Doors opened at 7pm, we were in line at something past 6pm and there was already quite a line. Note : we went to see Babymetal, not the other ladies show… In the morning, we had passed by the venue to check the itinerary, because the center of San Francisco seemed to have become less safe since I had been there the last time, and I didn’t want to walk through shady streets at night. As it turned out, it gave us the opportunity to walk by 2 tour buses that probably were Babymetal’s. I didn’t see any known face and I didn’t stay around, but it was a nice start to the day anyway.
Good surprise : though the few streets around are gross and feel unsafe, the Warfield Theater itself is a wonderful old-fashioned theater with golden balconies and, wonder of wonders : a floor in levels! So I stuck behind a guy leaning against the rail-thingy (with space for drinks) of the second level, which still was quite close from the stage but guaranteed me that I would see (I’m only one inch or two taller than Moametal). Yaye!
Opening band was the Swedish metal band Avatar, delivering great melodies with a freak show (singer Johannes has Joker-like make-up clown), very fun, quite loud too but the sound balance was excellent. If the singer sang instead of growling, I might listen to it more. In the end, the singer said it was their last show of this tour and they’d come up with an idea for their upcoming album, requiring a crowd shouting a word. So he asked us to shout « Silence« , several times. « I you don’t consent to be recorded, then just don’t shout. Shouting now is your consent. If you agree now and change your mind later, then good luck finding your voice and saying ‘I want you to remove my voice’. I’m gonna make you stars. Now you make me famous. »
So, fingers crossed, if they do as planned, I’ll be featured on a metal song 😁
Next came up our little fox ladies, Babymetal. The 3rd (rotating) girl who replaces Yuimetal for the dance part was Riho Sayashi, like in London. Thanks to our spot and this yaye-venue, I was able to see all of the choreography from close, which is rare. Double yaye! Because usually I only get to see from far, or between a sea of arms / heads, so it’s either a fragmented view of details, or an ensemble from far. Here I had the best of both worlds because I was close enough to see the artists expression AND the whole dance routines from Mikiko, their choreographer. I recorded some videos (though they’ll probably be struck at some point, but we’re all Babymetal deprived these days so I hope you’ll get to enjoy them) :
Babymetal at the Warfield – San Francisco – Shanti Shanti – YouTube
I had left my camera at the hotel, not knowing if they were allowed, so I only took pics and videos with my Huawei. And because I was close enough and the lighting was as awesome as always, it was enough to capture okay shots on the 2 songs I did. I failed to get a really good pic of Riho though, because when she was on the left, there was often a guy blocking the view.
Since they were on time, we were out by 10:30pm and had dinner in a slightly upscale Izakaya nearby, Ginto, because… We were fed up with bad food and hadn’t been to a proper restaurant since we had arrived in California almost a week before. Besides, it was a nice fitting end to that day to have proper Japanese food (tempura yaye!).
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