Jin Akanishi Club Circuit 2013 13 November 2013 Tokyo Studio Coast Fan Report
Bellemainec's Fan Report:
I was lucky enough to attend the Tokyo Studio Coast 13 November show for Jin Akanishi Club Circuit 2013. I had an absolutely fabulous and awesome time at the concert and I really hope that they release it on DVD because it was a great show. It felt a little similar to Japonicana and Yellow Gold 3011 (which I have only seen on DVD) - but Club Circuit 2013 is definitely very focussed on Jin as an artist. The others involved are more supportive and supplemental than featured....although some do get a chance to shine. This show is a lot less Johnny's/ flashy than You and Jin was, and I think the music suits this kind of venue.
This is definitely a club style concert, the smaller venues mean the audience is packed together on the same level, most of the audience is on the dance floor of the club, with a few hundred more on the raised platform area at the back of the venue, and a few more people upstairs sitting on benches. This really gives the audience a chance to engage with the music and to dance, clap and move with the beat and you can see Jin and his dancers feeding of the energy from the crowd. The lighting and the staging support this approach too. The lighting makes lots of use of lasers and spotlights. The main stage had four large screens for projections which were used throughout the show for backgrounds, lyrics etc but were not used to project images of Jin which I think was a little bit of a missed opportunity. He was in effect standing in front of the projections on the screen, but his face wasn’t on them! These screens could be joined together or separated...and at the beginning were joined together to provide a lofty DJ spot. There was also a separate small DJ area set aside near the audience at stage right. This was used by Keibo pre-show and for the DJ section during Jin’s concert.
Set List:
The Set list was the same as tweeted about for November 12. No encore, and a short MC after Summer Loving and before Key to your Heart. Jin said the staff wanted him to speak for 6 minutes, so it looks like every concert may be increasing the required MC time by 1 min. He spoke for almost 8 mins and was surprised that he spoke that long.
Pre concert:
At the beginning of the concert, it starts off with Keibo DJing for 20mins. He started with Let’s get Ridiculous and played another four or so songs, before ending with a mix version of Michael Jackson’s BAD. DJ K asked if we were ready, if we loved Jin etc... in a mixture of English and Japanese. Next, Joey Tee & Rodney came out to fire up crowd. They started with calling out “Are you ready?” etc in English, before Rodney switched to Japanese. As part of the warm up they divided the crowd into two blocks and & taught everyone special Say “Oh Oh” chants for the concert. After that, they rapped a bit, to introduce themselves and THEN introduced Jin!
Club Circuit 2013: Jin came on the stage from the left-hand side! He nodded his head, and waved to us all...as we cheered for him...he just walked across the stage and pretended to walk off stage again. As the audience laughed, he went to the back of the stage and walked up set of stairs & appeared at the top of the screens where there was a DJ booth set up. Once he got there, he sang #TGC live with several different microphones that were connected to the booth/table he was DJing from. Each microphone gave a difference vocal effect; if you’ve heard the album version you will remember that different lines sound different - he managed to recreate most of that live! (Obviously not everything as even Jin can’t sing two parts at once live!)
Next was the song "Ain't Enough" As Jin stood still and sang, the disembodied hands of his dancers (female and male I think! More than four!) appear around his torso, and start caressing him over his shoulders, chest and stomach. (Think Kylie Minogue All the lovers music video)...then the screens split to show stairs and he came down the stairs onto the main stage.
At this point two male back dancers brought out bunny ears and t-shirt that had a message in japanese (Act first, ask permission later - the same as reported for Nov 12 show) for him to wear. He actually rejected both.
Costume:
Jin started the concert wearing yellow Nike shoes, spiky HWU sunglasses and a black beanie with a white label. Also a white shirt unbuttoned and underneath that a white tank top with a black work in roman letters that I couldn’t read as I was too far away and the shirt covered the ends! I thought it was maybe a #JUSTJIN tank top, but the unofficial photos show this is wrong.
After rejecting the t-shirt & bunny ears from the male dancers... a female dancer brought out a black jacket which he put on over the white shirt and tank top. (I think this was also the point he changed sunglasses to standard black frames.)
Outfit change for “Test Drive”... he lost the black beanie and gained a black and white striped beanie. He also changed into a dark denim jacket over a grey unzipped hoodie. I think he took off the white shirt but kept the white tank top. I believe he also changed from fairly fitted black pants to baggy brown pants.
