Concert Report 7/9
 

Concert 7/29 Report (Short):
- They played the full Sunrise / Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ single at the goodies stand. Sunset is rather dull and sounds like a slow remix of Sunrise. It's rather generic and slow. The remix is great, though. It's basically a medley of the summer songs, not an actual remix.
- The encore song order was changed to: Curtain call > For My Dear... > Sunrise > everywhere nowhere > Humming 7/4 > Boys & Girls > MY ALL.
- Sunrise was played in full this time (including the intro, etc.). There's a "choreography" that the audience does during the chorus. It's basically a Koda Kumi girls rip-off that involves swinging a towel around in a circle the whole time. Really fun, though!
- rollin' is still hands down the best performance.
- EnergizE is definitely lip sync, lol.
- LOVE 'n HATE was actually really cool this time around. I'm not sure why. Maybe because last time I was freaking out over being at an Ayu concert the whole time.
- Peco waved at me. ^^ Everyone stood facing the catwalk and then I waved at Peco and she smiled and waved back!
- AYU WAVED AT ME OMG. I'm 95% sure. During SIGNAL she went to the right side near Peco & Yoshio and people were clapping and jumping. She looked in my direction and then I waved and 2 seconds later she waved back while looking at me! I had to cry for the rest of the song lol. I'm such a wuss. S_S
- The signed ball she wanted to hit in my direction (generally) went to the back of the concert hall instead, so they got 3 balls there and our section 0. ~_~; Let's go back to THROWING balls, yay!

Pre-Concert: I bought some goodies at the stalls. The T-Shirt is very nice, but I wasted my money on the jacket. It is very expensive and much MUCH too large. After trying it on I asked if I could swap it for something else but they said no, so bye-bye 6500 Yen. If you're thinking of buying it, you need to make sure that you don't mind oversized clothes, hehe. (Unless you're 2 meters tall. xD)

Inside the concert hall, there was an umbrella at the top of the stage. It looked rather epic lol. My seating was row 6, next to the catwalk, Arena, so very close to front stage.

Concert:

01 Pieces of Seven
The intro was pretty awesome. The screens showed TV noise, as if it was starting up.

02 Rule - 5/5
Once she appeared on stage for the first time I started to cry pretty bad so I don't know what happened the first part of the song as I was too busy not looking like a retard with my crying. I only remember that they strolled by me on the catwalk two times and that she didn't dance during the final chorus.

03 UNITE! - 4/5
The usual. Nothing to say here. I think I hit the person behind me with my fan at one point.

04 (disco)munication
This was very fun actually. Everyone clapped and the video was fun, too. It showed Ayu as the main character in a platformer game.

05 EnergizE - 4/5
This song was very clearly lip synced, unfortunately. Aside from that, it was really fun to clap along the whole song. Peco and Princess' WHOOO WHEEE YAYS are because the dancers are pretending to play baseball or something. It's basically another cute story performance like Depend on you AT08. The male dancers were baseball players and the female ones cheerleaders.

06 AUDIENCE - 4/5
Except an ikuyo!! at the start of the song, this SOUNDED lip synced. She didn't mess it up like with EnergizE, but she did do the overexeggerated lip movement. Not much else to say here. It was fun. I don't remember much performance-wise, because I was still overwhelmed with seeing Ayu in real life. The audience was very engaged this song and the previous one.

07 Load of the Shogyu
This was actually a very long interlude. It showed Ayu's male dancers being tortured in some stair with electric shocks. They had wires all over their bodies. It was actually disturbing to me. The woman behind me also made some noises showing how disturbed she was by it. The male dancers are locked up. Ayu likes Shuya and opens his prison to give him some water, but he betrays her and free the other dancers and they run.

08 LOVE 'n HATE - 2/5
The audience's reaction was so funny. The second the song started playing, almost everyone stopped playing/waving their fans. I was like 'huh? Japanese people don't like this song?'. Apparently they don't and mostly just watched without cheering/doing anything.
At the end of Load of the Shogyu, the female dancers were on stage 'looking around' for the male dancers and the male dancers were seen on the video screen. The performance started with the female dancers having the male dancers chained up, much like Koda Kumi's Selfish performance from the Secret Live concert. During the performance, there was some usual Ayu-touching-herself going on and half-naked dancers running around. No catwalk action.

