Buck-Tick karaoke at Round1

Since April Buck-Tick has been collaborating with the Japanese entertainment center Round1, to be more specific, the karaoke part of Round1. This means that they have a Buck-Tick themed room as well as original Buck-Tick cocktails.

When I visited Osaka in May I obviously went there! I was mostly curous about the cocktails and the promise of costers for every cocktail bought. The cocktails we tried out was both non alcohol  BISHU LOVE and BARAIROJUJIDAN - ROSEN KREUZER -, as well as MOON -Sayonara oshiete-.

I have to say the non-alcoholic ones were tastier than Moon -Sayonara oshiete, basically it tasted like a gin and tonic. The other two had layers wit syrap I guess and felt more interesting. After they came with our drinks the staff brought a box from which I got to draw costers from. I could not see which ones I drew so it's fully possible to get more than 1 of the same coster unfortunately. Since I had 3 chances I felt like I should be able to get Atsushi, but unfortunately not. (I ended up drawing Yagami, Yutaka and Hide) The cocktails was a bit expensive (800-650) but I'm a sucker for stuff like this so...

The Buck-Tick room was fully covered in Buck-Tick images on the walls and a trailer for their live DVD was playing on the screen. Even the table had their image.
Unfortunately I could not use the Buck-Tick room as that required a minimum of 4 guests, and we were only 2. On my way out I noticed it was vacant though, so I went inside for some photos. My disapointment of not being able to sit in this gloryfull room made me pass out on the table! (hohoho)

This collaboration lasts until 15th of July, and they also changed the costers on May 28th. So the ones I got are no longer available but a new set. There 1 week left so everyone who can should go! >_<

BUCK-TICK "Serious bear" parkas

I'm so bad at updating with stuff, but it's just not as fun when I'm not in Japan (I feel like I have less to talk about since my source for information is just the same as everybody elses...)

Anyway, just in time for Christmas I finally got my "serious bear parkas"!
For those who doesn't know, Yutaka (bassist in BUCK-TICK) has designed various merch with a bear on, called "serious bear". And in the past Fish Tank magazines they've showed the designing process of this sweatshirt (they call it parkas, I've never in my whole life seen a parkas looking like this though..)
They only had 2 sizes available, M and L and they also had a Fish Tanker's only version and a regular version. The difference was that the limited version had the serious bear in glittery stones on the arm while the regular version had it in fabric. I ordered the limited one and in M.
The release was acctually in November, and as far as I could see it sold out even before that. The reason I got it this late was because I'm cheap, fufu. (stuff ordered from BUCK-TICKs webshop tend to get stuck in customs since they acctually say it's merch inside the package aswell as the actual price and on top of that it's shipped with EMS) Since I'm sick of paying tax for my packages and expensive shipping I decided to try a new thing.I had the package delivered to my tenso address in Japan (I realised I should make a post about different ways of shopping online, so I'll explain tenso there more thoroughly).
It took about 1 month for my package to arrive, but it was worth the money I saved :P

Back to the parkas.
The best part is, it's made so you can wear it inside out! So one side it fluffy and white with serious bear's face (including ears!) on and also a tail! The other side is black, still with the ears but not the face. Instead it has the serious bear in glitter on the arm. Both sides has pockets and I have to say it's very well made! I work for a clothing company and they've had several garments which you can wear inside out over the years but, usually small details show it's the reversed side. This did not! The only down part was that it had very detailed washing advices (like handwashing in 30degrees, use powder, don't let it hang etc.). To begin with I thought it was a bit expensive (right under 9000yen) but concidering the quality and also since it's a bandmerch it was totally worth it. (I mean a tour t-shirt costs 3500yen:P and it acctually costs quite a bit to sew on just 1 pocket on garments)


I won't wear this as a jacket like they mention...(I live in Sweden for god's sake, my winter coat is barely enough when it gets cold here:P) but it will be good either under my coat or as it is during spring.

( I'm sorry but I can't help but to think the hood is slightly too pointy...reminds me of something else...)

 

Aruiwa anarchy ― N P P N B D K N ―

I'm a bit late with this but I've been a bit busy, so better late than ever I guess (?)

