What's My Name? Tour 2011 - Sendai, Sapporo and Tokyo
Gah! Sorry for being so slow with the reviews, guys - it's been hectic over here! To make up for it, here's a triple review of the last three shows on the tour, including the tour final! We'll start with...
2011/02/24 : Sendai Darwin
I love Sendai. It's a beautiful, friendly and diverse city full of amazing food and wonderful people. It's also not that far a shot from Tokyo - just a couple hours on the shinkansen - and so it's a pretty easy stop for most of the Kanto-based CoMiyavi to hit on tour. Back in the day, Miyavi used to play at a little club called MaCaNa, which I really loved, but starting last tour he started using Darwin. It's almost across the street from MaCaNa, and there are three major benefits to it:
1) It is really, really easy to find.
2) This road is covered, which means that even if it's pouring rain, we're not getting soaked waiting for the doors to open.
3) There is a Royal Host directly above the live house where we can chill out and relax until it's time to line up.
The show itself was, in my opinion, one of the hottest on tour; Miyavi seemed to be in top condition, and the kids on the floor really tore it up. Instead of making us all cry with Mata Yume de Aimashou again, he opted for We Love You to compliment Moon for the acoustic interlude of the set. Good choice, Miyavi! It's been a while since he's played it on a normal tour, and immediately, everyone in the audience linked hands and started singing along. We even added the harmonies in - which cracked Miyavi up, which in turn cracked us up, until everyone in the venue was laughing and no one was really singing. It's moments like that that really make JPN tour special for me - when the vibe in the live house transcends the level of 'concert' or 'performance' and turns into a bunch of people who love each other just having fun together.
It was also a rather special day - not only was it Melody's birthday, but it was our CoMiyavi sister Toki's birthday as well! She came up to Sendai to rock with us (Toki, not Melody), and even though she spent a lot of her birthday in transit, she said that the best birthday present she could have was a Miyavi concert and some time. Demachi was comparatively big - it seemed like nearly everyone stuck around to see him off, and at Toki's suggestion, we all surprised him by singing 'We Love You' when he exited the live house. Miyavi was both surprised and touched, and lingered outside to listen for a minute before his crew shooed him onto the bus. After demachi, we all headed to an izakaya to celebrate with her, and stuck around until the last trains forced us to head back for the night. Steff and I stayed with our friend Uchiko in a neighboring town, Nattori - a beautiful and quiet little place that nevertheless boasts the largest mall in the Tohoku region, and so we had the chance to enjoy the city the day after the show before we headed to....
2011/02/26: Sapporo Cube Garden
I am from New York. Upstate New York. The summers are hot and beautiful, but the average winter temperature is well below freezing, and the snow is usually up to my hips (and since I'm just a hair under 6 feet tall, that's saying something). One would think that, given my heritage, I would be fine with snow and cold weather.
Well, I'm not. I hate winter with a seething, roiling passion. Snow is my mortal enemy; sure, it's pretty - until you have to clean it off your car and shovel it out of your driveway and trudge through it every time you step out your door. Snow is beautiful and picturesque and an utter pain in my ass.
So needless to say, I was not a happy cookie when we got off the ferry to Hokkaido - where the weather is only marginally better than it is in my hometown. At least I didn't have a car to clean off or a driveway to shovel, but I still had to walk places. Steff and I spent the majority of our day in an internet cafe - the same one we visited last time we were in Sapporo, actually. It was too cold to deal with irimachi (sorry, Miyavi, I love you - but standing around for hours outside in subzero temperatures just to wave to you for 30 seconds as you walk from a nice warm car to a nice warm live house is not my idea of a good time). Instead, we spent the day relaxing (Steff was proactive and wrote her tour blog, I was lazy and caught up with watching Survivor and the Amazing Race online), then headed over to the live house at the last second possible, avoiding the weather as much as we could. Luckily my ticket number was fairly low, so I didn't end up standing outside too long - though in the short time we spent in line, I did make friends with a brand new bunch of wonderful Hokkaido CoMiyavi.
