Ah, I'd waited for this day. Front seat tickets (number 30 out of about 1000 people to be let in...so we thought), both days in Zepp Tokyo. Amazing luck! So I rose early, dressed like a little lonely goth girl in a red dress, and headed for Yoyogi to pick up Bec and Monica and a curious friend Diana, and head into Odaiba, the man-made technological island in Tokyo. You can get to it using an expensive machine-operated monorail that travels high above the city.. but we took the boring trains to Tokyo TELEPORT, the closest JR Station.

Japan had been having typhoons out the ass, and it was drizzly, but not awful. We found Mr. Tea and huddled under the convention center's crosswalk, admiring the view, and taking photos of the awesome cosplayers. Zepp Tokyo couldn't have been a more perfect place to have this concert - it's UNDER a giant rainbow ferris wheel, located INSIDE of Palette Town, a rainbow themed convention center. You get there by crossing the Rainbow Bridge, which is literally that, a walkway and bridge with rainbow colors and lights. People were lining up and we got nervous - Haruka had our tickets, and hadn't yet arrived - and if she didn't show by the time they started to let us inside, we'd lose our 'great seats'... no matter what order you're let inside, you still have to make a mad dash for the chairs! And then, we saw her, on the walkway, and she was among us. We had a long moment of confusion handing out tickets, and about oh... eight people we had to save seats for. At the time we only saw four No. 28-31 tickets, and even more that read 800+.

They began calling us in. Haruka, me, Bec, and Monica all crowded towards the front... they called our numbers, Haruka got past, but I got stopped. Confused as hell as the guy explained something to me in fast Japanese, Haruka came back, looked horrified for a moment, then suddenly we were leaving the line and back with Mr. Tea and the rest. What the fuck had happened?

We soon learned. Our tickets were not bought from SMILE, DA's fan club - they'd been bought from a regular ticket vender - and only fan club seats were being let in first. In fact, only fan club members HAD seats. Turns out our friends with the No. 800+ tickets actually had a BETTER view than us. Their tickets were fan club tickets with seats, our tickets were for STANDING room BEHIND the fan club. We were No. 30 of a group being let in AFTER 900 others.  I just stood there in complete shock for a minute or so, my mouth hanging open. We had these kind of conversations:

Me: Oh... My... God.
Mr. Tea: *looking rather stricken*
Haruka: Yes... oh my god.

Haruka apologized a million times over and over for the mistake, for not realizing the tickets weren't fan club seats. Of course I wasn't mad at her (nor was it her fault), but I WAS getting images that were incredibly nostalgic of my awful Solo Live visions... that I'd be way, way, way back, and Daisuke would be a dot on stage, and I wouldn't even be able to hear him. Bec and Monica seemed to be thinking the same thing, from the looks on their faces. I remembered  how my Solo Live had turned out after all - I was closer to Kenichi than I have been ever at this point, with the worst ticket number in the crowd! I decided it probably would somehow turn out like that, although my legs were aching at the thought of standing through the second half of the first part of the concert.. where he had us all sit down and talked for 20 minutes before playing long power ballads on his piano.

The four of us pathetically went to stand with the non-fanclub seats crowd (A.K.A. the big losers) to wait until we could go in... and when we did, we were so confident in our place being sucky, we milled around and got our drinks before rushing into the concert hall.. which just never, ever happens at these things. We then walked to our sad, sad location - which, to my surprise, was all the way in the back... but the stage was still fairly close and remarkably visible! Daisuke wouldn't be a dot, he'd be a Barbie Doll. Amazing! I got a spot next to Haruka leaning on this black bar that was set up for people to lean on. Surprisingly it was VERY HARD AND PAINFUL, who the heck designed that? Mr. Tea and her posse ended up in the seats directly in front of us (a little bit below us, there was a two foot high step up to us). Which meant their seats were the worst possible fan club seats they coulda gotten. At least... we were all together! *sniffs* Meaning we could dump all our stuff  under their chairs.

Thus it began. The lights were killed, the fast paced intro music began, the guitarists and drummer emerged... then Daisuke, and we were cheering like fangirls, but from our place we could hardly hear the rest of the crowd.  Ride on Free began. We danced the dance, sang along, and Daisuke jammed down like a good little Scorpion.... but it was not to be. This entire concert was not to be. Some higher power frowned upon DA that day, and said unto him, "DA, before this night is through, you shall meet three spirits... er... make three awful mistakes, and your cheeks shall turn as red as the flowers on your Green Method shirt, and your leg will turn all the colors of the Quantum Mechanics Rainbow. This is the future as it has been foretold. Beware, DA, beware!!"