As most who likes Buck-Tick knows their concert at Nippon Budokan was held the 29th of December, and this year it wasn't a The Day in Question as it usually is but more like a continuation of their Aruiwa Anarchy tour.

I entered the FISHTANKer's lottery system and got tickets on the first go so I assumed I'd get a good seat, well seems like either it doesn't matter or I don't really agree with the person who's in charge of seats and thought it was a good one. Left, almost at the top seat... I'm sorry but I've gotten used to starring the bandmen in their faces, so I'm not satisfied when all I can make out of their face is their hair.

It was my first time at the Budokan so I looked forward to it and I wasn't disapointed by Buck-Tick's performance, well a bit since almost everything was the same but at the same time I was very happy to hear Heaven ending their mainsetlist. Before I left for Japan I had a major Heaven/Galaxy craving so it was nice to hear live and it also made a very beautiful ending.

The encore was the same as some night before (can't remember which), but again I was so happy to hear that they chose to play Melancholia -Electria-! I really hope they'll release the whole evening on DVD (even if I think that seems very unlikely concidering that it was almost the same as the normal tour which will be released in february) but I really want to see that song again! (in good quality).
Second encore was completly different from any other night! (thank god, I was so seeing that the night would end with Tenshi wa dare da again) and the funny thing is I was listening to ...in heaven... after the standing gigs thinking I'd love to hear that live, and now I got to! I also think it's very amusing seeing all the old fans almost looking like they're about to tear up when these old songs start to play.
To be honest I had no idea which song Nocturne -Rain Song- was... I haven't really listened that much to Gensou no Hana, and especially not the b-side, so I had no idea which song that was *slightly ashamed*. I'm kind of curious why they picked to play Climax togheter... not a favorite of mine and I would've prefered if they would've played Miss take or Elise no tame ni instead if they had to play anything from Yume miru uchuu, but at least I got two old goodies.

I've had a really good time seeing Buck-Tick, and I have to admit I felt slightly sad leaving Nippon Budokan knowing it was the last time, for now hopefully not forever.

I got the Imai/Uta-panda shirt.

Setlist
01.DADA DISCO - G J T H B K H T D -
02.Devil'N Angel
03.ICONOCLASM
04.Bodoreru de nemurenai
05.PHANTOM VOLTAIRE
06.Satan
07.masQue
08.Sekai wa yami de michite iru
09.ONCE UPON A TIME
10.Uchu Circus
11.Dokudanjou Beauty
12.SURVIVAL DANCE
13.ROMANCE
14.Zekkai
15.Aku no Hana
16.HEAVEN

Encore 
01.Melancholia-ELECTRIA-
02.NOT FOUND
03.Keijijou Ryuusei
04.Mudai

Encore 
01.Nocturnal -Rain Song-
02.CLIMAX TOGETHER
03....IN HEAVEN...
04.MOON LIGHT

 Buck-Tick's online store is having a 50% sale on old items! http://shop.buck-tick.com/

Also I picked up a copy of Ongaku to Hito in which there would be a ivereport from their tourfinal of the standing tour, and also a review of the Aku no Hana (in total there's 6 pages and also the backcover which is the add for Aku no Hana) in case anyone's thinking about buying it and wants to know if it's worth it!

Next up will be Velvet Eden's gig at Ikebukuro Chop on Wednesday 

BUCK-TICK FISH TANKer's Only & Metaform Nights or Anarchy

The past weekend has been really busy, I have exams this week but haven't had time to study because both saturday and sunday I had to go all the way to Odaiba to see Buck-Tick! It was totally worth it though.

On saturday was the FISH TANKer's Only live, to be honest I joined the fanclub just so I could preorder tickets since I know they sell out (or almost sell out) kind of fast and I want a chance to get a good number. I didn't though, for this live I had number 2010 (Zepp Tokyo takes about 2700 people), but for some reason japanese fans seems to enjoy standing in the back (unless you're a crazy fangirl/boy), so I was acctually able to get kind of close without being killed. Let me just say getting to the middle of the stage is IMPOSSIBLE, but I was happy with standing on Imai's side.

