Today not much pictures to be expected as I went to concert and no photographing allowed there. Also needed to do some shopping and it was rainy day so figured I'll spend first half of the day doing planning for the JR tour which I need to do anyway and the rain did not make much of appeal for being outside.
Good news is that detailed plans for the first part of the trip with JR pass is now done for Himeji, Nagasaki, Saga and Kyoto.
I have 2 days then which I'm not sure what to do. Original plan were Kanazawa castle, kenroku park and lake ashi but got idea to go to mount zao on north instead to see famous meteoric crater called "5 colour lake" at times.
Problem with that is that a) it's more expensive(hotel night) b) It's bit far and I really need to be back in Tokyo at that days night for prearranged meeting. What to do what to do!
Anyway before the concert I also went to Shibuya/Harajuku for bit of shopping hunting(no luck) since that station was on route anyway. Then I headed to Tokyo national forum and specifically to hall A.
Place was already bustling with Kalafina fans(didn't spot any other westerners). Went to buy bit of concert goods(set of postcards and smallish hardcover book that has pictures+short interview of each member + producer. I actually managed to read those before concert began and didn't even need dictionary. Yey!).
I had got the ticket fairly easily via web site that sells tickets to foreigners. Very easy service though it can get bit pricey. But they give very good service offering multiple ways to get the ticket which varies in reliability and price. Cheapest option would be for them to try regular source buying when they become available. By far cheapest but also least likely to work as tickets have bad habit of selling out quickly(as I found out last time). This would also mean waiting longer before that becomes available.
They can also try to acquire ticket from 3rd party that buys and sells tickets. This way you can know pretty much for sure will you get it or not. Bad side is that not only you are paying profit for THIS company you are also paying the extra 3rd party guy adds to himself.
I opted for the more pricey option receiving range of prices from fairly reasonable to positively mind blowing 800 euros or so O_o. Needless to say I did NOT pick up that one! Concert ticket ain't worth that much for me 2nd row or not!
Anyway ticket had arrived nice and early about 2 months before the trip had began so now was the long awaited day. Whoo!
When lights dimmed round of applauses started. After every song crowd clapped energetically as well. First we heard was prelude(basically just music) from the band before Dolce from recent single came up. Can't find it on youtube. For clothes btw they had all white dresses. Wakana(my favourite) having particularly nice looking full length dress. Keiko was wearing short skirt while Hikaru had similar outfit except instead of bare arms she had right arm covered in this very long sleeve part. Another nice dress that one.
Next song and atmosphere jumped up as Adore came up. Former classmate(before he moved to another city) would likely have been happy here as he mentioned once particularly liking this song.
Not sure was it just the fact it was live music and volume level high or was their performance up a notch but this was best rendition of this song I have seen/heard from them.
Third song was Yane no mukou of which there is no youtube version available either. Fourth song meanwhile started with Wakana(yey!) solo with "I have a dream" song.
Moving on to 6th song and "Storia".
After this on speech session they mentioned they would be moving next to darker songs so I suspected I would be soon hearing my favourite song. Good good.
But before that came Utsukushisa(beauty). Again no youtube video. Didn't know song that well as it's 2nd track of old single which I don't own(I mostly have albums. Singles are bloody expensive to get especially if you would want to get all the old ones quickly as well). But fit at least to theme of "dark".
Next dark song: Red moon. Wakana start again! At this point I also realized that they had at some point managed to act coloured pieces of clothes to their clothes. When they did THAT? Okay so stage is at times dark but missed the addition completely. Keiko had red, Hikaru purple and Wakana had turquoise.
Mid song also first special effect trick was put in use as streams of smoke/mist were shot upward in pylons.
8th song and as I had suspected my favourite came up:
Magia. Though they performed the newer quattro version rather than original. Still not sure which I like. Newer one has much more contradicting sounds added to the sound track.
And this one benefitted a lot from live performance as all that base/drum sounds more more impressive live. Add to that lights that strengthens songs feelings and it was excellent performance.
9th song, another of my favourites(to the beginning) and again benefited from being live.
After this singers retreated for clothes change while band members performed. For next set of clothing they all wore black long dresses with metallic golden parts.
First song was fairytale(again no video) and next one was "kimi ga
hikari ni kaete iku"(you turn into light or you turn(something) into
light?)
Next song still without youtube video(except for n+1 cover versions by fans) called "tsuioku", recollections in english. Ditto for next(obbligato) and "Consolation". That song was btw first song from Kalafina I heard live when I went to their concert last year.
They also somewhere amidst above managed to do clothing change mid-stage getting rid of the long black dresses revealing black dress with golden coloured web-like parts(on video you could clearly see the black dress behind from the holes of the web). All varied slightly. Wakana had miniskirt and long boots, Keiko had golden sides on her skirt while Hikaru's dress continued all the way down on the bottom.
Again I managed to completely miss that change in darkness despite looking at them practically non stop. Darkness+quick hands=stealth it seems.
Then another one of my favourites(partly because my favourite has very, very long solo start by my favourite member. Any song with such a start ain't bad in my books!) Hikari Furu(light falls). Again smoke flooded the stage(actually first rows received smoke as well) and with bright white lights(hey it is LIGHT falls!) made for eerie scene.
Kimi no gin no niwa(your silver garden) came next(above seems to be slightly edited version to avoid copyright shutdowns). Fairly new single from them.
Next up I can't locate on bloggers youtube search but can via youtube's own search. Go figure.
Think I managed to hack the html code for the blogger to show the right video!
With this became yet another speech time and yet again(she had done that before) Keiko fumbled her lines for much general amusement.
Next song I had not yet heard as it's as-yet unreleased song. Small teaser of it above.
After this they left as "show was over". Audience started clapping. Couple thousand clapping hands makes for quite a noise. Luckily wait wasn't too long(my hands were starting to feel like skin is about to peel off!).
For first song of encore pick was pretty good one as it put atmosphere up again instantly.
Ongaku. Actually video performance is similar to what we saw(maybe this was encore as well). Anyway they were shouting lot for audience to join with chanting, crowd happy to fulfil that request band members did solo parts and trio moved around stage lot more than usually. And once more smoke fired up.
Next song I had been expecting and thought it was last song for the day when it came.
Heavenly blue. Doesn't come as big surprise likely if I say stage was dominated by blue colour during the performance :D
Then came yet another speech and one more song. Yey! Last song was Aleluyah(アレルヤ in Japanese). No video of that either.
After this again huge round of applauses before stage finally emptied.
Was fun. Too bad no idea if I ever get third chance to hear them(they aren't performing all the time so odds of being in Japan when they perform isn't that high) but then again I thought that last time too and got the 2nd time after all.
Do have couple photos to show from the day though.
On my way from Harajuku to Shibuya(and from there to concert) noticed guy buying something that looked like melon bread(that I like) with something white inside. Opted to buy one myself. Turns out I was buying "melonpan aisu" or melon bread(hot) with ice cream inside. Needless to say you eat this FAST :D
On the same building as the concert was held was this interesting looking roof.
Outside concert venue.
For dinner opted for "harmony bento". Not sure what it was except good. Inside one brown thing was fish pretty much intact(tail included).
Not sure how much pictures I can show tomorrow either. Have meeting arranged, might go to sword-related event(likely no photographs) and do some more planning.
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