meimichi

CON REPORT PENDING. (This might take a while.)

APPARENTLY THE DVD TAPING WAS LAST NIGHT

THAT IS THE GREATEST TRAGEDY OF OUR TIME BECAUSE TONIGHT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CONS EVER. (TAKE BACK COMPLAINTS ABOUT SETLIST. WAS WONDERFUL WITH THE RIGHT AUDIENCE. POOR DVD TAPING.)

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING NO MATTER WHAT (I LAUGHED, I CRIED, PERFECT AUDIENCE, STADIUM COMING TOGETHER, ETC)

BUT THEN DURING THE MC, AFTER KAIBUTSU-KUN'S SONG, JUN AND AIBA BOTH CAME OUT AND DID THEIR LITTLE PUT-ON REACTIONS

AND THEN AFTER THEY CAME OUT

YUUJI WALKED OUT

AND SHO WAS BEHIND HIM AS TAKA LOOKING LIKE HE WOULD RATHER BE ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AT THAT MOMENT

YUUJI: "HELLO KOKURITSU! WHENEVER WE COME, THE OLD MAN AT THE JIMUSHO GETS MEGA PISSED AT US. I'M PRETTY SURE WE'RE GONNA GET BUSTED BIG TIME TOMORROW!!!"

AND EVERYONE WAS LOSING THEIR SHIT AND SCREAMING BECAUSE WE COULDN'T BELIEVE THEY WERE DOING IT AT FREAKING KOKURITSU SINCE IT WAS A FREAKING MIRACLE THEY WERE ALLOWED TO DO IT THROUGH THE WHOLE FIRST DOME TOUR AFTER THEY WERE EXPLICITLY BANNED FROM DOING IT AT THE EARLIEST DOME SHOWS (THEY PROBABLY WILL GET TOTALLY BUSTED TOMORROW LOL) AND ON TOP OF THAT SHO IS THERE BATTING THE GIANT FEATHER OUT OF HIS EYELINE, LOOKING LIKE HE WISHES A HOLE WOULD OPEN UP AND SWALLOW HIM OFF THE STAGE

"...YUUJI? HAS TAKA CHANGED?"

"TAKA? NOPE. THAT'S HIM. SUNGLASSES AND AN 'S' ON THE SHIRT! THAT'S DEFINITELY HIM! SAY HI, TAKA!"

"… (in his totally normal voice) …hi everybody."

Then Yuuji sneaked off the stage while Sho's back was turned. was like, "What are you even DOING here?" and Sho was like, "I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT MYSELF, IF YOU FIND OUT THEN LET ME KNOW!!"

Jun was like, "Well, are you guys going to do anything? The cannon thing?" Aiba claimed he'd actually seen the cannon stashed somewhere with the tour equipment so they could probably haul it out if it was needed.

Sho said no, they weren't doing the cannon. Jun asked, "Well, do you guys even HAVE anything else you could do?"

At that point a really loud collection of screams went up from the back of the arena audience, with everyone shrieking, "FIIIIIINAAAAAL LOOOOOOOVE!" like their lives depended on it. lmao Arashi fans are the best.

Nino then trotted back out in his tour costume. "Hey! While I was getting changed I saw that other guy running the other way, and he told me to tell everyone that Taka is going to regale us all with a backflip!"

Sho was just like I WANT TO DIE RIGHT HERE. "NO NO NO NO NO."

"NO, THE OTHER GUY WAS VERY SPECIFIC, HE SAID IF ALL OF US HELP YOU, YOU CAN DEFINITELY DO ONE!"

Sho was like, "いやいやいやリアルにごめんね！！！リアルにごめんね！！！！ We're outta time, I have to go!" He fled offstage and then paused at the curtains and went, "I have just two things I want to say. One is: I've learned that this job can be really difficult some days. Two is: (in the silly Taka voice) Everyone at Kokuritsu, thank youuuu!"

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED EVER Y/Y/Y/Y/Y??????

GOD TONIGHT WAS PERFECT BUT THAT WAS BEYOND AMAZING.

WAAAH I've been dashing around since Friday morning and actually fell asleep in my seat before the concert started. I'm taking it easy tomorrow so I have more fun. I'll start writing my actual report tomorrow and probably post the whole weekend at once, but drive-by highlights:

+ Comments I've seen about how "Kokuritsu was epic but the Domes are a big party" seems to be holding true. Kokuritsu >>>> tonight's laid-back style, liek whoa, but both are fun in their way.

+ Final encore: "season" is out, "My Girl" is in. Nothing else new. No encore performance of "A.RA.SHI." I don't know if it was like that at all the domes so far, or if they cut it due to starting late tonight.

