Happy Birthday, Kenichi Ito.

It's a little difficult to remember all the details from this concert, simply because there were so many small things that happened. I will do my best. But for the record, no photos - I arrived at this concert almost as late as I'd arrived to the dreaded 2nd terrible banquet, but this time I had all these frantic emails and phone calls from my mother-like Haruka trying to figure out where I was. Really, I was fine! But I came from a thing at my college called the Nihongo Happyokai, where I had just played an overly eccentric and hyper teacher/oneesan from Battle Royale, in a red lolita dress, thus I arrived to the concert in said attire.

And the train I rode into Tokyo had only advertisments for Disney/Pixar's movie "Mr. Incredible". Nothing but those ads. NOTHING at all but those ads. The hanging ads, the poster ads, the ceiling ads. It was a Pixarlized train ride. I thought again as I often do about Japan's western ways and how different things were sixty years ago.

I arrived and got squealed over for my attire, but otherwise we were fairly silent... the entire thing had a kind of depressed air. It was Ken's birthday and Yohei was leaving, now what will E-Machine do?, guest vocalists?, will Ken take over as vocalist?, were any concert plans screwed up by this?, how about the Christmas song 1224, was that written to be played for a Christmas concert that won't be happening any longer ...?

We rushed inside and got right in front (but not quite front row) with our very good ticket numbers. Hot-Cosplayer-Girl was right behind us, in front of us were some nice chicks who took our heavy bags and stuck them in front of the guard-thingy that would prevent us from jumping on stage and stripping Kenichi down to his bare nudity. I'm sure this WILL happen someday if he plays in another super cramped place like Osaka CLUB DROP...

So, video started it. Lots of footage from... what do you know... Osaka CLUB DROP! My big gaijin head wasnt in the video because of where I had been standing. Oh well, I'm sure everyone was happy! Hot cosplayer chick was easy to see though, totally freaking out and bouncing up and down like crazy. I had to wonder what a live was like while standing near her,and I was soon to find out... there was also off shot rehersal videos and Sharkie's sharkfin was as limp as a wet noodle. SO cute. I freaking LOVE that man. I hope he will marry me. They also showed some Max JaMMing videos, proving that Kenichi and co. came back on stage after the jerks (read: me and co.) had left and danced around like freaks, and relived the moment of Mizue thrusting his guitar between Ken's supple manlegs.

As such this was part of a two-concert tour, and I don't need great detail on how every song went, nor do I ever need to list every song. Thus I leave you with my drawings, and small observations...

The balcony was fuckin' packed. I'm guessing it was with the family of the band members... there were lots of women and children and some guys who got rowdy towards Kenichi later on. They were obviously not fans... in fact they looked kinda bored anytime I glanced up. Waiting for some kind of big birthday bash later on? Eh? Eh?

They started off by bugging Hideki for questions, since he'd failed to explain his Christmas story last time. First of all, he was asked about TV shows he likes. To which he said, he does not in fact have a TV ("DA, DA, da DA da" translated by Mr. Mizue). So, how about radio? His ears are too bad for a radio ("DA DA DA DA da DA"). Mimi ga warui.

Kenichi attempted some birthday memories from back in Iceman. When he said "Iceman" we all gasped. He mentioned he'd had a birthday during Iceman, in... Nagoya? A few fans shouted back to him, NO! It was Osaka! He looked kinda sheepish about his bad stupid memory. It's okay Kenichi, we're used to how fucking retarded you are.

Yohei was really attached to Ken at this final concert of his. When he gave his speech (the same one.. Ken played with his hair again) he kept his composure and didn't break down sobbing like in Osaka, and Ken also kept his nose from turning red (although he commented on how it had turned red before). He shared his microphone with Ken about four or five times, at one point lifting it up and pushing it into Ken's mouth, at another leaning against his back and putting the mic in his face long before it was time to actually sing something, so Ken just awkwardly played the guitar and stared at it until he could yelp BOY, SUPAA STAA! Yohei also at one point went look, look! And stood at Ken's mic - which was right in the center of his forehead. Ken looked self concious for a change. Yohei looked so pleased at how short he is/tall Ken is. It was a nice moment.