At least, that's what I think was foretold anyway.

He ended and welcomed us, then had us warm up our vocal chords with some singing practice.. the scales up and down, before inviting us to sing  BLUE SKY BLUE with him. The song I once hated began, in all it's pretty glory, and the water-like, flowing blue lights shone and waved around the hall. We sang, and I'd actually learned some of it. Fascinating. Daisuke was acting very dorky and bowlegged, unlike Osaka when he'd been cocky and swaggering. It was a sign, a sign! Angel Algorithm was next, and he again played with his magical dragon keyboard and happy angel friends, smashing the gong in the middle and hitting the guy carrying it on the head with his mallet. He tossed FOUR firecrackers into the crowd! I want one! Argh!

Then it was   Quantum Mechanics Rainbow I, of course, which is more impressive live than on any CD, and his  Real Time Sequence -  which makes me so giddy and bouncy. It's just fun to watch them, but I get so nervous he'll mess up and it will sound awful, and we'd all be like...Dai-chan, we wanna cheer for that one, but you totally FuXXD up! And he'd look upset and it would be awkwardly unhappy. The RTS again fed right into Meme Crack -HARUKA KANATA no Major e-, one of my favourite Violet Meme songs, that always makes me wish my name was Haruka also as he sings the same word. How romantic, don't you think? After was Jade of sorrow ~ Monica turned to me as it started, whispering "Gin, I hate this song!" and giggling. She was making fun of my mistake at the Osaka concert. Bitch (not really)!

And he asked us to sit (bite my ass Dai-chan!) and chatted it up for a while - mostly talking about Dati-Bon (a large set of all his Dati-Dati photos) and the time he went to Korea to shoot some photos for it, and ended up going to onsen and cross dressing as a woman - which can be seen if you buy Dati-Bon! Very clever Daisuke, very clever. Of course he probably made 100 sales just from admitting he cross dressed in the damn thing. Of course he again asked who was new (Diana screeched), and what our favourite album was (always answering, I'm so happy! when we raised our hands). He then sat at his piano, and began banging out some tunes, a little too hard, perhaps... chiisai aki, ~etude on C-String~ and Toybox in the Morning. By the time he was finished with them, he'd banged the piano well out of tune. Now, a seasoned Daisuke fan knows that he always does this, and usually doesn't care, and it's typically not bad enough that the music he plays after he's murdered the piano isn't bad sounding. Except this time. He SLAUGHTERED that grand piano. It was bloodshed. That thing was so out of tune, I was literally wincing for the remainder of his piano stuff. Strike one.

Then came the next big Strike, which happened to poor pretty  aoi hana -Heinrich von Oftendigen-. The song begins, live, with just acoustic guitar, and Daisuke joins in with piano and vocals (as the screen shows many different shots of Blue Flowers). But this time....

*wait for it dramatically...*

It didn't even begin.

The guitarist was strumming, but we could only hear a very faint sound. His microphone was broken! Daisuke looked over as stagehands came out and started to help the guitarist. He just kept strumming away as they messed with his microphone. The light turned off so he was in mostly black. Daisuke stood, and kind of looked stricken, making little "I can't hear it" motions, putting both his hands to his ears and doing little dances to entertain us. He started repeating himself as the totally unscripted 2 to 3 minute intermission proceeded, and sometimes he just stood there with his arms at his sides, looking upset. Finally we heard the guitar - all of a sudden, it was back! The mic worked! Daisuke was so happy he bounced back to the piano and they started over. When the guitar worked this time, he bounced in his seat and kicked his legs like a child on Christmas who'd gotten a pony, he was just so gleeful! It made the song a little better, yet the entire ordeal was pathetic. Poor Daisuke. Strike two.

After that was  Indigo Cave, which is a mixture of piano and keyboards (the keyboard he uses for this is on top of the piano). This song is part of Strike one, it sounded SO WEIRDLY out of tune and awkward during the piano parts, because the damned instrument was so fucked up! Daisuke beat that thing like yo momma never did! He could hear it was messed up, because he played quietly - IF YOU DID THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE, IT WOULDN'T GET FUCKED, DAISUKE. Yet in any DVD I've seen of him playing piano he's always knocked it out of tune or just hit wrong notes - Daisuke is a genius, but he's not incredibly good at flat up playing piano. Sweetie. Intermission came and Mytyl -mirai no kuni- was played to dancing rainbow lights.

