATIONS 2003 dvd, during COME ON he does all of the different voice pitches and has the audience mimic him? He did that here as well. Then he had everyone sing "Starless, starless, starless-u night." He had us do it as a group, then had the boys and then the girls do it. When they actually started to play and he had to sing, he forgot the words! I know we were all waiting for it too!

7.AMERICAN INNOVATION- I was rooting for BUGS IN MY HEAD but this worked
Unknown "Misa-Misa" Panicky - 16 years, 2 months, 24 days ago