dancing with kittens

Narasaki says, "Don't call Pla a V-kei band."

He's referring to this article on Yahoo!Japan News, which is headlined "V-kei Band Fan Rush Stops Live." As I've said before, I think Plastic Tree are clearly a visual kei band. As far as the media is concerned, and more importantly, as far as marketing departments are concerned, they are, always have been, and always will be a visual kei band. I think it's silly to resist the label as if it's an insult, and it's just as silly to deny them the label because they sound different than they did 10 years ago.

But I do agree with what seems to be Narasaki's primary objection. Why refer to them as a "V-kei Band" in the headline and not simply "Plastic Tree"? Obviously it's because "V-kei" calls up images that "Plastic Tree" doesn't. No one knows who the fuck Plastic Tree even are.

To summarize the article, Plastic Tree had a guerrilla live on the 12th at Shinjuku Station Square. They started 25 minutes late, at 6:55. They started on their third song and got the signal to stop. They finished the song and ended the live. According to organizers, they had expected 2000 people and got over 8000. They were spilling into the streets and blocking traffic. There were no injuries. They have a live on the 13th at Budokan.

Eight thousand people? Really? I find that hard to imagine.

( Photo from the Sports Hochi version of the article. )

I wish they'd put an HD version of this one up on Youtube.
【ニコニコ動画】【PV】Date You 『p.i.l trailer ver.』

You know, after Akira's previous experience in a panda costume, I would have thought he'd be resistant to the idea of doing it again. I guess maybe he really enjoys it.

( Plastic Tree )