acchikocchi

Kame no Ongaeshi, 05/02

Disclaimer: in case it's not, ah, blindingly obvious, I tend to view all things Spitz-related through sparkly rainbow-colored Kusano Masamune-centric glasses. Just so we have that out of the way.

Having said that, most of the audience the first night clearly felt the same way. Next to me was a young couple decked out in 2005 tour gear who seemed to think they were in a (mild and relatively well-behaved) mosh pit and behind me were two of Kusano Masamune's most enthusiastic fangirls. *g* Snippets overheard: "omg, we're so close! I can't believe we're this close!" "Masamune-san is going to be RIGHT THERE." "I'm so glad I'm alive!" *spontaneous outburst of clapping* Then there were the two girls across the floor hanging off the guardrail and mouthing along with every word of every song, and the girl a few seats down watching the stage with a completely smitten smile. (For the record, I was also doing both of those things, simultaneously.)

Not to say there weren't plenty of devoted fans for the other acts -- in particular, Hirai Ken brought out a lot of calls for "Ken-chan" (hee) and there was a whole bloc of fans, mainly older women, in the next section over watching with starry eyes and moving their hands in time to the rhythm almost like conductors as they mouthed every syllable of "Hitomi wo tojite". And then there was the (extremely attractive) Kreva fanboy a few seats down who had the same dopey grin for Kreva that the rest of us had for Kusano, calling out at one point, "Kakkoii yo!" (Kreva, the next night: "Kakkoii yo, shitteru, shitteru. :D" "I'm cool, I know, I know.")

But I'm getting ahead of myself! The stage setup: The stage area divided the floor in half, lengthwise, east side and west side. At either end of the stage area was a raised band stage with drum kit, etc.; in the middle was a glassed in box for the orchestra and on both east and west sides of that a smaller stage about the right size for a single performer. It was all connected so that one could easily walk from one raised stage down to the smaller single stages and back up to the other side, etc. The first night I was, ah, right smack in front of the small single stage on the east side. It. It was ridiculously amazing. I can't lie. *_______* Second night I was on the west side roughly in front of the single stage again, several rows back. (How did I get floor seats both nights? The Yahoo!Japan Auctions gods look upon me kindly or something, I have nooo idea.)

There were I think four large screens present, mainly it seemed to show various story segments and things in between acts. (I'm not really sure, I didn't pay much attention to them during the performance -- didn't need to -- though

nyonyo reports they weren't used that much.) There was a short introductory narration on the theme of love/gratitude/music/etc. and then a young boy reading from a book called "Kame no Ongaeshi", and then in between every act a narration with photos, etc. of a story from the book, generally on the theme of thankfulness. They all involved animals in some way, too. *g* At the end there was a message from Kameda-san plus the credits with commentary/thanks from him, which effectively stymied the audience from cheering for an encore as they had begun to do the first night before the message began to play. Clever of the organizers, hmph. XD

Now for the good part. The acts:

Spitz

Haru no Uta
Cherry
Memories
Sawatte Kawatte
Masayume

It's hard to express my feelings whenever I see this group live in mere human words, ahaha. (For the JE fans reading I believe a good approximation might be "Akanishi who?") Basically at "kokoro ima hanaaaatte" I had tears in my eyes and "Haru no Uta" isn't even a melancholy song. Just, the afureteiru kimochi....! Spitz makes my chest hurt in the best way. "Haru no Uta" is a song that I didn't have particularly strong feelings about upon first listening, but it has really grown on me. Like, a lot. It's the part at "aruite~yuku... a-a-ahhh...." ...Also the rest of it.

Anyway, my squishy feelings aside. Both times I saw Spitz before this were in Zepp live houses and it's certainly different in a concert hall. In the end I prefer the closer, more intimate (and during songs like "Hayabusa" and "Memories", more energetic) atmosphere, but I'm not exactly complaining... *_* Besides, it was pretty neat to look around this (relatively) big concert hall with all the flashing lights and all the layers of fans and, you know, be united in overwhelming love... As is obvious, I am not a frequent concert-goer (remember: Alaska), so simple things still make me starry-eyed.

And regardless of the venue, most everyone in the front rows was bouncing up and down, especially during "Memories", and plenty of the audience broke out those hand motions so integral to Japanese rock concerts. (If you've been to a concert or even seen a live clip you'll know what I mean -- the one where everyone waves an arm back and forth over their head like a windshield wiper, and the one that involves energetically imitating an airplane runway attendant minus the glowing cone. XD Sorry, that's the best I can describe it.)

