"Iya na shi" Oneman
Just like the previous year, Guruguru Eigakan released a mini-album on the 4th of July, following it up with three oneman lives - in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. This was my first time seeing them live again since last year's Tokyo oneman, and so far, just about the funnest. Onemans are where the band truly gets to do whatever they want, and considering the band we're dealing with, they really tend to go all out. Last year's show stood out in my mind because of the setlist (which included songs from "Sono mama de ii yo") and Miraiha Tantei-dan in the encore. This year I had no idea what to expect, so I came out of this thoroughly surprised.
That day I was coming from another live, so when I met up with Ric. (after much trouble) we rushed to the livehouse, thinking we were late. I didn't mind standing in the back for this one, but I didn't want to miss a second. As we ran up to the livehouse, we saw Shin standing around outside (probably because most fans were already inside.) Went right past him, downstairs. We got there with more than enough time to spare - even had to wait around for a while. Finally the show began.
There was a huge paper screen set up on stage in front of the curtain - nothing more than two pieces of paper glued together. We were shown a projection of romantic scenes from a bunch of different movies (that I didn't really know), Pachebel's Canon playing in the background. The music swelled as the scenes got more intense, the curtains parted, and suddenly the shape of the band behind the screen went into a song.
Now you could better make out what was behind the projection. I was all the way on the left, past the edge of the screen, so I had a good view of what was supposedly Tama right in front of me, and what seemed like shapes of the other members behind the screen. I say supposedly, because all of them were wearing some sort of masks/head coverings. These were essentially pillowcases, with holes cut for eyes and a mouth, painted blood red in all sorts of patterns (the GEtIST symbol with rays, the new design on their T-shirts, etc.) Below all that - a tuxedo.
The projection kept on going, instead of romance and wedding scenes, some erotic underground film (I'm guessing) - an orgy scene. The band did three songs, the lights went out, and for a minute the projection showed a crying newborn.
Suddenly, Amano slashed through the paper screen and stepped out in front of it, blood red hair and bandages poking through his mask.
"Thus I was born." - a recorded voice.
The lights went off again. Several more people in identical masks came out to clean up the remainder of the screen and rearrange the stage. There was a huge banner in the back with the words "ゲチス党" - "GEtIS Tou" ('tou' = party, sect) on red and white rays. The stage was decorated with smaller versions of the same thing. This is their new T-shirt design. The band played more songs, still in their masks, and left the stage.
Next, the curtain parted to show a long table with a vase of red flowers as the centerpiece. One masked person on the right (Shin), one on the left (Tama), sitting across from each other. Another masked person was serving them a meal. He finished, bowed, and left. The two began eating, poking the food through the holes in their pillow cases.
A recording of their alternating voices played as they ate. (They were saying essentially the same things.)
"I live my life behind a mask."
"I live my life behind a mask."
"I do not know what the one in front of me is truly like."
"I do not know what the one in front of me is truly like."
And so on. One spoke:
"Mmm, delicious, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's very good!"
"But... Isn't it hard to eat with that on?"
"Yes, yes it is. What about you?"
"Yes, me too."
"Well, how about we take them off?"
"Alright... but I'm embarrased."
"Me too."
"How about we do it at the same time?"
"Okay. Let's go."
When the two pulled off their masks, the lighting turned red, and a dramatic classical piece began. The music ceased, the lights went off, more masked men came out to reset the scene. This next one featured Amano and Aniki.
Now, about Amano's new hairstyle: I had heard that he dyed it red, but apparently he also had it cut. He essentially had the same look as far as I can remember - spikes in front, ponytail in the back. Now, it is mostly above his shoulders, longer in the front, going up higher in the back. (I know there's a name for this haircut, it's slipping my mind.) Of course - all bright red. The spikes are still there, but nowhere near as prominent as they used to be. Pretty interesting. Anyway, moving along.
Amano and Aniki came out on stage wearing helmets and holding long sticks (I'm not quite sure what job this is a reference to), said a few words (don't quite remember), and began "Tsukiyo no shabon dama" (from Iya na shi.) Aniki was holding small drums, and Amano had his guitar. They finished, and "Kamata Koushinkyoku" began, as it always does at the start of their shows. (Haha.) The rest of the band came on stage (wearing their usual gakuran uniforms), prepared for a little bit and began.
Went right into Iya na shi with the title track "Iya na shi" - sort of fast paced, pretty strong. Since it leads right into "Toumei na sonzai no boku dakara", that one followed. Some more songs.
Then it was time for Aniki to sing his song off the new CD - "Itoshii ano ko to omatsuri de". They brought out a desk for him (with the lyrics taped to it), and he stood over it, playing guitar and singing. The mic kept falling down, so he had to bend down to sing for most of the song.