Ken held up the middle of the concert all along again, entertaning us with his stupid retardedness and posing in funny ways, trying to talk about stuff other than his birthday. When he sang TELE-VISION again, I just felt very oddly like the chorus is "Television, television, I wanna lick in the arssssssse"... yeah. That's what he was saying, anyway. Who knows what it really is.

The encore... what can I say? The best part of the concert. Before it was the same final song as last time, 1224... and during it snow started falling throughout the live house. It was bubbles actually, bitty foamy bubbles falling, looking exactly like a snow storm had hit Uguisudani and Tokyo Cinema Club was missing a roof. Fantastic. We all got it in our hair, and mouths, but it was still so cool looking. Plus I liked seeing bits of white in all the member's hair. Dandruff shampoo, anyone? In any case, it was beautiful and moving... although my English interpretation of the song from before is wrong... I gave them too much credit. In the video we saw a glimpse of the real lyrics... something stupid like "I free you in my dream again", not feel you, and then some more stupid bad English I can't even remember, it was so bad. Come on come on, 1224 single! Or E-Machine album...?

So back to my point, the encore. Mizue told us he wanted to sing a song together with us. We were surprised. He did? He said yes... because it's Ken's birthday.... YAY!!!

Ken, don't act all embarrassd and shocked like you didn't expect this. Come on, you're a lousy actor. Don't look so surprised to see the staff bring out that tiny Japanese sized birthday cake with the lit up candles. Mizue told us we'd sing it for Ken-chan, so we thus did. Happy Birthday to you, Happy...well, I sang Happy BIRTHDAY. THEY sang Happy BASS-DAY. Sigh. Happy Bass-Day dear Ken-chan, Happy Bass-Day to you. He blew out all his candles like SUCH A BIG GROWN UP MAN! And then when he appeared to look like he felt no one was looking (while on stage), he reached out and stuck his finger in the frosting, then popped it in his mouth. He informed us it was coffee flavoured. Some chocolate too.

On with the music. Yohei Izumi, you are freaking INSANE and I love you and I will miss you in my dream again. His final performance in E-Machine left Hot-Cosplayer-Girl and her friend in tears. He was PSYCHO. He was AMAZING. He was LOUD. He was SCREAMING. He freaking ate a pound of sugar. He was flinging his mic around and I was really expecting it to smack Sharkie or Mizue in the face. He at one point during 1~10 your dream count down, leapt off the stage and ran around the front of the audience, trying to run even further back but failing due to the guard thinge. It looked like he smacked into a chick as he was prancing and dancing all off the stage. Then he hopped back up and was totally freaking out as he finished the song.

Then the final final song in the concert and encore, THE SUPER STAR, well....Yohei was great. But I feel bad for Kenichi - who's guitar fracking decided to produce no sound RIGHT as he began his rocking solo in the middle of the song. His SOLO, people. And he'd bounced over to play near Mizue, so he wasn't even in a position to quickly switch guitars. The song went on without his solo, and he kinda kept trying to play, finally giving up, looking straight as us, throwing his pic to the crowd (so hard that it got to the back of the live house, where a friend caught it... pissed much, Ken? Temper much, Ken?), and going to get his black Glimmer Monkey, too late to do any more of the solo. It was a shame, but at least those songs were all about Yohei anyway.

When they finally bowed after it all, hands linked together, Yohei refused to rise. The three other members stayed kind of bent as their shortest stayed down, not able to stand from his bow. Ken kinda tugged his arm a few times, and finally Yohei came up, his face tear and sweat streaked. He bowed again, his last goodbye.

He just looked so heartbroken. And we felt he was breaking our hearts all the same. So we just screamed his name as cried for him as he hunched his shoulders in pain and followed behind Kenichi, looking even smaller than usual. There was a video... done to 1~10, with clips from every E-Machine live... a sort of goodbye dedication to Yohei. It was rather moving. And then...that was that.

Set List
01. Be Myself Be Yourself
02. Element
03. Tick Tock
04. THE SUPER STAR
05. You Spin Me Around
06. TELE-VISION
07. Happy
08. Please Don't Be Blue
09. Beautiful Pain
10. Spiral
11. 1224
EN1. 1~10 Your dream count down
EN2. THE SUPER STAR