Damned - Sakura’s Birthday live “Evergreen” 09/10 @Takadanobaba Club Phase
I came today bringing gifts, not for the bands, but for a moot on Twitter. After talking for a bit, we headed down to the Takadanobaba Club Phase and she reconnected with an older gya who she used to go to Scapegoat lives with. That’s two things I noticed about this show in particular. More 30+ gya and more foreign gya or tourists. The checking in process goes really smoothly, but I do get an extra Damned specific ticket as I chose them as my preferred band.
Upon grabbing my spot at the far right side of the third row, I notice people already lining up for Damned merch. I meet her back in line and she explains that the ticket I received was a free stamp on your Damned frequent buyer points card. As I’m only seeing Damned one other time this trip, a points card wouldn’t really help me, so I gave it to her to hold onto in case she knew someone who needed one or if she could double dip on incentive benefits in one future live.
I pay for my Cheki reservation and grab a Sakura Birthday photo card set and take my spot again waiting for Lyrica.
Usagi comes out, not surprisingly, with his Usagi plushie. Playing up his creepy/cute persona the entire set, the audience was enthusiastic in their Furi performance.
1.Rabbit Parade
2.幸福中毒
3.ストロベリィマァマレィド
4.バスルームに毒の花。
5.Strange Rabbit
After pulling a lucky cheki for each of the three main members, and starting a Lyrica points card of my own, I took my spot for 201号室
They had a more mature, almost jazz rock sound. The audience was probably the least interested in them, of all of the bands playing tonight although I enjoyed their set.
- Kotirinoyaunisiawasedesu
- Deathco
- Where is?
- Lychee
- Yellow Heart
Lay About World was next, formed in 2018, but featuring veterans in the Sapporo scene from the early to late 2000s, they certainly haven’t forgotten how to work a crowd. Furi was a little bit more disorganized, but the enthusiasm from the first few rows was consistent. All topped off with the curtains closing over vocalist Kyoutarou collapsing onto a heap on the floor.
Forbidden were next, and if Usagi was the creepy in the good way, Byo was the creepy in the bad way.
…just kidding. But you couldn’t exactly miss the innuendo of his performance, complete with crotch grabbing, moaning and spraying a couple of members of the audience with a stream of water.
And yes, it’s the same Byo from Screw and Khryst. I thought his voice sounded familiar.
- Perfect Victim
- Night Ruler
- Fearless
- W.D.S.
- Dystopia
So it finally came time for the reason I ultimately chose this live, even though I wanted to see Damned and Lyrica as well. Madman’s Espirit caused the second and third rows to quickly expand to accommodate more people, though their Saizen was small.
Kyuho definitely has a presence to him that can’t be denied, tying the microphone cable around his choker for the first song. They played the tracks from 5 old scars, their new EP which is almost entirely in Japanese except for Suicidol. Not really much in the way of furi with them, mainly head banging. Still, I appreciated not having much distracting me from Kyuho’s excellent vocal performance.
- Kaidan
- Tsuiraku
- Hakkotsu no Teien
- 京城
- Suicidol
After buying a towel and two cheki from the merch team (I don’t know whether to love or hate when I attempt to order in Japanese and my ass gets shut down when someone responds in English with a North American accent), I pick up my Damned cheki reservation and head back to my spot for Damned.
Sometimes in Taibans, the final band goes out with a whimper as fans of other bands slowly trickle out. This time, it went out with a roar. Even most people who weren’t there for Damned as least stayed in the back and didn’t leave. Eyes were definitely on Sakura, as he was the birthday boy.
I was standing in front of Kou for the main act, and I’ll say that his fans enjoy kneeling a lot during his solos. I’d say he was the second most popular man of the night.
The set was a bit longer than the other bands, and they only played a couple of songs currently available on streaming. Still, despite not recognizing most of the songs, the experience was very intense with sometimes quick transitions between different types of headbanging and other furi.
After this, came the time for additional last minute sales. I grab two past cheki for someone back in Canada, then I notice that the members of Madman’s Espirit are just hanging around. I consider going up and talking to them, but then I notice the Polaroid camera that one of their staff has. I go up to the lady that helped me last time and I ask how much 2-shots are.
“One thousand”
“Oh? Literally, only 1000¥?”
“Yeah, it’s just a one time thing.”
One thousand yen for a picture of me with Kyuho Lee? Sign me the fuck up.
The wait isn’t even as long as I thought it would be. I compliment him on the show and tell him that I hope to see him in Canada one day. He said that he might try and work it out when he eventually heads to the states.
I thank him and take my developing cheki to the line for Sakura’s 2-shots. My cheki reservation order was enough to qualify me for the ticket, so I wait for the staff member to be ready. Right before I get my shot, Kyuho pops in to take a Birthday photo with Sakura.
I introduce myself and we do a hand heart pose. I think my time is up, so I get up to leave but he’s like “ep, ep, ep” and tells me that I still have time before the lady comes back from Kou’s 2-shot line. It’s a little awkward, as I hadn’t rehearsed anything to say. He seemed to understand a bit of English, so I say “oh, when am I seeing you next?” And then find my Japanese words again to tell him that it’ll be in October, and that I’m returning to Canada in November. We do some playful handshakes before I say my mata ne’s.
I say my goodbyes to my Twitter moot, and head back to my apato, wondering how sore my neck will be after two nights of intense headobang.
Spoiler alert: Not as bad as I thought.
