V-ROCK VISUAL KEI FESTIVAL 2009 REPORT! MOI DIX MOIS, MARILYN MANSON, ALI PROJECT, PLASTIC TREE, THE GAZETTE.
V-Rock, the world’s largest Visual Kei festival, shredded and head-banged in Chiba Makuhari Messe last weekend. And your humble blogger missed it big-time because she was promoting Cute Yummy Time in DC. I didn’t even get to catch the live stream, sad face! Thankfully, I have my Tokyo roving reporters to help me out. Here are Comte de Sang’s thoughts on V-Rock; tomorrow, Yukiro will talk about Versailles and more. (All photos courtesy of V-Rock. Above: La’cryma Christi.)
† What were your favorite acts? (Above: Alice Nine and Plastic Tree)
I attended V-Rock Festival 09 on Saturday, October 24th with the goal of seeing ALI PROJECT, Moi dix Mois, and Marilyn Manson. I would have to say that my favorite act was Marilyn Manson, as his stage persona was just brilliant (although I’m sure part of it was the fact that he was three sheets in the wind from the start of the performance). The song list was representative of his entire career, ranging from his newest album such as “We’re From America” and “Devour” to “Antichrist Superstar” classics like “Dried Up, Tied And Dead To The World,” “The Beautiful People,” and “Irresponsible Hate Anthem.” “The Dope Show,” “The Love Song,” “Disposable Teens,” and “Sweet Dreams” rounded out the rest of the performance quite nicely as he focused on the strong points in his repertoire. Overall, it was a fantastic show!
Moi dix Mois also gave a strong performance, involving the entire audience in the ritual song of “Dispell Bound,” and performing two unreleased songs along with a strong lineup of classics such as “The Prophet” and newer songs like “Exclude.” (We saw Moi dix Mois together in the summer; you can read our review here.)
† Did any performances surprise you? (Above: D)
While waiting for ALI PROJECT to begin I happened to walk in on a performance by Sohodolls, which was quite entertaining. Seeing bands like this represented at V-Rock Festival was certainly a pleasant surprise. D’espairs Ray actually gave a surprisingly good performance as well, although their V-kei style has descended to near Dir en Grey levels of casualness.
† How did people dress for the festival?
There was a strong Gothic & Lolita representation, encouraged by the presence of Gothic & Lolita Bible who had a photo booth available for a fashion contest and the possibility of appearing in the mag and/or on the V-Rock Festival website. There were also more standard Goths and regular concert-goers in street-wear, forming a rather nice balance, in my opinion.
† Were there any funny/exciting moments? (Above: the GazettE and Marilyn Manson)
Everything that comes out of Marilyn Manson’s mouth is funny/exciting. Or rather, everything that comes out of his mouth is chock full of obscenities and lewd double entendre, most of which must have sailed clear over most of the audiences’ heads, but was absolutely hilarious to me. His playful exchanges of “f*** you” with Twiggy garnered a reaction from the crowd though, and spitting alcohol all over the stage (and audience), constantly throwing his microphone, and breaking a guitar showed that the Antichrist rock star is still alive inside of him, even if he has put on a little weight ^_~
Domo arigato to Comte de Sang for his report! You can see Marilyn Manson’s V-Rock performance here. (There are other clips from the festival on YouTube; just search for V-Rock 2009.)
Check back tomorrow for Yukiro Dravarious’ evil thoughts. If you saw the show (in person or via the live stream), what did you think? Which band would you most like to see perform?
PS: my new CNNGo article about pampered pets in Asia! Dog cafes, nursing homes, acupuncture…
Song of the Day #225: Vivid’s performance at V-Rock Fest 2009 was vivid, heh.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 20:20 and is filed under Visual Kei + Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
October 27th, 2009 at 02:41
Nakayoshia says:waaaaa u have the coolest friends!
October 27th, 2009 at 02:48
Marie says:Awesomeeee!
October 27th, 2009 at 06:08
shichi says:I had some friends go, only heard back from one so far but she said it was awesome.
D'erlanger was awesome I'm told.
October 27th, 2009 at 08:13
Hello Dalia says:i've loved marilyn manson since the sixth grade and i still do<3
i love him with a passion(:
October 27th, 2009 at 08:13
B says:You went to that!? Awesomeness. I'll have to check out the videos!
October 27th, 2009 at 08:14
Sarah says:marilyn manson was there.? wow
October 27th, 2009 at 08:14
stillprince says:Tch I wish I could've gone. All of the cool stuff happens in Japan D:
October 27th, 2009 at 08:16
lacarmina says:It's good to hear he was in good form at the V-rock festival!
October 27th, 2009 at 08:17
lacarmina says:I wish I were there… I am currently on a US book tour. But my friends did a great job with reporting, and there are plenty of videos on YouTube. :)
October 27th, 2009 at 08:17
lacarmina says:He recovered from the swine flu in time!
October 27th, 2009 at 08:18
lacarmina says:Yeah, I hear the broadcast wasn't well done… in person, it sounds like it was killer awesome.
October 27th, 2009 at 08:21
lacarmina says:Wait til you see the photos of what they wore!!
