Listening to : KRA – Dharma AlbumI wonder if Miyuchi, Kamiru and Aia received my SMS last night~
Well, before that, I was flipping channels yesterday when I happen to pass by NHK and got a glimpse of its show schedules for the day. Then this caught my attention:
11:00 - POP UP JAPAN (SUMMER SPECIAL 2008)
So I was static to see this since what we have at home is NHK World which caters NEWS and documentary. Music shows in this channel is very rare unlike NHK Premium.
At first, I thought they’re going to feature Jpop or hip-hop like the last time at J-Melo so I wasn’t totally interested. Nevertheless, I was still eager to check it out later that evening.
And because Japan is an hour ahead that means it’ll be shown around 10:00. But then again, I have to add 10minutes to my calculation since all of the clocks we have at home are 10 minutes advance. (Yes! MATH.)
So by, 10:10pm the show started with this American guy~ (ack! I forgot his name, but if you still remember the American guy who interviewed Ruki, Aoi and Reita that’s him!) making his opening remarks with a Japanese guy.
Now what struck me is that the featured artist is KRA!
SO I was like,
“No way! They’re featuring Visual Kei? COOL ! ! !”
I was really happy to see this since VK is not that popular in Japan but in foreign countries instead.
Now. Now. Let’s go to the show.
It was pretty short since it lasted for 30 minutes with KRA singing 4 tracks.
I was really hoping to see and hear them perform either ARTMAN or HARD LOLITA
since these are my favorite tracks from their album Dharma.
But it was not how I hope for. They sang:
Hanairo no Hana
En
Kizuna
Extra Kingdom
Not bad, since I like Kizuna and Extra Kingdom so it was still worth the time and wait. What’s good about the show is that the American guy raises question in English while his colleague translates it in Japanese for the KRA members and the Jap audience. Then, once they give their answers, the American guy translates it to English. Plus, there were English subtitles at some point during the show. So, I didn’t have a hard time understanding what they were talking about.
The interview segments were totally hilarious like this one:
(these are not really written verbatim, but just pieces of what I can remember)
*A.Guy = American Guy
A. Guy: “Wow! You’re so energetic on stage” (pertaining to Keiyuu)
“And you too at the back! We can’t see you but you’re so energetic:”
(pertaining to Yasuno)
(everyone laughs)
YASUNO: “Yes, I’m always energetic. I like to catch attention”.
(everyone laughs)
(the guy goes back to asking questions to Keiyuu)
A.Guy: “Are you always energetic on stage?”
KEIYUU : (nods and laughs) Yes I am. I’m trying to burn some body fats.
YASUNO: “Yes. I’m also burning body fats”.
(everyone laughs)
[Now I really can’t remember what happened here because I checked on my phone to see if the JUNKO gals received my message].
The next thing. . .
American guy: “Hey, You are so nice!”
(He was pertaining to Mai who handed Keiyuu a handkerchief. Keiyuu was sweating like mad from their performance.)
KEIYUU: “Yes he is nice. He even give a piece of his costume to me.”
(brief background. Lat night, they were wearing a black suit and if you still remember their OHP during the release of Creatures. That’s it. Mai was wearing that same costume, a black suit with a red handkerchief at the left chest pocket.)
Mai: (he was just smiling here. The American guy asked him something but I really can’t remember ^^;)
A.Guy: “Oh! Yura has been left out! I’m very sorry.”
(Yura who has been standing at the corner all through out this time now waves his hand to imply that he doesn’t want attention)
A.Guy: “You don’t use a pick in playing?”
YURA: “No.”
(I’m telling you. He is a shy guy. He hesitantly held the mic and replied to the guy.)
A.Guy: “Do you have calluses? Let me see.”
(approaches Yura and grabs his hand)
A. Guy: “Oh~” (seriously inspecting Yura’s fingers then. . .)
“You see this? This is your life line”
YURA: “No. Stop it!” (laughs)
Gawd~ I really wish I was watching this together with the JUNKO gals! It was so good.
Few realizations after watching KRA perform:
Keiyuu is SO energetic! He was hoping and dancing all throughout their performance.
Keiyuu’s hand gestures while singing are more effeminate than Isshi of Kaggra, ( I swear!)
Mai is so hyper in playing the guitar. While strumming it he keeps on tapping his feet or dancing to the beat, throwing his feet sideways. (How can he still play the guitar properly?)
Yura looks so confident in playing the bass but is too shy to look at the camera.
Yasuno keeps on singing while playing the drums. And obviously, he was having fun with all the attention he got from the camera man who glided not just once or twice towards him.P.S.
I’m not really good in relaying information or in storytelling~
so wish ko lang hindi ganun ka messy ang pagkaka-kwento ko.
(lol)