1) Dance with God
2)I Think I Can
3) Mr. Droopy
4) Carnival
5) Blues Drive Monster
6) Instant Music
7) Comic Sonic
Funny Bunny
9) Swanky Street
10) Crazy Sunshine
11) One Life
12) Little Busters
13) Hybrid Rainbow
14) Advice
encores:
15) Ride on Shooting Star
16) Last Dinosaur

I guess I'll be the first to report, save for tidus (so you did make it to the show????)

My girlfriend and I got to the venue around quarter of 5, doors opened at 7. That meant 2+ hours of sitting in line, not that I'm complaining. I made some friends with the group in front of me and for the most time, the time passed pretty quickly. As door time got closer, the camera crew came out and started taking pics/vids of the line and stuff, and the All Ages bassist came out and did the same, pumping everyone up.

Around 7 they opened the doors, letting the Fast Pass ticket people in first, which I neglected to pay the 10 extra dollars for since I already had 10 dollars of Ticketmaster service fees (F YOU TICKETMASTER). Anyway, next time I definitely will splurge for the fast pass, as those guys got prime spots. I was not unhappy with my spot by any means, however. I ran right in and posted up pretty mucch right in front of Manabe, about 2 people behind the gate. My girlfriend went to get my T-shirts (I was going to get the 5 dollar noodles cd but I guess it was just a single?) So I just got the japanese/american buster T-shirt, and one for my brother.

All Ages came out about quarter to 8, and I was expecting the worse after reading the reviews on here, but I have to say I really enjoyed them. The songs weren't awesome, pretty punky for my tastes, vocals especially, but there were definitely 1 or 2 songs I really got into! The bassist, as mentioned multiple times was super fun to watch, him and the singer would switch sides of the stage constantly. The bassist jumped down into the crowd on my side and ran around in the crowd, and the singer stage dived into my side, so I got to touch both of them. The singer also splashed us with his water bottle, which was welcomed at that point. Anyway, it was a good set, aside from the annoying weeaboo's who were being really rude to them. Needless to say, by the end of their set, the bassist was naked save for his red/orange underwear.

Around 8:30, quarter of 9, the noodles came out. As always, Yoko was the only one really worth watching, the bassist was completely blah and the drummer was behind the drums...they played She, Her, Love My Life, Grease, Cover Me Shakespeare, and Ingrid Said, which was enough to make me happy since I'm really not a huge fan/don't know too much of their stuff. Another good set; by then I was pretty deaf and extremely hot.

Around 9:30 the pillows started coming out, it got 40x louder and more compact in the crowd....they just set up and went back in for a bit. Then around quarter of 10 they came out for good. They were met with a roar from the crowd and Sawao did his intro into Dance with God. They went on into the setlist Tidus posted. As a side note, I really don't understand the bashing of the bassist, he was really nice, he moved around a lot, he was fun to watch, he fit in pretty well. So what if his technical skill prohibited a few things? We're lucky we got him at all...
Highlights:
-Sawao pointing his guitar at the crowd like a gun/jumping around like crazy/overall being Sawao
-Motherfucking Swanky Street! That made my whole night, I read it on the setlist when they were setting up and just waiting eagerly, it literally made me swell up
-Manabe's solo in Swanky Street
-Sawao's vocals in Swanky Street
-Sawao's earthquake speech leading into One Life, and then the feel good-ness of One Life
-Manabe smiling at me during Little Busters
-Mr. Droopy (It was just really great to hear that tonight, it hit the spot)
-Rookie Jet was awesomeee

After it ended I waited around as long as possible inside, but the bitch security pushed me out with no pick or setlist...
I was pretty disappointed, but luckily my GF was really tolerant of my super-fan-ness and waited around for an hour outside of the place. We ran back and forth from the side exit to the main exit waiting for them, and after about an hour, we caught them at the main exit. By the time I got there, Shin, the bassist, and the noodles made it into the van. Manabe and Sawao were swamped, but I got Kool Spice signed by both of them (they both gave a very happy approval) and a picture with Manabe, plus one of me and my girlfriend and Sawao (thanks if one of you guys were the one that took the shot). I didn't want to bother Shin since he was all the way in the back of the van, but now it is my mission to complete the tri-fecta.
On top of that, I got a pic with the All Ages bassist, who took his pants down for the pic. Epic.

I got parts of Swanky Street on video, and a few other vids, and a bunch of pics (200+) but I don't have a cable to get them on my comp so I'll put some up as soon as I get them on a disc at the store.
Overall, definitely one of the best nights of my life, such a great time, such a great night!!!

EDIT: Tidus forgot Rookie Jet in the setlist.

While I normally don't speak for everyone, I think I can (fairly) safely say for the LA and SF goers, we want Swanky next year. Grats and lucky to you guys though, sounds like it was a great show.

Was good.

You know, it's nice to know Sawao took our [the LA busters] request to heart.




