Parade Day 2

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Mobile phone cameras take terrible photos in the rain, in the dark.

Yes, Buck-Tick played a different set list than last night, and yes there were fireworks.

Yes, unfortunately Mr. Imai joined Pay Money to My Pain to play some sort of attempt at a cover of "love letter."

No, Mr. Sakurai did not participate in any guest sessions.

Yes, N'Shukugawa Boys were surprisingly fresh and funny.

Yes, Dir en grey's Die was a special guest guitarist of D'erlanger, and there was a makeout scene.

No, the makeout scene did not involve Sakurai.

Yes, we got to see Messrs. Imai and Higuchi cosplay members of the Polysics.

No, I have not written a live report yet, but I will as soon as I can, so wait patiently.

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Parade Tour Live Report

My live report of the Parade Tour 2012 is now up on Not Greatest Site.  Sorry it took so long.  Go have a read!  Feel free to post your comments here, but as always, keep them concise and constructive.

Also, it has been announced that Buck-Tick's fall hall tour with be called "Tour Yumemiru Uchuu."  The first round of fan club ticket reservations has already finished, but advanced reservations through the official site are now open.

Too Much Buck-Tick News!

This week has brought us just about too much Buck-Tick news to post about on Blog-Tick!  But since the numerous magazine and radio appearances are fairly explicit on the Buck-Tick homepage even to people who don't speak much Japanese, I'm going to just let y'all go check that small news for yourselves, so I can focus on the BIG news, which is: Buck-Tick has announced the track list for their first tribute album, as well as the guests for the Parade Tour 2012, who will also all be performing at the Festival Tick-Buck Parade On 2012.  And for those of you who got interested in Buck-Tick because you were/are visual kei fangirls, rejoice and throw your hats in the air, because this guest list reads like Visual Kei's last cry of "I'm not dead yet!" as time drags it off to the black plague corpse cart.

First, we have D'ERLANGER!  One of the first visual kei bands ever, and we thought they were gone for good but it turns out they're BACK!  D'ERLANGER is not dead yet!  They'll be playing with Buck-Tick on July 7th at Zepp GundamCity Tokyo, and they'll be covering "Iconoclasm," just like J did last time.  Get a new idea guys.

Next, we have Cali-Gari!  Admit it, you really, REALLY thought that Cali-Gari, as a band, was dead forever...splat, kaput, just like maguro on the train tracks!  But no!   And on June 17th at Zepp Sendai you can see the Sakurai cousins onstage together for the first time ever (fun fact, Sakurai Ao is Sakurai Atsushi's cousin.  Really.  They have the same name and everything.)  Cali-Gari will also be covering "Misty Zone" for the tribute album...which I warrant can only be a good thing.

Visual kei artists who haven't yet become zombie bands include Merry and Mucc, who will doubtless be fanboying themselves out of their trousers, seeing as some of their members were at one point also members of a Buck-Tick copyband.  If you want to see Mucc, go to Zepp Fukuoka on June 24th, and if you want to see Merry, hit Zepp Nagoya on June 30th.  But even if you can't make it, you will still be able to listen to Merry's cover of "Aku no Hana" and Mucc's cover of "Jupiter."  I am currently taking bets on whether you think Tatsurou can beat Takanori at taking a formerly subdued Hide ballad and blowing it up into a big, huge, emo, screamo epic of Acchan-sensei fanboy homage.

Non-visual artists on the lineup include shameless American late-90's nu-metal imitators Pay Money to My Pain (July 6th at Zepp Gundam, covering "love letter"...because they are waaay too cool to sing songs with lyrics in Japanese), that rascal drinking buddy of Sakurai's DJ OZMA and his band Kishidan (covering "Machine," and playing on June 26th at Namba Hatch, where else?), and The Lowbrows (July 4th at Yokohama Blitz, and as an electronic unit, they're not doing a cover, they're remixing "For Elise.")

Other covers on the tribute album include Nshukugawa BOYS with "Empty Girl," AA= with "Mad," Polysics with "Sid Vicious on the Beach," and BREAKERZ with "Just One More Kiss"...I'm not even going to bother taking bets on whether you think this will top Kiyoharu's version, because I already know it doesn't stand a chance.  Will these artists also be playing at the Parade Festival?  It remains to be seen.  But if Pay Money to My Pain was only installed because Dir en grey had to decline due to Kyo having flayed his voice to within an inch of his life...well, then visual kei just may be dead after all.