>>>E-MACHINE - "The 3rd" ONE-MAN Live (2004.11.13 @ Osaka CLUB DROP)
And I ever learned some of that fuckin confusing Osaka dialect while I was down in Kansai! I'm a panicky little bitch, so I woke up very early this live's Saturday morning, ate fast, and hurried on into Toyko, getting to Tokyo Eki about an hour early. I walked the length of other Shinkansen (bullet trains), tapped my foot, then was ready to board when I got a text from Haruka that she'd had trouble and I needed to get on a different train. So I heaved my way down and up the stairs, onto a Shinkansen, and boarded. In Shin-Yokohama Haruka got on, and we oogled the new Smile Line and Glimmer Chain (the last one was in FEBRUARY, people). My drawing was in the illust corner, and I must say, I am proud, even if I drew it last January and it's almost embarrassingly not-good (in my own artist's mind). Smile had Daisuke frolicking with his dogs. You gotta love that man, you just do.
We walked all the way to Osaka CLUB DROP then, and we bought goods when we got there. I bought five sets of postcards (with at random chances of member signatures) in hopes to resell some to foreign fans at a cheap price and make more E-Machine overseas lovers. I picked one pack to be mine, opened it, and got two good heartskips to see I had signatures from KENICHI AND MIZUE! In ONE package. All I could say was LUCKY GIRL!! But I wanted Sharkie. And after the live, I desperately would want Yohei too.. It always happens that way. I get a chance, or I learn to love one of the singers Ken works with, and they've left two years before I got into the music, or Kenichi leaves THEM the instant I get to Japan! OH FATE. CRUEL FATE. Die. Anyway, outside the club, which BTW, was right in the same row of clubs that Daisuke did his Summer Party Sequence Virus thing in. Nostalgic. Haruka said D.K had played here recently also, or something. Don't believe me, sometimes I don't understand Japanese! Okay, most of the time. We stood in a little nook, and I oogled my signatures as Cheshaneko and Haruka chatted away. It's sad I can't understand 80% of Japanese not spoken directly to me - I make friends like Chesha, and Mitchy, and Seobon, and in the end Haruka ends up being the one to benefit and know them better. Arrrgh so frustrating. In any case, I spotted what was DEFINITELY a Mizue cosplayer with two Kenichis, standing on the other side of the club entrance (which was a stairwell twisting INTO the ground...club DROP? It was all underground). As we waited to get in while they called ticket numbers ONE AT A FUCKIN' TIME, I pointed them out to Haruka.
So I strutted on over and asked very politely for a photo of the three people I'd never spoken to before in my life, and they go... Awesome Girl: Oh
-
Gin-san...?
They started to come out as their scary intro played.... YAY, THE RED SUITS FROM MAX JAMMING! I screamed Sharkie over and over... heard Haruka yell for him too, whee hee... I love Sharkie. Then Kenichi, Mizue, and Yohei, very very last. The thing about Yohei is that, the night before I left for Osaka, I got a text on my phone - That Yohei was leaving E-Machine and everyone was in an uproar. I was in complete shock. This band had been announced on June 5th, 2004. It was November 12th, 2004, when we got this news. That's five months - and only since August was the band active - so five months in the band, three months of activity. I just looked at the shocked messages flooding the SEXX Site BBS, and I think my mouth was hanging open the whole time. This just looked so BAD. One girl wrote, "Is the musical really more important, Yohei?!". As the popup that announced his secession explained nothing beyond his secession and that E-Machine would continue, we could only guess what was going on.
