HEART OF ROCK @ NIPPON BUDOHKAN

Ahhhh D-DAY. And the very reason I’m in Japan to begin with. Since we were planning on nothing else but to haunt Budohkan the entire day ( concert starts at 5p.m. ) I decided that we can have the slack to sleep a bit more to recover from the crazy tiredness since the day we started traveling.

Waking up around 10a.m. ( for once! I don’t feel half as groggy waking up ) we took the usual simple bread and hot drink breakfast at Smile Khaosan Hostel before setting out. Almost forgetting the mounting board banner that we stowed under the bed, we set out with nervous strides crossing the all too familiar Sumida River heading towards the train station. Feeling a little light headed all I can think of was “We’re REALLY going to see Siam Shade! LIVE!”

Something funny happened when we were waiting at the traffic light heading towards the train station though 8D An old Japanese man smiled at us are asked what were we holding while we were all waiting for the green light because the wind flipped the board every now and then revealing bits of the wittings INSIDE the folded board. He asked whether were we doing calligraphy and very much embarrassed ( because the simple message inside that stated “マレーシアから!” [from Malaysia!] was penned by yours truly *coughs* ) The old man was surprised and smiled and said to us “Ganbatte ne~” just as the lights turned green and we headed our separate way XD;

We reached Kitamura Park station at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. Still nervous, my heart did several flips as soon as we alighted and saw people carrying cardboard/signs asking if anyone has extra tickets for sale! My heart goes out for those fans who came goodness knew what time and stood there holding the signs. I’m really really lucky that Sam and I got the tickets during the pre-sale. Thanks to the ever wonderful Akiko ( and her Mum! ) again! ♥

View before Budohkan’s entrance. A lot of senior citizens were painting by the river here.

My feeling was really indescribable to tell the truth. Was it nervousness? Exhilaration? Half the time, I couldn’t even think straight anymore and just followed the lines of crowd heading out towards Budohkan.

But nothing can prepare me and Sam as we crossed over this gate and saw the crazy long lines of people that is already winding into a S shape heading all the way to the SECOND GATE and down the hill as far as we can see from where we stood at the moment. Panicked, I wasn’t sure whether what the line was for but it was pretty obvious that it WAS for Siam Shade one way or other. Sam and I decided to corner a security ( well dressed in suit to boot! ) and asked him about the line with our horrible Japanese XD; He looks massively confused and we were trying to find the proper words since our vocab seemed to had flown out of our brain as we get even more nervous ( re: anything Siam Shade at the moment ). Finally it clicked and he said “GOODS”. Thankfully for my constant prowling on official websites, I do recognised GOODS do mean “Concert Merchandises” and thanked him hastily and jumped into the long line ( made much longer by then ).

The view of fans queuing up in front of Budohkan’s gate

We lined up right behind a stylish guy who was waiting for a friend for the next hour or so. Talking excitedly with Sam, I was glad that the weather is just good for waiting in line. I had to admit I was massively amused by the conversation of the two guys in front of us though. It ranged from bands they listen to and finally to DragonBall?!!! I swore I heard them talking excitedly about Kuririn, Goku and Super Saiyajin XD;; Which was seriously amusing, because both of them looks really stylish and not all all your average anime/manga fanboy XD But well, it is DragonBall =P

This was how the line looks like about 40-50 mins since we started que-ing up.

Finally, as we crossed over the gate in the 3rd picture above, we got a glimpse of the actual stadium. And the crazy line that stretched downhill towards some tents ( concert goods’ sale area ) right in front of the stadium. More lining up!

As the line got nearer to the tent, I jumped as loud noise erupted from the stadium. Sam went “JUNJI!” I was still half dazed and went “OMG REALLY? O_O” As you can see, I was STILL floating in this semi-unbelieving clouds that I’m going to really see them! It was the sound check! They were really in the stadium already!

I think i spent a good 15k yen on the concert merchandise alone. Tote bag, t-shirt, key chain, phone straps, wrist bands ( which was stolen by my brother now ) and notebook. On top of that, two more of DAITA’s solo albums! I’ll upload my concert merc pictures later; for now it’s all on Sam’s blog

Snagged them from the OHP for now XD;

Satisfied with the purchases, we dumped them all into the tote bag ( functional and convenient liek whoaaah at that moment ) and headed off near a clock tower and sat down to wait. Not before cam whoring in front of the main entrance with THE banner though =D

HEART OF ROCK ♥

And that was when I heard Hideki’s voice from inside the stadium. You can see some fans stopped in their tracks and just stared at the stadium. It wasn’t anything as rowdy as the soundcheck when I was in Korea for L’Arc~en~Ciel.. but there was a strange atmosphere all around as a lot of people just looked up and smiled. And when I heard Hideki sung the all too familiar 大きな木の下で, I felt like crying. ( And maybe calling long distance home so I can brag to Mum that Hideki is just a wall away from me XD My Mum is a Hideki fan =P How awesome is THAT? )

The security briefing from where we stood. We were at the West gate for the longest just hanging around and waiting for the time to tick closer to the concert’s opening.

