Falcom JDK Band Live Concert in Taiwan

Today is not a translation post! Rather, I want to share my experience of the JDK Band Live Concert in Taiwan that I went to this past weekend with you guys (or more like I want to write it all down while it's still fresh in my mind so I can keep this as a memory I can look back on). I hope you guys enjoy it (or not lol! but this is my blog so I can post anything!) Oh, and this is not only going to cover the concert, but my entire day since there were other Falcom events going on that day as well. Beware, it's super lengthy! (b/c it's quite a memorable day for me)

Btw, some pictures are from my phone camera and some from the press (mostly from Sony TW facebook)~

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Anyway, as a preface, I just want to say that I'm usually not the type of person to attend concerts because I don't like to squeeze in with hundreds of people in a contained space (no I don't have crowd phobia!). And I'm lazy. So over the years, even though I have become fan to various band groups and have had numerous chances to attend their concerts in Taiwan, I never bothered to go to any.  So when the JDK Band Live Concert was announced in April, imagine my inner turmoil! I was both super excited and at a lost.  I debated whether to go or not for several months (yes you read that right) and sad to admit, but when the tickets first went on sale, I didn't rush to the ticket vendor to buy my ticket (shame on me, and I call myself a Falcom fan haha)（ノ－＿－）ノ･･･~┻┻

It was only on July 31st (the last cut-off date in which you'll get a free concert CD and poster) that I walked into the convenience store and when I came out... ta~dah~~!

I made up my mind on the spur of a moment hehe. Anyway, I always had this thought in the back of mind that I was sure I was going to regret it forever if I missed this chance. And so, I gave my first concert experience to Falcom JDK Band~!

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The night before the day of the concert, I checked to see that I had everything prepared for the events tomorrow. I even printed out a schedule for the day but not going to show it here \(//∇//)\ I actually didn't plan on buying anything at the Falcom merchandise booth so I didn't bring much money with me but... yeah things don't always go as planned (^_^;)

Finally, the day of the concert!

The concert is held inside a building called Legacy Taipei, which to my surprise after I looked it up online, is just one metro station away from where I live. So I can get there in around 20 minutes if I take the express train.

A brief look at the schedule for the day

12pm     Falcom merchandise booth opens
3-8pm    Sen II playing booth (Renne/Tio DLC card)
3-4pm    Kotera Kanako fan sign event
5:10pm   Line up for concert
6:30pm   Concert start
9-10pm   Concert end, line up for free concert CD+poster

All of these take place in a plaza called the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The Legacy Taipei is also located inside this big plaza.  And on a side note, the One Piece exhibition is also being held there for several days so imagine the people on weekends...

Anyway, like I said, I didn't care much for the merchandise, so I didn't have to go that early.  My dilemma came from the Sen II playing booth and Kotera Kanako fan sign. Both start at 3pm!! Lining up for Sen II playing booth means missing the Kotera fan sign and vice versa.... nooooooooooooo!!! (￣□￣;)!! Why can't I just go for one first and then head to the other? Because well, considering how Taipei people just LOVE to line up, pretty much you can expect super long line ups of 100+ people way before the events even start. Good thing luck was on my side though, I didn't have to choose between the two in the end!

So back to the beginning of the day. After I had a brief lunch at home, I got onto the metro and happily headed for Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Getting off at the next metro station, it took another 10 minutes of walking to get to the place.  By then I was already sweating.... did I mention that the temperature for the day stayed in the range 35 degrees Celsius? IT WAS SO HOT & HUMID kuso! Especially in the afternoon, just when I had to head out. Good thing I brought along an umbrella to block the sun a bit...

When I got to the plaza, it was around 12:30 pm. At the entrance was.... the big Sen II playing booth! (still setting up)

There were Sen II banners and stuff around the area after a while, here's one of Alisa-chan~~ \(//∇//)\ sorry I only took a picture of her banner lol (now you know who my fav. female character is in Sen! I didn't see a Fie/Sharon/Sara one else I'd take a picture of them too) I remember seeing banners for Rean, Jusis, Laura, Alfin, and some others.

