July 3 & 4, 2008 - LM.C @ Anime EXPO (Live and Q&A)
Before I begin my account of the weekend, I would just like to say that my opinion of the band has slightly shifted. I don't view maya as the retard I had previously thought him to be. While he still has a tart~ish sense of humor, I have come to find that he also has a sense of sarcasm about him but is also really kind hearted. And while I still find Aiji to be a complete dill-weed, he does seem genuinely sincere when it comes to the fans. He appears to be happy where he is and compliments maya, as maya also compliments him... kind of like an old married couple. Though I must admit, if you had asked me prior to seeing them who my favorite member was, I probably would have said that I was conflicted between Aiji because of where he came from and maya because Aiji is an ass-hat. But if you ask me now, I would say without a doubt that their session keyboardist Jay Kay is love♥♥♥ He is so freaking cute and hawt to boot. (*__*) I want him to become an official member. That would just make my day.
But all of that aside... Thursday night was LM.C's first performance. I was waiting in line for 3 or 4 hours, 2 of which were spent asleep (so now I can officially say, Yes I have fallen asleep in a convention center). When we were let in, me and Christie followed Jess to the center. We had good seats, I think. All of the chairs had GaaGalinG fliers and LM.C postcards on them, so those got put in our bags.
I'm so glad maya didn't have his 80's crimped retarded lion hair. It looks dumb. This weekend, it was more like the back photo.
The first band to come on was GaaGalinG. MYM is too adorable! I also like them better live than I do recorded. The bassist Jun was cracking Jess and I up with his little wannabe hokey-pokey dance moves.
After GaaGalinG was the actual 'Battle of the Bands'. It was kinda pathetic but whatever.
As we were waiting for LM.C to set up, they showed some of their PV's from the DVD they just released. They got through 5, I think, with a significant amount of time between each. In other words it took them forever to set up. Finally, as NO.9 started playing and the first member (DENKI-MAN) came on stage, everyone left their seats and stampeded up to the stage; and there was no barrier so we were right at the platform. I was able to get up to 2nd row by Aiji. Once he took the stage and was standing in front of me, it was a rather emotionless but surreal feeling. I was just like, "Oh. There you are. You do exist. You look exactly the way you do in pictures. Your hair needs a die job and a good trim." I didn't really move about too much; only when I got got bumped into. The crowd was actually rather rough for this first performance.
Anyway, the songs they played that first night were (but not in this order):
☆Rock the LM.C☆
OH MY JULIET.
88 (Which I learned is said 'Hachi Hachi' not 'Eighty-eight' or 'Hachiju-hachi')
BOYS&GIRLS
Liar/Liar
little Fát Màn boy
Maya did most of the talking. While he understands English, he chooses not to speak it, though he did say some stuff. He asked the crowd if anyone spoke both English and Japanese and a girl in the crowd raised her hand so maya had her translate for him; and she did well. While she had a really high pitched voice, she was loud so everyone could hear her. He pretty much said stuff like, "Is everyone having fun?" and "Everyone rock!" and "Everyone come see us on Saturday," ...stuff like that. Also, the last time I had that much water dumped on me was at a D'espairsRay live on their first tour over here. They had, like, a water bottle quota or something that night because they'd take a mouth full, spray it on the crowd and then fling the still full bottle of water into the crowd. I also had Aiji jerk off one of his water bottles in my face. Lovely... Oh and Maya also sweated in my eye. (¬__¬) Maya also threw alot of candy into the crowd. The bassist (HIKO) threw one of his picks over to our side, but some little girl got it. DX
But that was that. It was a short but enjoyable first taste of the band. Before we left, Jess and I ran around and snatched up a bunch of the LM.C postcards and GaaGalinG fliers... so if anyone wants one...!
So the next day was the Q&A. Jess ran into the GaaGalinG panel since that was right before hand and I went to get in line for LM.C. I was waiting for about an hour or two before they started to let us in. At the start of the panel was a video showing clips of all their PV's and a little message from the two of them. After that, maya and Aiji entered and everyone cheered and clapped for them. Maya said, "Nice to meet you!" Then Aiji said, "Hello! LM.C. My name is Aiji. よろしく!" (Nope, that's a direct quote. I didn't leave words out, he did.) Then maya came back with, "たのしい blah-blah..." (I missed the rest of that... ^^;;) The panel started off a little weird. First we were told to go to the center aisle. So some girl got to ask the first question, "What is your favorite American band?" Then the panel people decided to change that and have some guy run around with the microphone to poeple and then also finally stated, "No inappropriate questions," though they didn't specify what was inappropriate. Needless to say, the girls question never got answered.
