Well, all my voice posts seem to be gone, which is really pissing me off, but the only thing I can do is type everything out again.

The plane ride was alright; I slept a bit, though uncomfortably. I thought I was going to do something productive, like practice from my Flash book or my Japanese book, but I was in a bad mood from the flight standby hassle and being super tired. In the last hour or so, I borught out the laptop and actually started watching bits of Dir's Despair in the Womb DVD, which I've never been not busy enough to watch. Ah, the Avalon memories. Karly's red hair still sticks out like a flashlight. And in the FVT footage, I was really surprised that the hurricane in Wantagh was -that- bad! I'm still glad I was there, though. It makes a good story.

I landed about noon, and after having to wait for baggage check to find my bag, I dashed to the hotel in a very expensive taxi. ;_; I was in a rush, in a bad mood, and totally not in the mood to get on the Metro. But, I arrived safely and quickly. And unfortunately, the next few hours are SUPER SEEKRIT. XD But it was a very good experience for me. It was frustrating at many points, but it was good to learn from.

I got to the Wiltern just before 5. I had a seated ticket, so waiting on line was not in my game plan. I said hi to Dani, Nikki, Matt, and a few other people. I was mostly looking for the pSKY street team members, because I needed help handing out postcards on that insane ass line. And when I say insane ass, I mean, it took up almost the entire square block. That means it wrapped around four times along big city blocks. It really surprised even me.

I found Laura and Yuta from the forum/street team, who helped me hand out the postcards, which ran out very quicly. We only got about one block, because we didn't have that many and so many people were asking for them. I hope that actually means people were interested. East Coast j-rock regulars have all seen us a million times, but West Coast people haven't. Though I did see a -lot- of people I recognized from the East Coast. Most of them were near the front. I think if you come that far, you -really- want to get up front. Later on I found Matt from the forum, and Austin and two of his friends (Lucifer? :P and another girl), who also had seated tickets, so they kept me company while I had a dinner of greasy nachos. We went in once the big line had dissipated. Austin was in a spending mood, and I was in a broke mood, so he said he would buy me a Jrock Revolution t-shirt. :D Yay! I had wanted to blow my money on CDs, but shirts are pretty much the only thing I can't buy later online once I get a kickass job.

While we were on the merch line, there was a monitor up showing us the stage. I didn't really notice it at first, and didn't notice that it said "Kagrra," on the top. ;__; We didn't have any idea of the lineup beforehand. I didn't notice until they started playing. And I look at the screen and I'm like... wait, are they wearing kimonos? Are they fucking playing "Kotodama"?! HOLY SHIT. I dashed up to the mezzanine, didn't even bother to find my seat, because I was watching in awe. I was expecting them to come out in their leather jackets and everything, and just play their new album, but no, they old schooled it out for us! XD I don't know if it was because they know we've never been able to see their classic style, or because they wanted to to what they knew would be more of a crowd pleaser, but for whatever reason, I was hella fucking happy. They were decked out just as I had loved them (well, I don't really love Isshi's poofy hair and extensions, or Akiya's hair yarn). I think only Isshi was in full kimono, though. The others were wearing black pants and haori-like shirts. Shin and Akiya didn't have dyed hair, Izumi had a blue extension / streak. Shin had his hair in a topknot, and dayum, I have to say, he looked gooooooooood. I would have hit that.

They played Kotodama, Utakata, and Urei. Isshi did all this hand movements, and had a fan for at least a few songs. It's really hard to describe his dancing. It is very fruity and very feminine, but very artistic, done to complement the music rather than to look pretty. The others were fairly energetic, but not moving nearly as much. Maybe it was because I was high up and could see them all, but I never noticed how much it centers the attention on him. In later songs they others got more energetic and came up to the stage. Overall, I was really impressed by how their whole style comes together. I even stood and did the hand movements. Isshi did MC in English, but his accent was very bad. He did say something like, this is our first time in America but we want to come back, and please don't forget Kagrra,. I wonder what their style will be like next time. If they do a oneman, they may be more comfortable not having to impress the crowd with the old style, and may dress more casually, but if they do another festival, they'll probably lean more toward crowd pleasing. Even if they never bring out the old style again, I'm so glad I got to see them like that once, even if it was so short.

My night was pretty much made after that. I wasn't expecting anything else interesting to happen, especially after Duel Jewel's exceedingly mediocre performance. I was expecting Miyavi to come on last, but he came on third. The curtain came up to a huge screen, black with the "miyabi" kanji meshed out clear. His band consisted of a drummer, a bass player, himself on guitar and vocals, and get this - a step dancer (with the tap shoes on a wooden board), a beatboxer / rapper, a DJ, and a dancer / calligrapher who came out throwing confetti, and took a place up above the others and was painting oon a huge sheet of paper. It looked like random streaks, but by the end in said "Neo Visualism" with the "miyabi" kanji. As far as his performance, I have to say, with the eclectic mix of very unexpected performance artists, I was unexpectedly impressed. He was very charismatic in a way that I'm sure makes the fangirls swoon, but I can also appreciate as well. He by far had the longest performance, and I think almost all of his songs were extended. There were a lot of solos from the individual performers (DJ, rapper, tap dancer). And the light show for his performance was very good, just as colorful as his clothing. It all came together in a way that, even not knowing him that well, seemed to be just his style, and surprisingly unique.

So, in the middle of his performance, he stops and says "Guess what? I have a surprise." And my mind goes OH HELL NOES. And then this video plays that says in big letters, "Yoshiki," "Gackt," "Sugizo," and "Miyavi." So yes, the rumors were true. And my thoughts are just like, how long are you going to go without a name, and a bass player? And then who comes out of fucking nowhere.

SUGIZO.

HOLY SHIT.

I had really been calm up until then, but I totally lost it and started cheering for him. He proceeded to play with Miyavi for the next two songs. Truthfully, I was very bothered by seeing Sugizo play rhythm guitar to Miyavi. And -very- bothered by them rubbing all up on each other. What's really funny if is that I had been thinkikng for a long time, if Yoshiki announces that Miyavi is in the supergroup, why not have the whole supergroup there to announce it? And I thought, none of these younger generation of VK kids know who Sugizo is; will they cheer for him? But they seemed to really be excited to see him. Maybe they were cheering just because, or maybe they looked him up on the Internet since he was announced for the superband. OH YAH and they're playing Anime Expo. In a month. And again on the West Coast. What the hell. =\ I don't know why the hell the first show for such a huge band would not only be in America, it would be at a freaking anime convention. And again, giving only a month for people to make plans and get the word out. Overall, I think it was a lame move. And man, I felt so bad for Sarah when I called to tell her. She's going to send Yoshiki so much hate mail.

Another lame move, I think, was not putting Miyavi and El Superband announcement last. After that, Vidoll were actually pretty good. Their music is very bass heavy, and their bass player (the one in the dress) stood up front where there's usually a guitarist. But not really being interested in them in particular, it felt just like I had to wait out the end of the concert. And alice nine downright bored me. I spent more time looking at the crowd, and noticed a lot of Japanese fans doing overly complicated and unnatural hand movements. They had two harder metal-type songs which I liked more, but that's just a style preference, not them being any better. I pretty much just waited out the end, and left with the crew back to the hell, as after the long flight, and long day, I was tired as hell.

I contacted Livejournal about the voice posts, and apparently it's resolved, so I will make more voice posts today.

EDIT:
http://www.anime-expo.org/?q=story/anime_expo_2007_announces_j_rock_concert_of_the_century
Their name is SKIN. What the hell.