Saturday night I went to the velfarre revival event at ageha and I’d say it was the best club event I’ve been to in the last year, maybe even the last three years.  It was amazing being able to experience the energy and passion of parapara events of the early 2000′s which you don’t really see in modern events.   I’d been to velfarre maybe 4 or 5 times before it closed, but that was back in 2005-2006 when I was still new to the parapara scene, and new to going out at night, so I wasn’t able to really appreciate it.  My first time at velfarre was the day after I arrived in Japan for the JET program.   I remember thinking that techno time was cyber trance because I didn’t know what hyper techno was yet. 

The velfarre (or age-farre) event was the same night as SEF DX, the modern reincartion of the velfarre event SEF Gold, and they were encouraging people to go to SEF DX before ageha.  They were offering discount entry to anyone who went to Maharaja before ageha.  Entry to ageha was only 3500 yen to begin with, which is pretty good for ageha (I paid 7000 yen one New Year’s Eve).  So I was expecting maybe a 500 or 1000 yen discount, but we got guest list and entry for 1000 yen with one drink!

We took the free shuttle bus from Shibuya.  Awesome views of Rainbow Bridge on the way.

We got to go in through the guest line instead of the general admission line so there was only a ten minute wait.  I heard that later on some people were having to wait several hours to get in.  Security is really tight at ageha so I smuggled my camera in in my bra, which led to problems that I will describe later…

The main floor was cyber trance.  I never went to any cyber trance events but I know the music from the Trance Paradise CDs, and from the occassional trance sets that would be played at parapara events.  But this was nothing like the trance times at 9LoveJ where everyone sits around and drinks except for the two or three people shuffling around on the dance floor.  I don’t know how to say it in English so I’ll say it in Japanese. 盛り上がってた！ Everyone was so into the music and it was fun jumping around with everyone.  really good music to dance to.  They had the DJ booth set up so it even kind of looked like velfarre.  I kind of regret not spending more time in the cyber trance room but I was worried about missing something in the parapara room so I spent most of my time there.

Watch cyber trance 3 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The parapara room was absolutely packed.  The music was all second and third boom eurobeat.  The old SEF dancers like Rena, Kahori and Omami were all on the otachidai.  My only complaint is that it was ridiculously hot in that room.  I thought I was going to faint at one point.  I actually bought a bottle of water at a club for the first time in my life I think.  The techno was all old Techno Rave songs, a lot less major than the eurobeat song selection.  There was a noticeable lack of representation of the techno scene – no bodycon, no feathered fans.

Watch cyber trance 4 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch cyber trance in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

It was interesting being at a normal club with all the parapara people.  You’d be walking around ageha surrounded by swarms of people and then suddenly see a familiar face and be like “yay I found someone I know!”

There was a parapara lesson, the same song they taught a few hours ago at SEF DX -  SEB 4 U/SEB All Stars.  It’s going to be on SEB 221 which will be released in January 2013.

Also, this happened.

I talked to Luna Teresa Mori!  I was suprised she can speak some English too!

Satoko and Ryoko from the Parapara Allstars were there at the end.  Ryoko’s getting old…

So back to the camera incident… the first time I got caught I pretended I didn’t speak Japanese and then ran and lost the guy in the crowd.  The second time he actually pulled me by the hand to the exit but I played innocent and said I didn’t know it was against the rules and he let me go.  kind of embarassing, but it was worth it for the photos and footage I got.

Watch cyber trance 5 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch cyber trance 6 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch cyber trance 2 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Overall it was an amazing night and I hope they do something like this again!

I wish I could say I wasn’t worried, but to a degree I was. It was pretty obvious that Avex wanted to focus more on other projects within the genre, such as their vocaloid release with Super Hatsune Beat.

With a delay in the latest Super Eurobeat album, we’ve been lucky enough to find some alternate routes to fill the void, including new and consistent releases from indie-labels like Portland, Oregon based Disko Warp Records and Quebec, Canada based J-Mi and Midi-D. We’ve also seen the first “fan-made” Eurobeat compilation Eurobeat Forever, published by the indie-Eurobeat label Paradise Last, including work from Disko Warp, Travis Stebbins (Ken Blast of Delta fame) and others. But… where’s our “Domino?” “Ace and Fastway?” “David Dima?” – the top contenders in the crazy world of Eurobeat? Pressed on a CD sitting on the shelves of Avex Japan HQ collecting dust?

