the GazettE – VENOMOUS CELL – DAY 10 AT FUKUOKA SUN PALACE – LIVE REPORT

I went to see the GazettE perform at Fukuoka Sun Palace on Saturday the 29th of October, it was a sold out concert. The bus I caught to the venue was half filled with black clothed, visual-kei looking girls. At around 2:00 I arrived at the venue to line up for tour goods, I was fairly close to the front of the line and I noticed that a lot of people were wearing black and there were a few GazettE cosplayers among the crowd; the GazettE’s PSCarnival 2009 hakama attire was very popular. There were lots of people wearing t-shirts from previous GazettE lives, some of the t-shirts worn were from the DISORDER and NLSG lives AND a lot of people were wearing NLVIB parkas… lucky people… I really wanted one!!

I went to the concert by myself and it’s not fun to wait around for a concert by yourself XDD Also, Japanese GazettE fans seem kind of… hard to talk to… and unapproachable XD Anyway, the staff were supposed to let people in the hall to buy goods at 3:30 but because it was raining they let us in early. One of the staff members who let us in said “We’re letting you guys in a bit early this time.”

This is the first GazettE LIVE I’ve ever been to and I don’t know when I will go again, so I bought a lot of things. I bought the silicon band, bandana, face towel, pink bear keychain, pamphlet, cap, black t-shirt, cosmetic pouch, big t-shirt, boston bag and the black sweat suit set… I spent a lot of money on goods =_=;; After buying the goods I had to wait about two more hours before they let us into the concert hall… I met an exchange student from France whilst I was waiting.

Finally they let us in the concert hall at around 5:30 but we had to line up and this time I was near the back of the line, so I didn’t get to my seat until 6:00 which was when the concert was supposed to start… but knowing the GazettE they started ten minutes late. My seat was on third floor front row, so I got a pretty good view of everything that happened on the stage.

Before the performance, staff were doing sound checks and projected on the wall behind Kai’s drum set was the VC logo. I noticed at the base of Kai’s drum set, where Ruki’s water bottles were kept there were two tea candles, I was pretty sure that they were going to be used during ｢UNTITLED｣.

At around 6:10 the hall slowly darkened and ｢INFUSE INTO｣ started, a video was projected behind the drum set but I was too busy watching the left side of the stage where the guys would come out. First Kai came out followed by Uruha then Reita, then Aoi and finally Ruki. Ruki was wearing sparkly gloves. When all the members were on stage ｢INFUSE INTO｣ slowly faded into the intro of ｢VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB｣ PAIN-GRUDGE-SORROW-FURY-DELETE-HEADACHE-HANG UP-DIZZY was projected word by word behind Kai. And on that day, I truly understood how powerful Ruki’s voice is… I was amazed.

After ｢VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB｣,｢SLUDGY CULT｣ was performed, during this song Aoi did a sort of kicking spin behind Ruki from his side all the way to Uruha’s side and then walked back to his place on the stage with a big smile on his face and that’s all I remember from ｢SLUDGY CULT｣.

There was a short break between ｢SLUDGY CULT｣and ｢VORTEX｣ it wasn’t an MC break because the hall was dark, the break lasted for a minute or two, I think Uruha was having a little problem with his equipment. During this break the crowd was screaming out the names of the members, I called for Reita many times and probably freaked out the people standing near me XDD At one point I thought they were going to perform ｢NAUSEA & SHUDDER｣ because they were all crowded around Kai’s drums but then the break was over and the intro to ｢VORTEX｣ began, Ruki no longer wore his sparkly gloves. ｢VORTEX｣ was awesome a lot of the people on the first floor were head banging and when Ruki said “I don’t wanna become the fuckin’ garbage” he pulled the middle finger and when he said “Like you” he pointed to the audience.

Next was ｢THE SUICIDE CIRCUS｣at first I couldn’t decide whether to watch the video projected behind Kai or watch the band… in the end I decided to watch the band. When Ruki raps he moves his free hand to the rhythm of the song like a rapper and he looks so cute while doing so.

