Calmando Qual/BAAL/DJ SiSen in Berlin

Okay...this is gonna be my first concert review here on LJ. And the thought that I'm gonna have to type it in german as well somehow annoys me...but as I want to post it to my german blog as well...*shrugs*

Okay...let me sort my thoughts.

It was back at the Aural Vampire-concert when I talked to Steff (the lovely guy from the ASTAN-magazine) about doing an interview with Calmando Qual. I had heard they'd come to Germany for another tour and wanted to take the chance to finally see them live.

Steff said it shouldn't be that much of a problem so that was settled and I was kind of excited about it.

Time passed and suddenly all happened so fast. Once again. It seems I'm always running out of time. So I packed my bags and headed to Hamburg, from there we (being myself and my dear little soulsister mana_sakura ) would take the bus to Berlin, as usual.

On the Bus to Berlin we fell asleep again, but it was fine, in Berlin we'd have plenty of time since we'd arrive around 10 a.m. and would probably have to be at the concert hall no earlier than 6 p.m. or so.

We had booked a room in a cheap hostel and I was never more happy about that. We stashed our bags at the hostel and went to do our usual tour of Berlin, which takes us usually directly to the Neotokyo-shop. I was curious to see who'd be there and I smiled broadly when my eyes caught sight of Dieter. He's one of the guys I know since Onmyou-za and we're good friends since last years D'espairs Ray-tour.

He was really busy unpacking the latest delivery of manga and stuff so we didn't really have time to talk. We told him we'd come back later and went hunting for some food.

It was pretty much of a surprize, when Dieter told us he'd be at the concert as well. So we agreed that we'd meet later at the concert hall.

I still hadn't heard a single word from Steff and it made me nervous. So I called the K17 to ask if he was there. he wasn't...so I asked them to drop him a note, asking him to call me back ASAP.

Nothing happened, so at 6 p.m. we decided to ive it a go and head to the concert hall.

The K17 is huge...but locating it is somewhat difficult. Even people who had been there already said it was hard to find.

Well...when we finally arrived there we spotted some gfamiliar faces in the crowd, but no Steff in sight. It took some time but then he came out. He looked at tus in surprize, saying: "I thought you wouldn't come."

I was confused. "Huh? Why's that?"

"They told me you had called that you won't make it."

"WHAT??? I called alright, but asking them to drop you a note that you'd please call me back."

He shrugged it off and we came down to business. He said he'd catch the boys and that we should wait at the tourbus.

Tourbus? How on earth should a nightliner fit into this crammed place?

The tourbus was a silver van parked in the back lot of the place. Figures.

The interview itself was incredibly cute. I talked to Hibiki (vocal) and Task (keyboard). While task was silent most of the time, Hibiki seemed to have fun. And some of his answers were just...cute.

CR: Do you see a differnece between the fans in Japan and the fans in europe?

Hibiki: Oh yes, it's like the difference between the summer sun and a fridge.

CR: And who is what?

Hibiki: Europe is the sun.

Honestly...how sweet is that?

Like all interviews I did this one ended much too soon. But we still had the whole concert ahead of us. We said our goodbyes to Hibiki and Task, the interpreter asked if we wanted to come in backstage, we went in for a minute or two but went outside again because there wasn't much space and we felt like intruders.

And Steff had promised to put us on the guest list, so we'd get in easy.

Or so we thought. When we wanted to go in, the guy at the entrance told us there was no guest list. When I heard that I was about to freak. Luckily Sakura kept calm and persuaded some other guys to let her in so she could get Steff. Who came out in the emantime. I told him what had happened and that I wouldnt get my stamp to get in. Steff seemed pretty annoyed and practically forced that guy to give it to me.

So I went in and told Sakura to go out and get her stamp. Guess what happened...SHE DIDN'T GET IT. So we had to bug Steff again...he went outside with her and let out his rising anger on that entrance-controller guy.

Now that was finally settled and we were both inside. While Sakura went to put away our coats and bags, I spotted a crowd at the end of the hall. I went to take a look...and look who was there...it was DJ SiSen! I grabbed my cam and started taking pics...and I wanted to have a pic taken with him. And I got it. *g*



He was so cute and shy, I just wanted to hug him. But the I got bach into the main hall again, looking for Sakura. I wanted to tell her that SiSen was in the back...but then I met some friends at the stage and we started talking. And when Sakura joined us, SiSen was already gone.

The first band to play was BAAL. I figuted that out when I saw the microphone...it was decoated with cables and stuff...U-tarou's trademark. I got my cam ready and this time I did some really nice pics.

Mikito:


U-tarou:


Chihiro:


Their performance was as great as the last time I saw them, full of energy. U-tarou and Miki enjoyed playing with the crowd, cheering them into screaming, shaking hands and of course Miki threw some of his pics into the crowd again.

It seemed U-tarou and Mikito recognized me from the concert in Bremen last year. After their gig, during the break we spotted Mikito in the crown, so we went to take pics with him.

Mikito and me:


Then Calmando Qual (who go by the name Twisted Clock in Japan now) entered the stage. I couldn't really take good pics then, because my knee (the one that's damaged since that fateful D'espairs Ray-concert last November) gave out and I had to go to the back. I didn't really see much from there...but then I spotted U-tarou in the crowd with her digital camera. I went over to her and she confirmed to me that they had recognized me. Whe had a little chat and I did a spapshot of her and me:



Calmando ended their concert and Sakura came over to me, asking how I was feeling. I was a little better, the pain had faded a little. When I turned around, I practically bumped into Hibiki, who was signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. So we did as well.

Hibiki and me:


Then it was time for SiSen to perform. I wento to the stage again, as I wanted to take some more pics. These are the best I did:







His performance was great. We sat down in the back to rest our sore feet and again I saw U-tarou in the crowd. She seemd to have fun and she came over when she saw us. So we had thachance to take another, better picture.

U-tarou and me...again:


Then the concert was over and we had the chance to get stuff signed. I had my beloved ConHon with me...by now it really is some kind of holy item, if I think about all the autographs in there...after MUCC it will be full and I'll have to find a nice place for it. And every now and then I'll take it out to look at it and remember all those great concerts.

Afterwards we said goodbye to Steff and thanked him again. He hugged us both and then we left.

The next day we slept in, as we had no chance to catch the early bus anyway. We took the bus back to hamburg at 4 p.m. and I got on the next train to Bremen. I was so exhausted, tired an sore...but it was worth it.


So now I have a few days to rest, before hell breaks loose again when I get ready for the MUCC-concerts in Hamburg and Berlin. And hopefully the next interview.