[News] ayumi hamasaki 21st anniversary -POWER of A^3 II

[AJFmzk]

^ I agree, except I kinda liked the opening, was it relevant to the show? Maybe not, but I actually really liked the dark creepy feel it had. I thought it was a good show overall, minus the vocals (which is actually the main focus of the show, but it is what is). I have to give her major props for making the show fresh and fun. Also she looked amazing, even better than usual, and she totally did look like Namie in that blue dress!

What I liked:
- Most of the setlist
- Live Taiko, Strings and Choir
- YongAe
- The visuals
- Most of the song instrumental arrangements (Brillante and Walking Proud were especially good, but really most of the arrangements were a bit different and really good)

- The interludes that featured the live musicians. Timmy's voice went surprisingly well with the dark interludes
- The pokerface video tribute
- The feeling of grandness

What I didn't like:
-Lack of main band. It was really obvious with the way they mixed the backing tracks with the live ones, and it was super weird to me not to have them there (budget constraints?)

-Most of the vocals, though they were not as bad as CDL2015-16, CDL2016-17 and CDL2018-19, and she did have some really good vocal moments. The only song that actually hurt my ears was Born to be Free. Mostly she was more hoarse than wildly off key.

- Timmy's weird skit

- The electronic interludes and the Sparkle Medley.

I would totally buy this on dvd if they can get her vocals to sound good (and I'm really not a fan of autotune or fixing vocals in post, but this show was really good overall)

Was a bit disappointing to find out the voting didn't count for anything except the video, but it was a nice tribute. I'm sure some people would've complained about recycling a concept if she pulled a CDL2006-07, though it would've been cool. You can't please everyone. This show kind of felt like a mix between Future Classics, A Best Live, PoM 20