So they played the first song, with amazing energy, and I was a little surprised since they had recently been starting all songs with THE SUPER STAR. But seriously, the energy was absolutely amazing. I know probably... around half the people in the room were seeing E-Machine for the very first time, and Yohei for the first and last time, so that is most likely why. They fed right into Element after that, Ken switching to his wierdass cut off at the end guitar. When they finished the first two songs, they had a little talk with us. Yohei started sceaming. "OSAKAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU HAPPY!!!!!!!!!" He introduced them as Endorphin-Machine, and then himself, with a nice deep bow. Kenichi also introduced himself- "I'm Kenichi Ito, that is both written and read as Kenichi Ito", then Mizue as the leader, and Sharkie. "He doesn't say anything but 'DA'," he explained about Sharkie. Mizue said good afternoon in Osaka-ben. Konbanayachiwhatsho the fucking wa? Bleh smecking phoof. They made some Osaka cracks - if you didn't know, down in Kansai, the region including Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc. (Tokyo and Saitama are Kantou), they have a funny way of talking called the Kansai or Osaka-ben, Osaka dialect. Someone yelled out in Osaka-ben and Yohei got pretty freaking excited. He announced and sang the next song, sweet sweet suck...er... I mean Tick Tock. (sweatdrop) v ^-^;;;; Then it was THE SUPER STAR!!!! The flashing strobe lights happened less in this tiny club that probably had some guy doing it manually, but it rocked, Ken kicked, and Yohei kept lifting the mic up and shaking it and then whooshing it back down, and spinning in circles some more. Ken was hoppin up a storm, too.
Yohei was back. Wearing his guitar sparkling shirt. And he very forlornly took the mic as the other three members tried hard to look distracted. "Today, I have something I have to tell all of you....after this tour.... I will be leaving Endorphin-Machine. It's really a physical problem.... the explanation is that my chest hurts me now, with great pain. This band..." And his voice snapped in half, and he started to sob. A girl softly shouted "Ganbare," up to him, and then he continued through his tears. "...I wanted to do so much more with this band... so I say good bye, with all my love..." He kept trying to get a hang of himself, but the tears kept coming, his voice kept cracking and shaking. "I want Endorphin-Machine to keep progressing, and I've never had much time, since I started in this band. It was because of me and my schedule that it's been so inactive." Which is debatable, I think - this is their third main live, fifth live total, and two singles, in roughly five months. You'd have to find a band pumping out albums and singles and lives every month since they began to compare E-Machine to to call them inactive. He kept on. "I was suffering, so they allowed it to slip and just smiled about [how busy I was]... Thank you..." He walked to Mizue and shook his hand, then shook Sharkie's hand. When he went to shake with Ken, they sort of pulled each other into an awkward hug between big tall guy with Glimmer Monkey hanging from his neck whose first band of his very own was now falling apart before his eyes, and tiny crying guy. Ken, to be honest, looked seriously troubled, like he didn't wanna show any emotion. Throughout the entire speech, before Yohei hugged him, he had been PLAYING WITH HIS HAIR. Emotionally fucked, or something, Ken? Ah well. Yohei finished: "We can all come away from this with new, good feelings.... but....." Still sobbing. "I'm sorry...." The final bits of his speech were mostly emotional babble, that he wanted what he said to be reported, that he wanted people to be able to talk about it... always dramatic, sweet Yohei. And he said he'd written the song he would sing next... Please Don't Be Blue. As he sung the soft, somber song, he fought back his tears the entire way, his lower lip visibly shaking every time he paused to take in a breath. He did his best as depressing as it felt... and at that moment, then, I really did love that little dude. Ken also stepped forth, deciding he probably had to say something too. "Thank you very much... it's a great pleasure. Just a little something I think I need to say... About Yohei leaving, it's true we'd already decided these lives, and on the 20th, he will be finished... it was a troubling to announce that...I feel incredible regret..." And something I honestly hadn't expected was happening... Ken's eyes were full of tears, and, on a note that I had to smile at, even though I felt so sad, his big nose I love so much was turning bright red as he fought his emotions. "We couldn't make a half hearted decision about these lives, but it's so sudden, and... I'm so sorry..." His voice was shaking and he sniffled his nose onto his hand. "So, I feel very grateful that Yohei will stay with us until the 20th... everyone, on that day, let's give him a great farewell."
