Sunday, April 22, 2007

D'ERLANGER NIGHT「薔薇色の愛と死と恍惚」

Because of this live, which i got to know only 2 nights before i was supposed to fly to tokyo, i changed my entire accomodation plan for this trip! O_o;;; Thinking it would really be a waste if i missed this live, since i was going to be in tokyo, i changed my hotel to one amidst the host clubs at shinjuku XD XD Cos Shinjuku Loft is smack right in the middle of Kabukicho, and the live starts past midnight at 2430, so it makes more sense for me to stay at shinjuku rather than take a cab back after the live (the cabfare would have cost the same amount as one night's stay at the hotel)

But it's all worth it!!!

The live consisted of performances by a series of session bands, playing tribute to D'erlanger (D'erlanger's live at Yaon was the following day). Miya was in one of the session bands, and Tatsurou was in another. I must confess I'm not familiar with D'erlanger's music, but by the end of the live, I've definitely got acquainted with their style. "La Vie En Rose" was played at least 4 times that night ^^; Tatsurou's session band (called "I CAN'T LIVES" XD), unfortunately played only 1 piece, but wow, it was SUCH a solid performance! It was the only band which had an acoustic performance, so Tatsurou's rendition was literally instrumental in bringing out the piece. I was really happy to hear Tatsurou's voice back to normal! Am so relieved!!! There were lots of english in that song too ^^;

As for Miya, he cosplayed D'erlanger's guitarist, complete with the slicked back hair, '80s eye-lined eyes, and yes, no goatee! The vocalist for his band was Ao-san, and yeah, i reckon most people were there to see this session band, cos i noticed its "cup" had the most ticket stubs stuck into it (for events, when you enter you're asked which band you came to see, and they will stick your ticket stub into this paper cup with the band's name). It was also the last band to appear. The wait was really loooonng. The whole live ended at 4+am! But woa, Miya was a good form too! His guitars held up the band's whole performance, in my opinion! You can see they were really all enjoying themselves. (yeah and there was one part during a song where Ao tried some fanservice and had his arms around Miya... the crowd went mad)

As with most events, all the members came out at the end and sang a final song together (what else, "La Vie En Rose"!) And..and... Daisuke appeared onstage too!!! In the beginning he stayed at the side of the stage together with Tatsurou :) ... Miya emptied a cup of beer at one go (at the prompting of the audience...) ... Then, when they were playing the finale piece, Daisuke went over to Miya's side, and he picked up a guitar and tried to play alongside Miya :) :) Tatsurou was one of the vocalists, of course, and did his part well in making the atmosphere really high. Then at some point during the song, he went over to Daisuke, and the three of them, Tatsurou, Daisuke and Miya, were side-by-side and performing together --- it was GREAT! :D

As the song was coming to an end, Tatsurou did a yasashii thing... he passed the mike to Daisuke, and urged him to sing. So the final "growl" of the song came from Daisuke! Hurrah~

K, gotta go. Have spent way too long at this public computer. Write more later!

Labels: ,

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

In anticipation of 『哀愁』『アンティーク』day!

In anticipation of 『哀愁』『アンティーク』day, I've attempted a translation of 「あやとり」 into English :)

Cat’s Cradle (1)
 
Lyrics/Music: Miya

The Cat’s Cradle strings that we played with
lay torn in the room where
I am weeping… I am weeping
 
On the pillar at the corner of this room
are our names that we carved
Of the two persons under the umbrella (2)
there is only myself looking on and weeping
The calendar wearing too thin
I flip yet another page…

A piece of scrap paper (3) that told all of your deceit
I kept hitting my head against the wall as if I was deranged
The words lining the scrap paper puzzled my heart
Violated by these words
I am unable to call out to tomorrow, merely awaiting the arrival of the morning alone

I want to return to those times...
But I can’t...
If only I can…

Those times when we were together…

Notes:
(1) Ayatori is also Cat's Cradle, a children's game using string looped around both hands. See picture.

(2) Lovers' names are typically carved under an umbrella symbol in Japan.

(3) Am inclined to read it as the same 'paper' of the calendar.