It's not that I didn't know this from, er, personal experience, but it's kind of amazing to observe the particular brand of starry-eyed devotion Spitz and Kusano especially can inspire. *g* Basically all Kusano had to do was turn his head slightly toward a section and it would erupt into a flurry of handwaving and jumping up and down. Which is good given that other than Tamura (the bassist, who is under the impression he's in a hard rock band) they're fairly restrained performers over a short set. In the live house performances there are songs like "Ore no subete" where Kusano breaks out the tamborine and teases the audience and everyone has an excellent time but in general they're just, you know, there, doing their thing.... which I hasten to add is perfectly fine by me skdja;ds there's still an element to hearing them live you do not get on a recording.

...I can barely remember what Kusano said during the MC. Unsurprisingly it was pretty relaxed, though; he wasn't trying particularly hard to be, idk, sparkly and entertaining or anything and no one expected him to in the first place. Sort of a "hi guys, we're Spitz, we ♥ Kameda-san, now we're going to play more" "YAY OKAY :D" feel.

Five songs = too short, though. At the end of the set I felt sort of like I'd been fed a delicious morsel and then told that was my entire dinner, ahaha. Morrrrrre please.

Hata Motohiro

Asa ga kuru mae ni
Forever Song
Synchro
Atarashii uta
Uroko

Enjoyable enough to listen to -- smooth, deep, pretty voice; v. nice acoustic guitar on the first song in particular. On the whole he didn't leave a particular urge to hunt down his music later, but the performance was perfectly nice to listen to. Damning with faint praise, I know. XD If I heard him performing on the street, say, I'd stop to listen for a while, but none of the songs in particular grabbed me. YMMV?

KREVA

Seikou
Neiro
Kureba ii no ni (with Kusano Masamune)
Umaretekite arigatou (ALSO with Kusano Masamune...!)
Ongaeshi
Akasatanahamayarawawon

Hands down best surprise of the night, omg. XD This is someone who really knows how to perform and how to work an audience. Of course as a rap artist goes it's, well, it's Japanese rap, it's not exactly -- hardcore. *g* (Though given that most of the audience was probably, like me, soft-hearted acoustic guitar lovers, that's probably for the best.

"Ongaeshi" was written by Kreva and Kameda specifically for the two concerts and, ahaha, the tiny orchestra really got into it. At the beginning Kreva encourages the audience to clap their hands and the all the orchestra members were really getting into it, then one of the violinists started pumping his bow in the air in time to the rhythm and they picked up on that until by the end they had several musicians pumping their bows and/or instruments in the air -- then the next night from the beginning they had this whole set of choreographed movements worked out. XD Sadly, I couldn't see them as well the second night but they got a quick "Saikou da ze" from Kreva as an aside in the middle of the song, and then afterwards a special thanks for being awesome, at which they waved their bows in the air and everyone cheered. :D After which followed:

Kreva: So this is going to be my last song --
Audience: Ehhhhhh?
Kreva: *pointing at a different section of the audience with each syllable* ...A-i-shi-te-ru. :D

The duets: ............................magical perfection. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Kusano's VOICE. I want to hear him sing non-Spitz songs more often because he does it so well and it sounds so... I don't even know, "fresh" is I think something like the word I'm looking for. Specifically, more duets plz; as other people have said before he sounds so good doing, well, the girl's part. (cf. Kureba ii no ni, Haiiro no hitomi.) Sometimes I get used to hearing the Spitz discography(-plus-assorted-covers-and-ephemera) and don't consciously notice what an amazing voice that is... and then listen to something new and quite different from the usual like "Umaretekite arigatou" and am hit with it all over again. Kusano Masamune = national treasure, the end.

Also he was like ten feet away from me for "Umaretekite arigatou". This is the extent of what I am able to write about that in complete sentences. *explodes*

(Mysterious handout on everyone's seats seemed to indicate a DVD may be forthcoming; fingers, toes, etc. crossed. Oh please oh please I want to rip that and listen to it agaiiiin.)

When the first strains of "Kureba ii no ni" came up the first night, the Kusano fangirls and I were busy having small conniptions so I missed what Kreva said, something about a special guest. The second night, however, the intro didn't come up right away and instead he enjoyed himself by playing with the audience a little beforehand. *g*

Kreva: So tonight's already special.... but I can make it MORE special. :D
Crowd: *knows exactly what this means*
Kreva: Should I introduce him? Should I? :D
Crowd: *small sonic explosion*

Final evaluation: As the Kusano fangirls behind me said, "Wow, tonight I ended up liking him."

JUJU

I can be free
Sunao ni naretara
Yasashisa de afureru you ni

I didn't come away with a particularly strong impression, other than noticing she had a very good falsetto. She doesn't seem to be very well known and given the rest of the lineup she would have had to be pretty mindblowing to make much of a dent in anyone's mind. Nice enough but I wasn't wishing for a longer set.

