[2024.11.01] Arlequin x deadman x MERRY x RAZOR x DEZERT "DEZERT Party Vol. 15" @ Ebisu Liquidroom

 



Whew! Just look at that lineup.

This live did not disappoint at all.

I’ve seen all of these bands except Merry, and I’ve wanted to see Merry for a while now.


After I was done at the Kizu pop up store in Shibuya, I headed over to Ebisu where I had a quick bite to eat before going to look at the day’s merch offerings.


It’s Sacchan from Dezert’s birthday week, so there was some Sacchan birthday merch. (Poor Sacchan was the only member to NOT get a birthday one man lol). I bought a sticker and the voice recording omamori for the lulz. The omamori was 3500yen, so those are some pricey lulz. I kinda regret not getting Miyako’s omamori in March - if I’d known that all the members would be getting one, I’d have gotten it too to complete the set.


After i was done with Dezert’s merch table, I had a look at Merry’s and the live-only single caught my eye. I decided to get that and a rubber band, because Merry’s the only participating band I’ve never seen and own zero merch of. The total came up to 2300yen, and the lady asked if I wanted to make my total 3300 for a free trading card. She recommended the Merry-Kuji lucky draw, which was 1000yen… I looked at the list of prizes and saw Meet&Greet at the top, so I did one roll… and got 2 stickers… of NOT Gara. Nooo did I just waste 1000yen??? Whatever, at least I got a Gara trading card.





Razor and deadman’s merch tables were closed, but deadman had a list of merch and the cheki entry was crossed out. My wallet sighed with relief, but I walked away disappointed. Oh well.


I spent a little over an hour waiting at a nearby cafe before going back to Liquidroom

 to wait for entry. I said hi to the deadman merch lady (who recognized me lmao) and asked about the cheki... and she said they MIGHT be selling Kazu cheki after the show, but not deadman. Apparently they only sell cheki at onemans. I guess I’ll have to wait another month to buy more Mako cheki, then.


I had a ticket that was around 290, so I wasn’t really expecting to be anywhere near the stage, but I ended up being in the 8th row when I first got in. Then it was time to wait.


There was no timetable announced, so the floor was abuzz with people speculating on the order of the performances. Okay, not to brag, but I knew the first act would be Merry once they started testing the instruments. There was only one guitar, and it was NOT aie, and both Razor and Arlequin have twin guitar setups. Elementary, my dear Watson.




At the end of the first song, Gara took off his jacket and flung it into the crowd. It landed somewhere in front of me and two fans caught it. One of them won the struggle and tied it firmly around her waist. He had this super oversized and sheer blouse underneath, and he kept exposing and teasingly licking his own shoulder. What a sight.

Then at some point in between songs, Gara took out a brush, some ink and paper, and wrote stuff on it to show the crowd - stuff like “keep shouting”, etc. Then he stuffed the inky paper into his mouth, spat it out along with a whole load of ink, and did the next song with ink all over him.


Chiaki came out for Japanese Modernist with his makeup done and hair not done. They sang together and Chiaki went backstage again.


Gara’s voice sounded really off for the last two songs - maybe it was because of all the ink in his mouth?


There wasn’t much movement after Merry’s set. The fan who lost the fight over Gara’s jacket asked the winner if she could take a picture of the jacket, and the winner said no. (Kind of a dick move, honestly. She just wanted a picture.) But not even 5 minutes later, a staff member came by and asked for the jacket back. Which was bound to happen - he’s not going to give away a new jacket at every show, lol. Anyway, the winner didn’t get a picture of the jacket either, so I guess no one really won.




I expected Arlequin next, but it turned out to be Razor. Chiaki prances out with one pigtail, and they started with Maisou and had us parting for a wall of death right off the bat. That was super fun. I love how everyone goes back to their original spots after moshing and stuff. Never change, vkei.


We got a few more headbang-heavy songs, and then it was Damian Fly. Another wall of death with Ryoga coming down to the floor and getting up on the 2nd barrier, which was pretty close behind me. He crowdsurfed for a bit and it was back to headbanging. You can actually see me in one of the videos of Ryoga crowdsurfing that Tsurugi uploaded to twitter, lol.



A few people in front of me moved out, but I didn’t get to move in front this time. A really loud gyao who had been behind me the whole time somehow slipped in front of me (don’t worry, I get the last laugh).

A gya who slid sideways in front of me somewhere along the way asked me to watch her stuff while she went away to get her drink. The audacity, lol. (I didn’t really care about that tbh. It was just funny.)

Then after she got back she suddenly turned around and said she was in a weird position and that her row was broken in two or something. Well, yeah, me and my spouse were going to take the two spots in front of us when you slipped in there, so…


So I asked, “well, what do you want to do then?”