｢MY DEVIL ON THE BED｣wasn’t as fan service-y as I expected it to be. But when Kai pounded on the drums at the beginning of the song I could feel each beat hit my heart, he was so powerful! Before Kai starts drumming Ruki goes and gets the cane from where his water bottles are kept, even though I could see everything on the stage I couldn’t see the cane... Ruki kept it well hidden XDD The cane is covered with rhinestones… think Ruki during the ｢RED｣ era instead of Ruki being all shiny and sparkly it’s a cane.
When the song starts he places is against his lips and then he swings it in circles with his right hand as he walks in circles on stage. During the chorus when he sings “Tempt me by masturbation” he rubs his crotch against the cane and when he sings “Let’s have sex in darkness” he does an action as if he’s taking someone from behind (buhahaha). Half way through he puts the cane back when he goes for a drink of water. This time when he sings “Tempt me by masturbation” he does an action like he’s jacking off with his left hand, I laughed out loud when I saw that.

After ｢MY DEVIL ON THE BED｣there was a short break, probably because of Uruha’s equipment and then ｢13STAIRS[-1]｣ began, ever since I watch them perform this song on the DIM SCENE final DVD I’ve always wanted to watch this live… the main reason was to hear Ruki sing “Woahhh ohhhhh” before the heavy/hard parts of the song. I was super happy when Ruki sang extra Woahhhhs after he counts to 12 and at the end of the song. The extra woahs song like the Ahahahhh ah parts of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7cdqf0_1g&feature=related] but instead of Ahahahhh ah its OoohOhhh Oh!

After ｢13STAIRS[-1]｣ was ｢RUTHLESS DEED｣ which happens to be my favourite song in ｢TOXIC｣. At the beginning of the song “脅威に食われ退廃の巣が溶け脳内を抉るPARADOX” was rapidly projected on the back screen. Ruki’s does his epic screamo-ish screams when he does the “Oh beautiful lie” parts and you can hear the wide vocal range in this song, I was amazed. Also Uruha + an acoustic guitar = pure beauty.

I LOVE ｢CHIJOU｣ and now I love it even more after hearing it live, Ruki’s voice is deep and somewhat soothing XDD During this song a video of a snake slithering across a woman’s breast, arms, legs and stomach is projected behind Kai. Uruha and Aoi were perfectly in sync but for me, Reita’s bass stood out the most.

I was right when I assumed the tea candles I mentioned early were going to be used to for ｢UNTITLED｣ Ruki took one of the candles and puts it on his platform before the song starts. As the song is performed, projected behind Kai is a video of a shooting star slowly going around and across the screen then it doubles and quickens its pace throughout the song. During the chorus there are lights that are constantly moving and shining on the ceiling and crowd resembling the stars in the night sky. During the last six lines of the song (I think) the shooting starts crash into each other and combine into one big star and in the last ten seconds of the song Ruki blows out the candle and the big star bursts like a fire cracker then the hall goes black. The visuals in this song are beautiful and Ruki’s voice is amazing and Aoi, Uruha, Reita and Kai are as equally amazing! I can understand why some people said they cried during this song.
When the hall was dark the crowd started cheering and calling the names of the members (a lot of Kai fans and Ruki’s fans were there) then a spotlight lights Kai and his drum set as the strong drumming at the start of ｢AGONY｣ starts making the whole hall cheer, one by one spot lights light up each member as they begin to play their instruments and Ruki does his rapping actions… SO CUTE!!! He’s so short and he slightly wiggled his hips during this song!