09 identity - 2/5
The male dancers left the stage except Shuya, who did on a shirt and Ayu took off her jacket. They both went to the back of the stage and it elevated all the way up and they danced a bit (dancing is a large word lol). It was a bit boring. You hardly heard the strings of the song, and that's what gives it its fast-paced action. There was some generic Shuya-Ayu dancing going on. I was anticipating the bridge of identity a lot, because she could do a lot of things with it (go down the catwalk, do a military-ish dance break, etc.). But when it played, she was just down on the stage and stood there with Shuya, touching herself. It was rather disappointing. The audience didn't like this much either.
It's a nice change, though, that this time it wasn't Ayu and the naked dancers going down the catwalk again but just Ayu and one dancer.

10 In The Corner - 1/5
Lol I actually forgot writing about this song in the concert report. This was the least good performance. The audience didn't like it (in fact they didn't like the entire rock section). It was the only song where I found myself wondering when it'd be over. It sounded pretty lip synced, like with Premium CDL, but this time I wasn't sure so I'm not going to say that it was. I started liking the song more, but live it was still rather boring. A part of it was because the sound quality was bad, though. It was exactly the same as CDL 08-09.

11 HOPE or PAIN - 3/5
The interlude was snow and MARO AND MIDORING YAY NO SHUYA I was so happy lol. Maro and Midoring danced and it was quite awesome, simply because NO SHUYA! *cheers* It was much like Stadium Tour 2002's HANABI. HOPE or PAIN, Ayu stood on stage and walked a bit down the catwalk. Maro danced at the round catwalk end. It was nice but nothing special, because I don't care much about the song.

12 GREEN - 3/5
Hmm, k. Until the final chorus, nothing happened. Ayu hardly moved at all and I stared at her back the entire time. It was very disappointing that nothing happened for such an epic song. At the end, the round catwalk goes up and Midoring and Maro dance beneath it. The round elevated platform was decorated with some blanket-y thing wrapped around it. It was transparent, showing them on the inside, but also rather ugly. The audience really loved this song, btw.

13 Days - 4/5
Ayu stood on the round platform with Shuya, but I don't think they interacted. It spun around and it was really nice. The audience really loved this song! It was so pretty. At the bridge, she walked back down the catwalk and she looked at me at the final chorus and I suddenly had to cry pretty bad lol.

14 evolution - 5/5
The interlude before evolution had the female dancers dressed up as fairies prancing around the stage and Koyannochi (what's her name? lol) up in the air blanket..things again. It was very refreshing from her standard interlude parts.
evolution was awesome, of course. The usual. She sung live, by the way.

15 SIGNAL - 5/5
This was probably the most surprising peformance in quality to me. It was so much fun, the screens were flashing from effects, everyone was clapping and waving their fans. This song is sooo awesome live! She also sang some additional parts to the studio version.

16 rollin' - 6/5
Best performance of the concert hands down. The dance was very cool and original. It was sort of like robot moves. The first chorus she wore sunglasses. When she took them off she looked around in a very fun way but her eyes were very large and some girl around me was freaked out by it. The chorus sound quality was perfect and very bass-heavy.

17 Sparkle - 5/5
The sound quality of the chorus was pretty mediocre, unfortunately. I don't remember the dance for some reason. I don't think Ayu danced much. They also had a little movement that the audience did along with the dancers and Ayu. It was during the NO NO NO, they did one arm up diagonal, the other one over it to form a cross and then slowly both down. At the end Ayu yelled motto motto! and the audience thought she wanted us to do the hand movement more but she meant the NO NO NO singing lol. It was great, though.

18 Bridge to the sky
The audience clapped along and it was quite pretty, showing many Ayu images.

19 NEXT LEVEL - 4/6
The screen at the back showed the stairs, extended, as if the stairs from the stage was leading up to the sky (Bridge to the sky..!). The entire song the dancers and Ayu looked very ethereal. The dancers wore light white blanket thingies around their bodies that waved in the wind a bit. At the bridge, Ayu sat down at the chair at the back (which looks too much like Madonna's throne from her Hard Candy promotional concert). At the final chorus it went up and she flew forward a bit and it had a very pretty silver lamp beneath the chair. It was a very good performance, but completely failed as concert climax. Every concert before this one the last performance was clapping and yelling, but this time it was just like uh..nothing. She only yelled arigato gozaimas at the end and then disappeared lol.