So here are the questions from the panel. They might not be direct quotes because I wrote these down in sloppy broken short hand. (-___-);; I have some commentary to add to some of these too. Also, "M" is maya and "A" is Aiji and "LM.C" means I don't remember who said it.
The girl who asked this first question didn't speak English well, but insisted on forming the question in English anyway so it came out really odd and didn't make complete sense with the way she worded it. But in essence it was:
For maya: If Aiji or any other band members were to fall, who'd you help first?"
-- M: I'd say myself.
The next one wasn't really a question per say. Someone had a gift to give to them but then we were told that we could give it to them during the autograph session.
-- M: I look forward to it.
How was the live last night?
-- A: It was great!
It was announced that you'll be performing in France soon, but will you be coming back to the US?
-- LM.C: We'd like to.
What are your favorite PV's?
-- A: I love them all because they're darling creations. (I doubt he actually said 'darling' but that's how it was translated. XD)
What are the main influences on your music?
-- M: Japanese anime songs.
Is this your first time in the Untied States?
-- A: This is our first time as LM.C but we've each been here for personal reasons.
What is your favorite anime?
-- LM.C: REBORN (As in the one that 88 is the opening for e_e)
How do you feel about doing the opening for REBORN?
-- A: Greatest.
-- M: Great!
Before LM.C, what kind of music did you listen to? You know, because their music interests totally changed when they joined together... (-_-)
-- M: Matsuda Saiko. (That name might be wrong. He said it and no one knew who he was talking about... and then he apologized for confusing everyone. ^^)
Do you have any bad habits?
-- A: None at all.
-- M: I have a lot.
Have you had any embarrassing moments?
-- M: Being stared at by everyone right now. (o.o*)
How is LM.C compared to your previous bands?
-- M: Different number of members.
-- A: ._.;
Have you done anything fun while you've been here?
-- M: This right now.
When are you most happiest?
-- A: When performing live.
How do you get ready for a performance?
-- M: First, we get to the venue. Second, I go to the men's room. The rest is just perseverance. ( XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD )
What is your favorite flavor of candy?
-- M: Right now... (looks at lollipop) it's lemon. (He then proceeded to try to feed it to Aiji who wasn't having any of that.
To you, what's the difference between Japanese fans and American fans?
-- A: Facial features, but the energy is the same. (Actually when he said it, he said, "かお... かお," with a bit of an attitude in his tone of voice; almost like you'd expect him to say, "Yo mamma," after the fact. It was kind of odd.)
What advice can you give to an aspiring music artist?
-- M: You want to try to stand out and then go for what you believe in.
What's your favorite character in Japanese or American? (I think it's safe to assume the person meant cartoon character)
-- A: I rarely have a favorite character in anime, but I like that gameboy game... you know the one with the yellow character...
-- M: (Points to the kid with the giant Pikachu stuffed animal in the audience) Pikachu!
What is the process behind the costume designing?
-- M: We talk with the stylist for that... (Okay, I totally ADD-ed for this one and I have no idea what he said. Oops, my bad...)
お元気ですか? [How are you?] (Whoever said this one & the next one was obviously American and wanted to try out her Japanese on them...)
-- A: 元気です。[I'm good.]
スポーツが好きですか？ [Do you like sports?]
-- A: I guess volleyball and soccer.
-- M: I have no hobbies so I just stay at home.
How did you get the name LM.C?
-- M: We didn't want a name that had any meaning at the time. We wanted something that would develop its own meaning as time went on. (Though I think "Mocochang" was the name of maya's dog)
At this point, maya jumped up to rial the crowd because we'd quieted down. As he jumped up, he spilled his water.
-- M: o____O;;; Uuuhh... I spilled my water.
Do you like video games?
-- A: Yes, I love them.
I saw the videos for ☆Rock the LM.C☆ and OH MY JULIET and I noticed that you two had on these fuzzy wrist bands and none of the other members had them. What's up with that?
-- M: It was cold. (That was a great answer because that was a dumb question!)
Other than concerts, what else are you doing while here in the States?
-- A: We don't have any days off so we aren't going to have time to do anything. But with the amount of work we're putting in, we're getting a lot of press time so you'll be able to see us that way.
What are your blood types?
-- M: Unknown.
-- A: A.
-- M: What type do I look like?
The crowd proceeds to yell blood types at him...
-- M: Still unknown.
I had a question to ask, but I was on the far side of the room and I never got called on. But my question was, if you're wondering, "How were you chosen or how did you decide to do a song for the LUNA SEA MEMORIAL COVER ALBUM and why did you decide to cover IN MY DREAMS?" But I guess we'll never know... Oh well.
