Akasaka BLITZ : 2008/08.16 & 2008/08/17
僕が僕であり
君が君であるように
愛は愛何だ
I Love You
I Love You
I Love You
そこから僕らは始まる
I Love You
I Love You
I Love You
そうだまた明日
君に伝いよう。。。
It's taken me a few days to recover enough to sit down and write this review of the last two shows - the few minutes that I've spent conscious and coherent have been devoted to translating Miyavi's blogs, and I've still got his newest post on o-re-sa-ma to translate, but it's not going to be a difficult thing to do. I've already read it, and I've already heard it eight times now. What he said in the blog is exactly what he's been saying onstage.
And he said it better than ever, the last two nights in Tokyo. Akasaka BLITZ is a BIG venue. Huge, compared to most of the Miyavi shows that I've seen - there were at least 2000 tickets sold, and at least 1500 people in the building - including Gackt, on the 17th, who seemed lovingly irritated when Miyavi pointed him out in the balcony to the whole crowd, and flipped him off in return while hiding a smile behind one hand. Nori P was also there; for those of you who don't know her, she's interviewed Miyavi quite a bit, and is the little lady who followed him around in the Budokan videos. There also seemed to be quite a few people in the balcony who were friends and family of either Miyavi or his band members, but both nights, the venue was packed pretty close to capacity.
It was the same show as always, but different, and shared with so many more people that it kicked up the energy to an amazing level. Miyavi threw balloons into the crowd just as the encore started as always, and FINALLY, he told people to stop holding on to them and keep bouncing them around. The result was that most of them got bounced back at him, and for a few minutes there was no music, no musicians and no fans - just a bunch of kids playing with balloons together, as he and the KAVKI Boiz kicked and threw and swatted them all back at us. He and Saro got into a bit of a balloon war, in fact - thwapping each other with them when the other least expected it, and even Tyko got in on the action, making sure that we kept bouncing them around and working them into his MC. They also threw a bunch of sparkly silver streamers out to the crowd instead of flower petals during Neo Visualizm - actually, instead of throwing them, they were pretty much launched into the air via air cannons, and it seemed like everyone in the arena managed to get their hands on a couple of them. Instead of one encore, there was really two, with Miyavi returning one last time to play Aishiteru Kara Hajimeyo for everyone.
Only he didn't just sing it *for* us; usually no one sings along at shows, but this time, the whole arena was singing this one song together. Strangers linked arms, held hands, cried and laughed and smiled with each other, and Miyavi was just one of us - the one with the guitar, but a kid just like the rest of us, basking in the feeling of loving and being loved so freely. During his MC, this tour, he's had a lot to say about humanity and human nature - how he's traveled all over the world, now, and how with each country he visited he came to understand his identity not only as a Japanese citizen of half-Korean blood, but as a human being, and that one of the most important things he's taken from having a world tour is that People are People are People, no matter what language we speak or what color our skin is or what part our heritage plays in who we are. He wants to bring pride back to the Japanese people in regards to their cultural identity, but more than that, he talked about all the things he's learned about humanity that lie outside the boundaries and parameters of cultural identity. "皆同じ意人間だ", is how he put it - in translation, that we're all 'the same human' when it comes right down to it. A smile is a smile wherever you go, and music is music, and love is love - and all of these things have the ability to transcend ethnic, linguistic, political and cultural parameters to reach everyone with a beating heart and the ears to hear it.
And that's what has made all these shows, and this entire tour, so amazing, and so special, and so worthwhile to me. I do not follow a rockstar around to see all his concerts. I go on the journey of a lifetime, step-for-step with an amazing human being, and every other night we get together for a few hours to live and laugh and love and play together, and Enjoy The Music. At the end of the first Tokyo concert, and at the beginning and end of the second one, they dropped a huge curtain to play a video of some of the pictures and footage from Miyavi's world tour, to the instrumental backdrop of Aishiteru Kara Hajimeyo, and I don't think that there was a dry eye in the place. We've all been reading along with his blogs - and this tour has been not only the adventure of a lifetime and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for him, but the learning experience of a lifetime as well. He has grown so much, and so beautifully, since I first saw him three and a half years ago, and I consider it a privilege to have been there watching and learning and loving right along with him, supporting him as he's grown up from the self-proclaimed Ugly Duckling into a strong, capable, beautiful individual, and a wise, responsible adult. Miyavi the rockstar is pretty neat. Miyavi the Human Being is an energy fit to move the souls of the world to a better place, because there is nothing about him that isn't truly, honestly, wonderfully Human itself. He breaks out, loses weight, forgets lyrics, misses chords, forgets what he's saying, makes mistakes, learns from them (yes, sweetie, it's Estonia!) coughs, laughs, re-ties his shoes onstage, sweats gallons under the stage lights, pants for breath, gets choked up, smiles back when you smile at him is every bit as moved, emotionally, by the power and energy of the concerts as any one of his fans. He is perfectly Imperfect, and because of that, one of the most inspirational people I have ever been close to in my life.
Because when it comes right down to it, he is nothing more or less than any other human being - just one person with a dream, living his life to the fullest with love and hope and passion. He is living, breathing proof that every voice is worth raising, and every dream is worth dreaming, and that every single person in this world has it in them to Shine, and make this world a better place, if they just follow their hearts and their dreams and try their hardest.
At the end of the last concert, he said that even though tour is over, our paths together aren't - and that until next time, he wants us all to move forward together, learning and growing so that we can meet again even better than before - and they're not just pretty words meant to dampen the eyes of some fan girls. Miyavi sees us all as being on the same team, and even though he's the one onstage, and the proverbial team captain, we're all playing this life out together, and so long as we stick with each other and keep reaching for our dreams, beautiful things will happen for all of us. This tour has been the experience of a lifetime for him, and for me, and for everyone that he's touched in the course of it. He appreciates that on a level that goes far past that of a 'rockstar', and so do I, and I hope that you guys do, as well. The next time that he tours, I'll be out there with him, and I'll be recording the amazing memories here on this blog. Until that time... Well, I can't really put it any better than he did.
"till that time,
plz live ur lives to the fullest.
nothin' but love.
peace!!
雅"
。。。そうしよう。。。
[To Be Continued]