[Meat Pao]

Just came back from their concert at Osaka Jo Hall and it was AMAZING! The art direction and visuals are unlike their past concerts that I've seen on YouTube. A large chunk of the show made use of the screens (almost ceiling-to-floor vertical rectangles, 13 of them that spread even beyond the stage) and a translucent curtain with projections on it (which they have done before). Really nice.

Thought I'd share some impressions for select songs in the setlist:

Spoiler:

Opening: Starts off with Ichiro behind the curtain with just him strumming his acoustic guitar to September (later performed in full before the encore) till the first chorus. The camera angles were from the top and from the back, before it starts playing the album teaser clip that was posted to YouTube with the counter to 834.194.

2. Yoru no Odoriko: Screens use the same visuals as the past few tours with the geisha dancing in a black CGI grid box thing lol. But I love this song so much I'm not complaining!

3. Kagerou: The screens for this song was really cool and colourful. Mostly shows a young female mouthing the words to the song with geometric shapes bouncing about from my memory. Given the production value I think it might be used as a music video at some point. Also the song structure is slightly different which I think might be the album version (as opposed to Sakanazukan's movie version) with a guitar solo and a bit with just the synths and Yamaguchi singing the chorus with an echo effect.

4. Minority (New song): I love this song! It's super groovy with the same vibes as Kagerou. Also has the "gospel chorus" element that is distinctly sakanaction.

7. Eureka: Made use of the screens and projection curtains at the same time. Screens were of a woman looking out a bus window and tearing while images of Tokyo in black and white were projected on the curtain.

9. Nylon no Ito (new song): To me it sounds like whatever's in the Calorie Mate ad with little surprises. But I can't remember much haha

12. new song: This one has ambient music vibes (with a super long intro, not sure if it'll be the same in the album). The melody at some point actually borrows from mellow's chorus.

13. new song: This song is about peanuts or something (the screens at the sides literally show a woman cracking open peanuts and stuff). The main screen looks pretty music video-esque too. There was fire and stuff on stage for the chorus! Very Ayu-like. Lol

14. INORI: This shit sounds so good in a live setting, the bass is amazing. The stage gets elevated here so the band performs the DJ set from above, like their NF Launch tour.

15. SORATO: Seems to have added embellishments to the entire track compared to the music video. Opening has a slightly robotic woman's voice saying "SORATO". Additional effects here and there throughout the track.

17. Shin Takarajima: The visuals for this are super colourful! This time they even got a group of dancers with pom poms a la the music video which is something refreshing. The main screens also feature the same dancers dancing in a black room. Really cool.

Before performing September, Ichiro also explains why the album is titled 834.194 - turns out it's paying homage to their Hokkaido roots as it's the distance from their Sapporo studio to their Tokyo studio. I guess that also explains the constant use of that timelapse on the Japanese expressways in the trailer and tour videos. He explained this before performing September in full to close the main set, which he explains is from his "Sapporo days", which makes sense since it was from his band before sakanaction. Looks like the song is getting reworked for this new album, and the arrangement seems fitting as an album closer like Asa no Uta.

On a random sidenote I didn't want to buy the tour shirt but after seeing Ichiro wearing it for the encore I thought it looked cool and bought it right after the concert. HAHAHA