When they played "Toutou to", Aniki somehow eclipsed everyone else. I really didn't expect the drums to stand out during a song like that, but his playing was magnificent. Both shows I couldn't take my eyes off him.
On Iya na shi, there is a song called "Futari wa otona ni narimashita." I really adore it - fun melody, lovely vocals. The title roughly translates to "The two of us became adults." You can imagine what the lyrics are about. Of course, Amano introduced it saying "The next song is a duet... between Numakura Shin and myself." There is a male vocal (Shin) and a "female" vocal part (Amano), and in the middle there is a speaking part: [sorry, rough translation]
- The fireworks are truly beautiful today!
- Yeah, but you, you're always really beautiful too!
- Eh..? What was that you just said?
- Come on, don't make me say it twice!
- I... I'm very glad I met you.
- Me too!
- I'm so happy!
- Me too!!
Shin kept repeating the last line like the echo on the CD:
- Ureshii!
- Boku mo saa!! -saa! -saa! -sa!
I'm not quite sure if this was here or later, but everybody left the stage except Amano. He stood up on the desk (?) and sang a part of "Yoru no konpeki no sei nano desu", after which the lights dimmed again, the curtains closed, and another projection was shown. Again, to Pachebel's Canon.
This one was mostly blood, gore, Battle Royale clips, ending with a long clip of a man covering his head entirely with dynamite and blowing it off.
After the explosion, the curtains opened yet again to show several, again masked, men, most of them pointing guns at Amano's (now masked again) head. ("Hallelujah" playing in the background.) A gunshot rang out, everyone but the band left the stage, and Guruguru started playing their "Bokutachi no shippai" cover, followed by "Minagoroshi no etude". After a while they were done, and their ending song played. (The song always played at the conclusion of a Guruguru live.)
Fans kept cheering for an encore, so after a little bit...
Aniki and Shin came out wearing Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, Shin with a ukelele and Aniki with his little drum. For "Akogare no otona kouro", of course. This is another one from the new CD - a Hawaiian-type tune composed by Shin himself. The (slightly nasal) chorus is:
Aannn iya nacchauuu~
Aannn odoroitaaa~
Aannn iya nacchauuu~
Aannn odoroitaaa~
The two asked the audience to sing it back, with Aniki demonstrating first, in the most hilarious way. Shin went to the side of the stage for a while to get something and came back with ...the lyrics booklet. After a long while of him staring at it going "...Hmmm..... Mmmm" they played the song. Really fun!
Amano and Tama came on stage, Amano in a white shirt looking strangely tired, Tama in one of the new Guruguru shirts. More songs.
For the MC and member intro part, Amano started talking about visual-kei. He talked quite a bit about Phantasmagoria, KISAKI, Sex-Android, and all these bands they've been hanging around lately, of course doing impressions of overly "visual" stage moves, etc.
- But you see, at visual-kei shows, you can't address the crowd by saying "Okyaku-sama!", can you?
[Okyakusama is a polite way to address the guests.]
Kind of like this: *begins to do all these visual-kei impressions* "OI!!! OI!!!!!!!! ...o-okyaku-samaa!!?" See? It just doesn't work. What are you supposed to say?
He went on to talk about visual-kei roots, more specifically Luna Sea, playing little Luna Sea song intros on his guitar.
- See, Aniki's like our Shinya, Shin is our Sugizo, Tama is our J, and I'm... uh... Inoran.
Finally they came to the member introduction part. Aniki's was nothing too special - his hair was mentioned though.
Tama was next.
- Hey that's a nice shirt you're wearing!
- Oh thanks!
- Where did you get it?
- Oh, right over there! *points at Guruguru merch table*
- Really? Wow, I must go get myself one ASAP!!
Tama was introduced as "The guy with the awesome shirt!!".
- Next is Guruguru Eigakan's Sugizo, Numakura Shin! Or, NUMAZO!!!!!
For himself, Amano had the fans call out something long that I'm pretty sure also had to do with Luna Sea, but I didn't catch it :(
After that, as usual, they started "Daimondai!! Saredo kaisei!". Someone started saying that if this was real visual kei, the lyrics would have things like "CHRIST!!", etc.
- You mean like "DAIMONDAI! CHRIST!! DAIMONDAI! CHRIST!! DAIMONDAI! CHRIST!!"?
When they did the few rounds of the chorus before the actual song, Shin kept screaming "DAIMONDAI! CHRIST!!" The band left the stage yet again, but fans started cheering for another encore.
Aniki came out.