I was expecting a lot of people to be lining up by now, but surprise! Only a few fans loitering about taking pictures on their camera/phone~ (me included)

Since no one was lining up yet for the playing booths, I figured I'd go inside and take a look at the Legacy Taipei building. That's when I realized that the majority of the people were lining up to buy merchandise or waiting for Kotera fan sign. My plan was to go line-up at the playing booths first
so that I could get that done ASAP and then rush over to the Kotera fan-sign.  There were requirements to attend the fan-sign so playing booths would have more people (and so would take the longest).

So back to the playing booths I went.  It was around 1pm by then I think.  Around 10 minutes later, a girl in wheelchair came to the booths and asked one of the booth attendants where to line-up. The attendants told the girl that the event starts at 3pm (in consideration for her being in a wheelchair in this intense heat I think) but she insisted on lining up (;° ロ°) lots of power to her!

So the lining up starts~ I lined up behind the girl in wheelchair, so that makes me the second in line and among the first group to play (there's only 4 booths for PS3 and 4 booths for PSVita, so only 8 people at once, with separate line-ups depending on which console you want to play on, I was on the PS3 side). People began to arrive and soon the line ups had around 30ish people per side. At around 2pm, the person in charge of the booths came out and asked us whether there were those among us that also wanted to go to the Kotera fan-sign.  Obviously lots of us... so what did he do? Early start for the playing booths! What was originally planned for 3pm got moved up! YAHOO!!

Honestly, I don't remember much of what I played LOL partly because I was trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible and also because my mind was on the Renne/Tio DLC card. Basically I mucked around, tried the motorbike, fought some battles (the battle music OMG, with headphones it's eargasmic), watched some S-crafts (Claire's S-craft is so pretty~) and then my 10-minutes play session ended.  On a side note, the PS3 loading is quite fast, like 1-2 seconds in and out of battle, yay!
The moment I've been waiting for~! Ta-dah! The only reason I was in line for 1.5hr in this insane heat...

So after I got my card, I rushed over to the Kotera fan-sign and lined up. I think it was only 2:30pm when I got there so still had to wait 30 minutes for the fan-sign event to start. Even so, there were already 150+ people in line so the line extended out to the side of the building.... MORE WAITING IN THE SUN, GREAT! My feet were both quite sore and I think I was about to faint lol, so I kept chugging my sports drink (but not too much, didn't want to end up having to go to the washroom...)

Only people who had a concert ticket and had proof of purchase/preorder of traditional Chinese version of Sen II could participate in this fan-sign.  So during the wait, some Sony people came and checked our things. Good thing I decided to support the Chinese localization this time around (I'm getting 2 copies, one Japanese and one Chinese). Pictures of the fan-sign line up.

Finally 3pm! The line started to move after a while! ヽ(；▽；)ノ Around 3:20pm, they prohibited people from lining up anymore else Kotera wouldn't be able to finish signing in this one-hour event (by that time, there's probably around 300+ fans in line because I was in the middle portion of the huge line).  I feel sorry for those that couldn't make it (*stares at those still at the playing booths*) I seriously feel lucky to be able to do both events so smoothly, thank you Mr. Person-in-charge at the playing booths <3

Anyway, so the fan-sign! If the organizers had told us beforehand that we could bring our own things for Kotera to sign I would've brought my Sen game along. Some people did bring their own things in case, so lucky them! One person asked her to sign on the Alisa hotsprings bath towel lol (I hear people calling him "yuusha", which is basically, "hero/brave one" lol) But anyways, beggars can't be choosers, so for those that didn't have anything (me), they gave each of us these Sen II flyers for her to sign on~ I'm happy nonetheless!

Kotera-san is so cute hehe (her twin ponytails!) I said thank you in Japanese to her and she said thank you twice! Once in Chinese (多謝) and once in English (Thank you!)   \(//∇//)\ First time seeing Kotera in person~ Too bad we couldn't take any pictures of/with her because of the huge line-up, so here's some from Sony themselves.

