This will be short, since the set itself was just seven songs.

• Got to the venue about 9:00 AM (I highly recommend splurging for the Summer Sonic shuttle bus if you go. Picks you up at USJ train station and drops you right by Sonic Stage).
• Picking up wristband was super easy, so less than 10 minutes later, joined the line to get into the Sonic Stage. Ended up being about 20th in line, behind some guys and a handful of Rodeo Girls.
• Very glad I did not spring for a platinum ticket, since the nice older RG right after me in line had one, but discovered there wasn’t a platinum viewing spot in the Sonic Stage venue. Nor did staff send her to the front of the line, which seemed only fair to me. She asked me if she could go in ahead of me, which I was fine with. As it turns out, we ended up right next to each other, front row, e-zuka’s side.
• Survived the opening act, which had far too much screaming and crowd surfing (one right over my head on the last song. ow!) for my tastes. My friends showed up somewhere during that act, came up to join me before SWMRS came on. They were quite amusing. Next up was Nothing’s Carved in Stone who were … okay.
• Shin came out to check out his drum kit himself, playing bits of Urban Sweet, Glorious Days and more. We all cheered for him. We could hear e-zuka calling out to the guy tuning his guitars.
• GR opened with Pierrot Dancin’, which really is just killer with the a cappella vocals
• Kiiyan’s MCs apparently tickled more than a few folks, to judge by Twitter and other writeups. He talked about being an ame-otoko, wanting to crowd surf because it looked like fun — but that he’s too old, how GR is an anison band
• He looked and sounded great. None of the usual festival nerves were showing. That could be because of the rows of cheering Rodeo Girls (and the occasional RB) up front. He stuck mostly to center, but worked the stage a little for ROSE HIP-BULLET.
• We seemed to amuse the security guys between us and the stage. Probably because to someone not used to GR shows, seeing all these young women doing the calls and responses in unison probably *is* amusing. Well, and bikinis.
• GR was the first act of the day on Sonic Stage to get videotaped. Or rather, we in the crowd were taped. Curious where that footage will go. A GR staffer was taking pics/video on her phone as well.
• There were a few crowd surfers — only one person in GR merch, though. Please don’t pick up this habit. Please.
• e-zuka threw out a bunch of picks and one landed in front of our section. The staffer there picked it up and dithered about which of the 5-6 of us clamoring for it to give it to. We even offered to jan-ken for it. I was hoping he’d go for me, of course, but he gave it to the person two to my left. Ah well.