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『09/29@Zepp Tokyo』
The September QUATTRO & Zepp tour has reached its final two days in Tokyo. Just when you might think it was going to end… we announced more shows for November and December! The finale is at Hamamatsu!!! We’ll look forward to it.
Today was the first of those two days. We got a cameraman to come in as a live reporter, so we’ll be posting some of his wonderful pictures.
Today was another good show～.
We’re hoping for your support tomorrow as well.
Good work.
「Our two shows in Nagoya are done」
It was a hot show tonight, too. It feels like the past two days went by in the blink of an eye. Thanks to our long tour, 9mm’s performances are kind of starting to enter a new domain — we have one leg in the door, sometimes taking it out only to put it back in there again — though that “kind of” part is still kinda looming there a bit… I lost my train of thought there, but what I’m trying to say is that we’re playing some really good shows lately. That’s how it is.
Amidst all that I received my new guitar, the second edition of the ESP Bricoleur. The body color’s GT with a gold top. This guy will guarantee the second half of the ZEPP tour having punch, too. I already used it on both the Nagoya shows and it’s got quite the sound! Next up we’re playing at the electric city of Sapporo, so I’m going to tear apart the night of the northern provinces with my guitar sound. Looking forward to it. Well then, later.
Here’s the rookie just before the first show in Nagoya, all glittering and full of promise.
「ZEPP halfway point」
Our ZEPP tour that started off with a show at Hiroshima QUATTRO has reached the halfway point today. It was a wild show tonight, too. It was completely packed all the way to the back of the venue and there were lots of people on the second floor standing up and dancing as well. Thanks to everyone who came. Let’s make it a hot show tomorrow, too. Dance your butts off and make lots of noise for us.
Since we had some free time on our way back from Osaka, we visited the spring-summer exhibition of lessthan*. It was really cool this time around as well. The designer Mr. dop took pictures of me modeling their T-shirts, so I’ll upload them here. The first one is a hand-drawn illustration by dop.
save THE QUEEN print.
This queen has some tricks up her sleeve.
In the previous picture, the lessthan staffer you can see in the mirror sure is stretching his achilles (lol)
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And here’s a bag with a guy’s face I got as a present for having my pictures taken. I’m already using it. I’ll also be playing our show tomorrow wearing lessthan’s T-shirt and pants! We’re going to be fired up for the second half of the ZEPP tour, too! See ya there!
「Two nights before Nagoya」
We played Hiroshima, Fukuoka and two days in Osaka, with our first show in Nagoya scheduled for tomorrow. It’s not unusual for us to play two unrelated shows on consecutive days, but playing Zepp two days in a row is something we haven’t done before. We’re having so much fun right now. The audiences and our live performance seem different, too.
By the way, I wonder if you all watched the Kamome PV? Just now turning on the TV in my hotel room, they showed a glimpse of it on some music program. Also, the last time I talked about this, I was mistaken when I said the choreographer was dancing in the video — it was, of course, the dancer who was doing the dancing. Apologies for that. This is going to be half excuse, half self-praise, but anyway. Not only does the PV this time not feature the band, it was first finished without us meeting the director or even going to the place of the shoot. We were in the middle of our tour, see. But even regardless of all that, combining the director’s ideas as well as our own image of the song, we received several versions of it that we checked out during our tour, and it was pretty much perfect from the get-go, with basically nothing we didn’t like about it. It only took a bit of brushing up to create the finished product that you’re now watching today. Watching it for the first time and seeing how little the gap between the finished product and the image we had of the song was — or rather, seeing just how awesome the synergy of the music and the footage was — we were all taken aback and just going “…amazing!“
And thus the PV for Kamome was born, combining its power to excite, the immense ability of the director who was able to catch that on film and the power of the choreography and the dance itself. AKB48 and EXILE, Girls’ Generation and the other K-POP artists, etc, they all have a number of PV’s where they dance in groups, but as of September 2011, a “PV with nothing but one person dancing solo throughout the song” is, to my knowledge, something found only in Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower” (or, well, just Thom Yorke rather than a dancer) and 9mm’s “Kamome”. And I think they’re both beautiful videos. If CS has a category for “solo dancer” PV’s, I think this’ll probably guarantee us a nomination, right? So it’ll be a confrontation with Radiohead… fufufufu… well, there’s probably no such category though.
