Live Report - Absolute Conquest of Cologne

6/7/2012 Cologne, Germany

This is a live-report as well as a personal account. If you merely wish to read about the live, please read the middle section named "Conquest of Cologne" ^__^ Thank you!

Start of our Conquest

The early morrow

Gentle temperatures but rain in sight

Not everyone was present right away (^__^;)

Only after midday we were all united in the German city of Düsseldorf. Despite some earlier inconvenience on the journey for a dear member of our party, once we came together the good times began. Being able to meet many members of the Hearty family, these first few hours of our Conquest passed with ease, fun and comfort.

We formed our own little international crew; with German Hearties (Yuu, Chan, Miki and Nina), the Pirate Princess from Spain (Anid) and us, the Dutch Hearties (Giz, Tara and myself). Later that day as we traveled towards the venue in Cologne, we all became one crew with many more different nationalities. The mood among the waiting fans was light and after the earlier threat of rain –brought to you by our favorite rain couple – now the sun accompanied us during our final hours of waiting.

After the VIP-members were allowed the Early Entrance, we waited around a bit more until it was our turn. Long before we had decided to take a spot in the back of the hall, but upon entering the floor was still quite empty, even forming an open space near the wall on Toshi’s side. We settled down comfortably and watched the hall slowly taking its fill. Though A didn’t manage to get Die Werkstatt sold out, the present crowd of about 180 souls still formed a decent gathering before the stage and spread throughout the hall.

While the buzz of voices slowly filled up the venue, there was another source of sound audible over the noise. Flashes of lightning, a low rumble of thunder and the wild sway of the ocean loomed over our heads as if the storm clouds were present in the hall itself. A wary male’s voice warned us from time to time, saying the seas were dangerous beyond this point. For we would soon enter into another world. I quietly smiled to myself, as nobody in the crowd paid any heed to his warning, simply waiting for the Other World to open up before us. We all wanted to be swept away.

It still took me quite a while to realize, that the band I had shared my goodbyes with almost exactly a year before was really going to appear on that stage. I didn’t feel as anxious as I thought I would, and yet there was a certain feeling slumbering below. A certain kind of home-coming, almost. The crowd was very different from the Japanese, and yet it felt so familiar. There was but one difference, and a glorious one: this time I could see this band, standing together with my friends. I marveled over this when finally the lights dimmed and we stood as one, forming one row. Then I shivered, as the woman’s voice began her Tale, and I could almost remember the words.

“Nobody knows where they came from…”

Right then I didn’t think it mattered to anyone where they came from.

All that mattered was that they were here. Right now.

Conquest of Cologne  

A scream rose from the crowd as support members Shunji and Kentarou had taken their positions on the stage before Ace showed themselves, each member taking his moment provided by the intro-music and the rhythmic clapping of many hands in the air. First Toshi took the center-stage, looming at the crowd and urging us to scream louder before turning to pick up his bass. Rookie Fiddler followed, dancing nimbly across the stage as he greeted us with a grin that seemed to reach both his ears. Finally, the crowd screamed and cheered as Nimo’s silhouette appeared beneath the lights, strutting to the center with his face cloaked in shadows beneath his Captain’s Hat. 

Underneath the members’ air of confidence, clearly nerves were flying about, almost as visible as the smoke over our heads. But who could blame them, as they were standing on the eve of their Conquest? And they did not falter, but faced us bravely, Nimo shouting “Are you ready?” into the microphone before they opened fire with Night of the Knights.  

Set-list
1 Night of the Knights
2 Loveless
3 Masquerade
MC
4 Mirror of Terror
Fire Bass Solo
5 Fool’s Gold
6 Black Butterfly
Drum Solo
7 Viva la Casta!
8 Canaria
9 NUDE
MC
Encore 1 Sakura
Encore 2 Shangri-La
Bonus-Track

The instant Rookie’s heartfelt cry echoed out at us, fists were flying back and forth in the air and the energy in the hall began to match a raging sea. Nimo’s vocal, sadly not perfectly audible, still rang out and especially the energy with which he sang was placid from the first second. I stared at the stage, silent, smiling. It was back. That feeling.

Already before the first chorus, the best feeling I’d remember throughout this tour took hold of me. I had first encountered the concept of joint-headbanging  (in the sense of supporting each other by the waist or shoulders) at A’s gig last year. Now, so naturally as if we’d planned this before the show, I felt Anid joining hands with mine and I saw we had all done the same thing, diving forward together in one fluent wave.