I’m afraid that if Avex starts delaying this release more and more without a concrete explanation, and if there is no alternate way of accessing new tracks, the genre is just going to fizzle out. Since the livelihood of this genre is largely based around new releases, if no new songs are released the fans are going to lose interest fast and move onto the next “thing” (and trust me, it won’t be vocaloid and it will be a genre of music not published by Avex.)

To generate some discussion, if you had the ability to gain better access to new Eurobeat, without having to wait for Avex to release their monthly compilations, what would you prefer to throw your money at? If the big Italian labels decided to start releasing their songs through other mediums, what route would you like to go? For example, if they decided to go old school and start pressing new tracks on vinyl – would you buy them? What if they included one-time download link for the songs on the vinyl for your iPod/MP3 player? Or, would you prefer to buy physical CD albums? Digital downloads from iTunes, Amazon, JunoDownload, etc.? How much would you be willing to pay?

Even though it was the anniversary special, they didn’t do anything special other than give out anniversary keitai straps like they do every year.   No prize raffle, no performance, no drinking game.  There were so few people at Starfire this month too, even less than on a normal month.  Bancho said they’ll do something big for the 15th anniversary.  I wonder where I will be during the 15th anniversary.  Age 32, still going to Starfire?  Hopefully

It was sad when Many, the Canadian exchange student, went back home a few weeks ago, but now we have yet another new gaijin paralist joining us in Tokyo for a few months – Felipe from Brazil.  I was surprised that he knows a lot of dances and he speaks Japanese really well, so I’m sure he’ll fit right in.

The euro lesson this month was ALIX / MAXMISIN’ from SEB 215.   Techno was a techno remix of the SEF euro In My Arms.  Both were average in my opinion.

After the lesson DJ Teru announced that he’s taking a leave of absence from Starfire.

Bancho also announced that in May they’re doing a Nagoya tour.  I really want to go!

Then they brought out the tequila and made the Tequila 5 get on stage and drink.  They were using the tequila instead of champagne for people’s birthdays last night too, yuck.  It wasn’t nice tequila either.  I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to drink at Starfire because I came down with tonsillitis a few days earlier, but I was back to normal by the weekend so I decided to be bad and skip the antibiotics for a few days so I could drink, haha.  Drinks at Pasela are really strong now, almost as bad as at a-life.

In Ginza in the morning as we were leaving Starfire they were setting up for the Tokyo marathon. But I went home and slept.

Happy 12th Anniversary, Starfire!

Last night was the first SEF of the new year and the first SEF at its new venue at Maharaja.  If I had to describe it in one word it would be “small”….   Everyone I talked to was saying the same thing. “It’s too small”  “It’s so crowded” “I knew it would be small but this is too small.”  They made three small circles on the dance floor during the euro sets and even then everyone didn’t fit on the dance floor.  The second most popular comment of the night was “There are too many events at Maharaja and they all feel the same now.  I can’t tell if this is SEF or Magical Rave or Tenkaichi.”  I felt that way too.  In your head you associate an event with the venue.  A-life was a good match for SEF but I guess it was too expensive.  But all that aside it was still a fun night.  All the regulars were there so even though I was there by myself I had fun mingling and dancing all night.  And I do like how I’m friendly with a few of the bartenders at Maharaja now so it’s nice to have them greet you by name and come talk to you, etc.

They gave out SEF DX 010

1.  Wheelpower and Go

2.  I Dream of You

3.  Passport to Dance

4.  Shalaka Boom

5.  Power Two

6.  Up & Dance

7.  Ministry of Power

8.  Rain

9.  Rock’n'Dolls

10.  Text me too much

11.  Erotic Chemistry

The only new song is techno, Rock’n'Dolls.  It’s filmed at a-life, last one to be filmed there I guess.  It must have been filmed a while back because Manami’s had extensions since November but she doesn’t have them in the dvd.  (also eyepatch?)  My favorite is Shalaka Boom because they get the a-life bartenders involved again.

There’s no otachidai at Maharaja so they made a makeshift otachidai by pushing the two circular stands from the corner up in front of the DJ booth.  The euro lesson was Poodle/Y&Co.  It’s a cute song.  Techno was Pop the Track.  You can watch them on my friend Max’s youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/maxsubobs#p/a

After the lesson they had a prize raffle.  At the door we each got a slip of paper with a number on it and then they pulled numbers out of a box and gave out prizes.  There were five SEF prizes (SEF DVDs and goods), five avex prizes(avex goods), one Maharaja prize(Maharaja t-shirt and goods).  Then there were four top prizes – a digital, camera, gourmet steak, pair tickets to Tokyo Disney, and a one year free pass to SEF.

