I would say it depends on the band; I remember years ago after watching Papa Roach, Jacoby was having drinks and pictures with anyone that asked in the bar of the livehouse…and Im sure there must other small bands that do the same
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Yes, it really depends on the size of the act and the personality of the musician. Although, the recent trend has been towards offering it as a VIP perk over the last few years.
I haven’t been to the Helsinki venue before, but based on Google maps it seems easy to find so I’m definitely considering.
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Well yes of course I’ve also gone to After parties and bars with bands and partied and taking pictures in the US and europe. That’s a different culture though, you’re not expecting pop Acts or visual Kei bands or people of such genres to do the same things. That’s why they offer them as VIP perks.
I feel like its kinda lame to charge people for pictures. Like why? Who does someone think they are, that superior to anyone else that people should pay for photos with them. Absolutely not humble behaviour.
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We are running laps here around the same topic
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It’s just very common and at least part of the VK scene.
Instore events have certain topics over there afaik and also often dependent on e. g. something in the recent single by which you can get access to the instore or something special at it or you have to buy several copies and so on.
I’ve also seen more often recently that bands do two-shots at lives and you have to pay for them so that’s not even different. Here it’s just not possible to buy that option at the merch booth but by the VIP ticket but this is abroad and a bit different. It’s more predictable for the band that way which most likely will help with organization.
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Because it takes time to take photos with that many fans so it needs organisation. And people are willing to pay to have something that they can look at and say “oh that time I saw Jiluka was great. Sena smiled at me.”
Vk bands life from things like this and chekis. You could also ask why people would charge 1000 ¥ for a polaroid. It’s worth much less. But people want them anyway.
Streaming is not getting the bands much money, unless they are huge stars. So photo ops, chekis and other merch it is.
Maybe they over charge a bit so Sena can buy himself another Dior lipstick. Maybe they just try to break even to make lives available to oversea fans as well.
So maybe… idk be mad a Spotify and Ticket Master and not artists…
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(I guess I should not be telling anyone I paid 170 € for the Gazette ticket including VIP for earlier entrance and getting to the merch booth (which didn’t even have everything anymore), a towel with the band logo and the … VIP event, well handshake event were more precise. It were few seconds of “meeting” the band but these were so special to me that I lived on them for six months until the effect wore off (considering I suffer from severe depression). I said right away I’d pay that again and there’s no picture with the band included.)
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2-shot and full band photos aren’t even necessarily sold alone.
A lot of times, they act as an incentive for other things. Bought VIP? You get one. Bought over ¥5-10,000 yen of merch? You get one. Choose to buy a ticket in advance for ¥5000 instead of waiting until the day of to get in for free? You get one.
They aren’t for everyone, of course. But they are an effective revenue stream.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Jiluka obviously came out ahead in Europe. There is no way that they would return so soon if they had only broken even. It was probably mostly in merch and cheki sales, something that VK bands have historically skimped out on when going overseas.
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It also makes sense to go back while visas are still valid. Double dipping!
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But it looks like the tickets sell a bit slower this time. Last time I checked one of the german ticket sites still had over 200 regular tickets for both german gigs. And since they also sell via one of the big ticket platforms this shop did surely not have the full contingent (Official capacity Berlin: 800, Bochum 1000).
Berlin still has 47 VIP add ons available 
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They came out ahead last time I am sure but I’m also sure they’ll have a nice big loss on this next one. Got too cocky. Most people going to see them go out of curiosity or to see ‘Sena from Tik Tok’ once, not because they’re big fans. It also worked because people traveled from all over…which most people can’t do twice in three months esp. with the price gouging Fake Star and Kinetic Vibe do.
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I see this is a big reason as well.
For the first one people were just like “great, finally this is happening again”. With another one so soon after there most likely will be quite some “well, they might be back again soon so I’m skipping this time”.
(Didn’t forget how I first pondered in 2006 for the MUCC live (which was my first one of a Japanese band at all) because it’s a long way to get to Germany and who knows when they’d be back again just to see them less than a year later for three shows. I learnt from that even though I know it can also turn out the other way around.)
Does anyone keep track how the other shows are selling? Buchom seems to sell a bit better despite being the bigger venue. Surprises me because usually Berlin is a safe bank.
Oh it can… very badly… I skipped the last GazettE concerts in Germany. And look how this turned out 
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Bochum lays in the Ruhrgebiet, so there is a big bunch of big cities all around it, that might help in selling it easier than Berlin.
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I’m not keeping track at all but for years Berlin is frequented in planning way less than anything close to Bochum (including Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund etc.). I guess most people from anywhere south and maybe from abroad closer there will head to Bochum rather than Berlin.
Phew and you missed out on so much especially when it comes to Munich in my opinion. I went to both lives and Munich is my overall fave live ever. Considering the turnout now …
I was not really wondering about Bochum selling. That on it’s own is no surprise. But the first Germany Concert was also in Ruhrgebiet so you’d think Berlin would sell at least on same level as the closest concert befor was in Warsaw.
And while the Ruhrgebiet (5.1M people)is densely populated it still has less people than Berlin(3.6M) and Hamburg(1.8M) conbined and people from Hamburg or the bigger cities in the east are closer to Berlin.
But I guess Bochum is also attractiv to people from france, belgium and the like. Or like people from Frankfurt (Main).
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Oh yeah, definitely. I think there is a balance between playing overseas and then pissing off for 5-6 years, and trying to play overseas shows almost as often as Japanese ones.
They need consistency to continue growing their fanbase, but western concert goers just aren’t used to seeing bands so close together unless there are other bands they’re going for on the ticket.
Once a year is the sweet spot, I think.
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It’s not really like people only attend local concerts here in Europe, especially for vk concerts. I know dozens of people who traveled to Cologne last time. Many of them like jiluka, but don’t wanna see the exact same show 3 months after the last time (+ traveling that is not cheap and the dates are during the week, so you have to take at least two days off).
For me personally Berlin and Cologne/Bochum are both like 4 hours by train, so it’s not a big difference (besides Cologne and Bochum being ugly ass cities).
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