“No one kills my soul-“

Since we had formed our row behind the more densely packed crowd before the stage, we had plenty of space to repeat our harmonic violence. Especially the heavy dive felt amazing every single time. When we weren’t throwing our fists in the air or making the A-sign, holding on to my friends’ hand gave me a blissfully united feeling. Not just us, but the crowd was becoming one as well. The participation from the audience was  full of passion and energy, causing the members to smile broader by the moment and the distances grew smaller as they had raged straight into their second song, LOVELESS. Only the dramatic intro had the members frozen in place as statues before the strobe-lights flickered and headbanging ensued once more. Nimo’s voice seemed to power up to full potential which especially the chorus revealed; flawlessly he cried “The endless Cry / The loveless World”, intense enough to cause people to freeze in place before the groovy bass and violin continued to lead the dance.

Only then, the crowd was allowed a moment to breathe as all members turned their backs to the audience except Rookie Fiddler, gracefully playing a haunting violin intro before the amps revealed the familiar intro-notes to MASQUERADE, causing the crowd to scream with recognition and joy. Nimo grinned and shouted again “Are you ready?” before we all dove forward.

MASQUERADE was the song that couldn’t miss from any set-list and if anyone had been indifferent to the performance before, now A managed to draw everyone into the sultry Spanish rhythm. During the chorus, Nimo instructed us how to swing the towels over our heads and everywhere above the crowd, towels flew like red banners in a storm. By now the members had clearly conquered the audience and their own nerves, as Nimo jumped and danced to the cheeky violin-play and Rookie and Toshi entertained the crowd right and left. The support-members couldn’t resist the playful mood either and especially Kentarou was exchanging his background-position more often with the front of the stage, making funny faces at the crowd while Shunji grinned wide and sang along to the lyrics.

After MASQUERADE there was a short MC in which Nimo displayed his English skills (he has certainly improved!), maintaining some boyish shyness but soon growing confident again as he told the crowd this was their first feast in Europe, and they were very excited to be here. The MC’s made up for a lighter mood in-between as Nimo entertained the crowd by saying “I studied German very hard…” He then demonstrated this by saying a few simple German phrases (such as “Wie geht es dir?” and “Danke Schön”), and his pronunciation was really quite decent. “I know one too!” Rookie Fiddler suddenly interjected, causing everyone to look at him and then laugh and clap as the grinning fiddler managed: “Ich… liebe… euch!”

The MC was also the band’s opportunity to test the crowd’s familiarity with them. “Do you know us?” Nimo asked with big, curious eyes, grinning wide when the answer was loud and positive. “Okay… What is my name?” Rookie Fiddler then added cheekily, letting the crowd scream for him until he was satisfied. Nimo then pointed towards Toshi, upon which the crowd started a spontaneous chant of: “Toshi! Toshi! Toshi!”, which seemed to please the bassist a great deal, directing us for a moment before grinning and thanking us. However, as everyone was shouting for Toshi, my friends and I were all shouting “Fire Bass!” Our cries were overtaken by the larger crowd however, but just when the noise died down I made a last attempt, and unexpectedly my “Fire Bass!” reached right to the stage and Toshi’s ears. The bassist looked up in surprise before he grinned just as wide and pointed at me with a satisfied nod, placing me in the sudden center of attention which thankfully didn’t last very long. Nimo’s name still needed to be shouted, and the vocalist let our voices wash over him with a big grin before uttering a high and amused “Whoo~!” It would not be the first nor the last time he’d make that interesting sound.

After this amusing interlude Nimo announced the next song, “Mirror of Terror”, during which the energy burned a bit lower but not less intense, letting the crowd marvel over Nimo’s vocal techniques before the members left only Toshi and Shunji on the stage. Shunji led us into a steady rhythm to clap our hands and then Toshi took his moment with a groovy Bass Solo.

This was the moment of Fire Bass, and for me it was an interesting transformation to watch. I had never seen Toshi perform a Bass solo in Japan before, and not just that; the bassist had always displayed a certain shyness which only diminished when he was on stage. This time however, Toshi glared at the crowd from center-stage with his head up high, urging us on to shout, gesturing he could not hear us. Together with Shunji he performed a thrilling and groovy solo but also displayed some of the ego he’d perhaps desired to show for a long time. And now he got his chance, and took it to the fullest.

Just between you and me, it was really, really cute to see Toshi have an ego. U.U Bless him.

