At Saturday’s Fuchu performance, I was selected to join the GRANRODEO rehearsal, soI thought I’d share a bit about what it’s like.

This tour the rehearsal is limited to fan club members and you can’t find out if you’re selected until a couple of hours before the show. You need to scan a QR code at the venue; the link will ask you to log into your Ro-gumi account and then displays a cute Team Rodeo-themed digital gacha machine. There’s a link beneath the gacha that you click to turn the handle. A big ? will appear and then you’ll either see the event’s downloadable digital wallpaper or you’ll get the notice about the rehearsal and a link to download the wallpaper. There are up to 20 winners.

Winners were told to be at the hall entrance at 16:25. A little past 16:30 they started letting us into the lobby. I was in first in line, and it took a couple of minutes to get in since the staffer needed to click a link on my phone, but reception was pretty bad. It did eventually work and I got to select a lanyard with a badge on it (see the photos). I chose very well indeed.

It took a few minutes for staff to process everyone, while the rest of us stood on the stairs leading to the first floor doors. I could hear the songs they were rehearsing — DECADENCE, STARS ROCK, silent MAZE. The person in charge, identifiable by the ipad he carried, read us the rules — penlights allowed, no harassing the artists, take a photo of your badge since you have to hand it back, etc.

Finally, just before 16:55, they led us into the first floor seats. The first 10 of us were ushered to row 4, and my #5 badge put me right in front of Kiiyan. When e-ZUKA saw us coming in, he said “ああ、きた。きた。きた。きたきたきたきた” (“Aah! Here they come, here they come, etc.) until we were all in place. Kiiyan joked about warming up for Ajinomoto Stadium (two train stops away from the venue) and they said a couple of other things before launching into 魔ガツ夜ハ青ナリ.

Of course, it was awesome to be so close, especially with no one in front of me. The sound mix, though, wasn’t as good as it should have been (my actual seat was 2nd floor and the sound was much better there). All too soon the song was over and the lights came up. We clapped and waved as we were guided back out to the lobby, where we had to relinquish our badges.

This is the second time I’ve been lucky enough to attend a rehearsal and it’s definitely a fun perk of the fan club. Do wish we could get two or three songs, though.