Comments:
The lyrics are simple but sweet (or should I say, bittersweet), with the strings of a Cat's Cradle being alikened to the strings that tie two people together. What I like most about this piece of work, is the haunting melody accompanying the lyrics, you can truly feel the desperation and emptiness oozing out from each note. This song is highly recommended for listening in the late of the night, as late as possible :P

Have not heard this song live before, so it's definitely one song I'm looking forward to hearing on 23 April... i know i'll weep for sure (o´∀`o)☆

Labels: ,

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

real mucc?

发问时间!!!
~~~ old mucc or new mucc?

对,你没看错!
It's now-mucc in then-mucc.

对啊,这不是旧照,是2007年5月的Shoxx写真 ^^
因为是在网上无意间看到的,第一眼就觉得eh!不对!这不是旧照!尤其miya最为明显。
他们长大了。
hey, don't take it too seriously.

不过看了莫名的感动 :)

Labels:

Monday, April 09, 2007

need hard liquor

Who guards the guardians???

It's all a bunch of people giving themselves a pat on their backs and handing themselves a big fat salary raise. What's the justice in this?

And, if as according to the newspapers, a 32-year-old AO is currently already getting a $361,000 annual pay package, with the 25% pay rise, what does that make it? Just plain obscene!

Will these people be able to emphathize with the man in the street when they make national policies??

How about all the civil/public servants working for these AOs and "Mini-Stars", those getting their hands dirty, doing all the paper-writing, due diligence and making statements for them? While they sit in their posh offices wielding power in their hands, and worst of all, not accounting for what they are doing? The only thing that distinguishes these AOs from others is the fact that they got their scholarships at the tender age of 18. Plunge them in the real world now and they wouldn't be able to float, i tellya, so don't tell us about pegging their salaries to market. Also, don't tell us these "Mini-Stars" need to get themselves voted every 5 years, when there are so many walkover instances.

All this makes me want to hit out at someone, anyone! Until a friend over msn wisely told me: "remember... prison got no broadband."

C Lim's articles, those 10 years ago and now, have put the key issues across so clearly. And yet, what is the use.

What is the bloody use.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

faye wong

Went for a 2.5 hr All-Faye karaoke session with KC.
Ah, shiok.

Her songs took up 21 pages in the catalogue, mind you, so we didn't even manage to choose all the songs we wanted to croon~ XD
But ah, it was still dem shiok.

And it's just amazing how every time the refrain of any song comes on, some memories of your life, during the time when you were listening to that song in your CD player, come floating up as well :)

For a few songs, we had to dig into some rusty corners of our brains to recall parts of the melodies XD
But that can only mean ONE thing!
--> We need more All-Faye Karaoke Sessions!!! :D

Anyway, the session inspired me to dig out all her CDs/DVDs/movies/what not after I got back home. Ah yes, the "fayenatic" (as lovers of Faye's music are endearingly called XD) in me is still alive, it's just hibernating at the moment XD

Curiosity got me checking out Faye's page at Wikipedia too.
Quite a detailed write-up they have there! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faye_Wong
& it helped me get updated on some of her recent activities, or rather, non-activities, as sadly she has stopped singing and releasing albums. There's a link there to her husband's blog, so I checked that out too. One of his posts (http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/473dc620010005lp) was written during the time when the media was furiously reporting about their daughter's condition (their daughter was born with a cleft palate and they had to seek treatment for her in the US). I was deeply moved by the sincerity in his words, and it's admirable that they've set up a foundation, called Smileangel Foundation, in aid of children with cleft lips/palates conditions. Here's a Youtube vid of the fundraising event last Dec:


If Faye should ever start holding concerts again, i'll definitely want to go watch! :)

Labels:

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Jetlag?

I haven't been able to sleep before 2am every night since I came back from Europe, and my head's just so heavy in the day... the only time i felt alive today was during the trip back home from Japanese class, together with BH ^_^

远征上海的朋友,一路顺风~~! ^^ 希望有特别难忘的事情会发生,最重要是特别难忘的一场live! 相信会是如此的!我对去年上海的两场lives还念念不忘呢。。。对我来说那两场lives到现在为止,还保留在本人Top 5 Lives 榜上哦! :)

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Some pics

