Noel gift for a boring weekend

I would have died after having all the depressions, stresses and hopelessness splash onto my face one by one nonstop for one week if either I had not shamelessly asked Z for the DVDs or he was a stingy cheapskate. Aarigatou gouzaimasu! (bow bow)

Both DVDs are impressive in their own ways. The best order to watch is Go!Go!7188 's "Gonbuto tour" and then Pe’Z's "Realive".





Don’t try another way around, you will only end up falling asleep at the middle of Pe’Z’s high-class jamming. Go!Go!7188 youthful and upbeat surf rock is as good as 7up mixed with wine at the ratio of 1:2 and all drank up in one gulp, alcoholic enough to get you hyper and ready for Pe’Z sophisticated craziness.

Melodic and “untamed” jamming is the most appropriate words to adequately sum up the overall event of both live-shows. It is obvious that no musician would dare come onstage unprepared. Main themes, melodies, jams and even improvisations must have gone through a meticulous process of composition, editing, experimenting and polishing and thousand hours of practicing and combining. At least, this is what I have experienced through my 2 years in a school’s amateur guitar ensemble. I am sure that professional musicians must have to suffer/enjoy 1000 times more than me. For unknown reason, once they step onstage and expose to thousands of audience, these musicians perform as if they all have just escaped from some mental hospital nearby: crazy, coarse, nonsensical, random and unpredictable. However, with a/many touch/touches of magic/exceptional skill, these musicians manage to bring out the best from these disorders and chaos. Not only the melody, the atmosphere but also the emotion, ideology, motivation and inspiration. If a picture can speak thousand words, I bet their music must speak thousand to the power of thousand words. Sound and rhythm have never been that powerful.

If both bands have this one point in common, they have 1000 points to stand distinguishingly from the each other and distinctively among their peers. I am not talking in term of genres they play (of course, even deaf or dumbass knows that Go!Go!7188 plays surf rock whereas Pe’Z plays Jazz which they claim “It’s not Jazz but Pe’z”). What I am talking about is the certain impressions and feelings that both bands have presented through their excellent performances.

Go!Go!7188 wakes up the 17’s and 18’s inside each person. Excitement, enthusiasm, happiness, reminiscence and even anger are woven into songs by the exhaustive but simple effect-distorted and feminine guitar of Yuu’s; bordered firmly by the consistent, solid, supportive wide-range bass-line from Akko; finally sewed up and embroidered by timely and accurate drumbeat from Takki. Everything is so refined that when you listen to their music, you can feel every single thread on their musical fabric. So original and inspiring that sometimes, I thought the songs are written specially only for me. Go!Go!7188 has shown that they have much more potential to develop than that what it takes to become who they are today. Nice duet with some pop elements spice up and neutralize the fluctuating Yuu’s singing and early Go!Go!7188’s rough rock melody. The set list is in order of: Loud – Less Loud –Loudest (Loud may not be a very good word to describe but I prefer it to any other words). Z told me that the end is very anti-climax. Maybe not! Maybe that is just because fans want more from them but Go!Go!7188 would rather leave their fans wanting more than gives it all to them.





Let’s move to visual effect which contributes 99% reasons to the release of the DVD. Stage was packed with guitar effect sets, mikes, huge amplifiers but still it did not look stuffy. Nevertheless, it provides a safe, friendly and familiar haven for 3 members to jam and totally ignore whatever is happening outside the stage. Akki acts as the only bridge between that haven and outside world which thousands of fans are staring at the haven and standing in awe of the band. Lack of interaction with fans may be a disadvantage to the singers but who cares in case of Go!Go!7188. They are too good to resist.
The transition between different parts of the concert was done smoothly, quickly (literally just in a blink) but no less impressively and powerfully by the curtain fall. Go!Go!7188’s unique oriental art is captivatingly, boldly and smartly emphasized and projected in a gigantic scale on each curtain. I wonder which bloody genius has designed all the cover arts and logos for Go!Go!7188. What I like about those cover arts and logos is that they are various and never fixed. Go!Go!7188 change logos/mascots in every release which, I think, is hip, trendy and flexible just like how teenagers keep changing their taste in fashion for a more refreshing look.
One example
Pix:



Art work



In track 10, the stage was lighted up by a number of huge candles, romantic and unforgettable! >________< href="http://marbowcurry.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/7188.jpg">
No doubt about the reason why Go!Go!7188 was the first artist in my Japanese music folder (even before TJ, which I also don’t know why).

