Arashi Fanclub Pamphlets 37 & 39, JE Shop Photos, Con report
Lots of stuff this time around! When I scanned Arashi fanclub pamphlet #38, I mentioned that I was missing #37 - it turns out my friend forgot to send it. So now I have scans of both 37 and 39, as well as 13 shop/tour photos (9 Arashi, 3 KinKi Kids, 1 Kanjani8). I also went to see Arashi at Nagoya Dome this past weekend, so at the bottom is a con report for anyone interested. Be warned, I tend to ramble.
As always, comments are appreciated but not necessary. Please do not repost any of these scans without my permission. Use of any of my scans for graphics is totally fine, no credit needed if that is the case.
The fanclub pamphlets have now been moved over here
As always, comments are appreciated but not necessary. Please do not repost any of these scans without my permission. Use of any of my scans for graphics is totally fine, no credit needed if that is the case.
ARASHI
Download the Zip at:
MU | MF
KINKI KIDS
KANJANI 8
Since this is a personal experience, please don't repost anywhere because that's just weird. If you want to use snippits for info, a quick link back here is fine.
Arashi Marks 2008 Dream "A" Live at Nagoya Dome: June 1, 2008
So! I did not pay attention to this at all last year, but now I know that you can buy goods pretty much all day both days of the concert whether you've got tickets or not. So Hiroko and I went Saturday night when there was nooobody around and I got myself a group poster and a t-shirt and the group photo set even though Nino looks like he has a cold in it ^^; It was cheap. I grabbed the stuff friends asked for as well, and then we walked around the mall with me looking like one of those fangirls that sells JE stuff for 300% markup because I had so many posters for friends XD
Since we bought goods the day before, on the day of the concert we showed up about 30 minutes before the show started and got to our seats - I was surprised, even though I've only been in the fanclub for a year, they were pretty good (a friend told me in her experience, the longer you're in the fanclub, the better your seats get). Nagoya Dome is a lot smaller than the ones in Tokyo and Osaka though. We were on the right side in the stands, only 14 rows back (i.e. when they came around on the floats we could easily see their faces).
The show:
Opening:
1. Move Your Body
2. Happiness
3. Life Goes On
4. Step and Go
The entrance wasn't particularly flashy. There was a main stage with a circus tent-like set on each side and a few platforms in the center, as well as five long narrow screens in the center. There was a narrow part of the stage coming out into the center of the arena, then a smaller stage on the other side. Each member came out individually and did a dance and then they moved into the first song. All of the songs were good, the only specific detail that I really remember was Sho's rap in Step and Go is particularly fun in a concert atmosphre.
Greetings: The usual.
5. LOVE PARADE - Awesome awesome awesome. They came out on giant floats like an actual parade and went all the way around the arena. The only thing I didn't like about that was that they stopped on the opposite end, so their backs were to a large part of the audience for almost an entire song (they were on the floats for the next few songs). Nino changed the words to his lines at the beginning of the song to be about how he's turning 25 soon XD
6. Love so sweet - Poor Jun. He will probably never hit his solo in the middle of this song, as hard as he tries ^^;;
7. Everybody Zenshin
8. CARNIVAL NIGHT part 2
9. Take me faraway - I was a little dissapointed Ohno didn't actually do this live, since there wasn't as much intense dancing as his solos usually have. It was one of those...I rerecorded this so it's not exactly like the CD but I'm lipynching things. I have no idea what to call that but it happens in Jpop a lot XD During the dance they switched from showing him live on the monitors to videos of him hitting different poses, it was kind of neat. There was also a lot of crotch grabbing ala Michael Jackson.
10. Hip Pop Boogie - I still can't stand this song. It was made slightly better though because in the beginning on the large screens on stage there was a video of the other members making silly faces while Sho rapped XD
11. Flashback - During this song they did some ballroom dancing-esque moves with the female dancers and there were a few "=/" reactions from people around me. It wasn't at all risque or anything though. It fit well, since the song opened with a Junior and one of the girl dancers pretending to be on a date.
