L'Arc~En~Ciel at Madison Square Garden

Starting in the late 1980's there was a boom in the number of Japanese rock bands throughout that country. In a country known for tradition and respect the blazing guitars and thundering drums of the young edgy bands of that age was a shock to outsiders. The thing was though they were combining the American glam rock, with European pop along with their own sensibilities to create Visual Kei. Look it up and look at the pictures that says more than you'll need to know. One of the bands that came out of this era in the 1990s was L'Arc~En~Ciel, it's french for the Rainbow.

Along with bands like X-Japan, GLAY, Malice Mizer, Luna Sea and others they became famous. Throughout the '90s as the over the top look of Visual Kei wore down the music continued. After two decades of albums and tours and side projects they did something all of their contemporaries had not done. The worlds most famous arena would be the place that L'Arc~En~Ciel would perform in support of their latest album.

X-Japan is by far the most important and influential band to come out of Japan, ever. The bands frontman, the drummer Yoshiki has become such an icon in Japan that there is a Hello Kitty version of him. Take my word for it that's huge. But for all of X-Japans fame. For selling out the largest stadium in Japan, the Tokyo Dome nearly twenty times, L'Arc~En~Ciel did something they've never done play in the worlds most famous arena. That is probably the best thing that they ahve ever done. But maybe it may lead to X-Japan trying to achieve the same feat but better.

The show was supposed to actually take place at the theatre at MSG. Due to high demand it was moved to the main arena. The crowd was over 19,000 people from all over the world but mostly Japanese. Not a sellout but still very impressive and gives them something to shot for next time. And there will be a next time. Long stroy short that was the best concert I have been to just because of scale. I went to the X-Japan show in 2010. That was their first time in New York, but its was at the Roseland Ballroom. A ballroom for the most famous band in Japan and they played a ballroom. Still they made that place explode, but it was no Madison Square Garden.

My hope is that concert will lead to the return of L'Arc~En~Ciel and it will. But than X-Japan will come and raise the bar. Than GLAY, my personal favorite Japanese band of all time. Still mad that I missed them at Flushing Meadow Park back in 1998 I think. But playing at Madison Square Garden would make up for that. Than maybe Gackt, with Exist Trace opening would be cool. I've seen Dir En Gray four times but want to see them somewhere bigger maybe the theatre first and if that get the demand than the Garden. From there Ayumi Hamasaki maybe but that would cause minds to melt. Whatever the case this was the first of many and for that I say that you L''Arc~En~Ciel. And thanks for an awesome concert.

Women of Rock, J-Rock

So I get word that L'Arc~En~Ciel were finally coming to Madison Square Garden. That was great but that's another post. Something happened around that same time though. A friend of mine told me about another concert that would take place a week before L'Arc~En~Ciel. The band was a Visual Kei band but they were all women. Quick background on Visual Kei imagine the 1980's Motley Crue, Prince, and Gothic Lolilita crossed with some Beethoven and Guns and Roses with occasional power ballads. That's the style and sound of Visual Kei. Now imagine five Japanese women doing this, that is Exist Trace.

I go to the concert not sure what to expect but hope for a good time. What I got was loads of awesome from five ladies who are on their way to big huge rockstars. The place was called the Hiro Ballroom, easily missed and not very different from B.B. Kings in Times Square. The opening act was forgettable but I've seen worse, the band that opened for X-Japan still hold that crown. I missed the other band but heard they were good. Than comes the main event and man what show. The lead singer Jyou has the crowd from the opening lyrics. And than we're off and running.

The other girls Lead guitar Omi can just play flat out. Miko the cute one, does the second guitar justice and can play better than what someone would think just by looking at her. Naoto is the goth bassist but can keep everything together as a bassist should. Than Maiiy plays the drum as well as any man I've seen. Together they are Exist Trace. The music works. I expect at some point one of their songs will be part of some anime and when it is I'll be listening and so should you. The rest is pictures anymore is YouTube for you.

Resident Evil Operation Raccon City Review

(The Image above is me and i mean the zombie who is about the get shot in the head reviewing this game)



I have been dreading the day that i would have to review this game and put it on the blog. it has been a tough 3 weeks playing this game and i regret to inform you that Capcom's zombie squad base shooter is such a let down that i would like to end the review right here. Unfortunately it wouldn't be fair to the viewers so i will do it out of respect to the people who read our blog and especially i must do this for the Hard Core RE Fans like myself since some of you who may be on the fence with this game, its safe to tell you know please get off the fence and don't bother going over it, and so begins my review for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.


Since Days of old where Capcom tried to make their multiplayer version of Resident Evil Outbreak it was safe to say that Capcom didn't learn their lesson and made an Outbreak 2, then they thought "ok lets change it up a little and lets focus on today's multiplayer platform games, Gears of War, Halo Reach, Call of Duty what do they have in common.... Games with great multiplayer as well as coop play. and you know what they tried to be like us as well adding Zombies in the mix. WE ARE THE SURVIVOR HORROR DAMMIT!!!! LETS TAKE IT TO THEM GUYS" Capcom rejoice and so brings us to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.


ORC puts players behind the scenes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, particularly that disastrous outbreak in Raccoon City. You play as members of the Umbrella Security Service (USS) retrieving virus samples and destroying all evidence of Umbrella's involvement in the process. So the concept is there squad base team check, multiplayer coop check, zombies, check. So what could go wrong.... EVERYTHING!!!!


lets go with AI when playing single player: The AI of team members and enemies is so horrible that if you really want to see chicken with their heads cut off play this game. While it's preferable to play with friends, I was still stunned by how useless the computer-controlled teammates were. There is no way you can control you team from just standing their while your getting your ass handed to you from running into empty rooms, stumbling on trip mines. Your team offers no real backup or assistance, and there's very little incentive to even revive them when they die For a team-based shooter, this is absolutely unacceptable. i thought ok they must have an update to fix this. NOTHING. lets go on with Ammo as well. no matter how much ammo you have or what weapon you have it guns and ammo is so off a balance that you if you equip a sniper and shoot for the head of a zombie it still not going down until 4 to 5 try attempts. As if that weren't enough, the aiming is bad at times, is completely broken and enemy damage is somewhat random. Again you can unload an entire clip into a BOW and it won't do nothing, at other times a couple of bullets and the zombies is down, it just the luck of the draw. The melee attack is also way overpowered shoot at most time i prefer it to the weapons i have since they don't do anything to the enemy, in ORC, you can hack and slash your way through parts of the game.While you do see Leon, Jill, and the rest of the gang in this shooter its still not enough to make this game playable, maybe if you only want to see what happens for the story and if your a true RE fan you will have to go on through it and just live with yourself that you had to play this game to get more story but NOT WORTH THE FULL PRICE. That is all for now. (please keep in mind i was holding alot back so be grateful it wasn't any longer then it had to be LOL)

This is a stick up

Gonna hijack the blog this weekend with stuff thats supposed to to up 3 weeks ago. Pictures included and topics that go from one extreme to another.