After the fan-sign, I had nothing to do until the concert. So I wandered to the merchandise booth (I shouldn't have done that...) and let's just say, I spent all the money I had on me on Sen merchandises to get this blasted thing called the "Pika Pika Bag Evolution".  If you purchase NT$888 (around US$30) worth of goods, you get the bag for free.  Seeing so many people walking around with the bag...
I had to get one! ヽ(；▽；)ノ The II in the logo lights up orange like those Christmas tree lights if you turn it on (there's a small switch inside the bag)!

It was about 4pm when I looked at my watch, and so I decided to go back home for a while and take a shower because I seriously felt tired from all that standing in the sun and of course, sticky/yucky from the sweat. Another reason was because I didn't want to be bringing my spoils and Kotera autograph into the concert (I'd cry if the paper gets beaten up or creased). So I headed home and you wouldn't believe what I saw when I came out to the entrance. The line-ups for the Sen II playing booths were CRAZY! Basically the plaza at the entrance is a huge circle area, and the line-ups circled the entire ground and onto the pedestrian's walk by the roads.... 300ish people is probably a good estimation... and if you think about it... 10 minutes per group, so 6 groups/hr x 8 people/group, only 48 people per hour.... how long would you have to wait...

Anyway, I quickly ran home, took a quick cold shower, had a brief dinner~ I seriously didn't feel like getting up anymore after I sat down. I unloaded all my spoils in my room and then headed out for the concert at 5pm, feeling a bit more refreshed.

When I returned once again to Huashan 1914 Creative Park, I realized that the playing booth line-ups decreased dramatically. Apparently, the organizers decided to hand out the DLC cards to those in line as long as they had a concert ticket.  Else those people wouldn't make it in time for the concert. How nice~

So I made my way to Legacy Taipei.  Again, big line-up as expected. It was already close to 6pm when I got into the building so like 30 minutes before the concert starts. It's nicely cooled in there despite the hundreds of people inside~ THANK YOU whoever invented the A/C!

While we waited for the concert to begin, the huge screen at the very front repeatedly ran a bunch of different Kiseki promos/CMs.  Mostly openings/trailers of Sen and Sen II, and also Ao no Kiseki Evolution~ There were also big Sen posters on each side of the stage and two big monitor screens. The area was packed full of people by the time the concert started, probably somewhere close to the 1k range? I remember checking the ticket vendor a few days before the concert and by then there were already 900+ tickets sold. So those are not counting the free tickets provided to the lucky ones who won them through events. Anyway, there were two Japanese guys standing near me and they were conversing in Japanese about Kiseki hehe

At 6:30pm, the concert began on time!! Too bad photographs and videos were not allowed at the concert, so no pictures from me! I'll post pictures taken by the media and Sony themselves~! You can find a lot more pictures at their respective sites, so I'll post links to them at the very end!

First, here's a list of the songs they performed.

1. Ashita he no Kodou / Sen no Kiseki
2. Go Fight / Star Trader
3. Our Legend / Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga
4. Maybe it was fated / Sora no Kiseki
5. Aoki Negai / Ao no Kiseki Evolution
6. Akatsuki no Mukou / Akatsuki no Kiseki
7. Senko no Yukue / Sen no Kiseki II
8. Hoshi no Arika / Sora no Kiseki
9. I Swear... / Sora no Kiseki 
10. First Step Towards Wars / Ys I&II Chronicles
11. The Fate of the Fairies / Sora no Kiseki
12. Tie a link of ARCUS! / Sen no Kiseki
13. Valestine Castle / Ys the Oath in Felghana
14. Inevitable Struggle / Zero no Kiseki
15. To Make the End of Battle / Ys I&II Chronicles
16. Might Obstacle / Ys VI Ark of Napishtim
17. Release of the Far West Ocean / Ys VI Ark of Napishtim
18. Cry for me, Cry for you / Sora no Kiseki

Encore
19. Ashita he no Kodou - Chinese version (a cappella) / Sen no Kiseki
20. I Miss You / Sen no Kiseki
21. Silver Will, Golden Wings / Sora no Kiseki

Now that's out of the way...
Let's begin with my recount of the night (or at least how I remembered it)

First, the General Manager of SCET (Sony Taiwan) came on stage, along with the Falcom mascot Mishi \(//∇//)\  to bring to the audience a big announcement! Double-sided covers for the Traditional Chinese version of Sen no Kiseki II~! 

