ayumi hamasaki 25th Anniversary LIVE - 8th April 2023

[jyujiw]

Well, I just came back to my hotel after the show and I need to say it was a wonderful experience. It was the kind of show I was expecting to see when I came to the 20th anniversary.

The setlist is already here so it came with some fan favorites, all her commemorative songs and her usual staples. The outfits were great (although some of the dancers were recycled from CDL as I noticed) and it had the anniversary “feeling”. Let me explain.

Before GAME, she made a mashup of many tour videos, finishing with the GAME video from AT2005, so the performance of it as well as My Name Is Women were recreations from the AT05. I thought at that moment that she was going to do something like Best of CDL. But didn’t happen. Instead, she created new performances and all the show interludes were remixes or instrumentals of many songs, and they were well mixed and blended.

There are all around the show some snippets and reuses of some of her previous works. Like, in Alterna, the idea of Real Me’s MV puppets is there. On evolution, the screen uses the single’s font. On Mirrorcle World, the AT08’s ship appears on the screen. You can feel that she put some work on it.

I don’t know if they already returned on the CDL but the live band is on.

My only complaint was the audio quality at the arena. It was so loud and sometimes it was very difficult to hear anything. Since there are some noisy songs, when they put it live it was a total mess

Her voice was good in most part of the show (beloved was incredible since she could listen herself well enough), she nailed the new songs (VIBEES and Just The Way You Are) and the lowest part definitely was As If, she tried to emulate a higher pitch and it was off and she was kinda lost at this song. Ah, Lady Dynamite was definitely my personal favorite with all the drags on stage representing her at different eras.

So, to sum up, an incredible show. I missed A Song for XX but well, she sang in many others shows so it’s ok hahaha
I can’t wait to watch the concert again, it was an epic experience since I was on the first seat next to the central stage. Never thought in my life that I would watch her so close.