12. Sirius - This is one of my all time favorite Arashi ballads, and my favorite solo line to come out of Jun ever, so when he got to it I was practically praying that he pulled it off, and he did, beautifully <3 More female dancers, this time doing like...a mixture of ballet and interpretive dance behind Arashi. They should have stuck to ballet, I hate interpretive dance XD
13. Hello Goodbye - Typical Aiba solo performance - lots of fun and lots of Aiba bouncing around so much you worry he's going to fall off the stage XD
14. We can make it - This song contains my favorite Nino solo line in a group song ever, and he rarely performs it because it's in the middle of the song. This time he did, but I couldn't hear it because Jun was in front of us on a float so there was a lot of screaming =(
15. Kitto Daijoubu
MC - As everyone probably knows by now, Sho announced that he fell and broke his thumb. They were all worried that he might not be able to perform and for about an hour or so they were really worried they'd have to go on as 4 people (particularly Aiba). Luckily he was okay to perform, but he apologized over and over for not being able to dance as usual. Aiba offered to help him out in the shower, which led them to talk about how Nagoya Dome only has 2 showers and Ohno asking just what Sho and Aiba do in the shower together (and then getting yelled at by Jun for asking). They talked about Jun's movie a little, and it turns out Aiba is the only one that hasn't seen it - he wanted to go but then didn't have time, but he's really excited about it. They talked about Ohno's drama as well, making comments on his hair and how much hairspray he had in it because it didn't move at all XD He wishes it were shorter. Eventually they walked back to the main stage and Ohmiya dissapeared while the other three talked for a while, bringing up Ohno's art exhibit. For those of us that weren't able to go, they showed photos of some of the pieces. As they got to the Ohmiya SK figures...
OhmiyaSCOSHI!! - Ohmiya SK appear in the video and Yuji (Nino) started critiquing the figures, saying they don't look like them at all. Whoever made them has no sense at all. They're not even black, their faces don't look like that. The figures don't even have bodies and Ohmiya SK do. Then for no reason he attacks Taka (Ohno)'s nipples and they switch from video to actually being on stage. They performed a song about Mikoshi, hence the name change at the end to "OhmiyaSCOSHI". Cannon shooting and more nipple pinching ensues. At the end only Jun and Aiba came out and talked for a little bit. They mentioned its rare for an MC to be just the two of them, and Aiba even had a chance to make fun of Jun and hit him on the head, which he said made his heart race. Oh Matsuba <3
Next there was an animation about the caterpiller - not much to tell, it just kind of walked around and then turned into just the 5 gems, at which point Arashi came out on a giant ...balloon? It was a balloon at the top, but they were suspended from it kind of like during Jun's solo in the Time con. It moved them around into different formations during the next few songs and traveled across the crowd, and when it got to the other end they flipped around a lot and were silly for Fight Song.
16. Sakura Sake
17. Fight Song
18. WISH
19. A Day in Our Life
20. Gimmick Game - Nino's solo was like Ohno's - different from the CD but still recorded? He did a lot of pulling at the neck of his shirt to be sexy (that's about as far as Nino goes in terms of sexy XD). At the end, he sang half of the last line ("Kimi no kubisuji...") and then put his finger in his mouth and dragged it down his neck with this really angry look on his face, turned around and took of his jacket, threw it behind him, and stalked off XD
21. Naked - Jun spent most of the time on that stage that moves over the arena seats. There were a lot of female dancers dressed in...what basically were togas doing more interpretive dance. Towards the end they took off part of their togas and had more normal dance dresses underneath, then covered up Jun with the white sheets and revealed him to be...half naked. He just took off his shirt, which is kind of wimpy, but if I had a dick I wouldn't just whip it out in a stadium full of people either. In the middle they carry him around like Jesus on a cross. Apparently Jun has passed off Michael Jackson to Ohno and is going to be Jesus now instead.