+ Most technical trouble I've ever seen in an Arashi concert indoors. Started twenty minutes late, sound fading in and out, screens scrambling, and it was hella obvious they couldn't hear themselves sing a lot of the time the entire night through. On Jun's "hyakunen saki mo~" he abruptly yanked his earpiece out since he obviously was having no luck with it in, lol. The sound fading in and out wasn't bad, though, since the audience picked up the slack singing.

+ They made "Attack it!" longer with like an extra minute of just yelling JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP! Oh and since the setlist shifted a little, I got to hear Jun sing "kokoro nusunda orera wa hannin~?" this time. I CAN DIE HAPPY

+ Jun put in a good effort at hiding it, but obviously had a cold. :(

+ He changed his shirt during the MC. The camera like *~panned up~* while he was stripping and the audience started shrieking at him. Jun/Mao tinhatters have been freaking out over the tour since every time he's stripped, he's done the move that Mao said made her dokidoki on Himitsu. I didn't see him take it off but he put the new shirt on the same way lol.

+ BAMBIS KONBI FACTOR: talking about the Odoroki live, Sho said in a very tiny voice, "I wasn't scared at all on the flying stage." LOL YEAH RIGHT. Jun said, "Sho-kun got majorly pissed at me for real, while we were doing that." Jun said he was being a huge attention whore trying to wave at the camera while they were floating around, and so to get close to the camera, he grabbed onto Sho's wire to try to push off it to propel himself towards the camera. When he grabbed it, Sho LOST HIS SHIT and started screaming, "MATSUJUN, LET GO, THAT IS MY LIFELINE, MY LIIIIIFELIIIIINE!!!!" Nino said it was fucking hilarious.

+ Ohno's speech: "For our eleventh year, we want to go back to the feeling we had when we were just starting out in year one. So if you notice any one of us getting full of ourselves, please feel free to call out, 'That guy's getting full of it!'" LOL.

+ Has nothing to do with anything but the chick next to me kept putting her uchiwa up and...omg I've seen other girls actually hit other girls for doing that, and while I'm not quite that bad yet... I first tapped her on the shoulder, and told her she was breaking the rules. She apologized...and then kept on doing it.

This is the second concert this has happened to me, and I wasn't going to have this chick waving an uchiwa with a giant picture of Nino in my face all night, because I can look at pictures of Nino for free but I paid airfare to see the real thing thanks. After about twenty minutes of repeatedly telling her to keep it at chest level, I lost my temper and started grabbing her arm and yanking it down every time she put her uchiwa in my face as if I was possessed. I guess I'm one of thooooose people now? OH DEAR.

+ AND NOW BED FOR ME

+ P.S. I'VE BEEN IN SAPPORO FOR OVER 24 HOURS AND HAVEN'T EATEN A SINGLE THING PURCHASED OUTSIDE OF A KONBINI.

I vote we name this tour Yumekon instead. We can retroactively call last tour the Disneyland tour or something. Last tour was Disneyland, but this one is apparently the one where DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUUUUUE.

( Here's the initial highlights, written before I found the setlist. The real thing I'll write tomorrow. )

Someone on a Japanese message board wrote that Jun said at some point that one of his future goals for Arashi was to finally have many songs that surpassed A-RA-SHI, because he felt they sometimes relied on A-RA-SHI as a crutch during concerts, and he wanted to reach the point that it wasn't needed anymore.

I think this is the first explanation that makes sense. With Around Asia 2008 on the horizon and the Dome tour just ten shows, if there's a time for them to meet this goal of learning to survive without it for a tour, this would be it.

(General description is still at the Osaka report, this is more talking about what changed and the MCs, not describing stuff all over again.)

( Arashi Marks 2008 Dream-A-Live: Tokyo Dome, 6/14/08 )

( Arashi Marks 2008 Dream-A-Live: Tokyo Dome, 6/15/08 )

Concert ticket: way too much money
Concert goods: lots and lots of money
Conclusion: TOTALLY WORTH IIIIIIIIT

( I think I'm an addict now. I put in my fanclub app tonight. And Nino seemed to hint that there was a winter tour in our future, and if that's the case, I am SO there. )

I...need to wake up in five hours. *cringe* Thank god I don't have to actually teach tomorrow. I'm also really hungry. Maybe one of these days I will learn to actually start keeping food in my apartment. I'm too tired to walk down to the konbini.

I also don't know how those boys do it; I felt ready to crash into bed by the end of the concert myself, and all I was doing was waving my penlight and uchiwa.