Around 4:00p.m., there was another commotion as the security announced that we were supposed to line up to enter the stadium. Imagine OUR rush and confusion! We didn’t know which line/entrance out ticket at; so we once more cornered a poor luckless security to ask. He was sweet recognising us as stupid foreigners and directed us in simple English. Hi-ho! Onto the line we go!

Our tickets! No thanks to my nervousness I totally forgot to take pictures of the tickets! Until when we were lining up to get into the stadium. The lights had already started to fade and we were walking when we took this thus the blurriness of it XD;

You had no idea how precious they are 8D I was being the old nagging baba and asked Sam about it every other day whether she has it with her or not XDDD

Views from the stadium! Taken ninja-style by Sam =D

And finally, we were really INSIDE the stadium waiting anxiously for THE concert to start! On every seats there was a concert booklet given free for fans of Siam Shade’s discography and history and their current solo projects. And of course, a dedication to Mr. Shinichi Nakamura - their ex-manager who passed away. I changed into my newly bought concert t-shirt out of spur moment of fangirlness. Sam geared up with our rushed job of a board banner. At around 5:15p.m. the entire stadium went dark and you can almost see the mounting tension from everyone in the crowd, some screaming out the band name already, some restless. And soon, it marked the start of a night to remember…

SETLIST
NO CONTROL
imagination
RAIN
CAN?T GET FORGET YOU
why not?
LOVE SICK ~You Don’t Know~
Dear
PASSION
曇りのち晴れ (Kumori nochi hare)
大きな木の下で (Ooki na ki no shita de)
Solomon?s seal
GET OUT
NEVER END
shout out
PRIDE
PRAYER
GET A LIFE
Life

Encore:
1/3純情な感情( 1/3 junjou na kanjou )
Dreams

Encore #2:
D.Z.I
Don?t Tell Lies

Here will be random snippets of my thoughts and commentaries of the songs that were performed that night. Not all the song will be commented on mainly because there are some songs that I don’t like all that much ( T__T YES I’M A HORRIBLE FAN I ADMIT ) and truth to be told, I spent a lot of time spazzing out madly that I think I must had had severe lack of oxygen problem the whole evening to remember every details >_>; Thankfully I jotted down bit and pieces of stuff in my handy traveling notebook ^^v

NO CONTROL
The band wasted no more time and dived straight into NO CONTROL. And just like the name of the song, it drove the crowd into an uncontrollable frenzy. Fans started waving and jumping and screaming out the band name or their favorite band member’s name. I was just breathless taking in the whole view because they were finally in front of my very own eyes. Siam Shade; a band that I hold dear to my heart. A band that had disbanded more than five years ago. They were there; right in front of me. Excuse me for a moment but I do still want to knee a few of those lucky bastards in the arena seats ;___; How I wished over and over again that we were at the arena area! In full frontal view of the stage!

Imagination
As much as I’m not a huge fan of this track; I was happily singing along to the chorus <3 As long as it's not one of their scream-y songs, I think I would had heard it several thousand times over the years. I'm a huge fan of Hideki and Kazuma's twin vocal which I found totally amazing as both their voice compliments each other. Hideki's with his high and clear voice + Kazuma's deeper one. I love you Siam Shade, it still pains me to know you guys aren't around as one unit anymore T__T

RAIN
I can’t get over how happy I was that they decided to include Rain in the setlist. It’s one of their earliest singles and it is one of my favourite from them!

CAN?T FORGET YOU
I totally loved how everyone will jump and when the band shouted “CAN’T FORGET YOU!”. Gawd I do love how iin sync the whole crowd was to every single songs performed!

why not?
Not one of my usual tracks but as usual; an amazingly energetic performance. It’s great to hear the crowd going “Whoo oh oh ~” along with Hideki XD I myself only know how to sing parts of the chorus and hummed my way along with it.