20 Curtain call - 2/5
Suddenly after the Ayu ayu ayu yelling BAM lights on and Ayu standing at the top. She sang very nice, but the screen behind her didn't work. At least I think so, because other concert reports have said there's a choir behind Ayu on the screen, but there wasn't anything, just some random ghost-like images here and there (wtf? lol). This song did nothing for me, as I don't really like it.

21 For My Dear... - 2/5
Ungh, I hate this song. It didn't do it for me live either. But she sang very good.

22 Sunrise - 3/5
Yay Sunrise! Before, in the MC, she was talking and everyone started to cheer so I was hoping that she'd do Sunrise (even though she normally doesn't do songs so far ahead of their release date). Then two mics came up and the dancers came and they started talking. And then BAM out of nowhere the song started! But the audience was sitting down for the whole thing. >_> I THINK Maro and Gin sang on the left side (seen from the audience) and Subaru and Shuya on the right.

23 everywhere nowhere - 4/5
Exactly like Premium Countdown Live. Very fun, though.

24 Humming 7/4 - 4/5
Yay, I was hoping for this song! Very fun and great to jump along. At some part she stopped singing and just went for lalala lol.

25 Boys & Girls - 4/5
Had the whole audience engaged. The usual.

26 MY ALL - 4/5
Ayu didn't cry, but that's OK. It was a good performance, too.

OVERALL - 3.5/5
I was very unexcited about the concert due to the awful set list. Unfortunately, I didn't get more excited about the songs I hated during the concert, except SIGNAL. The ballad section was a bit boring, too, except Days. Overall I give the concert a 3.5/5. The screens weren't used as much as they could have been either. During LOVE 'n HATE/identity, for example, it just showed some passive images. Anyways, I don't remember many details because I was so overwhelmed, so I hope I'll see more when I go next time this month at Osaka. I hope I didn't sound too disappointed, because it was really awesome! Just not as good as her other concerts. It DID have many songs, though, which is a plus.

Random Notes:
- Peco's awesome and very sweet.
- The new dancers look very snobbish and stupid, in my opinion. It's hard to explain with words.
- Ayu and Shuya won the MC game.
- Japanese people think the new single is called Sunrise/Sunshine ~ROVE is ARR~.
- Japanese people love Days, STEP you and JEWEL.
- Ayu looked at me, yay~~.
- The arigato gozaimashita at the end when the sound goes down was very quickly, everyone was silent very fast.
- I asked two Japanese girls what their favorite concert was and they said, unsurprisingly, MY STORY tour, lol.

lol omg she added Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ to the encore! Oh my effin' god?!

And it appears the rock section isn't that popular huh, but I kind of like those parts, so I'll see... and Days... :heart omg it looks better and better as more reports surfaced!

Btw, LOL @ UNITE!

Thank you!

- Japanese people think the new single is called Sunrise/Sunshine ~ROVE is ARR~.

Win <333

Omg!! Sunrise! :D hope it's on the DVD~
thnks 4 the review ~<3

thanks for sharing...

thank you so much! I thought the tracklist was very good. too bad the quality for in the corner was bad cause its one of my favorite ayu songs. maybe they'll edit it in the dvd version. who knows.

mmh..no good. Thanks for sharing your experience, i found your report truely interesting

Lol, this is exactly the songs I expected to be lipsynched in this tour xD Well, Ayu likes to do similar things in every tour^^ Good thing I don't care for this songs anyway.

xDDD
This made my day^^

Thanks for shaing.

that was one of the most entertaining reports of a concert ever.

I'm actually very surprised that she sang Sunrise~ I was not expecting that from Ayu.

I think I hit the person behind me with my fan at one point.

This was just win.
Cool report! :thumbsup
And your description of the Japanese kinda made me want Ayu to go back to Taiwan and record the concert DVD there.
Permanantly. /:

I mean, come on. They might not have like the song, but to practically stop cheering entirely?
And it was a new song!! >.<
(Just a personal opinion and nothing against them)
But still!!! ):
They have no idea how many people in this forum are dying to attend a concert.