Hirai Ken

Hitomi wo tojite
Elegy
Omoi wo kasanaru sono mae ni...
Rakuen (!!!)
Pop Star

In other words, the perfect set list. XD The aforementioned bloc of fans noticed him before the lights even came up; I heard a couple calls of "Ken-chan!" and looked over to see a tall fedora'd figure making his way toward the stage. He basically stood/sat on the small stage right in front of me for the entire set until "Pop Star", at which point he visited each section of the audience.

Good lord, that man certainly has a voice. *_* He got a spontaneous round of applause after the first chorus of "Hitomi wo tojite" -- totally deserved, too. As

nyonyo said about Ayaka, there's certainly no post-production happening there; what you hear on record is what you hear live. He was also clearly not half-hearted in the least about his vocals, especially during "Elegy". I mean, that song in particular is totally over the top but that's what made it fun! :D

I think it was around "Omoi wo kasanaru" that he pulled over a tall stool to sit on for the next two songs; the atmosphere was suddenly such that I understood why his annual year end concerts are called "Ken's Bar". "Rakuen" was a special request from Kameda, even though he wasn't involved in producing it, and I was so glad, omg. That was an early favorite of mine and it sounded great. :D Well. They all sounded great as far as performance went, naturally. But "Rakuen" had less in the way of dramatic string arrangements and more in the way of -- I don't know, slow, smoky streetlights. The arrangement was more rock and less funk than the original but it sounded goooood.

"Pop Star": This was when he left his stool and went all around the stage, pointing at various sections of the audience at key moments (you know, like "kimi dake niiiii") to produce concentrated outbursts of squeals and handwaving. *g* This was especially fun for me because it hit the charts while I was in Japan and host family #2 were all big Hirai fans, so I became very familiar with it. XD Moeka (adorable 3-year-old) in particular enjoyed singing along to it, although somewhere along the line "kira kira no pop star" became "kira kira no pasta", "gyutto dakishimete ageru" became "gyutto ikishimete ageru", etc... (That would be sparkling pop star --> sparkling pasta, and hold you tightly --> choke you tightly.) If you have somehow escaped seeing the music video, let me help you fix that. No really. You will be doing yourself a favor, I promise.

In conclusion: completely awesome A+++ five stars.

(P.S. My sources tell me that one of the tracks on Hirai's upcoming cover album is a duet with, yes that's right, Kusano Masamune. Covering a Nakajima Miyuki song. sdkjasd; this pleases me greatly.)

Shiina Ringo

Akane sasu kirou terasaredo...
More (Frank Sinatra cover)
Gibbs
Put Your Camera Down (Tokyo Jihen) (with Hirai Ken)
Marunouchi Sadistic (Tokyo Jihen)

As soon as Shiina Ringo came out I had this overwhelming feeling that she reminded me of someone, but it was several moments before I could place the person as Nana. Not in appearance but in terms of sheer presence -- well, and also impressionable young female fans. XD I imagine this is a connection others have made before. Anyway, wow, she was really, really fantastic. She had the audience wrapped around her little finger as she either a. tore up her guitar or b. went slinking around the stage in trademark white labcoat and black nylons, and she totally knew it, too.

"Gibbs": Once again, whoever designed the setlist really liked me, because this was, like, one of the first straight-up jpop/rock (i.e. non anime related) songs I ever heard and I have Special Feelings about it. Aaaaand it was totally mindblowing. I couldn't even tell you why, exactly, just something about the transition from blackout to stage lights on "I wanna be with you..." and her voice and stage presence... Again, I had this overwhelming feeling it could have been a Black Stones concert.

For the all the acts following Spitz, by the way, Kameda was on bass as part of the house band and chatted with the artists; they generally shared their first meeting with him, that sort of thing. For Shiina's set he and the rest of the band also donned the white labcoats, and when Hirai Ken came back out for their duet he, too, had a labcoat plus paint-spattered clothes and scruffy hair and thick glasses, to the point where I didn't actually recognize him until he started singing. XD Fabulous duet, though, which I'm sure comes as no surprise. (Though as I said to

canis_m in comments, this was a criminally wasted opportunity for a live performance of "Haiiro no hitomi". XD)

Finale

Spitz + Kameda/house band + Hata Motohiro: Sora mo toberu hazu
Spitz + Kameda/house band + JUJU: Mahou no kotoba

Nice, though not particularly outstanding! I liked both artists all right, just not enough that it was terribly exciting to see them on vocals. Hearing Sora mo toberu hazu = ♥ though. :D (Mahou no kotoba is a. a song I have heard live before and b. a song that I like a lot but don't necessarily love.)

...and that's just the first night. To come: Chara, Suga Shikao, Ayaka, Do As Infinity, plus song samples for both nights' performers.