It's tempting, isn't it, to try and look into the heads of the BM girls during such a momentous occasion. The biggest concert ever outside of Japan, by far! What is going through their minds? I know I'm not supposed to care about it. These girls are messengers of the almighty Fox God, who acts through them, and their normal identities are forgotten and irrelevant as soon as they enter the stage. But still. I guess I'm just to down to earth to cling to a legend like that.It's not very virtuous to speculate about the goings on in someone else's head, but I can speak for myself. I can say that I don't know how long I can keep telling myself that BM aren't my all time favourite act and still believe it. They made me come to London especially for them twice now, and I really don't like visiting London. It's too big, too crowded, dirty, rat infested, old and worn down, joyless and the air quality is so bad that my nose fills up with disgusting black soot during the day. You can walk around the governmental part of Westminster past all the large, pompous buildings and feel like, as my sister strikingly remarked, you're strolling through the Soviet Union rather than England. Speaking of England, visiting there has more general hassles for me as well. Not being able to pay with euros is annoying enough, but some places won't accept my debit card either, or have a lower limit on how much you have to spend with it. Cash withdrawal sometimes costs money too here. It's like going back in time! Even if you can pay for it, decent food can still be hard to come by. We looked around Wembley for a half decent restaurant for ages, finding only pubs and Fish 'n Chips. Not to mention the huge fatty breakfasts served here, which look disgusting to a guy who, at most, has two slices of bread with some Jam or cheese in the morning.
The trip itself was an awesome display of the power of Murphy's law before it even began. Really, this made the troubles on our trip to Frankfurt seem insignificant in comparison. Not signing on in time for the afterparty, due to a combination of personal stupidity and bad luck, was just one of the setbacks. Terrible flight delays also made sure we wouldn't be at the Holliday Inn in time for the reddit meetup, so tired and hungry we decided to walk into the first hotel we came across when exiting Wembley Park station. We even resorted to eating at McDonald's, again a horrifying experience to a guy who, when time is available, likes to spend six hours in the kitchen crafting the perfect curry.
The next day, after declining the English breakfast at our hotel and opting for a "continental" one instead, we at least don't have to walk very far to the Arena. The weather is quite nice and there is already a huge line in front of the merch stand. Japanese fans seem to be in the majority this early on, but that is soon about to change. We soon meet up with kapitan_memo, a friendly Polish bloke who bought one of my spare tickets (don't ask). We pick them up at the box office and I give one to him. We talk a bit about this and that, including the whole afterparty situation. It's a shame since I didn't get to go when I went to see BM at Brixton either. But hey, the main thing is that we're here and greatly looking forward to the show. We split ways as our Polish friend begins his three hour wait in line to buy a t-shirt. Not having the time or the inclination to do the same we start walking about. Under my my sweater I'm wearing the same bright green t-shirt I did in Frankfurt. It might look stupid (like that ever stopped me from doing anything) but, as I found out, it makes it much easier to spot yourself in footage later on. Plus I'm thinking of making this my personal BM concert tradition.
We return just before five to get in line, spending the time singing and joking. When a steward walks by and asks the crowd if we're excited I apparently react a bit too enthusiastically, because he feels the need to remind me I'm not at a football match. That enthusiasm does start to wear a bit as time goes on though. Sleep deprivation, hunger fatigue and general exhaustion slowly start taking their toll. At least Amaterasu seems to smile upon this concert for most of the afternoon. When we finally get inside we our tiredness only continues to increase. A few Australian folks behind us pass the time between the support act and the main event by inflating beach balls and sending them flying around the crowd, to our amusement. Then an inflatable kangaroo appears which cracks me up even more. Still our impatience grows until suddenly, finally, it begins.
Gone is our fatigue the instance the Death choir sounds. The crowd burst into applause, as electrified as we are. Here it is, at last! The album that came out on april fools day is about to make it's live début. Maybe it's fitting then that the concert opens by pranking us. All eyes are fixed on the white figures atop the stairs, amidst the beautiful decor. The white figures we recognize from the Karate video, and we know who's behind those masks. Then suddenly we realise they are are only projections as the the girls appear right next to us on the central platform. April fools! Death opens with a bang and from that moment the show is on. We deliberately kept some distance from the stage to avoid being crushed, but now that the girls are on the platform the crowd squeezes towards them. Oh well, at least I can see them up close from here and get a good look at their faces. Something seems... off. I don't know if I'm projecting my fatigue onto them or if they are nervous about something, or what, but they seem more reserved than usual.