^so true...i even flied from indonesia to shanghai just to watched her...
and many people from outside japan do the same thing...
but i think, that's the way japanese people appreciate song that they don't recognize with...they want to listen it carefully...(maybe like that...)

Thanks for sharing! I hope you had fun despite the few mishaps you had to go through! :) Your random notes are very funny!

[QUOTE=music_*;2016238]I think I hit the person behind me with my fan at one point.
QUOTE]

You too? :hi5
I think I've hit actually several people as I was so exited during the concert. I was always shouting "gomen nasai" and "sumimasen" to the guy beside me and the two women behind me because I wasn't sure if I really hit them or not. :innocent

ur review is hilarious and down ryt interesting. if i was there id be still be dancing if everyone else is sitting down.thank you for sharing^^

Omg this is hilarious! LMAO

LOL, most people here thought LOVE 'n' HATE is the best NEXT LEVEL track or belongs to the best of it xD

this lipsynching thing doesnt end does it...zzzz

thanks for this

^ It would end if Ayu stopped doing it...but she doesn't it seems.

quote of the day :D YAY for MY STORY tou!

I agree, I just can't imagine the AUDIENCE would stop cheering just because the song is not THAT liked (mostly when this song is from far one of her best NEXT LEVEL track...) ! Well, are they so use to go to Ayu's concerts they don't enjoy it no more ? Just imagine what she could think wheen seeign some people seem to be bored by her live !

thanks for sharing your interesting report..
I hate when she lipsynching :(

the ROVE is ARR.... nice one...

MY STORY was indeed a good tour~

Wow! I love your review! Thanks so much for it.
I agree that the set list was a bit lousy. For example, I dislike "In the Corner" and "LOVE n' HATE", but that one was impossible to avoid, as it's part of the new album.
Anyway, I'm sad about Ayu's voice. I think she's kinda forced to do some lypsync in between songs. But that's obviously because of her ear loss, we all understand it. Poor Ayu!

Thanks again for the awesome review! :D

yeah, all this lipsynchcrap started when her ear got worse, well, shes getting better again so with a little luck she will stop lipsynching in 2 or 3 years completely

- Japanese people think the new single is called Sunrise/Sunshine ~ROVE is ARR~.
:roflmao

I love your report! Kinda have me disappointed for the concert now~ But I'm glad that she sang Sunrise

I was talking about the whole audience in Japan/overseas

Like when I went to Namie's concert, when she walked closer to the audience, we screamed, when she smiled, we screamed, when she did some dance move, we screamed @_@

I would think that overseas concert will be more enthusiastic because rarely do we get to see artists live whereas Ayu have so many concerts in Japan, people don't think it's as rare to see her live~

- Japanese people think the new single is called Sunrise/Sunshine ~ROVE is ARR~.
:roflmao

I love your report! Kinda have me disappointed for the concert now~ But I'm glad that she sang Sunrise

I was talking about the whole audience in Japan/overseas the other day~

Like when I went to Namie's concert, when she walked closer to the audience, we screamed, when she smiled, we screamed, when she did some dance move, we screamed @_@

I would think that overseas concert will be more enthusiastic because rarely do we get to see artists live whereas Ayu have so many concerts in Japan, people don't think it's as rare to see her live~

Great review! How exciting that she sang Sunrise!!

Nah, she's too busy getting it on with Shu-ya. ;)

thank you for sharing your report~! ^^ very interesting. :D i've seen lots of peoples reports and they seem similar to this, a little of like that they didnt like it much, but really did like it because they got to see ayu of course, and some songs they really liked. :D

You're probably right :D
What I meant is I can hardly imagine a concert where the audience behave this way. This has always amazed me when watching at Ayu's DVDs : sometimes people don't seem to enjoy the show, they're just standing, as if they were waiting for its end XD It is quite incredible for me.
I mean, I've never loved glitter (not to say I hated it), but I enjoyed it so much in CDL 07/08 or in Asia Tour 07's encore that I can't imagine I would stop cheering during a concert just because I don't like a song.

i think she always does it before her rock section???...ok not always...but just take the ANGEL'S SONG incident for example...it was right before End of The World

