AT 09 Report : Oct 21 & 22 Yoyogi Stadium

[Suteisi]

Hello!

I attended the last two shows of NEXT LEVEL Arena Tour 2009, and here I am to write a review.

Just a notice, I never wrote a review (so it definitely won't be perfect), nor have I read any of the other ones (as not to spoil myself before seeing them), so I'm sorry if I'm repeating a lot of things others have said. (Also, this was my first time seeing Ayu in concert.)

I will put the photos I took at the end of this post in a spoiler tag.

For Oct 21st, I was sitting in B section (arena floor) on the left side, in line with the end of the runway. For Oct 22nd, I was in H section, in the middle of the second level, very good view of everything from higher up.

I caught some confettis on Oct 22nd, Ayu wrote on them "NEXT LEVEL Arena Tour 2009 A ~Ayu~".

There weren't many differences for both shows, only MC was different of course.

On Oct 21, Ayu signed and thre 5 balls. On Oct 22nd, she signed and threw 10. On Oct 22nd, Ayu spoke in the middle and at the end of the show to say thank you to everyone for coming to the show, for the support and how it was a great arena tour, etc, etc.

OKAI. The concert:

00.Pieces of SEVEN
The screens come in and out, they are grey or colored lines like a channel that does not play any shows. The lights turn on on the band one by one, and when the guitar/bass start it goes CRAAAZZYY! I couldn't think of a better song to start the show. There are green and blue lazers going all over the place. It was awesome!

01.Rule
Ayu pops up in the middle of the circle at the end of the runway with green lazers and fog around here. Very strong voice, her outfit is all black with sparkes at the belt and wrists, her hair is tied up and there's a bang falling on the left side of her face. The dancers come out and in the middle of the song they make their way to the front stage. There are explosive shots at one point close to the end.

02.UNITE!
Happy song, everyone going "HAI HAI HAI" over and over again. With the same fist in the air choregraphy. Nothing special or out of the ordinary about this one. It's UNITE!

03.Disco-munication
It was what I expected. It's like a video game, looks very similar to Mario Bros. Ayu is jumping through a 2D course and on the screens in the middle the dancers are introduced one after the other (Maro takes off his shirt!!! *but he has another one under* Elin and I were going nuts hahaha). At the end of the video, Ayu beats a "boss". Very cute, happy and friendly video.

04.EnergizE
I like this song, though it was obvious she was lip syncing. The stage looks GORGEOUS though, the bright colors and lights everywhere. Very interactive with the screens that keep saying the english chorus. They dance and act all cute. They go from one side of the stage to the other and Go-mi is acting silly. Fun song all in all.

05.Sunrise～LOVE is ALL～
The guys suddenly have a headset... Lol And everyone sings along, moving their towels and their fists in the air during the chorus. I couldn't tell if she was still lip syncing or not, but she was shouting "motto" and "moikkai" often.

06.Load of the SHUGYO
I loved this video! It's sort of dark. You see the 4 female dancers around what looks like a torture chair with one male dancer in the middle. The male dancer changes as the girls walk around. Ayu is looking but looks worried or uncertain of what's going on. Then the scene changes to the male dancers in a chamber, looked in and looking like they're starving/thirsty. Ayu walks down the hall (SO PRETTY! Her hair was curly, she looked gorgeous!!) and touched an electronic panel, the door of Shu-ya's chamber opens and he comes out. She hands him a glass of water but he hits it and it crashes on the ground. He elbow's the electronic panel and the doors to the other chambers open. They all come out and leave. Ayu looks suprised and confused as she watches Shu-ya leave behind the others.

The female dancers looked pissed when the alarm goes and they realize the male dancers have run off. They run everywhere to find them, you see off shots of the females and males in different areas. The female dancers suddenly appear on stages running and looking everywhere. Then they start dancing. The lights turn off.

07.LOVE 'n' HATE
The lights turn back on and the male dancers are all chained to the female dancers. They dance, Ayu looks HOT! That outfit is by far my favorite of the tour I think. The jacket with the mini skirt and the black boots. Her voice was very strong, though I wouldn't say at its best. They dance, she's a bit dirty with Shu-ya, etc, etc.

