Inoue Joe gig in Shindaita

OMG OMG OMG.  I'm still like :DDDDDD after the concert last night which is awesome.

I only wish this picture was mine.

OMGOMGOMG!!!

Okay, so I manage to get home from work earlier than expected, showered, hair curled and all dolled up in record time.  Got to Shindaita at 5:50 and waited for JR, who in typical gayman fashion was late.  He got there around 6:35 and then we went to find some eats and went to the show.  This live house only opened in March so everything is still shiny and new.  It's directly across from the station so super convenient.  There really isn't much else in Shindaita but its only one stop from Shimo-Kitazawa, the old hipster hub of Tokyo, JR tells me.

The first band, Haushinka was interesting.  A mix of punk, rock and metal.  They did some Beatles and Ramones covers, very lively and entertaining.  The second band was Rally the Bird. these two guys, one on drums and one on guitar that were pretty blah.  Pretty nice arrangements and the singer had a nice voice--it's just too bad we couldn't really hear was he was saying.  And pretty much no crowd interactions.  Boo.

THEN JOE! :DDD  I went to the bathroom before he came out the start setting up but JR said all the girls screamed.  LOL  When we got there there was maybe 2 dozen people but there was a fair crowd by the time Joe got to the stage.  He opened with Nowhere and then played Pa-pa-pa.  Then he says, "Where are you guys from?" into the mic after his song in English.  JR and I were the only visible foreigners in the crowd, but we couldn't help but ask, "Who, us?" 
"Yeah."
"Oh, Canada."
"Awesome. Rock on!" 
Though being the only two white people in a sea of Asians, dead centre, is kind of hard to miss.  But it just makes me feels so amazing because that is absolute, undeniable proof that he saw me there and took notice. :DDDD 

And I bet you all the rest of the girls in the audience--ie the whole audience were jealous as fuck!  Especially the one in pink right at the front who spent his entire set waving her hands and jumping up and down.  I guess it's not done in Japan to sing along at shows but I didn't care.  I knew all the words and JR made fun of me but whatever.  He sounds just as good live as he does recorded and he's damn cute.  As if I wasn't already in love with him before.  He also played Closer, Maboroshi and his new song coming out this month, Go.

I had hoped that he would come out and mingle afterwards like the first band (they passed around comment sheets to everyone!) but no dice.  I guess because he's on the up and up he (or his management) doesn't want to mingle with fans for security reasons?  I don't know.  JR and I hung around after a bit, had another beer and played with the door-girl's dog for a while afterwards. 

All I can say is that he's very personable on stage.  Some of the girls were calling out things, "Kakkoii~", "Ganbare~", "Oishii?" when he took a drink of water, and he just rolled with it.  He hasn't got a big head about his fame (yet) which is nice to see.  I wish all the best for him in the future.  Now I can say I saw him before he got big, from 6 feet away.