氣志團万博2018 KISHIDAN EXPO 2018

KISHIDAN EXPO 2018 September 16th

When one mentions an “experience of a lifetime” I can only imagine something as fantastic as Kishidan Expo.

This was my very first music festival of this kind, by which I mean dozens of bands performing on different stages outdoors.

I’ve been excited about this festival not only because of the festival itself but because it meant I would take a bus that will use the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, an underwater expressway that connects Kawasaki city to Kisarazu city in the most direct way. It may sound weird to be excited about something like this, but I just think it’s really cool. Of course, that particular experience ended up being just 25 minutes of a long dark tunnel. I wasn’t disappointed but I did wish there would have been pretty mosaics on the tunnel walls instead of the plain white tiles. Oh well! The most important thing is that it brought me closer (not all the way unfortunately) to the festival area.

This annual festival is a two day event that takes place in Sodegaura Seaside Park; a beautiful area by the sea, perfect for such festivities. To get there though you either need a car or take a shuttle bus, so a shuttle bus we took! We got our bracelets and made our way to the park. The walk from the bus stop to the park was long but necessary to control the crowd.

There were two stages: Yassai Stage was the main stage where all artists performed 40 minute sets and Mossai Stage, the smaller stage, where artists performed 30 minute sets. All the performances were stacked with 5 minute breaks between a Yassai Stage concert and a Mossai Stage concert allowing people to run between each stage and catch all the shows if they felt suicidal.

We arrived a little late (the doors open at 9am with the opening act starting at 10:15) so we only caught about half of Golden Bomber’s set. We were greeted by “drummer” Kenji Darvish’s butt on the giant screens. He drew Sodegaura’s mascot on his back with his butt cheeks being the mascot’s mouth. It was… quite a sight. They sprayed him with water coming out of what appeared to be a woman inside a clam. It was too early to understand what was properly going on, especially with us coming in halfway through but they soon got to dancing and “playing” and performing a few more songs. They performed their newest single, Abare no Kyoku, and made sure there were dance instructions on the screens to get everyone joining in. Finally, they closed their set with their biggest hit, Memeshikute, for which EVERYONE joined and danced. It was a great way to start the day and people seemed in a great mood.

Our initial plan was to rest after that and wait for Orange Range, however we reached the Mossai Stage just as Berry Good Man started their set and so we decided to stick around for that. They were very cute and excited to be there. The crowd was significantly smaller but it didn’t seem to bother anyone.

After that, we had a well deserved break and had a delicious lunch, got some goods and headed back to the Mossai Stage to catch Orange Range and The GazettE. It had started to rain a little and it seemed like the weather was taking a turn for the worse. Luckily, Orange Range pulled their mighty Okinawa Power and it stopped raining as they got on stage. They opened strong with Shanghai Honey and got everyone jumping around. They then introduced their new song Ryukyu Wind and it didn’t stop anyone. The sun showed its face for the only time that day right before Ikenai Taiyou and people went wild. They closed their set with Kirikirimai and left the audience wanting more.

The crowd then split to two; those staying for The GazettE and those going to see Momoiro Cloverz on the main stage. While the staff organize the stage for the next band, people in the area can watch the performance that’s happening on the other stage on the screens. There was something amusing about watching a Momoiro Cloverz concert while waiting for The GazettE.

Before each concert, a short clip is shown introducing them and how they are connected to Kishidan (the headliners and creators of Kishidan Expo). The video for The GazettE, whose fans are known for crazy headbanging, they took the opportunity to ask people to warm up their necks and to headbang responsibly. Something that everyone took to heart and immediately started stretching their necks and getting ready.

This was a good idea as the band’s first song was Filth in the Beauty. Hair went flying everywhere, people went nuts and newcomers were left in awe. 4 more songs powerful songs were played and I woke up this morning unable to move my neck. I’m getting old.

After The GazettE, we rested some more. Ate some more. Drank some more then made our way to the Yassai stage to see HYDE. On our way there we saw people drenched in mud. See, it rained all day the day before, and a bit today so the ground was still wet and the area in front of the main stage was just a giant mud pit. This meant less people were at the front, but also that those that did go were ready to go crazy and drown in mud if need be.

