[2024.09.26] Arimura Ryutaro x deadman - Shinjuku Loft presents "2 TO 2 Vol. 7"

 

On the day of this live, i looked on twitter and found someone selling an okay-ish ticket for 6000yen. (Original price was 7000+fees, i think.)

I hadn't seen deadman since their tour final in June, so I decided to go see them on a whim. My spouse wanted to go too, but he had to stay home because he was sick. 

I promised him I'd buy him a couple cheki, then I was on my way.

I met the ticket seller around 15 mins before the opening time, got my ticket, and waited to enter.

Jeez, Kabukicho is filthy. But everyone knows that.

Once I got in, i made a beeline for the floor and found myself an acceptable spot. For some reason, I was convinced that deadman would be playing first, even though it was literally aie's birthday. I was pretty surprised to find that Ryutaro was first.

I've never listened to Ryutaro or Plastic Tree before, so I had no idea what he’s sound like. It was a lot slower and pop-ier than I expected.

Not really my thing, to be honest. I don’t think I like his voice that much.

The has a bit of a strange layout going on. Instead of the drums being in the back, they had the drums on the shimote side, the bass and keyboard in the back, and Ryutaro and Yusuke in the front, with Ryutaro in the middle and Yusuke on he kamite side.

One thing I found interesting was that he changed guitars 5 times within the first 30 minutes. I thought that was pretty overkill, especially since Loft is such a small venue. (By the way, I’ve never seen aie change guitars. It’s always the same one.)

The crowd wasn't too responsive with Ryutaro's set - he kept encouraging people to pump their fists and stuff, but the reactions were lukewarm at best.

When his set ended, one or two rows' worth of people moved to the back and I ended up a little bit closer to the stage. I took a spot somewhere near the shimote side and watched some drama unfold between two middle aged bangya bickering over a spot. I also heard two people somewhere who were obviously from my country, but I was too chicken to talk to them. (I would've had to push past a few people and I didn't feel like doing that.) Oh well, maybe I'll make some irl bangya friends someday.

deadman came in and this was their setlist. A few songs from the Genealogie der Moral album, plus some classics.

It's been a while since I've seen them, so it felt like I was coming home.

Blood is their most furi-heavy song, and I'm pleased to report that I did the furi perfectly this time. I've been going to deadman regularly for 2 years, and I can finally say that I know it by heart and I don't need to follow other people's movements, haha.

(By the way, the song is re:make, not re:mark. I pulled the setlist off livefans and they got it wrong, but I can't be bothered to change it.) 

It's been almost a month since this live happened (I'm typing this in october) so I can't really remember much about how the members looked like, but I had a fun time, the music was good, and I'm happy to be seeing them again.

Once the live was over, I made a beeline for the merch table.

Oops, no deadman cheki today. Only kazu cheki. So I bought one kazu cheki, and got my spouse an Asanao scarf.

The kazu cheki was signed! I think he probably does this for all his cheki. I don't know, this is my first time buying kazu cheki. Anyway, I guess it's worth the 2000yen a pop... sometimes. He looks the same at every live so if it weren't for the date, you wouldn't know when the cheki is from.

The asanao scarf (or headband) is like a silky synthetic material, and it came with a doodle! 

I'm not sure who it's supposed to be, but the merch lady giggled when she brought it out.

My spouse says it's a character from Osomatsu-san. (I have no idea who.)

All in all, I had a lot of fun, and I'm excited to be going to deadman again!