Not Today

Took a bit of a break, but finally got around to that 2007 live, a different live than the official release of that tour, which I didn't really like. This one was fantastic though. Set list was not particularly creative, but it included Stay Away and I must say, after what, nearly 6-7 years out of the fandom, one thing I really like is that they've stopped fucking ruining Stay Away live. I was so tired of that shit that I was to the point where I didn't want them to even play it anymore if that was what they were going to do to it.

But ANYWAY. Yes, it was really good. They all looked like they were having fun, especially Hyde, who actually hit a few of his attempts at improvisation and was somehow not doing the noisy breathing? I was really amazed by that. SHINE was fantastic, they continue on their quest to make me like Fourth Avenue Cafe and 夏の憂鬱. I refuse I tell you. NEW WORLD was great, 瞳の住人 was damn near orgasmic, Revelation could have used a lot less vocal shred, but hey still pretty good.  Pretty Girl was just....lol.  So many years too late.  Because this set wasn't released until 2011 and I figure by then those naive little girls who were convinced of Hyde's gayness are either gone or grew up.  Sadly, because I would have loved to see their faces when gif/pics of Hyde grinding with the scantily clad dancer hit the web.  *le tear*

I'll just here in a smug corner knowing that I always knew this about him.

Ah well.  I'm looking forward to the last disc in the set as it has The Nepenthes and Sell My Soul.  Plus Drink It Down and Hoshizora.  I skipped the P'unk crap because I really hate that stuff, it's just not good.

Either way, I really realized how much I still like this band and probably always will.  They've been in my life for nearly 10 years off and on.  I can't just forget that. <3

If I had told myself 3-4 years ago, back when I was still mostly stanning MUCC and Hilcrhyme, that I would start a new Last FM profile and my top two artists would be KAT-TUN and L'arc, I would have laughed myself out of the building.  I still find it fairly hilarious actually.

Anyway.

Reincarnation was actually a pretty good live, save for the inclusion of two songs that really irritate me. I can stand 'I Wish' around Christmas, but C'est La Vie can go to hell. I often wonder for bands like L'arc, as relative to my own interests, if I had heard a different song in the beginning, would I have bothered to give them a chance? I mean, I can't imagine hearing either that song or say, What Is Love and wanting to do anything except make it stop. But, I would have to say that the performance of Shout at the Devil here is probably still the best. I don't think I've seen them rival it yet, well, when I say "they", I mostly mean Hyde because he's the one who often makes or breaks lives. Not to say the other three don't ever deliver lackluster performances, but Hyde's fail is often way too obvious. But he was really on in Reincarnation. That performance in Loreley was especially impressive, no not the sax part.

I only made it halfway through the Grand Cross live so far and i'm on the fence. I like Ken's improvs, but Hyde is Idk, sounding a bit shrill. His scatting in Ghost was also lackluster at best. And dear God, What is Love is such a mess of a song. Those tempo changes are completely ridiculous. Hilariously there's been two songs thus far where Hyde "plays" a guitar. Which is to say, he plays a few chords right at the start and then just wears it through the rest of the song. Like, thanks Hyde, that was really necessary. Hopefully he gets his act together for いばらの涙, because that's one of my favorite live songs.

I really dislike the main version of this tour, Grand Cross Conclusion, I think it was called.  The band was swallowed up by the outside and Hyde's voice was basically shot.  But so far, this one is only marginally better.

One of the reasons why 15th L'Anni is my favorite live is because Hyde tended to have a very shrill tonal quality in older lives.  Not recorded, necessarily, but live.  He seems to have figured out how to achieve a more balanced tone that actually shows off the quality of his voice.  Whether that's the earplug/monitor wearing or what, Idk.

Parting shot that has nothing to do with the rest of the post: if you listen to VK and don't listen to LIPHLICH, you have no taste.

 I procured that aforementioned live and am trying to watch it.  I watched about half of the first day, first disc.  I was really dubious at first because Hyde rather blew In The Air.  And I was like, oh fuck, this is going to suck.  But from there, he got on more of an even keel and didn't try to insert vocal shred on every line.  I am a fan of his vocal shred, you see, just as long as he doesn't overuse it and/or not hit the notes while he's using it.  Kaze no Yukue was, admittedly, pretty awesome, except for a few parts where he got carried away and sounded like a dying whale.  He doesn't do improv all that well.

Music was, of course, great.  Especially Yuki, whom they never even show.  It's like they've totally given up at this point in their career.  Like, ok, we get it, he's the normal one and y'all don't even care about him.  Because while we're talking about normalcy, it would be nice to see him because he's the only one wearing decent clothes.  Ken is doing some hobo-hipster thing with the worst old lady trying to be bling hat on.  Then Tetsu might almost pull off that stupid redcoat thing, but then he pairs it with gold boots?  Really?  It's like a British soldier circa 1776, except with gold moonboots.

Then there's HYDE.  Dear God.  You can't even make out any body parts in that mess. It's just this flailing mass of black fabric and stringy bits, which sometimes get confused for his hair.  I'm really just waiting for him to trip over some of it, whap himself in the face and go down.  That would actually be hilarious.  And the hat!  And the eyeshadow!  And the nailpolish that makes his stubby fingers look even stubbier lmao.  No, seriously Hyde, you're 40+, why haven't you learned to dress properly yet?

I love them doing all these old songs though, I do.

ETA - The second half continued to be good, especially garasu dama.  Hyde continued to be on point, but I don't think he was still quite as good as in 15th L'anni.