Although scheduled at 4p.m., the concert did not officially begin till 4:10 or so. I blamed it on the people that still haven't gotten to their seats yet, when everyone else was waiting.
Nonetheless, the lights went out and so it began.
(Picture credit goes to Kimmy, who posted these on JPM...and may have gotten them from here, and whomever these originated from.)
Are You Wake Up?
The video screen came on with various footage of Ayu getting ready before the concert (they're staged though...so not candid backstage shots). Ayu had a towel around her neck...and so did the dancers and such. They walked around in slow-mo. The music made it all semi-dramatic and exciting. It ended up with them standing in a circle to do a "ganbatte ikimashou" type of thing and then Ayu walked into the white light behind the door as the others clapped.
Born to Be...
All was silent and dark during the first quieter line. Then, as music kicked in, all the lights were turned on to see everyone there. The dancers. Yocchan. The bg singers. And most importantly, Ayu! I felt a tingling sensation when the lights turned on. Combined with the pulsing beat of the music and drums that literally shake the building, I couldn't help but smile just as excitedly as this short girl that was jumping up and down next to me.
Ayu looked like a queen in that flower-dress thing in the middle (the red part is not really attached to her...she's just surrounded by them). The dancers looked like they were natives...dancing and worshipping her. I'm really glad they chose this song at the last minute as the opening song. It really is insanely powerful. It's pretty obvious from her dress and the opening music that the opening song was probably originally
fairyland. It's unfortunate that that song is not included here but
Born To Be... works so well that I don't really miss it all that much.
AUDIENCE
Ayu is then lowered from a high platform. The dancers help her get out of her dress to reveal the more flowery dress.
I personally like this song only so-so. I don't really care about it when she performs it...but now I can fully understand why she does. The clapping and such really gets everyone in the audience excited.
I believe she ran to the middle circle stage in this song. When she ran past my row, I then realized how close she really was. She was at most 12 feet away from me. Just as everyone else, I wanted her to look my way but she didn't really look toward my area. I did wave a whole lot though.
evolution
What can I say? Another one that gets everyone jumping up and down and singing along (those two lines anyway).
STEP you
There's this video clip here where Ayu is chased by the dancers. Ayu is wearing the pink outfit you see below, and the dancers wear skintight shirts with numbers on them. In the video, Ayu jumps around these screens that move on stage. It's kinda cool they way they do it. In one, for example, three screens are connected. The dancers approach Ayu but she pushes them aside. The screens split and the dancers are trapped in their respective screens and can't get to Ayu, who's in the middle. Things like that. Eventually, Ayu escapes and the song begins.
The choreography is slightly different from the one we see on CDTV and in her CDL. The whole "catching-Ayu" thing is continued here. Some female dancers then come out with poles with chains, and they chain up the male dancers. When the song ends though, the lights go out during the last line "1, 2, 3, 4, you & me" and come back on with the girls being switched places with the guys.
Ladies Night
The song begins with one male dancer (that was on Ayu's side to help chain the others up in the previous song) trying to free Ayu. Eventually, he frees her and somewhere along the line, the girls free themselves (magically) too.
Throughout these two songs, Ayu acts like a Barbie-doll-type of character.
Halfway through, they run toward the center stage again. At the end, Ayu disappears within a puff of smoke (though many could probably see that she just dropped below the stage). She appears on the TV screen in a pink bathrobe by some pool. The other dancers see her on screen and run off-stage and then join her on the screen. As the song ends, Ayu dropps into the pool, with the other girls in shock. The hanging up tone at the end of the phone trails off and fails here.
alterna
We see Ayu asleep in water. It is displayed on the two side screens, but they are two different shots actually. Two dancers in strange Cirqus-Solei-type costume appears and does sort of weird semi-like-the-robot-dance type of dance. stiltsThe sleeping Ayu then begins singing the opening lines. Ayu then appears on stage in that strange red floating thing to sing "aru ga mama ni." Two other dancers that are standing on stilts and holding sticks point out one arm at the floating object. The previous two dancers also stand in front of them and the floating object. The extended arms of the dancers on stilts help to make them look like actually bigger people than the two smaller dancers. I suppose this is one of the "illusion" elements of this concert.
Two other dancers are also in the floating contraption with Ayu. Throughout the song, they float toward the center stage and then back to the main stage. At the end of the song, it looks as if they disappears into darkness in the background. The footage of the Ayu-in-water appears again...and the camera zooms out to reveal many different Ayus encased in different tubes.
is this LOVE? &
(miss)understood
Yocchan has a guitar solo before this. He stands along on the stage and does his thing...before everyone else started slowing joinining in. The music then starts with Ayu coming on to the stage to stand between the background singers.