Looks like the Taiwan fans' petition to Sony to change the cover actually worked lol... I didn't bother to sign the petition since I was actually okay with the Japanese Haccan cover ╮(─▽─)╭ But it's always nice to be able to swap covers! Anyway, lots of cheering from the crowd since I think lots of people actually really disliked the Haccan cover haha so hurray for them~!

And then the band members came on stage!!! LOUD CHEERS! I felt like all the tiredness I was feeling got washed away~~!

I don't remember much of what they said, but they introduced themselves! In Japanese! Without a translator! LOL I was actually expecting Sony (the organizers) to have a translator for the group since not everyone knows Japanese in Taiwan (well duh). I wonder how Kotera and Icarus felt speaking to a Chinese audience in Japanese. Stupid Sony. But thankfully, it's not that bad (as you'll see why).

After the brief introduction, they started with the Sen no Kiseki OP <Ashita he no Kodou>! 

Eh? So fast, right off the bat!? was my first thought.  But I'm not complaining hehe~ I have to say, hearing something live and listening from CD/computer is a totally different experience. Even if I wasn't standing in the most desirable spot (I'm quite short to boot, I envy those tall people ~_~) I was still able to see the people on stage if I tip-toed.  Obviously it's a torture to tip-toe through the entire 2.5 hr concert so half of the time I relied on the two monitor screens to the sides. That's probably the only little regret I had~ not being able to be at the very front and seeing the band in their full glory. If there's ever a next time, I'll be sure to buy my ticket the second it goes on sale...

So after warming up from the first song, next is Go Fight sung by Icarus! It's a song from Falcom's only shooter game that I never played called Star Trader.  And also the OP of Falcom Gakuen~ The song is quite fun! We were shouting along with the "GO FIGHT!" parts whenever the words came on the big screen. And then after a series of songs starting from Our Legend, Maybe it was fated, and then to Aoki Negai, we entered the MC portion. Before that though, I want to say that I enjoyed Kotera's version of Aoki Negai~ and since it's one of my fav. Kiseki theme songs, I'm really glad they sang it at the concert.

The MC part! Again, I don't quite remember what they said (╯︵╰,) I'm really bad at remembering these.  Oh, I think they introduced each of the members if I remembered correctly! And I do remember the part just before they went on to the next song! Kotera became all serious (kind of haha) and said that they had a surprise for us. She went on to say that this next song would be one that they've never performed publicly or recorded/distributed before. The theme song for Akatsuki no Kiseki, Akatsuki no Mukou. Much to the surprise of Kotera and the other band members, the audience (including me!) responded with a "へえ~~~" (or "Heeeeeeeee..." in English, basically a reaction sound of surprise). Kotera asked the audience, "How many of you here understand what I just said? or understand Japanese?" And like half(?) of the audience raised their hands (a lot more than I originally thought honestly) I don't know if it's because of this, they became more talkative? (or maybe it's my imagination) But anyway, Icarus later shouted "TEMPURA!" and we all shouted "TEMPURA!" back at him hahaha that was hilarious. Then they were trying to fire us up I think so they had us give our best shout.  For a total of 3 times, each time wanting us to shout louder and louder.  By the 3rd time, the voice was so loud, Kotera remarked "So loud!"

So next song! Akatsuki no Mukou.  Honestly, I couldn't quite hear the lyrics because it was a loud song (and the sound system may be a bit too loud, covering over the singer a bit). But if I had to describe it, it's a song with lots of passion (does that even make sense?) just judging from the melody alone.