October 27th, 2009 at 08:21
lacarmina says:Hahah I love the random use of apostrophes (and quasi-French) in VK band names. What did you think of the live stream? Not so good, right?
October 27th, 2009 at 09:01
Emi says:“D'espairs Ray actually gave a surprisingly good performance as well, although their V-kei style has descended to near Dir en Grey levels of casualness. “
:<
October 27th, 2009 at 09:45
Maleva says:mana sama…
October 27th, 2009 at 09:45
lacarmina says:Photos of Mana and more in tomorrow's review!
October 27th, 2009 at 10:20
Lemon says:I was sad that D, Versailles, and GazettE didn't get a full screening on the stream, but was overjoyed that Moi dix Mois did. They stole the show entirely, in my opinion! I've been listening to The Sect and Dead Scape on repeat ever since! ALI PROJECT was also really awesome…glad you had fun in any case!
October 27th, 2009 at 10:21
Lemon says:SNAP!
October 27th, 2009 at 12:19
lacarmina says:Hahah Yukiro has a slightly different opinion of Moi dix Mois… you'll see what he saw up-close tomorrow! ;)
October 27th, 2009 at 13:04
shichi says:I can only awesome D'erlanger was named after the french painter/musician Rodolphe d'Erlanger.
I was very disappointed in the live feed, I stayed up all night to see D'erlanger and they only showed one song. They didn't show Penicillin or La'Cryma Christi at all =(
October 27th, 2009 at 15:10
Ildi says:aww, sounded amazing, thanx for the update! :)
October 27th, 2009 at 18:22
Natasha says:ahhh I wish I could got ther to see that :0
October 27th, 2009 at 21:03
Ashley says:hmm i just know a lot of fans are mad that they didn't show gazette, versailles, lm.c, and others online. D:
October 27th, 2009 at 21:10
Memento Mori says:xD quite honestley I read it for the piece on Manson :D
(I read the rest too '-')
it's amazing how people can react to anything…
October 27th, 2009 at 21:10
lacarmina says:Coming right up – part II, with more thoughts on Manson and other bands!
October 27th, 2009 at 21:11
lacarmina says:True… still, I think it's awesome that they did a live stream at all, and it seems there is a good amount of videos from the fest on YouTube…
October 27th, 2009 at 21:13
lacarmina says:Also, I don't know this for certain but some bands may not have given permission for V-Rock to include them in the live stream…
October 28th, 2009 at 08:48
Trashtastika says:I wish I could have seen Marilyn at the festival – cos I saw him on the 11th in Sydney and he SUCKED!! He just didn't want to be there, sang mostly new songs, no great outfits, just changed his hat. But I had to go shopping in Harajuku that day – tee hee!
October 28th, 2009 at 09:01
lacarmina says:Hahahaha I hear Manson is really unpredictable. I'm pleasantly surprised that the V-rock show was so good, and that he played old hits.
What did you pick up in Harajuku this time?? ^^
October 28th, 2009 at 09:35
Trashtastika says:Lashes from Takuya Angel (that I wore that night at TD and MM), also Blue Leopard print punk pants at Sex Pot Revenge, Skeleton hoodies at the shop next door to Sexpot, and black jeans with green bones on them at Hellcat Punks in La Foret. Yup, I dropped a BUNDLE! Hehe…
October 28th, 2009 at 10:18
lacarmina says:Ahhh NICE!! I think I saw those blue leopard pants in early Oct and stopped in my tracks.
December 2nd, 2009 at 06:45
Fellow V-Rock guest says:Moi dix Mois set was “extremely short”? They played one of the LONGEST sets (1 hour)! Most bands only played 4 or 5 songs, and they played 10 songs and also spent a lot of time on MC, which the crowd (one of the biggest for any band in that hall, which surprised me) seemed to like since they all joined in the furi.
As for Versailles, very happy to see them back, but Kamijo didn't hit many right notes.
December 2nd, 2009 at 06:47
V-Rock guest says:Moi dix Mois set was “extremely short”? They played one of the LONGEST sets (1 hour)! Most bands only played 4 or 5 songs, and they played 10 songs and also spent a lot of time on MC, which the crowd (one of the biggest for any band in that hall, which surprised me) seemed to like since they all joined in the furi.
As for Versailles, very happy to see them back, but Kamijo didn't sing very well.
December 2nd, 2009 at 14:45
Fellow V-Rock guest says:Moi dix Mois set was “extremely short”? They played one of the LONGEST sets (1 hour)! Most bands only played 4 or 5 songs, and they played 10 songs and also spent a lot of time on MC, which the crowd (one of the biggest for any band in that hall, which surprised me) seemed to like since they all joined in the furi.
As for Versailles, very happy to see them back, but Kamijo didn't hit many right notes.
December 2nd, 2009 at 14:47
V-Rock guest says:Moi dix Mois set was “extremely short”? They played one of the LONGEST sets (1 hour)! Most bands only played 4 or 5 songs, and they played 10 songs and also spent a lot of time on MC, which the crowd (one of the biggest for any band in that hall, which surprised me) seemed to like since they all joined in the furi.
As for Versailles, very happy to see them back, but Kamijo didn't sing very well.