relativity

1 hour of live = too short
1 hour of pre-live = too long
2 hour flight = short
2 hour pre-flight = long
1 week holiday = too short
1 week work = too long
1 year when you're 31 = short
1 year when you're 13 = long
1 lifetime to live = short or long

Coldplay Viva La Vida Tour 23 Mar 09 @ Singapore Indoor Stadium

The performance was great! But the audience pissed me off majorly. Everyone's just so OBSESSED with taking photos, there were flash-lights going on ALL THE TIME! It doesn't matter for the fast pieces, but when they do a ballad and you keep getting distracted by the flashes of light all over, it is TOTALLY NOT COOL. It just spoilt the atmosphere!

I don't understand it, why do people derive so much joy in recording the whole darn concert in their cameras, when they shoud instead be immersing in the live and enjoying it there & then??! Is it so important to put it up on your blog or show it to your friends??? Even if it's for memories' sake, is it really necessary to take so many pictures & videos???

& from the performer's point of view, isn't it more rewarding to see the audience rocking to the live performance, instead of seeing them hold up a camera/handphone perpetually to record the performance???

See that's the reason why i prefer to watch lives in Japan.

ムック@日本武道館「球体」, and more! (Part II)

Cosplayers galore!

If you bought all 3 versions of the album, you get 3 lucky draw tries... the top prize is free mucc lives for the entire year! XD

Disappointed chap... well at least you get 3 stickers & a phone strap as a consolation prize.
Ding~ding~diiinnnggg~!!! Someone won a big prize!

Congratulatory flowers~
Yea maCoto hair! :D!

haha!!! trick photo! of course this wasn't from budokan lah...

ムック@日本武道館「球体」, and more! (Part I)

It was an impromptu decision to go watch mucc @ budokan this time round. Why? Well, the timing was good, i was looking for a short break and had mileage to claim anyway. The trip turned out to be fantastic. As for the live... well, it was mixed. Don't misunderstand, i enjoyed the 2nd mucc budokan experience thoroughly. But, if you want my honest feedback, i reckon that their 1st budokan performance was better.

Tour Goods!

Arrived at the live venue about 3h before the scheduled start (2h before they start admitting people into the hall), and what did i see the moment i turned left from the main road? The end of the goods queue!!! So freaking long! So without hesitation i quickly joined it... but woa, it snaked like forEVER. Everyone around me kept going "Goodness!" everytime we turned the corner and saw that the line was longer than we imagined it to be.

Check out the queue! At this point everyone was distracted by a show-off between a roaming cat and the resident crow on the roof of the entrance... the crow won in the end. XD

Stood in line for longer than an hour to finally buy those darn goods, by which time the t-shirts were already sold out. Not that I'd have gotten that though. The best goods i bought was not even a tour goods item... it was the mucc 2009 calendar. It was an absolute riot!!! One member draws a picture for each month, usually a picture representing something that month. Miya's drawings are...are... one-of-a-kind, is all i can say!!! XD!

& in addition to the actual Japanese holidays, they've also flagged out special mucc-related dates, like 69day (of course), the members' birthdates (where each member will draw a cake...Satochi's is the funniest... his cake is in the shape of a nose), and weird dates like "Muffler Day", "Corn Beef Day" (yes you read right!) where the sound of the item matches the date... i can figure some out but not all... like "Natto Day" is easy... Na=7, To=10, so that's 10th July. Then there's "Bike Day" on August (ba=8) 19th (i=1, ku=9). Arrgghhhh... these blokes have seriously nothing better to do! XD XD XD

Tour Goods on sale

(to be continued)

Starmucks!

They're getting cornier & cornier... XD

Talking about tourgoods, this time round i didn't get down to buying any of the Rainy Rave goods... quite amazing seeing how i usually get tempted to buy tour goods on the impulse :)

In the anketto, i proposed to Tatsurou to consider a mucc thumbdrive and a mucc laptop case as possible tour goods... at least i'll have some practical use for those!

Rainy Rave Finale Live - Studio Coast 26 May

My hip bones hurt like hell !
And there are bruises popping out now at strange places !!!
But it was indisputably shiok lah!

