2011/02/10: Okayama IMAGE
What's My Name? World Tour 2011
Review # 2
I like Okayama; compared to Tokyo it's a sleepy little town - beautiful during hanami, and full of chill, friendly, trusting people. ...Also full of chill, friendly, trusting pidgeons. Let me show you what I mean.
We got into town yesterday on an off day, and subsequently we had time to explore the city today, which is a rare thing on tour. This is me, making some new friends outside of the train station. I had french fries. Pigeons, for the record, LOVE french fries.
Anyway - after a day spent communing with nature (and also visiting Okayama Castle - AMAZINGLY beautiful!), Steff and I made our way over to Image for the show. The doors only opened about a half an hour before the show started, instead of the usual hour - Image is a small club, and one of my favorite stops from spring tour, so it was nice to get back there again. Though I had a really good ticket number, many of my friends didn't, and so I opted to stand in back with Dankichi, Steff and Gashin instead to enjoy the show. I'm tall, and Image is tiny, so even at the very back of the club we had not only a stellar view of the stage, but enough room to really rock out.
And rock out we did! The club got really hot, really fast, and Miyavi kept up a blazing pace for the first half of the show. Before I forget it, here's a rough set list for tonight - I think I missed one or two songs, and they're not precisely in the right order either, but this is the general idea of how the set went:
New Song
What's My Name
Universe
Survive
Ah-hah
Ossan Ossan Ore Nambou
New Song
Chase (?)
Moon
Ashita Tenki ni Naare
Torture
Superhero
SMFB
Are You Ready to Rock
Futuristic Love
Encore:
Subarashiki Kana, Kono Sekai
Neo Vizualism
Survive
Needless to say, it was amazing to hear Ashita Tenki ni Naare - that song always brings me back to the old days. So much has changed since 2005 - new music, new style, new band members, new crowds, new venues - but every so often there's a moment at the shows that brings me right back to the very first time that I saw him in Nagoya almost six years ago. Things change, people change, things change people - but one thing that doesn't change is Love. He played it acoustic tonight, and those of us in the back joined in with the requisite hand-waving, arms around each other's shoulders.
Ah-hah was a nice mix-up to the set, as well - it calls for a lot of crowd interaction and always gets everyone's blood up. He's got everyone doing a reverse Boom-Hah-Hah style clap for it, over here. He also had the left side, right side, and center of the audience respond to him in turn; the left and right sides did okay, but the kids in the center are the ones jumping the most, and were subsequently the most out of breath. Miyavi, kind soul that he is, promptly mocked their attempts at shouting back at him. "What the fuck was that?" he asked in English, before switching back to Japanese and telling everyone to liven up and let him really hear them. Half-laughing, half-screaming, the crowd responded in earnest - and Miyavi, finally satisfied, kicked back into the song.
Neo Vizualism was a great surprise during the encore; Miyavi went quiet after Subarashiki Kana, Kono Sekai, eyes shut, and I couldn't tell whether he was feeling dizzy or just soaking in the cheers from the crowd. As it turns out, he was actually trying to remember the lyrics to the song - he asked everyone to be quiet for a moment. "Hang on, guys, I'm thinking! It's hard to remember the words." It ended up that the crowd knew the lyrics better than he did - he lost his place multiple times, but instead of his usual 'whoops, messed that up!' smile, we got 'whatever, close enough' little eye rolls and laughs instead.
We've got some time off before the next run, which will include Osaka and Fukuoka. Geographically, it would have made more sense to do Osaka tonight, and Okayama in conjunction with Fukuoka, but tour never seems to go in a logical order - I'm assuming that it has a lot to do with which live houses he can book on which nights. He's got his favorites, and so do we, so if this was the only night he could book Image then I'm not complaining! Demachi was, again, fairly short - thank you, Miyavi, for being considerate of the fact that while you're inside winding down, we're all freezing our butts off on a sidewalk waiting for you. We were all so involved in chatting it up that only Steff and I noticed him exit the venue at first; Miyavi was craning his neck and staring over at us like, 'Okay, so are we waving to each other or what, guys?' We saw him off with lots of otsukares and blown kisses before exchanging hugs and heading off into the night.
All in all, it was another great show! I'd be happy to jump right back into the club tomorrow night, but my neck is going to appreciate the days off, and I think Miyavi's will too! Until Osaka, here's wishing you all peace, love and music!
