ends and beginnings and things in between

Hello. It's been a while.

Blovember is coming to an end and even though I haven't written as much as I had planned - lifeee - I think I can still get a pass? Will try to update more again in December. Who knows, if we go into 'stay home' lockdown light again I might end up with more time to sit in front of the computer and reflect.

Anyway, I mentioned in one of my entries that something big was happening at the end of November.

And something big did happen on November 29th, 2020.

Some of you already knew this but today I was at BANQUET's last live as a 5 person group - not only as a member of the audience but also as a staff member.

Ever since I became a fan of pop artists, or music artists in general or even musicals etc. it's been a bit of a dream to be able to get a glimpse behind the scenes. And well, that dream came true. It's still a bit of a freak accident if you look at how things led to this. But hey, I guess that's just how life works.

So...was it everything I had dreamed of?

The day started early. Since the venue was in Odaiba, I woke up sometime around 8:00 and got ready (fun fact, this is later than I have to get up for work at my actual job on weekends...).

Once we got there, we got briefed and got to work. The boys would be coming in later. When they did, we all greeted them at the stage entrance. I was wearing my staff t-shirt and staff-badge and Yuma was joking later about how めっちゃスタッフやん！and I just went "well... スタッフですけど?" and he went たしかに（笑）. Yeah we have random conversations still. (Also him going all pouty face at me and whining about ねーキラーーいつぶり？？めっちゃ久しぶりじゃん！！！ and yeah it's been over a month since I last saw him...work...) And then I told him I'd be seeing him again next week though and it would be really special for me. And Yuma went "birthday! and wait, day of??" and I nodded and almost tripped and fell off the step we were standing on... boy does things to me lol also concert feels.

Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the morning.

So yeah, working backstage at a concert as a staff member is pretty fun (when the team is good and we had a lovely team on the agency side) but there is also a lot of 地味作業 involved.

Moving chairs, carrying stuff around, laying stuff out, putting markings on the floor for social distancing (that nobody gave a shit about later UUUUGH PEOPLE THEY ARE THERE FOR A REASON), putting markings on the chairs for social distancing (*SIDEEYES -SOME- PEOPLE*), folding things, cutting things, assembling things, packing things, setting up things e.g. the goods booth, letting people in with flowers, letting people in with catering, letting band members or tech members in... writing backstage passes (kankeisha passes)... so yeah. We were kinda busy? lol

The fun part was of course to see the guys here and there. Not a lot because they have stuff to do, we have stuff to do on the staff side but we did get to see some of the rehearsal and the guys really appreciate their staff and show how thankful they are for the work we do.

I'd love to go more into detail but I'm not allowed to say much in public, even if it is in a different language and all that but you know, policy is policy.

 

 In short, a day as a staff member looks like this:

Morning:

- Arrive at the venue, get your staff pass, put on your staff t-shirt

- Briefing: you get a time schedule, are assigned to a team and given tasks

- Tour/Info: you get a tour of the venue and get info on stuff e.g. crowd movement etc

- Star working with your team

Noon:

- Artists arrive, go and greet them

- Continue working

- Lunch

- Sit on the rehearsals a bit

- usually there would be a backstage greeting (gakuya aisatsu) but due to corona - nope

Afternoon:

- Man the goods booth (did not do this, this was done by the main management staff)

- Check tickets/numbers, check temperature, hand out flyers (again, did not do this because audience time)

Night:

- Backstage greeting after the live with the group and having a bit of a general farewell, send-off 

- Cleaning up, packing up

- For the closest staff etc there is an after party (uchiage) buuut you know corona and parties... so nope

Another thing that made me super happy was when the producer (aka the big boss) saw me and went out of his way to thank me and asked me what I thought of today etc. and well, we're still on good terms but we still can't really talk about more concrete plans for the future and all that because times are what they are right now. We'll see what the future brings. I'm honored, though that all the main staff members from the agency know me by name at this point. Hope I can get them to stop calling me -san in the future ._.

The live itself...

Was pretty emotional. And it was great. Because. I mean. LIVE BAND. This was the first time for BANQUET to perform with a live band and when we sat in on the rehearsals, we were the first people to ever see them perform with the band (yup, they only had the day of to rehearse with the band).

I thought it was a great match. It worked a lot better than I thought it would! Some of the songs that had live music, I didn't think they would do with live music. It was great. I can't wait to get my hands on my DVDs. The little movies they had in between blocks of songs were hilarious (and omg Yuma when did you even edit all of those... I know Kaito helped you at some point because you'd have exploded otherwise). AH some of the footage was also very... straight in the feels. Damn.

I figured that there would be video interludes for them to change costumes/outfits but man good ol' BANQUET one man live crack quality this time, too.

Speaking of costumes, Toshi was all proud of the outfits this time, too and damn boy did a good job again!

I thought I wouldn't be into those silver outfits (and for a moment, I really disliked them because Yusuke's earring got caught in his jacket and he had to just take off his earring to get it off - he told me it hurt a lot when I asked him whether he was okay afterwards) but upon closer inspection, I can get behind them. They have the Star Wars emblems etc on them XD and well, they're kinda nice - in a Japanese boy band kind of way lol idk how to put it into words but maybe you know what I mean.

Then the upgraded "Prince" (aka MadKid) outfits. Like, yes. And then the "Bokura no Ashiato" outfits. Yuma is wearing the floppy Kame/Date hat. I think it's actually Toshi's but Yuma looks good in it XD

Then they went through almost all their existing outfits and it really was a great concept overall. It underlined their theme of "footprints"... the road they have walked up until now.

And then, along the way, Gaku turned to walk down a different path.

Did I mention I cried? Ugh. So many feels.

So yeah, after an emotional roller coaster, the live came to an end.

I got to meet the guys for a bit after the show for the official staff send-off and some cleaning up and then got into the tokutenkai line, reverting back to 'fan mode'. At least sort of.

Of course the guys asked me for my thoughts and opinions and I gave them and then they expressed their gratitude and appreciation for my help and support and work from early in the morning. And then they all promised me they'd celebrate my bday with me and aah man I had no tears left lol.

And then I saw off Gaku personally as well.

It was our last conversation in English... for now. I told him I believe that we will cross paths again somewhere someday. So it won't be the last time I see him or the last time he sees me. He liked that. Then  this happened:

Gaku did the Fudomine PASSION pose for me including a shout that had serious Mamo-chan energy lol (people who know will understand). It was sort of unprompted, too because I just went "Ganbatte, Tachibana-saaaan" and did the Passion move (from the song 真剣勝負とはそういうこと) and he went "PASSION!" and well, boy must have studied up on the old Tenimyu seasons XD I really wish him the best of luck with ShinTenimyu and his future.

 

To answer my question from the beginning, this wasn't -everything- I had dreamed of. I was some of it. IT was a first step. Hopefully sometime in the not so distant future, there will be an opportunity like this again. And maybe then, I won't just be one of many extra staff members but one with an earpiece ;p

Goals are stepping stones in life. When you reach one, you should move on to the next.

"Stillstand ist der Tod" as Herber Groehnemeyer once said in his song.