And Ken continued, "Yes, it became incredibly gloomy. But I think we need to think positively about this choice, and stand forward!" And that was basically where the tears attempted to stop (and Ken kept wiping his nose on his hand). The band played Beautiful Pain and Spiral, with full emotion, no crying, and smiles, as before. Hurray. When Yohei announced the last song, *sigh* as usual, we all whined in protest. Like there won't be an encore. As a bit of a prologue
to
their final song, which would be their Christmas song, Kenichi told an
incredibly stupid yet funny story that I didn't quite understand at
first.
Right from the big-nosed-one's mouth..... Behold, behold, the tales
from
beyond the Christmas tree of the Ito Household in Saitama, for it was
that
when Ken was a merely fourth-fifth grader in elementary school, there
was
a grand Christmas party at his home. With pleasure, much cake and
chicken
was eaten. But trouble was to be had as Ken's uncle came into the
house.
"Ito-san has unfortunately drunk gasoline!" he lamented of Kenichi's
father.
Seems the car was now totally empty of gasoline, and Ken's father had
someone
and for some reason I can't for the life of me understand, let a tube
from
the car to his mouth to drink it. They all went outside to find his
father
on the street, moaning - and Ken did this sound very well -
"UUEEEGGHHHH,
Um..... yeah. Now I know why Kenichi is such a ...well, you know what I think Kenichi is.
When they returned...well, I'd already seen this starting. But now it was really bad. Yohei... must have drunk about 10 cups of coffee and liquid chocolate with melted sugar poured over all of it. He got hyper. He was BOUNCING. He was LAUGHING. He wouldn't stop. I swear for the first time, HE was the insane crazy guy - I swear everything said, he just LAUGHED! He kept falling all over himself too. When it was time for Question Corner, the first girl was in the front row, and when Yohei found out she'd come from Kanagawa (far far away from Osaka) on a bus, he ws gasping and crying "Oh thank you!!". Also throughout the concert he'd kept screaming random English - I NEED YOU! I WANT YOU! I LOVE YOU! There you have it folks, bloody insane. So the questions people asked were these: 1. What do you call
each
other?
Leaving me feeling incredibly happy... but with the image of Ken's tear filled eyes stuck as my memory's current wallpaper. It still is, now. Damn it. I filled out my survey very stupidly, most of it just saying "I'm sleepy"... In fact I'm just an idiot. Here my live report on E-Machine ends, but for the rest of my amazing amazing Daisuke Asakura based adventures in Osaka, please keep reading, my sweet bitches.
Holy shit. Holy FUCKING shit. Let me tell you, my friends, of the woman named Cheshaneko, who I had a chance meeting with, and my life has now been changed. I was in a church, but do the people attending services realize that above their heads is not heaven, but a different religion, that of the Church of the Dedicated Long Time Followers of Daisuke Asakura??? Chesha has followed Daisuke since I was in kindergarten. She has a shelf - a shelf of great value - with every single and album that Daisuke has ever put any work into in any way collected there, decorated with signatures from different times in DA's life, in all different styles, including AXS... plus the 1000 nen no chikai musicbox, the little DA huggy keychain... I must have stood in front of that cabinet and gaped like a stupid monkey for 10 minutes. All the Access, Iceman, T.M.R., Kinya, anything, everything...... amazing. I'm so lame I still don't even have I Novel 4, let alone... Her music room, where we were to record a song she was remixing with my lyrics and voice, was, well... another story of the same plot. Posters from D-Trick's release... Access images lining the walls... the scary DA plushie upon a shelf, the DA calendars, the signatures from Mads, the photo of Chesha and DA, the notes DA wrote on Chesha's music... A goldmine. The next day, after getting to sleep past 2:00 am due to recording, we watched... videos. Oh, we watched videos. Mostly from around the time of Siren's Melody release. When we made it to the second taping of him playing it on TV, I was just watching him there, so young and dorky, and in my head he was there for real. Because I have real, live memories of Daisuke Asakura now, and I never thought I would. I thought of my friends back in America, waiting to see him. I just started crying. I think it confused the fuck out of Haruka and Chesha, that I was just watching this video and sobbing, but I tried to explain...