To everyone who has now seen Swanky Street performed live:


You owe us.

[quote="MyFoot"]As a side note, I really don't understand the bashing of the bassist, he was really nice, he moved around a lot, he was fun to watch, he fit in pretty well. So what if his technical skill prohibited a few things? We're lucky we got him at all...[/quote]

It is almost certain that it was the bassist fault that LA and SF did not get Swanky Street! How could you not bash someone who cost you SWANKY STREET!?

I was hoping the Swanky Street shirt incident at the SF show last year would be enough to convince Sawao to play it this year. But apparently they needed pleading from fans at the LA and SF shows this year before deciding to add it to the US setlist

--And speaking of which, no. Honestly, it's Sawao's fault for not asking the bassist to learn Swanky Street until before the Seattle show. It was the bassist's fault [i]last year[/i] that they didn't play Swanky Street on request.

It was amazing, man

I think I was right next to you MyFoot. White pillows shirt, filming, tallish? Kool Spice... There was a guy directly behind me who kept shouting NAKED SHUFFLE! and MONOCHROME LOVERS! over and over again. I eventually got annoyed by it and shouted THEY'RE NOT GONNA PLAY IT! in a request shout out manner. I think he swore at me after that. I was close to sheer and mare for the opening acts, but I lost a few positions backwards. Not many, just about four people, not a big deal. Raid's girlfriend and friend I think and two others. I kinda dry humped a girl (or three) early on when I had to jump with the crowd... lol not my intention, but not really a problem either.

Also! When All Ages bassist jumped into the crowd to play, he stumbled climbing back over the rail. I, another fan, and a stage security guy lifted him up by the legs and shoulders to pull his ass over the rail. And the singer stage dived right on top of me too! I thought they were a nice opener, fun energetic. The music they've written is what it is, and there was a measurable amount of interest loss that kicked in near the end, but whatever.

Noodles were Noodles. Good performances, a couple songs that were a tad boring, but they sounded good. I don't want to sound like a perv but I couldn't help notice Ayumi's breasts bouncing furiously as she was drumming. I kinda feel like she should know what garments to wear while performing? I said something in the ballpark of I LOVE DRUMMERS! a couple times lol.

Before the show, in line shortly after mare and sheer went ahead of us, camera crew guys pulled me out of the line for a single photo! I think my orange shirt stood out for them. I turned my buster armband to face the camera with a fist pump kind of pose, I hope the picture looks ok and that they use it somewhere.

Manabe nailed everything. After he warmed up with Dance With God it was sweet, beautiful delights throughout. I thought they had a pretty good sound mix this time around. And no Doggie Howl.

Sleep now, more later.

I was in the black "drummer buster" shirt from last tour, so the white shirt wasn't me, but I was a few people ahead of you in line, I saw you get pulled out (didn't know it was you at the time). Very cool.

Yeah, the requests got pretty annoying...my GF told me later on that one guy kept asking them to play "Can You Feel It" when I was describing to her Hybrid Rainbow

Moved most of the moshing discussion to its own topic. Keep this thread directly relevant to the shows.

It's also possible they just needed a little more practice and weren't ready to play Swanky Street at the first two shows. Who knows?

I just wanted to hear 1989. Not like that's gonna happen.

Awesome show overall. We'll see when my gf gets the video off of her camera, but I think Manabe pulled a near-flawless solo on Swanky Street (my best friend told me he did it perfect at Seattle and I thought he was definitely exaggerating, only to have one or two muted notes as the only mistakes I noticed while focusing intensely on DAT SOLO). Set was fantastic, cried a little during a few songs (most particularly Swanky Street).

All Ages were WAY better this time than three years ago, though the music got pretty samey and the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaatashi wa song made me a little annoyed from the awful stress patterns/pronunciation, but whatever. The bassist would have been better advised to just keep his damn pants on, imo, but he did put on a great show. I mused to team IM that I wondered what it must feel like to get upstaged by your bassist at every show, lol. Noodles did pretty well, Yoko would still rather ruin decent/good songs with 30 seconds of "my first guitar solo" than actually learn to play her instrument or cut the guitar solos out to keep the flow of the song going, but the last three songs on the set were really good.

There was one girl who kept not only trying to shove her way through to the very front to the annoyance of pretty much everyone there the entire show (Lmd2131 and I did not let that bitch through, and I told her three times that there simply was not room and it was not going to happen, but it didn't stop her from trying to weakly push her arm up through to squish in, like the feeble moron she was), who also tried to stomp my fucking hand TWICE when I tried to pick up Lmd's dropped Manabe pick, and then she bitched to everyone about how I had too many guitar picks already because I excitedly told people around me about how this was the third time he's given me one, as if she deserved one somehow lol.

