So, what are you waiting in line for?
A concert.
-Who's playing?
Glay.
-Clay?
No, Glay.
-Can you spell that?
The other most frequently asked question was, "Why is there a line for the post office?" I'll get to that later.
RA & I woke up at about 5:30/6:00am to go down to the venue. We could actually see the venue from our hotel room so we could keep an eye on it... but we couldn't tell if we saw people or not, but we didn't see a line so that was good. We went down and got in line at about 7am. There were two girls in front of us, Isabelle and... crap I can't remember her name, but she was from LA. The two of them had been in line since midnight. About 5 minutes after we got in line another two people showed up (coincidently, the girl that got in line after RA and I was the same girl from Oregon that got in line right behind Jess and I at the Anaheim hyde show; small world eh?). I think another group showed up not too long after them. Isabelle (who is from New York, yeah, go east coast!) said that a guard from last night said that the line was going to move down to the post office so the sidewalk wasn't being blocked. So since there were about 8 or 10 people there now, we decided to go ahead and move the line down to the post office. And there we were for 12 more hours.
We had a little angst with the line but nothing the people in the front couldn't handle and at a bit past 7pm, we were let in. I got up in the center of the stage in front of Teru which is where I wanted to be. So everyone came in and at 8:16pm, the show started.
GLAY: ｢VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S.｣ Aug 12th -tues- The Fillmore
Here's the set list for that night:
VERB
Yuuwaku
Guroriasu
Ikikeku Tsuyosa
Giant strong faust super star
STARLESS NIGHT
AMERICAN INNOVATION
Lock on you
SORRY LOVE
HOWEVER
Kuchibiru
Kanojo no" Modern..."
SHUTTER SPEEDS no Teemu
Piiku Hateshi Naku Souru Kagiri Naku
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
Encore
SOUL LOVE
ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLER
SUFFRAGETTE CITY yes, as in the David Bowie cover
ACID HEAD
Takuro was the first to walk out, followed by Toshi (drummer) the keyboardist (who I think they called Piano-ouji?), then Jiro, Hisashi and finally Teru. TERU IS SO HOT IN PERSON!!♥♥♥
But all of that aside... Here's what they were wearing:
Teru: A black shiny shirt with a black suit jacket with shiny stuff dangling from the pockets. He had shiny but matte looking black pants on with black boots.
Hisashi: Black pin-stripe 3/4 pants, black boots, a black net shirt with another black button-down shirt over top if it, but it was missing its left sleeve.
Takuro: Dark blue jeans, a zebra print red & black sleeveless shirt with a long black vesty thing and, of course, black pointed toed boots.
Jiro: A black T-shirt with a white design on it, but I couldn't tell what, black pin-stripe pants and sneakers.
So they started out with VERB, which was to be expected, but they next song was Yuuwaku. I couldn't believe it. It's only the second song and it's already an old song. And it's one of my favorites.
I did the math and just under half of the night's songs were from before 2000. I was actually really surprised and elated with this. I was expected all newer stuff, like off of their last 3 albums, and maybe an older song here and there, but no. It was about equal. A good mix.
So anyways, during Yuuwaku, Teru was beckoning the audience to sing the English parts and some of the chorus and for the most part we obliged. When that song ended, he took his coat off and put his one foot up on the speaker in front of him and a piece of the set list got stuck to the bottom of his boot. And it stayed there until the encore! XD
So the first MC came up. His English was so cute♥ He said, "Thank you for waiting for us for so long and thank you for coming. I love you. Everybody rock!" And then he did a little faux introduction, "You know Takuro?" ...waited for crowd responce... "You know Jiro?" .. and then himself and then Hisashi.
Jiro bounces a lot. And he has such a baby face. He kind of reminds me of Jun from his Pierrot days, but bouncier. Teru liked blowing kisses at the crowd and jumping off of his speaker and landing on the ground for the final chord of said song.
