Live: A-Kon 21

A-Kon 21
[2010.06.04] Sheraton Hotel in Dallas, TX
featuring: Inugami Circus-dan & SEIKIMA-II

Inugami Circus-dan

Inugami Kyoko: Vocals
Inugami Jouji-II: Guitar
Inugami Zin: Bass
Inugami Akira: Drums

Red banners with black script were set up on the stage and the lights dimmed down as the band members stepped on the stage, Kyoko being the last one. The room went silent as Kyoko stared out with a blank expression and the beginning of "Hone" began. She sung the song with such a stoic expression, it was very memorable. After that, they busted out with a more upbeat song and Kyoko started headbanging like crazy, flowers flying everywhere on the stage from her head. We did a lot of group participation hand movements and clapping. We chanted at the beginning of "Jisatsu no Uta" with a little hand gesture shown to us by Kyoko. The band had a lot of energy and Jouji's solos were...INSANE! Reminded me why I love the guy. Kyoko made sure to showcase Jouji's solos and had some fun interactions with Zin and Akira licked one of his sticks during an introduction I believe. Kyoko put a headband on and did a little paper ribbon dance to "人面疔" that was very imitatable. Most of the MCs were in Japanese, but she did manage to tell us that she loves Dallas in Engrish. She was adorable and I got to hear that wonderful devious little laugh of hers. ♥ The crowd was very into the music and it was definitely a concert I will not forget. I assume the Japanese fanclub member enjoyed herself as well because she was really, really into the music. One of the security guards in front of me raised a brow at her convulsing against the barrier hardcore Japan style to some of the songs. So, here's my guesstimation setlist, in no particular order of course and I’m probably missing some songs too (translations appreciated):

Hone
Zankoku Paradice
Inochi mijikashi koi seyo jinrui!
Tsugou no Ii Onna
念仏谷
Hikari to kage no toccata
人面疔
Jisatsu no Uta


SEIKIMA-II

Demon Kakka: Vocals
Luke Takamura: Guitar & Backing Vocals
Jail O'Hashi: Guitar & Backing Vocals
Xenon Ishikawa: Bass
Raiden Yuzawa: Drums

Once their set was over, the staff removed the banners from the stage and began tuning the various guitars for the Seikima members. I looked at the final stage set up and even took notice of the dinosaur theme park looking cup on a stool with something covered by a little clothe.

People slowly started settling down and the lights dimmed once again, but occupied by "Create the Next Century" to welcome each member onto the stage. First Raiden made his entrance then sauntered off to the drums followed by Xenon on bass, Luke and Jail on guitar, and finally...His Excellency Demon Kakka (or H.E. Demon Kogure). They opened up with a high energy song “Fire After Fire” which made the crowd go wild. If I could describe the performance in two words it would be “overwhelming energy”! It was nothing less than satisfactory on stage and tons of amusement. Demon Kakka mused us by shaking his ass in his tight pants between nearly every song as he replenished himself with water from the dinosaur cup and all of his MCs were in clear English. He sung one of his songs upside down while a hand statue formed in the same way he holds a mic was placed in front of him on a pillow I believe. He also had a servant dressed in black hooded outfit that would bring certain items. A few of the most memorable MCs that he did was before they started “Adam’s Apple” [one of my favorites] and he gave us a little Japanese lesson. The servant brought over a wicker basket with apples in it and he told us that it’s called “ringo” in Japanese like Ringo Starr of the Beatles. Raiden played a snippet of a song and he added that it means “star of apples” [haha] then made us repeat “ringo”. H.E. continued with the lesson explaining how in Iwate prefecture in Japan it is called “manko”. He made us repeat it a couple times and a friend of mine told me what it meant, which made me chuckle. He made the audience say “I like manko” which was hilarious, then he explained that “manko” meant “pussy”. [haha!] He moved on to making the male audience members answer dirty questions like: “What do you like?”, “What do you want?”, “What do you eat?”, “What do you want to lick?”, “What do you want to suck?”, “What are you getting tonight?”. After all that hilarity and watching a couple girls giving a couple guys funny looks, the band proceeded with the song. It was...sexy! Probably the most memorable songs of the whole set due to the apples. I will never look at them the same way again. During the song, each member took a bite of an apple and Demon Kakka would toss it into the audience and there were two apples floating around with his bite marks. I didn’t catch anything, but I really wanted to. He threw far~ There was another little Japanese lesson later on the show about how to say “kill them” in Japanese and Spanish and he made us make little noises: the screams of girls, the screams of birds...elephants...butterflies, then proceeded with "House of Wax". We also had a little melody test with Luke and Jail to "THE AKUMA SYMPHONY SUITE Number 666 in C# minor Overture" that we had to follow with our voices on each side. After two tries, we got better and it was a lot of fun. Another memorable MC moment was when H.E. introduced the band members. He didn’t really say anything special about Raiden and Xenon, but once he got to the guitarists...he had some comments to add. For Jail, he said that he loves screams of young girls and for Sgt. Luke, he said he likes women with big tits...specifically big “swinging tits”. Somehow the female audience were suppose to make the noise for that, but they just screamed instead. Here's another rough set list that might have some missing songs:
Create the Next Century
House of Wax
Jack the Ripper
Adam's Apple
Fire After Fire
El Dorado
Masquerade
Brand New Song
THE AKUMA SYMPHONY SUITE Number 666 in C# minor Overture
THE AKUMA SYMPHONY SUITE Number 666 in C# minor Dead Symphony

For last finishing notes on the band and their performance, I thought their appearance were very elaborate and nostalgic. Demon Kakka probably had the most distracting look of all because his pants were awfully tight and then there was this huge buckle/cock shield/whatever that could light up staring you in the face with its demon eyes. Raiden’s hair was by far badass. It was a bright orange and blonde Mohawk-type do and Xenon reminded me of the lion for the Wizard of Oz strangely. Luke and Jail were my secondary distractions with their opposite wardrobe and stage presence, but Jail stole my heart and kicked Die off the “guitar hero” pedestal temporarily. I couldn’t stop staring at him and the way his fingers moved. Definitely intranced by the various sounds coming from his side the most.