Las Vegas - February 17, 2007We arrived at Tabu at about a quarter to 11, I think. After clearing up some stuff with the manager about our reservation, we got into the general admission line for the club. We didn't wait that long and when we entered were were also checked with a metal detector. The admission fee was $20 for women and $30 for men. The inside of the club was partitioned into three main sections. The left side from the entrance was an area with tables and red seats for reservations. The middle section was in a bit of a dip with sofas with purplish apolstery surrounding low concrete tables. The part of that section directly right of the entrance had a table in an alcove for more private drinking and the upper area of that section was the DJ's "cage". The right of the section was another area of tables that was literally fenced off by a large black-painted wooden structure. On the right side of the DJs cage was the walkway to the bathrooms. The general ambient lighting in the club was in a bluish hue with mostly flashing red lights. Above the concrete tables was a projector of each set (of which there were two sets of concrete tables and apolstery).
The manager had informed us that Miyavi wouldn't be on until 12:30 am, so we just waited inside until the appointed time. At about 12:00 am, I saw a dark figure out of the right corner of my eye with a familiar hairstyle passing by. I paused for a moment and gave i know everything to the left of me a light smack on the arm as he passed in front of us. Miyavi was basically sporting his Miyaviuta outfit minus the hoodie with pink trim. He headed to the concrete table section closest to the DJ cage. As he sat in his exclusive private section in the middle purple apolstery area, eager fans pretty immediately began to gather around him for pictures and such.
After a bit of time passed, Miyavi got up and began dancing with some of the scantily clad model club waitresses. It was actually pretty amusing to see him doing club dancing and dancing to music that my friends and I dance to when we go clubbing like Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone". It's a normal thing for sure for the American club experience, but it's the mental association with Miyavi that in this case is rather peculiar.
He sat down again after a few minutes of that and at some point he'd removed his blazer which prompted a swoon from some of the onlookers. When it was close to 12:30, they began to set up bongo drums on the section of concrete tables across from Miyavi. About 10-15 minutes after the designated time, Miyavi got out his acoustic guitar and began playing. Initially most of the performance was to flashing colored lights until they settled on a plain white light that mainly focused on Miyavi. The various colored lights still came by during this time, but there was significantly more white light. The first part of the performance was quite similar to the intro to "Are you ready to ROCK?" with the percussion on the guitar body. After some jamming on that, the bongo player joined in. The sound for this was similar to "How to love" from Miyaviuta~Dokusou~. After some amount of time passed, Miyavi got really into it and jumped around enthusiastically. Soon after the bongo portion, Miyavi removed his shoes revealing red nail polish on his toenails that noticeably drew some attention as he slipped his right foot into a makeshift contraption of a sneaker with no back tied to an open half tambourine. With that added some jingle to the sound of the performance.
By now, the white light was the sole light on him and the pink and blue streaks in the bangs of his hair and the streaks he used for his eye shadow were clearly visible.
After the acoustic guitar, he changed to electric and jammed a bit until he invited the DJ to jam with him as well. The jamming continued with the three forms of performance/instrument for a good while and then the performance wrapped up. If you've seen the This is Oudou live performance, this portion is very much liek the Rhythm Battle from that live.
Overall, Miyavi really seemed to get into his performance, but it was mainly a gig and an instrumental performance rather than other lives we're used to. By and large it was mostly a jam session and an intimate performance than an all out concert. Music and beats still tried to keep with the club theme so that other patrons could continue dancing and vocals were probably excluded partly because of language barriers and prejudice against languages that "can't be understood". Miyavi's actual songs though also aren't really associated with club dancing either, so the choice to do what he did was probably a good one and the best way to peak an interest in a foreign crowd. I'll get into further details about the audience for that weekend later because it is a rather important aspect to remember.
An interesting point though was the DJ's introduction for him. He referred to him as "the world's #1 Kabuki Rockstar". The association or even translation of visual kei or even Miyavi's "Neo Visualism" to Kabuki I found to be quite interesting, but I suppose to the other patrons in the club that don't know a lot about him or other artists like him (or Japanese culture really for that matter), Kabuki would probably be the most familiar association.
After the performance, Miyavi and his crew vacated to the bathroom area. After a time, they returned with the venue's sign advertising his performance for him to sign in his private area. Shortly after that, they opened up the area for a meet and greet autograph session. The line of fans started along the wooden structure separating the mid-section from the right section of private tables. A bouncer handled the line's queue for the session and even ousted some of the overly rowdy from the line. After that was done, Miyavi disappeared to the bathroom area again and only returned later to greet some of the people he knew that were hanging out in his private area. After that he probably left the venue and as it got later in the night, his fans also seemed to slowly trickle out. All that remained was mostly the people in his party that were probably associates partying it up until the morning along with the general weekend traffic that was only in Vegas for the NBA ALL STAR event or Chinese New Year. Quite literally, Vegas was crowded and everyone and their Mom was there. Many of those same people had opted to go clubbing and attended the very same club Miyavi performed at, so given that there was such a diverse set of patrons, it was probably a smart move on Miyavi's part to focus his performance on his best skill of playing guitar.
Reply