And though the weather outside was freezing, the vibe inside the venue was as warm as can be; had Miyavi been playing guitar outdoors, no doubt we would have collaboratively melted all the snow in the city. The Sapporo show is always one of the most high-energy stops on the tour, and despite the long trip I wouldn't miss it for the world. Miyavi put out absolutely amazing energy onstage - and treated us to a brand new song, as well! As with most of the new material, he didn't tell us what the name of it was, but suffice it to say it rocked our world. He also played SMFB - which has been a standard on this tour, but especially memorable to hear in Sapporo; less than a year ago, he debuted a song called 'Spit It Out' onstage in Sapporo for us, less than 24 hours after writing it. The same song grew and evolved into the song we now all know as Super Motherfucker Bitch. I have a special attachment to this song - I watched its birth, watched it grow, and it has already become a familiar favorite. To hear it again in Sapporo was a real treat, and definitely one of my favorite moments of the show. He also played Shelter for us - with Bobo adding some sweet harmonies as a backup vocalist! It sounded great and brought a brand new dimension to the song, and I give Bobo tons of credit for having the breath to sing while pounding away on his drum set.
We also got a special treat for the encore - for the first time this tour, Miyavi played us Girls, Be Ambitious! It was a great way to wrap up the club tour dates on this tour, and no amount of snow and wind could chill our spirits as we filtered out of the live house, warm to the bones with great music and great energy, sharing hugs on the sidewalk before Steff and I had to book it full-speed back to Tomakomai to catch the last ferry back to Honshu.
Since then, we've had some time to rest up and get ourselves ready for....
2011/03/09: Ebisu Liquid Room
Last night's show in Ebisu marked the end of this short but thoroughly sweet Japanese tour, and CoMiyavi from all over the country gathered in Tokyo for the final show at Liquid Room. It's a great venue - only a couple of blocks from the station, with a second floor lobby that boasts couches, vending machines, and a large counter space that the CoMiyavi always commandeer in the name of various fan projects.
And speaking of fan projects, three of our JPN CoMYV sisters put together a doozie for this tour. They've been collecting messages from fans at every single show on multi-colored stickers, and we got to see the results of our collective efforts before the tour final last night - a giant rainbow banner comprised of all of our notes, made with love and designed to give him a great send-off on his European tour. Check it out!
Pretty cool, right? We spent the hours before the show finishing it up, and before we knew it, it was time to line up and filter into the live house for one last go-round before he heads out for Europe.
The tour final is always the biggest show on tour, and last night was no exception. There were about 700 CoMiyavi packed into Liquid Room, and we were joined by some very special guests - Miyavi's grandfather, mother, wife, and none other than Lovelie herself! My friends and I were standing over on the edge of the live house near the speakers, and she and the family were pretty much right next to us. I have to say that she is, by far, the most beautiful little girl that I have ever seen - she looks almost exactly like her father at that age, judging from his baby pictures, and no photo can do justice to just how adorable she is up close. She was fascinated by all the people out on the floor, but turned shy when a few of us waved to her - grandma tried to get her to wave back, but she opted for hiding. So cute! When Miyavi took the stage, her whole family tried to get her interested, pointing to him with excited faces, but she was way more entranced by all these strangers jumping and waving their hands, and barely spared a glance for him. It's no surprise, really - to her, that's just Daddy. My mom brought me to my own dad's concerts around the same age, and she tells me that I wasn't all that impressed, either. She did get into the music, waving her hands, dancing with great-grandpa, and clapping along - but got bored and fussy about halfway through the show, so her family took her backstage again.
And the show itself was everything a tour final should be! Miyavi ran through what has become the standard set for this tour, which included What's My Name?, Universe, Chillin' Chillin' Money Blues, Ossan Ossan Ore Nanbo, Survive, Chase, Hell No, Torture, Are You Ready To Rock, SMFB and Futuristic Love, along with his three other new-and-as-of-yet-unnamed songs. He also played Moon on his acoustic guitar as usual, as well as We Love You - and once again, both Miyavi and CoMiyavi alike ended up cracking up about halfway through the song. We got a double dose of Survive, as well - once during the main set, and once to wrap up the encore, as is becoming Miyavi's new habit. In a brief pause during the song itself, he dropped the bomb on us - there's going to be another Japanese tour soon!! No details yet, however - we're all hoping for summer, so we have a bit more time to save up!
After this, he's off to Europe, and we won't be seeing him again in person until the onsen trip at the end of April. To all my crazy CoMYV sisters abroad, get ready! His new stage, new sound, and new songs are going to blow you away. Cheer for him, sing with him, dance with him, laugh with him - and most of all, love him. The love he gives his fans is invaluable, and he deserves every ounce of it that he can get in return!
From your CoMYV family here in Japan, here's wishing you guys Peace, Love and Music!