22. Green - Ohno came out first and explained that Arashi had designed the eco bag this year and they made this song about saving the Earth for the tour. It was a nice ballad, nothing phenomenal but not bad either. I'd kind of like to see it as a b-side to some single just to see if when they said "we made this" they literally meant Arashi wrote/composed the song.
23. Once Again - This is my favorite song on the whole album but I have nothing special to say about the performance other than it was good XD
24. theme of Dream "A" Live - this is where they introduced each member, ala La Tormenta but much shorter. Nino did a magic trick as his introduction, Ohno made his eyes look like they were chasing each other, and I forget what the other three did (I think just usual dancing).
25. Lucky Man
26. Hadashi no Mirai
27. Oh Yeah!
28. Kotoba Yori Taisetsu na Mono
29. YOUR SONG - I liked this song on the album, but it's 10x better with an entire stadium full of people singing the "La la la.." parts *_* Really good choice for an "ending."
Encore:
30. Do My Best
31. Gori Muchuu
32. Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi
Encore 2:
33. One Love - I didn't listen to any radio previews because I read this would be part of the concert, so I wanted to hear it there first. Aiba kept talking about how he wanted everyone to sing "one last song" together, but the rest of Arashi reminded him that most of the audience probably didn't know this one yet XD A lot of people talk about how Love so Sweet is WISH part 2, but this isn't realy WISH part 3 as far as I can remember. Jun has a lot of solos, which is to be expected. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, I need to give it a listen all the way through.
Encore 3:
34. PIKA**NCHI DOUBLE
That's right, they didn't do A.RA.SHI. I figured they would for the very last encore, since they seemed kind of unprepared (they came out and talked first and then were about to leave until we yelled them into a song) but nope! They didn't throw sign boards either, which I expected when I walked in since someone mentioned it in a report and because the baseball fence goes all the way around the stadium. Although Tokyo Dome has a baseball fence as well, and they've thrown sign boards there before so I don't know.
The only other thing I can think to mention is this one fan Hiroko saw. I couldn't see him, but at the front of the stadium seats there was apparently an old guy who was a big Jun fan who kept pressing against the fence every time he came by on a float. Some staff guy had to pull him back several times XD
That's it! I told you I ramble.
As always, comments are appreciated but not necessary. Please do not repost any of these scans without my permission. Use of any of my scans for graphics is totally fine, no credit needed if that is the case.
The fanclub pamphlets have now been moved over here
As always, comments are appreciated but not necessary. Please do not repost any of these scans without my permission. Use of any of my scans for graphics is totally fine, no credit needed if that is the case.
ARASHI
Download the Zip at:
MU | MF
KINKI KIDS
KANJANI 8
Since this is a personal experience, please don't repost anywhere because that's just weird. If you want to use snippits for info, a quick link back here is fine.
Arashi Marks 2008 Dream "A" Live at Nagoya Dome: June 1, 2008
So! I did not pay attention to this at all last year, but now I know that you can buy goods pretty much all day both days of the concert whether you've got tickets or not. So Hiroko and I went Saturday night when there was nooobody around and I got myself a group poster and a t-shirt and the group photo set even though Nino looks like he has a cold in it ^^; It was cheap. I grabbed the stuff friends asked for as well, and then we walked around the mall with me looking like one of those fangirls that sells JE stuff for 300% markup because I had so many posters for friends XD
Since we bought goods the day before, on the day of the concert we showed up about 30 minutes before the show started and got to our seats - I was surprised, even though I've only been in the fanclub for a year, they were pretty good (a friend told me in her experience, the longer you're in the fanclub, the better your seats get). Nagoya Dome is a lot smaller than the ones in Tokyo and Osaka though. We were on the right side in the stands, only 14 rows back (i.e. when they came around on the floats we could easily see their faces).