Teru also liked getting us to say things along with them, like for STARLESS NIGHT, in the beginning, he would say, "Oh yeah, woh," and then have us repeat it a few times or like during AMERICAN INNOVATION, he had Toshi drum out a little rhythm for us and we'd clap it back in return.
So, they were getting ready to play Lock on you and Teru pulled a tambourine out of nowhere and he held it while he gave another MC actually introducing the members. So he started with, "On drums..." and looked at us for a response... but I don't know how many people knew the drummer's name. I know very few knew about the keyboardist. Anyways, so he'd say, 'On said-instrument...' about 2 or 3 times before finishing it off. "On drums... Toshi! On keyboard... Piano-ouji (and they laughed when Teru said it like it was some inside joke or something ::shrug::) On bass... Jiro!" Of course, when he got to the actual members of the band, the crowd all knew them so they yelled them out. "On guitar... Hisashi! Next, on guitar... Takuro! Next... (pointed at self) On vocal... Teru!"
In my opinion, some of the best fan service is vocalist/microphone and we got some of that during Lock on you. Teru was all over that thing in addition to pulling on his own shirt and making sex faces and feeling up his chest and all that good stuff. I like that song too; it's a hot song.
Though, just so you know, Teru sweats A LOT! It started off with the usual sweat spot on his back and under his arms but then it eventually encompassed his entire shirt and I can only assume his pants too. During SORRY LOVE which is a slower song so he stayed in one place, I just stood there watching liquid pour from his elbows, like someone had attached a hose to his arm and kept turning it on and off. For some reason I was mesmerized by this. o.O
But I digress, prior to the start of SORRY LOVE, there was a short pause for a 10 second rest. The crowd started calling out Jiro's name, but he looked at them and then pointed at Teru, motioning to yell for him. It was kinda cute. So at the start of Kuchibiru, the lights went down for a dramatic effect for the start of the song. During said song, Teru looked like he focused in on someone specific in the crowd, pointing at them and giving them a big smile. The person must have been singing along a lot because Teru bent down and put the mic up to the person so they'd sing into the mic, but I think they chickened out as soon as the mic was there because I didn't hear anything different. Don't worry dude, I'd've done the same thing. (-_-);
The next song was Kanojo no "Modern..." THEY PLAYED THE ONE SONG I WANTED TO HEAR, KANOJO NO "MODERN..."!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ I grabbed RA had "XDDD" at her. I sang along and rocked out for this one. When the song finished, I grabbed RA and just started shaking her. They played it, they played it!! *___________________*
The next song after that, Jiro came to the front and did a bass solo and then started to sing. I thought that was cool (note: later RA pointed out to me that the song was SHUTTER SPEEDS no Teemu. And we both kinda went, "Oh, that's why this song always sounded weird... -_-;) So Jiro sang and then Teru took over the vocals again and decided to climb on top of one of the speakers on Hisashi's side of the stage and just chill up there for a while, observing the crowd.
Later there was this song that I'd never heard, Piiku Hateshi Naku Souru Kagiri Naku. There's this one part in the song that isn't written in the lyrics that he had us yelling out. During the live, I heard, 'Glory days, woh...' but after listening to the song, I think it's actually, 'Woh, it's my life.' So, I don't know. Epic fail, I know. So anyways, during the middle of the song when it got to that point, the band stopped playing and Teru had us sing that part. As the line finished, he'd yell out without his microphone, "Motto!!" And we'd repeat. We did this maybe 4 or 5 times until this one point when a bunch of people in the crowd decided to yell back, "Motto" along with him. Teru seemed highly amused by this and the song continued.
So Teru gave another short MC: "I have a dream... I wanna see you again. Next song, BEAUTIFUL DREAMER." And they played. In the middle of the song, Teru kept randomly saying stuff like, 'I love you,' and 'I want you.' That ended and he gave a closing MC. "Honto ni Arigatou! Arigatou! I was very happy to see you! Thank you. Arigatou. San Francisco saikou!
