Giggdy Giggdy.

And no, I don't really mean the type with a "goo" on the end.

I had my second gig in terms of my experience with a band and with my current band last weekend. We played the same 3 songs that we did at the outdoor festival event last time and an extra song too, by request of our drummer and to the dismay of myself as the vocalist.
The song he had chosen was 'Standing Sex' by X Japan. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow when he said it. Not because I dislike X Japan, no, I think they're quite spectacular, but for my style of singing it doesn't quite fit, and of all songs, 'Standing Sex'?! I'd have been much happier singing something like 'Rusty Nail'. There are hardly any vocals in the song, and even the parts that have vocals have a crappy melody that repeats itself and (what feels like) a 10 minute guitar solo in the middle. However, I was open to trying out new genres while we still do covers of songs and thought it might help in my experience of my performance on stage, rather than my actual singing. I was dreading it by the time the day of the gig drew nearer and mucked up the lyrics because I hadn't really bothered to learn them (the Engrish lyrics didn't make much sense and had little rhyme in it, which made it difficult for me to memorise anyway).

Nonetheless, we did X Japan as a closing song, with me mentioning that it was a "Omake" (extra/bonus) and meant I could bouce around the stage for a while and let my other band members take the spotlight.

In general, the gig was super fun. It is so much better in a hall, no matter how tiny it was (it housed about 50 or more people). Just the darkness of the stage, the lighting, the smoke (not by our request but by the PA who randomly played about with the lighting on the spot, though he did a very good job) made the atmosphere so much more different. Plus the sound was much better. I could hear myself more and therefore sang a little better than I did last time - at the outdoor festival, due to the bad sound quality I ended up belting myself out and sounding kinda crappy due to thinking my voice couldn't be heard over the band.

A bunch of my friends came to watch, including one who is very savvy with his camera, and he took some amazing shots of us. Here are a few of my favourites.

Doesn't our guitarist look hot in this pic?
I gave him fashion advice btw (of course you can see no influence
from a certain Japanese band I used to fangirl over *cough*)

And and do you like my outfit? That skirt is one of my favourites, by LA brand UNIF from the store EDGE which closed down in Sapporo a few months ago (sad news!), but you can still shop for things online, It's where I stock up on my Western brands which tend to fit me better, since the Western brands I like are hard to find here. The shirt I wore is also from UNIF, but I tied it up in a knot at the front and wore a now very old but still-loved vest/camisole top from Putumayo.


Halloween today, eh? Had I been back home in the UK I would've probably been prowling the streets in some wicked costume tonight. Prowling to a nightclub, not to knock on people's houses for sweets and chocolate, of course. I've always loved Halloween even though it's never been that big in the U.K. as it is in the States. Japan is creeping onto the trend, but mostly through adorable cakes and pumpkin pies (it's Japan, you can count on them to make anything cute) and dressing up is starting to get a little popular.

As we had our gig on Sunday I stayed the night at one of our guitarist's houses the night before as it was easier to get to the hall (I live a little further way from the other band members), and took the opportunity to dress up Halloween-y and have a drink or two at the bar my guitarist works out. All his co-workers were dressed up too, including him, and, with no real offence, it was really half-arsed. I showed up in my lolita skirt, corset, white contact lens, fangs with fake blood and showed them what it was all about.

I freaked out so many Japanese people it was delicious ;)

Hope you all have a spooktacular day.