After that he did not change his clothes until his song "Slow Jam", where he wore a black cap put on backwards on his head...There was a possible change in the shoes ...but I couldn’t see them from where I was located.
The Songs:
With "Go Higher", it was the first song which had the dancers on the main stage and they really worked hard. There is a fair amount of dancing in this show, not every song but a lot. It was mainly hip hop style, very similar to previous concerts. Jin was really good.. He didn't seem to feel tired, even though he was on stage a lot. He stood out even amongst the other dancers. A lot of the choreography worked because it played to his strengths which was a good choice.
Temporary Love was a great dance number, really tightly choreographed. I love this song, and I loved this performance of it.
Summer Loving was fairly mellow. The dancers and Jin were grouped around the stairs, with Jin sitting at the top. The other dancers each left the stage as the song progressed until Jin was alone. It worked really well.
After this was the MC. A huge timer appeared on the screens, and Jin started talking. I think that adding minutes to the MC section was a good idea. Staff actually wanted him to do 6 minutes of MCing tonight...but it resulted in him MCing for 8 minutes long...which actually surprised him! (Lol) Maybe by the end of the concert tour he will be talking for 20 minutes at a time. During the MC part, Jin talked about how #JUSTJIN came about. He stated that he wanted the Hash-tag for viral marketing & social networking purposes...as well it's his 1st album that he self-produced by himself. He pretty much concentrated on work things, such as the album and he mentioned 47 Ronin (got the release date wrong!) and he stumbled over his words in a few places. He’s obviously trying to make the MC about his work, but I think he’s not sure how much detail he should go into. He didn’t mention anyone else he was working with, or anything about the hiatus etc.
Something to note down -- that everyone can share the experience as I had at the concert --> Jin's song "Key To Your Heart" was exactly the same as when he performed at the August Fan Event. Same lighting, same venue! So put in your copy of the DVD (into the computer/TV) & share the concert experience that way!
With his song “Ainaruhoue”… it had a very cute dance number to it…and I found that the song had a really bouncy and catchy tune to it. At the start Jin told us to clap clap clap the parts where the “Clap clap clap” lyrics show up on the song, and we did… which was actually a lot of fun! It was a bit harder than it seemed, I saw people around me laughing as they missed a clap or joined too late. Once you got the hang of it, it was lots of fun.
For his song “Ai Natsu” it was very starkly staged. Jin was sitting in a low chair (probably the same one he was sitting in for his song “Slow Jam”) and was singing into a microphone that was on a long armed stand. Very simple and really showed off his voice and the song. I actually really liked it. After that song, Jin sang “Love Song.” Jin stood up and the microphone position changed from a horizontal to an upward position...but as the arm of the microphone was actually taller than he was. He cutely asked the staff to stop the music and they had to pull the microphone stand down towards him so he could use it properly. While this was happening, we all giggled about it.
“Love Song” was sung solo with a standing mike, bright spotlights on him, and with no sunglasses (Yatta!) & the words to the song were projected on the screen behind him for all to see in the audience. Jin wore sunglasses for most of the show, but he took them off for “Love Song”, which actually earned cheers and squeals from the fans!
After Scream it, which was really high energy following the sweetness of Love song, the mini DJ section started. Jin disappeared from the main stage, changed clothes and reappeared on the side stage next to Keibo. They started with his song "Test Drive".I couldn't see this part really well, as I was literally swamped and pushed by a mass of fan girls in front of me all desperate to get closer to Jin ...so that's all I can really say that I saw for his "Test Drive" song... But I can say for sure the song did sound great though!
After Test Drive came came That’s What She Said. I am not a fan of the lyrics of this song at all, but I can say the melody and beat fit nicely into the DJ section. I can also say that it was quite difficult to make out the lyrics so this made me somewhat happier! After this came "Aphrodisiac" which I love love love and worked brilliantly in the club setting, the lighting and people dancing to the beat, that was fantastic. This section really let the audience dance a bit (even if it was mainly via jumping and unison waved hands in the air!) which was a good idea..we had been watching the very talented people do it, and now it was our turn
After this was "Sun Burns Down"... which brought Jin back to the main stage and to another great dance number with his dancers. The audience all seemed to know this song (maybe it was my section) but they sang along with the English chorus and it sounded great. Very cool!