Of course I bought some merch first, and I was very suprised to see that people lined up to do that, and it wasn't just a few people, the line was so big I didn't even see that it was a line. On Buck-Tick's webpage it says the t-shirts are sold out but I was happy to see they were sold here! Looks really pretty and it has the FISH TANKer's Only tourlist on the back.

I'm not used to going to bigger live events, so to be honest I felt slightly annoyed I could barely see anyone else than Imai because of all the arms and some tall heads. So I don't really remember what either Hide nor Yuuta was wearing, but Imai had white shirt and a black blazer with white/glittery polkadots, Yagami wore a black jacket with the Metaform Nights or Anarchy logo on the back. Atsushi entered stage with one of those black scarfs covering him up, a black (with slightly golden colors in it) frilly sleevless blous and black pants. I did not take any notes about in which order they played songs, or which, but they played all of Aruiwa Anarchy of course and some older ones.They acctually opened with Hyper Love! To me it looked kind of weird though, seeing Atsushi entering with his veil/scarf over himself I assumed they'd open with something heavier than Hyper Love. Other songs I was very pleased to hear was Heroin, Romance and Funny Valentine.

For this tour they played the Melancholia -Electria- version, and it was pretty awesome live!
I don't know if it was because of my location, next to the speakers, or if they acctually changed it a bit because the synth/electric melody was kind of hidden and it felt more rock than the recorded version. I really like the single version but this was great aswell. You could hear the guitars and bass a lot more.

Atsushi doesn't really do that much of an MC, he just said welcome, and some sex here and there, but during the presentation of the members, when he was introducing Imai he started patting his shoulder, it looked a bit weird in a fun way. I was a bit disapointed by the fact that they barely moved on stage. Imai was the only one I got a good look at because I was standing in his "zone", but Atsushi and Hide only came over to the left side of the stage during Once Upon A Time, and Yuuta I barely saw at all (being so small and all...).

They ended the night with Mudai, Tenshi wa dareda and Revolver (I was sort of hoping to hear Muma the nightmare...) and on our way out we were all handed a black bag with the tourlist for the FISH TANKer's Only gigs and some flyers.

Then I was back on sunday for the tourfinal!
Since FISHTANK had given me all my tickets the day before I didn't really have to get there so early (It went really smoothly to pick up everything and the staff was reall nice too), and this day I didn't have as bad number, only 879! I'd love to know how these lottery things work through FISHTANK, because I assumed us members would have like maybe tickets 1-500 or something, but it seemed it's completly random since I saw people entering way later with a fanclub ticket.
This evening I felt like I wanted to get closer to stage since I had a better ticket, so I tried to proceed as fast as possible and get myself a good spot. This time I wanted to get infront of the bars which devides the floor (on saturday I stood behind the first ones), I did but it was sort of close to the exit so I felt a bit sad I'll see the stage from the side... THEN some hoard of fangirls (I assume) stormed in and pushed us all so hard I ended up between Imai and Atsushi! This might seem like luck, but it really wasn't. First off they pushed us so hard I would've fallen to the ground unlss it wasn't so crowded and also, now we stood so close people couldn't get their hands down and it began to get kind of warm fast.
I thought that was bad, when Buck-Tick acctually entered it got worse. WAY worse. They opened with Iconoclasm and I can't say I saw a thing during that, I just tried to avoid being killed by people. There were arms everywhere and people jumped around, I fell into people several times and acctually hit my head in one guys back and all of a sudden I realised one guy nailed on to me using me like some sort of shield pushing me evencloser to the stage. I felt a bit sad since I really like Iconoclasm and I wanted to see the stage... When they proceeded to Devil'N Angel I realised that if I stood on my toes I was above most people, so I tried that, but then I lost my balance even easier, and all the way until Dokudanjou Beauty this guy was standing infront of me and I could feel how his back got even more sweatier by every song and I accidently shoved my hand up a wet armpit...
By LIMBO though, I was saved, people had then pushed my to the side so I was back on Imai's side of the stage. I couldn't be happier to have a somewhat bad spot.

It was still pretty crowded but not as much, and funny thing is I realised even the air got extremly warm! If I put my arms up I could feel the difference in the air, it was kind of creepy. I had to stand on my toes again to get some "fresh" air.

