Bruegel was one of Bosch’s imitators in his early career, but developed his own weird aura later. The chunky human figures is one of Bruegel characteristic and that’s how I guessed it was him.
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So, since I came back to the hotel at around 4 a.m. because of the night gig, I slept until 14:00. Which is good — I needed that.
Today is the gig the whole trip was centered around.
22.08 — Deshabillz @ Ikebukuro EDGE
Deshabillz.
I love this band so much. They are my favorite old-school VK band. Of course, there is Missalina Rei, As’REAL, Birushana, and some others who are very dear to me, but Deshabillz still stand above all of them.
They could play any setlist, and I would like it. Which they did.
Interestingly enough, the audience was pretty much equally split between men and women.
I even caught Tak’s pick, so I’m pretty pleased.
You might think that’s the end of today, but no.
Accidentally, I am heading to Shinjuku for a RoNo☆Cro one-day revival.
22.08 — RoNo☆Cro @ HOLIDAY SHINJUKU
I am coming here for one reason only — I want to hear “Give Me a Smile”.
I still think it’s such a waste for the VK oshare and kirakira scene that Minami decided to retire 10 years ago. I don’t think anybody at the moment can match his voice within the niche. His voice is even better live than on the recordings. He’s been inactive for 10 years, and he’s still on top of his game, vocally. Just wow.
I got “Give Me a Smile” and some other songs I like. So it was very much worth it. Almost 50 minutes set, good.
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So today is the last day of this trip. After packing my bags, it was time to head to Ikebukuro first. Since my flight was late at night, I needed something to do. So…
23.08 — GRIMOIRE @ Ikebukuro EDGE
I am not a fan of them. Like, at all. I understand their appeal, but it simply doesn’t work for me. Yet:
- I needed something to occupy my time. I don’t want to do any sightseeing or any cultural experiences, as I am not generally a fan of such things.
- I still like Diement, which was Rynk’s band back in the day, so this is the closest I will ever get to hearing them.
- It’s GRIMOIRE’s one-day revival, so it’s a rare event. It would be unpleasant to miss such an opportunity, especially given the overall context.
I can’t really say anything other than that they are objectively good performance-wise. After 45 minutes, I left, as I had accomplished my mission. I also heard some songs I know, so that’s nice as well.
So that concludes this trip.
I will update the thread with my thoughts about the overall experience sometime later next week.
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In short, this trip makes the next ones more complicated.
I think I managed to see around 90% of the bands I wanted to see across these three trips. For example, I checked the schedule for next month and didn’t find a single gig I actually wanted to attend. It would simply be more of the same experience, especially since all of these memories are still very fresh.
And I don’t really want to reach the point where I go see Ensoku or 0.1g no Gosan simply because I’ve already seen every other band performing that day. That would feel like going to VK gigs just for the sake of going to VK gigs.
Of course, there are exceptions. If I come to Japan for reasons unrelated to visual kei — like my previous trip, which happened because of my wife’s competitions in Japan and China — I would absolutely go to gigs just for fun. And if -OZ- or some other band I genuinely care about revives, that changes things too.
But even there, something has changed. Earlier, I could easily imagine planning at least a two-week trip to Japan around one particular revival. Now? I’m not sure. Maybe one week. Maybe I wouldn’t go at all. We shall see.
I also don’t think I’m obsessed enough with, for example, deadman or lynch. — among the current bands I still haven’t seen — to build an entire trip around them. I like them a lot, but that’s different from Deshabillz, whom I literally centered this whole trip around.
And that’s why destroying my wallet made sense this time. I had my Deshabillz obsession, a strong desire to finally see a Mamireta one-man, and then I got ridiculously lucky with ZORO and RoNo☆Cro revivals, GRIMOIRE, and plenty of other bands. I think around 70% of the bands I saw on this trip were bands I had never seen live before.
So yeah, the next trip is a harder sell now. But that’s a nice problem to have. Can’t complain.
Fun fact — I spent two months out of the last twelve in Japan. Me from 15 years ago would be ecstatic. Current “dead inside” me is simply pleased.
Not only because I managed to experience all of this, but because I can afford to do so in this day and age. Given the current state of the world, AI, and everything else, you simply don’t know how long your good days will last.
Anyways, I feel blessed that I was able to pull off three big trips to Japan.
I really hope that you guys who haven’t been able to achieve your visual kei dreams yet will eventually get the chance to do so. Given everything that’s happening around us, I would say: take your chances before it’s too late.
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