ZIZ Salon De'tester

This is so bad, I'm so behind I'm writing a report of a gig which took place 2 months ago! Very sorry about that but I've been busy.

This was my first time attending a ZIZ oneman, and the first time I saw them live this time around in Tokyo! This live was a bit special since it was their 5th anniversary! And they also released a new mini album; Detsuromotsuro No. 5.

The gig took place at Zirco Tokyo, in Shinjuku, a kind of hidden club. It's on the basement floor of a building with sportsbars etc. My ticket number wasn't the best, so when I got into the club I just wanted to get a good spot on the floor. So unfortunately I missed my chance of getting one of their new t-shirts since they were sold out after the gig. ZIZ seems to have a lot of random items for sale, for example I saw this one girl who bought a clock! An acctual clock to put on your wall. The background was the cover of their new cd. It looked really cool, but obviosly that was gone too once I got to their sales stand.

To be honest I'm not sure I have that much to say about the gig itself. Nothing special happened, we got to hear all of their new songs from the album. Like always I really enjoy watching Közi live, he's really good despite what people might think. He doesn't "connect" that much with the audience, but it doesn't really bother me because seeing him you can tell he enjoys what he's doing and that's the most important thing to me.

 I got to hear all my favorite songs, Kosmostill, Sanityman, JEEZ, CHAOSMOS, ECHOFALLS and L'AMIE L'AMIE. I haven't seen ZIZ since 2015 so I had not heard any of the songs from JEEZSO8DOVEDOPE yet, obviously I was very excited to hear JEEZ because it's one of their best songs. I really love it. I noticed Közi had some difficulties taking the high notes during the chorus, and once he didn't even sing that. I can see that it's difficult though, for a recording you can paus and cut, but at a live gig he's been singing for like an hour and I bet his vocal chords was a bit tired.
 

For the encore the band came out with the new t-shirts on. Közi had his long, lumberjack shirt which he's worn at Deep Sanctuary. When he entered stage he had it tightly closed and then suddenly he'd open it to flash the t-shirt, like a flasher. During on of the MC's Közi also mentioned how tired he was, and how he felt old. During this MC he also happened to mention how many songs there was left on the setlist, to the fans disapointment but he defended it with that it was a pretty long setlist, and it truly was. The gig in total was very long, I didn't time it but it felt like close to 3 hours.
As the last song they played Super naked disco. I think I mentioned that before but hearing that on the cd for the first time I just felt like "WTF was that I just listened to". I really hated it, and I still don't like the cd version, but live it's pretty nice acctually.

 

When the gig was over, I picked up my bag as fast as I could and headed to the merch. But like I already said, all of the new stuff was sold out, but to excitment I found that they still sold the DVD which was released at the same time as JEEZSO8DOVEDOPE! So I picked up a copy with a very strange item they sold. A Közi tattoo seal. Yes, you can now either use it on your hand for an evening or use it and get a tattoo artist to fill it in for you! It's one of the most random items I've seen being sold at a live, and obviously I had to have it.
As can be seen above, they had a very special flower bouquet, this is something you only see in relation to something with Közi I'm sure. Amazingly creative...

So, the special thing about this live was that we'd receive a demo cd as a gift. Unfortunately I haven't been able to listen to it yet since my computer doesn't have a cdrom. I'll update once I've heard it!

Like always, if you get the chance to see Közi in any of his bands live, do it!

EDIT: When I was about to exit the club I saw Ryux from Moi Dix Mois, AGAIN (he was at the twoman Dalle live in May too). He keeps popping up at Közi's gigs...

Vamquet

I'm not a bit behind anymore with all the live reports, I'm a million years behind. I personally don't like to read livereports concerning a concert that was weeks, or even a month ago, it feels outdated. But unfortunately it just has to be that way for now!

So on march 25th the event HAUNTED XDAY #3 took place at Shibuya Glad, featuring the bands Vaniru, Speed-iD, Vamquet, Der Zibet and Madame Edwarda. It was a sort of goth evening and I went to see Vamquet! I also like Madame Edwarda so I was really looking forward to seeing them for the first time.

The club wasn't hard to find at all as it was part of the Vuenos "chain" of clubs in Shibuya. If there's anything I dislike about clubs in Tokyo is that most allow smoking. Knowing that there would probably be a chainsmoker attending like at most clubs, I felt like I could arrive a bit later so I didn't see Vaniru at all, I just heard them play their last song as I entered Glad. I also found out Glad don't allow smoking on the actual floor, but they have a smoking area on the first floor, in which I found Sadie at the minute I walked in.
For this live Vamquet sold a new sticker and a t-shirt. As the t-shirt was really big (like they always are :P) I didn't get that, only their CD which I hadn't bought yet.

I came to see Vamquet obviously, but I found myself enjoying the other bands as well, especially Madame Edwarda. I've been listening to them for a couple of years now and I like their sound, so it was really fun seeing them live. Most people there seemed to be Madame Edwarda fans which surprised me, infront of me a group of "older" fans (when I say older I mean perhaps between 30-40) arrived. The funniest part was that two women stood there, and they did the funny thing where they sort of book the spot. One of them went for drinks and then the other stands with an arm out or something to mark the spot as taken. I find this behaviour to be kind of odd at clubs and concerts, since I think in most other genres (not bands related to VK in any sense) and countries the floor is for people to dance and move around at. Only in Japan does people stand, with extra space too, looking at their favorite band. So when these slightly drunk and older fans arrived they basically just marched into that womans empty space, and I couldn't help but to find her face extremly funny X) It was so obvious she was offended but she didn't dare say anything so she just grabbed her bag and left. These people were a bit annoying but I just hate people who mark their spot. It's not a line, it's a gig, without seats! Madame Edwarda had a lot of energy and the vocalist, Zin was really into the performance entering with a cain and a cape, dancing around the stage. They ended their setlist with Orpheus, and it was awesome!

Madame Edwarda acctually was the last performance, so let's skip back to the main event, Vamquet!
Vamquet was in the middle of the evening, and since I'm used to Közi being the guitarist I got myself a spot on the right side of the stage, then when the members came out on stage to put their stuff togheter I just remembered that Közi plays bass in Vamquet :P Yeah, bad fan. Anyway, the club was tiny and the stage too obviously so it wasn't as if I couldn't see him. And like always, his group of fangirls filled up the space infront of him (I wish Közi could get a group of drunk fans who could destroy the fangirl-pit...). I had not heard anything besides the trailer for Vamhaus before going to this live, but I really liked what I heard on that trailer so I was excited to hear the full songs. And I wasn't disapointed! I've never been a fan of Art Marju Duchain, but Kai was really good live. I wasn't expecting him to be so dramatic as he was, dancing along to the music, he wore a long black dress really completing his goth look. Közi wore one of his black poncho looking garments if I remember correctly. Since the live I've listened to the album, and eventhough I really like it the songs acctually became better live. It felt like their setlist was over in no time and I wish they had more material/longer playtime. Both on the cd and live my favorite songs are Wonders and Vam Marsch.  Despite Közi not having written any of the music, I feel like it's very Közi:ism. Like a mix of XA-VAT (because of Sadie maybe) and ZIZ, going dark.
Of course as always Közi just did his thing and left the stage, badass :P
I know this project isn't so serious (concidering they've had like two gigs this year) but I'd love to see them release and perform more! Hopefully they'll get some more acknowledgment and keep going.

Next gigs: D on Wednesday and Dalle on Sunday!

(On my to-do-list, I still need to write livereports for D, Kaya and Kamijo :P Slowly progressing)