We watched videos of Takanori first singing on TV before he was even T.M.R., Black or White? with Daisuke playing next to him. We watched the press conference at which Iceman was first announced - young, early twenties Kenichi, wearing what looked like a clown suit. When I saw him sitting there looking so shy as Daisuke announced his two new bitches, I just laughed. Poor Kuroda and Ken. Poor me, who will never, ever see Iceman. Moving on. We watched an instructional video Daisuke made about "How to use Yamaha Keyboards"... he was twenty, with a black haired bowl cut. Oh, sweet darling Daisuke Asakura... I could go on and on for much longer about how I feel about everything in Chesha's home, but I won't. It was just moving for me to meet someone who's done what I love for as long as I've been alive... who could tell us stories of Iceman's first lives being so small, of living near DA's old studio and hearing Kenichi and Daisuke's voices seeping out from inside, of meeting Daisuke and hearing him play her music on radio. Well, Daisuke and
Kenichi
won't ever know what they mean to me or how they have changed me. But
for
the meantime, I'm happy enough to support them with all my heart!
Check out Pyon, Chesha,
and Mitchy's websites at my LINK OUTs,
please! Thanks to Chesha for some photos, and Rachel for helping me
decipher
some Japanese mysteries.
Additional Amazing
Photos!
Set List
|
OSSAAKKAAAAAAAAAAA,
I LOVE YOUUUUU! I WANT YOU! I NEED YOU!!
Me:
Over there, Mizue cosplay!!!!!
So
when Yohei came out, for the first time - everyone was
screaming
his name. It was like we all thought that if we screamed for him
enough,
he'd know we really DID care about him, and we wanted him to stay, and
that he would change his mind and remain in the band. We cried for him
like he was the most important person in our lives. He stood there on
the
barely lit stage, posing before Be Myself
Be
Yourself started, and we just SCREAMED. God damn it,
Yohei
Izumi. You're so cute and talented, and right when I start to love you
the most..
Yohei
left - per usual - and to my UTTER delight I heard You
Spin Me Around by Dead or Alive begin. And Ken fuckin
sang
it!!! AAH FANGIRL HEART ATTACK! Although according to Ken, these lyrics
are "You spin me light loud baby, light lound, like a lecord baby,
light
lound lound lound," .... oh Ken. Give birth to my children, Ken. And
sing
English whilst you do it!!! Next he said he would sing a song he really
loved, the theme song to some show... TELE-VISION.
This is a great song, but it's in JAPANESE! Who wants to hear Japanese?
Not me for sure. And of course he did the song of E-Machine, the song
their
motto is based up, by his Rolling Stones who got him into guitarism, Happy!
Ken, you funny bastard.
Yohei
broke in here, saying very quietly, "It's very gloomy..."
And
they sang 1224. And left
the
stage afterwards, Yohei saying thank you very much. The end? Of
COOOOOOOOOOOURSE
not!
I
got to meet Mitchy (true name Michihiro) and his friend, and we all
went
for Okonomiyaki, a classic Osaka dinner. Mitchy's band played next to
D.K
and DA during the EOS contests - and he'd previously emailed me to
request
some art of his band - which I will gladly do, once finals are over :D.
We parted ways with everyone and returned to Chesha's house, which is
inside
a beautiful old church.
Foreign
fans can't understand what the artists are saying. We can't understand
the interviews. When we buy magazines or books or fanclub issues, we
look
at the pictures, we don't know what's been written. We can't even
understand
the lyrics being sung in the music. That is, if we can BUY the music at
all. So, at least for me, I know this is true - as much as I find my
Ken
and DA to be adorable geeks, it's nothing but the music they write and
the style and flair with which they perform that music that makes me
love
and admire them as I do. Only their music. Their music which, I think,
especially in DA's case, is genius. It's genius, that's all there is to
say.
-
-
03.
Tick Tock