As Toshi finished up his solo and Shunji still made us abide to the rhythm, Rookie, Nimo and Kentarou returned to the stage. This time Rookie took the center and instructed us to shout after two steady beats. Repeating this until our voices became one, Kentarou’s guitar then began the intro to FOOL’S GOLD. Not being one of my favorites, this song did turn out to be a very catchy live-song which the band clearly enjoyed to perform. The energy was rising again, the crowd roaring and clapping already before Nimo told us to sing along to their next song, Black Butterfly. Nimo took on his rocker-face and the obviously Metallica-inspired riffs pulled the crowd into the darker regions before all energy soared to the ceiling as we all raised our voices and sang “We can fly, like a Black Butterfly-“

After all the hard-rock galore in which especially Kentarou’s guitar and Toshi’s bass pulled the lead, Nimo announced drummer Shunji and let him have his moment with an awesome drum-solo. Despite their support-status, the two ‘extra members’ were very skilled and formed a strong bond with the others, a bond which would only become more powerful and obvious as the tour progressed. After Shunji’s solo, a jazzy piano sounded through the boxes and we began to clap to the funky sound of Viva la Casta! I soon noticed how this particular crowd-participation was very different from Japan; finger-snapping had made place for clapping, cute furitsuke had changed to fist-throwing. This was the European way, or perhaps simply the way of an overly excited crowd, and either way was fine.

Nimo let us shout our throats raw at every opportunity, and just when I was starting to feel a slight exhaustion, the organ-intro of Canaria began and we all screamed at the top of our lungs. This was far from over. I barely saw the stage during this song as my friends and I had all joined hands and we headbanged as fast as our necks could handle. Only at one of the last choruses I saw how Nimo managed to keep his big hat on as he joined us; the Captain would shout “Shake-your-heads!” before putting a hand on top of his headwear and headbang as such.  

Despite the energy we had certainly spilled during the set so far, it felt as if we were barely halfway. Still, Nimo then announced their ‘last song’. The crowd whooped incredulously and slightly disappointed, yet when Rookie Fiddler started the intro to NUDE the excited screams took over again. The entire crowd jumped up and down during the chorus and many voices sang along until we were finally forced to watch the members wave and leave the stage after finishing. Even before everyone had properly left though, the voices shouting: “Encore! Encore!” were already heard through the hall. The dimmed lights and remaining atmosphere were enough of a hint and without faltering the pirates soon reappeared, Nimo thanking us for requesting the encore.

After Nimo tested the energy-level of the crowd by asking if everyone was having a good time, the reactions pleased him and with a big grin, he then waited for silence to fall again before he said in a more serious tone: “The next song… is a Japanese style song”. My heart quivered. Sakura, it immediately flashed through my mind, exchanging excited glances with my friends. Really…? And yes, the moment Nimo answered to our silent expectation by whispering: “… Sakura”, I could just hear nearly 200 people letting out a sigh before we cheered, full of gratitude before the song had even started.

It was definitely one of the most magical moments of the tour. The stage and audience baded in blue light as Nimo cast his eyes down, preparing himself before Shunji tapped off and Nimo just nailed the right key and intonation once more, putting so much emotion into the lyrics. I whispered the words along with him, my eyes fixed on his face before I let out a shivering sigh when Rookie’s violin cried its tender song. The entire hall swayed along to the melancholic song and many people sang along to the lyrics, which seemed to endear Nimo and the other members a great deal upon noticing. The magic lasted to the very end, the perfection of Nimo’s final drawn-out note still ringing inside my chest as Rookie’s violin gently carried the audience in and out of its bewitched state. One second of silence before applause erupted, and the pirates nodded serenely before leaving the stage again, still leaving us with anticipation, if not even more. This still couldn’t be the end…

… and it wasn’t. Our voices shouting “Encore!” couldn’t be tamed and it only took a short moment before this time Steff took the stage. He simply said: “The band is standing there, and they can’t hear you.” Whichever shred of our abused vocal-chords was still intact, at that moment we all put it to use. Once again A emerged, carrying goofy big grins and Nimo expressed their gratitude for the second encore as well.

A part of us had been hoping, wishing for the one song that was still obviously missing from this set-list… and as if Nimo could read it from our faces, he then announced happily: “For our next song, you can dance with us… No, you must dance.” Excited whispers rose from the crowd and immediately morphed to cheers when Nimo put his thumbs and index-fingers together around his microphone and said: “… Shangri-La.”

Dozens of A-signs rose into the air as Nimo sang the intro, while Rookie’s already famous opera-enhancements harvested laughs but also respect, for he pulled off the vocals very well during a live-performance. I exchanged eager glances with my friends, and it was obvious we were all thinking about the same thing. When Nimo sang “The never-ending feast~” and Rookie called out “Drink it all down!” , we hooked our arms together and began spinning like crazy on the floor, the entire venue turning into a righteous Pirate Feast. The second magical moment in one evening.