Well what happened on the 26th was, unfortunately in an attempt to get the full worth of my JR East pass, i decided to travel out of Tokyo that day... not that i didn't get back to Tokyo with sufficient time to arrive early at Studio Coast... but i got complacent and started dilly-dallying at Shinjuku... and before i knew it, it was fast approaching 6pm! Egad!

So I rushed to Studio Coast, making mental calculations about when I'll reach the live venue... shit, i'll just be there on the dot! No time to change into my platforms! No time to queue for the loo! No time to get an onigiri and drink and fuel up! How??!

So i quickly decided... grabbed an Oronamin C at the Station, drank it in the train just before reaching Shinkiba, decided to skip the platforms and loo, got ready my 500 Yen for the drink ticket, 300 Yen for the locker, sweets to carry with me (to fuel during the live), and of course the live ticket... and once the train opened its doors at Shinkiba station, i russssshhhheeeeddd for the darn venue!

Only to get stopped by the traffic light. uuurrrgghhh. longest traffic light wait EVAR!

Finally reached Studio Coast. Great, 6pm. They have already started calling the numbers! Rushed to the lockers, flung open the doors of the nearest one that's open, stuffed my bags in, then sped to the barricades... the guy was shouting so softly i couldn't hear the number, but i was sure it was already past 72! So i quickly walked towards the barricades. Stupid guy stopped me and wanted to see my tic! But it was all crumpled up in my hand and i was struggling to unfold it to show him the ticket (note this wasn't even the entrance check... this was the guy with the loudhailer!)...

Long and short of it (sorry to have grumbled so much about this pre-live thing so far...), by the time i got in, the closest i could stand to the stage was the 4th row. There I was, beating myself for getting to the venue late when i had such a wonderful entry number, wasn't it silly of me??! But i comforted myself that in Studio Coast, 4th row was already pretty good... and i was at Miya's side, though i wasn't quite sure how much to the side i was...

That was the bad news.

The good news was... once the live started... miraculously... very very miraculously... and up till now i have no idea how it happened... in all that pushing and shoving and confusion once the translucent curtains came down... i ended up in the 2nd row!!! And it was right in front of Miya! I was staring straight at his (snarling) face! And cos the 1st row girls were not standing that close to each other, i could push like my entire head into the hole between their heads... hahaha... it sounds so funny now... basically i was really happy with my view... could see Miya's performance so clearly, Satochi too... Tatsurou if i looked to my left... the only unfortunate thing was i couldn't quite see Yukke unless i stretched my head a little, but that was still possible.

Some random things again...
- The muckers are a cheeky bunch. During the 10min countdown to the live, when the screen came to 6:09, a bunch of muckers shouted out "muuukkkuu!", hahaha! then at 3:08, they shouted "miiiyaaa!!!", hahahahaha.... so people in the audience caught on to this, and when it finally came to 0:38, everyone shouted "miiiiyyyyaaaa!!!"

- All 3 in front were barefoot... oh my, Miya has such cleancut toenails... probably more pedicured than mine! And why do their skin look so good on the stage??! Is it the lighting??!

- Setlist did not, alas, produce any surprises... and yup, they did not play [空忘れ] again!

- Miya's guitar-playing has definitely improved... and his overall performance too. I couldn't take my eyes off his fingers, i tellya.

- I think it was the proximity to Miya... the main thing i remember about this live was Miya, Miya, Miya.

- Otherwise, best band moment for me was one of the guitar solos in [シヴァ]... Yukke & Miya were in the middle playing together, Tatsu was rocking together behind with Satochi... perfect band moment.

- Most high moment was during one of the songs in the encore when Miya was the first one to go round to Satochi, picked up a drumstick and started banging at a cymbal! Then the other 2 got into the action too... Satochi became Mr Popular! But when Yukke first tried to get up to the platform that Satochi's drumset was on, he lost his balance and fell over to the stage... that was at Miya's side of the stage, so he looked over to us and gave a meek smile XD

- When members came out for the encore, some of them did the jump thing with the audience again!

- During the encore, Tatsurou suddenly discovered, the cloth near his groin area... had a hole! The audience went "woooooooooo!!!" He was like "eh! what happened?!".. .and then quickly covered it with another part of the cloth from his trousers...

- Miya got so high at the end... he even went to the back of the stage to grab a bunch of picks to throw at the audience...

