Concert Review : Morioka "Faces" (7/23)
ワアアア、あのライブは最古だった！
So. I just spent about an hour and a half writing what I thought was a pretty bitchin' review of the show tonight in Morioka, but due to the fact that I wasn't connected to the internet while drafting it in LJ, I lost the entire thing as soon as I signed back on. Color me thoroughly fucking pissed about that. ....No, like *really* pissed. But anyway...
I really didn't intent to review any more shows on this tour; the set list has been pretty standardized for the past three shows, and the Kavki Boys' onstage antics haven't really differed that drastically from the first night in Shibuya - but today's live was an entirely different experience from anything else on this tour so far - or anything that I've seen so far from Miyavi, actually.
We got into town at about 4pm, today, after a four hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo and a whole buttload of uncalled-for inconvienances on the way. Let me just say for the record that Morioka is not exactly what one might call a bustling metropolis; it's a little boom town tucked away in northern Honshu that is, so far as I can tell, almost completely devoid of foreigners; Jess and I aside, there was one lone middle-aged foreign chick that I saw in the liquor store, who gave me a really, really funny look through the window, almost as if she'd forgotten what other white people look like.
I thought I'd really lucked out with my tickets, this tour; I had number 38 for the show in Mito, which rocked, because it was packed, and I've got ticket 31 for Koriyama tomorrow. Tonight I had ticket number 29. Jess decided last minute to come to the show, and had to wait at the very end of the line to buy a ticket at the door; so needless to say, I was surprised when she bounced up behind me only about ten minutes after I'd made it through the door, and informed me that there were only four people behind her - which brought the grand total of people in the club up to approximately 70, including the band, and the bartender, and the chicks at the merch table. We were all practically standing right on top of the band - he stage was only about three feet high, and there was no guard rail. One of Miyavi's roadie chicks had to crouch on the stage for the entire show and keep his mic stand from getting knocked over by the chicks in the front row, who couldn't help but bump into it, and Yorke was having a hell of a time spinning his umbrella around since the ceiling was so low to the stage. There was only one air conditioning vent in the entire place - which was, as Miyavi gleefully pointed out to us, directly over his head - but there just weren't enough of us in the building for the temperature to get out of hand, so he didn't really get to gloat about it.
The atmosphere at Miyavi's shows is usually super-charged and damned near explosive, but tonight the vibe was completely different - very calm and chill. Of course, we all rocked out for songs like おっさんおっさん俺なんぼ and Are You Ready To Rock?, but things were much more low-key and relaxed on the whole. The small crowd, coupled with the nature of the venue, made for a super-relaxed and intimate setting; there was no pressure on the band, and subsequently they didn't worry too much about accuracy or showmanship, and instead spent the two hours having fun with both the crowd and eachother. Saro was one big rainbow, alternately whaling out on a bongo drum and dancing his ass off, and Tyko - who is a B-Boy to the core - headbanged right along with the rest of us for a song or two. Yorke and his artwork got relegated to the side of the stage tonight, but he seemed to be having a blast painting anyway, and took breaks every so often to bounce around the stage twirling his umbrella and shower Miyavi with silk flower petals. Miyavi himself was all over the place, bouncing off the drum set and holding his microphone out to the crowd - which was a nice gesture, really, even though he unplugged the thing in the process, didn't notice for about a minute and a half, and then made Saro fix it for him instead of doing it himself. He didn't take much of a break tonight - Tyko only had about three or four minutes to MC for us (he raps in a combination of Japanese and English, and sweeps the floor with any American MC I've heard in the past decade) before Miyavi came sneaking back out onstage (quite literally - he spooked his bassist in the process), and rejoined the madness in earnest. And speaking of Miyavi's bassist, he really came out of his shell tonight; when Miyavi introduced him, instead of playing a little solo, he decided to sing the Japanese national anthem, which had those of us who've seen him at a bunch of shows now and/or have played a bunch of shows with him laughing our asses off in pleasant surprise. Later on, Miyavi tried his hand (or his mouth, really, as the case may be) at beatboxing like Tyko. I'm proud to say that his failure was definitely something short of miserable. ...No, really, he wasn't too bad! Tyko must be teaching him, or something, because he didn't make a complete ass out of himself, the way he did in Mito when he tried tapdancing with Saro and kicked his own foot out from under himself. But he really isn't as hopeless as I make him sound - anything but, in fact; this tour is absolutely phenominal. Miyavi's talent and stage presence never ceases to amaze me, and he did a phenominal job tonight as always.
The set list was pretty standard, but with a couple of twists - no We Love You, tonight, but he played both 明日天気になあれ and 明日元気になあれ, instead.
The only regret I have is not getting to Morioka last night instead of this afternoon; Miyavi said that he put on a street performance outside a McDonalds here earlier today, but no one really quite knew who he was or why he was there. ざんえんだよ。
Tomorrow night is Koriyama, but for now - live from Morioka, it's Tuesday night...