During ｢CLEVER MONKEY｣ Aoi was continuously doing a violent rotating headbang… I’m surprised he didn’t get super dizzy at the end! And Ruki’s laugh at the beginning made me grin like a mad man! I head banged a lot during ｢VERMIN｣ so I don’t really know what happened on stage and I don’t remember much of ｢PSYCHOPATH｣ either, except when Uruha, Reita and Aoi were growling “Way of psychopath” into their mics, Reita’s voice was the loudest… either that or my ears were automatically trying to detect Reita’s voice considering he’s my honmei and all… fufufu…

The ｢HEADACHE MAN｣laugh was different from the DIM SCENE version… this time it was more like an evil giggle XDD I head banged a lot in this song too so I didn’t watch the stage. After Ruki did his evil giggle the hall went black and the beginning of ｢Filth in the Beauty｣ started the crowd cheered as Aoi played. A spotlight shone on Aoi as he played his acoustic and he had his eyes closed and a smile on his face and he’d move his head in a sensual manner.

｢TOMORROW NEVER DIES｣ was the last song for the main part of the live. When the song “ended” the guys left the stage leaving Kai doing an extra long drum solo, when he finished drumming he threw his sticks in the air behind him jumped off the side of his platform and walked backstage. Then ｢OMEGA｣ started and a video was projected behind Kai’s drum set, from this video you can obviously see Ruki’s love for horror movies… a few of the images were really scary!!

As soon as ｢OMEGA｣ finished the encore call started. We called for an encore for around ten minutes. I was so scared that we wouldn’t get an encore because to me it didn’t sound like we were loud enough. And then two spot lights flashed on these two doors on the side of the hall (that weren’t connected to the stage) everybody cheered and Reita and Kai came out. To get on the stage they had to stand on a platform before standing on stage. Reita pretended to lose his balance when he was standing on the platform and then safely made it on stage. Kai got on the stage first and went to his drum kit. But on his way he had a sudden realisation like “Oh! I didn’t high five Reita yet!” and went back to high five Reita who was at the time putting the bass strap over his head. Reita saw Kai stand a little behind him with his hand out for a high five and then high fived his hand after he got the strap of his bass on his shoulder. Kai goes to his drums and Reita goes to Ruki’s mic, Reita was wearing the VC bandana over his nose and mouth. He said a few words into the mic
れいた: FUKUOKA!!
Audience: VOIIIIII
れいた: It’s been a while
Audience: VOIIIIII
れいた: FUKUOKA!! COME ON!!

I’ve read previous live reports and a lot of them said that the VENOMOUS CELL version of ｢Ride with the ROCKERS｣ was the best version of ｢Ride with the ROCKERS｣ and because I’m a SUPER MASSIVE BIG fan of Reita’s I was looking forward to this performance throughout the whole night! And I have to agree with previous live reports… THIS VERSION OF ｢Ride with the ROCKERS｣ IS THE BEST SO FAR!!! OMGGGGGGGG!!!
Kai does a short MC, he spoke really fast so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying but I’m pretty sure it was something along the lines of “Fukuoka, it’s been a while” he also said “いいー” and “いいなー” a lot and then he did his “行くぞ！行くぞ！行くぞ！” before moving his mic and then sitting down and yelling, without a mic “かかってこい！！” his voice alone is so powerful and it filled up the whole hall. He started drumming and Reita joined in with his bass before Aoi and Uruha entered.
Uruha was wearing a really cool white costume and Aoi was wearing his R&R costume and the black mask thing. The hall was really energetic during ｢Ride with the ROCKERS｣ especially when Reita yelled “Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!” into the mic and expected us to repeat after him. Unfortunately ｢Ride with the ROCKERS｣ came to an end, it was too short!! Ruki came on stage and ｢REMEMBER THE URGE｣ began!!

My heart skipped a beat as Kai began his drumming. Unlike on the CD, the feedback from Uruha’s guitar didn’t last as long as it was supposed to :( The performance was AMAZING!!! I sang along to the entire song and my eyes were glued on Uruha during his solo. I noticed that during solos that Ruki walks towards Kai and does a little dance or moves his leg(?) to the beat of the song with his back towards the audience either that or just walks around in large circles at the of the stage.

