4ge Day
Date: April 24, 2005 (Sun) SOLD OUT!!!
Place: Kashiwa CLUB ZaX (柏CLUB ZaX)
Start: 18:00
Name of the show: 関東集中汚染企画モノ単独公演 Kanoma企画 (translation: The contamination of the Kantou region project: solo performances. Kanoma plan)
For the last show of the tour, Kanoma day, we had to go to Chiba, Kashiwa. According to Kanoma himself the place was chosen due to the fact that in his hometown, Abiko, there was no livehouse. Although we decided to set off for Kashiwa as early as possible in order not to be late in case we got lost, it was not hard to find Kashiwa CLUB ZaX. The place is neither visual, nor jrock-ish though. A few lolitas already sitting on the steps looked unfitting against the walls gdecoratedh with various punk and hardcore flyers and announcements. We still had an hour before the doors to be opened so we wandered around in search of some food and drink. A pseudo-Italian restaurant was nothing special, but at least after having our gbreadh we were ready for the gcircusesh XD.
The Kanoma show had a dress-code suggesting many variants for dressing up, from various uniforms to Lolita clothing to cocktail dresses to any type of masquerade outfit. Anything that is not usual clothes for everyday life. However, Japanese girls understood it their own way and most of them were dressed as Lolitas, which, I dare say, can be called usual clothing for most of them. Well, I suppose, since Kanoma never misses a chance to please the public and say how much he likes Lolitas, it was their turn to please him XD.
Ah, no foreigners for this show at all. Except for the two of us.
The organizers called for the girls (and some boys ^.~) to line up according to the ticket numbers. We turned out to be almost in the very end of the queue, duh. (-_-;)
Usually it takes the staff up to 25 minutes to let everybody in after the doors open, but this time the queue moved forward way to slow. Only upon approaching the entrance we understood why we had to wait in a rather cold weather for so long. The staff made instant pictures of every single fan, writing his/her ticket number on the back of it. It was not difficult to guess what they were doing it for. By the way, not only the fans, even girls and boys from the Fatima staff were all dressed up. Fatimafs roadie was wearing some weird orange coverall and a fire-imitating wig *lol*. Itfs hard to give his looks a better description.
The staff girls werec also lolitas *rolls eyes*. And the guy near the pole was the Shoxx photographer dressed up in the Nazi uniform. My personal winner for the best costume of the evening! XD
In the small hall the stage was considerably above the audience. It gave us a chance to both hear and see everything, although we found rather good spots again ? 3rd-4th row 4ge side. Instead of putting on some music before the concert, Kanoma chose to project a movie on a screen installed to the right of the stage, where we stood. And it was CHICAGO ^.^ So the whole event, with its dress code, staginess, gChicagoh-ness, glitter and sparkle, was supposed to be THE PARTY. Thatfs just like Kanoma XD.
It took them quite a while to go onstage (maybe they were having their time examining the fansf pictures? :P). Finally, they came out to the Overture from eThe Phantom of the Operaf.
Now that was chic! All but Kanoma were wearing black tuxedos, white shirts, black ties (or a bow-tie like Lay) and huge white fancy flowers on the lapel.
Kanoma, to form a contrast to the rest of the band, wore a white pinstriped suit, black shirt, glittery necktie and belt buckle, and the black flower on the lapel.
They looked smashing! *.*
Among the most memorable moments there were:
- Linda Yamamotofs cover song Dou ni mo tomaranai which Fatima had been performing for quite a while by then. I heard it for the first time though without knowing what it was. It goes without saying that it differs from the original (Fatima is known for making really good covers adapting them in such a way that they become really Fatima-ish). Unlike Lindafs version which seems to me slightly aggressive, Fatimafs one sounded more gentle yet flirtatiously catchy (gko-ko-ro wo ageyo-ou kah ^.^);
- Shoujo to kuroozetto ? why memorable? Thatfs a bit personal :P LOL
- Mr:Imbalance-44 - another song rearranged. I really love it when Fatima makes various arrangements to already familiar songs sometimes completely changing the perception of the song itself.
- More covers! In the middle of the encore Kanoma started rambling about his first encounter with visual kei, his being fond of karaoke, etc. Also he told us how he started singing, the first cover being a Gilles de Rais song. And it was Gilles de Rais's Up to date that he announced next. But when the guys started playing everyone recognized the intro of Malice Mizerfs Bel Air. XD Nevertheless, slightly perplexed Kanoma started singing it. Somewhere in the middle of the song the melody changed into the previously announced tune, Up to date by Gilles de Rais ^.^
- The first performance of Dorii.maazu! Awesomeness!
- Huge surprise ? Zen!!! He came on stage for the final songs and was evidently doing really good performing together with his old buddies. He is a very mobile person full of beans XD Like a magnet he immediately captured everyonefs attention! At first all 6 of them played BLANCxNOIR where Kanoma and Zen shared the vocal part. After that Kanoma handed his short mic stand to Zen which the latter dramatically accepted making faces that read gOh but thatfs THE mic stand of Kanoma himself!! Whaaaa! (takes it and lifts above his head) I RAWK!h XDDD All together they performed Humiliate one more time and during the gcircleh fans cried out 6 (!) names *lol*.
They left the stage again and this time the live seemed to be over. The lights were on, the stuff was messing up with the instruments, thus everyone started moving towards the exit. However, all of a sudden Fatima members came out carrying a box ofc photos XD. The ceremony called gThe best costume of the eveningh began LOL. The guys had a hard time trying to choose the winners because there were heaps of pictures indeed. Kanoma was the first one and he gave away 2 presents. The glittering flower brooch went to a girl in a messy but sparkling dress haha! I believe gsparklingh was the major argument for his choice ^^; The second choice was much funnier. His attention was drawn to 2 girls (or boys?) who wore very strange yellow costumes that covered all of their bodies (together with faces) in which they looked like aliens and therefore could be easily chosen byc 4ge XDDD Well, those two got the black flower from his lapel. Confused Kanoma failed to explain how on earth they could share it ^^;
The next was Towa who presented an autographed cymbal toc I donft remember whom ^^; Lay gave away an awesome present (if I didnft get mixed up by his explanation in Japanese) ? the CD with the recording of the live in Hachiouji RIPS ? to the girl cosplaying himself. 4ge also chose his own cosplay and presented a set of dolls fromc X-files LOL. Mizuha chose a girl in the cheerleader costume. As far as I could see she got a DVD with some pro-wrestling ^^;
The members were reluctant to leave the stage so they surprised the staff with the decision to play one more song ? the instruments had been already turned off and Kanoma had to repeat his request to switch on the current a few times. The song that closed that spectacular tour was, surely, Candy $trippers!
Setlist:
SE Overture (from eThe Phantom of the Operaf)
1) Kesenai ame
2) Candy $trippers
3) Star Spangled Butterfly
4) Peanut
5) Tsumugi ito
6) Dou ni mo tomaranai
7) Shoujo to kuroozetto
8) Mr:Imbalance-44 (different arrangement)
9) Blind
10) Marvelous
11) Humiliate Me More, Darlin'
12) Noble King Snake (cut)
13) Public Eyes (cut)
EN I
14) Public Eyes
15) Cover mix (Malice Mizer gBel Airh + Gilles de Rais gUp to dateh)
16) Dorii.maazu
17) Blanc x Noir (w/Zen)
18) Humiliate Me More, Darlinf (w/Zen)
EN II
19) Candy $trippers
***The pictures (Shoxx vol 149) are scanned by Kuutamo. The first photo is donated by not_so_mad_irka.