Anyway, back to the acctual concert.
The setlist was almost the same, but they exchanged some of the old songs, and I was thrilled to hear MAD! I just wish they'd take a break from the most resent albums, I'd love to hear more from Six/Nine, Cosmos, One life, One death etc. This evening Atsushi acctually got over to our side a bit more, but I have to say, he's way too much at the center. It feels like the members rarely move on stage to be honest.

One song I've learned to like is acctually DADA DISCO -G J T H B K H T D-. When I first heard it on the cd I mostly felt "wtf am I listening to", but I think the live's changed my mind. Same with Satan, I think Atsushi's vocals sounds really good singing it live. The songs I still don't get are masQue and Uchuu Cirkus. Didn't really like them on the cd, don't really like them now either, especially not masQue.

Before I knew it, the evening had come to an end. Time really flies by when you're having a good time.
On monday I recieved a mail from FISH TANK saying they recorded the tour final and it will be shown on Nico later in december. Looking forward to seeing the songs I missed...

Setlist:

ICONOCLASM
Devil'N Angel
PHANTOM VOLTAIRE
Dokudanjou Beauty -R.I.P.-
LIMBO
M.A.D
Bodoreru de nemurenai
Satan
Sekai wa yami de michite iru
masQue
Uchuu Cirkus
ONCE UPON A TIME
Melancholia -ELECTRIA-
Zekkai
Makka na Yoru
Aku no Hana

Encore 1

DADA DISCO -G J T H B K H T D-
NOT FOUND
Keijijou Ryuusei
Mudai

Encore 2

SURVIVAL DANCE
Tenshi wa dare da
REVOLVER

Next up I'll write a livereport from the Christmas event with Közi I went to last night!

BUCK-TICK 甘美な死骸 - quan vie nna sigue eye -

Today I finally got my BUCK-TICK perfume! It was kind of weird because they never gave us a shippingdate, like stores normally do, just that it would be shipped by the end of the month so I almost thought mine was lost somewhere (I have a really weird address which is way longer than normal), but it arrived safely!

Kanbina Shigai was released in 3000 bottles, and they've all been sold out! I can honestly say that it was a bit expensive since it's not highclass perfume :P but I like perfume, so if a band I like releases a fragrance, I'll be sure to get it!

 I haven't tried it, and I won't at least for now (perfume starts to get bad the minute you start using it since air will get down the bottle, and it might even change colour or smell after a while (like after 2 years), and since I don't drown myself in perfume one bottle lasts quite a while for me... but I have tried to smell the opening and judging from that it's kind of a weak fragrance, nothing that stands out a lot (which can be seen as good, I mean now most will probably not say they hate it:P).
The bottle was kind of heavy and eventhough the fragrance feels very female and I'm guessing the most people who bought it were women, the design is somewhat pour homme for me. I like that though.

"Tonight I'm back to elementaryschool"

Thursday evening I went to NHK Hall in Harajuku to see one of the last concerts of BUCK-TICK's Aruiwa Anarchy Tour. This was my first time seeing BUCK-TICK, so I had a lot of expectations! I got to Harajuku a bit early so I couldn't stop myself from going to Closet Child (I finally found XA-VAT's Videogaytion!!!)

