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Live Reports: Report courtesy of Inertia. ^_^ Thank you! 2002/05/25, Roppongi Y2K Vanilla I don't like Vanilla, so I took my time getting to the livehouse. I arrived late, and spent their set jammed near the entrance staring at the head of the person in front of me. Can't say any more about them than that. After their set, I moved forward to the guitarist side of the stage. I didn't get much of a view of the back of the stage or the left side, which partly accounts for my biased report. Blast They ROCKED! Did I just hear the wrong 2 MP3s before this show? I didn't think I'd like them that much, but this was not the case at all. They were awesome. Unfortunately for the report... I got distracted for the entire performance by delicious guitarist Iori... let me tell you why I was so mesmerized... "Velvet Goldmine" meets punk meets the New Romantics. He's like an exotic bird from another planet. Delicate, beautiful, fascinating, with the most surreal plumage. His hair was the palest of blondes, cut into a bold assymetrical shape. Lovely features, graceful bones. Ah, but his *attitude* is the clincher... he has this unbelievably sensual way of smiling and then leaning back to flutter his lids over his eyes, like he's having the best orgasm of his life right there on stage. And then he'll glance seductively at the audience as if to say "yeah, you're feeling it too, aren't you, you know you are". Watching him, we WERE feeling it. Iori is pornographically erotic, yet he does absolutely nothing that might be considered suggestive (unlike, say, Sanaka) except lick his lips once in a while. But somehow he manages to imply everything with his eyes and smile. None of this would matter much, except that Blast's music is excellent and the guitar work is one of the best things about it. His guitar playing is like his hairstyle -- completely different from anything else on the visual scene yet strangely appropriate and attractive. "Metamorphose" (played with a new intro) was especially cool, with the wah-wah effects on the solos. And Yuina has really small hands. (so much for my observations...) deadman Mako came out with a white paper bag over his head (he ripped it off after the first song), and the same outfit he wore at the March oneman. Aie looked smashing in a platinum Florence Henderson wig, a thin black turtleneck sweater with a sparkly black scarf (the $10 kind) draped over it, a black snakeskin skirt with a zigzag edge, and high black boots. I want that outfit for myself. ^^ Takamasa was quiet on the other side of the stage in a low-key outfit, and Toki was invisible behind the drums. Mako gives the impression of being completely psychotic. He has a way of making established visual elements look new, such as the puppet moves. When anybody else acts like a puppet, they do it as if they were a well-oiled wood or mechanical puppet, pulled smoothly by a skilled puppeteer. But when Mako does puppet moves, he does them as if the "puppet" was an unwilling human whose internal nervous system had been taken over by aliens or some other sinister outside force, pushing buttons viciously while the hapless human struggles imprisoned inside his moving body. It's jarring and extremely unsettling when he does it. The moves are rehearsed of course. A lot of things were just the same as at the oneman. However, the angst seems so real that it's easy to forget that it's a carefully choreographed performance. The impression is more of catharsis than deliberate shock. They gave an excellent performance, although I wouldn't say they're a fun band to see. For the encore, the bands switched vocalists. First up was Yuina with Deadman. It's interesting seeing Yuina after Mako, because Mako is silent except for his singing... no between-song patter, no "Let's go!", "jump!", or "you in the back, come on!" Yuina came out and started bellowing "IKU ZO!"s at the audience, and it was like he jolted us into awareness of our existence and our potential for activitity. We'd all been appreciating the performances before, but the audience really erupted at this point. Then, Mako with Blast. Ah, Iori, with that enchantingly orgasmic smile of his... ^____^ At the end of the song, Mako did a full-body leap into the audience. Iori jumped in too, but not as far or as deep. (sadly for me... ;_;)
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