LOVE SICK
I squealed when I heard this started and went nuts tugging at Sam. I was horribly obsessed with this song in Uni after I heard an acoustic rendition of it (not so much now, but ahhh the nostalgia! ) Hanie will know what I mean. I think I scared the Japanese fans next to me and was trying to sing along with it all throughout ;3;

Dear…
The crowd’s cheer went over the roof when Hideki sung the infamous first line “My close friend, you don’t cry..” I have no doubt that this song will be performed since I read the poll results on the website; I just didn’t expect it to be performed so soon ♥ Yes, I love this song A LOT ;__; A song written by the band FOR the fans and of course everyone went crazy on the first note. I felt so lucky to be able to hear this performed right in front of my at least once in my lifetime…

曇りのち晴れ (Kumori nochi hare)
I have such mixed emotion hearing this performed live. I’d only V7 and V8 concert DVD then; and I’d never heard this one performed live. I love this song a hell lot and goodness know how many times it managed to cheer me up and made me smile again ;3; Yes, I did my crazy fangirl squeal again as soon as the guitar riff starts, can you tell?

大きな木下で (Ooki na ki no shita de)
Once more, I felt like I couldn’t breath as the band moved from the wonderful 曇りのち晴れ to this song. A beautiful ballad and it was really emotional to me. I remembered this song from some of my earliest days as a Siam Shade fangirl ;3; The tears that wouldn’t come out because I was overjoyed hearing the previous threatened to leak out as Kazuma started to sing. It was tough choking back the strange lump in my throat even more as Hideki joins in the vocal later on. Truly a gorgeous song T__T

Solomon’s seal
Once more I went “OHSHITOHSHITTT THEY’RE PLAYING SOLOMON’S SEAL!!!” at poor Sam XD; Gorgeous, gorgeous instrumental performance that is so signature Siam Shade concert. Sam was hoping they’d performed Triptych ( which I love too, no mistake ) but I love the grandeur that is Solomon’s Seal. It was played with a different arrangement from how I remembered it from album recording and the past concerts version and it made it all the more awesome. I screamed myself hoarse going “DAITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” the whole time. ( Daidai dear, I love you. So very much. You’re nothing less than a wonder to the Japanese music scene ;_; )

NEVER END
A personal favourite of mine. ( Yes yes I have loads of favourites from their discography ) NEVER END is undeniably a sound that screams “Siam Shade” all over. I had this song stuck all the way since I left Budohkan til I reached back the hostel and fell asleep that night constantly humming to myself.

GET A LIFE
Ahh one of those Siam Shade RAWR songs XD I don’t like them when they get all metal with me so I can’t comment on this ( apart from the fact that I and the thousands other fans were screaming along with the chorus of the song actually XDD )

Life
A song with one of the best guitar solo ever from Siam Shade. The whole hall went from the screaming frenzy that was GET A LIFE to a strangely quiet one as soon as Hideki got to the mic and dedicated the song to Nakamura Shinichi-san. Hideki told the fans how important Nakamura was to the band and how he’ll be missed. The whole stadium darkened and turned into a star-light filled one as the most emotional song I’d ever heard started T__T The guitar solo was pure magic in the hall and the fans started singing along:

太陽に目を閉じて 永遠を夢にみて
永遠に眠り付く 階段を上るだけ
So faraway So faraway So faraway So faraway
So faraway So faraway So faraway So faraway
So faraway No faraway So faraway No faraway

As Life hits the last note and faded off, the band started to leave the stadium. Sam who was all shocked seeing them leaving was asking “Wha? What? It ended?! NOOO! Did it really end??!” and at the same time I was obsessively craning my eyes looking at the now empty stage telling myself ( and Sam ) no, it can’t end just yet. It can’t end like this! They haven’t even played THAT song!

And lo! The encore! Everyone got back onto the stage with a change of clothes ( into the concert t-shirts )

Encore:
1/3 の純情な感情 ( 1/3 no junjou na kanjou )
… and they played THAT song that I was so desperately hanging on praying over and over again that I will get to hear live. The song that started all the madness ( and I think this is the song that made a huge part of the crowd the fan they are today of Siam Shade ) Hearing the all familiar tune playing and Hideki’s bright clear voice singing this plunged me back into my student days when I first discover their music and it didn’t take long for me to soon obsessively taking in all the music I can find of them. I felt like crying once more but the tears would not come as I felt so much happiness to be able to be in the same hall, same place and same time with them; hearing the first song ever that I’d heard from a band called Siam Shade.