After ｢REMEMBER THE URGE｣ was ｢COCKROACH｣. Ruki yelled out “ぶっ飛べCOCKROACH！！” and the crowd cheered. Aoi spun around and it made his skirt look kind of like a soft umbrella (nice use of words, I know XDD) My eyes were on Reita and his fingers the whole time, he doesn’t use a pick during this song. And when Reita sings… well chants “手を伸ばせば　届くと信じていたい” he points to the audience with his right hand and holds the neck of his bass with his left and his head is down, like he’s too shy to face the audience when he’s chanting… wahhh~~ Reita I love you!!!

Pretty much after the song finished Ruki yelled out “FUKUOKA!! FUKUOKA!” to which we yelled back at him the he shouted “ATAMA!! ATAMA!!” whilst pointing at his head, and ｢DISCHARGE｣ began. Usually I’d be giggling at how un-English his English sounds but I was too busy head banging… I’m pretty sure ｢DISCHARGE｣ is the main cause of my neck pain =_=;;

At ｢LINDA ~candydive Pinky heaven~｣ Aoi doesn’t clap like usual in the beginning of the song (that doesn’t mean he was in a bad mood!!). Near the end of the song Reita does his “multiple spin whilst playing the bass” move but it seems that he spun too much and got really dizzy. He spun from his side of the stage to where Uruha was; he seemed really dizzy and held onto Uruha’s shoulder for support after he stopped spinning. Uruha claps his back and asks if he’s okay and Reita nods and goes back to his side. I witnessed the violently epic head banging/air kicking moves Ruki and Reita do :D And Aoi clapped at the clapping parts at the end… OMGGG so good looking~~~

I don’t remember much about ｢AKAI ONE PIECE｣ but I do remember Reita rested his leg on top of Ruki’s platform and Ruki rested his right elbow on Reita’s shoulder and sang, then he pointed his finger at Reita’s head, I think he poked his head once as well. Also at the end of the song when Ruki finishes singing he showed us the ‘dance moves’ for the ending instrumental once and expected us to copy. When the song ended Ruki left his mic on his platform and threw a water bottle at the crowd, Reita threw some of his picks (damn those lucky fans who caught the picks >.<) and Kai threw, I think, four or six of his drumsticks. Five seconds after the guys left the stage we called for a double encore.

For the double encore, Kai comes out first with a can of something… it MIGHT (note that I said MIGHT) have been a can of Asahi beer because it was silver and didn’t have the diet coke logo on it. When he’s three quarters to his drum set he looks behind him to see no one following. He does the “come on to the stage” motion with his hand and climbs the steps to his drum set. He sits but still no one comes on stage, he has a huge grin as he looks to the left of the stage to see if anyone’s coming, then Uruha comes out followed by Reita and Aoi. Aoi is drinking a vitamin energy drink and he teases the fans by offering the drink to the fans in the front row on his side, naturally the fans gather around his area and when it seems Aoi is about to give the glass bottle to one of the fans he walks away with the bottle in hand towards his speakers with a smile that says “Heh, you thought I was going to give you my drink” XDD

The guys were waiting for Ruki to come out and as they do Reita decides to show off his strength by doing press ups against the low speaker near his foot where his mic stand is (I admit I squealed like a crazy fangirl when he started). Aoi laughs and does squat thrusts behind him smiling as if he’s thinking “You’re not the only one who works out!” XDD Ruki still doesn’t come out. One of the staff comes out to retrieve Ruki’s mic from his platform and the crowd cheers. Aoi and Reita laugh and point at the staff member in a “That’s not Ruki!” kind of way. And then we hear Ruki slowly sing the first lines of Happy Birthday from backstage. The room darkens, a spotlight is focused on Kai and “Happy Birthday” is projected behind him as a massive rectangular cake with 30 candles is wheeled out onto the stage followed by Ruki who is singing the Birthday song (OMG RUKI SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY /dies) we cheer and sing along with Ruki and clap to the rhythm of the song.