After the last question, maya made a comment about how someone had asked him if he'd ever had any cavities and he said he's never had any ever. I don't know when this was asked but, whatever. ::shrug::
The two of them were asked to give closing comments for the panel but I decided to miss out on that and run down with a handful of people to go get in line for the autograph session. At some point during the panel, we were told that the autograph session started 15 minutes after the Q&A ended (yeah right) and it was down in 'artist's alley' which was on the other side of the con center. Of course we all started by quickly walking out of the room, half way there we were all speed walking and by the time we got down to the dealer room area, we were at a full run... until security yelled at us. (^^);;;; As someone yelled out along the way, it really was a fangirl stampede. XD
As I was standing in line, I noticed that a lot of people only had magazines or posters or the DVD they were selling at the con. I didn't see anyone else with a CD in their hand. Seriously? Because, you know, magazines totally support the artists... (¬.¬) From what I was told, only about 150 people got an autograph and there were probably close to 300 in line. Luckily, I was #111 so I was able to get my CD signed.
[side note]
I hadn't eaten yet that day so I munched on this little purple shortbread biscuit that Christie had given me the previous day. As I was finishing it, it dawned on me that purple food items usually turn your mouth purple. So I whipped out my iPod (because I totally use that as a mirror) and sure enough, I had a purple mouth. So I stuffed gum in my mouth in the hopes that it would take some of the color off my tongue, but it was old gum so it was half disintegrated by the time I got up to them. O.o;
[/side note]
So I got up to the table and the lady there asked me what I wanted signed so I handed her the CD booklet (I decided to get my Trailers [Silver] single signed. It's the one with the DVD so I guess it's the limited one. ) So she took it and when it was my turn, I walked up to Aiji as the lady handed him the booklet. He looked at it, signed it and then looked up at me. He stretched out his hand to shake mine as he said, "Thank you." I grasped his gnarly old man hand, bowed my head and responded, "ありがとうございます." He looked sincerely thankful, bowed his head and threw back an, "ありがとう." He handed the booklet to maya who took it and proceeded to sign it as a poster was put down on the table which pushed my booklet away from maya who moved his hands after it and then picked it up and finished signing it on his lap. When he was done he handed it back to me, put his hand out to shake mine and said, "Thank you!" I smiled, shook his hand, bowed and responded with another, "ありがとうございます."
maya's is on the left with the weird looking rose/sperm/face and Aiji's is on the right with an unreadable signature.
Before I left to go wait for Jess, I ninja~ed a couple of pictures of the sides of their heads since we couldn't take pictures any other way.
Aiji is hiding behind maya in both pictures, but he's there!
~~ To be continued... ~~
But all of that aside... Thursday night was LM.C's first performance. I was waiting in line for 3 or 4 hours, 2 of which were spent asleep (so now I can officially say, Yes I have fallen asleep in a convention center). When we were let in, me and Christie followed Jess to the center. We had good seats, I think. All of the chairs had GaaGalinG fliers and LM.C postcards on them, so those got put in our bags.
I'm so glad maya didn't have his 80's crimped retarded lion hair. It looks dumb. This weekend, it was more like the back photo.
The first band to come on was GaaGalinG. MYM is too adorable! I also like them better live than I do recorded. The bassist Jun was cracking Jess and I up with his little wannabe hokey-pokey dance moves.
After GaaGalinG was the actual 'Battle of the Bands'. It was kinda pathetic but whatever.
As we were waiting for LM.C to set up, they showed some of their PV's from the DVD they just released. They got through 5, I think, with a significant amount of time between each. In other words it took them forever to set up. Finally, as NO.9 started playing and the first member (DENKI-MAN) came on stage, everyone left their seats and stampeded up to the stage; and there was no barrier so we were right at the platform. I was able to get up to 2nd row by Aiji. Once he took the stage and was standing in front of me, it was a rather emotionless but surreal feeling. I was just like, "Oh. There you are. You do exist. You look exactly the way you do in pictures. Your hair needs a die job and a good trim." I didn't really move about too much; only when I got got bumped into. The crowd was actually rather rough for this first performance.
Anyway, the songs they played that first night were (but not in this order):
☆Rock the LM.C☆
OH MY JULIET.