The main point of this portion is probably to show off Ayu's singing skills. She's vocalizing a lot more than we hear on the CDs. Whether they're good vocalizing....well....there were some strong parts and some weak parts. Good and bad.
tasking -->
Pride
All dancers come on stage and walk around and dance with each other throughout the song. The guys and the girls pair off except for one guy. As the song ends, two spotlights are on Ayu and the guy. The guy remains behind as everyone leaves.
I don't remember too much about this so I don't have much to say.
rainy day
The key thing about this is probably how it actually rains on stage. Ayu looks at the rain as she sings this. The guy that is left behind dances around her and behind her. After the interlude, the guy finally sees her and dances toward her. When the song ends, Ayu begins to walk off. The dancer stops her and pulls her toward him, and they embrace.
The lights go out as a video of a window with a view of a sunny sky appears.
Startin'
Various dancers appear on stage with their own solo dances. Everyone dresses in red except for Ayu, who appears in that shinny thing. (Personally, I think it's ugly but that's just me.)
Nothing really exciting can be said here. It's pretty much like what you see on TV.
UNITE!
Time for everyone to get involved again. The usual "point left" "point right" stuff.
She runs toward the center stage this time again. All the dancers also dance on the runway part of the stage. It's so cool to see the backup dancers so up close.
Bold & Delicious
Ayu stands on this circular platform thing that raises up on the main stage. It SORTA looks like parts of a chandelier. The female dancers dance on a lower platform of this thing. Halfway through, the platform is raised on the way up to reveal...umm...more chandelier parts. It sorta looks like an ugly and strangely-shaped birthday cake, IMO.
But, I do think better of this song after seeing it live. There's just so much energy when Ayu sings...and when we all do the "raise-your-fist-to-the-sky" thing during the "BOLD & DELICIOUS" part, it is sorta empowering and fun.
HEAVEN ~acoustic~ &
teens ~acoustic~
Ayu comes back on stage with the band and the backup singers. She asks us all to sit back down to listen to her sing two quieter songs.
I was quite looking forward to this part of the concert as it's been somewhat hyped. Personally, although I liked her performance of "HEAVEN", I thought her vocals were quite bad this time. Perhaps it's because she's tired from the concert the day before. Nonetheless, I expected it and won't complain about it.
"teens" was okay. I was zoning out slightly during this part. LOL
MC
The return of the "I Want to Ask Hamasaki Ayumi" corner! The music is slightly different but generally the same as last time. There were three questions. People asked about seasonal allergies...and...umm...don't remember. LOL
Humming 7/4 &
Boys & Girls
OK. These songs are really tiring when I watch them on DVDs. BUT, I can see why they're so essential. Like I said earlier, audience participation is so key. I find myself liking these parts a whole lot more than "is this LOVE?" and "(miss)understood" and such. It's just so much more fun to be dancing and singing along. And even more, Ayu looked at me at the end of "Boys & Girls"! (even if it was for a second)
Beautiful Day
Finally. The end of the concert. I think I like this song more now. That's all I can really. Lots of arm-waving.
Oh and they shot out these plastic ribbon things into the audience...which I caught some of! (see above)
At the end, Ayu again does the "arigatou" without-the-mic thing. When I watched last year's concert on DVD, I thought it was extremely annoying when people would keep on screaming and not shut up. But, now I can see why. When she screams "arigtaou," it would be the end of the concert officially. As long as people kept on screaming, we would see Ayu...for a bit longer. The concert would not end. Eventually, when it did get quiet though, it was eerie...in the good way. Ayu screamed "arigatou!" and threw her wristbands into the audience and ran off stage.
Overall
I thought the concert was great. Ayu did a good job. BUT, I think it's not as good as her MY STORY tour. Last year's was just filled with all these different elements that made that insanely enjoyable. This year's costumes were not as great. The sets weren't as grand. I like songs from the MY STORY album a lot more than (miss)understood....even though the singles were stronger for the latter. Even the rain wasn't that impressive...though I suppose it's hard to top the waterworks of last year's.
Also, the concert was only 2 hours long. I think it's mainly due to the fact that there are less songs that are worth singing live from (miss)understood...as compared to MY STORY.
However, Ecopa Arena is a lot smaller than Yoyogi. So, maybe everything will look a lot better when they're moved to a even bigger area. Also, Ecopa's acoustics weren't that great. There was a lot of static in many of the songs.
In any case, I did enjoy this concert experience immensely.
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[Edited by AHS Staff]
Discussion/Thanks:
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