You know, I hate watching really popular bands at big venues. Small clubs are the only way to go. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Anyway, on to my opinions of the show.
1st Band: Darby. If I had heard them when I was 16, I would have loved them. But now that I am 26, I didn't care either way for them. They sounded kind of like A Perfect Circle meets hardcore with emo lyrics. While they were far from the worst band I have ever seen, they didn't really do much for me. If you give them a couple years, they could be good. I doubt it though.
2nd Band: D'espairsRay. Well, Miki was right it looks like they dropped the plus signs from their name a few years ago. Anyway, they were great and knew how to really get the crowd going. They even got a lot of the non-JRock fans excited. Too bad I am not very familiar with their music, so the only thing I know for sure they played is SIXty NINe.
3rd Band: Idiot Pilot. Uh, the first thing that comes to mind when I saw them is art fag. I'm pretty sure when they formed as a band they got together and had the following conversation:
-What can we do to be the same and yet really shake up the music industry?
-I got it, Screamo mixed with Techno, it will be awesome!
-Yeah, and I can jerk back and forth like an idiot on stage.
-Uh, sure
Their songs probably sound great when you are stoned out of your mind, too bad I wasn't.
4th Band: Mucc. I really love this band. Its a shame their sound engineer sucked the life out of their performance. Its also a shame that they are a little too Japanese for the Texas audience. With the exception of the people who were already fans of Mucc, not many others seemed to care for them. Maybe they were just having an off night. Anyway, set list:
1) Ranchu
2) Fukuro no Yurikago
3)?
4) Fuzz
5)?
6) Libra
I am pretty sure one of the two question mark songs was Noritsubusunara Enji and the other was Shion. Since I have yet to hear all of Shion (their newest album) I am not sure which song was which. One thing about seeing them in a festival setting like this is they didn't get long enough to play. It would be better to see them as a headliner of a smaller tour of Japanese bands so they could play three or four more songs and then an encore or two. There a lot of main stays in the Mucc repertoire that they didn't get to play. I would have loved to hear Suimin, Zetsubou, Monochrome no Keshiki, Daikirai, Saishu Rensha, Ame no Orchestra, etc. Instead I get Libra, Ranchu, Fuzz and 3 songs I barely know. Oh well, I guess it is my fault for not owning the new album yet. But hey, I'll see them live in Fukuoka next month so its ok.
5th Band: The Underneath. They were the last Japanese band of the night. Its funny though because they were the least well know of the 3 JRock bands yet they got the best reaction from the audience. I guess they must appeal more to the western crowd than D'espairsRay or Mucc. Too bad their album was mixed by a retard and all you hear is bass and vocals.
6th Band: Bullet for My Valentine (aka Helleween part 2) So my buddy Rhett had a cd by these guys. I listened to it once, I sort of liked it. Then when I hear them start to play the cheesy-ness of it all sends me running out of the auditorium. Miki said they sound like Helleween and she was right, it scared me.
At this point we just waited around in the lobby for the Japanese bands to do their signing session. I kept on telling Miki she doesn't look Japanese. She never believed me. We got a lot of stuff signed. All the bands were shocked to find out Miki is Japanese. You see, that's because she doesn't look Japanese. I told her, "I told you so!" And at this point we left. As much as I wanted to see Avenged Sevenfold, we had to get home at a decent hour.
That about covers it. The only thing left to say is Dallas sucks on a donkey's left nut and I have never seen so many fat people in one place.
Anyway, on to my opinions of the show.
1st Band: Darby. If I had heard them when I was 16, I would have loved them. But now that I am 26, I didn't care either way for them. They sounded kind of like A Perfect Circle meets hardcore with emo lyrics. While they were far from the worst band I have ever seen, they didn't really do much for me. If you give them a couple years, they could be good. I doubt it though.
2nd Band: D'espairsRay. Well, Miki was right it looks like they dropped the plus signs from their name a few years ago. Anyway, they were great and knew how to really get the crowd going. They even got a lot of the non-JRock fans excited. Too bad I am not very familiar with their music, so the only thing I know for sure they played is SIXty NINe.
3rd Band: Idiot Pilot. Uh, the first thing that comes to mind when I saw them is art fag. I'm pretty sure when they formed as a band they got together and had the following conversation:
-What can we do to be the same and yet really shake up the music industry?
-I got it, Screamo mixed with Techno, it will be awesome!
-Yeah, and I can jerk back and forth like an idiot on stage.
-Uh, sure
Their songs probably sound great when you are stoned out of your mind, too bad I wasn't.
4th Band: Mucc. I really love this band. Its a shame their sound engineer sucked the life out of their performance. Its also a shame that they are a little too Japanese for the Texas audience. With the exception of the people who were already fans of Mucc, not many others seemed to care for them. Maybe they were just having an off night. Anyway, set list:
1) Ranchu
2) Fukuro no Yurikago
3)?
4) Fuzz
5)?
6) Libra
I am pretty sure one of the two question mark songs was Noritsubusunara Enji and the other was Shion. Since I have yet to hear all of Shion (their newest album) I am not sure which song was which. One thing about seeing them in a festival setting like this is they didn't get long enough to play. It would be better to see them as a headliner of a smaller tour of Japanese bands so they could play three or four more songs and then an encore or two. There a lot of main stays in the Mucc repertoire that they didn't get to play. I would have loved to hear Suimin, Zetsubou, Monochrome no Keshiki, Daikirai, Saishu Rensha, Ame no Orchestra, etc. Instead I get Libra, Ranchu, Fuzz and 3 songs I barely know. Oh well, I guess it is my fault for not owning the new album yet. But hey, I'll see them live in Fukuoka next month so its ok.
5th Band: The Underneath. They were the last Japanese band of the night. Its funny though because they were the least well know of the 3 JRock bands yet they got the best reaction from the audience. I guess they must appeal more to the western crowd than D'espairsRay or Mucc. Too bad their album was mixed by a retard and all you hear is bass and vocals.
6th Band: Bullet for My Valentine (aka Helleween part 2) So my buddy Rhett had a cd by these guys. I listened to it once, I sort of liked it. Then when I hear them start to play the cheesy-ness of it all sends me running out of the auditorium. Miki said they sound like Helleween and she was right, it scared me.
At this point we just waited around in the lobby for the Japanese bands to do their signing session. I kept on telling Miki she doesn't look Japanese. She never believed me. We got a lot of stuff signed. All the bands were shocked to find out Miki is Japanese. You see, that's because she doesn't look Japanese. I told her, "I told you so!" And at this point we left. As much as I wanted to see Avenged Sevenfold, we had to get home at a decent hour.
That about covers it. The only thing left to say is Dallas sucks on a donkey's left nut and I have never seen so many fat people in one place.