Last night we went to see Versailles. I don't mean the place in france, or whoever it was that meant the real band had to append -Philharmonic Quintet- to their international releases. I mean the REAL Versailles. You know, the ones from Castlevania.
"Tonight we ride for Draculas castle!"
It was a supremely good show, though not without it's annoyances. The first for me being purely personal in that I didn't manage to spot P-Chan anywhere. However I'm probably not even legally allowed to actually know here. Frankly I was probably pushing my luck just being in the same room as that many teenage girls. There was, of course, the usual hassle with the opening of the doors and the letting in of us screaming hordes, however I guess the tardiness of the entry was offset by all the worrying fiddling that went on prior to the band finally taking the stage, so I doubt anyone missed anything.
And it's that worrying fiddling that will come back to haunt us I'm afraid. The light go down, the dramatic music starts and the band take to the stage, resplendent in their finery. They look, of course, gorgeous. Why is it that I can't find anywhere that sells clothes like that. And even if I could, why couldn't I afford them? Woe is me.
Anyway, I digress. They launch into God Palace as the first song and I'm all like "SQUEE" since aside from being an awesome song I was thinking that it would be really cool if they played that as an opener. And you think that's great I actually predicted the encore songs as well. Of course, I have no proof of this, but it's pretty awesome when you think to yourself "hmmm, probably they'll play The Red Carpet Day and/or The Revenant Choir" AND THEN THEY DO EXACTLY THAT. As I said; fucking SQUEE, bitches.
The entire set is, it has to be said, awesome as fuck. I don't think there was any song that I wished they played but they didn't. Loud and heavy and spot on in their performance, Versailles proved themselves to be a brilliant live band. It's almost a cliche when it comes to the Japanese bands I've seen, but only were they thoroughly engaging they were also clearly chuffed to be here. And really, what is it about Japanese people trying to speak english that is so goddamn ADORABLE?
However whilst the band were giving their all on stage to make this a great concert, someone else was off stage trying to ruin it.
No, it's not the Mecha Robos of the Iron Alliance.
Hates freedom
It was the sound man.
I'd call the sound quality variable, except that doesn't contain the words shitty and frustrating. A whole range of problems cropped up over the course of the concert, one after the other. Bass frequencies peaking alarmingly, then one of the guitars dropping out almost completely, then it came back only to loud whilst the vocals suddenly shot down... In the end it was more like flies on your cake than shitting in your mouth, but the point still remains.
Now there's one other point that needs addressing. Whilst I wouldn't say it was exactly oppresively hot in there or anything it was certainly warm enough that most people leaving could be classified as a sweaty abomination. I certainly was. But heres the thing, and I didn't even realize until S-San pointed out to me on the train home, the band didn't appear to sweat at all. They're up there at the front, under all the light and the collective head of a thousand furiously bopping teenagers in some of the most fantastically overblown gothic outfits this side of Symphony Of The Night, and they look perfectly fine.
I If only more gigs looked like this
HOW? How do they do that? I've seen plenty of bands stumbling off that stage dripping wrecks. Are they Autons or something? In which case why didn't they shoot the goddamn sound guy?
Maybe they're actually vampires? It's possible. I mean, I've seen pictures of them in daylight and they didn't sparkle or anything.
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