In my opinion, the crowd did a lame call for an encore, just clapping. But the band came back out; starting with Takuro, then Teru, Toshi, Piano-ouji, Jiro with his camera and finally Hisashi. Jiro started taking pictures of the crowd. RA pointed out to me that Toshi and Piano-ouji had started to go over to their assigned areas, but Teru hailed them back over to center stage. The band wanted to take a group photo with the audience in the background. Of course Teru kneeled in front of me so RA pulled my hand over in front of her. So if we ever get to see these pictures, there might be a random hand sticking out from behind Teru. That's me. (-_-); So as they were getting ready to take the picture, Teru turned and said, "Special time. Minna smile... smile!" After that, Teru started talking in Japanese and he lost me completly. (o.o) Though a girl behind me said at one point he said that he had studied English really hard before the tour. awww...♥ He did ask if anyone in the audience spoke both Japanese and English really well. One girl on the other side must have raised her hand because he went to her, but she blurted out something about liking them a lot and Teru laughed. So he tried again, singling out the girl who stood next to me. But her voice was so high and nasal, I couldn't understand a word she said into that mic (@___@) (Really random note, that girl next to me couldn't sing either.)
So anyways, the encore started with an old song, then a new one. I would have personally liked to have heard the U2 cover from their 'VERB' single WITH OR WITHOUT YOU but instead they decided to do David Bowie's SUFFRAGETTE CITY which is the B-side on their single coming out next month, 'Aka to Kuro no MATADORA/I LOVE YOU o Sagashiteru'. So they finished off the concert with ACID HEAD (which RA said she always heard 'a shit head' when she first heard the song XD). It's an oldey but a goody. Both Hisashi and Takuro each had a guitar solo in that song.
Random observation: Teru decided to fling water over the crowd and then finished off the bottle by pouring it on himself. After doing so, he pushed all of his hair back so it was slicked back and down. In my opinion, a lot of Japanese men tend to have really large foreheads so they look kind of weird with all of their hair pushed strait back. But Teru did not. He did that and I just kind of stared at him. "You have a normal placed hairline and a really handsome face. You, old man, are freakin' gorgeous! (*-*)"
Teru gave his final words: "Thank you San Francisco! We will see you again. See you San Francisco. Domo Arigatou! Arigatou! Aimashou. Motto aimashou! Aiseruze (or something sounding like that)." The band all came to center stage and joined hands. They counted down: 3, 2, 1... and then jumped.
"Thank you San Francisco! Thank you America. Thank you (something incoherent). Thank you World. Thank you Everybody!" They all walked off stage, but Takurou managed to get one more "Thank you" into the mic before leaving.
Then began the epic fail.
Where I was, there were a lot of Japanese girls around. So I figured that they would have started to chant, "Ankoru, ankoru," for a second encore. But no. They decided to follow the wimpy little American fans and just half heartily clap. You guys realize that if they don't hear you, they aren't coming out again, right?? If everyone clapped, then maybe it would have been alright, but no. So finally I got fed up and started yelling at the top of my lungs, "Ankoru!!!! Ankoru!!!!" as loud as possible. Finally, the girls around me started yelling out for an encore, but by that time it was too late. The staff in front of us were telling us the show was over and the stage hands had already started to turn the equipment off.
A moment of cool: One of the girls behind me (who's name was Sakiko) that was kinda translating some of the MC's for me caught up with me after the show and asked me fill out this little note card for the band. So I got to write something to GLAY. Totally unexpected and really nice of her. ^____^
More fail: The merchandise consisted of tour shirts; which is nice except they didn't have my size, so I came home with nothing. On the way out, I at first didn't grab a poster (which is shown above) because I didn't know what it was. So I had to argue with the guy to get one. And it turns out I can't really look at it because I feel like I'm going to have a seizure.
But oh well. It was a great concert. I am glad I got to go. GLAY is one of those bands that I heard when I was first getting into Japanese music. If it wasn't for them, I might not like it as much as I do now or I might like a different form of J-music. They are one of those bands that I also thought I'd never see. And I hope they do come back, because I will definitely try to go again.