He returned in his belt buckle outfit, yay, and it was time for my favourite, mercy-snow -Violet Rays ver.-., YAY! GLEE! It was as well done and amazing as last time, and this time I knew the dance already, so it was easy to follow! techno beethoven and Mona Lisa overdrive were next, followed by a new song from recently released Green Method, called Paranoia Method. Mr. Tea seemed to enjoy that, according to what she answers when Daisuke asks us our favourite albums, she loves green! Nay, the chain was about to snap... for after this came..... STRIKE THREE.

'Deep Blue' Resolution, song to end all songs, the Moon Pie song, the song that will forever live on in my mind as "that time Daisuke fell on his ass". You see, Daisuke is not only a dork, he's a bowlegged dork - not only a bowlegged dork, but a clumsy bowlegged dork. This song is maybe a little too hardcore for him. As it started, not a minute, not even thirty seconds into it, he was walking, clapping to get us to follow his rhythm, and then his foot hit the speaker, and he staggered, and spun, and his hand grabbed the mic, and he spun again, and the whole lot of him, "key-tar", feathery boa and all, crashed onto the stage. The song continued without him as he laid there for a couple seconds before springing back up. We were in SHOCK. Gasps and "bikkuri!!" and "aaaah!"'s were echoing throughout the hall. Daisuke's hands flew up to his blushing face, which had a completely shocked expression on it... but it was still a smiley kind of shocked expression. He was beet red. I felt so bad for him. It was incredibly awkward. Oh well. STRIKE THREE!!!!!!! Otherwise the song rocked. Daisuke threw pumpkins into the crowd and they let out big gigantic balloons of all rainbow colors that we bounced around. Well, I didn't in the back, but up front they did. I felt certain I would never get to play with the big person-sized balloons (did I ever? shocking conclusion in the finale's report...!).

Then, THEN, then, he made up for it all. Genetic Bomb.......!!! GENETIC BOMB!!! It started and I began freaking the hell out. MY THIRD LIVE ICEMAN SONG!!! It was orgasmic. He played his red guitar again, and during the chorus he struck a pose that looked like Sailor Moon doing disco. Amazing. Despite his strikes...amazing, Daisuke. I love you, Daisuke. Bear my children. That's right, I said give birth to my children, Daisuke Asakura!!!! Finally,  Re-communicate, to which Daisuke again made me the happiest chick in the world, and made little guns with his hands and shot at us (with love arrows?? :D). He finished up, left, and returned for his encore. He chatted us up a bit more, and whimpered that his leg was hurting from his fall... we kind of had a nervous laugh with him about that. Poor guy.  He started his encore songs on the guitar, and the at first I couldn't place the song. Guitar strains, familiar ones... and then I realized it was a Seeker song! It was Stigma -indigo-saurus! ver.- from Indigo Algorithm. Amazing! So sexy when he sings it. The entire concert ended as per usual with  beautiful symphony -only for your life-.

We went for dinner, and obsessed over his photo book, and I caught a girl who'd gotten a pumpkin and shot a photo (she seemed so pissed about this, I might add. I wouldn't be pissed if I had Daisuke's plump pumpkin!). We planned for the next day - Haruka ASSURED us we had FAN CLUB No. 30 tickets this time... BUT DID WE???

The Shocking Finale... coming soon.
 
 
 
 

Set List - Daisuke Asakura Live Tour '04 Cultivate Meme ~about Quantum Mechanics Rainbow~ [Zepp Tokyo]
01. Ride on Free
02. BLUE SKY BLUE
03. Angel Algorithm
04. Quantum Mechanics Rainbow I
05. Real Time Sequence
06. Meme Crack -HARUKA KANATA no Major e-
07. Jade of sorrow
08. chiisai aki ~ etude on C-String ~  Toy Box In The Morning
09. aoi hana -Heinrich von Oftendigen-
10. Indigo cave
IN. Mytyl -mirai no kuni-
11. mercy-snow -Violet Rays ver.-
12. techno beethoven
13. Mona Lisa overdrive
14. Paranoia Method
15. 'Deep Blue' Resolution
16. Genetic Bomb
17. Re-communicate
EN1. Stigma -indigo-saurus! ver.-
EN2. beautiful symphoney-only for your life-