Miyavi World Tour Los Angeles Review 5/16/08

I went to the Los Angeles concert last night, and my god, it was amazing. We waited 18 hours for this one, in the blistering heat in downtown Hollywood. Many people would walk by us, asking who we were waiting for. Many, praised us for our excruciating determination. However, some would just laugh and walk on by. Arriving at 4am, I found my friends, and we sat there for a few moments. Since many of us realized we were hungry, we decided to walk to the Starbucks down the street, and grab some coffees. After probably freaking out the cashier, since we had so many beverages to order, yet no one really to grab them all, we made our way back to the line. Time slowly crept by, as we watched the people in front of us who had been there since the night before. Astonishing really, that you could wait so long for a single person, just for a few hours, if that, of concert. Although we made friends with everyone, as the time went by. We sat there for a few moments, watching the sun rise, which I’d never thought was more beautiful than this morning. As 8am rolled around, people started lining up even more. The tired feelings of lack of sleep, and nutrition were really starting to hit hard. It was as though, a sudden sleeping powder had been forced, and we all became tired. However, I could not let myself sleep, since I was so interested in who was around me. A few moments after 8:30, we were told to move the other way, because the construction workers had to do their job, so we did so without hesitation.

All of us still kept our original places in line, which was nice, since we wouldn’t have to fight that way. It made it easier for us to keep our cool, and others to be where they were. As 10 rolled by, the weather decided to get a lot warmer. People who had brought umbrellas or other forms of protection pulled them out to shade themselves from being cooked under the insanely hot sun. Some of my other friends were arriving around now, and begun lining up with us. However, they brought the thing that would help us survive; food and water. Since the temperature was getting so high, another friend decided that it would be a good idea to get a cooler with ice in order to keep the waters cold. So she ran off to do that, while we continued to wait in the blistering sun.

We’d noticed that Miyavi wasn’t on the lineup for the Avalon, and were quick to make a lineup for him. Since he was who we were waiting for so excitedly, he deserved to be on that lineup.

After a couple hours of dying in the heat, and praying it would rain, although knowing it wouldn’t; they moved us again. It was 2pm now, and they moved us back to where the construction workers had moved us away from the previous time. Now, we’d known the people who were at the front of the line, to be surprised that they were people we’d known off the internet, which was a pleasant surprise since they shared their shade with us who were stuck in the sun. Also, they shared their food and their conversation. Which it was always a pleasant thing to have if you were sitting in the sun.

By now, I’m sure all of us were partially cooked lobsters, but the time was coming closer. 4pm, and we sat there, preparing to drop everything off in the cars that we wanted to. 6pm rolled by without even any notice, more people from our group bunched behind us. Everything we had was now tightly packed away in the cars, and our tickets, cellphones, and everything else was shoved into pockets. The last hour seemed to be the longest of them all, because it crawled by. Irritability creeping up into me, since the lack of sleep and nutrition was taking its toll. However, that all changed as soon as they let us into the building.

Again, we were in the front and able to closely interact. A bunch of things were thrown on the stage, and the managers or other staff were quick to grab them before Miyavi arrived on stage. It was so packed, but still just as incredible. I’m sure we were so close together, that we could be like sardines in a can. The LA show was much different than the Anaheim one, because they made us sit down before the show, just to be patient or whatever. Maybe they wanted us to calm down, so we could lose it during the concert, instead of getting tired prior to the concert. Also, they let us take pictures of the venue before the show, which was something Anaheim really would not let us do. If you took your camera out at Anaheim; you better expect to get pummeled. I did, but I felt kind of bad for doing so because Miyavi got so upset in his blog for us doing so, even though I took no pictures of him that night.

Then, the Kavki Boiz started coming out shortly after everyone begun standing up, one by one as they went to their respected places on the stage. The crowd was screaming so loud, I still don’t have my hearing back, and finally Miyavi came out. Similar to the way that he came out in Anaheim, in that slit open purple/silver Kimono with the fur trimming along it, a fan eloquently covering his face. Both seductive, and alluring at the same time. As though he was teasing us to figure out what was behind it, even though everyone already knew. He ran to both sides of the stage, and proceeded to tease the crowd by baring his shoulders every so often, and giving us a glimpse of his face before he threw the fan to the side of the stage. As though, he was trying to coax us into touching him at some point during the show. They started off with JPN Pride, just like they did for the Anaheim one. Although, there were some differences with this show, I’m unsure about the line up of the songs, but I do have a rough idea.

