Alice Nine UNTITLED VANDAL(ism) #1
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2008
1
72
110
Trip End
Aug 06, 2009
Sendai,
Tohoku,
Japan
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A brief intro to Alice Nine, whom everyone should check out: they formed in 2004 and have been steadily getting popular. Shou is on vocals, Tora on lead guitar, Hiroto on rhythm guitar, Saga on bass, and Nao (the leader) on drums. I guess they're on the pop-rock end of visual kei, but they can definitely rock out. They like to incorporate different genres into their songs so there's a bit of everything.
Back to the concert, the only thing that signaled the beginning was the lights
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. The background music was still playing when it happened. Everyone was clapping to Beck when Alice Nine rushed on (and they clapped along too ^^). Once they picked up their instruments, the energy inside the place went out the roof! I've got the memory of a goldfish so I can't name all the songs that were played. I did recognize a lot because they came from Vandalize and Alpha (the most recent albums, which I've been listening to nonstop). They threw in some older tunes though. I struggled with the furitsuke, but Shou directed us with the more complex moves. He should create a J-rock workout video because man, I was sweating like crazy. How does he move all over the stage and sing his heart out? In leather pants and a fur-trimmed jacket! No wonder all J-rockers are skinny. It's really hard to choose my favorite songs. "Rainbows" had the most energy. There was lots of jumping, headbanging, and fist pumping. Hiroto totally rocked out in the guitar solo. Then Saga came to the center with his bass. We knew he was going to do his signature bass lick, but the man was such a tease! Licking things is kind of gross in my mind, but that was such a turn-on. The sexiest song, however, was "Kiss twice, Kiss me deadly". While it already had a sexy melody, the performance just made it almost X-rated. There was Shou moving his hips and licking his lips, Saga sticking his tongue out towards his base, and Shou x Saga and Shou x Hiroto fanservice
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. During "www.", Hiroto does this thing where he runs his hand up and down the fret to make a scratching sound. It was so cool because I've never seen or heard anyone do that to a guitar before. For the lack of a better adjective, "the beautiful name" was beautiful. The intro featured Saga on keyboards and Shou singing English lyrics. We got to see his vocal prowess with that song and "Subaru." His falsetto is amazing. During "Subaru", Shou got everybody to bring out their lights (I didn't bring/buy one ;_;). At the end, he made us repeat, "We are the world." My mind immediately jumped to the song, "We Are the World", which is the bane of all ALTs. I thought about how Alice Nine will make me not hate that song because the repetitiveness will make me think of "Subaru" instead. ^_^ Going in the order of their appearances on-stage for the encore, Nao had a killer drum solo. Then he was joined by Saga who made the bass guitar the sexiest thing known to man. Nao was so cute during his MCs. He started off by saying, "You know what? I ate gyutan last night...enough for 7 people!" (I'm paraphrasing.) Then he said he was kidding because he's on a diet, but his diet isn't working. Nao, you don't need to go on a diet! He confessed that he lied about his weight on his blog. I think he said that the number on there is how much he weighs after a live
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. XD He's so adorable. Next was "Saga-kun". Shou teased him by saying he had a very "rock 'n' roll" appearance. That embarrassed Saga. It's funny to see Saga go from sexy bass licker to the shy one. From what I could pick out from his MC, he told everyone that the heights and weights listed on their profiles aren't accurate. I would hope so because otherwise, they're only a few kilograms heavier than me but 10-20 cm taller.
"Tora-chan" had a cute MC. While playing, he is the epitome of cool rock star, throwing the "rock on" signs and giving mysterious glances. Then he starts his MC off by talking about a silly gesture Nao taught him. While saying, " 乙でーす " ("otsu de-su"), you put your hands in the shape of " 乙 ". I'm not quite sure about the translation since " 乙 " can mean "quaint/odd", "second", or (in web slang) "Otsukaresama deshita". In any case, the guys pointed out that it was going to appear on their DVD in the future. He got embarrassed. Tora also said that he doesn't update his blog because he forgot his password. :p He got a bit serious when he was talking about his spinal disc hernia, which nearly paralyzed him after last year's Sendai live. He's glad he can come back to make good memories, and I'm glad to see that he's alright
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.During Hiroto's intro in "Dead School Screaming", he played "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine. I didn't expect it, but when I finally figured it out, I was ready to squeal. In his MC, Hiroto teased Tora about the gesture, and then he teased Shou for wanting to be as cool as Date Masamune. My love for Hiroto has gone up exponentially because he moves around non-stop and just gives it his all in his solos. He's starting to look/act like a younger version of Hyde from L'Arc~en~Ciel.
Finally, we have Shou, who couldn't figure out which way Tora's gesture went. He kept asking us, "Tanoshiikatta?" (Are you having fun?), but I couldn't understand at first. His word of the night was "happy" (yes, in English), which described the mood and the band's feelings. You could tell he was being honest because he smiled almost the whole time. Call me a delusional fangirl, but I am sure that he saw me a couple times. When he'd get the crowd pumped up, he would ask the back to jump or wave their arms and look out into the crowd. I would always jump/raise my arms/throw the "rock on" sign at those times, and he always stopped when he looked in my direction.
Anyway, the encore had two favorites of the night
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. "Shunkashuutou" was a catchy, feel-good song. I could feel the positive energy radiating throughout the room. My absolute favorite was the last song, "Waterfall". Shou had lost his voice somewhere in the middle of it, but he gave it his all. It was gorgeous, especially the acapella part. There were tears in my eyes. Afterwards, they threw a bunch of stuff out, including their hoodies. Hiroto tried to throw a water bottle to the back, but it hit the ceiling instead. His second attempt was better. He, Nao, and Tora have really strong arms because their stuff fell around me. Saga and Hiroto stripped off their shirts. They tried to get Nao to do it, which excited the fans. However, Nao was too embarrassed so he only slipped an arm out. The man is adorable. I was going to talk about my adventures the next day, but they seem rather anti-climactic. I'll just elaborate in the photos (when I get them up).