Review # 2
I like Okayama; compared to Tokyo it's a sleepy little town - beautiful during hanami, and full of chill, friendly, trusting people. ...Also full of chill, friendly, trusting pidgeons. Let me show you what I mean.
We got into town yesterday on an off day, and subsequently we had time to explore the city today, which is a rare thing on tour. This is me, making some new friends outside of the train station. I had french fries. Pigeons, for the record, LOVE french fries.
Anyway - after a day spent communing with nature (and also visiting Okayama Castle - AMAZINGLY beautiful!), Steff and I made our way over to Image for the show. The doors only opened about a half an hour before the show started, instead of the usual hour - Image is a small club, and one of my favorite stops from spring tour, so it was nice to get back there again. Though I had a really good ticket number, many of my friends didn't, and so I opted to stand in back with Dankichi, Steff and Gashin instead to enjoy the show. I'm tall, and Image is tiny, so even at the very back of the club we had not only a stellar view of the stage, but enough room to really rock out.
And rock out we did! The club got really hot, really fast, and Miyavi kept up a blazing pace for the first half of the show. Before I forget it, here's a rough set list for tonight - I think I missed one or two songs, and they're not precisely in the right order either, but this is the general idea of how the set went:
New Song
What's My Name
Universe
Survive
Ah-hah
Ossan Ossan Ore Nambou
New Song
Chase (?)
Moon
Ashita Tenki ni Naare
Torture
Superhero
SMFB
Are You Ready to Rock
Futuristic Love
Encore:
Subarashiki Kana, Kono Sekai
Neo Vizualism
Survive
Needless to say, it was amazing to hear Ashita Tenki ni Naare - that song always brings me back to the old days. So much has changed since 2005 - new music, new style, new band members, new crowds, new venues - but every so often there's a moment at the shows that brings me right back to the very first time that I saw him in Nagoya almost six years ago. Things change, people change, things change people - but one thing that doesn't change is Love. He played it acoustic tonight, and those of us in the back joined in with the requisite hand-waving, arms around each other's shoulders.
Ah-hah was a nice mix-up to the set, as well - it calls for a lot of crowd interaction and always gets everyone's blood up. He's got everyone doing a reverse Boom-Hah-Hah style clap for it, over here. He also had the left side, right side, and center of the audience respond to him in turn; the left and right sides did okay, but the kids in the center are the ones jumping the most, and were subsequently the most out of breath. Miyavi, kind soul that he is, promptly mocked their attempts at shouting back at him. "What the fuck was that?" he asked in English, before switching back to Japanese and telling everyone to liven up and let him really hear them. Half-laughing, half-screaming, the crowd responded in earnest - and Miyavi, finally satisfied, kicked back into the song.
Neo Vizualism was a great surprise during the encore; Miyavi went quiet after Subarashiki Kana, Kono Sekai, eyes shut, and I couldn't tell whether he was feeling dizzy or just soaking in the cheers from the crowd. As it turns out, he was actually trying to remember the lyrics to the song - he asked everyone to be quiet for a moment. "Hang on, guys, I'm thinking! It's hard to remember the words." It ended up that the crowd knew the lyrics better than he did - he lost his place multiple times, but instead of his usual 'whoops, messed that up!' smile, we got 'whatever, close enough' little eye rolls and laughs instead.
We've got some time off before the next run, which will include Osaka and Fukuoka. Geographically, it would have made more sense to do Osaka tonight, and Okayama in conjunction with Fukuoka, but tour never seems to go in a logical order - I'm assuming that it has a lot to do with which live houses he can book on which nights. He's got his favorites, and so do we, so if this was the only night he could book Image then I'm not complaining! Demachi was, again, fairly short - thank you, Miyavi, for being considerate of the fact that while you're inside winding down, we're all freezing our butts off on a sidewalk waiting for you. We were all so involved in chatting it up that only Steff and I noticed him exit the venue at first; Miyavi was craning his neck and staring over at us like, 'Okay, so are we waving to each other or what, guys?' We saw him off with lots of otsukares and blown kisses before exchanging hugs and heading off into the night.
All in all, it was another great show! I'd be happy to jump right back into the club tomorrow night, but my neck is going to appreciate the days off, and I think Miyavi's will too! Until Osaka, here's wishing you all peace, love and music!