08.identity
She takes off her jacket and continues signing. Shu-ya now has a jacket on and they dance together. I can't remember what the other dancers are doing, my eyes were glued to Ayu the entire time. I liked LOVE 'n' HATE better, but this song was good too.

09.In The Corner
I didn't think this fitted into the setlist at all. The screens are black and there are blue arrows going around, up and down, etc. The female dancers are dressed in weird black robes with a stick and some kind of glowing orb at the end. They wave it around, and then the male dancers come out with black outfits and hats, and a white mask. There are chairs on the stage.

***TO ME this looked like an homage to Michael Jackson. She has the black outfit with a red tie and matching hat, plus ONE WHITE SPARKLY GLOVE***

Ayu's voice was good. There is a choregraphy with the chairs, and then the guys grab some kind of lighted stick. At one point they make a square with them around Ayu while the lights are all off, it looked really cool.

10.HOPE or PAIN
I think this is where there is a video of Ayu in a black dress and Maro with a white shirt. It looks like they are walking in seperate ways. There is snow falling, and then there's rain. They are wet and they hug each other. Then they seperate again and Ayu is crying. There is a female dancer that appears on the stage with a white flowing dress, she dances accross the stage, then Maro appears and dances also. Ayu appears with a BIG white dress coat and sings beautifuly. Maro and the female dancers dance together off and on and run accross the stage.

11.GREEN
Ayu walks further down the runway while she sings. There are green lights everywhere. I can't remember anything special about this part, which is boring really. I wish she'd done something more like Premium CDL for this song, it's so much more powerful than what it turned out to be for this arena tour.

12.Days
She took off the white coat and now has a tight pink dress. Shu-ya is back and he's got a long white coat. This song I thought was the most powerful in terms of sadness for the whole concert. They are both at the end of the runway and the circle elevates, it goes in circles once or twice and goes back down. Ayu walks back to the main stage, crying and being sad. Yes, Ayu looks a bit too exaggerated when she's sad, but towards the end of the song she looks like she's crying for real. I CRIED! It was beautiful. Shu-ya runs to her at the end and they hug each other.

13.evolution
My favorite part of the show!! evolution+SIGNAL was really great! Ayu has the sparkly outfit with shorts and silver boots. All the dancers have white pants and colorful sparkly tops. The stage is light up like crazy with colors and we're all throwing our fists in the air along with the "wow wow yeah". To me, it felt like the party started with this song. Everyone was a lot more energetic and into the music.

14.SIGNAL
It felt like she was yelling a bit more than she should have for this song. But it was really great anyway. The song was extended for the concert, in the middle she introduces all the dancers and they take turns dancing on their own, and in pairs. I thought it was really great with all the colors. I wasn't expecting much of this song, but I was greatly surprised how it turned out. I love it!

15.rollin'
Black pants and purple sparkly outfits with short cut wig and cyclop glasses. I REALLY enjoyed it, honestly. The dancers took off their sparkly tops and the choregraphy is really weird, but Ayu is having SO MUCH fun with it. She's doing these really weird and silly moves in between the lyrics.

*On Oct 22nd she forgot the first part!! She said something like "I totally can't remember this at all..." (the electronic part at the beginning) it was very cute and funny!*

I really like it, and the rest of the audience seemed to love it also. They were all cheering and laughing, singing along, etc. At one point during the song, Ayu takes off the glasses and puts them in her pocket.

16.Sparkle
REALLY AWESOME! I loved it! The part where she sings "no no no", the dancers make and X with their arms, and the audience follow their movements. Later the song is extended during that part and Ayu asks the audience to shout and do the X along with the dancers, so everyone does "no no no" several times all together.

17.Bridge to the sky
This video was awesome. Ayu is just there, and there is a green background. Then the camera goes into her eyes and there are pictures starting from this year and goes back in time. You see Ayu when she's little and the last photo of her is when she's a baby!! Everyone in the audience was very surprised and cheered. Then it goes back really fast, you see Ayu again and it turns into a book on a chair.