The show:
Opening:
1. Move Your Body
2. Happiness
3. Life Goes On
4. Step and Go
The entrance wasn't particularly flashy. There was a main stage with a circus tent-like set on each side and a few platforms in the center, as well as five long narrow screens in the center. There was a narrow part of the stage coming out into the center of the arena, then a smaller stage on the other side. Each member came out individually and did a dance and then they moved into the first song. All of the songs were good, the only specific detail that I really remember was Sho's rap in Step and Go is particularly fun in a concert atmosphre.
Greetings: The usual.
5. LOVE PARADE - Awesome awesome awesome. They came out on giant floats like an actual parade and went all the way around the arena. The only thing I didn't like about that was that they stopped on the opposite end, so their backs were to a large part of the audience for almost an entire song (they were on the floats for the next few songs). Nino changed the words to his lines at the beginning of the song to be about how he's turning 25 soon XD
6. Love so sweet - Poor Jun. He will probably never hit his solo in the middle of this song, as hard as he tries ^^;;
7. Everybody Zenshin
8. CARNIVAL NIGHT part 2
9. Take me faraway - I was a little dissapointed Ohno didn't actually do this live, since there wasn't as much intense dancing as his solos usually have. It was one of those...I rerecorded this so it's not exactly like the CD but I'm lipynching things. I have no idea what to call that but it happens in Jpop a lot XD During the dance they switched from showing him live on the monitors to videos of him hitting different poses, it was kind of neat. There was also a lot of crotch grabbing ala Michael Jackson.
10. Hip Pop Boogie - I still can't stand this song. It was made slightly better though because in the beginning on the large screens on stage there was a video of the other members making silly faces while Sho rapped XD
11. Flashback - During this song they did some ballroom dancing-esque moves with the female dancers and there were a few "=/" reactions from people around me. It wasn't at all risque or anything though. It fit well, since the song opened with a Junior and one of the girl dancers pretending to be on a date.
12. Sirius - This is one of my all time favorite Arashi ballads, and my favorite solo line to come out of Jun ever, so when he got to it I was practically praying that he pulled it off, and he did, beautifully <3 More female dancers, this time doing like...a mixture of ballet and interpretive dance behind Arashi. They should have stuck to ballet, I hate interpretive dance XD
13. Hello Goodbye - Typical Aiba solo performance - lots of fun and lots of Aiba bouncing around so much you worry he's going to fall off the stage XD
14. We can make it - This song contains my favorite Nino solo line in a group song ever, and he rarely performs it because it's in the middle of the song. This time he did, but I couldn't hear it because Jun was in front of us on a float so there was a lot of screaming =(
15. Kitto Daijoubu
MC - As everyone probably knows by now, Sho announced that he fell and broke his thumb. They were all worried that he might not be able to perform and for about an hour or so they were really worried they'd have to go on as 4 people (particularly Aiba). Luckily he was okay to perform, but he apologized over and over for not being able to dance as usual. Aiba offered to help him out in the shower, which led them to talk about how Nagoya Dome only has 2 showers and Ohno asking just what Sho and Aiba do in the shower together (and then getting yelled at by Jun for asking). They talked about Jun's movie a little, and it turns out Aiba is the only one that hasn't seen it - he wanted to go but then didn't have time, but he's really excited about it. They talked about Ohno's drama as well, making comments on his hair and how much hairspray he had in it because it didn't move at all XD He wishes it were shorter. Eventually they walked back to the main stage and Ohmiya dissapeared while the other three talked for a while, bringing up Ohno's art exhibit. For those of us that weren't able to go, they showed photos of some of the pieces. As they got to the Ohmiya SK figures...