~~ Fin ~~
-Who's playing?
Glay.
-Clay?
No, Glay.
-Can you spell that?
The other most frequently asked question was, "Why is there a line for the post office?" I'll get to that later.
RA & I woke up at about 5:30/6:00am to go down to the venue. We could actually see the venue from our hotel room so we could keep an eye on it... but we couldn't tell if we saw people or not, but we didn't see a line so that was good. We went down and got in line at about 7am. There were two girls in front of us, Isabelle and... crap I can't remember her name, but she was from LA. The two of them had been in line since midnight. About 5 minutes after we got in line another two people showed up (coincidently, the girl that got in line after RA and I was the same girl from Oregon that got in line right behind Jess and I at the Anaheim hyde show; small world eh?). I think another group showed up not too long after them. Isabelle (who is from New York, yeah, go east coast!) said that a guard from last night said that the line was going to move down to the post office so the sidewalk wasn't being blocked. So since there were about 8 or 10 people there now, we decided to go ahead and move the line down to the post office. And there we were for 12 more hours.
We had a little angst with the line but nothing the people in the front couldn't handle and at a bit past 7pm, we were let in. I got up in the center of the stage in front of Teru which is where I wanted to be. So everyone came in and at 8:16pm, the show started.
GLAY: ｢VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S.｣ Aug 12th -tues- The Fillmore
Here's the set list for that night:
VERB
Yuuwaku
Guroriasu
Ikikeku Tsuyosa
Giant strong faust super star
STARLESS NIGHT
AMERICAN INNOVATION
Lock on you
SORRY LOVE
HOWEVER
Kuchibiru
Kanojo no" Modern..."
SHUTTER SPEEDS no Teemu
Piiku Hateshi Naku Souru Kagiri Naku
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
Encore
SOUL LOVE
ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLER
SUFFRAGETTE CITY yes, as in the David Bowie cover
ACID HEAD
Takuro was the first to walk out, followed by Toshi (drummer) the keyboardist (who I think they called Piano-ouji?), then Jiro, Hisashi and finally Teru. TERU IS SO HOT IN PERSON!!♥♥♥
But all of that aside... Here's what they were wearing:
Teru: A black shiny shirt with a black suit jacket with shiny stuff dangling from the pockets. He had shiny but matte looking black pants on with black boots.
Hisashi: Black pin-stripe 3/4 pants, black boots, a black net shirt with another black button-down shirt over top if it, but it was missing its left sleeve.
Takuro: Dark blue jeans, a zebra print red & black sleeveless shirt with a long black vesty thing and, of course, black pointed toed boots.
Jiro: A black T-shirt with a white design on it, but I couldn't tell what, black pin-stripe pants and sneakers.
So they started out with VERB, which was to be expected, but they next song was Yuuwaku. I couldn't believe it. It's only the second song and it's already an old song. And it's one of my favorites.
I did the math and just under half of the night's songs were from before 2000. I was actually really surprised and elated with this. I was expected all newer stuff, like off of their last 3 albums, and maybe an older song here and there, but no. It was about equal. A good mix.
So anyways, during Yuuwaku, Teru was beckoning the audience to sing the English parts and some of the chorus and for the most part we obliged. When that song ended, he took his coat off and put his one foot up on the speaker in front of him and a piece of the set list got stuck to the bottom of his boot. And it stayed there until the encore! XD
So the first MC came up. His English was so cute♥ He said, "Thank you for waiting for us for so long and thank you for coming. I love you. Everybody rock!" And then he did a little faux introduction, "You know Takuro?" ...waited for crowd responce... "You know Jiro?" .. and then himself and then Hisashi.
Jiro bounces a lot. And he has such a baby face. He kind of reminds me of Jun from his Pierrot days, but bouncier. Teru liked blowing kisses at the crowd and jumping off of his speaker and landing on the ground for the final chord of said song.
