rice live!
It was interesting, to say the least.First off, in going there I once again proved my own idiocy. I rode to Shinujuku, got off the Sobu line and onto Yamanote to get to Shibuya, then...got off at Yoyogi (which, it should be noted, is right before Shinjuku on the Sobu line). I really have no idea why I did that, but luckily there was another train pulling in when I went back up to the platform, so very little time wasted there.Finally made it to Shibuya around 5:50. Doors opened at six. I had a neat little map, copied from O-West's site, all ready to go...and still messed up big-time. After wandering around for about thirty minutes I went back to the station, and realized that the reason that I couldn't find the damn club was that I was on entirely the wrong street. Went down the right street, walking as fast as one can when there are people coming at them from eight different directions, found the club in about five minutes, nestled neatly amidst the love hotels. Yay. I ended up having to stand all the way in the back, but due to the height advantage and O-West's small size I could see very, very well.Theeeeen, it turned out that Yuki couldn't be there. They didn't really say why, other than reassurances that he wasn't deathly ill or injured...just "suteeji ni tatsu koto dekinaku narimashita" (basically, "he's become unable to appear onstage"). So hopefully he's all right. (ETA: Just flash-translated the announcement, and the reason they give is "personal affairs".)At any rate, they decided to go on with the show anyway. rice has a support band, so the only real problem was the fact that there were, y'know, no vocals. Hiro apologized about 8734 times for the turn of events, then told us that we could sing in Yuki's place if we wanted to. Which is what we did, though most of the time we couldn't be heard over the music.The setlist was about half released stuff and half live-only material; the released songs that they did were "angel die~yuki no sai", "Yomi no mokuzu", "APURIKO" and "Loverain"s 0 and 7. The live-only songs are really good and need to be recorded, dammit. Hiro sang for three of them, including "Yorokobi" (if I remember correctly). There was also a drum solo at some point.Of course, there were also goods - a t-shirt and a sticker/postcard set. The t-shirt has their new logo on it, and the postcards are gorgeous. I can't scan 'em, obviously, but I've taken pictures and posted them below.In summary:Good points: Wasn't canceled, fantastic songs, support band was really cool, and hell, we got to hear Hiro sing!Bad points: No Yuki.Favorite moment: At the end of "APURIKO" Paul (support guitarist) spun his mike around and we all kind of yelled "waratte" at it. ^^;General observations: Support keyboardist looks suspiciously like Miyavi (but is female). Support cellist looks suspiciously like TV's Frank from MST3K.Also, as this was my first time in Shibuya, I must say that it's a wonderful place. But the station? Holy fucking shit. Pictures of the postcards:It's hard to see it in this photo, but Yuki's wearing this really bright pink/red nail polish. ^^