J-Rock Evolution Jakarta [7th October 2012]

J-Rock Evolution 2012 was a tour of 6 Visual Kei bands to Asian countries that was held on October.
Bands taking part in the tour are: D=Out, SuG, Alice Nine, UNiTE, MUCC, and girugamesh.

In Jakarta, J-Rock Evolution was held on October 7th 2012 with MUCC, Alice Nine, and UNiTE at Skenoo Hall, Gandaria City, Jakarta.

Gandaria City is a new mall located between West Jakarta and South Jakarta. Anyway the address stated is at South Jakarta anyway. Jalan Sultan Iskandar Muda , Kebayoran Lama Selatan, Kebayoran Lama, Jakarta Selatan.  How to go there? The easiest one is by taxi. lol. It’s not a really good choice to go by TransJakarta anyway, the closest station was still around 1km away from Gandaria city, which is at Pasar Kebayoran Lama. But you can continue with minivan public transportation. Anyway, if you come from Blok M, there are some buses passed Gandaria City. You can choose this buses :

Kopaja AC S 13 Grogol – Ragunan Belakang
MetroMini S 74 Blok M – Rempoa
MetroMini S 71 Blok M – Bintaro Kodam
MetroMini S 611 Blok M – Lebak Bulus

Ticket price for J-ROCK EVOLUTION JAKARTA:
Festival: Rp. 400 000 (USD42)
VIP: Rp. 850 000 (USD90)
VVIP: Rp. 3 500 000 (USD370)

Seating arrangements:
VVIP: front rows seats, free-seating
VIP: behind VVIP, free-seating
Festival: behind VIP, free-standing

Kojacon was queueing from around 10 am that time. Actually meeting them from the press conference had made us pretty hype and impatient for the show. Some fans were coming from Japan, Singapore and even Australia. The queue was not very chaotic, typical of Japanese audience if I must say. Everything went well this time.  Around 2 pm , the venue gate was opened, and the vvip and vip fans got the chance to enter first. Inside the hall, the audience were warmed up with the pvs of the band which were shown by the two big screen in the left and right side of the stage. Cheers and screams were followed when their favorite bands were on the screen.

2.30 and the lights were toned down, the beat of SE: melt into UNiTE. was played. UNiTE. members, Yukimi (Dr.), Haku (Ba.), LiN (Gt), Shiina Mio (Gt) and YUI (vo), opened the J-rock Evolution 2012 after YUI shouted ‘JAKARTA…!!!’ and sang Io. Hysterical scream and cheers from the audience showed that the audience were really waiting for this show to start. Massive headbang from the audience was seen on the second song, TORIKAGO like obligation.

Then after the headbang, the audience got a short break. Yui started to talk both in English and Indonesia, to greet the audience. They only brought 6 songs in total. After the mc, they went on performing AIVIE and the audienced clapped hand with them. Then another headbang when World Wide Wish was played. In this song, UNiTE. members seems so hype when they got a positive cheers from the audience. Haku and Mio stepped to the front stage and got a lot of intereaction with the audience. YUI also jumped to the audience and spat his drinks to the audience. That song was really great to heat out the audience.

They closed their live with Starting Over, a song from their first album. The audience jumped and swung their lightstick too. In the end of the performance, UNiTE. said ‘Terima Kasih’ (thank you) and “Sampai jumpa lagi!” (see you next time).  Haku, LiN and Mio also throw their picks to the audience. Mio also took pictures of the audience with his iPad before leaving the stage.

UNiTE. Set list: 

SE:melt into UNiTE.
1.Io
2. TORIKAGO like obligation
-MC-
3.AIVIE
4.Love _Duck_Core_Nothing
5.world wide wish
-MC-
6.starting over

They changed the instruments every now and then, so after UNiTE’s finished performing, they did another check sound for MUCC. While waiting, many fans started to chant either MUCC or Alice Nine. But after several minutes passed, SE Chemical Parade from MUCC was played. The curtain was lifted and MUCC members entered the stage one by one. Satochi, Yukke, Miya then Tatsurou. All black and looked glamorously mysterious. Fans screams were at the topnotch. I saw Tatsurou and Miya barefooted, their new songs in the new album are rather beatable rock, a dance rock. And I was waiting a very hype and interesting stage act since their appearance already look great as rockers.

MUCC opened the stage with their hits, Falling Down. The audience jumped actively and several times Miya and Yukke exchanged their position to interact with the audience. Satoshi’s drum was crazy, the drum beat was so excellent. After Falling Down ended, Tatsurou tried to greet the audience in Indonesian by reading a text he brought. “Kami dari Jepang! Selamat Menikmati”, (We are from Japan! Please enjoy!”) but then the audience laughed and he found it annoying. “Ah, it’s difficult!” and he threw the paper. lol. He went on with, “All right? Are you ready!??” and Tatsuro started to play his harmonic before FUZZ was sung. The audience clapped their hands following the melody from Tatsurou’s harmonic. I would say that Tatsurou was really the person who can control the audience from the stage. His level as entertainer was superb. His intimidating aura can even be felt until the corner of the hall.

