ARENA TOUR 2009 A ~NEXT LEVEL~ setlist and pictures [V]

[yuki_unmei]

To me it sounds live with the backup turned waayy up lol
hard to tell from these short clips though.

[truehappiness]

Sticking them all in one place:





And IMO, it's not that unbelievable for her to sing Sparkle well. You'd have to be pretty out of breath to fail on Sparkle. Which she is for Days, and it's kind of sad. I do hear the backing vocal really loudly for sou yaTTE and hajimaNAI...

[pchan1986]

she sounds so awesome in sparkle. thanks for sharing

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

No we're not LOL j/k

You guys a lip-sync hunting fiends because I swear I never notice these things hahaha.

Maybe it's cause I've seen so many concerts? I don't know, but whenever someone is lip synching or using a backtrack I can usually tell right away. (For any artist, its not just Ayu specific^_^)

Originally Posted by truehappiness

And IMO, it's not that unbelievable for her to sing Sparkle well. You'd have to be pretty out of breath to fail on Sparkle...

Well, the same could be said for many of her songs (that she is not even moving around in) yet....

[truehappiness]

Maybe it's cause I've seen so many concerts? I don't know, but whenever someone is lip synching or using a backtrack I can usually tell right away. (For any artist, its not just Ayu specific^_^)

Though mentioning it seems to be Ayu-specific, haha.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Well this is an Ayu board isn't it? I'm not going to be in this thread saying Namie lip synched this one or Arashi lip synched that one etc. (which I have done on other boards)

Anyway, yeah lip synching/backtracking always stands out for me pretty easily. For example when the first bootleg clip of Energize came out I immediately said it was lip synched, but most people said no it isn't, you can't tell anything from the clip etc etc. Yet as the tour went on more and more reports came in about it being lip synched. It just bothers me when I see vocal performances that get praised when they are likely not even fully live.

[zyoeru]

For me personally, when people state that a song is lip-synch, it just ruins the whole performance. I'm sure it's like that for a lot of people too..

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Though mentioning it seems to be Ayu-specific, haha.

Thank God this isn't a Britney Spears forum

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Maybe it's cause I've seen so many concerts? I don't know, but whenever someone is lip synching or using a backtrack I can usually tell right away. (For any artist, its not just Ayu specific^_^)

Luckily, my ignorance is bliss. Nothing against you or other people who are lip-sync hunting fiends, but I feel like I enjoy the performances more because I don't notice those things and I simply don't care to notice.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ lol. I got on Britney's lip synching all the time too.

Originally Posted by zyoeru

For me personally, when people state that a song is lip-synch, it just ruins the whole performance. I'm sure it's like that for a lot of people too..

So am I to take from your post that you would just rather not know that something is lip synched even if it is?

[MissElin_]

For me, after attending to both last shows she did only lip-sync Energize. The others sounded really live. When you where there you heard a pretty obvoius diffrence between Energize and the rest of the songs. And really, if she lip-syncs only one song... I dont care. Lol...

Her voice was great live, just like the a-nation live. I heard her live at CDL 07-08 when her voice was probably the worst... Belive me, she sounded really great this year! ^^

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Yeah, I heard her at A-Nation 2007 and that was by far the worst her voice was when I had seen her live.

As for Energize being the only one - I've seen some reports like yours that think its the only one and others where they think it was more than that. I can just say that at least for that clip - Sparkle does not seem live to me. Or like half live, but the backtrack seems to be quite loud. I'm not really surprised by that though.

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

Luckily, my ignorance is bliss. Nothing against you or other people who are lip-sync hunting fiends, but I feel like I enjoy the performances more because I don't notice those things and I simply don't care to notice.

No, I agree with you. I WISH I didn't notice those things. But even if I don't go looking for them, they just pop out at me automatically.

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

So am I to take from your post that you would just rather not know that something is lip synched even if it is?

I don't know about zyoeru, but I'd sure like that. Yeah

[truehappiness]

EnergizE kinda makes sense to be the one that sounds lipsynched, imo. It fits in that weird category of cutesy upbeat tracks that she tends to not sing 100% live. But I wonder why those songs would even be included in the setlist if she doesn't think she can execute them on her own. Though I don't think Ayu's form of lipsynching is really as bad as some of the Western artists that do it, oi. -shakes people like Britney Spears- WHY!?

And I think I'd just rather people not discuss it like it's completely obvious when it isn't. When it's obvious though, it's really reaaaaaaaallly obvious. Like when she totally utters the wrong word. It's kinda boggling how she goes from doing that to just stopping mid-song when she doesn't remember a track though.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Oh for sure. Part of the reason why I don't listen to much western pop these days is because the lip synching has just run rampant. I'm glad that Japan is not like that.

[freedreamer]

@MissElin haha u know its really REALLY hard to convince some people here.

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Sticking them all in one place:





And IMO, it's not that unbelievable for her to sing Sparkle well. You'd have to be pretty out of breath to fail on Sparkle. Which she is for Days, and it's kind of sad. I do hear the backing vocal really loudly for sou yaTTE and hajimaNAI...

I think Days, and most of her newest songs, are actually too low key for her to sing properly, like Sunrise, but if she doesnt use the low keys, it's harder for her to sing because she cant hear properly, I think. When she uses the low keys, she shouts 100% of the time, and when she uses high key, its hard for her to control, again because she cant hear very well. However, at PCDL, and most songs lately, her older, higher key songs sound MUCH better than her new songs live.

Sparkle to me sounds 100% live. If she is using a backing track with her own voice, thats nothing new, as she used the same thing very early, especially during 2003 - 2004 tour like evolution and Surreal.

Anyways, yeah, I am excited to see it, and I can't wait~

[SunshineSlayer]

^ I agree with your assessment for her vocals definitely. She seems to struggle with low notes a lot these days but her higher notes have recently been getting better.

Also, I have no problem whatsoever with people using backing tracks, especially if they are dancing. It only becomes a problem to me I think when the backtrack is turned up so loud that you can't even really hear the person actually singing - then it becomes hard to classify the performance as live I think.

[polka-dot-jewel]

I've been thinking about EnergizE's performance since I saw two AT09 shows in June, and I agree, I'm pretty sure she's lipsynching that. I know how to keep a beat, but that dancing / clapping she does is pretty hard to do while singing (tried doing both at the concert, just stuck to dancing/clapping for the most part lol).

As far as Sparkle... after watching that latest clip, I think it may also be lipsyched. It sounds just like EnergizE did at AT09 - kinda quiet sounding, almost not live. Then again, in another clip, it sounds like she's trying to sing along in the chorus, creating a very sharp tone. I wouldn't be surprised if Sparkle is a mixture of both (obviously, her talking and the "no no no"'s during the song are live).

[truehappiness]

Posting the EnergizE/AUDIENCE and rollin'/Sparkle recordings just for some extra comparison.




Maybe Ayu needs to sing through her nose more often, haha.

[love in music]

to the people who saw rollin' live, does she always do that "cutesy" voice in it live?