But Go!Go!7188’s craziness and hyper are just one tenth of that of Pe’Z. Pe’Z = ultimate wild and fanatical.

Z said that Pe’Z is sleep-inducing but I don’t think so. I can listen to them, more exactly, watch them performing for 6 hours straight without falling asleep (of course, must watch it with someone who likes the same sort of music as me to make comment on not only music but also others non-music-related stuff like HZM’s hats and glasses=D).


Result: Hormone ranging.
Reasons:
- Hot boys with engaging performance. All looks as if they are possessed by some kinds of witchcraft.
- HZM ‘s jumpiness and retarded behaviour. He either was born insane or bangs his head against something real hard quite often. However, his talent is unquestionable. When his part comes, HZM seems like he just randomly plays any note on his trademark shabby, sticker-all-over-place keyboard (must be very durable though since at his rate of wracking and banging, any normal keyboard must have been heavily damaged to an unrecoverable condition and been thrown away mercilessly) and then goes on playing the rest of his improvisation. There is no melodic tune for you to hum along (maybe there is here and there but very few only). Most of the time, it is noise and noise in a screeching “groove” which amazingly goes well with the rest of band’s instruments. HZM may lose his mind when playing his stuff but I enjoy making sense of it. And it blows up my mind too. After watching HZM performing, I thought he could probably be the craziest and most talented pianist I have ever known (the latter part is not true but the former is certain). He looks much more like doing martial arts rather than playing music. =D. If I could choose, I would choose Izawa to be my husband and HZM to be my lover. However, he should have been given more lessons on fashion. His taste in hats is deteriorating severely. Maybe when HZM was still in Tokyo Jihen, his clothes must gone through the Shiina’s inspection to get approval. When he left, his sense of fashion just grows in a wrong direction. God saves his soul and whatever he feels like wearing.
- JAW seems to be the most normal and decent guy but BMW should be the hottest among all. His white-dyed hair and a Japanese-style patterned coat are perfect traits for a lady-killer nowadays. Both jam their trumpet/ sax with the same coolness as a guitarist’s.
- NIRE is also a cute guy. Sadly, he has to stick to his huge contra-bass throughout the show so he had not got the chance to show off his cuteness. I hope he would get one someday, maybe when scientists invent a new kind of pocket contra-bass.
- The drummer Kou is the most ah-beng looking with his shaved head, black sunglasses, silky baggy pants, tightly-buttoned-to-the-neck shirt and probably slippers down there. Who knows?


- Music = versatile but their melody is usually very brightening, warm and motivating. No sad songs. All sound positive to me at least. That’s the way music should be in this age where people are rotting under pressure and distress.
Highlight performance
- Snow in the sea: All time favourite any Pe’Z listeners. I am infatuated with HZM’s solo in this song.


- Na!Na!Na!: the reason also comes from HZM’ s merely retarded performance. Not exactly singing, rapping, speaking but mumbling, gibbering, screeching and screaming, enough to get all the audience jump up and down with him like they have never left the ground before.
- Sunny Cloudy: just happens to be personal taste, no specific explanation. For me, it is like saying “if Go!Go!7188 has Thundergirl, Pe’Z has Sunny Cloudy in equivalent”

For all these reasons, I feel guilty seemingly enjoying these DVDs more than their real owner does. But I am bewitched now. So off I go, continuing my campaign for these two DVDs.