Senko no Yukue was next. I've been waiting for this song because it's one of those songs that the more I hear, the more I like Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ Being able to hear it live makes me really happy. Especially since Sen II is just around the corner (make my hype meter go higher yes please!) Loud cheers again, I guess lots of people like this song~ If I had to guess, I'd say that Taiwan fans are probably more familiar with Kiseki songs than Ys ones in general.

 

Then came the most nostalgic song ever. Hoshi no Arika. I almost cried listening to this. I bet it's the same for a lot of the fans. A lot of those around me started singing softly to the song and of course, me as well despite not being a very good singer (I sang along to practically all the songs that have lyrics, it's the love that counts!)

During I Swear..., it really felt like the concert scene in Sen being reproduced in real life. As Kotera sang on stage, we were singing softly with her (Ｔ▽Ｔ) It really felt surreal~~ The audience singing was a lot louder here compared to Hoshi no Arika. And we were also slowly waving our hands in the air while we sang (or was that the previous song? don't remember)

After all the singing came a barrage of BGMs one after the other. First Step Towards Wars, Fate of the Fairies, Tie a link of ARCUS (!), Valestine Castle, Inevitable Struggle, To Make the End of Battle, Mighty Obstacle, and Release of Far West Ocean. This part was a lot of fun too because at the end of certain BGMs, we did this sort of count down thing with the band. Kind of like a new years countdown.  So basically we counted down from 10>>>0 in English (!) just before the end of the music, and once we get to 0, they did a grand finish for the music hehehe Everyone was really into this! I guess we're all super high by then, I was practically screaming my lungs out!

Then one last song before the encore! Cry for me, Cry for you! YESSSS!!!!! My fav. Kiseki OP theme song!! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ  Super loud cheering again, lots of people like this song hehe Kotera had us sing along with her this time too, but for this song, we're responsible for the Cry for me, Cry for you parts. So whenever the song got to those parts, I shouted out those words as loud as I could (I was a bit exhausted by then from all the cheering and shouting...)

The band members left the stage for the time being.  Then the big words "Encore" appeared on the big screen in front.  We began chanting encore, but funny thing was, it lasted so long that the chant started to wane... lol... and then wax... wane... for like 5 minutes. I kind of grew tired of chanting encore after a while... The band's not to blame though, stupid Sony, they should've prepared something to entertain the audience.  It's quite obvious that they were changing clothes backstage because later on Kotera ran on stage in a hurry with new attire. Anyway, the moment Kotera appeared, loud cheers! 

Next song is a surprise too. Kotera said it's a song that she had been learning~~ Ashita he no Kodou... in Mandarin! And it's a cappella to boot! She had us clap to a rhythm before she began.  My thoughts then? Gomen-nasai, Kanako-chan~~ I don't understand a word you're singing (Ｔ▽Ｔ) I honestly tried really hard to understand your Mandarin but all I could make out was the melody! I personally think this song was the true "hidden" final boss of the night, more so than Akatsuki no Kiseki theme song haha. A fan got her "cheat sheet" for this song when she gave it out at the end. As you can see, it's all romanized into Japanese katakana (hehehe) How do you memorize something like that (just sounds)? I know I wouldn't be able to.

Anyway, after a round of applause, Kotera introduced each of the band members back on stage one by one~! All of them had already changed into their concert T-shirts. "I Miss You" was next, a nice upbeat song~ makes me think back to the Sen ending though (Ｔ▽Ｔ)



Last but not least, the last song of the night, "Silver Will, Golden Wings". Ahhhh, no Kiseki night is complete without this song. Perfect song to wrap up the night! ヽ(；▽；)ノ Both Kotera and Icarus sang the song yay! When Mizutani (<3) played the first few notes, I don't know how to describe my feeling, no words. And then I was so sad when it all ended (Ｔ▽Ｔ) I think I spent all my last energy left chanting throughout the song. I think we did the countdown thing for this song too (?) Don't quite remember.