18.NEXT LEVEL
The chair appears on stage with feathers at the back, and then Ayu pops up in a white outfit and sparkly hat. The dancers are all dressed in white and they dance as she sings. Eventually she goes up the stairs and sits on the chair. It goes up and there's a big chandelier under the chair. It goes up and then forward, eventually comes back down and she is helped up by the dancers.

The light goes off and when it comes back up, the dancers all have a feather fan in the hands. They wave around and do the salute, thank you, goodbye kind of thing.

(ENCORE)
19.Curtain call
Ayu appears at the top of the stage with her encore outfit, white top and jeans, she has white sneakers. Her hair is tied in a bun at the back of her head and there seems to be like a pink flower there too. Her pianist is next to her and she sings on her own. Eventually she goes down the stairs. Her voice is AMAZING!!! Such a beautiful song.

20.Sunset～LOVE is ALL～
Very good voice here again. Nothing special, she sings her heart out and I think she actually cried during the Oct 22 performance.

MC

Oct 21- Subaru and Zin come on stage with the music, Zin continues singing even after it's over. They start talking and after 2 minutes they mess up, so Ayu makes them leave the stage and come back again to re-start. Subaru explains that he wants to introduce to everyone, 2 new family members of Ayu. She is surprised!! She doesn't know what he's talking about! And then she looks on the right side of the stage and runs!! She comes out with Pino and Papino in her arms. Very cute dogs! She puts them on the floor and one of them licks Zin's face. They giggle for a few minutes and then walk the dogs back stage.

Then, Subaru talks and explains they will play a dance with the male dancers. They come out and they are going to play (I can't remember what its called exactly in english, I only have the french words in my brain "corde a dancer") the game where you have to jump over a rope that two people swing in circle. But there is a trick! They will also play rock-paper-scissors against Subaru at the same time. So, the first dancer (I think his name is Aki) goes in, plays against Subaru and when he wins, the next dancer goes in. Shu-ya was the last before Ayu, but he messed up. So they re-start all over again. Then he second time, Ayu goes in, but Maro misses a step and trips in the rope. They start again and finally this time they all get it right. (There might have been more, but this is all I remember.)

Oct 22- Ayu says a few words to welcome Subaru on stage. He comes out with a mic and sings as he walks towards her. He was very cute. They talk a little bit and then welcome Zin to the stage. He appears at the top of the stage. He has a mask in front of his face, it's Ayu's face from the Sunrise/Sunset single!!! He sings very loudly and Ayu can't stop laughing, she's almost rolling on the floor. It was hilarious! He comes down the steps and they joke around for several minutes.

Then, they will play a game again! This time, it's a guessing game. They will be in pairs. Ayu is with Shu-ya, Maro is with Zin and they asked Enrique and Yoshio to play as well. There is a mic in the middle of the stage, the person guessing has their backs to the screen. The other person goes down the runway and has to mimic or act out what the word is. The pair that is the fastest wins!

This game was a lot of fun! Yoshio was hilarious, he just kept shouting whatever when he didn't know what Enrique was doing. They played two rounds. In the first round, at one point Ayu had to do Tokyo Tower but it looked more like a pyramid, Shu-ya couldn't guess so they passed. But on the second round, everytime she did something he didn't know, he kept saying Tokyo Tower! They were all very funny though. 1st place was Ayu-Shuya, 2nd place was Yoshio-Enrique and last place was Maro-Zin. They bowed to Ayu and Shuya at the end, it was funny!! They kept joking about it too.

Then, Yoshio had the entire stadium do a wave!!! It started up top and went around, we had to yell as we jumped. It looked really great! I hope they put that part on the DVD. The wave was perfect!

21.everywhere nowhere
Some dancing and singing, nothing very special.

22.Humming 7/4
Very energetic song. We all shout and jump at the chorus.

