But honestly, I'm so tired mentally and physically I can't even process what exactly I really want to say so I'm just going to go over a few favorite memories of mine.
This year I've only been to 3 concerts, which now that I think about it was my concert count last year so it was about the same.
The first concert was One Ok Rock, and while I briefly made mention of what happened on my twitter, I never really talked about my experience seeing them. I'm honestly still just a casual fan, and one of the main reasons I decided to go was to support a Jrock band coming to Utah for once. I thought it'd be cool to see them, but I wasn't super hyped on being up front and all that jazz.
I honestly had an okay experience seeing them, I don't quite remember the opening bands other than Waterparks who I honestly wasn't impressed with. I don't know if the venue just had bad sound quality, but I can't say that they did because I was able to understand Taka when he sang. But the lead singer of Waterparks was just very hard to understand and I didn't quite like the crowd they brought in.
And One Ok Rock did a great show, I liked their set, and their personality on stage was cool. I just didn't have the greatest experience because of the girls in front of me. I know you get lost in the moment in concerts, and they're always going to be crowded no matter what. But I could hear them giggle at the fact that they were so tall people behind them couldn't see.
And the two people who were behind them? Two small girls, who were there with their mom. Their mom tried multiple times to move them so they could see, but the tall girls would see and move in front of them. I got so irritated with them, and slightly irritated with myself for not saying anything to them.
Then when the drummer threw their drumsticks they fell on me trying to catch it, causing me to fall on top of another girl. I turned to the girl behind me and apologized, asking if she was alright and she said she was. We looked to the girls who caused us to fall, but they only sneered at us. Yeah, not the greatest experience overall, but it was still nice to sing along to the Beginning.
Probably should've stuck to my plan of sticking in the back however.
The next concert was GazettE obviously, and my personal experience was great. I seized the opportunity to be right on the barricade on the left side, right in front of Aoi. (Olli if you're reading this, again I'm sorry for just running off on you lol)
Honestly the whole concert was kind of a blur, I do remember specific parts where I interacted with Aoi and he shook his head at me a couple of times. I did meet a nice fan next to me, and we had fun rocking out with each other which made the experience a lot better for me. I also remember during the last song on their first set (Unfinished) I got super tired and sank against the barricade, my arms just dangling in the front.
Aoi saw that I wasn't jumping and clapping my hands with the rest of the crowd, motioned me to do so, and so when I did he nodded and gave me a smile. I also remember when they were leaving after Encore, I threw my fist at Uruha for some reason, so he kind of threw his back up at me. (I wondered if he remembered cause he gave me a look during Meet and Greet lol)
Meeting them was great too, I wrote a blog about that already, but here's a recap of what I remember.
- With Aoi I said thank you, gave him his shirt, and said thank you again. I do regret not saying any more to him, but the girls in front of me were rushed so I thought we were going to be rushed. (I learned later we wouldn't have been, sad.)
- I barely remember Reita other than what he looked like up close, I said thank you to him and he said it back. I believe he put his hand over mine as I held his hand with both my hands though. I did get caught between him and Ruki for a moment so I just swayed back and forth. I still regret not seeing the Offspring the week prior to gift him with Offspring merch. Next WT.
- Ruki is the one I feel like I had the most time with, but the one I confused the most. I gave him a fennec fox plushie, but instead of just handing it to him I put it on the table and said it was for him. He went to grab it, but I went for the handshake (I'm awkward, so sue me) I was so relieved at how pleasant our interaction was anyway, as ironically he was the one I was most nervous to meet.
- With Kai, I really had no idea what came over me, but the minute he turned to look at me from watching the girl in front of me leave I just shouted "Kai!!!" and like....threw my hands up a little. It was almost like I was seeing an old friend after a long time. I think that made him happy, and I don't really remember what I said to him other than 'thank you so much'.
- Uruha did the same thing Kai did almost, where he watched the girl in front of me walk off before turning to look at me. Except he like.....slanted his body a little? I don't know how to explain it, but he stared into my soul a little and I was almost too nervous to even touch him. I did the same thing with him I did with the other four, grabbed his hands with both of mine and bowed and said thank you. I remember looking up at him as I came back up and he just gave me his squinty eyed smile he does so much and I said "Thank you" again before running off towards the exit.
Honestly that was such a good experience for me, aside from a few things that happened during my Dallas trip. I felt sad walking away from them not knowing when or if I was going to see them again, but I'm glad for the experience nonetheless.
The last concert I'm going to talk about is Hyde. Unlike the other two, he was just an opener for another band, but I really did like his set and his style. I didn't get to see a lot of him as he played a lot in the dark with his mask being the only thing I could see in the dark. But Hyde is such a great performer I forgave him for that.
Starset's set was pretty good, but I left like halfway through because I had a pounding headache and I just couldn't handle the crowd anymore. I do remember some of the Japanese fans hounding wherever Hyde probably was staying during the show, and I kind of cringed at that. Reminded me of that video of GazettE leaving Dallas Bomb Factory, left a bad taste in my mouth.
Also reminded me almost of a Saesang (a crazy kpop 'fan').
Also before I forget, the first band that played in that concert did an awesome cover to Africa by Toto so that was fun.
That's it for my concert experiences in 2019, I did go off on the GazettE, but whatever. The only concert I'm hoping to see next year so far is Hayley Kiyoko, but we'll see where I'm at in life when that rolls around.
Until next year.