88 (Which I learned is said 'Hachi Hachi' not 'Eighty-eight' or 'Hachiju-hachi')
BOYS&GIRLS
Liar/Liar
little Fát Màn boy
Maya did most of the talking. While he understands English, he chooses not to speak it, though he did say some stuff. He asked the crowd if anyone spoke both English and Japanese and a girl in the crowd raised her hand so maya had her translate for him; and she did well. While she had a really high pitched voice, she was loud so everyone could hear her. He pretty much said stuff like, "Is everyone having fun?" and "Everyone rock!" and "Everyone come see us on Saturday," ...stuff like that. Also, the last time I had that much water dumped on me was at a D'espairsRay live on their first tour over here. They had, like, a water bottle quota or something that night because they'd take a mouth full, spray it on the crowd and then fling the still full bottle of water into the crowd. I also had Aiji jerk off one of his water bottles in my face. Lovely... Oh and Maya also sweated in my eye. (¬__¬) Maya also threw alot of candy into the crowd. The bassist (HIKO) threw one of his picks over to our side, but some little girl got it. DX
But that was that. It was a short but enjoyable first taste of the band. Before we left, Jess and I ran around and snatched up a bunch of the LM.C postcards and GaaGalinG fliers... so if anyone wants one...!
So the next day was the Q&A. Jess ran into the GaaGalinG panel since that was right before hand and I went to get in line for LM.C. I was waiting for about an hour or two before they started to let us in. At the start of the panel was a video showing clips of all their PV's and a little message from the two of them. After that, maya and Aiji entered and everyone cheered and clapped for them. Maya said, "Nice to meet you!" Then Aiji said, "Hello! LM.C. My name is Aiji. よろしく!" (Nope, that's a direct quote. I didn't leave words out, he did.) Then maya came back with, "たのしい blah-blah..." (I missed the rest of that... ^^;;) The panel started off a little weird. First we were told to go to the center aisle. So some girl got to ask the first question, "What is your favorite American band?" Then the panel people decided to change that and have some guy run around with the microphone to poeple and then also finally stated, "No inappropriate questions," though they didn't specify what was inappropriate. Needless to say, the girls question never got answered.
So here are the questions from the panel. They might not be direct quotes because I wrote these down in sloppy broken short hand. (-___-);; I have some commentary to add to some of these too. Also, "M" is maya and "A" is Aiji and "LM.C" means I don't remember who said it.
The girl who asked this first question didn't speak English well, but insisted on forming the question in English anyway so it came out really odd and didn't make complete sense with the way she worded it. But in essence it was:
For maya: If Aiji or any other band members were to fall, who'd you help first?"
-- M: I'd say myself.
The next one wasn't really a question per say. Someone had a gift to give to them but then we were told that we could give it to them during the autograph session.
-- M: I look forward to it.
How was the live last night?
-- A: It was great!
It was announced that you'll be performing in France soon, but will you be coming back to the US?
-- LM.C: We'd like to.
What are your favorite PV's?
-- A: I love them all because they're darling creations. (I doubt he actually said 'darling' but that's how it was translated. XD)
What are the main influences on your music?
-- M: Japanese anime songs.
Is this your first time in the Untied States?
-- A: This is our first time as LM.C but we've each been here for personal reasons.
What is your favorite anime?
-- LM.C: REBORN (As in the one that 88 is the opening for e_e)
How do you feel about doing the opening for REBORN?
-- A: Greatest.
-- M: Great!
Before LM.C, what kind of music did you listen to? You know, because their music interests totally changed when they joined together... (-_-)
-- M: Matsuda Saiko. (That name might be wrong. He said it and no one knew who he was talking about... and then he apologized for confusing everyone. ^^)
Do you have any bad habits?
-- A: None at all.
-- M: I have a lot.
Have you had any embarrassing moments?
-- M: Being stared at by everyone right now. (o.o*)
How is LM.C compared to your previous bands?
-- M: Different number of members.
-- A: ._.;
Have you done anything fun while you've been here?
-- M: This right now.
When are you most happiest?
-- A: When performing live.
How do you get ready for a performance?
-- M: First, we get to the venue. Second, I go to the men's room. The rest is just perseverance. ( XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD )
What is your favorite flavor of candy?
-- M: Right now... (looks at lollipop) it's lemon. (He then proceeded to try to feed it to Aiji who wasn't having any of that.
To you, what's the difference between Japanese fans and American fans?
-- A: Facial features, but the energy is the same. (Actually when he said it, he said, "かお... かお," with a bit of an attitude in his tone of voice; almost like you'd expect him to say, "Yo mamma," after the fact. It was kind of odd.)
What advice can you give to an aspiring music artist?
-- M: You want to try to stand out and then go for what you believe in.
What's your favorite character in Japanese or American? (I think it's safe to assume the person meant cartoon character)
-- A: I rarely have a favorite character in anime, but I like that gameboy game... you know the one with the yellow character...