This isn't even close to their biggest concert ever. However, there is something about going to a strange, foreign land so far away from home that's just different. To be in front of such a crowd in Europe must be far more nerve wrecking than a similar crowd of more like minded people. I can feel a certain distance between us as they perform. I suspect there must also be more going on, maybe they're jet lagged, because they did not bring their A-game. Frankfurt was BM at the top of their capabilities, a flawless show. This isn't that. Especially Su is struggling. She regularly fails to hit the high notes throughout the show and it gets worse the further in we get. Now, of course she can have an off day, every singer has one now and again. It's just a pity that it had to be today. What would go through her head right now?
What do we take away from this? Most importantly that BM at their best is earth shatteringly awesome, and BM at their less than best... is still completely awesome! I'm having such a great time. I don't feel how tired I am, don't feel how sore my throat gets from singing along, not for a second. After Death we get Awadama Fever, Iine and then YAVA! We continue having a bit of trouble getting squeezed together, but a few mosh pits quickly solve that problem. By the time Doki Doki Morning rolls around we have plenty of space to dance along, which is good, because despite how goofy that song is I must confess to liking more every time I hear it live. But there are so many great moments. Yon no Uta is so much more fun with a big stage and platform like this one rather than the tiny stage in Frankfurt or the sizeable but still modest one at Brixton. The new songs are greeted with a bit more uncertainty by us than the old ones, not knowing the choreography and the proper audience responses to them yet. But they all sound great live. To my great disappointment we don't get to hear From Dusk Till Dawn or Sis Anger. Tales Of The Destinies and No Rain No Rainbow are also absent, but seeing as Su is barely managing her solos perhaps that last one is for the best.
By the time The One starts up we feel the end approaching. I could have stayed here, listened, danced and sang along for another hour at least. When the girls appear atop the stairs this time they aren't projections, but living flesh and blood. Moa is still all smiles, she having been the most like her normal self all evening. But when the camera zooms in on Yui's face it startles me a bit. She is obviously not coping well. A thought flashes through my mind: "Girl, you okay?" I can't imagine she is happy about the way tonight went. Don't get me wrong, most of it was still amazing high level artistry, but you could feel the strain. Even as The One starts, would it be too far fetched to suppose that a critically minded artist would ask herself at this moment: did we blow it? Su voice barely holds out through the song. Then the la's start, as does the turning mechanism of the platform they stand on, and they finally have an opportunity to quietly observe the Arena. As planned beforehand, a few people display their national flags at this moment, showing where they travelled from to come and see BM here. The girls themselves seem a bit surprised by this. Just for a moment it looks like they let their guard down. Once again I look at Su's eyes. The audience cheering and singing, the flags from all different corners of the world, the images coming in from Japan so far away of people just as excited as we are, she seems to be overwhelmed by emotion for a few seconds, only to regain her composure shortly after.
If they were worried about their performance tonight this must have been a sight for sore eyes. To be assured that we had an experience to never forget regardless. They stumbled but never fell down. The encore is Road of Resistance and by this point Su just can't hit the notes any more. Maybe the amazing moment we just witnessed was too much for her, who knows. Likely nobody will ever know the full story behind this evening. We are all sad when we're told they'll have to go back to Japan now. After the usual greeting BM leaves the stage for the final time. As we walk out we look deceptively calm, but underneath that exterior we are ecstatic. On the way back to our crappy motel we decide we just have to see them again when they come back to Europe in June. We're hooked!
Two days later we sit in a Thai restaurant once again, by accident rather than by design. After dispelling the hunger fatigue with a nice full English breakfast this morning we spent the day visiting the British museum, which is heaven for a lover of history like myself, spotting a few fellow kitsunes in there as well, and looking around Soho. This part of London is actually quite inviting. It's the first time we've felt the charm and personality that England has to offer, we confess towards each other as we sit down during the afternoon in a quaint little Italian coffee shop. Now we're enjoying one of the tastiest meals I've ever had, at a very reasonable price for our standards. You know, I might actually feel sad leaving this city behind tomorrow morning. My sister ask what time it is and I get my phone to check. To my surprise I discover my phone is switched off. Then I remember: I didn't have a charger that fits English power outlets (another thing about this country), so I decided to save power and turn it off after the concert. After pressing the power switch I discover I have a message from kapitan_memo. He asks if I'm coming to the pub for the afterparty, since apparently there is no guest list and I could probably get in if I wanted................ well dammit. Next time, I promise, next time.
