My First Gig: Babymetallicafriagaisoahiodsa Fuck It

On Monday I was very fortunate to go and chill in London to see Babymetal live.

This was, despite being 26 years old, my very first live performance ever, so I felt very out of place. I got to the queue around 5pm where I met some friends who were very experienced with live music etiquette, and it was nice to see all the different types of people who came. They ranged from cosplayers, to older gentlemen in 1970s Metallica tour jackets, to Japanese fans following the band on their tour, and of course your usual smattering of greasy haired, early thirties men with glasses clad in ill-fitting t-shirts showcasing young anime pre-teens in swimsuits.

I expected nothing less from a band that fronts two under-age girls.

We had balcony tickets because one of the friends I was travelling with has anxiety issues and I myself am not very keen on being up close and sweaty with folks I don’t know (as well as suffering from a few back pains), but we were lucky enough to snag front row seats due to some quick-footed ninja legwork on behalf of said friends. My movement capabilities were heavily restricted due to my choice to wear the world’s fucking worst heels so I much appreciated their ability to make good decisions in footwear.

I noticed that down below us most of the people were dressed sensibly for dancing – a lot of tour t-shirts and jeans, a guy in a Pikachu kigurumi (still not sure if he survived the night) and lots and lots of different coloured glow sticks. Even though we were one of the first groups of people to arrive in the venue, I noticed that people were already clamouring up against the stage which seemed odd to me. “Aren’t they hot?” I asked. My friend said that it was normal and when the music started people would cram to the front and fight to be really close to the band, so I will have to trust you guys on that being fun.

We had quite a good time settled up on the balcony with plenty of water and stolen sips of Red Bull and having kicked off our shoes. The band started a little past eight o’clock, and by that time the crowd downstairs was already cheering and bouncing, and we’d had a sing along with Dragonforce and had a good time pointing out cool people in the crowd below us with awesome costumes and hats. AND EL-WIRE.

I very much enjoyed the Star Wars opening with it’s slight humourous dig at Iron Maiden, however after soaking up live performance videos on Youtube I was a little disappointed when the strobe lighting ended and the veil that the scene had been projected on finally fell dramatically across the stage. The venue was small and there was limited space. Set dressing amounted to a big ‘BABYMETAL’ banner across the back, and that was that really … it. Maybe next time we can make Babymetal popular enough for a super huge venue so they can decorate with all manner of goodies for us. But that is just not possible at the Forum (“Hahaha look at the Roman details! GET IT. BECAUSE IT’S CALLED THE FORUM.” ~ My Friends, 2014). I guess I hyped myself enough that I expected more than what I got.

Nevertheless the band kicked in and I was happy to start singing along, only to find that the music completely drowned the vocals (and me! But maybe that’s a blessing for everyone around). During the second half of the show I think perhaps they turned the microphones up? Or maybe my hearing adjusted as I heard them better. I wonder if maybe just our position in the venue skewed the way the sound was projected at us. A couple of the songs I had difficulty identifying until they’d been playing for half a minute.

I loved the costumes on offer. The red and black motif for the band is great and the scale mail breastplate SuMetal wore was really exciting for me as I have a big, big love of armour, but I had hoped for actual costume changes which I never got past a pair of skeleton hoodies donned for one song. I would have been really happy with a break halfway through to use the bathroom (mmm yes a can of monster ripper just before the show what a marvellous idea), to give the band a chance to refresh themselves (it was WAY hotter than I was expecting) and change costumes and talk with some other people in the seats around us.

The musicians were super talented, charismatic and obviously having a blast playing for us. The solos were intense, and I think I might have enjoyed watching the band completely smash it on their instruments more than actually watching the girls sing and dance. I found my attention drawn away to watch the drums quite a few times and apparently I am really attracted to bald Japanese men in baggy white sheets and face paint. Who knew?

A lot of the experience also came from the energy of the crowd. It was really fun to watch everyone down below having a great time dancing and jumping and crowd surfing. The Wall of Death just looked painful to me, but everyone involved was laughing and clearly they thought it was magic so what do I know? ;D I wonder if the view and the sound levels was better downstairs? And maybe for my next time I might be brave enough to join in with the dancing. But I get the feeling if I do I might have to swap my heels for boots and my expensive jacket for a t-shirt.

The only thing that really, really bothered me was the amount of stuff being thrown at other people. At one point something was tossed onto the stage which caused MoaMetal to slip mid-dance a few seconds later (looked to me like she put her foot on it when I watched a video back and I am not entirely sure it would have been visible from ground level). I saw a Japanese flag being tossed around the crowd, and a green glowstick even took a majestic arc up onto our balcony and whacked a guy in the face. If that had been me I would have been fucking furious.

Overall though this was an excellent show and I had as much fun as I would have going to see a West End musical, of which I am very fond. Although I was disappointed that there was not a lot of room to cram a huge stage with mega-awesome props and dressings I think in retrospect if it had been an enormous 50,000 person arena I would not have had such a good time. This felt very close and intimate.

I was so very impressed with the level of professionalism throughout the whole shebang. When you take into consideration how old the girls are (I thought they were much older to begin with, and only when I was reading Wikipedia prior to the concert did I realise their true ages!)(they are 15, 15 and 16) one cannot help but envy the work ethic and passion they must have. I hope they had a great time visiting my city and got lots of time to enjoy themselves between shows too.