OhmiyaSCOSHI!! - Ohmiya SK appear in the video and Yuji (Nino) started critiquing the figures, saying they don't look like them at all. Whoever made them has no sense at all. They're not even black, their faces don't look like that. The figures don't even have bodies and Ohmiya SK do. Then for no reason he attacks Taka (Ohno)'s nipples and they switch from video to actually being on stage. They performed a song about Mikoshi, hence the name change at the end to "OhmiyaSCOSHI". Cannon shooting and more nipple pinching ensues. At the end only Jun and Aiba came out and talked for a little bit. They mentioned its rare for an MC to be just the two of them, and Aiba even had a chance to make fun of Jun and hit him on the head, which he said made his heart race. Oh Matsuba <3
Next there was an animation about the caterpiller - not much to tell, it just kind of walked around and then turned into just the 5 gems, at which point Arashi came out on a giant ...balloon? It was a balloon at the top, but they were suspended from it kind of like during Jun's solo in the Time con. It moved them around into different formations during the next few songs and traveled across the crowd, and when it got to the other end they flipped around a lot and were silly for Fight Song.
16. Sakura Sake
17. Fight Song
18. WISH
19. A Day in Our Life
20. Gimmick Game - Nino's solo was like Ohno's - different from the CD but still recorded? He did a lot of pulling at the neck of his shirt to be sexy (that's about as far as Nino goes in terms of sexy XD). At the end, he sang half of the last line ("Kimi no kubisuji...") and then put his finger in his mouth and dragged it down his neck with this really angry look on his face, turned around and took of his jacket, threw it behind him, and stalked off XD
21. Naked - Jun spent most of the time on that stage that moves over the arena seats. There were a lot of female dancers dressed in...what basically were togas doing more interpretive dance. Towards the end they took off part of their togas and had more normal dance dresses underneath, then covered up Jun with the white sheets and revealed him to be...half naked. He just took off his shirt, which is kind of wimpy, but if I had a dick I wouldn't just whip it out in a stadium full of people either. In the middle they carry him around like Jesus on a cross. Apparently Jun has passed off Michael Jackson to Ohno and is going to be Jesus now instead.
22. Green - Ohno came out first and explained that Arashi had designed the eco bag this year and they made this song about saving the Earth for the tour. It was a nice ballad, nothing phenomenal but not bad either. I'd kind of like to see it as a b-side to some single just to see if when they said "we made this" they literally meant Arashi wrote/composed the song.
23. Once Again - This is my favorite song on the whole album but I have nothing special to say about the performance other than it was good XD
24. theme of Dream "A" Live - this is where they introduced each member, ala La Tormenta but much shorter. Nino did a magic trick as his introduction, Ohno made his eyes look like they were chasing each other, and I forget what the other three did (I think just usual dancing).
25. Lucky Man
26. Hadashi no Mirai
27. Oh Yeah!
28. Kotoba Yori Taisetsu na Mono
29. YOUR SONG - I liked this song on the album, but it's 10x better with an entire stadium full of people singing the "La la la.." parts *_* Really good choice for an "ending."
Encore:
30. Do My Best
31. Gori Muchuu
32. Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi
Encore 2:
33. One Love - I didn't listen to any radio previews because I read this would be part of the concert, so I wanted to hear it there first. Aiba kept talking about how he wanted everyone to sing "one last song" together, but the rest of Arashi reminded him that most of the audience probably didn't know this one yet XD A lot of people talk about how Love so Sweet is WISH part 2, but this isn't realy WISH part 3 as far as I can remember. Jun has a lot of solos, which is to be expected. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, I need to give it a listen all the way through.
Encore 3:
34. PIKA**NCHI DOUBLE
That's right, they didn't do A.RA.SHI. I figured they would for the very last encore, since they seemed kind of unprepared (they came out and talked first and then were about to leave until we yelled them into a song) but nope! They didn't throw sign boards either, which I expected when I walked in since someone mentioned it in a report and because the baseball fence goes all the way around the stadium. Although Tokyo Dome has a baseball fence as well, and they've thrown sign boards there before so I don't know.
The only other thing I can think to mention is this one fan Hiroko saw. I couldn't see him, but at the front of the stadium seats there was apparently an old guy who was a big Jun fan who kept pressing against the fence every time he came by on a float. Some staff guy had to pull him back several times XD
That's it! I told you I ramble.