Many times, he teased the crowd by pushing himself basically into the front of the crowd, which is when security forced them to be there with him just in case the fans did something that he wouldn’t like. At one point, he was just standing at the railing; allowing everyone to just hug him, touch him, etc. He even spoke softly, and said, “I want you to touch me,” just making the crowd go crazy with anticipation of what that really meant to us. But then, in the middle, he pushed himself IN the crowd, like he was going to jump in crowd surf, and had the microphone over the crowd allowing them to sing. You could see his manager and staff frantically running around when he did this, like they were thinking “What on earth is he doing this for?!” since it was so possibly dangers to do be doing something so close to the audience. But then he quickly pushed himself back on the stage, and continued to move in his entrancing ways.

On many of the songs, he would make them longer than normal, getting to a near whisper when it came to some of them. When he sang Ossan Ossan Ore Nanbro, he made us sing it with him, getting to a whisper, when he snorted like he does on the CD. Everyone seemed to cheer at the awkward snort, as he played a huge smile on his face, that could have gone on for ages. The crowd to enthusiastically cheering for him, making everything so much more exhilarating.

There was a short intermission, when Teddy Loid just mixed up some of Miyavi’s songs for us to rave-dance to. The songs that I can remember him mixing up were Senor, Senora, Senorita, Freedom Fighters, and Pop is Dead. Everyone appeared to move to his beats like a flooding of water, as though we were all in the same current. We all moved together, and it was incredible. He would quickly move his hands up, to do the triangle look, and we’d all quickly follow after it. After a few moments of that, Miyavi came back out on stage in a new costume that was consisting of a black leather jacket, and sun glasses. Yes, he wore sun glasses in the building. He had a shapely black electric guitar, and was rocking out to some of his older songs. The crowd went insane, as we all sung along in sync with him. Inching towards the edge of the stage, he pulled his leather jacket off as though he was going to toss it into the crowd. However, he ended up tossing it over on the side of the stage instead. He was such a tease to the crowd, yet such a person to admire for his constant unknowings. He left again, to change once more, which is when all the Kavki Boiz got off the stage for a moment, to leave us not sure what was going on. A few people threw a banner on the stage, one that all the fans in the line had signed. It had a bunch of memories on it, and a lot of personal messages. When Saro was the first to come on the stage, he noticed it, and picked it up, unrolling it as he did. Miyavi came on shortly, and saw it as well. He picked it out of Saro’s hands, and kissed it. Then quickly put it on Teddy’s DJ stand for us all to see.

As the time went by, it gradually got to the part that everyone hates. He looked to the crowd, and instantly calmed us all down so he could speak. “Unfortunately,” was all he could get out at first, because the crowd was already causing a ruckus being upset, but then he finally got us to completely calm down, as he said, “Unfortunately, all things must come to an end.” The entire crowd seemed to boo with sadness, and all at the same time. I’m sure it hurt him, because he didn’t want to leave us, anymore than we wanted to leave him. He played the last song, which was Neo Visualizm. Everyone sang with him, and cheered as it ended. When he walked off stage, he threw his arms up excitedly, and smiled to the crowd.

Set List(in no order):JPN PRIDE, Hi no Hikari sae Todokanai Kono Basho de, Ossan Ossan Ore nanbro, Senor Senora Senorita(but it was a remix not him actually playing), Freedom Fighters(it was a remix as well), Pop is Dead(remix), are you ready to rock, Neo Visualizm, Kabuki Boys, What a Wonderful World, Kimi Ni Funky Monkey Vibration, 21st Century Blues, Memoirs of a Bushido, Kabuki Danshi, BOOM-HAH-BOOM-HAH-HAH, Shouri no V-ROCK, Please Please Please, Subabrashiki Kana, the Kavki Boiz played their own thing without Miyavi called We’re the Kavki Boiz, Rock no Gyakushuu -Super Star no Jouken-, Zikoai, Zigazisan, Ziisikikazyou, How to Love, and some newer things unheard before.

Difference from Anaheim; Teddy’s Mixing was a lot longer than how it was. Pop is Dead was also played by Teddy. There was just a lot more to Teddy’s mixing.

– Review written by Aisuru