#m10m

The concert hall was a little larger than I expected, but not entirely filled by the crowd. The lights were low and creepy, atmospheric music was playing. Microphones were already set up on stage, and a big MOI DIX MOIS banner was hanging. By the mixing desk, a huge camera was set up, and a man with a smaller, shoulder-mounted camera was roaming about, filming some of the crowd. A woman with an orange microphone was interviewing some lolitas (for a local radio station, mayhap...?)

So we were hanging about for about 45 minutes, taking in the atmosphere, when suddenly something amazing happened... One of the guitar techs lifted up a familiar, white object and... JEUNE FILLE BLANCHE!!! I squeed and burst into tears. Yes. I cried. I saw Mana's guitar, and I cried. What a loser. But that moment it really hit home. That's his guitar. He's here. I'm going to see Mana.

The sound check was followed by one of the concert organisers coming on-stage to warn us not to take any photos, etc... A load of German and then a quick warning in English, then he left the stage and everyone got extremely excited as the stage lighting changed (to blue! Oh but of course) and The Other Side of Blood (the opening instrumental track from the latest album) began piping out of the speakers.

An unmistakable spiky poof of hair ascended the steps - MANA-SAMA! He bowed to the crowd and made some flowery hand gestures. My heart was pounding with excitement and all around me was screaming. He took up his place by the side of the stage, and I drank in as many visual details as I could. I wondered whether his hair was real or a wig - it looked real, as it was a bit too ratty to be a wig and was thinner than it seemed to be in promotional photos (sorry, Mana). He had his usual spiky top, with the new long blue extensions. He wasn't wearing a skirt, but one of those transparent long robe-things he's been wearing recently. You know the ones, it hangs down behind him like a skirt, but is split open at the front. He was wearing tight black trousers (leather?) and knee-high leather boots. Platform leather boots, I should add. They looked like they were about 7 or 8 inches high. How he can retain his balance on those things, I don't know. He was also wearing a corset over the robe thing, which created a breasty effect where the cloth gathered above the bust-line of the corset. One thing I noticed was, he isn't thin. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's definitely a man with a slim build. But there was nothing skinny about him (though his face has maybe lost some of the chubby cheekness of his younger years). As I looked at his corset, I found myself wondering what his body was like. Not in an especially pervy way, I just felt this intense curiosity about him. His appearance is so carefully controlled, he uses make up on his face, wigs on his head, and corsetry and other tricks to alter his body shape. He's a self-made construction, details about his private life are so obfuscated that there really is nothing but Mana anymore. The illusion has become the reality. How can he exist outside of this realm? How can there be another person beneath the make up and the costumes? Anyway...

Sugiya, the new bass player, and Hayato, the new drummer, made understated entrances. In fact, I didn't even notice Hayato because I was staring at Mana, and then his drum set was hidden from my view behind a speaker stack for most of the show. It was only when they left the stage that I finally got to see him! So I'll write about him later. I didn't pay much attention to Sugiya at first, either, and he hid in the shadows at the back of the stage for most of the gig. Again, more about him later. K ran on stage to bask in adoration. As I had never been to a Moi Dix Mois gig before, and I don't (as of yet) own their DVDs, I had no idea that K would have such a huge stage presence! He ran up, opened his arms wide, and nodded his head as if to say "Yeah, I fucking rock!" His new hair is really rather funky - short and bright red on one side, black and backcombed up on the other half. He had the big smudgy black eye make-up he seems to always have, and wore a sleeveless shirt (he had nicely toned arms, by the way), tight black trousers and platform boots. I was careful to compare the size of his platforms with Mana's ^_^ Yep, they were about the same height on stage, but K was wearing 2 or 3 inch platforms compared to Mana's 7 or 8 (or 9 or whatever...) He was also wearing a big collar round his neck - Mana wore a collar too and seemed to be fiddling with it between songs. Maybe it was itchy.

And then came Seth. Oh my word. I had only seen that fishnet-over-face picture released to fans a little while ago, and he didn't make much of an impression on me. But he was glorious! So very very glorious! He was wearing the DIX eyepatch but not the Sigue Sigue Sputnik face mask, his hair was amazing! Really long, a tawny colour streaked with red, piled up on his head and flowing down behind him and over his shoulder. He was wearing some kind of patterned fishnet top under a wasitcoat, a little leathery kilt and tight black trousers with knee-high boots. He was like some kind of devilishly gorgeous pirate!