Sorry this got so long. If you read this far and have yet to see the Kamome PV, definitely do search for it on YouTube or so and watch it, please. And for those of you who have seen it, feel free to watch it again. With that, let’s meet at Nagoya tomorrow.
「9/9 @ Kyushu, 9mm Day extra」
A day we’ve selfishly declared as 9mm Day!
Everyone, thank you very much for getting it and celebrating it with us!
The members and staff all had some serious fun.
We’re happy if you all had fun, too.
As a surprise, we received this wonderful cake from the Kyushu staff team!
Thank you ☆
We all ate it with pleasure!
It sure was huge though.
Born in 1999/9/9 (not really), we also took this chance to present Chihiro Kamijo with his birthday celebration plate!
It was seriously a really good day.
Thank you.
「999 (Kyu)shu @ Iichiko」
With 9mm… it’s gotta be Iichiko (lol)
So whenever we come to Kyushu, Iichiko always give us something or other.
This time, we received this as a present!
As a sequel to the apron we got… a “9mm Parabellum Bullet×iichiko” version of the backdrop they’re always using live!!! The members and staff we’re all moved by how good of a job they did with it.
Onto the commemorative picture without delay.
…Yep, a commemorative picture.
Like a family photo. (lol)
And then… it’s finally completed!!
The 9mm brew of Iichiko ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ
Taki did a taste test without delay.
Peeking from behind is Takuro, observing with great interest.
We’ll report more on the 9mm brew Iichiko on a later date.
「9/9 @ Kyushu, 9mm Day」
This year’s 9mm Day is a continuation to 2009/9/9… we got three 9’s lined up!
9/9.9 (Kyu)shu!!!!
First up, some live pictures!
The venue before the show!
The backdrop is the “999” from Budokan!
Together with the SE… everything turns an eerie red. The show’s about to start～.
The backdrop changed with the first song, “Survive”…
The illumination during “Hoshi ni Negai wo” was lovely.
9mm Day, part 1
Taki on keyboards!!
9mm Day, part 2
Changing instruments!!
It was a wild 9mm Day. Those of you who attended the show as well as those who weren’t able to, if you download the content using the trigger disc and look at the pictures here while listening… everyone is sure to relive the awesomeness that was 9mm Day!!
「BIG BOSS Fukuoka」
After making our way from Hiroshima to Fukuoka and having ramen with everyone… we headed to BIG BOSS Fukuoka! 9mm themselves tried out their signature models!
They signed a bunch of autographs!
Guitars and basses as well!
Finally, we took a commemorative picture with the employees of the store～!
Always treating us kindly when we suddenly pop by for a visit, thank you.
「9/7 @ Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO」
The restart of the Movement Moment Tour 2011!
Opening day at Hiroshima CLUB QUATTRO!!
It was a really charged up start to the tour!
We also went to Tower Records Hiroshima and wrote a comment card!
「Tour restart」
The staff already posted a blog regarding the “Kamome e.p.” that goes on sale tomorrow, but I thought I’d just write a little supplement on that.
Please go and watch the PV. This time around the members aren’t present at all, with only a female dancer being featured throughout the video. The choreographer (sic) was, naturally, dancing. I think it’s a really beautiful video. With any luck, you might see a commercial of it. You can probably also see it on EMI’s website.
Also, the second leg off the tour kicks off tomorrow at Hiroshima QUATTRO.
This past week has felt like a dream to me for some reason (even in spite of Senkou Riot — a full Yaon at nighttime is an awesome sight). I can’t remember August turning into September very well. I’ve just been listening to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. I do clearly remember the heavy rains coming down on Western Japan though (we haven’t been to play any shows in Mie or Wakayama yet, but I know 9mm has a lot of fans over there and I also have lots of friends and acquaintances from that area). But as we were commuting to Hiroshima today, I realized “this feels just like always… yep, this is it“, thus managing to return back to normal. We never went on a break, but we did have reduced activities. Which means it’s not just a restart, but a return to activity. Return to tour activity. I dunno, but I feel fired up. At any rate, I’m looking forward to the show. With that, later. See you in Hiroshima.