Live from Tokyo, it's Friday morning...
Ashita Tenki ni Naare <3
2011/02/24 : Sendai Darwin
I love Sendai. It's a beautiful, friendly and diverse city full of amazing food and wonderful people. It's also not that far a shot from Tokyo - just a couple hours on the shinkansen - and so it's a pretty easy stop for most of the Kanto-based CoMiyavi to hit on tour. Back in the day, Miyavi used to play at a little club called MaCaNa, which I really loved, but starting last tour he started using Darwin. It's almost across the street from MaCaNa, and there are three major benefits to it:
1) It is really, really easy to find.
2) This road is covered, which means that even if it's pouring rain, we're not getting soaked waiting for the doors to open.
3) There is a Royal Host directly above the live house where we can chill out and relax until it's time to line up.
The show itself was, in my opinion, one of the hottest on tour; Miyavi seemed to be in top condition, and the kids on the floor really tore it up. Instead of making us all cry with Mata Yume de Aimashou again, he opted for We Love You to compliment Moon for the acoustic interlude of the set. Good choice, Miyavi! It's been a while since he's played it on a normal tour, and immediately, everyone in the audience linked hands and started singing along. We even added the harmonies in - which cracked Miyavi up, which in turn cracked us up, until everyone in the venue was laughing and no one was really singing. It's moments like that that really make JPN tour special for me - when the vibe in the live house transcends the level of 'concert' or 'performance' and turns into a bunch of people who love each other just having fun together.
It was also a rather special day - not only was it Melody's birthday, but it was our CoMiyavi sister Toki's birthday as well! She came up to Sendai to rock with us (Toki, not Melody), and even though she spent a lot of her birthday in transit, she said that the best birthday present she could have was a Miyavi concert and some time. Demachi was comparatively big - it seemed like nearly everyone stuck around to see him off, and at Toki's suggestion, we all surprised him by singing 'We Love You' when he exited the live house. Miyavi was both surprised and touched, and lingered outside to listen for a minute before his crew shooed him onto the bus. After demachi, we all headed to an izakaya to celebrate with her, and stuck around until the last trains forced us to head back for the night. Steff and I stayed with our friend Uchiko in a neighboring town, Nattori - a beautiful and quiet little place that nevertheless boasts the largest mall in the Tohoku region, and so we had the chance to enjoy the city the day after the show before we headed to....
2011/02/26: Sapporo Cube Garden
I am from New York. Upstate New York. The summers are hot and beautiful, but the average winter temperature is well below freezing, and the snow is usually up to my hips (and since I'm just a hair under 6 feet tall, that's saying something). One would think that, given my heritage, I would be fine with snow and cold weather.
Well, I'm not. I hate winter with a seething, roiling passion. Snow is my mortal enemy; sure, it's pretty - until you have to clean it off your car and shovel it out of your driveway and trudge through it every time you step out your door. Snow is beautiful and picturesque and an utter pain in my ass.
So needless to say, I was not a happy cookie when we got off the ferry to Hokkaido - where the weather is only marginally better than it is in my hometown. At least I didn't have a car to clean off or a driveway to shovel, but I still had to walk places. Steff and I spent the majority of our day in an internet cafe - the same one we visited last time we were in Sapporo, actually. It was too cold to deal with irimachi (sorry, Miyavi, I love you - but standing around for hours outside in subzero temperatures just to wave to you for 30 seconds as you walk from a nice warm car to a nice warm live house is not my idea of a good time). Instead, we spent the day relaxing (Steff was proactive and wrote her tour blog, I was lazy and caught up with watching Survivor and the Amazing Race online), then headed over to the live house at the last second possible, avoiding the weather as much as we could. Luckily my ticket number was fairly low, so I didn't end up standing outside too long - though in the short time we spent in line, I did make friends with a brand new bunch of wonderful Hokkaido CoMiyavi.
