Sunday evening, I went to my first concert in Japan. It was for a group called Rock'A'Trench (these guys). We first found out about them through this japanese drama called 「めいちゃんの執事」 "Mei-chan no Shitsuji" which is about this poor girl who suddenly finds out that she's from a rich family and then goes to a high school where all the girls have personal butlers. It's a fun j-drama; if you like girly kind of things and beautiful men (and Hana yori dango) you should watch this series.
But anyways, Rock'A'Trench plays the opening song for that series. They're a rock group, so the whole concert was a ridiculous amount of fun. Not that I've been to a lot of concerts in the states (or in Japan) but from what I've seen so far, they're pretty different.
We got to the concert around 5:20 since doors opened at 5:30. The venue itself was pretty small; I think it was smaller than the place I went to in San Francisco with Brad, Scott, and Joe and the rest of those people. I liked it, actually, but it also wasn't completely packed. I suppose it was like the size of a bar? It was smaller than the Loft, like if you took away the chairs and made the room a little shorter. It was also all standing space. BUT. They had LOCKERS, which was kind of awesome. No hauling bag/jackets around.
We thought that the earlier we got there, the earlier we'd be able to get in and the better spots we'd get. Wrong! We actually went in by ticket number - which was crazy, cause we were in the C section but we had bought our tickets within one minute of it opening. And we lined up by number. Getting A seats during the holidays is easier than getting an A spot here!
The doors opened pretty much right at 5:30 and they started letting everyone in. But before you went in you had to buy a drink for 500 yen, which, we figured, alright. They had alcohol and softdrinks at the bar, though mostly only vodka and whiskey. They did have rockstar though, which was pretty sweet.
But all of us were like "PFT if I'm paying 500 yen I might as well get booze" but wow all the drinks were pretty not so great. And in Japan, they pretty much cost the same. Expensive.
We went and got our drinks and bought some swag though. One interesting observation of the night was that not many Japanese people were getting drinks before the show. After the show, loads of people went up to redeem their drink tokens.
The band played for about an hour and a half - straight. There were no opening acts - just Rock'A'Trench, starting strong. And in between songs it was ridiculously quiet, but it also wasn't too long between songs. Sometimes they'd go straight from one song into the other. We pretty much danced and rocked the whole time too, so my legs, already sore from Saturday, are pretty much full of hurt.
After the concert, they were selling more merch again (the band came out in the T-shirts) and I kinda impulse bought one of their *bright hot pink* T-shirts (plus i had a sweat towel from before). They also had this kind of... hit or miss raffle game thing where you reach in and pull a card to see if you can win one of the special T-shirts.
...my friend and I won the only two T-shirts they were giving away. FRIGGIN SWEET YO. The paper you pulled out was pretty awesome even if you didn't win. You had to spend 3500 yen (which was my Tshirt and my sweat towel) and you got to pull a paper out of the box to tell you if you won or not. The band wrote on all the little papers with messages about winning or losing. It was really cute! I wanted to do the contest just so I could have a paper they signed/wrote on. But hooray I won! Maybe I'll be not-lazy later and take pictures of the shirts. They're pretty cool.
Two of the band members also came out to sign stuff and talk to people after it was done (the two guitarists and main singers). THEY WERE SO AMAZING. Plus they're all pretty cute. And really good at singing live. Sadly, the pianist/trombonist, bass guitarist, and drummer didn't come out. But yeah. For a couple of the songs, the pianist busted out a silver trombone with a deep blue horn. That part was friggin amazing. I wanted to tell him his trombone was awesome, but he never came out.
We did talk to the lead singer though - it turns out he lived in New York for five years when he was younger, so his English was really good! He was fun to talk to, plus we were wearing really similar hats (and looking hella boss). I didn't recognize the other guitarist at first, since on the stage he was always really angry looking and had pink hair, but when he came out he was wearing a beanie and didn't look so angry. But I got both of them to sign my T-shirt! I WILL NEVER WASH THIS T-SHIRT~
...which is a shame cause I think it's kind of cute. Oops. I'm pretty sure if I washed it the ink will start to fade. I guess I can handwash the shirt? Mostly I'm glad the Larges fit! :D
But yeah. That was an amazing night and an amazing concert. We got ridiculously close to the band for not getting there really early and stuff. Compared to normal concerts I've gone to, we were standing as far away as if I were standing in the front line at Sungod.
They were so awesome. X) Fantastic live, lockers, cool merch, winning the t shirt prize, *and* meeting the band without having to stalk them? WIN. I want to go to more Japanese concerts!
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