- Divers, divers, divers!!! No joke, these divers... luckily i wasn't scathed by them... but a few people around me were, and i realized that the people in the first row have it tough too... sometimes the divers roll down so fast, the people in the first row have to bend their heads down so low just to get these people off... you can imagine how terrible that felt because at the front row you're pressing your body against really hard railings...

- There were at least 4 cameras pointing at the stage... chances of a DVD or television broadcast coming up?

The amazing thing is, after the live, although i was dripping wet (and my clothes were not even dry the next morning), my legs were not as painful as the night before. Maybe it was the trackshoes instead of the platforms. But like i mentioned above, it was my arms and back and stomach and hips that were (and still are) shouting for help... but it's still tolerable, and strangely, in a satisfying way! i was so exhilirated after the live, and i couldn't sleep that night...

Overall my live experiences at the Rainy Rave lives were more enjoyable than the last album tour, i.e. the Psychedelic Analysis ones. Of course not to mention the Houyoku album tour. Looking forward to their next piece of work!

Yuzu 'Wonderful World' - Saitama Super Arena 24 May

The tour's titled after their latest album, which was released this year after a 2+ year wait.

It was a very wholesome live, with a wide profile of people in the audience - the young, old, guys, gals, couples, friends, families... the most memorable was this entire family which ended up in the row just behind me... the parents dressed up their kids (i'm guessing around 4-7 years old) into... what else... little yuzus! XD and these kids were awesome... they didn't kick up a ruckus at all during the show, and could even sing along to some of the tunes... word for word!


Not sure if it's a yuzu live thing, since this is my first time checking out their live, but it starts with the blasting of that morning exercise refrain that i suppose every primary and secondary school broadcasts every morning... so the entire audience stood up and starting doing the morning exercises together... yes... even the old uncles in the audience... so of couse i joined in lah :P


The personalities of the yuzu members are so distinct... you can see why they complement each other so well... overall their performance was v polished, with a good mix of laughter vs touching moments and fast vs slow numbers. Perhaps it was the theme of the album, but curiously i was quite touched at their delivery of a number of songs.

Towards the end when the backdrop and dancers popped out (and the kids behind started singing), it seemed like one huuuuggge family outing. You just gotta give it to the Japanese for the live-going culture.


For the encore, instead of shouting for the encore, the audience started singing the chorus of Wonderful World... on repeat until they boys came out... that was cool too.

Rainy Rave - Studio Coast 25 May

Rained in the day on Rainy Rave day!

- 10 min to the live, a big counter flashed on the screen, counting down to the start of the live. In the background was a rotating mucc symbol that changed colour with every minute... finally the last minute when the background reverted back to its original red colour... the atmosphere was awesome!
- when the translucent screen came down halfway into the first song, woa! a breathtaking backdrop. on the screen, out of a lotus rose a crystal ball, with the mucc symbol on it, and 'mucc' written in english at the bottom of it (though the 'u' looked a little strange...). The crystal ball was flanked by 2 fierce-looking deities, very elaborately drawn... behind Yukke and Miya were standing blindscreens, each with a different flower (lotus) motifs... and the motifs were replicated on each of Satochi's 2 bass drums. Overall, it was a magnificent view! Members were dressed as previously, in the line with the Shion theme.
- There was an extra speaking monologue in the middle of [小さな窓] added during this live
- [蘭鋳] is the song where the band gets the audience to squat down before all jumping up again
- Had an excellent view of Satochi... his drumming was especially powerful in this live!
- Setlist was nothing new from the rest of this tour. Halfway through, during the performance of one of the live favourites, the backdrop changed back to the normal white mucc symbol on black background, and the stage effects focused on the lighting instead.
- When members came out for the encore, starting with Satochi, they had this thing where they would jump with the audience... except for Tatsu though the audience was prompting him to do so XD
- It was Satochi's dad's birthday!
- Live was about 2.5h, shorter than Sendai (3h)
- Congratulatorybouquets included one from D'erlanger
- Saw Seek walking out with a few other people after the live

Tokyo audience was way rougher than the Sendai audience... in the beginning was stuck with a bunch of really aggressive (& short) muckers who was really into jumping, dancing in circles & headbanging... i hafta admit, i actually like the parts when the audience headbangs, cos then i get a full view of all the members! anyway, i think today I'll be in for a hard time if I'm gonna squeeze right in front... went to the front to recce last night and overhead a mucker saying her chest was flattened... 0_o

Best songs in my view for 25 May were [小さな窓] (almost perfect rendition - emotional, yet held in at the right moments, [シヴァ] (Yukke & Miya's solos were v intense) and [流星]. They didn't play [空忘れ] again!