And though the weather outside was freezing, the vibe inside the venue was as warm as can be; had Miyavi been playing guitar outdoors, no doubt we would have collaboratively melted all the snow in the city. The Sapporo show is always one of the most high-energy stops on the tour, and despite the long trip I wouldn't miss it for the world. Miyavi put out absolutely amazing energy onstage - and treated us to a brand new song, as well! As with most of the new material, he didn't tell us what the name of it was, but suffice it to say it rocked our world. He also played SMFB - which has been a standard on this tour, but especially memorable to hear in Sapporo; less than a year ago, he debuted a song called 'Spit It Out' onstage in Sapporo for us, less than 24 hours after writing it. The same song grew and evolved into the song we now all know as Super Motherfucker Bitch. I have a special attachment to this song - I watched its birth, watched it grow, and it has already become a familiar favorite. To hear it again in Sapporo was a real treat, and definitely one of my favorite moments of the show. He also played Shelter for us - with Bobo adding some sweet harmonies as a backup vocalist! It sounded great and brought a brand new dimension to the song, and I give Bobo tons of credit for having the breath to sing while pounding away on his drum set.
We also got a special treat for the encore - for the first time this tour, Miyavi played us Girls, Be Ambitious! It was a great way to wrap up the club tour dates on this tour, and no amount of snow and wind could chill our spirits as we filtered out of the live house, warm to the bones with great music and great energy, sharing hugs on the sidewalk before Steff and I had to book it full-speed back to Tomakomai to catch the last ferry back to Honshu.
Since then, we've had some time to rest up and get ourselves ready for....
2011/03/09: Ebisu Liquid Room
Last night's show in Ebisu marked the end of this short but thoroughly sweet Japanese tour, and CoMiyavi from all over the country gathered in Tokyo for the final show at Liquid Room. It's a great venue - only a couple of blocks from the station, with a second floor lobby that boasts couches, vending machines, and a large counter space that the CoMiyavi always commandeer in the name of various fan projects.
And speaking of fan projects, three of our JPN CoMYV sisters put together a doozie for this tour. They've been collecting messages from fans at every single show on multi-colored stickers, and we got to see the results of our collective efforts before the tour final last night - a giant rainbow banner comprised of all of our notes, made with love and designed to give him a great send-off on his European tour. Check it out!
Pretty cool, right? We spent the hours before the show finishing it up, and before we knew it, it was time to line up and filter into the live house for one last go-round before he heads out for Europe.
The tour final is always the biggest show on tour, and last night was no exception. There were about 700 CoMiyavi packed into Liquid Room, and we were joined by some very special guests - Miyavi's grandfather, mother, wife, and none other than Lovelie herself! My friends and I were standing over on the edge of the live house near the speakers, and she and the family were pretty much right next to us. I have to say that she is, by far, the most beautiful little girl that I have ever seen - she looks almost exactly like her father at that age, judging from his baby pictures, and no photo can do justice to just how adorable she is up close. She was fascinated by all the people out on the floor, but turned shy when a few of us waved to her - grandma tried to get her to wave back, but she opted for hiding. So cute! When Miyavi took the stage, her whole family tried to get her interested, pointing to him with excited faces, but she was way more entranced by all these strangers jumping and waving their hands, and barely spared a glance for him. It's no surprise, really - to her, that's just Daddy. My mom brought me to my own dad's concerts around the same age, and she tells me that I wasn't all that impressed, either. She did get into the music, waving her hands, dancing with great-grandpa, and clapping along - but got bored and fussy about halfway through the show, so her family took her backstage again.
And the show itself was everything a tour final should be! Miyavi ran through what has become the standard set for this tour, which included What's My Name?, Universe, Chillin' Chillin' Money Blues, Ossan Ossan Ore Nanbo, Survive, Chase, Hell No, Torture, Are You Ready To Rock, SMFB and Futuristic Love, along with his three other new-and-as-of-yet-unnamed songs. He also played Moon on his acoustic guitar as usual, as well as We Love You - and once again, both Miyavi and CoMiyavi alike ended up cracking up about halfway through the song. We got a double dose of Survive, as well - once during the main set, and once to wrap up the encore, as is becoming Miyavi's new habit. In a brief pause during the song itself, he dropped the bomb on us - there's going to be another Japanese tour soon!! No details yet, however - we're all hoping for summer, so we have a bit more time to save up!
After this, he's off to Europe, and we won't be seeing him again in person until the onsen trip at the end of April. To all my crazy CoMYV sisters abroad, get ready! His new stage, new sound, and new songs are going to blow you away. Cheer for him, sing with him, dance with him, laugh with him - and most of all, love him. The love he gives his fans is invaluable, and he deserves every ounce of it that he can get in return!
From your CoMYV family here in Japan, here's wishing you guys Peace, Love and Music!
Live from Tokyo, it's Friday morning...
Ashita Tenki ni Naare <3