Finally, the ending parts of the concert.  Sony gave away walkman and headphone to 3 lucky fans, so they had a draw box out and drew 3 numbers (Kotera, Mizutani, and Icarus all drew one each). I wasn't any of the lucky ones, but it doesn't matter hehe When Kotera was introducing the gifts, she said "speaker" while she was holding the headphone up. Obviously wrong product.  She only realized her mistake when she picked up the next product (the speaker I think, I couldn't really see). That drew laughter from the audience. Even Icarus teased her for the mistake. Dorky Kotera haha... I take it that speaker=walkman? (I'm not sure haha)
Oh and Mizutani's English is so cute (they shouted out the 3 numbers in Japanese and English)

They also threw out their towels/guitar picks/drum sticks to the audience. Special thing to note here, Kotera kissed her towel before throwing her's out LOL that caused an uproar and you could see the people fighting for it when she threw it. I think some people even fell  ╮(─▽─)╭ Okaji's drum stick was all worn out too (could see the splinters). Anyway, no luck for me, I didn't get any one of their things~ the things hardly flew my way though because they couldn't throw it that far out, especially the girls.  Basically the people near the front got all the things. But doesn't matter again, I'm just really glad I was there to see them in flesh and blood~

After all that, they bowed amid our loud cheers ヽ(；▽；)ノ 3 times I think it was! And they even dragged Mishi in to bow with them. We waved them goodbye~ Here, have some pictures.

So the night came to an end. Okay, well not yet. At least for the fans. We still had to line up for our freebies after the concert. If you bought your concert ticket before July 31st, you get the freebies.  I rushed outside after the concert ended so I wouldn't have to wait too long in line to get mine. After 15 minutes in line (which felt like a torture because after 2.5hr of standing/tip-toeing, my legs were starting to feel weak).... ta-dah!

A Sen poster and concert CD.  The tracks in the CD include all the songs they performed, excluding the Akatsuki no Kiseki OP (for obvious reasons) and the encore songs. I like the image they used for the CD \(//∇//)\ The poster is basically this image:

At around 9:30pm, I rode the metro back home. Funny thing was, that night I had a hard time sleeping. Despite being really tired physically, I think I was too high emotionally and so couldn't sleep haha And I only realized it when I got home, but my voice was hoarse from all that screaming

╭( ✖_✖ )╮ KO'ed by the end of the day.

Other random thoughts:

- I really like how they work the stage~ they're so lively and happy and fun on stage! and professional at the same time! they have this great aura/energy!

- I think I have a girl crush on Mizutani lol I've always loved the violin parts of Falcom songs, and so it's a treat to see her play the violin like that (super fast fingers o_o;;) PLUS! It's so cute how she waves around her bow up in the air when she's not playing! Makes me want to dance along with her

- Angelo is so cool \(//∇//)\ really impressed by his guitar playing as well (actually I like his hair)

- Kotera is funny it's cute!
- Enomoto is so chill~ love his bass too
- the sound system is great! at least that's what I think, and since other fans who are regular concert goers agree, so should be right

- after trying to sing along to every song at the concert, I realized that I only knew half the lyrics to most songs

- there are more female Falcom fans than I originally thought! I thought I would be one of the only few but turns out quite a lot of female fans! yay! looks like Kiseki is popular among girl gamers too~

- I thought it was incredible how throughout the whole concert, it seemed like the audience knew when to chant (during songs), it's like everyone's in unison. Maybe that's typical for concerts? I wouldn't know

- I think I'm getting old, I feel like I spent a whole year's worth of energy in one day (mysterious voice: you just lack exercise)  \(//∇//)\
- I hope they release a Blu-ray for this concert. I would so buy it to relive the night.

TL;DR 
Sun too strong, Too many fans, Super long line-ups, Super sore feet and back.  But in the end, it was all super worth it! Thank you Falcom JDK Band for a really memorable first concert experience! Now all that's left is to wait for Sen II release!

The other spoils for that day:
(big concert towel, memory card case, and coaster)

THE END!

Wow you got to the bottom of this post! Congratulations! Thanks for reading and excuse my ramblings! \(//∇//)\

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Photograph Credits to: (direct links to photos~)
Playstation TW Facebook
Bahamut Gaming Site
VR-ZONE
c27674318 @ Bahamut forums for the Kotera "cheat sheet"