I was mostly listening to Uplift Spice today as I've been to their very first concert oustide Japan... and that was in Paris.

Story:
Uplift Spice is a small j-rock band, they've been around since 2005. They are not yet signed to a major label, but it seems they do have enough fame that they can keep doing their stuff.
In france, we have IPTV called Nolife, aimed at geek. They are a music channel, promoting japanese music. But they also have to broadcast french and european stuff (mandatory). They also do other stuff (retro gaming, gaming and much more)
Said IPTV has a chart called J-Top where people can vote for clips they like.
Uplift spice enters said chart in june 2009 with Kanojo. Slow start and then get to first position.
Hanabi no Iro, same story.
And then every other tune gets first position the first week they are available to vote!

Nolife with partners decide to help the band come to France and voilà. First time they go abroad and it's for us in France starting with Paris (then Orleans, Limoges, Toulouse, Marseille and they'll finish in Bruxelles-Belgium)

The concert was full of energy, a bit loud to my fragile ears even full at the back of the small but packed room. (105 dB average, 115 peaks... and it was considered not too loud by some)
It was short and intense. I'm still a little high from the experience 24hours ago.
To tell you the truth, at 36 it's the very first time I chose to go to a live on my own accord.
Last time I've been to a concert was in 1995 to an Elton John live, where I was accompanying the girlfriend I had then.
I had a blast, won't do it too much for many reasons, but it was worth it.

crappy video from the live (hopping I'll get more and better) doesn't really do justice, gives only about 10% of what it was in terms of energy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEy6Es5MaeA

To get an idea, just imagine that nicely paced tune with a room packed with energized people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lkoj9dKPBM