Teru also liked getting us to say things along with them, like for STARLESS NIGHT, in the beginning, he would say, "Oh yeah, woh," and then have us repeat it a few times or like during AMERICAN INNOVATION, he had Toshi drum out a little rhythm for us and we'd clap it back in return.
So, they were getting ready to play Lock on you and Teru pulled a tambourine out of nowhere and he held it while he gave another MC actually introducing the members. So he started with, "On drums..." and looked at us for a response... but I don't know how many people knew the drummer's name. I know very few knew about the keyboardist. Anyways, so he'd say, 'On said-instrument...' about 2 or 3 times before finishing it off. "On drums... Toshi! On keyboard... Piano-ouji (and they laughed when Teru said it like it was some inside joke or something ::shrug::) On bass... Jiro!" Of course, when he got to the actual members of the band, the crowd all knew them so they yelled them out. "On guitar... Hisashi! Next, on guitar... Takuro! Next... (pointed at self) On vocal... Teru!"
In my opinion, some of the best fan service is vocalist/microphone and we got some of that during Lock on you. Teru was all over that thing in addition to pulling on his own shirt and making sex faces and feeling up his chest and all that good stuff. I like that song too; it's a hot song.
Though, just so you know, Teru sweats A LOT! It started off with the usual sweat spot on his back and under his arms but then it eventually encompassed his entire shirt and I can only assume his pants too. During SORRY LOVE which is a slower song so he stayed in one place, I just stood there watching liquid pour from his elbows, like someone had attached a hose to his arm and kept turning it on and off. For some reason I was mesmerized by this. o.O
But I digress, prior to the start of SORRY LOVE, there was a short pause for a 10 second rest. The crowd started calling out Jiro's name, but he looked at them and then pointed at Teru, motioning to yell for him. It was kinda cute. So at the start of Kuchibiru, the lights went down for a dramatic effect for the start of the song. During said song, Teru looked like he focused in on someone specific in the crowd, pointing at them and giving them a big smile. The person must have been singing along a lot because Teru bent down and put the mic up to the person so they'd sing into the mic, but I think they chickened out as soon as the mic was there because I didn't hear anything different. Don't worry dude, I'd've done the same thing. (-_-);
The next song was Kanojo no "Modern..." THEY PLAYED THE ONE SONG I WANTED TO HEAR, KANOJO NO "MODERN..."!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ I grabbed RA had "XDDD" at her. I sang along and rocked out for this one. When the song finished, I grabbed RA and just started shaking her. They played it, they played it!! *___________________*
The next song after that, Jiro came to the front and did a bass solo and then started to sing. I thought that was cool (note: later RA pointed out to me that the song was SHUTTER SPEEDS no Teemu. And we both kinda went, "Oh, that's why this song always sounded weird... -_-;) So Jiro sang and then Teru took over the vocals again and decided to climb on top of one of the speakers on Hisashi's side of the stage and just chill up there for a while, observing the crowd.
Later there was this song that I'd never heard, Piiku Hateshi Naku Souru Kagiri Naku. There's this one part in the song that isn't written in the lyrics that he had us yelling out. During the live, I heard, 'Glory days, woh...' but after listening to the song, I think it's actually, 'Woh, it's my life.' So, I don't know. Epic fail, I know. So anyways, during the middle of the song when it got to that point, the band stopped playing and Teru had us sing that part. As the line finished, he'd yell out without his microphone, "Motto!!" And we'd repeat. We did this maybe 4 or 5 times until this one point when a bunch of people in the crowd decided to yell back, "Motto" along with him. Teru seemed highly amused by this and the song continued.
So Teru gave another short MC: "I have a dream... I wanna see you again. Next song, BEAUTIFUL DREAMER." And they played. In the middle of the song, Teru kept randomly saying stuff like, 'I love you,' and 'I want you.' That ended and he gave a closing MC. "Honto ni Arigatou! Arigatou! I was very happy to see you! Thank you. Arigatou. San Francisco saikou!
