Live Reports Vol.1

This was for the year 2000.

12/27/2000 Luna Sea Last Live at Tokyo Dome

As a Luna Sea fan, I felt a little sad to see this last show. However, the crowd was a little strange from the arena seats. Very few people seem to really be into the music or just shocked I guess. However, the seen outside the Dome was crazy with loads and loads of fans in costumes and people giving interviews on television. The really bad thing was that it was very cold that day and all you wanted to do was to get inside as soon as possible. I was at the show the night before to pick up some tickets and I could hear the last few songs and guess what? They were different from the ones we heard on the 27th. That is a real band that knows how to say goodbye and not give the same show night after night(example L`arc~en~Ciel). The shows both lasted about 3 hours and they played many of the new and old songs which I am sure pleased everyone!
Next was Buck-Tick at the Budokan on December 29, 2000.
Now I felt that they might retire since, the seems to be in fashion these days but they said that hope to be around for a long time. They put on a good show but it had only 3 old songs and one encore was a song from way back which was cool but the guys are getting old. The new songs are kinda of like there last two CD's "six-nine" and "Sexy Streamliner" with a techno feel. "One life One Death" is the latest CD and I have not bought it yet. Therefore, it was not as fun as it could have been. They were also making a video for the show so I think they were really trying to push there new stuff. As for my seat, it was on the second floor right in the middle. The great thing about the Budokan is that almost all the seat are good no matter were you sit. The stage never seems to far away which is good. I ususally go by myself to all of these shows and most of the time the people to sit next to are not very talkative. However, at Buck Tick I met a really cool woman name Miho. She did not know any of the new songs either so I didn't feel too stupid! She came all the way from Nagoya to see this show! I hope she had a good time!

Jan.3, 2001
Janne Da Arc:@ Budokan
Now I am not really a fan of Janne Da Arc, but I am warming up to them. They have great engergy and seem to have fun on stage and that makes for a great show. I saw them at Shock Wave Illusion in August and wanted to see more of them so I headed off to the Legendary Budokan for my third time. I did not have a ticket so I got a good deal from the scalpers which was under the ticketed price and a great seat to boot!
With two large screens on both sides of the stage, each member came out at from different areas of the stage. It had that underground elevator effect and Everyone was going crazy. Bass Player Ka-yu seems to be the number one among fan support with his patent leather fetish look. Kiyo the Keyboardist is visable but is in the corner next to Shuji(drums). In the middle of the Show, Shuji put on a nice little drums solo with the drums riser going up the air. The show was actually pretty long but it did not feel that way. Yasu(vocals) and the rest did a lot of MCing and at one point he even started to repeat himself by saying"Well, this is our first time playing at the Budokan". I guess the guys were a little nervous, but the show was fun and exciting with lots of heading banging on the heavier songs. Guitarist "You" is pretty good with fast fingers and good techincal breaks. They mentioned and they will be having more control over there music this year and will have a new single out called "dry" released on 1/31 and New album out in March. Good luck to these guys and I hope seem them again sometime.

Last but not least was Pierrot at Zepp Tokyo, Jan. 5th.
This was my last day of my "Live Show" vacation and I was not dissappointed. I looked for a ticket eailer in the day but I had no luck in finding one. So I took the long pluge and headed for Zepp Tokyo. It is actually far out from Tokyo close the the Tokyo Bay next to Odaiba. However, the view at night was just beautiful on the Yurikagome railway! If you ever come to Tokyo, this would be a great thing to ride since you can see the city very well from the supended train that is hight in the air like the Disneyland Monorail! I was lucky enough to get a same day ticket(which most places sell if you get there early enough). However, many people had called and reserved a ticket. So myself and about 6 other people had to wait until about100 people with reservations got their tickets. Now the show started right on time(6:00pm) and Kirito(Vocals)with is pinkish red hair had the crowd jumping and dancing right from the get go. Now Pierrot is a band with an interesting sound that has lots of changes in the songs which for the most part are very short. Therefore, they do a lot of songs but the time seems short. They did about 20 songs in 1hour and 20 minutes. However they strecthed the show to about 2 hours with encores and some talking between the members and the crowd. Another thing, They did not do not even one slow song!!!! I know they have a few slow songs too but I guess they wanted to kept the night as Kirito said" Hot,rescaie, and steamy". The groupism is really strong with this band. Everybody knows the various arm movements and gestures that go along with each song. It is almost scary to see this much dedication by the fans.