Anyway, it wasn't just my first BUCK-TICK concert, but also my first, well major concert here. While standing outside waiting for the doors to open I realised I was one of the younger people there. I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying 50% was like 35-50 years old! I think it's amazing to see all these people I assume followed BUCK-TICK for years, are still active fans! The topic for todays entry is acctually a quote from one of the woman I stood next to while waiting. She was pimping herself up with the BUCK-TICK towel, wristwarmer etc. So eventhough many younger people here have no idea what band BUCK-TICK are, their old fans are still completly in love with them! (In the front row was a really old woman, in perfect view up Atsushi's crotch :P) I had a horrible seat, but since NHK Hall isn't that big, my view was still kind of okey. The music playing while waiting for the band to enter stage was a mix of euro-electro (some french song) and then a bit of cabaret-kind of music with a modern touch. The intro for the concert was cartoon factory animations with noise-music, then finally all members got on! I'll add a setlist for the bottom, I don't have anything to say for all songs anyway. To be honest I was kind of disappointed in Aruiwa Anarchy when I first heard it (okey to be completly honest I'm kind of disappointed in all of BUCK-TICK's cd's from Mona Lisa overdrive XD), but hearing the songs live really made an impression on me. First off, Atsushi's voice. Seriously, hearing him on DVD and cd is nothing, he was completly amazing! I was positive that I wouldn't get the live cd limited to Tower Records, and now I'm ordering it! (seriously, I'm ordering i while writing) My favorite songs on the record was obviously good live too, like Once upon a time and Not found. Mudai is also one of the best songs on there, and it was completly amazing live! Like I said, Atsushi's voice was perfect. Live, Mudai was even better than on the cd, I hope they'll play it again on the standing tour :3 Songs which suprised me was Satan, Montage and Masque. Satan is one of those songs I thought was a bit boring but with potential, live it really blew me away. The background images was also very suiting for the song (red rain falling down and gothy shit like that :3), and again, Atsushi's voice!!! He's just awesome. I always enjoy the older (or not so old) songs, so hearing Iconoclasm and Montage was really nice, but Limbo was the best from the previous releases. I really wish I could've been on the first floor for that... Guess I have to wait until the DVD is released so I can enjoy the concert once again. This evening the band had Kokusyoku Sumire as guests to help them during the new version of Victims of Love. I prefer the original version but I have to say..... Atsushi sounds so good in this tango sort of version XD They stayed on stage for Alice in Wonder Underground and Diablo. After this evening I can't wait until December and their standing tour *_* I was going to write something about the members...but my seat was so far away XD Uta was really genki as always though^^ and Yagami almost hit his own head with the drumstick when he was throwing it down on the floor like he always do XD Sugoi

The flowers the band got, pretty ne

Setlist:

ＤＡＤＡ　ＤＩＳＣＯ－Ｇ　Ｊ　Ｔ　Ｈ　Ｂ　Ｋ　Ｈ　Ｔ　Ｄ－
ＳＵＲＶＩＶＡＬ　ＤＡＮＣＥ
Ｄｅｖｉｌ’Ｎ　Ａｎｇｅｌ
Iconoclasm
ボードレールで眠れない
ｍａｓＱｕｅ
ＰＨＡＮＴＯＭ　ＶＯＬＴＡＩＲＥ
サタン
世界は闇で満ちている
ＯＮＣＥ　ＵＰＯＮ　Ａ　ＴＩＭＥ
LIMBO
宇宙サーカス
メランコリア
ＮＯＴ　ＦＯＵＮＤ
無題
形而上　流星－ｍｅｔａｆｏｒｍ－

Encore
VICTIMS OF LOVE with 黒色すみれ
Alice in Wonder Underground
DIABOLO -Lucifer-
Love parade

Encore 2

Steppers -Parade-
モンタージュ
National Media Boys
(I was a bit sad they didn't play 夢魔 -The Nightmare which I saw they did during the summer...)

 NEWS!! BUCK-TICK will release a perfume later!

Ittekimasu

Tomorrow at this time I'm probably getting ready to head for the airport. I'm feeling both excited and very nervous. I've been to Tokyo twice before so I'm not really that scared of going there (eventhough I do think about stuff like missing my connecting flight, or the plane being set on fire and other silly things), but I think what I'm most nervous about is school. I didn't mentioned that in my previous entry but I'm going as an exchange student (I'll be writing my thesis when I get back next year!) and I'm really nervous about school to be honest x_x

I'm also really stressed about my gig-schedule XD I know I should just be happy that I'll see so many awesome bands but I'm really bad at finding places so I'm worried I'll get lost and won't get to the events on time :P I have a BUCK-TICK concert scheduled on the 25th, to add to my worries it's on a Thursday (what if I have class then XD??)

I hope everything will turn out fine though (and I bet it will), but to calm my nerves I'm listening to a really awesome song by BUCK-TICK. Be cautious though, I can barely watch this PV without feeling sick from all the spinning x_X