23.Boys & Girls
Same as usual in every other concert, the audience sings like karaoke.

24.MY ALL
They didn't teach the dance, but it looked like everyone knew it already anyway. I remembered from last year's. Ayu was crying SO MUCH for the Oct 22 performance. I cried too, it was super emotional. She was having a hard time singing!

At the end, she talked and said a big thank you to everyone. As usual, she wanted everyone to shut up, she yelled her "DOMO ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!" and ran off stage.

After everyone was leaving, some lady was explaining there were goods outside, and to make our way out. SUDDENLY Ayu screams again "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!" we all thought that she ran back on stage, but she didn't. I think she just grabbed the microphone from the lady that was talking.

Great concert! I loved it! I'm super excited to see the DVD.

There were cameras for both shows I was there. For Oct 21, the cameras were all in the air up above the audience. And on Oct 22, the cameras were all on the arena floor and the sides. I'm guessing they filmed both nights, we'll have to wait and see.

Here are the pictures I took, all of them are from Oct 21, except for the announcement of "You were.../BALLAD" that sign was there only on Oct 22.

Spoiler:

There were a spot where fans could sign these before the concert.



I signed this one:



Unofficial goods stands after the concert.





Ayu cars!! They were everywhere!











































This was the sign for the new single on Oct 22.

[zyoeru]

Thanks for this! Glad you had a nice time.

[spanishfan]

Woah!! Thankyou for this review, so the film different ways (air/ground) these days, I hope the put on DVD when she forgot the lyrics lol.
Some cars looks amazing *·*

Aaah... I wanna go next year!!!

Thank you <3

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

omagaahwd xD

thanks a lot! ^^ Those cars areeee sooo cool LOL there's soo many things to look at!

[love in music]

i enjoyed reading your review. once again i keep hearing all great things said about rollin', i'm soo excited for that performance! nice pics too~ thanks for taking the time to post this!

[Mai82Go]

Thanks for the review. Seeing Ayu in Concert must really be a dream come true. It sounds so exiting!

[Lee^ChaN]

thanks a lot for your review!!
sounds great!

[nanakopy87]

wow..thanks for the review...you make me wanna go to her concert at least once in my lifetime.lol.
i heard the news said that the show is late on the last day right?

[Midori-chan]

Thank you so much for the review! <3 I really enjoyed reading it and now I can't wait anymore for the DVD (I hope it's going to come out soon!).
I really liked the part about the MCs. They sounded really funny and sweet! ^.^
And thank you for posting the pics! They look great!!

I'm sure that the concert was awesome! I hope that I can visit one of Ayu's concerts too, one day!!

[dreamland2.0]

Great review thanks!!!
That Mirrorcle World car is amazing!!!!
Can't wait to watch this concert!!

[Suteisi]

Hmm, yes, it was a dream come true. I hope I can see her in concert again one day.

Yes, the concert started later on the last date. But it was also late on Oct 21st.

If you want to go see Ayu in concert, you just have to work hard. That's what I did. Totally worth it!!

[nanakopy87]

yes..i think i should stop buying her stuff then i'll have money go XDXDXD
i'm hoping that avex asia will do something like what they did for PCDL...have a subtitle on the video instead of the translation sheet...i'm scratching my head when watching my AT05.because i can't catch up at all...T_T

[Yumsushi]

Thanks for sharing. I really want to see the sparkle performance.

[waterballoon]

your review rocks! This concert looks so exciting omg

[sanzo2011]

Thanks for your review ! it sounds good than i thought !

[isura]

This was a great review! Thanks. I'm so excited to see the TV version!

Nice pics too.... I've always been wondering...who owns these ayu cars? Fans? Or is it some promoting thing?

[noidea]

This is the best review I read so far, like seriously, now I really want to watch ALL the songs....and Maro taking off his shirt, even if theres another one underneath xD

[kiseki89]

Thanks for the review.
I would love to see a baby pic of ayu ^_^

[chloeM]

amazing... i love the review~

[jiarongisme]

Thanks for the review! Sounds like you had fun!