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Happy New Year, Blog-Tickers! It's officially Buck-Tick's 30th anniversary now, and it just so happens to also be the Year of the Red Fire Cock. Coincidence? We don't think so. Sure, your friends at work are probably genteelly insisting that it's the Year of the Rooster, but here on Blog-Tick, we call it like it is. This is also an excellent year to enjoy Sriracha Red Pepper Cock Sauce, so stock up while supplies last!
Anyhow, as y'all may have heard, Buck-Tick's plans for this momentous year are somewhat hazy at the moment. Following the Atom Miraiha Hall Tour Final at the Nippon Budoukan on December 29th, the following was announced:
For those of you who can't read Japanese: Buck-Tick's 30th anniversary project kicks off in September. They'll be playing a solo show outdoors on Odaiba, followed by a Day in Question national tour that will run from October through December. On December 23rd, they will play a Day in Question concert at Takasaki Arena, followed by the DIQ at the Budoukan on December 29th. They will then be releasing a new album in spring of 2018.
If you're confused about what this actually means, you're not alone. The Japanese fans are confused, too, not least because of the fact that there have been absolutely no announcements regarding whether or not Buck-Tick will undertake a general-admission standing tour to support Atom Miraiha No. 9. Their Fish Tanker's Only tour kicks off at the end of this month, but ticket sales have been unusually stagnant and some of the shows have now gone into an unheard-of fourth round of lotteries. Would they have sold more tickets if they'd made the shows general admission instead of fanclub-only? Almost certainly. Are they having management problems? We don't want to start rumors, but it certainly seems like it. For one thing, announcing an album to be released in spring of 2018 sounds more than a tad premature. Back when they were fresh-faced twentysomethings, Victor was known to work them like a slavedriver, forcing them to write and record songs while simultaneously touring the country...but this time around, they're supposedly still on Lingua Sounda, so shouldn't things be different? Plus, frankly, Buck-Tick are not the hot shit like they once were. If the stagnating Fish Tank ticket sales are any indication, they're losing popularity, not gaining it. They cannot possibly be Victor's cash cow anymore. Overworking the band at this mellow and mature point in their career seems like a waste.
Also, it's not looking like they'll be mounting a 30th anniversary festival, and if they were looking to attract new fans, that's a damn shame, because the 25th anniversary festival brought in a lot of new blood out of the visual kei scene. Festivals are a great way to get exposure to people who might like your music but aren't quite sure. Perhaps they decided not to mount one due to the logistical hell of dealing with all those contracts, but the 25th anniversary festival was such a lovely experience overall it's very disappointing that they seem to have chosen not to relive it. We can only hope that whatever concert they mount on their own is unusually long and special to make up for it.
As for the Day in Question 2-month national tour, I think this is a coded way of saying they're going to do a full-on national tour playing tracks from their back catalogue. Whether it will be a hall tour, a standing tour, or a mix of both remains to be seen - but kids, let's cross our fingers and hope for a standing tour, because rock music simply was not intended to be listened to from a red plush seat at the back of some government-owned auditorium.
Anyhow, if there is any chance of an Atom Miraiha standing tour, it's unlikely to happen until spring, since the December issue of the Fish Tank newsletter made no mention of any such possibility. Keep your fingers crossed and your eyes peeled.
All in all, if all this sounds like a bit of an anti-climax together to you, well, pray that those words at the bottom, "And More," are not lies.
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We'll try to get our live report up sooner rather than later. We're sorry we've been so behind on the articles. In truth, the Curse of 2016 had its fair share of negative effects on us just as it did on many other people, and consequently, we've having a bit of a crisis of faith of late. The more comments you leave to remind us that Buck-Tick's fans (and management...not gonna name names) aren't entirely horrible people, the more incentive you'll give us to put the past in the past and press ahead with a brave face.
To quote a favorite author of ours: "People who didn't know the music industry believed that the movie business was the ne plus ultra of vicious, asshole-chewing, hyena-like behavior."
It's true, kids, and it sucks. Please remind us why we started this blog in the first place: for y'all, and not for those people. But honestly. You'd think that if you got to work with a band as cool as Buck-Tick, you'd be so satisfied with your life that you wouldn't need to be a vicious hyena-chewing asshole...yet not so. It's a sick, sad world, but let's get our Red Fire Cock anyplace we can.