I laughed and danced as the lights turned my surroundings in a beautiful blur, only clearly seeing the smiles of my dear Hearty friends. We spun and spun without stopping, only pausing to cry “We are Ace!” and form the sign, the simple three words meaning so much more to me now. Then we danced again, everyone, even Nimo who held on to his hat as he spun his own crazy laps with a huge smile and Rookie once again showed the crowd affection through his fiddle-stick (though he was less lethal than I remembered). Toshi bounced from side to side with his bass on his hips, losing every last shred of bashfulness until everything build up to its biggest finale. Clearly exhausted but satisfied, the members expressed their gratitude to us once more, completing our half A-signs with their own hands before leaving the stage with a salute of screams.

The Feast had ended. And Cologne had been conquered.

Aftermath

A certain kind of speechlessness had descended over me as the lights had gone back on and people now mainly crowded around the bar and the merchandise-section a floor below. I sat with my friends on the floor, still calming down from our intense reproduction of drunken sailor’s dances. A handshake-event had been announced to begin soon, and I was clueless about my anticipations of that moment, not knowing what to expect from it at all. I distracted myself by finding all my friends eventually scattered around the hall, paying a visit to the coat-section and the bathrooms before it was time to join the cue. A had already been lined up before the doors when we first passed them on our way down, but I hadn’t really looked upon them yet. Now it was time. Joining in last behind my friends, we began to slowly move towards the exit until it was our turn to greet the pirates.

This is where I received a genuine shock.  

When it was my turn, I shook hands with Nimo, exchanging the standard words of gratitude with him in Japanese, before hesitantly adding: “Well… It has been a while”.

To my surprise, Nimo replied: “Indeed!” and smiled broadly. I blinked back at him, not yet progressing the implication as I continued to clarify myself: “Uhm, one year before, we met in Japan…”

“I know,” Nimo simply retorted, still smiling.

“You remember?!” I then blurted out, covering my mouth. Nimo just looked very amused, finally giving me a comforting smile as I ended up struggling with my final courtesies and he shook my hand again, saying: “See you tomorrow!”. I mainly remember finding the floor infinitely fascinating at that moment.

I pretty much fled past Rookie Fiddler, who greeted me with another cheerful and well-informed “See you tomorrow!” and only at Toshi I was forced to halt again, for the bassist held my hand and responded enthusiastically to my simple Japanese courtesy with: “Oh, your Japanese is great! Please teach me Japanese!”

Déjà vu: complete.

I didn’t manage to say “You asked me the same thing last year…” Instead I grinned feebly and asked: “Alright, but what about English?”

Toshi pondered about this for a second – while still shaking my hand – before sheepishly grinning: “Please teach me English too!”

He definitely managed to make me smile and after I also exchanged a “See you tomorrow!” with him I joined my friends again outside. The daylight was still bright and out, highly unusual after a concert even in summer, but right then I didn’t process this fact. I stumbled right up to the first of my friends I found and hid my face in her shoulder. For a second I allowed myself to be overwhelmed.

I was not the only one with memories from that summer.

When I regained myself I joined into other Hearty’s rejoicing outside, sharing stories of the live and showing each other their treasures from the merchandise. Outside Werkstatt’s iron gates we settled down for demachi and amused ourselves with making more lovely memories as the sky grew dimmer.

While we were taking fun pictures of our crew of companions, the support members and Heloc emerged from the hall to start loading their gear into the two cars. Especially Shunji proved himself a valuable work-force who carried the most suitcases and amps into the rear. Just as we were discussing how the work-load wasn’t fairly shared between the pirates, Rookie Fiddler appeared through the doors, pushing his own suitcase. To our utter amazement and hilarity though, he then just parked it behind Shunji and disappeared again, giving the poor drummer a nasty surprise when he turned around.

More hilarity ensued as Nimo and Toshi joined the others outside, having exchanged their pirate exteriors to those of Japanese tourists. All three members would eventually wave at us behind the gate, before approaching and using us as a lively picture-background. After a few last greetings they returned to the car to take some final pictures of each other and the venue. We were already in a highly giddy mood as an Italian Hearty had pointedly remarked about Nimo’s pants: “Those are the kind of pants you wear when you have high water in your cellar…” When next Toshi decided to show off his shoulders to us by stretching them sensually with a towel in hand, we were all in hysterics. Very respectful hysterics.

Finally A climbed into their vehicles after some last waving at us and the cars drove past us through the gates. It looked as if there was a person voluntarily pasted against the blinded windows and we agreed it was most likely Rookie Fiddler. As the cars drove off, we said goodbye to our friends new and old and began to make our way through the warm night, knowing a comfy hostel-room with shower was waiting for us.

Our conquest could not have had a more perfect start.

And this was merely the beginning. 


To be continued in three more installments~ (Hamburg, Utrecht and Roubaix)Thanks for reading!