Dreams
Even before the cheer died down for 1/3 の純情な感情 the launched into an all too familiar guitar riff. I could not remember whether I was stunned standing in front of my seat or just plain pulling at Sam going “DREAAAAAAAAAMMS!!!”. If I’m to choose ONE song out of the many that I love dearly from the band; it will be “Dreams”. I started singing along word by word with all the other fans smiling, grinning and all too dizzy with happiness. The song I love most from Siam Shade! And I did get to hear it live. It’s a moment of pure magic and dreams come true. By the time the song hits the final chorus of “Motto, motto kaze wo kette” I’d just realised that warm tears were trickling down my face without me realising it. It was really a strange moment when all the bottle up emotions seemed to uncork all at once. I was happy, excited and sad all at the same time. Trying furiously to wipe them away and I tried to concentrate on the performance. I found out that my tears were pouring out even more as I try to hold them back and was already halfway to sobbing out loud when it hit me that this was the final chorus of the song. And the magic will end soon.

Encore #2:
D.Z.I
Another b-side track that I’d been listening to the V4 concert audio version all these while. It was kind of nice to be able to hear an actual live version with my own ears.

Don’t Tell Lies
The concert wraps up with the explosive “Don’t Tell Lies”. Once more it’s one of their B-side angry rawr song so it wasn’t one that I really like but if anything I can truly say that the concert ended explosively.

Hideki was such a performer! It’s so surreal and amazing to hear the songs I’d know and love being performed that night. Half the time I’m still trying to pinch myself and ask “AM I REALLY HERE?” From the view of my place, I can see everyone minus Natchin from the side so despite that, I’m really happy ( Plus, I saw damned well that he took off his shirt in the 2nd half of the concert so no complains there XD ) I was laughing like mad when I saw Kazuma dances and when Hideki teased the crowds. Junji had a short drum solo and I was truly looking forward to that. Too bad it’s really rather short compared to the epic ones he did for V7 XD; Daita omg Daita. The very idea that I share the same space as he is in the same stadium sent me into fangirly fits.

There was so many amazing sights all around that night. The band first and foremost and the fans themselves were a sight to look at. It was just too wonderful to be able to be a part of this crowd that was so immersed with the music and everything everyone does on stage. It’s an experience on it’s own to hear so many GUYS yelling out their favourite band members’ name ( considering that I’m more used to the high pitched female fans squeeing usually XD; )

Sam was diligently holding the banner we brought along the entire time from her place. Thankfully her seat is right next to an empty area so she won’t be blocking anyone’s view. But the most amazing thing is that a number of fans who walked/rushed past us. Saw the banner, did a double take and run back to stare at the words XD And they gave up thumbs-up which we returned happily and geekily. Ahhhh so much love from everything that one evening XD

Now the only thing I’m kinda worried about is the fact that a camera crew walked right past and saw the same banner and shot it. I saw them did the same double take as they walked past me and Sam earlier and tugged at Sam going “I think we’re on camera O_O”. And I think it’s the euphoria taking over, we did the international people being photographed pose ; the Victory sign XD; I’m just horrified to realise after THAT how horrible I might look with a goofy grin and messy hair from all the jumping and squeeing around.

 
And oh! We saw these and did a double take as we exited the stadium. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who were shocked. The Japanese fans themselves were pointing and squealing and started taking pictures.

#1: Ryuichi Kawamura on the middle bouquet. #2 : Nishikawa Takanori ( TM Revolution! abingdon boys school! ); Shinya and J respectively. #3 : Janne da Arc ( <3 ) and OMG Gackt!

Magazines and TV stations

We were finally ushered and was told firmly by the security to keep moving forward to avoid the human traffic jam as we head off from the stadium to the train station. It marked the end of a night that I had been waiting for so long. And it marked a silly fangirl dream comes true; for I was so sure five years ago that I will never have the chance in my lifetime to be able to see Hideki, Daita, Kazuma, Natin and Junji on the same stage, performing as Siam Shade ever again.

Still all jittery as we made our way back to the hostel I couldn’t quite sleep early even though we were totally tired to the bones. Before heading back to the room that night, I sneaked off to the computer area of the hostel to do a last bit of fangirling online and posted this on their official site.

Siam Shade　へ

心からのロックを最高！
コンサートのため日本に来たよかった。
もうすぐマレーシアへ帰るが、
皆さん一つstageが見えた本当に夢を叶うようになった。
栄喜, DAITA, KAZUMA, NATIN と 淳士頑張って！
また同じ空の下で、会いましょう！

phui-mun & samanthaより
( Malaysia )

I’m not sure if they will ever see this piece of silliness via the mail system on the website; but I just felt like I really need to thank them for such an amazing performance. And making a lost dream a real living one for me, even for just one evening.

Thank you Siam Shade. Your music will be a part of my life as long as I live.

Tags: budohkan, concert report, fangirl liek whoah, japan, siam shade, tokyo