^ well, she MOSTLY does it in the cutesy section(PCDL0809, AT06(probably), CDL0607(most likely), AT0304(likely) and so on...), and really often in the first song of a concert(AT07 and AT08s first songs were lipped and this is PROVEN, so please nobody talk **** about it o.0 CDL0708 opening was lipped as well, and PCDL0809 opening might have been lipped)

wow 7 songs during encore. that's the most she has ever done right?
it's alot *_*

^ yeah, I think her most before were 6 in pcdl

Thanks for such an even handed report. It pretty much confirms from other reports about the lip synching other than I read a few other people putting identity into the list too. imo, that's a bit too much but I'll confirm myself when I see it in October.

^ well, she did more already, just remember AT08 were 5 songs were/are suspected and 2 of them are clearly proven
Im happy if evolution, UNITE! and GREEN are live, all these 3 songs belong to the songs that were likely to be synched just judging from the setlist IMO

AT08? Wha?

^ I don't know about 5 songs, but when I was at AT08, at least for me there were three songs that were clearly not live.

The "singer that can't really sing live and almost aways sounds like crap but is lip-synching cuz even with a bad voice, she makes weird faces, so can't be live" discussion again ><

AT08, she lipped Marionette and talkin' 2 myself(both are proven by her using the same vocal track in tv and dvd version) and people suspect decision, mnW and (d)lma to be synched as well, this is all im going to say about it though
because this is NOT supposed to become a "what was synched and what not" discussion

^ thank truehappiness for that, but this is definitly my last post about AT08 playback in this thread^^

Well, if you've got so many people from so many different sources saying the same thing, I think there has to be some validity to it. I'm talking about in regards to this tour specifically.

which ones ? Marionette, (don't)Leave me Alone ?

Edit : uh, sorry, I've been too slow ><

The guy who wrote this review has the right of thinking that EnergizE was lip-synched... But I heard the performace recorded by someone and posted here on AHS, and her voice was VERY far from being good

^ well, theres still the possiblity that she synched part of it and sang the other part live, theres some performances where people say she synched the chorus and sang the rest live(mostly UNITE!s i think)

Doesn't matter. If its the same vocal thats in every performance of Energize then its lip synched. I think there are easily enough reports that say it was lip synched to say that its basically confirmed...

I guess the only problem I have with that logic, is.. why try so hard by recording a terrible vocal track to trick the audience, you know? Haha.

You would think so wouldn't you? :) But seriously thats being used pretty commonly these days across the music industry - and they aren't really "bad" vocals, they are just vocals that give the illusion of being live. I mean, really this point is kinda moot because neither Angel's Song or Theme of A-nation sounded perfect, yet it is agreed that those were lip synch. So I really don't see a problem with Energize being that way too. :shrug

Glad you like the report. :)

Regarding lipsyncing...

The EnergizE / AUDIENCE / In The Corner vocals were perfect. When you listen to an illegal recording or a LQ TV rip, it's much different than in real life. With AUDIENCE and ITC she just did the overexeggeration, but with EnergizE she got sorta weird and at some point she just went like LAAAA for acting surprised or something with her mouth, and the vocals gave different syllables/word. Eh, it's hard to explain. But for my concert, EnergizE was definitely lipsynced.

It's funny you should bring identity up. At first I thought it was lip sync, because the woo woo's in the chorus sounded weird. But then later she didn't sing the first 1-2 words of the verse/chorus (can't remember) so for me it was definitely live. Maybe the woo woo's are lip synced, though, I don't know.

But, noidea, how do you know that t2m were lip synced for CDL0708, GREEN for CDL0809 and t2m for AT08? I thought these were never proven. They do sound rather live to me, actually, especially when she leans backwards on her knees during the bridge you can hear her movement.

Regarding the audience...

During Sunrise they didn't sit down, they were already sitting down because it was the MC. They just didn't stand up for the song. :/

^ Lol, I swear you watched the concert with the most interesting audience.

^ About Sunrise, that's really odd. I've never seen that happen at an Ayu concert even if it is after the MC.

Strange.

It'll probably definitely be different by the 2nd leg..

