Live #1: Paris
7 of us from the US headed over to Europe: me, Erich, Lale, Glenn, Sam, Jerry, and Elaine. A few of us got there a few days before the live to sightsee and such.
We figured out roughly which flight SCANDAL would be on, so Lale, Glenn, Erich, and I headed over to CDG Airport where we met up with a handful of the French fans. They had put together a paper welcome banner for the band, and we held it over the railing directly in front of the arrivals exit to make sure it was the first thing the band would see when they walked out. Also, there wasn't a 100% guarantee that the flight we predicted the band would come in on was in fact it, until a guy who had a jacket emblazoned with the B7Klan logo showed up. That's when we knew for sure. He also told us to not take pictures of the band arriving so that's why I won't be posting any, just FYI.
About an hour after their flight touched down, the band walked out of the exit. RINA was first, followed by HARU, MAMI, and TOMO together about 5 seconds later. They all waved to us and TOMO took a picture of us with her camera. (She's since lost the camera, most likely in the US...but hopefully she transfered that picture somewhere else before she did lose it haha) Before they arrived, we had planned on saying "Bienvenue en France! (Welcome to France!)" when they came out, but that plan went up in smoke; most people seemed to be so shocked at seeing them, especially for the first time, that everyone just sort of cheered instead, lol.
After they cleared the exit, they headed to some nearby elevators. We followed them a bit and stopped about 20 feet in front of them to wave them off for the final time.
A few minutes after they left, we also took the elevators to get out of the airport and took group pictures.
French fans:
US fans:
Everyone!
The next day, we were invited by the French fans to play football/soccer!
The day after that was the day of the Paris live!
Erich and I were staying only about 2 blocks away from the venue and headed out around 8 am to check out the line. Surprisingly, there were already 4 guys in line. We joined the line after them and stuck around until the rest of our US group got there.
After around 12 people were in line, one of the people in back of us said that he wanted to keep track of the people who had VIP by having everyone write numbers our their hand so that people would know their exact spot in line even if someone were to leave and come back, and hopefully it would keep everything more organized. We thought it was a good idea and wrote our numbers down.
Since we had the number thing going, we decided to take turns waiting in line. Sam, Lale, and Glenn would take first shift while Erich, Jerry, Elaine, and I would take second shift.
Erich and I arrived back in line just in time to see SCANDAL arrive and enter the venue! A few minutes after we got back, a navy blue van pulled up to the curb about 50 feet away and the band hopped out. The venue staff had arranged metal barricades near the front of the line to corral us in and make it more organized and I was standing directly where a small opening was left between 2 barricades, making me the most visible person to the band. As the band got closer, I heard TOMO go, "Uwaa!" and HARU laugh and say, "Sugoi!" and I realized that those were directed at me, because...
This is what I was wearing that day!
HARU's "Image" superhero outfit! hahaha. I'm glad they liked it. :P
The band headed into the venue, and not long after that it started raining. As expected of the Ame (Rain) Band!
Our US crew:
By the time doors were about to open, the line had just gotten insane and the numbers thing was completely forgotten about. The guy who had suggested it was now at the front of the line. Go figure.
Doors were delayed about 20 minutes. When they finally started letting people in, it was pretty much a free-for-all to get inside. When I went in, I noticed that all these people were going to the right side of the entranceway (I think that's where the French flag to write messages for the band was), but no one was going inside of the main hall. I had no idea what was going on and just went straight past those people, which meant I was going to be the first one to meet the band!
In line inside:
After all of the VIP people were inside the venue and were lined up, the band came out and went in the space between the metal barricade and the stage. When I got the okay to go, I, being the clumsy person that I am, tripped a bit on the metal grate floors that the barricade was attached to. I'm not sure that the band noticed, but I think all of the VIP people must have, haha.
I walked up to them, and I'm blanking on the order that the members were in. Anyway, as I approached, they were all saying stuff like "Uwahh!" again lol. I never really know what to say when meeting a band, so I just said "Hi! Arigatou~" (the band also said the same things to me in response) and high-fived each of them fairly quickly while walking by, and said, "See you in London!" to HARU. I wish I had said I had come from the US and/or maybe said something like, "It's been a while since we last saw each other in Hawaii!" haha, but oh well!
After all of the VIP people got their chance to high-five the band and the band went backstage once again, we were allowed to go to the stage in order. I of course got the spot directly in front of HARU, front and center.
It was exciting to hear the new songs from
HELLO WORLD since it was my first time seeing/hearing those live. As this live was the first of the international stops, we didn't know what the set list would be like. As soon as they started playing "Hon wo Yomu," I expected that they would play the rest of the solo songs as well. "Kan Biiru" came after, followed by "Oyasumi." I was expecting them to play "Graduation" after that, but it turned out to be "Departure." Perhaps they figured that HARU already sings a substantial amount in the other songs on the set list and didn't need to include her solo song? Anyway, this was the set list:
01. love in action
02. Satisfaction
03. DOLL
04. Shunkan Sentimental
05. SCANDAL BABY
06. Kagen no Tsuki
07. Onegai Navigation
08. Hon wo Yomu
09. Kan Biiru
10. Oyasumi
11. Departure
12. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
13. Yoake no Ryuuseigun
14. Your song
15. Image
Encore:
16. Shoujo S
17. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH!
Overall, it was a pretty fun show but not a very memorable one for me. I mostly remember the general air of the venue getting very humid and smelly. D:
Where I am in their staff member Tsuchi's picture of the crowd haha:
After the live, one of the Europe staff members stopped me and asked to do a video message to SCANDAL/asked me a few questions like where I was from. I said LA, and she loudly said, "What?!" and was really surprised, especially when I said I'd be going to all of the Europe performances haha.
A handful of people, including us, hung around outside of the venue to see the band off. They came out about an hour later, waved to us, hopped in to the same navy van, and took off. After that, a few of the French fans and we went to the cafe in front of the venue for some drinks!
I'll be honest, I had my doubts considering that some of their songs are hard to pull of live but nope. Nope nope. They delivered. And they delivered well. I was totally blown away. Everything was a blur in those 2-ish hours. I was at Timo's side because Tomomi. XD I was so concentrated watching her play bass because of sheer awe at her bass work that I forgot to actually jump around and cheer on at times haha. Got hit real hard during Awanai and started to actually appreciate Mami more because of Honn wo Yomu.
Here are the fanart I made for them. I had it framed per member. I hope they got it... 