HYDE got on stage and took the risky path of singing a bunch of unreleased songs. He has performed them on his tour, but they were less accessible to the other festival goers. To balance things out he busted out a newer version of L’Arc en Ciel classic Honey and immediately the audience doubled in size. From there he played more familiar songs and closed with Midnight Celebration II. Immediately after him on the Mossai Stage were 2 concerts that people were very much looking for: Yabai T-shirts yasan and MIYAVI.

I was unaware of Yabai’s immense popularity so I was very suprised at the sheer number of people at the small stage. It was impossible to even get to the area as people were spilling from it to every possible crevice they could find.

Yabai’s music was a mix of punk-rock and idol-vocals with the band’s bass player, Shibata Aribobo, providing some very high pitched vocals. The crowd absolutely adored them though so I hope that if they are invited again next year that they’d get to be on the main stage.

Once Yabai were done, a lot of people left in order to see the legendary The Alfee perform while we made our way closer to the stage to prepare for MIYAVI.

In MIYAVI’s introduction video, Kishidan’s Show mentioned he tried to play the guitar like MIYAVI but no sound came out and he just hurt his fingers. He also was in awe of MIYAVI’s ability to look so cool while playing in the rain, a statement with which everyone in the audience agreed strongly.

MIYAVI then came on stage and opened with Flashback, a currently very popular song of his. He then raised the stakes by playing Dancing With My Fingers. A couple more songs and then he invited HYDE on stage. This was something everyone was expecting and hoping would happen as the pair have collaborated on MIYAVI’s song All My Life. It would have been extremely disappointing if they had not performed the song together since both of them were at the festival on the same day.

They performed the song and HYDE even got a peck on the cheek from MIYAVI. HYDE then left and MIYAVI performed a couple more songs.

MIYAVI’s concert was the last one on the Mossai stage and so people started to make their way either towards the main stage for the final concert of the day or towards the shuttle buses to start their very long way home.

We decided to watch Kishidan’s concert from the food area through a screen as our feet were killing us and we could barely move any longer.

Unfortunately due to distance, I had to make my way home before their set ended, but we got to hear One Night Carnival, so all was good.

We made the long walk back to the shuttle buses, on to a train, then the Aqualine bus, then another train and finally I got home.

As I said in the beginning, this was an experience of a lifetime. It was magical, extraordinary, fantastic, and every other huge adjective you can think of. The bands were absolutely incredible of courses, but I was in awe of the production and organization of such an event. Everything was on schedule, everything ran smoothly. The venue was clean and the lines were never too long to handle. I can’t wait to see who will perform next year!

Thank you Kishidan and all the artists for giving it their all and rocking our hearts!

Setlists:

Golden Bomber

01. 酔わせてモヒート

02. 綺麗になりたくて

03. 抱きしめてシュヴァルツ

04. やさしくしてね

05. タツオ…嫁を俺にくれ

06. 暴れ曲

07. まさし

08. 女々しくて

Berry Good Man

01. Sixth Sense
02. まずはそこから
03. Brand New World
04. ドリームキャッチャー
05. Vibes UP!!
06. ライオン
07. ベリーグッド

Orange Range

01. 上海ハニー

02. RyukyuWind

03. 以心電信

04. イケナイ太陽

05. キリキリマイ

The GazettE

01. Filth in the beauty

02. INSIDE BEAST

03. UGLY

04. ABHOR GOD

05. TOMORROW NEVER DIES

HYDE

01. FAKE DIVINE

02. AFTER LIGHT

03. ANOTHER MOMENT

04. HONEY

05. RISE UP

06. AHEAD

07. MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION Ⅱ

やばいTシャツ屋さん

01. Tank-top in your heart

02. あつまれ!パーティーピーポー

03. 鬼POP激キャッチー最強ハイパーウルトラミュージック

04. L・O・V・Eタオル

05. 無線LANばり便利

06. ヤバみ

07. ハッピーウェディング前ソング

MIYAVI

01.  Flashback

02. Dancing With My Fingers

03. In Crowd

04. All My Life feat. HYDE

05. Firebird

06. DAY 1
07. What’s My Name? DAY 2 MIX

氣志團

01.スパトニックシティ・ブヒブヒ

02. 鉄のハート

03.走れ正直もの（直太朗&スカパラ）

04.踊るぽんぽこりん（ももクロ）

05.落陽

06.ワンナイトカーニバル

「奇跡じゃね？皆と同じ事思ってるの、、、この曲飽きた」

07.ワンナイトカーニバル〜O.N.C〜