In my opinion, the crowd did a lame call for an encore, just clapping. But the band came back out; starting with Takuro, then Teru, Toshi, Piano-ouji, Jiro with his camera and finally Hisashi. Jiro started taking pictures of the crowd. RA pointed out to me that Toshi and Piano-ouji had started to go over to their assigned areas, but Teru hailed them back over to center stage. The band wanted to take a group photo with the audience in the background. Of course Teru kneeled in front of me so RA pulled my hand over in front of her. So if we ever get to see these pictures, there might be a random hand sticking out from behind Teru. That's me. (-_-); So as they were getting ready to take the picture, Teru turned and said, "Special time. Minna smile... smile!" After that, Teru started talking in Japanese and he lost me completly. (o.o) Though a girl behind me said at one point he said that he had studied English really hard before the tour. awww...♥ He did ask if anyone in the audience spoke both Japanese and English really well. One girl on the other side must have raised her hand because he went to her, but she blurted out something about liking them a lot and Teru laughed. So he tried again, singling out the girl who stood next to me. But her voice was so high and nasal, I couldn't understand a word she said into that mic (@___@) (Really random note, that girl next to me couldn't sing either.)
So anyways, the encore started with an old song, then a new one. I would have personally liked to have heard the U2 cover from their 'VERB' single WITH OR WITHOUT YOU but instead they decided to do David Bowie's SUFFRAGETTE CITY which is the B-side on their single coming out next month, 'Aka to Kuro no MATADORA/I LOVE YOU o Sagashiteru'. So they finished off the concert with ACID HEAD (which RA said she always heard 'a shit head' when she first heard the song XD). It's an oldey but a goody. Both Hisashi and Takuro each had a guitar solo in that song.
Random observation: Teru decided to fling water over the crowd and then finished off the bottle by pouring it on himself. After doing so, he pushed all of his hair back so it was slicked back and down. In my opinion, a lot of Japanese men tend to have really large foreheads so they look kind of weird with all of their hair pushed strait back. But Teru did not. He did that and I just kind of stared at him. "You have a normal placed hairline and a really handsome face. You, old man, are freakin' gorgeous! (*-*)"
Teru gave his final words: "Thank you San Francisco! We will see you again. See you San Francisco. Domo Arigatou! Arigatou! Aimashou. Motto aimashou! Aiseruze (or something sounding like that)." The band all came to center stage and joined hands. They counted down: 3, 2, 1... and then jumped.
"Thank you San Francisco! Thank you America. Thank you (something incoherent). Thank you World. Thank you Everybody!" They all walked off stage, but Takurou managed to get one more "Thank you" into the mic before leaving.
Then began the epic fail.
Where I was, there were a lot of Japanese girls around. So I figured that they would have started to chant, "Ankoru, ankoru," for a second encore. But no. They decided to follow the wimpy little American fans and just half heartily clap. You guys realize that if they don't hear you, they aren't coming out again, right?? If everyone clapped, then maybe it would have been alright, but no. So finally I got fed up and started yelling at the top of my lungs, "Ankoru!!!! Ankoru!!!!" as loud as possible. Finally, the girls around me started yelling out for an encore, but by that time it was too late. The staff in front of us were telling us the show was over and the stage hands had already started to turn the equipment off.
A moment of cool: One of the girls behind me (who's name was Sakiko) that was kinda translating some of the MC's for me caught up with me after the show and asked me fill out this little note card for the band. So I got to write something to GLAY. Totally unexpected and really nice of her. ^____^
More fail: The merchandise consisted of tour shirts; which is nice except they didn't have my size, so I came home with nothing. On the way out, I at first didn't grab a poster (which is shown above) because I didn't know what it was. So I had to argue with the guy to get one. And it turns out I can't really look at it because I feel like I'm going to have a seizure.
But oh well. It was a great concert. I am glad I got to go. GLAY is one of those bands that I heard when I was first getting into Japanese music. If it wasn't for them, I might not like it as much as I do now or I might like a different form of J-music. They are one of those bands that I also thought I'd never see. And I hope they do come back, because I will definitely try to go again.
~~ Fin ~~