The song finishes and Ruki beckons Kai to the front centre of the stage by saying “Kai-san” and waving his hand at him. Kai comes down from his platform to the front centre of the stage and Ruki passes the mic to Kai and Kai has a big smile as he points to the cake and says “Eh!? We did this yesterday!” and playfully punches Uruha. After that he blows out all the candles and the room is lighted up again. Ruki goes to where Aoi, Reita and Uruha are where Reita and Aoi’s stuff is set up.

I’m not 100% sure of my translation, but I think Kai says “Eh… This year was pretty good [laughs] I’m happy we can celebrate (my birthday) Thank you! But, hey! They’ve already given me (a cake)” As he says “They’ve already given me (a cake)” the other four slowly walk off backstage in a “I don’t know what you’re talking about” manner, leaving Kai all on his own. He looks at the crowd and makes a little thank you speech that ends up sounding a little like “Well, I… [long pause] anou… Arigatou gozaimasu!” then he bows a little, looks to the left of the stage and says “You guys can come back out! [laughs]” the others come out with smiles on their faces and Kai passes the mic back to Ruki as the cake is wheeled off stage.

Ruki tells the crowd to congratulate the leader (he didn’t call him Kai he called him リーダー) and we all yell out “OMEDETOU!!” And then something like this happened
戒: Can I have one request? Can we take a group picture like in the old days?
Ruki points at his copy of the setlist on the ground and it looks like he’s saying “That’s not in tonight’s schedule!!”
戒: Is that not possible? Let’s take a picture!!
戒(to the audience): We should take a picture together right?
Audience: asdklfjdYESSSS
Ruki tells everybody to gather towards the centre and Kai looks at us on the third floor and says
戒: Ah! What should we do about the people on the third floor?
Then he was told to sit down by Ruki. I could kind of see Aoi doing the peace sign and Reita do the “rock on” sign, well, I think that’s what Reita was doing. A lady comes on stage with a camera.
戒: … Eh!? This, am I supposed to say “hai~ chiizu?”!? Okay, hai~ chiizu!!
Audience: Cheeeeese!!

There’s some confusion as to whether the picture was taken or not and the camera lady nods her head and the members get up and Kai thanks the crowd and the camera lady.
RUKI: This picture will be uploaded to Kai-kun’s FC blog, I think
Audience: adjfladjf
RUKI: じゃ 、わかってるよな？わかってるよな？地獄へようこそ！！福岡ー！！土下座 (Well, Understood? UNDERSTOOD? WELCOME TO HELL!! FUKUOKA!! DOGEZA!!)

I can’t remember in which order these events happened, but during ｢KANTOU DOGEZA KUMIAI｣ Aoi got a part of his costume stuck on the neck of his guitar somehow so he went slightly off stage for a staff member to help him get un-stuck, during this, he kept on playing and he was bouncing his leg up and down. Aoi and Uruha played together on RUKI’s platform, and at one point it looks like Uruha pinched either Aoi’s left nipple or the fabric where his left nipple is and Aoi looks at the crowd with a raised eyebrow. After that it looks like Aoi slapped Uruha’s butt but I’m not sure whether he did or he just swung his arm behind Uruha. Uruha jumps off the platform and goes to his side of the stage and Aoi follows after and stands behind Uruha and tries to do the EXILE with him but Uruha ignores him or doesn’t notice, Aoi walks away to where Reita is and then Reita plays with Aoi for a bit before walking off. Aoi does his screaming part into the mic and when he does I really wish that I could hear him sing properly >.<

