BT international fan meeting! ha, that's the name we gave to their yearly 29th Dec Budokan live. after missing it for so many years, FINALLY we made it this year!

we arrived at Budokan at about 5pm. millions of ppl already queuing for tour goods. we didn't. not many special tour goods this year. a friend we met bought the tour book but it's all the pics from PV shooting. without the super cool Hide crushing the milk carton pic yo!!!! how could they not put that pic into the book?! anyway, after waiting for some time to get the tickets (we gotta find the friend who bought tickets for us) n meeting some other friends, we entered the hall at about 6.30 when over half of the audience were seated. our seats were in the last line of the 1st floor. actually the first line n the last line of the 1st floor doesn't make much difference cos 1st floor was already miles away from the stage. i wonder if the last part of the arena seats would be better cos the floor isn't sliding up. that means if all the ppl in the arena seats are standing in front of u, your sight would definitely be blocked! haha, we tried to find Papa, Mama, Imai's brother n other "related ppl" (like Asaki, J, Issay, Mizuta Hayato etc) but couldn't find anyone! perhaps they were in the first row of the arena seats. :D oh, n heard that Imai's family were actually seated in the first row of the 1st floor? but we're not sure...

7.15, the show started!!!!! the stage setting kinda strange cos every member had a little circle stage under them. more like each one got their own stage so made it quite difficult for them to run around. the first song came along with a very familiar intro n that was Iconoclasm!!!! all fans stood up to do the hand swing, counting 1, 2 n 5 with the band! Imai was in black. black biker jacket, fish net tee inside (the same one as in 21st Cherry Boy pv) black leather pants, black boots n black hair!! but this time, unlike in DtD, his black hair looked so great! kinda like a shorter version of Hide but in black. u know, with some hair flying up, the classic Hide hairdo. Hide in a fish net tee, black military pants, black boots (probably). U-ta in his usual suits. Ani...sorry, couldn't see him clearly. Atsushi! is that what are u waiting for? in a three-piece suits of red. his pants got some small folds under the waist line, just like those a middle age man would wear. anyway, he looked ok in that suits, IF HE DIDN'T TAKE OFF THE JACKET!!! but he did! the small vest tightly wrapped around his beer belly...errrr, n he was wearing a tight short sleeve tee inside the vest. imagine the picture? a tight little red vest but with patches of black showing under the neck n on the shoulders. that just doesn't look ok! they should seriously consider changing to a new stylist....sorry Yagi san...

back to the live. another anthem-like into started. yeah, that's really an anthem, National Media Boy! rememer the all in white raincoat pv of the song? we couldn't help laughing but enjoying the song. really couldn't imaging the would play that! the third song, Machine! definitely they had a good rehearsal for these songs cos i couldn't really recall they playing them in live except for the tour of the specific albums. the arrangement didn't change much from the studio version. what surprised me most is that they played Rakuen! the single version without the Hindu verse. a lot more powerful then the original version cos they tuned the instruments to a blasting volume. mixed with the melancholic lyrics, that's a very impressive feeling. even though Atsushi entered a wrong key (actually he got the wrong key n lyrics in some other songs, but...), i still love it love it yo! following that is Jupiter. the intro gave me flash back of Climax Together. fans were all stoned. is it gonna be a 15 years anniversary giveaway show?

of course new songs have to be performed! 21st Cherry Boy n Barairo no Hibi! everyone seemed so happy on stage, Imai n Hide running to the sides of the stage. god, Imai was just so cool~~~ couldn't take our eyes off him. back to the songs. very happy tunes with white lights shining, every fan dancing. particularly like the "hoo-hoohoohoo" chorus! but unfortunately (or it's fortunately?) Atsushi wasn't doing his dance as in the pv. Atsushi said, this is the first n last BT gig of the year. Aku no Hana followed. much similar to the version u know.

what came next was really a surprise. it's Misshitsu! very strong bass drums n guitar solo. it's really quite heart breaking when u see Atsushi sitting on the floor singing the sad lines. when the music nearly come to stop, the tone of lighting changed, so as music. Taiyo ni Korosareta began. simply this transitional phase made all fans scream. they were two of the "mysterious" songs that i've always wanted to see live. we joked what other songs we would want to hear in this live, maybe Sakura, maybe Cosmos etc...n then Sakura really appeared! very gentle n moving song. n then it was Speed. n Love Me. the old version of Love Me in Aku no Hana album. the dancing couldn't stop. then My Fuckin·Valentine, with Imai playing his weird antenna-like instrument (sorry, still don't know what it is called) Ash-ra (Atsushi: odori mashou~~~), n Die. U-ta jumped up n blew all fans a kiss before he went into backstage. so cute~~~~~

encore setlist: flame, rhapsody, in heaven, moonlight, n cosmos

Flame, strange song! it never sounds good in live. no matter how hard they try mix the studio backing chorus with Atsushi's live voice, it still doesn't sound good. same here. Rhapsody was a lot better though. with Imai's funny backing vocal n happy lyrics, it lights up the arena in an instant blow. the following In Heaven n Moonlight sounded like a straight cut from Koroshi no Shirabe album. didn't have much surprise. but when it came to Cosmos, all fans went completely quiet! the keyboard sound turned the hall into a floating space. of course all fans have to follow Atsushi in singing the chorus. what's more surprising is after the song ended, Atsushi still hold onto the mic n let the fan sing. that's so moving!!!! now we had our wish totally granted! first there was Sakura n now it's Cosmos! Let? just hope they (especially Atsushi) wouldn? have even more scary clothing for the tour·D