Day 1 was kind of a sussing out exploration day.
I am not afraid to admit that Day 2 was all about trolling.
I really felt bad about some people clearly being there for only one or two acts, so I wanted to make sure that everyone felt welcome and had fun, so even during Day 1's music stages I was initiating a lot of the cheers and trying to make sure that the less popular acts like Kylee, Akabane, and Sweety had a receptive crowd.
Having gotten a feel for the artists from Day 1, I was determined to do even better on Day 2.
First of all, though, I dressed up a lot more distinctly. On Day 1, due to the colder weather, I had to cover my bright yellow T-shirt, and ended up in drab dull colors. For Day 2, I went in clothes more appropriate for rocking out, with bright colors, a flashy hairstyle, and a bit of bling. Plus, during the concert, Kitaoji and I were the Sunglasses Brigade.
Since the concert was scheduled for 2:00PM, I arrived at 11:00AM, only to find that seats were already scarce, and managed to grab two 3rd row seats, which mean that I was on the side where most of the artists were setting up. Daichi's soundcheck got quite a bit of applause and drew a lot of casual attention. I got a wave out of Kylee's drummer
and bassist, which was awesome. Stage left also totally got waves and smiles out of Yuki (Nee-san) and Marin while they were waiting on the side for their soundcheck. Shippy Yuki/Marin moments happened, y'all. There was hugging and giggling and shit.
Like the others have said, the Peace Plaza stages on Day 1 were ultimately more fun, with the smaller audience also being more energetic and into things. The passiveness of Day 2's audience was at its greatest during Kylee's stages, although I tried to throw in cheering rounds as much as possible, and it was great that there was a bunch of girls in cosplay in 1st row who were quick on the take and always joined me in screaming. Thanks, girls, you rock!
I really missed not having an wotagei brigade going on, though.
In some ways, the chants during LovendoR's stage were better done, since a lot of us were now familiar with the songs from Day 1. On the other hand, the lack of standing room on the railing meant that we couldn't do the "ooooooohhh hey!" jumps during the pre-chorus.
Nonetheless, LovendoR's stage was when I really got into trolling. As kitaoji said, we did our best to do chants for the other three girls, with multiple OkaP/Okamari, Nee-san, and Marin calls during and outside of songs. Towards the end of their set, Marin really smiled at the folks crowding the back and sides of the square and stage, lucky bastards.
Reina was completely pro about waving to everyone in all directions. This was where it was really obvious that stage right were Debbie Downers. There were a couple of time where they didn't even throw out a cheer when the girls moved closer in their direction. The wotagei brigade from before were behind us, though, and that combined with the enthusiastic girls up front, I can say confidently that the girls really enjoyed stage left. Lol, we were totally "that guy" you always hear at H!P concerts with our "Neeeee-saaaaaaannnn!" calls.
After LovendoR's set ended, a bunch of the people who were there just for them left to line up for autographs, which meant more casuals and Kyary fans. Regardless of that, Daichi got huge audience reactions, as his act lends itself to get reactions out of people as a part of its flow. He would build up songs sequentially with new sounds, each one garnering a new "Ahhh" and cheers from the audience as they either recognized the song he was starting, or just marvelling at how he could replicate some sounds, and just plain enjoying the drops and breaks of dance rhythms on their own like it was a club. Daichi got a lot of clapping along to his stuff. Highly enjoyable.
Finally, the audience size and reception of Kyary was just blew everyone else's out of the water. It helped that her songs were EDM, with bass subwoofers turned up to the max, (yes, I saw people in the Westin Hotel peeking out of the windows to see what the fuck was going on
) but her connection with the audience was just really palpable. Whereas for the other acts, at most you had the people on the roof balcony of Macy's watching, during Kyary I saw people watching at the windows on every single floor. She didn't speak a lick of english, unlike Kylee, who is fluent, LovendoR, who used a translator, or Daichi, who attempted some short engrish phrases, and yet the confidence with which she tossed off her Japanese never let any doubt as to the intent of her words. She did Pon Pon Pon, Invader Invader, Fashion Monster, Kyary An-An, and Tsukematsukeru, directing the audience in the last two to do accompanying hand gestures. Again, without a translator, and without attempting english. And during the harder beats portion of the songs, a lot of the audience, myself included, were just straight up dancing with hands in the air.
Another thing that helped was the pure energy of her backup dancers, the Tempura Kidz. They looked like they were having a blast and were right on top of the beat crisp and sharp, which lended to the energy of the audience.
After the end of the concert, I power-walked my way to Japantown, (my thighs still hurt
) and found Sweety (Yui and Sayaka, anyways. Yuripon wasn't present for some reason) doing an autograph session while the LovendoR autograph line got longer and longer. At first I just hung out at the chairs and watched the girls be really adorable, getting a couple of waves from them in the process, but then I noticed that people were getting photos with them, too! Autographs and 2shot with an idol group for free? Fuck yeah, that was more than anyone in LovendoR was going to get. I jumped in line and picked up a visor for them to sign, and told the girls that Day 1's live was "very good" and that I had fun. They got so much more excited when I dropped the "tanoshii."
And then I stuck out my hand and got two-handed handshakes from both girls.
Skin was so soft, man. Not a single callus.
And then I did my photo doing the Gekikara "nee, okoetteru" nail-biting smile. Thanks to my hairstyle and ROCK necklace, kitaoji knew that I was trolling hard with that pose.
So yeah, I got idol autographs, handshakes, and a 2shot, without getting wallet raped one bit.
Last but not least, as their session ended and the girls were leaving, I threw out a "I love you Sweety!" yell and starting a good-bye cheering session. They seemed to really enjoy it. I hope they do genuinely have good memories of the festival.
Since I wasn't in line for the LovendoR autograph session at all, for a while I had a lot of open space in front of the tent, about 10 feet from the girls. So I started juggling for them.
Of course, people who got their stuff signed stayed around to watch the girls, so visibility quickly went down.
kitaoji and I really started trolling the girls at this point, getting waves and smiles and calling for the non-Reina girls. By the end of the session it was highly likely the girls knew that we were MD scum and whoring for attention a little.
Another shippy moment happened while Reina went to the bathroom (probably to fix whatever was wrong with her eye) and the other girls were hanging out at the back of the tent: Marin grabbed Marina's bare thigh out of nowhere.
Got a little more juggling in at this point that I'm pretty sure they saw. Kitaoji mentioned d0ku0 getting us a picture with Marin in the background, but what she didn't mention was that d0ku0 first assumed that we wanted a picture with Reina, like everyone else, and we had to clarify that we wanted Marin. And that's why I put my focus on the other three girls all festival long, because everyone else pretty much was going for Reina alone, and I wanted to make them feel loved as well.
After that, like the others said, the JPHIP crew and some Japanese wota did dinner together. To the peeps at that table: that pre-Sheki Dol soloist I was talking about was Ishii Rika, which I remembered because Perfume covered her Leslie Gore-esque song "Super Jet Shoes during their early days, so it much have been somewhat popular as an oldie.
Also, Slack is a beast. He hung with us to about 8PM, even though he was going to have to drive all the way back to LA that night and go to work the next morning.
A+++ weekend, most certainly looking forward to more like it in the future.
(My boss, who lives about 3 blocks from Japantown, mentioned today that he went to the festival, too, but just for the food.
He also said that the food trucks this year weren't as good as last year's.
)