When I finally got to the venue the line was long, I thought I was running late…. so I was surprised at how long it was.
In truth… I was running late, but so was the venue and band. The line hadn’t been let inside yet. We made our way to the front, got our VIP wristbands and tickets and were told that guestlist, VIP, press, and GA were all in one line. My whole group looked down the line in horror.
Oh well, it’s not the first time that we had to wait for a line to go in(we certainly weren’t about to get in it), and my coworker and I needed to flier anyway.
Part of my group went to get coffee (because caffeine is a great choice before you plan on drinking…) and my coworker and I started handing out fliers.
Actually… He fliered while every 10th person or so stopped me to say hi, or chitchat, or gossip because I am the girl that is at every Jrock concert fliering, or promoting (or sometimes yelling at them to be single file) and I always answer any question (that I Can answer) from any fan that asks me.
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The line eventually started going in, and we (I mean my coworker) didn’t get a chance to flier the whole line. Then the other part of my group showed up and said they had an email about our VIP table(this isn’t as special as it sounds, you have to spend atleast 200 dollars in food and drinks to have a table) and we can go inside right then. so we hiked our way back up the hill, passed the line (some of whom camped out overnight there to be first inside) got to the front, and the VIP hostess came and took us to our table.
This part actually makes me feel kind of bad… I mean… all those fans that have been waiting for hours, and I plan on drinking and eating so I get to go right in. If any of you read this… I’m sorry!
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Initially my first goal was to go to the merch booth and say hi to the 2 people running it that I know.
Jhouse Rock employees Noreene and Harry deserve a lot of respect, and a special thanks. The employees like them, behind the scene, never get seen but work their butts off to make these shows happen.
And for those of you that don’t know, Harry helped in bringing over bands like Dir en Grey and Rentrer en Soi.
In fact, since he was helping with this tour my friend got pictures of D’espairsRay’s gear and I thought it was quite amusing that it looked like this:
Thank you Bady Maru for the pictures : D
Trying to say hi to them turned out to be a bad idea… there was a line at the merch booth all the way across the venue. So I went back to sit down and order my burger and a drink.
Just so everyone knows… the fries at The Roxy taste like styrofoam.
Eventually the entire line was inside, and a number of people made their way over to where I was sitting to say hi. There was so many people there that I knew!
The opening band was Opus Dai, and I really can’t claim a lot of knowledge on them. Their music was pretty good. Similar in sound to D’espairsRay and a way better choice that many opening bands I’ve seen at shows before.
And then it was time for D’espa. And everything got so much louder.
Everything that is except the vocals microphone. Through the first song we couldn’t hear Hizumi singing at all.
By the time that was fixed… I couldn’t hear much of anything anyway.
The muddled, cloudy, buzzy, sometimes ringing in my ear lasted for 3 days. New record for me.
I highly recommend people to check out their music. In fact, D’espairsRay’s number 1 selling album [Coll:set] was actually just released in america through Maru Music.
Maybe you can even check out a show in their current tour!
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But bring ear plugs.
Trust me… you will still hear the music just fine.
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D’espairsRay Human Clad Monsters
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I think I only borrowed pictures from Bady Maru and Koharu.
If you see your pictures here, let me know so I can credit you!
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