I spent most of the day sleeping… it was rainy outside, but so warm in bed…
Finally, I put on something fairly warm to go out in the rain with, and headed for this very particular venue. A huge milestone of accomplishment for bands in Japan, Budoukan is a large circular arena, impressive both from the outside and on the inside.
People arriving from the subway station, me among them, shuffled forward in the rain, taking out their umbrellas, and forming a line to walk through enormous doors of stone, wood, and wrought iron.
I’ve seen footage of several bands making their debut performance there (like ALICE NINE., NIGHTMARE, and the GazettE), but this was the first time I’d been able to go to the venue personally.
Even from all the way up in the second-last row of attendees, where I was, the view and the power of lynch.’s performance was awesome.
Despite having been a fan from years back, I didn’t end up knowing many of the songs included in their setlist that night (which was cool all the same). The first song by them that I heard was a grateful shit, followed up by their first album, and then The Avoided Sun, which remains one of my favourite albums in general! I am also extremely fond of their single Adore, for the b-side on it: an illusion. I kept up with listening to all their releases until LIGHTNING, after which (for some strange reason), I fell out of touch with their new material.
All this is to say that, despite not recognizing all that many songs that were played, I am definitely a fan of their sound in general and had a really great time.
Getting into the venue felt very dramatic in and of itself as we climbed the gargantuan stairs to head up to the second level, rounding the curved outer corridor once inside to find the quadrant and row that our seat was located in. Though I was high up in the stands, I had a great view of both the stage, and the Japanese flag hanging in the centre of the ceiling.
When the lights in the room darkened and lynch. began taking to the stage, we all stood and from there, the performance was dark, loud, and filled with melodic pockets of respite. Aside from their awesome sound, the visual effects that accompanied the performance were impressive as well (flame machines! lasers! cool videography!).
Hazuki kept remarking that the whole experience felt surreal, that even being on the stage that all of them had been aiming for for so long, it was hard to believe that it was actually happening — or feel nervous, due to all the rehearsing they’d done.
Everyone gave a heartfelt speech around the midway point, but none more than their bassist, who took accountability for his actions that had led to the original postponement of their performance at the milestone of a venue, apologizing, and thanking everyone for still believing in and supporting the band.
The air was kind of cleared after that and they played the remaining songs on their setlist with renewed vigor, or rather, with a different sort of vigor. Hazuki’s vocals, more often than not, dragged us all to hell.
Right towards the end, they brought out a daruma, which Hazuki explained had been gifted to them by a fan, years back, hoping they would (I think — I may be mis-remembering) do a nationwide Zepp venue tour. They accomplished that and so drew in the daruma’s first eye. Their next goal was to play Budoukan, and they’d been holding on to the daruma for years so that, tonight, they could finally fulfill that dream and colour in the daruma’s second eye.
Which they did: Hazuki took out a black marker and drew in another eye.
Then, he placed the daruma onstage where it could oversee the last song(s) they played for the evening.
It was a truly awesome performance, and I’m glad I got to attend for such a big milestone.
When it was over, and we had clapped until they left the stage, people were asked to leave the venue by section to try to avoid overcrowding the exits and the subway entrances. Even after I left, I hung around off to the side of the subway entrance just to let the majority of people leave before me, as I wasn’t in any mood to be squished inside a train carriage if I could avoid it.
After the relative heat of the venue, being out in the cool (albeit damp) night air was a relief, though when I finally did get home (picking up something to eat along the way), I was more than ready to get out of my damp clothes and eat while watching the Japan v Germany world cup match. Then take a long, hot bath, and curl up in bed, to go back to sleep…