Ageha was great, audience did headbang throughout the song. Then when Ame no Orchestra was played, the audience calmed down. A beautiful ballad song, it is. When Miya played solo in the end of the song, the audience were gasping and really enjoyed the song.  As the song ended, Tatsurou gave a small mc talk. He said the audience were fabulous and they promised to come back to Indonesia. The show was continued with Nirvana. Another simple rock ballad. To be honest, this one is my most favorite song of MUCC latest songs. I was awed with throughout Nirvana performance then. After that a disco-rock Daishi Dance Arcadia was played and Tatsurou was dancing here and there. He even invited the audience to dance  so it’s kinda chaotic lol. Nevertheless, it was a very fun performance!!

During Mae e, Yukke and Miya came closer to the front stage and Tatsurou played his harmonic again. Ranchu was very hot because Miya’s guitar and Satochi’s strong drum beat urged the audience to headbang a lot. The atmosphere was even hotter when suddenly Tatsurou asked the audience to sit down (kinda forcing the audience to sit down because he mocked audience who don’t want to sit down lol, it’s funny in my opinion), then after everyone sat down, he asked the audience to jump together along with Satochi’s beat. I can say the audience’s tension were gradually getting higher after MUCC performance.

MUCC closed their performance with their new song which became the newest ending song for Naruto, Mother. The lyrics was really sad, it’s about the story of the unborn child feeling to the mother. The song melody itself is so calming. After Mother was ended, Yukke threw his pic, Satochi threw his drum stick, and Tatsurou promised that they will come again for another great show in Indonesia.

MUCC Set List:
SE Chemical Parade
1. Falling Down
2. Fukurou no Yurikago
3. Fuzz
4. Ageha
5. Utagoe
6. Saishuu Ressha
7. Ame no Orchestra
8. Nirvana
9. Arcadia featuring DAISHI DANCE
10. Kaze to Taiyou
11. Mae e
12. Ranchuu
13. Mother

Another wait for the sound check. When the curtain closed, since there was only one last band to perform, the audience started to chant, “Alice Nine! Alice Nine!”. Uh well, I never notice that Alice Nine fanbase is bigger than MUCC here. To know that MUCC is way senior than them, I thought the fans would be more in to MUCC. But well, Alice Nine, was not fail to fill up my expectation. The sound of cheers and calling from the audience during check sound was replied by them behind the curtain. Everyone thought, it was Alice Nine themselves who did the sound check, unfortunately during their net show, Alice Nine Channel in October, they told the audience that it was the staffs. lol. But they said they LOVE Jakarta’s crowd so yeah, that’s great.

Alice Nine entered the stage with white costumes they had for their Alice Nine Court #2 tour in 2012. Tora (Gt), Saga (Ba), Hiroto (Gt), Nao (Dr) and Shou (Vo) came and started to play Senkou. A powerful performance in the first song and right away heated up the audience who had waited them for a long time.  The audience also did furitsuke (hand dance/gesture used in vkei band) during RAINBOWS. Like Yukke and Miya, Hiroto and Tora also exchanged their position many times to get closer interaction with the audience. Shou also greeted the audience in Indonesian at the MC. Truthfully, most of the audience probably waited for Alice Nine because the cheers were pretty different with the other two.

Hana was played and the audience sang the song together with them. One particular thing of Indonesian audience is that we love to sing along with the performers. Maybe it’s pretty different with Japanese concert culture who does furitsuke, but every country does have their own particular characters right?! Hana and then continued with Fantasy. Both are beautiful rock ballad. Again the audience sang the song together when Hiroto played his guitar solo.

Shou greeted the audience again in Indonesian, saying “Mantap!” twice which reminded us with Ken from L’arc en Ciel did his MC in Indonesian in May. Shou’s ‘MANTAP’ got a great response too from the audience. After the MC, they continued performing Tsubasa. Shou moved forward and invited the audience to sing together and suddenly in one scene, he kissed Saga’s cheek as fanservice. To be honest, they gave a lot of fanservice this time around. Tora also danced happily round and round in his position lol. There’s also a scene when Tora felt hot and he threw away his outer fit. Luckily he had tshirt underneath his jacket lol.

Hiroto and Shou’s interaction who are pretty famous really spoiled the fans. They went around the stage so close each other, I can hear fans screaming in desperation looking at these two cute old men lol. Red Carpet Goin On was played. I think this song was the most rock one. Shou;s growl, the fans headbang, this song was the peak! I don’t really remember but there’s also an act from Saga where he licked his bass. It’s been a long time that he never did that anymore though, so I was surprised he did that suddenly in Jakarta’s live. During Shunkashuuto, Alice Nine did a member introduction where actually the fans who shouted their names.

Alice Nine closed their performance with the beautiful name. The most beautiful ballad I’ve heard so far. With a great lighting, Shou, Tora, Saga, and Hiroto, moved forward to the edge of the center stage and ended the song with the fans sang together with them. Alice Nine members threw away their stuffs to the audience after they finished their live, picks, drum sticks, bottles, towels. They also promised that they will come again to hold a show in Indonesia.

Each of them waved their hands and said goodbye before went inside the back stage. Then there’s Hiroto, the last one stayed on the stage, bowed a pretty long time to say thank you to the audience.

Alice Nine Setlist:

1. Senkou
2. Rainbow
3. Heart of Gold
4. Hana
5. HIGH COLLAR Naru Rondo
6. Fantasy
7. Tsubasa
8. Red Carpet Going On
9. Shunkashuutou
10. The Beautiful Name