Even if Mahomet does not feel particularly peachy... maybe due to a small Latin American-Russian party at an Irish pub the evening before or, most likely, because of waking up at an obscene hour to fulfill communal duties. Why did my crazy neighbors think that Sunday 9a.m. was a good idea? Anyway once I was done sweeping the yard in front of our apartment building and no longer had to pretend being a part of a local community, I went to Tokyo to Laforet Underground Party. "D'epairsRay" was a word written all over Mahomet's mountain this time. Again ;D

The event started at noon, but D'espairsRay were scheduled to appear at 15.00. Since it was free entry I was a little wary about how many people would come, but in the end it was not too crowded, Laforet Museum is pretty big, and people came and went as artists changed. I arrived there at about 13.30 and saw the last several minutes of the movie about Laforet exhibition at Japan Expo in Paris this year (there was a big screen in the back of the stage), the models showing the clothes from different Laforet's stores + Miyavi.
After that two guys (whose names I forgot), お笑いLIVE, did a 15min stand-up comedy and were quite funny (as far as I could understand at least x"D). One of the first things they said was "Minna oshare da ne" (everyone is so fashionable) and it's not really funny, but it totally cracked me up because I immediately thought of DMC and Negishi's long hard road towards being oshare one day XD Many girls were taking photos and recording videos on their cameras and cellphones and it got my hopes up that it'd be allowed for the whole event, but no, it was different for different artists. For D'espa no one made a single move to take photos and seeing that I didn't try either... T_T
After the comedians Ayuse Kozue sang 2 songs, pop, a little r'n'b I guess. The pauses between artists were filled by the Laforet fashion videos.

The D'espairsRay part started with a show hostess announcing a new single and Horizon PV. It was shown to the public for the first time. My first impression is pretty good: the colors are monochrome, it's not really black-and-white but close, red color of Hizumi's clothes is barely noticable. I approve of close shots of Karyu singing back vocals, but I'm very biased there. The hilarious part is lil'Hizu going gangsta all the way: wearing a silver hoodie and rapping xD
After the PV the band appeared on the stage and answered the question the show hostess asked. They wore casual clothes, jeans, shirts and jackets, and all four wore sunglasses. Hizumi had his hair done in a way similar to the newest photoshoot, but I'm not sure if that were braids or just hair pins holding his hair like that, I couldn't see from where I stood. Karyu's hair was all wavy and puffy xD Zero and Tsukasa were not much different from the usual (and Zero posted a photo of the two of them in his ameblo). Behavior-wise, Karyu and Tsukasa were normal I guess, maybe a little uncomfortable in the guitarist's case. Zero must have been spacing out, because he definitely didn't pay attention to some questions he was asked and sometimes it looked like he did not move at all. Hizumi was the bassist's exact opposite, he turned from one member of a band to another when they talked and interrupted them all the time. Once when the hostess was talking, he fiddled with his rings and/or mic, he made a lot of noise and nearly dropped them. It caused a few giggles in the crowd, people were paying attention to what he was doing more than listening to what was being said, and he had to apologize xD
The first question was about filming of the PV, that it took long and what they did during the time when they had to wait, playing games apparently *rolls eyes*
Since it was an event organized by a shopping mall some of the questions were about where they shop, in Harajuku or somewhere else. Hizumi said that he shops at Laforet sometimes, Justin Davis, for example, and showed his rings. Karyu said that he does not really shops there but at "opposite side" (?) of Harajuku and Shibuya. He said うらの原宿 and I'm not really sure what exactly he meant by that and apparently Hizumi didn't either because he butted in and said "I don't understand what you're talking about!"
Another question was regarding what they remember about Harajuku. Tsukasa said that the first thing that comes to mind is crepes, though it later turned out that he'd never actually eaten them xD Zero told the story about going to a hairdresser there.
Regarding overseas tours they were asked about what was one of the most memorable things that were different there. Hizumi mentioned traveling in the buses. Karyu told about going to a McD, in New York I think, and apparently he didn't like the service, seems like a worker there pretty much threw a hamburger on a tray for him xD Tsukasa was the funniest, because he said that everyone in America seeing him smoking would come to him saying stuff like "How cool, man! Japanese cigarettes!" and asked for one. It looks like he got ripped all the time xD
They also talked about recording a new album and Hizumi said that they are 50-60% done. Karyu was asked the same question as Hizumi what kind of album it is going to be, but he didn't know what to say and just kept repeating "Yeah... yeah..." so the vocalist laughed at him and asked "What is it with you? You're like some weird old man!" Then Karyu said "Give me your hand!" Hizumi stretched his hand to him, palm up, Karyu hit it and the vocalist in turn hit himself on the head with another hand. Since he held a mic in that hand, the sound was loud xD They did the same thing earlier during the talk, Hizumi hit Karyu on the chest and he in turn hit himself on the head. I don't think I have seen them doing that before, maybe it's something new? xD
In the end they were asked to say a short message to the fans. Tsukasa started to list things "Releasing a new single, playing a tour, recording an album..." Hizumi laughed "Where are you going with this?", but the drummer was not the one to lose his train of thought "... playing nation-wide tour." Yes, that'd be nice, not just Kantou tour like this time -___-; Karyu asked everybody if they got sweets and then asked about drinks (everyone who had tickets that were distributed by the stores got sweets and drinks), the majority didn't get those, so he told us to. He probably just did not know what else to say xD Zero said that the tour starts at Kumagaya soon and asked everybody to come, but Hizumi interrupted him (again!) "There are no tickets left!". Zero finished his speech with "あバよ" that caused agitation in the audience xD
When the guys were leaving the hostess asked everybody to scream the names of the members, it's like everybody just waited for a signal to do that and the hall that was relatively quiet until then turned very very noisy xD

After that I went around Laforet, since I was there already... my new bag is cool, but I don't want to think of my credit card bill this month... I'll never learn x"D After that I walked to Shibuya to look at ESP fair, they had the guitars of Karyu and Zero displayed during this weekend. There were quite a few girls at the store checking out the display. The photos of the guys that were done when they visited the store were nice, but the price is quite shocking. If I thought that the price for the new guitars is bad, 600.000-650.000 yen, I was so wrong, some of their other models cost nearly one million yen ~_~
Then I went back home feeling accomplished after finally getting my D'espa fix, I missed them! ;D