Ashita, tenki ni naare :)
So. I just spent about an hour and a half writing what I thought was a pretty bitchin' review of the show tonight in Morioka, but due to the fact that I wasn't connected to the internet while drafting it in LJ, I lost the entire thing as soon as I signed back on. Color me thoroughly fucking pissed about that. ....No, like *really* pissed. But anyway...
I really didn't intent to review any more shows on this tour; the set list has been pretty standardized for the past three shows, and the Kavki Boys' onstage antics haven't really differed that drastically from the first night in Shibuya - but today's live was an entirely different experience from anything else on this tour so far - or anything that I've seen so far from Miyavi, actually.
We got into town at about 4pm, today, after a four hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo and a whole buttload of uncalled-for inconvienances on the way. Let me just say for the record that Morioka is not exactly what one might call a bustling metropolis; it's a little boom town tucked away in northern Honshu that is, so far as I can tell, almost completely devoid of foreigners; Jess and I aside, there was one lone middle-aged foreign chick that I saw in the liquor store, who gave me a really, really funny look through the window, almost as if she'd forgotten what other white people look like.
I thought I'd really lucked out with my tickets, this tour; I had number 38 for the show in Mito, which rocked, because it was packed, and I've got ticket 31 for Koriyama tomorrow. Tonight I had ticket number 29. Jess decided last minute to come to the show, and had to wait at the very end of the line to buy a ticket at the door; so needless to say, I was surprised when she bounced up behind me only about ten minutes after I'd made it through the door, and informed me that there were only four people behind her - which brought the grand total of people in the club up to approximately 70, including the band, and the bartender, and the chicks at the merch table. We were all practically standing right on top of the band - he stage was only about three feet high, and there was no guard rail. One of Miyavi's roadie chicks had to crouch on the stage for the entire show and keep his mic stand from getting knocked over by the chicks in the front row, who couldn't help but bump into it, and Yorke was having a hell of a time spinning his umbrella around since the ceiling was so low to the stage. There was only one air conditioning vent in the entire place - which was, as Miyavi gleefully pointed out to us, directly over his head - but there just weren't enough of us in the building for the temperature to get out of hand, so he didn't really get to gloat about it.
The atmosphere at Miyavi's shows is usually super-charged and damned near explosive, but tonight the vibe was completely different - very calm and chill. Of course, we all rocked out for songs like おっさんおっさん俺なんぼ and Are You Ready To Rock?, but things were much more low-key and relaxed on the whole. The small crowd, coupled with the nature of the venue, made for a super-relaxed and intimate setting; there was no pressure on the band, and subsequently they didn't worry too much about accuracy or showmanship, and instead spent the two hours having fun with both the crowd and eachother. Saro was one big rainbow, alternately whaling out on a bongo drum and dancing his ass off, and Tyko - who is a B-Boy to the core - headbanged right along with the rest of us for a song or two. Yorke and his artwork got relegated to the side of the stage tonight, but he seemed to be having a blast painting anyway, and took breaks every so often to bounce around the stage twirling his umbrella and shower Miyavi with silk flower petals. Miyavi himself was all over the place, bouncing off the drum set and holding his microphone out to the crowd - which was a nice gesture, really, even though he unplugged the thing in the process, didn't notice for about a minute and a half, and then made Saro fix it for him instead of doing it himself. He didn't take much of a break tonight - Tyko only had about three or four minutes to MC for us (he raps in a combination of Japanese and English, and sweeps the floor with any American MC I've heard in the past decade) before Miyavi came sneaking back out onstage (quite literally - he spooked his bassist in the process), and rejoined the madness in earnest. And speaking of Miyavi's bassist, he really came out of his shell tonight; when Miyavi introduced him, instead of playing a little solo, he decided to sing the Japanese national anthem, which had those of us who've seen him at a bunch of shows now and/or have played a bunch of shows with him laughing our asses off in pleasant surprise. Later on, Miyavi tried his hand (or his mouth, really, as the case may be) at beatboxing like Tyko. I'm proud to say that his failure was definitely something short of miserable. ...No, really, he wasn't too bad! Tyko must be teaching him, or something, because he didn't make a complete ass out of himself, the way he did in Mito when he tried tapdancing with Saro and kicked his own foot out from under himself. But he really isn't as hopeless as I make him sound - anything but, in fact; this tour is absolutely phenominal. Miyavi's talent and stage presence never ceases to amaze me, and he did a phenominal job tonight as always.
The set list was pretty standard, but with a couple of twists - no We Love You, tonight, but he played both 明日天気になあれ and 明日元気になあれ, instead.
The only regret I have is not getting to Morioka last night instead of this afternoon; Miyavi said that he put on a street performance outside a McDonalds here earlier today, but no one really quite knew who he was or why he was there. ざんえんだよ。
Tomorrow night is Koriyama, but for now - live from Morioka, it's Tuesday night...
Ashita, tenki ni naare :)