Rainy Rave - Sendai Club Junk Box 23 May 08

Just back from my first live for this trip - Rainy Rave @ Sendai!

It was good!
Is all i can say :)

Very quickly...
I was at Miya's end, had a pretty good view of him and Tatsu throughout the live. Could see Yukke now and then, but I really had to stretch my neck to see Satochi - the stage was so low!
Went over to see his drums at the end of the live... he wasn't using his new double-bass drumset, but his drumming was still pretty awesome, especially in [ゲーム], [1979] and [志恩]. This set had a neat lotus design in line with the Shion theme.

Crowd's reaction was great! You can tell they've been waiting for a long time to see the band.

Miya was in excellent form. Already at the 1st and 2nd songs [梟の揺り篭] & [塗り潰すなら臙脂], he was already deep into it, especially [塗り潰すなら臙脂] since there're plenty of guitar solos in that one. Man... he was snarling at the audience most of the time, hahaa... only time he smiled was when they played [謡声], and towards the end. One song he obviously enjoyed playing (it seemed to me) was [シヴァ] - he does that screech right at the beginning btw!

Just some random things i can remember...
- Opening of [アンジャベル] was different... i expected it to be [ファズ] but it turned out to be [アンジャベル] instead... and Tatsu was excellent in his rendition, it moved me to tears (urrgh i'm so weak)
- During [ファズ], the audience joined in the wow-wow portion... frankly it felt so strange!
- [ゲーム] live is quite powerful. There was a new added portion not in the recorded version.
- Having the programming mix with the live had its good and bad moments... some parts sounded quite natural but for others i think they might have to work on it a bit more...
- They didn't play [空忘れ]... i think? well i can' remember hearing it... hope they play it at Studio Coast
- In the middle of [リブラ], i was thinking to myself, nothing beats mucc-sound. Really, it's that mucc-sound. :)

Okay other non-setlist stuff...
- In the middle of the encore, Tatsu started taking pics of the audience... and then himself, and briefly the people on the stage... then Yukke noticed and came forward to be taken, but Tatsu had already put down the cam... heehee but later on Tatsu went over the Yukke's side and choh-chohed him a bit... and Yukke was obviously enjoying it XD
- During the encore, Tatsu came out with a huge bottle of mineral water and handed it to the audience in front of him... with styrofoam cups... a result of their American live experiences? :) Anyway, the audience was like fumbling with it... so in the end... Tatsu actually helped pour the water into the cups for them XD ... Miya also had some water which he splashed to the crowd... and later on, so did Tatsu... from that HUGE bottle... so everyone, and i mean everyone, got wet! - Was it during Ranchuu?... Can't remember which song now (yuj, do you know?), but they actually got everyone to like... squat down??... in the tiny livehouse!!... and then they talked for a while onstage... and then when the song re-started, the audience like jumped up all at once! I was, of course, not aware of this 'new' thingy XD... so i just followed suit, hahaha

2 more RR lives... 25/5 I'll probably be stuck in the depths of the far end in the audience, since my ticket number is so humongous! But I suppose I'll just enjoy the show from the back since it's at Studio Coast so there's likely to be a good laser show or backdrop screen going on there... as for 26/5, I'm hoping to get to the first row... wish me luck!

Studio Coast tics

25日的是恐怖的1973番(索性给个1979嘛! XD)
Finale的26日是72番! ^O^
现在在想要不要早几天去仙台也看那场。。。
原本想说23日去看一下抒情派的森山直太朗的(刚巧是在茨城県立県民文化センター~)
24日既然在东京了，可能也去看看ゆず吧。

奇怪的是，拍卖板上的成交价，比想象的底。。。这又是什么现象呢？

you win some, you lose some

really pissed off today by a colleague whom i thought might be vaguely interested in shion.
passed him the cd and booklet for him to give it a try.
he took a look at the english translated lyrics and started poking fun at them.
fuck off!
it's rather obvious that things will sound a bit off when they're translated isn't it?
and poking fun at english translations is fine, i'm generally not so defensive.
but this guy just didn't know the limits and went on and on and on...
as if the japanese don't know how to write lyrics?
only lyrics originally written in english will sound beautiful?
this isn't even a band that writes those engrish type lyrics that so many other japanese artistes do!
the english lyrics must be read in conjunction with the japanese lyrics. perhaps my mistake was that i took that as a given, not knowing that some people can be as narrow-minded as him and merely focus on the translations.