His song "Slow Jam" was great.. It was not my favourite song from the album but it was executed really well on stage, really nice staging, very moody and effective.On the screens at the back of the stage they projected a living room, furniture etc in a house, implication being it was a real home. Jin was sitting in an armchair on stage left, where he started singing. The armchair glided across the stage as he sings and dances, all very smooth and controlled. He moves back towards stage left, with the chair in tow. He dances with it, incorporates the movement of the chair with his movement. When he is back at stage left, Joey comes out Stage Right and does a solo dance spot while Jin sings. It’s a really nice chance for Joey and he shines, he is really talented. As the song moves on, Joey leaves and a female dancer enters stage left and approaches Jin. He leaves the chair and they do a dance together. The style really suited the song, and showed off that Jin can dance with others, as well as being the focus. In style it was really similar to the hip hop pair work you see on "So You Think You Can Dance?". The song is really smooth, but the dancing had that edge where the movements were sharply defined. They moved smoothly between movements but each movement had a defined endpoint. It was really good, and worked really well, and it was nicely choreographed. They moved back towards the chair, and the song ended with Jin sitting on the chair and the girl dancer standing behind him, leaning over him. Jin turned towards her, moving closer into a romantic moment, and she slid a hand under his jacket and along his shoulder as she moves in closer to him… (Fans at this time shout out the word "Yabai!")... and then there were laughter afterwards. It was really smooth and sexy dance number.
His song “New Life” is actually one of my favourite songs from his new album #JUSTJIN. In the show, he performed it solo with subtle freestyle type dance parts in it. It was done so well. There was a moment in his song “New Life” where he let rip with this huge “Dry Your Eyes and Say Goodbye” line in full voice, where he fully supported the vocal line with his diaphragm to give it extra oomph and emotion. Wooah! It worked. One of many moments in my life where I have thought JE/WMJ should spend money on developing his vocal technique. He has such a lot of natural talent and singing comes so easily to him, I can only imagine how strong his voice would be with some really tailored training. You could hear the difference when he worked with Stereotypes etc.for Japonicana. Anyway, New Life was awesome. Beautifully done.
"Hey What's Up" was the finale song. Jin sang it alone on stage, with the lasers and strobes and all the bells and whistles....it finished with the house lights turned up, the spot lights on and everyone singing and dancing, audience included. It was a great way to end the show, Jin introduced his dancers and DJ K separately, and himself last and we got to cheer everyone. It was an awesome time...we got to share the moment with Jin, his dancers, Keibo and the other fans! With the house lights turned up, you really felt that he could see everyone who was there. Everyone waved and said good bye, Jin left last..with his customary Ciao! There was no further encore.
I must say, I am seriously impressed by how much performance time there was given to Jin. Jin barely left the stage...he literally performed song after song tonight with barely a pause in between. The audience did clap after each song if there was a chance, which is similar to stage shows rather than Johnny’s concerts! The clapping only lasted a few seconds through, rather than 30 seconds to a minute, so there was a very consistent flow of music, which suited the club vibe. Jin looked really comfortable on stage, he owned the material and you could tell from the way he sang that this was his music. It’s not an easy sing, he worked vocally hard throughout the show to make sure it sounded the way he wanted it too. He was lucky that there was some over-singing chances, where he has a vocal line already on the track like in HWU ...even Jin can’t harmonise with himself! Still, he sang the vast majority of this show live and he sang it well. Add on top of that some awesome dancing, and it really showed off that he is a really strong solo performer and musician. Kudos to Jin, I had a great time. Even though it’s not my preferred style of music, and I am a long term Jin fan, I can honestly say it was a great show and I really enjoyed myself, even if I was squished into a small club venue under strobe lights! I really hope that they release this on DVD, I think the staging of it would transfer across really well to tape, so let’s hope that happens. #JustJin Akanishi Club Circuit 2013 is #JustAwesome. (Sorry Not Sorry).
Set List:
1.TGC
2.Ain't Enough
3.Go Higher
4.Temporary Love
5.SUMMER LOVING
MC
6.KEY TO YOUR HEART
7.アイナルホウエ
8.アノナツ
9.Love Song
10.Scream It
11.TEST DRIVE
12.That's What She Said
13.Aphrodisiac
14.Sun Burns Down
15.Slow Jam
16.Like You
17.New Life
18.OohLaLa
19.Tell Me Where
20.HEY WHAT'S UP?
Set list with thanks to Purin @kamejinpurin