It'll be interesting if she has a new single by then too since Sunrise will have been out for two months by then..

oh....
hope i could be you....
LOL

I went to the first date in Saitama last April.. I liked both the concert and setlist but like you I think it's not as good as her past ones.
And I still think MY STORY tour 2005 and Asia tour 2007 are her best tours ever. ^_^

As for In the corner, the day I went to her concert it was definitely LIVE, I also remember me thinking: "Thanks god is not like PCDL!" XD
I don't want Ayu to lip synch.. she didn't do it in her early concerts so i don't see how she should do it now! >_<'

Anyway, I'm happy she added Sunrise! ^O^
Now I'm going to see the last date in october, look forward to it~ *O*

OMG! theme of a-nation'03 was lipped??? :thud
i am so heartbroken </3 :weep

Thanks for the report.

Btw, with regards to the audience sitting down during the MC, I think it's just normal to do that, and Sunrise was definitely an extra song tacked onto the end of the MC or something, right?

During AT08, when Ayu sang Dearest and Voyage before the MC, she even went as far as to specifically tell the audience to sit down and listen carefully to the songs because they were ballads. I don't think it should surprising that the audience didn't stand up for Sunrise, since it's a new song and people want to listen.

thanks for sharing !! it sounds great, although I don't quite like the whole setlist too.
U're lucky to sit at the front n Ayu can see u well. awww....

Glad to hear that Ayu sang the new song Sunrise~Love is ALL~!! that's great!!
Anw, I like the MY STORY tour concert too!! Ayu looks extrememly beautiful in it.. =D

t2m AT08 is DEFINITLY proven, because she used the same vocaltrack in both versions, which were filmed on different dates, im not 100% sure about cdl0708, because i didnt have time to compare it line to line, but it sounds VERY much like the AT08 playback to me and i never wrote PCDL0809 GREEN was proven, only that its a suspected performance

@noidea: Oh, really? That's too bad. The vocals of t2m were pretty lackluster. She should have done a better lip sync track.

@keikei: Actually, it was near the beginning of the MC. During Curtain call / For My Dear... the people stood. Then Ayu probably asked them to sit down for the MC and they remained seated during Sunrise. :)

Comparing TV version and DVD version is kind of useless.
Even though they are from different Performances,
The vocals from Taiwan could have been replaced on the DVD..
DVD can be 100% edited, so you cant really know what is real or not.
Unless you have TV version of Taiwan performance, you cannot make that judgment about Talkin' 2 Myself and the others in that method..
I would just like to point this out before any other discussion about TV DVD and facial movements, what is lipsync, ect..

^ For the viewer that doesn't make the slightest difference and then that would mean BOTH versions of AT08 have replaced sound because they use CDL0708(and most likely a-nation '07, but wer never got that performance, right?) playback.
Plus nobody ever reported her having bad vocals in t2m, so theres no reason to replace them
Also, theres playback discussions in Japan as well, it would be really dumb from avex to use the same audio on both if they really replaced it, japanese fans notice that as well.

Updated first post with a short report on 7/29 concert. ^^

Thanks for the updates. :)

You're welcome. ^^

Thanks.. except.. yeah..

1st point: Mash ups are just medleys usually, haha. And it is a ballad version of Sunrise, what did you expect?
2nd point: Need to add that to the concert post!
3rd point: Hello!Project people have done that move for years now. It irks me that people think that K**a has a patent on everything it has ever done and that people SINCERELY BELIEVE that it was the first to do many things when it hasn't. BLAH!

Actually the swinging towels thing started since Kuu's With your smile iirc (at least for Kuu), not girls. But thanks anyway!!!

owh~ I really wanna go there!!!

I was thinking the same, I'd probably still jumping and cheering even people around me stop.

Thanks for the review ^^

SO INTERESTING! tnx for sharing

LOL!! :roflmao

Wow. I really did wonder if Ayu's videos were very... Hmm, what's the word I'm looking for? Uh, much more than usual for a Japanese audience. :shrug I guess they are, seeing as how you and that other woman were a little disturbed.

Haha! Sorry, it sounded funny. :P

Ohh, this is my favorite song off the album! I can't wait to see it on DVD!



Amazing review, really. You were totally honest and very descriptive in some ways that other reviewers aren't. I really enjoyed reading this. :D

thank you for the review