一人一半 Wubai & China Blue vers.

Kiva

http://www.kiva.org/
I've always supported the idea of applying private sector practices to social causes. Microfinancing is an interesting concept. If you're interested in going beyond charity through donations, do check it out!

Detroit Metal City - Tribute to Krauser II the metal mix

Why did they, of all songs, pick Flight? orz...

志恩 Cont'd

Gosh, I'm not ashamed to say I'm captivated by a single band's music and they're making it hard for me to get distracted by other bands because they're just so darn GOOD!

I don't have anything bad to say about the English lyrics that they've included in the booklet this time round. Translations are subjective but I think it's clear that effort went into capturing the poetic essence of the Japanese lyrics, and it's certainly benefitted me on a personal level... at least it's speeded my understanding of the lyrics greatly, so i'm grateful. It'll also be easier for me to introduce this album to other friends. I'd still prefer if they stuck to ムック and less English in the credits, but it's not as important as the music. I couldn't help noticing "Masaaki Yaguchi" being credited for the programming for tracks 1, 3, 5, 11. Kudos to him, these tracks were quite appropriately programmed.

Lyrics-wise, it's a strong turn-out this time round. My favourites are:
- 達瑯's lyrics for 「アンジャベル」. What a unique way of presenting the theme and message of this song. 101 marks for originality, tatasama!
- ミヤ's lyrcis for 「蝉時雨」 and 「志恩」. Both prove one point: you don't need to have outrightly upbeat tracks like 'Flight' to bring a positive message across. I mentioned in my last post that the album came at the right time. Indeed ... at a tough time at work and home, these songs have given me new strength to carry things through and see life from a new perspective.


シオン=紫苑

Melodies-wise, what can I say. They've been taking turns to stay in my head. At the moment it's 「小さな窓」. Vocals-wise, this is also one of the few songs in the album where we get to hear Tatsu in more raw form, perfect for this song.

Now: Counting down to the next live.

志恩

昨晚接到友人从日本传来的sms，sms开头是: "New album fuckin awesome..."

^O^

今天终于收到CD，不得不blog一下！一下下也好！

Fuckin awesome album indeed! マイ タイプ。第一感觉是民族风强+电子摇滚味道。Like I said before, to have 'Flight' sticking out like a sore thumb in this album can only be a good thing, haha hahaha.

「アンジャベル」果然是ミヤ的作品！「志恩」也是！「蝉時雨」编曲比之前在bootleg CD里听到的还棒。

每首都想听live版本。 The spine-tingling sensation of listening to this album can only be surpasssed, I'm sure, by hearing it live.

话说回来，非得说服那位友人看场ムックlive不可！！！

ps. 他们总是在我最需要的时候出现!

Change of address

Hear Ye Hear Ye!
In 2 days' time, the web address of this blog will be changed to:
http://mucc******.blogspot.com/
where "******" refers to what 2008 means for the band!

happy new year!

Hm... looking at the setlist and session bands, if "Over the Edge" is going to be an annual event, it'll be a strong reason for me to consider counting down in Japan this year (yup, this year, since it's already 2008)!

「生きる」

I think the movie should be shown to all civil servants XD
Akira Kurosawa is indeed a genius!

Edit.
I vote this as the most impactful movie I watched in 2007. (& i've watched a lot, believe me... to the point where I've run out of movies to watch on the SIA inflight entertainment list!)

The story was told in such a low-key manner... some might even say it's slow, but therein lies the power. Kurosawa's power to move the viewer with the 3 key cinematic elements... acting, plot and direction.

I've also seen the Asahi TV 2007 adaption and was eqally moved. It's amazing how the script transcends culture and time.

Hopefully, I'll think of this movie as I go about living my life in 2008.