The band started off with "Deus ex Machina," they plunged into it with a huge amount of energy and gusto. It was brilliant! They worked together like a perfect tight unit, and it was hard to believe that Sugiya and Hayato were new members, harder still to remember that this was only Seth's 3rd gig with the band! Like I said, I never saw Juka perform with Moi Dix Mois, so I didn't have any pre-conceptions or mental stubborness like "No one can replace Juka! He was so amazing!" To be honest, I never really warmed to him in the first place (please don't hit me) but SETH was an amazing frontman, he seemed so perfect for the band. He wriggled and writhed and danced about the stage like he owned it. He was up there having a genuinely great time connecting with the crowd, and he made all the songs his own. His singing was just unbelievable - he has a great voice (better live than on record), he can scream and growl with the best of them and switch right back to beautiful mellifluous melody in a second. So, perfect for Mana's M10M songs then XD He had his funky dix megaphone with him as well, which he was whirling about with, as a complement to Mana's spinning.

Mana stayed on my side of the stage for most of the gig, but occasionally switched places with K so the people on the other side could get a better view of him. I had heard (read) that Mana likes to make eye contact with the crowd, and with as many people as possible. This is true, and so amazing to see. His eyes scanned the crowd in the first few rows, but not in a cursory glance. He actually focussed for several seconds at a time. When he pointed at people in the crowd, he didn't just sweep his arm, but flicked his finger to take in as many people as possible: You, and you, and you, and you... He even looked over in our direction a few times. I'm sure he couldn't have seen me, but for a few seconds it certainly felt like he was staring into my eyes. I tried not to start crying again.

I couldn't help drawing comaprisons with the Eve of Destiny gig. For starters, EoD's venue was much smaller. Then, I felt a bit sorry for Közi playing in such a small venue, in front of such a small audience. At Moi Dix Mois, I thought "It must be such a nice change for Mana to play in a smaller venue, and feel a bit closer to his fans." Similarly, Közi acted as though we weren't there, barely looking into the crowd and only once coming to the front of the stage. Mana seemed to be trying to give as much energy as possible to his fans. He truly has such an amazing presence. I know a lot of people assume he is cold and distant from his promotional photos, but he really gave off such an aura of warmth and genuine love. It seemed as though he genuinely appreciated every single person who had come to the gig.

They played all the tracks off the new album, I think. At one point, Seth asked us if we were ready for something louder. YES! We all screamed. "NIGHT BREED!" he yelled in reply. I squealed with happiness and applauded as they launched into one of my favourite Moi Dix Mois songs. It was brilliant, Mana and K were head banging away and Seth totally made the song his own. They followed "Night Breed" with "Deflower," my favourite song off the new album. I couldn't hold it in anymore and began crying. Thank you, Mana I thought Thank you for being here... I had heard that in the live "Deflower," that K sang the interpolating vocal that is overdubbed by Seth on the record. He did indeed sing, bless him, you could see the strain on his face. He performed admirably, but don't give up your day job K-sama

Now, we all know it was Mana-sama's birthday that day. A few spontaneous eruptions of "Happy Birthday" appeared here and there, but tended to splutter out as no one was entirely sure what line they were on. It was peculiar to hear all these Germans singing Happy Birthday in such an English-sounding way! I mean, there was no trace of German accent, at least in the area I was standing. At first, Mana just ignored us, but eventually I think he realised that the crowd wasn't going to give up. If he had continued to ignore us, the singing would probably have begun interrupting the songs they were playing! So at one point, he came up to the front of the stage and opened his arms wide in a show of gratitude as everyone sang. It seemed to me there was a smile playing on his perfectly painted lips. Then we could get back into the concert properly...

Perish is one of my favourite M10M songs, I was so happy they played it! As well as the new tracks, there were older songs like Ange, Pessimiste, and Mephisto Waltz. They also seemed to play a few new compositions. I could barely hear what Seth was saying when he introduced songs, and some of the older tracks merge into one in the memory.

K and Seth shared microphone duties. At the beginning of the gig, K shouted something like "Wie gehts, Berurin?!" and later on he introduced all the band members... in incredibly well-pronounced English! I was impressed by K's English ability. K's voice is very deep and booming, but if you listen to his powerful screaming on the records that's not really surprising. Seth wisely left most of the talking to K. I wonder if he's more talkative at Japanese gigs. Like I said, he's a brilliant frontman, but language barriers can be very intimidating.