Ruki drinks from his bottle and Uruha comes and asks for a sip, Ruki lets him drink from his bottle and after drinking they both spit water. Aoi stands on the platform in front of the big speaker (the one that Reita pretended to lose his balance on) and then Uruha started playing but it was too loud so Aoi covered his ears with his hands and got off the platform and went to stand next to the door where Reita entered from during the first encore. Reita stands on Uruha’s platform and Uruha comes to stand on the stage beside him (not on the platform) Reita rests his back on Uruha’s shoulder and he rests his head on Reita’s back (Best friends for life!! XDD). Near the end of the song Reita rests his bass on his shoulder like he’s holding a sniper, after that Ruki makes a gun shape with his right hand and “shoots” at the audience and Aoi high fived one of the fans (lucky fan!!). The song ends and bottles, picks and drumsticks were thrown at the audience (nothing reached the third floor though T^T) Ruki says “Thank you Fukuoka!! You’re the best!!” (he says Thank you in English) before he leaves the stage.

The live ended and slowly everybody gathered up their things and left the hall. I was one of the last ones to leave; I watched the staff pack up instruments and cables. They were selling the first volume of the GazettE SHOXX FILES and I bought one of those… it was surprisingly really heavy!!
Overall, that night was the BEST night of my life (so far) I have to say, I didn’t head bang as much as much as I expected to. I found it hard to head bang and do the furi to the ｢TOXIC｣ songs but the older songs were really easy to head bang and do the furi to… probably because I’ve seen it happen on their DVDs and such… And the live went by REALLY quickly!!! It lasted for about 2 hours (finished at 8:40) but it felt like only 1 hour had passed!! Reita was jumpy throughout the entire live and Uruha kept on head banging when the others weren’t and head banged late when the others were head banging AND OMG I SAW AOI’S MATRIX BACK BEND IN THE FLESH!!! /dies. Kai smiled and laughed a lot and I was super surprised to hear how deep Ruki’s and Reita’s voice were!! Too bad Aoi and Uruha didn’t speak T^T If I could go to a GazettE live every night of my life I would definitely do it! I’d probably burn a lot of calories too!! XDD

RUKI’s MCs:
RUKI: Yo!! Fukuoka!!
Audience: *cheers*
RUKI: We’re ba-
Random fan: WELCOME BACK!!
RUKI: *giggles*
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RUKI: Third floor!!
Third floor: *cheers*
RUKI: THIRD FLOOR!!
Third floor: *cheers louder*
RUKI: いいなー
Audience: *laughs*
RUKI: Second floor!!
Second floor: *cheers*
RUKI: SECOND FLOOR!!
Second floor: *cheers louder*
RUKI:いいなー
Audience: *laughs*
RUKI: OK! FIRST FLOOR!!
First floor: *CHEERS*
RUKI: OH! いいなー!*laughs*
Audience: *laughs*
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RUKI: I don’t know how many times we’ve performed at Fukuoka Sun Palace, but this year is the best performance!!
Audience: *cheers*
RUKI: The atmosphere is good and the members are in high spirits.
Audience: *cheers*
RUKI: … but it’s raining outside…
Audience: *laughs*
RUKI: Today’s humidity is high… … … Why can’t the sun shine when we perform!?!?
Audience: *laughs*
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SETLIST:
SE – INFUSE INTO
VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB
SLUDGY CULT
VORTEX
THE SUICIDE CIRCUS
MY DEVIL ON THE BED
13STAIRS[-]1
RUTHLESS DEED
痴情 [Chijou]
UNTITLED
AGONY
CLEVER MONKEY
VERMIN
PSYCHOPATH
HEADACHE MAN
Filth in the Beauty
TOMORROW NEVER DIES
SE – OMEGA
-encore-
Ride with the ROCKERS
REMEMBER THE URGE
COCKROACH
DISCHARGE
LINDA~candydive Pinky heaven~
赤いワンピース [Akai one piece]
-encore 2-
Kai’s surprise birthday celebration
関東土下座組合 [Kantou Dogeza Kumiai]

Hopefully, there aren't too many mistakes in this report and sorry, it's a bit long m(_ _)m

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