And she was like, “the row’s here…” *gestures at the floor* “Do you want to move into this empty space next to me?”

And I’m like “what. no”


Weird situation all around.




I used to really love Arlequin, but slowly lost interest around the same time as when Aki started losing his “ears”. So I kind of know their old songs, but none of their new ones. 

Either way, I still remembered the furi for Dame Ningen, which was nice. (By the way, the last time I saw Arlequin live was also at Liquidroom, and it was during their twoman with MUCC last year.)


At the end of Arlequin’s set, Shohei threw two picks into the crowd. The second one seemed to land 2-3 rows in front of me, but the really loud gyao started searching for it frantically, so I assumed it was near him… except that he kept looking and looking. Then I looked down, and… it’s right in front of my foot. I picked it up and the gyao noticed my movement… and he looked at the Shohei pick with what I can only describe as disappointment and envy. (I’m exaggerating lol. But he did look pretty bummed out.)





Quite a few people moved away from the front rows after Arlequin, so I managed to move a little further in front just in time for deadman. I had a mediocre spot behind a tall dude in a Dezert shirt, but once I started headbanging he turned around and offered me the spot in front of him. Thank you, Chiaki gyao! It was an amazing spot right in front of Mako, and everyone in front of me was short so it felt like Mako was looking at me! I had a blast with the unobstructed view.


I totally expected Chiaki to follow the pattern from earlier and come out for a deadman song (my money was on lunch box), but that didn’t happen. Lunch box and re:make was great though. 

And I didn’t hear it (my spouse did) but apparently Mako sang a line from Dezert’s TODAY during dawn of the dead. Apparently he also did something similar during deadman & Dezert’s twoman two years ago. (I also went to that one, but at the time I was a total newbie and didn’t know any of the words to the songs lol.)


I went back to my original spot behind the tall dude and thanked him. The tall dude said to me, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you earlier!” and honestly that restored my faith in humanity.


Then I felt something under my foot. It's my Shohei pick! Did it fall out of my bag while I was walking around? Hmm, that's weird... Wait, no, it's a second Shohei pick! What are the chances?






Then I waited for a bit and it was Dezert’s turn on the stage. We did some light sideways moshing for Tokumei no Kamisama and then 2 other vocalists joined the fun for Satsui - a makeup-less Ryoga and Aki. Ryoga was in street clothes (and probably ready to leave) and he basically had the hood of his hoodie up the whole time. Can’t have us seeing your makeupless face!


Chiaki had us get ready for a wall of death again and said, this is visual kei, not death metal, so don’t be violent! These are the rules our predecessors made! (Referring to the light moshing that we do in vkei.) If you see someone fall, help them! 


And I swear, every time Chiaki says gyao stuff like this during lives, I just love him a little more. He’s a gyao down to the core, and he respects vkei as a genre so much. And the fact that he’s so proud to call himself and his band visual kei, even after their major debut… Goddamn, I hope Dezert continues on forever.


After a bit, Chiaki appeared on the floor right behind us and got us in a circle with him and Ryoga in the middle. I was soooo close to Chiaki oh my god. I was in the front row of the circle. Chiaki and Ryoga did a side hug and oritatami’d, while the rest of us did the same in their direction. Chiaki said something like “I bet you’ve never done this before!” and he was right. I hadn’t. I never expected to do something like that at a Dezert live!


At one point Chiaki was like, “You guys having fun?” *yeahhhh!* “You guys like visual kei?” *yeahhhh!*

My heart grew 3 sizes after that exchange.


Then it was time for Chiaki’s usual MC before Today. Chiaki talked about how all the participating Dezert Party bands are bands that have played with Dezert in the past. He talked about how he was super nervous about playing with Merry, because he used to listen to them in high school. Apparently he loved Merry more than Mucc and his top 3 at the time were Merry, Mucc, and Kagerou. He talked about how deadman said he was welcome to join their performance and do anything he wanted, but Chiaki was too chicken to do it.


He talked about the usual stuff, then talked about playing Budokan. 


“Arlequin said they’re aiming for Budokan. That’s great, I support you guys. I bet Razor’s aiming for Budokan too. And I’m sure Merry wants to play at Budokan again! But deadman… I want to see deadman play at O-East. I remember watching their last live DVD…”


Today always brings a little tear to my eye, and this time was no exception.


After Today, Chiaki said they’d just finished recording Ordinary, the song they’re going to be handing out at the Budokan live. So they played it.

I honestly don’t remember much of the song, but it was something like Today. (No surprises there.)


All in all, I had a great time there, and I’m glad I went. Am I glad that my spouse and I bought 4 tickets to get a better number, didn’t get a good number, and weren’t able to sell the bad tickets, so they went to waste? No, I’m never doing that again.


See you at the end of the year, Dezert. I’m glad I have you guys in my life.

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