I saw a main thread for this live, and I didn’t want to clog up that thread with my long-ass opinion, so I decided to post my live report here. The original full-length report with all the bangya spot-stealing drama and random thirsty musings can be found here, but if you just want to know what happened at the live, this abridged version is for you.
We had some pretty good tickets which put us in the third row. My spouse is a huge Yusuke fan, and we thought Yukino would come over to the Shimote side for Gullet, so we stood somewhere in the shimote/center area.
When the lights finally dimmed for kein, there was a sudden wave of movement from behind that pushed us to the front. This doesn’t really happen for vkei lives anymore, and even if it does, it’s only for a few short moments where a band man is leaning into the crowd to high five us or something. But pre covid this was a regular occurrence. The lights would go off and people would rush forward.
Honestly I was pretty surprised to see this happen for kein of all bands. The previous kein lives I’ve been to have been pretty mild. People barely even headbanged and stuff, lol.
Mako came out in his ratty ass kein wig (sorry Mako, I love you) and started singing. Gosh, kein is so damn cool. Reo was pretty close to our spot. At one point Yukino got on the center stand to do a bass solo. And he looked incredible today with his blond hair and bold lipstick.
Then, when Danro no Kajitsu ended, Mako and aie just up and left the stage. It was weird since Mako usually bows and stuff…
And then a man I’d never seen before waltzed onto the stage. I was like, who’s this dude?
It was… Ryo!
Wow, literally no one expected that transition (or lack thereof). They leapt into Persecution Complex right away. I was kinda disappointed to see Yukino remain on the Kamite side…
But Gullet had really intense energy. So did the crowd, which pushed us even further to the front. I had listened to Gullet for like 3 hours leading up to the live, so I knew the songs by sound but not by name. It didn’t matter, because I still had a blast.
Lynch. started and there was another rush of people from the back. Someone barged to the front on my right, trapping me so that I could barely move my arms. I literally could not see Yusuke at all. I had a good view of Hazuki, though. I spent the first two songs completely sandwiched and unable to move from all the pushing. For a moment I thought I was going to die in there, but I eventually snapped out of it and started jumping in place with my arm in the air.
To my surprise, everything got much more bearable once I started doing that. I guess the lesson here is that I shouldn’t let people walk all over me (literally).
Then it was time for pulse. For those who don’t know, pulse is lynch.’s most in-your-face sex song. It’s not there in the recorded version, but at lives, the chorus is just the audience chanting, “yaritai yaritai yaritai!” (Translation: I wanna fuck! x 3) and Hazuki always hypes the crowd up by saying “Let’s have SEX!” or some variation of the phrase. Emphasis on the sex part.
Today was a little different. Hazuki started by saying it was time for us all to do something, and since it’s Reo’s special day, maybe Reo should do the honors…
To which Reo replied, “I KNEW this was coming! I knew Hazuki would bring it up…!”
We all had a laugh, and Reo leaned into his mic… and said the thing! He was hella blushing while he said it, too.
Then lynch.’s set ended and it was almost time for the (streamed) encore session.
Surprisingly, the encore started with Reo coming out by himself with a mic, sans guitar. He gave a really long and heartfelt speech, which I’ll try my best to summarize here.
In September of last year, Reo lost a close friend and mentor, a PA person called Yamamoto-san. Yamamoto-san had done PA work for all three bands kein, Gullet, and lynch., and had been an invaluable presence in all of their lives. And since him and Reo were so close in age, this loss got him thinking, and he decided to organize this live. The live title “Genealogia” is his way of conveying the passing of the torch, in a sense - from Yamamoto-san, to the band, to the audience, and finally to whomever the audience might introduce this music to. This live would not have been possible if Reo had not been blessed by so many supportive connections. Kein and lynch., for one, and also the past Gullet members. Since Reo had left Gullet before it disbanded, it was actually a huge ask for him to request permission to use Gullet’s songs and perform them. But the boss of the label allowed it, and even allowed them to use Gullet’s logo on their merch and for the event. The retired Gullet members even came to see this live, and they were sitting in the special guests area on the 2nd floor.
After the speech, he introduced the three vocalists of the night, saying that Yamamoto-san had loved all three bands.
(I can’t actually remember who else was on stage for the encore. There were too many of them.)
Ryo had a new addition to his costume—some fake vampire blood on his chin, and bloody bandages around his neck.
They started playing kein’s Kranke, and then Gullet’s Pool and finally lynch.’s Evidence, with all three vocalists singing in turn. They had the lyrics to the songs pasted on the floor of the stage for easy reference, lol.
Then the show finally ended, with Reo and Yusuke throwing picks at the crowd before they left the stage.
Reo’s final parting message for us was that he hoped we would look into each member’s other projects in addition to what they played tonight.