Mucc actually had a tab all to themselves at FNAC Champs Elysees! Cool!

And a special spot for Gokusai... and advertising for their 25 Mar live!

Merry had a tab too~

That's the poster outside La Loco.

Er... that's all i've got! Unfortunately no shots of the lives nor members, so sorry! There are many videos on youtube showing snippets of their euro lives, as well as off-live videos of the members if you're into those too. And lotsa photos elsewhere too! Euro-muckers are indeed lucky! :)

Labels:

Monday, April 02, 2007

I'm back!...with some La Loco first :)

YO! I'm back from an absolutely wonderful trip to Paris & Slovenia.
Couldn't have asked for anything more! Yep, yep, yep... was fortunate enough to be able to catch mucc's live at La Loco, Paris.
As for Slovenia, work-wise things turned out great! And I've really taken a liking to the country and its people... both are equally beautiful!

First, a short one on the mucc live @ La Loco...


Pic of queue outside La Loco at around 2pm. It stretched over to the end of the street and round the corner! What an awesome turnout! And cos it's next to Moulin Rouge, there are lotsa tourists stopping by to take a look, and they were all curious about why we were queueing up.

A lady driving by stopped her car at the side and shouted to us: "Who are you waiting for?"
We shouted back: "Mucc!"
She went: "Who??"
Then we laughed... XD XD XD

Anyway, they only started admitting people into the livehouse at 4pm, even though it was stated on the ticket that it was supposed to start at that time! I don't know if it's because they forgot about daylight saving (which just started the night before) or was it because of Tatsurou's injury.. whatever it was, the live only started proper at around 5.40pm or so.

Inside the livehouse, i got a good standing position at the stepped balcony area near Yukke. I was really happy, cos I had a good view of all the members (though ironically not Yukke at times)!

The setlist was basically an extension of the Psychedelic Analysis tour, except for 路地裏, haven't seen that on their setlist for some time! And of course, the new single in May, フライト. I agree with Josu, it's not going to be my favourite mucc song. But we got to hear it 4 times! XD Yup, cos mucc sprang a surpise on the audience during the encore and told us they were filming the PV for the song during the La Loco live!

--->
First take - normal live performance. Kinda strange to see Tatsurou mouthing the lyrics XD
2nd take - members were suppose to come up close to the edge of the stage and play more...erm... expressively XD XD
3rd take - members play with their back to the audience, so that the audience gets into the shot!
4th take - audience-only shots! By this time, only the 2 camermen + Tatsurou were left on stage, each with a camera. Tatsurou looked like he was having lotsa fun filming us.

In between the takes, the members were all figuring out with the cameramen how best to take the shots... i remember it was Yukke who was the first to perform with his back to the audience so that more of the audience gets into the shot, how sweet! In between takes the audience also shouted each member's name in turn, prompting the cameras to focus on each of them for the next take XD When it was Satochi, he grinned and puffed up his chest, haha! XD XD

By the end of the 4th take, i was tired like hell from jumping up and down. i'm sure if i even get into the scene (i never have luck for such stuff!), i'm sure to look like some exhausted idiot! :oP There were a few guys who dived and ended up on the stage, and Tatsurou and the cameramen had a field time filming them XD

Performance-wise, the condition of Tatsurou's voice still got me worried... he couldn't reach the high notes of some songs... later i brought this up with one of the muccrew and she said, well, it's the 3rd consecutive night of lives. Still, it's worrying cos he really has to maintain his voice on a sustainable basis... there are so many more lives to go... i hope!

Speaking of which, there was another highlight of the Paris leg of the trip. Turns out i was staying at the same hotel as some of the muccrew, and the hotel owner kindly introduced me to a lady muccrew. That was after the hotel owner realized i was going to watch a live at La Loco, and asked me whether it was to see a Japanese band. When I said "yeah!", she dug out an issue of Shuunoto newsletter, and pointed to a picture of Yukke and a little boy, saying "My grandson!" She was pointing to the little boy, of course, not Yukke XD

Anyway, the lady muccrew was really nice, and we chatted for a while before the live, as well as the next day before i left. She gave me Yukke's pick as a parting gift... that really made my day! ^_^

Labels: ,