Neoneo’s girlfriend Momoka won the Maharaja prize, Kensuke and Lumine won avex prizes.  Techno Yuki won the Disney tickets.  The creepy guy with the Care Bear tshirts won the digital camera.  I laughed at Uga’s comment: “Don’t use it for anything illegal.”

The very last prize was the SEF free pass, and they drew number 126, my number!  I was happily surprised to get some cheers from people in the crowd when I went up to receive the prize.  Uga asked me, “Is your visa ok for the year?” a reference to our friend who’s had some visa troubles this year.  Toshi-san told me I have good luck so I should buy a lottery ticket.

After the prize raffle was the tequila matsuri where they hand out free tequila shots to the crowd.  It was SEF member Manami’s birthday so they put her up on stage and made her drink, and then took her back to the VIP room and made her drink more – typical parapara event birthday celebration.  They also did ex-Vivid Anna’s birthday.  After the koushukai is when people really get on the drinks.  Tequila 5 Yosshi bought ten mexicoke’s and was passing them out…he must be loaded.  I did some janken drinking with Saki and the young people.  But no one got really bad this month.

My prediction for SEF is that attendance is going to fall since they moved to Maharaja.  I think they’ll lose a lot of the young gyaru crowd.  I think the younger people feel out of place in a disco atmosphere like Maharaja.  They’re used to always being able to get a seat in a club.  The older generation probably doesn’t mind it being crowded as much, because that’s how it was when they were young I imagine.  But I’ll be there every month, especially since I get in for free! 

Here’s another little video that I had laying around. It took me forever to edit it since I’m lazy. I hope you all enjoy and please feel free to subscribe to my youtube channel.

Happy Holidays everyone! We’re all so busy with life at the moment, but we’ll be back into the swing of things very shortly. There’s a few projects that are being planned right now. So keep your eyes open in 2012 for some new videos and lessons. For now I’ll leave you with a photo that I screen capped last night during a Google + hangout with Dom, Jim, Tony and myself.

It’s been six months since the last blog entry, there’s so much that we need to fill you all in on. For now I’ll leave you with this fabulous new video from ZYX. It’s a Disco NRG original choreography to Every Heart Wanna Fly/Irene from SEB 218.

The filming was yesterday afternoon, a few weeks later than originally planned because things got delayed after the earthquake.  They used the same studio as the B-1 cosplay dvd.  The Starfire staff is obviously very used to filming because they set everything up right away as if they were professionals.   The techno boys went first with Dragon and they only took a couple of takes.  We were supposed to go fourth, but since the other teams weren’t ready yet they had us go next after Dragon.   Our song was New Horizon, and I’d heard that Ryohei is very strict about getting every move just the way he wants it, but he was pretty gentle on us.  He did change some details of the furi on the spot though.  In that respect it was good that I hadn’t practiced as much as I should have.  Max had practiced a lot so the old furi was stuck in his head and he had a lot of NGs.  It took us 7 takes but I didn’t have a single NG.  But our last take was probably my worst take so I’m not super happy with the final result.  For the first few takes I was super focused, but after a couple of NGs I started to relax and I let my guard down too much.  Plus for some reason on that final take I started to get paranoid that I was stepping backwards, and I was worrying about that and not focusing on my arm movements as much as I could have.  It always feels like I’m dancing big but when I see the video it’s always different from what I felt in my head.  But it’s done and we’re a part of Starfire history now yay!

There was a big earthquake during the filming.  It was a shindo 5 in Ibaraki so about a 3 in Tokyo.  The people dancing didn’t even notice so it was ok, but it’s just a reminder that even though a lot of things are back to normal we’re still dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

We didn’t stay to see everything, but Rh, Ke-tan and Negiko did Tell Me Why and they had more NGs than we did so that’s good.  The worst was Hellworld.  They had two random girls I’d never seen before dance Hellworld, and it looked like they had just started dancing parapara last month because it was not good at all.  They did about 6 takes, and then got sent back to practice with Ryuuichi for another hour.  I wonder if they were ever able to get a final take.  They had the Lakshimi girls do Dragon and My Load.  I didn’t see Dragon but they did a Juliana’s take on My Load.  Harumi and Satomi did Sex Killer.  Satomi is such an amazing dancer<3  Harumi’s kid was there running around and he is a handful.

Anyway I’m excited to see the final product in a couple of weeks.  Disco NRG’s name will be in the credits next to my name so look forward to that★

Heather