2010-07-06
Around 2 PM I left for the train station. There was a mad cute Asian girl; neon pink shirt with blue/white checkered skirt. I noticed her mother was buying her a train ticket. She came up to her mother, snatched the ticket and walked away. Not even a single look or a goodbye. Her mother yelled something at her, but she just kept walking without saying anything or looking. Damn, what a bitch haha. She stood on the other platform with a massive attitude… Still hot though haha. Well, she went the other way and that’s the last I saw of her.
I arrived in Utrecht at about 4 PM. Met up with my friends, dumped my stuff there and we went to get some burgers. Got on the train to Amsterdam! It’s been a while since I’ve been. Not my favorite place, since it’s usual overflowing with tourists. However, The Netherlands were playing in the semi-final so there were massive crowds everywhere and the mood was good.
We headed for the venue. It’s a pretty new place, nobody knew about it before. Naturally, we walked the wrong way, but we eventually made it. About 100 people were already lined up. They looked like the typical Visual Kei fans; some more successful than others haha. The venue is about 400 meters from the train station, but some other acquaintance insisted on taking the metro. He got on the wrong one twice and he didn’t arrive until two hours later haha.
The website stated that the concert would begin at 8 PM. The doors opened at around 8.30 PM and they were very strict about age and bag checks, so the entire process to get everybody in took ages! Well, we made it eventually. The venue is crazy small! The podium was about 5 cm high… wtf! We were standing about 7th row. Lots of small fangirls in front of me, so that’s cool. I noticed there were hardly any Asian fans… not sure why. Everybody seemed to have gotten in, so let the concert begin! …or so we thought.
We had to wait another hour and half. Some people already got worried about catching the last train home and stuff and they hadn’t even begun playing! Finally, we could hear some sound checking sounds and a couple minutes later the lights went down and the intro music started! The intro music was really epic, same one as on the concert DVD. Then, the door opened and Yuki (dr) came on stage! Man, what awesome hair. Insane screaming by the fangirls haha. A minute later, Teru (gt) came out. He had some extra long blond extensions and a cape haha. His eyes were unreal… some weird lenses, but it looked totally epic. Another minute later it was time for o-hime sama to arrive! Hizaki took the stage!! Man, what presence… holy crap. Insane looking dress, glitters hair, big dark eyes… At this point everybody realized that they really are pretty short. This turned out to be a bit of a problem because the stage was crazy low as well. I had no problem seeing everything, because I was one of the taller people, but there must have been a lot of people who could hardly see anything. After Hizaki, Kamijo (vocals) came out and the place went maaaad. Holy crap, insane fangirls screaming their lungs out. Pretty awesome guy, also wearing bright lenses.
I browsed some bootleg footage of their London gig a couple days earlier, so I expected them to open with the opening track of the latest album ‘God Palace -Method of Inheritance-‘ but no! They opened with Aristocrat’s Symphony! Quelle surprise! As soon as they hit the first notes, the place went crazy. People were fighting for position to catch a glimpse of them. Luckily, I got pushed from row 7 to row 3! Awesomeness! They were all right in front me. I got a good look at Kamijo’s outfit and it’s much more open than it appears. Make sense, because it would be extremely hard to perform in outfits that are as huge as theirs are.
One thing that really surprised me is the level of interaction with the fans. They were hanging in the audience SO MUCH. You could touch them many times. Even Hizaki and Teru hung into the audience and they let the fans touch their hair, faces, guitars… insane! Unlike I’ve ever seen before. What trust to let your fans do that to you. Massive props. In addition, Kamijo actually gave fans individual attention; actually looking you in the eye, he petted some fangirls on the head, high fived some of the fanboys, gave hands… seriously impressive. During all the pushing I ended up right in the center of the stage, so I got plenty of interaction with Kamijo. Luckily, I also managed to touch Hizaki, which was a personal highlight of the evening haha. On a side note, they are TOTALLY hot for themselves. They totally get off on people wanting them haha. At one point I had to “no homo” the concert, because Kamijo gave me some weird expressions haha.
During one of their little intermission, someone from the balcony yelled that the Netherlands won the semi-final and the crowd all cheered. This was funny, because Yuki had an expression on his face saying “wtf are they screaming about” haha. Later, Kamijo came out and congratulated Holland. Incidentally, about 80% of the MCs were done in English! “I am happy.” “We have wonderful philosophy, open up your hearts.” Stuff like that.
This is about what I can remember from the setlist, not sure about the order either, but something like this anyway. I’ll try to find the correct one later:
Aristocrat's Symphony
Shout & Bites
Zomby
Forbidden Gate (not 100% sure)
Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne
Ascendead Master
Gekkakou
Amorphous (not 100% sure)
The Umbrella of Glass
Serenade
Princess
--------------------------
The Red Carpet Day
The Revenant Choir
Another strange thing. Serenade was not dedicated to Jasmine You. When the concert ended, they introduced themselves once more and Kamijo said something like that Jasmine is watching from heaven. The crowd yelled super loud. Was a nice moment, but that was the only time he mentioned Jasmine. There was a bass player. He mentioned his name, but nobody understood it. He looked pretty cool, but he didn’t came up to the crowd once. I’m not sure if it is that same temporary bass player as before…
Anyway, that’s about it as far as the concert goes. Super awesome. Amazingly tight playing and they made quite an impression. Afterwards I picked up a poster and bought a Versailles bag for my friend as thanks for letting me stay over. When we walked to the train station we came across hundreds of soccer fans celebrating. When we got back to Utrecht, we just missed the last bus home sow e had to walk for 30 minutes. Argh, I was already dead from the concert. We decided to walk though the city, which was of course also overrun by soccer enthusiasts. We stopped the Booth hill saloon rock café for a bit and then made our way home. Awesome, awesome day.
Highlights:
- Ai to Kanashimi no Nocturne: this song rocked so hard live, unbelievable.
- Touching Kamijo and Hizaki (no homo)
Downsides:
- Small ass podium; bad visibility for a lot of fans
- Some epic songs missing from the setlist; i.e. God palace and After Claudia.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
edit: for the gear heads; Teru used this ESP Antelope and Hizaki used his red ESP Horizon III. Would've loved to see his white/gold one though. They used all Marshall amps, not the usual H&K Tri-amp for Teru or the Brunetti for Hizaki. Not sure which Marshalls though...
Topic: (Band) Versailles / Kamijo / Jupiter (Read 60284 times)