Speaking of picks, I also got one from Manabe, thrown right to me. When they first came out onto the stage to get set up before playing, I called out to him that he'll always be my hero in Japanese (lol), and he grinned, walked up to his mic stand, and tossed me a pick while holding eye contact. I easily snagged it despite all the other people around trying to get it, lol. I kind of wonder if he would have specifically tossed me another one or what if I hadn't have managed to get it, since this is the third time he's purposefully given me a pick. I know most everyone thinks that OMG HE THREW IT TO ME when they catch a pick, but this combined with him putting it right into my hand in Takasaki are pretty clear-cut cases.

Sawao's rock and roll attitude has gotten worse. I got Swanky Street signed after the show, and when I told Manabe about how much the song means to me, he listened attentively, said thank you and gave me a handshake with a huge, warm smile. Classic Manabe. Sawao, on the other hand, gave a distracted "aa" and turned to the next signature. It's kind of sad when you neglect to take the two seconds required to acknowledge a fan's heartfelt sentiment because you're just too busy being a "rock star" or whatever. My girlfriend said "thank you so much for granting everyone's request and playing swanky street" in Japanese, got the same "I'm not really paying attention to this shit" "aa" in response. Shin, of course, was just chillin' in the van and signing shit that got passed in to him like a boss.

I had a great time meeting up with Alucard, Cloudy, Lmd2131, Raid, and Sheer, though I wish Alucard could have hung with us more (he went with three of his friends and they ended up pretty much doing their own thing, sadly). Pizza at John's was fantastic, Spin was fun, the concert was amazing. Overall, this was the best concert etiquette I've seen at a pillows show in America, though that may be a rose-tinted opinion caused by having so many not-assholes all in one big chunk throughout pretty much the entire show.

Also, fucking LOL:
[img]http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3456/notthesmartestbusterint.png[/img]
OH MY GOD I SHOUTED ONE LIFE REPEATEDLY BETWEEN SONGS AND THEY EVENTUALLY PLAYED IT I AM GREAT REQUEST RECEIVER!111

Edit: Also
[img]https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/photos/photo12/a5/20/d35dd1a2fb30__1315839902000.jpeg[/img]
Ladybird girl single bonus pick, SF Slim's pick, Takasaki One Life GIVEN-DIRECTLY-INTO-MY-HAND pick, Gramercy pick.

Honestly I think Sawao was just tired, but I noticed what you are saying about the attitude, Mare. It's not easy to communicate with him, particularly this time around, whereas Manabe acts like the ambassador lol. They're also out of their element and no doubt the last thing they want to deal with after all this travel is an American fan they can't understand. But still.

I'll post a pic you guys should like-Hybrid Rainbow chaos bridge from 5 feet away. Gotta download the few pics I took...

Yeah, I'm sure him being exhausted as hell didn't help, but it's been a general trend towards a different attitude over time from the old Sawao. Also, unless he simply wasn't paying attention, he should have understood me, I speak pretty darn good Japanese lol. I know he did it to give the band a frontman such that they could actually succeed, and it's worked really damn well, but even three years back he was so much more involved when talking with fans after the show, despite being just as swarmed by people (or actually, moreso, at the particular time compared to this one). I don't really begrudge him it, it just made me a little sad, though it also reaffirmed how awesome a person Manabe is, that he's still so kind and humble despite all the success and fame.

Yeah, I'm sure Sawao was just tired. When I tried talking to him he was like "huh". He looked pretty exhausted, so I think we should give the guy a break. He signed my Happy Bivouac album though.

When I managed to tell Manabe that I flew from Puerto Rico (well, the girl that knew japanese that was next to me translated), he said "PUERTOOOO RICOOOOO" in the most Hispanic voice a Japanese man can manage, he then gave me a handshake and held my hand still and said "thank you, this is for you" and left me a pick in my hand. He signed my Happy Bivouac album, too.

It was nice meeting all of you guys. Lmd and Mare were fucking bro. I also met a few non-IM pillows fans that were pretty ecstatic about the whole thing. I couldn't contain my inner schoolgirl when Noodles started playing.

Some highlights of the whole thing

-All ages wasn't as bad as I expected. Still bad but not AS bad.
-Noodles was great, Ayumi takes the MVP status of the set. I talked to them a bit after the show. My girlfriend got them to sign "our first noodles" for me.
-The pillows were amazing, Manabe was the MVP on this one. Swanky Street was beautiful
-No moshing, but a minimal amount of people were pushing. Nothing that I haven't experienced before so me and my girlfriend were doing fine (her friend, however, was a bit overwhelmed)
-Sawao saying "I hate when USA and Japan fight, but when I see you at live shows I ALWAYS COME BACK" and before the encore he said "We are best friends" pointing to his Japan/USA buster-kun shirt.
-Monokuro bassist wasn't that bad, nice performance and he managed to keep up pretty well.
-Shin's "boom boom boom"

Best show ever, I hope they come back soon

I've never been so tired in my life.