-- M: (Points to the kid with the giant Pikachu stuffed animal in the audience) Pikachu!
What is the process behind the costume designing?
-- M: We talk with the stylist for that... (Okay, I totally ADD-ed for this one and I have no idea what he said. Oops, my bad...)
お元気ですか? [How are you?] (Whoever said this one & the next one was obviously American and wanted to try out her Japanese on them...)
-- A: 元気です。[I'm good.]
スポーツが好きですか？ [Do you like sports?]
-- A: I guess volleyball and soccer.
-- M: I have no hobbies so I just stay at home.
How did you get the name LM.C?
-- M: We didn't want a name that had any meaning at the time. We wanted something that would develop its own meaning as time went on. (Though I think "Mocochang" was the name of maya's dog)
At this point, maya jumped up to rial the crowd because we'd quieted down. As he jumped up, he spilled his water.
-- M: o____O;;; Uuuhh... I spilled my water.
Do you like video games?
-- A: Yes, I love them.
I saw the videos for ☆Rock the LM.C☆ and OH MY JULIET and I noticed that you two had on these fuzzy wrist bands and none of the other members had them. What's up with that?
-- M: It was cold. (That was a great answer because that was a dumb question!)
Other than concerts, what else are you doing while here in the States?
-- A: We don't have any days off so we aren't going to have time to do anything. But with the amount of work we're putting in, we're getting a lot of press time so you'll be able to see us that way.
What are your blood types?
-- M: Unknown.
-- A: A.
-- M: What type do I look like?
The crowd proceeds to yell blood types at him...
-- M: Still unknown.
I had a question to ask, but I was on the far side of the room and I never got called on. But my question was, if you're wondering, "How were you chosen or how did you decide to do a song for the LUNA SEA MEMORIAL COVER ALBUM and why did you decide to cover IN MY DREAMS?" But I guess we'll never know... Oh well.
After the last question, maya made a comment about how someone had asked him if he'd ever had any cavities and he said he's never had any ever. I don't know when this was asked but, whatever. ::shrug::
The two of them were asked to give closing comments for the panel but I decided to miss out on that and run down with a handful of people to go get in line for the autograph session. At some point during the panel, we were told that the autograph session started 15 minutes after the Q&A ended (yeah right) and it was down in 'artist's alley' which was on the other side of the con center. Of course we all started by quickly walking out of the room, half way there we were all speed walking and by the time we got down to the dealer room area, we were at a full run... until security yelled at us. (^^);;;; As someone yelled out along the way, it really was a fangirl stampede. XD
As I was standing in line, I noticed that a lot of people only had magazines or posters or the DVD they were selling at the con. I didn't see anyone else with a CD in their hand. Seriously? Because, you know, magazines totally support the artists... (¬.¬) From what I was told, only about 150 people got an autograph and there were probably close to 300 in line. Luckily, I was #111 so I was able to get my CD signed.
[side note]
I hadn't eaten yet that day so I munched on this little purple shortbread biscuit that Christie had given me the previous day. As I was finishing it, it dawned on me that purple food items usually turn your mouth purple. So I whipped out my iPod (because I totally use that as a mirror) and sure enough, I had a purple mouth. So I stuffed gum in my mouth in the hopes that it would take some of the color off my tongue, but it was old gum so it was half disintegrated by the time I got up to them. O.o;
[/side note]
So I got up to the table and the lady there asked me what I wanted signed so I handed her the CD booklet (I decided to get my Trailers [Silver] single signed. It's the one with the DVD so I guess it's the limited one. ) So she took it and when it was my turn, I walked up to Aiji as the lady handed him the booklet. He looked at it, signed it and then looked up at me. He stretched out his hand to shake mine as he said, "Thank you." I grasped his gnarly old man hand, bowed my head and responded, "ありがとうございます." He looked sincerely thankful, bowed his head and threw back an, "ありがとう." He handed the booklet to maya who took it and proceeded to sign it as a poster was put down on the table which pushed my booklet away from maya who moved his hands after it and then picked it up and finished signing it on his lap. When he was done he handed it back to me, put his hand out to shake mine and said, "Thank you!" I smiled, shook his hand, bowed and responded with another, "ありがとうございます."
maya's is on the left with the weird looking rose/sperm/face and Aiji's is on the right with an unreadable signature.
Before I left to go wait for Jess, I ninja~ed a couple of pictures of the sides of their heads since we couldn't take pictures any other way.
Aiji is hiding behind maya in both pictures, but he's there!
~~ To be continued... ~~