So, last night I went to see this weird Japanese band in San Francisco, some spinoff of some idol group….
IT WAS AWESOME. The Regency Ballroom only has a capacity of around 2500, so it wasn't as grand a spectacle as their big arena shows, but the show was sold out, and the place was
packed.
I paid the extra $$$ for the VIP upgrade and took the day off from work to get in line early. I got to the venue around 11:15 a.m. (for a show that started at 9:30 p.m.) and was already #67 in the VIP line. I went to the merch table and the rest room as soon as I got inside (around 7:45), but I still managed to plant myself in the third row, more or less. The crush of humanity and the occasional surges caused by people trying to force their way to the front eventually pushed me back a few more rows, but I remained where I could see the facial expressions of everyone on the stage for the duration of the concert -- except when there were arms and camera phones in the way. (This one guy who was shooting long stretches of video in front of me made me wish for the ability to telekinetically fry those damn things.) I didn't take any pictures myself, but if you want to see any (or videos), I'm sure there must be plenty from this show online by now.
I love the picture on the back of the hoodie that I bought:
I also bought a t-shirt. They had one with the same picture as the hoodie, but I got this one instead, since it has a list of all the tour dates on the back. I think this one is actually rather amusing, since it looks like a generic shirt for any dumb metal band, and you can't even tell that it's a BABYMETAL shirt until you decipher the lettering. It would be even funnier if it said SAKURA GAKUIN.
And here's all the other stuff I picked up! The laminate and the towel were VIP perks. The SU-METAL card, live photos, temporary tattoo, and awadama candies (not pictured, already eaten) were gifts from other fans in line before the show. One of my friends complimented a young Japanese woman on the BiSH t-shirt she was wearing, so she gave copies of BiSH's latest single to all three of us!