Apparently the last three songs they played before the encore at the Japanese gig were Ange, Vizard and Forbidden. For me, it ended on a downbeat note. The last songs they played weren't really "stand-out" tracks, in my eyes. The crowd danced and jumped and headbanged like mad until the last chords rang out. One by one the band left the stage. I finally got a clear view of Hayato, the new drummer! He's adorable! He wasn't wearing platforms so he seemed titchy onstage. His bright red shirt certainly made him stand out, and they matched the red streaks in his hair. He had dark lipstick and dark eye make up on, but not very thickly. He was quite adorable, he smiled a cute little smile and punched the air with his hands as he walked off-stage. It's a pity I didn't see more of him during the gig.

Now I’ve talked about Hayato, let’s have a little more on Sugiya. He was wearing some headgear with a strap over his forehead, which was a little reminiscent of Kaya of Schwarz Stein. His hair was sticking up in quite a cute way, and he was dressed in a black shirt and trousers. He seemed quite young compared to the other band members, and stayed mainly in the background. His playing was generally solid, though I did catch the odd bum note there was nothing terribly atonal. At one point, he did come to the front of the stage. K, Sugiya, Seth and Mana all crowded up at the front, each with one foot up on Seth’s monitor, rocking out. Total photo opportunity, if only we were allowed to take pictures! It was cool to see them altogether, maybe slightly cheesy, but just reinforced what a great musical unit the 4 of them were!

It was so amazing to finally see Mana in the flesh, performing all those movements I’ve seen a hundred million times on DVDs and video clips… Twirling around, headbanging and flicking his head, waving his arm in a dramatic sweep at the audience. I was even excited to recognise some of the same lighting effects I had seen from Moi Dix Mois clips. At various points in the gig, Mana threw (black) plectrums into the crowd (I think K may have as well), and once he threw his water bottle! It landed in the centre of the crowd and everyone dived for it. One pick came in our direction, too far away to reach, but I saw it fluttering in the air like a moth before it fell.

After the rast of the rast three songs, the band left the stage, leaving Mana behind to strum his guitar and stalk the stage, receiving adoration. Everyone applauded like mad, then he left, and cries of “Moi Dix Mois! Moi Dix Mois!” started up as we demanded and encore.

After leaving us hanging for a few minutes, the band took the stage once more, to the strains of “The Other Side of the Door.” Mana kitted up with Jeune Fille Blanche! Hooray! She gleamed beneath the bloody wounds, and the scratched-in red “dix” below the pickup. They played a few more songs, finishing up with a reprise of “Deus ex Machina.” It was incredible, so insane, all the energy… Mana really threw himself into it, spinning like a whirling dervish, Seth and K exchanging shouts and pumping the air with their fists. And then there was a final cry of “BE TERRIFIED!” and everyone but Mana exited the stage again. Mana raised Jeune Fille Blanche into the air. He had undone the guitar strap so only his arms were supporting her weight (I wonder how heavy she is? She looks quite light, really). He struck some discordant noise and walked around the stage, reaching his arm to the crowd as everyone cheered. And then, just at the point that Guregu-kun was about to say “Wow, he really loves his guitar,” Mana did something I never expected him to do. He dropped her. Not by accident, but deliberately let her fall to the floor. I was totally shocked! And he stalked off stage as the feedback rang out… THE END

Now… is that really it?

Not quite. The band returned to the stage again!

No, wait, there’s no Mana… To be honest I don’t think I even noticed he wasn’t on stage at first! K took the microphone, it was time for one of the most amusing moments of the gig… “You know what day is it today?” K yelled, in extrememly good English “Mana-sama’s birthday!” we all cried “You know what day is it today?” K yelled again “MANA-SAMA’S BIRTHDAY!” came the squeal. “Yes!” said K triumphantly. “It is March the 19th!” I don’t know if he meant it to be so funny, but the tone of his voice was just priceless. “Today is Mana-sama’s birthday!” he continued “So we make special birthday song for Mana-sama! But…” a pause for dramatic effect, “Where is Mana-sama?” Oh god, this is turning into a pantomime. “He’s behind you!” I mumbled. “Mana-sama is not here! But I think if you call his name really loudly, he will come onto the stage!” Ok, now this really is a pantomime… So he led us in a rousing ONE TWO THREE MANA-SAMA! Everyone screamed at the top of their voices and popped their lungs out. K put his hand on his hip and shook his head. “No, no, no” he said gruffly, “That is not loud enough. I think you can do it louder. Ready? ONE, TWO, THREE!” “MANA-SAMA!” everyone screamed. The building shook to its foundations, vases fell from mantelpieces, kittens tumbled down wells, etc etc And Mana-sama jogged up the steps onto the stage and stood to one side, hands on hips, as the band launched into a special rocked-up version of “Happy Birthday.” It was a very cute moment.