April 26, 2006 – 10:45 am
Was it the sake made from space yeast that I had last night? 1 year’s worth of lack of sleep and exercise? Poor nutrition? Lack of veggies in my meals? That really shit dream where my house got renovated into some dark, narrow corridored monstrosity, my dad has a useless butler, and I walk into one of the rooms to find my boss under the covers with someone I like?
Makes me think that sometimes your mind is just fucked up and there’s not much to be done, except live a little healthier and smarter.
One week till Golden Week. Ho-hum.
Posted in MISC. RAMBLINGS | No Comments »
April 20, 2006 – 12:49 pm
This was a great live. I was pretty lukewarm about Tokyo, because the song list was too heavy on major songs, the pacing was awkward, and the performance energetic but not otherwise inspired. I hate to say it, but for the first time, I was bored to tears at a Hekiru concert. For Osaka, the song list didn’t change, the pacing still sucks, the guitars were quite a mess… and yet, it felt so different. The crowd really communicated its pleasure to Hekiru, and Hekiru herself came out full-force right from the start. In fact, she put so much effort into moving and dancing that I was afraid she’d run out of steam and collapse halfway!
Well, she didn’t, although she did pull back a bit from Akai Hana onwards. Still, it was kinda cute. One of the highlights of the night was the talk during the MC sections. Unlike Tokyo, which was IMHO a spectacular failure at winging the thing, Hekiru came prepared with topics and boke jokes for the crowd, who were very responsive (nicely, not annoyingly).
For instance, when she talked about how she wondered about Kirins and their scratching habits (dude, don’t look at me, I’m not making this up I swear), and told the crowd the theory she had heard, we went, “Eh? O_o??” and she looked at us and said, “It’s true!”.
Later she spoke about some places she had visited in her youth, like “Shinosaki” (to which about 10 people yelled, “Kinosaki!” and “Ama no Iwato” and how she visited them together, we all made O_o?? faces again, and she asked, “Eh? Eh? Why do you have that look on your faces?”
To which a guy spoke up saying, “Um, that’s because those place are actually pretty dang far apart!”
Hekiru went, “Oh… It was like 13 years ago, I guess I don’t remember. Well, that’s my little ‘Watashi no atama no keshigomu’!”, a really bad joke based on a movie of the name that’s about fading memory or something.
Aside from that, I noticed that Hekiru’s outfits looked really different close up (I was in the first row, far left). The coat outfit is cool, the next one with the open shoulders is actually a shawl over a spaghetti strap corset-like top (looking less sexy since the material isn’t silky smooth but closer to wool), and the third frilly thing looked completely different. Ugh. Still looked awful. The encore outfit was red pants but they weren’t very flattering. I know they are the fashion-range last year and this year, but I consider them of the things to most avoid unless you have a figure like a guy :P And if you did, I’d still argue against them.
Overall, I had a lot of fun even though the problems with the song list remained. I have to be honest, I seriously didn’t need 1/3 of the songs in the set, and if it were me in charge I’d never put invisible after Zutto… – that’s just too much of slam-bang in your face thing after a really good ballad. But this time around, I guess resigning yourself to making the best of a rather iffy setlist helps, and undeniably being in front and getting a nice glance or two from Hekiru would set anybody’s spirits soaring. Hell, I know I was on Cloud 9 after she strolled on stage, looked right towards my seat for a couple secs while smiling… So high that I jumped at the chorus for Graduater, forgetting that I had promised myself to rest my badly sprained ankle!
Another major Good Thing was the band finally putting some effort into entertaining the audience. During the encore, Dog Ken and Jake put on a parody of that now-famous video where two K1 fighters are doing the staredown and one of ‘em kisses the other by mistake, earning a whallop of a punch. You need these little details. They help lift the crowd mood. Assuming of course that the crowd isn’t cold and dead. In which case you would feel like a fool.
The Want You!! at the end was also the longest I’ve remembered in a while. I ran out of breath halfway and Hekiru was still going and going… Now when was the last time that happened?
The next day, I was still high and couldn’t wait for Hekiru’s mail message, and the two weeks till Nagoya feel like forever…
Posted in SHIINA HEKIRU | 2 Comments »
April 14, 2006 – 7:52 pm
Um, SPOILERS.
If you haven’t seen, don’t read.
NOOOOOOOOOO! Archer! Archer bit the dust!
Dammit! I don’t rave much about anime anymore, especially not with male characters, but I have to make an exception for Archer.
The guy was cool. The guy was awesome. The guy was frickin’ amazing!!! Best male anime character ever! He didn’t even need to be androgynous to take the prize! Loved his hair, his outfit, his coat, the way he looks from the back, his voice (although he could stand some work on his Engrish), the way he kicked ass… And now he’s dead. *sigh*
Dear Archer, we will miss you.
In fact, Rin is so upset by your departure she’s wasted no time revving up the hawt girl-on-girl action with Saber :P
Posted in ANIME, Fate/stay night | 1 Comment »
April 11, 2006 – 12:47 pm
As a member the new duet combo Hidawari (Kine Naoto & Shiina Hekiru), Hekiru made an appearance at a music festival in Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou on 4/9. It featured a lot of upcoming and newly debuted bands in 20 min rotations across 2 stages in an outdoor amphi.
Hidawari was scheduled for 16:40 and appeared a bit after 17pm. They performed 3 songs, with Kine on acoustic guitar and Hekiru on vocals.
Song List
1) Arashi nochi hare (Shiina Hekiru)
2) One (Shiina Hekiru)
3) Size Up (Hidamari)
Hekiru wore a long green patterned skirt, a blue jeans jacket, and knee-high white boots. It was quite cold by evening so Hekiru must have been suffering quite a bit!
There was also some talk, but I couldn’t really hear Kine’s voice. Hekiru seemed to be her usual boke self. I think they felt somewhat out of place amidst the new budding artists… although some of the other bands have been in the amateur circuit for 10 years.
The crowd had a mix of Kine fans and Hekiru fans in addition to the regular audience.
Posted in SHIINA HEKIRU | 4 Comments »