He picked up Amano's guitar and started singing his song again ("Itoshii ano ko to omatsuri de"), but Shin ran out with his ukelele and began singing his song:
- Aaannn, iya nacchauuu~~
Tama came out, sat down at the drumset, played around for a bit. Finally, Amano came out too. Everyone returned to their usual positions.
- Our bass and guitar!! NUMAZO and... T!! (lol!)
Finally, the real end.
"Thank you everyone, thank you! WE'RE LUNA SEA!!"
*Usually he says "Guruguru Eigakan deshita!" (lit. "this was Guruguru Eigakan") so he said "LUNA SEA DESHITA!"
"Iya na shi" Oneman
Essentially the same thing, so I'm just going to talk about the differences.
- A male voice during "Kamata Koushinkyoku"!
- At one point, they stopped to talk for a bit, and the first thing Amano mentioned was their upcoming August tour, which he asked Aniki to talk about... who pointed out that they're not playing anywhere near Nagoya the entire tour! Lol. "Doesn't really make sense to announce 'YEAH!!! WE'RE PLAYING NIIGATA ON THE ___TH!!'" Everyone was just standing around laughing for a while.
- They did "Soboku na gimon" and were supposed to follow it up with "Nichiyoubi no asa" straight away, but Amano played the delicate intro on a string lower by accident (?) and it sounded absolutely terrible so they stop, and they're all laughing non-stop for about a minute, Amano apologizing. "Alright, I guess I'm gonna talk for a little bit..." xD
- At the end of "Miseinen" Amano sang something entirely different (didn't quite catch what) which sent everyone into giggles once again, for about another minute. I swear, Aniki has the best laugh.
- Aniki and Shin came out for their song, MCs hilarious as always. When Shin started singing he sang "Aoi sora..." which again forced them to stop lol. "Wait wait... it's 'hareta sora' isn't it?"
- So they were waiting for Amano and Tama to join them and Aniki mentioned that they were thinking of having the rest of the guys come out moonwalking when Shin sings "Aaaannn iya nacchauuuuuuu~~". Tama came out and they asked him to sing along for the chorus, but he kept doing it either in this sexy voice or just completely off. Shin: "Aaann!! It's 'an'!! Not 'Ahh'!!" And of course, during one of the rounds Amano comes moonwalking on stage, sending Aniki into uncontrollable fits of laughter. I swear he didn't stop for minutes. Amano was already doing his MC and talking to the crowd about something or other and you could still hear Aniki over at the drumset: "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!"
- Finally! "Daimondai"!! Amano began to introduce the band as usual, people cheered for Aniki, Tama, Shin... Then! Then!!
"Hey!! Try screaming out 'Belt-Aniki' and maybe he'll come out! ;D"
"............................???"
"Do it!!"
"BELT-ANIKI!!!"
And of course, of course, Mr. Yoshikawa Masatoshi, aka Belt-Aniki (Taiheiyou Belt), ex-bassist of Guruguru Eigakan, came out on stage. Though it makes perfect sense, I was pretty surprised! @@;
"Hey, now try 'Sassaa'!!"
And Sassaa (Taiheiyou Belt) appeared.
The two of them grabbed the sticks Amano and Aniki used for their skit, Yoshikawa put on the helmet, Tama put Aniki's straw hat on Sassaa's head, and they began "Daimondai!! Saredo Kaisei!"
- For the second encore, Amano came out alone, said a few words to the crowd. Then it was time to call the other members on stage.
Amano: "Hey, instead of screaming his name, mumble 'Aniki'! Let's see if he hears!"
Crowd: "(whispering) Aniki! Aniki!!"
He comes on stage.
Aniki: "(whispering) What?" :D
Amano: "Hey now for Tama, whisper 'Tama-kun' like you're waking him up!! It's morning!"
Crowd: "(quietly) Tama-kun! Tama-kun!"
He comes on stage.
Tama: "I get it mom, I'm up, I'm up!"
Amano: "Now for Shin, just yell 'Shin-chan', like you would call a friend!"
Crowd: "Shin-chan!! Shin-chan!"
Shin comes on stage with a noise cracker (?) and those toy guns they used earlier, shooting everything at the crowd.
- Before the last song, Amano screamed out "Blue Transparency"!! Haha! Again with the Luna Sea business.
- Afterwards, they had us all hold hands and jump together. It was cute.
The whole show was really great. Picked up the "Ga Channel" DVD, a shirt, a ton of stickers, and played their kuji game. For those who don't know, for 300 yen you draw a string from the bunch and if you get a winning number, you get a prize (most are photos from the most recent shoot.) Otherwise you get Guruguru tissues as a consolation prize. I played twice, didn't get anything, so I chose the tissues with Aniki and the entire band.
When I left the merch area, Aniki had come out to chat with fans, but I had to run :/ Overall - very fun time!