KAT-TUN Chain Tour Niigata Concert and Backstage Pass Report
Balloted for tickets to the Niigata and Tokyo shows. Hit for Tokyo but not for Niigata. Looked into buying a ticket but the prices were a bit crazy as its the first show of the tour and they haven't toured in a while. But, then I lucked out and won a backstage pass for the Niigata show via the Birth CD code lottery and ended up spending way too much on a ticket to see the show. Figured going backstage wouldn't be nearly as fun if I hadn't actually watched the concert yet!
Didn't have time to make my usual uchiwa and wasn't really feeling motivated as my seat was pretty crappy. But I did do my nails in what I hoped was a theme appropriate matter. They turned out better than I could have hoped!
Traveled via overnight bus from Tokyo to arrive in Niigata at 6:30am on the day of the show. I dropped off my suitcase at my hotel and took a bus from Niigata station to Toki Messe. You can walk, but it is far and has been snowing since I arrived. The bus is only 200yen and very convenient. The goods line wasn't set to open until 11:30am so i was there super early, but Toki Messe is a large convention center type place and was already open when I arrived. So I got to wait in the goods line inside, which was nice. But, even though I was expecting them to open the line early, they didn't let us in until about 10min. after the official 'start' time. While I was waiting, the goods line got super long!
I was in the very first wave of people to enter the goods area. Loving what they had available! My favorites are the bag charm/strap and the pouch. Also, loving Ueda's short hair! I'll put up goods pics and a review of my faves tomorrow.
After buying goods, I took my giant suitcase of stuff back to my hotel via taxi and dropped everything off. At this point I started getting a really bad headache, probably because I didn't sleep well on the overnight bus. So I took some headache medicine and had a quick nap before the concert rather than sharing my goods previews. Sorry! Luckily the headache was gone when I woke up and started getting ready for the show!
I was running a bit behind, but manged to catch a taxi back to the venue with 2 other girls staying at my hotel. One of them managed to paint the concert's signature chain smiley face on her thumb nail. Super impressive! I headed straight to my seat upon arrival and managed to snap a rather crappy pic of the stage.
The large screen in the center say KAT-TUN Chain Tour 2012 with the chain smiley face. Around the screens are large chains fitting with the theme. I was sitting 3rd from the very back row. Even though the seat wasn't very good, the Niigata venue is so small I still felt like I had a pretty good view. Especially of the back stage. The one annoying thing about my seat was that it was on a temporary stand type thing that would sway and move all the time. I spent the whole concert feeling like I was in the middle of a earthquake!
On to the show! I will warn you that my memory is not always up to par so consider this a rough guide as to what happened as I may be missing a few things. What happened at the end of the show sort of blasted away all the things I was telling myself to remember to write in the report!
The concert started with a video clip. Different members of KAT-TUN were doing random stuff in a room like looking in a mirror, sitting in a chair, reading a book. The camera pans the room and zooms in on them as they stop what they are doing and appear to be getting ready to head outside. Room was colored in beige and browns while their outfits were black and leather, It made for a nice contrast and I think there are similar images in the pamphlet. Everyone was looking good!
Then, somehow, they all end up outside on various tall buildings with wings. Not like feather wings, but sheer wings that seems to be made of some kind of tulle. Very nice! They each grow a grey ball in their hands. Then different kanji appear on the grey balls. Sadly, I had trouble seeing what the kanji were. But I think Ueda's may have been love? Kind of love/friendship type words. They then toss their balls one at a time and you see an image that I assume reflects whatever their ball said. I hope that makes sense......
The first song was Birth. I actually lost a bet on this one as I thought they'd start with Lock On. KAT-TUN appeared on the main stage in black super shiny vinyl type outfits with various sparkle and gold accents. The next song was Star Rider. Yay! This is one of the songs I was most looking forward to but was worried they might not sing as it was a B-side. But the B-sides got a lot of love this concert! The stage while the were singing took on a space/starry night type image during the song. They totally rocked it!
Next was Change Ur World followed by Keep the Faith and One Drop. Those where all sort of a blur. Then was the song I was most looking forward to hearing! Lock on! We got to see what I assume is the full PV and on stage, KAT-TUN did the same dance as in the PV. PV is a bit weird. Like the song, but wish the PV was better. Creepy robot in a tank is creepy.
The it was Cosmic Child followed by the first solo of the evening! Taguchi's Finale. This is the first time the solos have been heard by fans, so it was interesting to hear them for the first time in concert. Finale has a sort of techno-jazzy feel to it. The performance was Taguchi dancing. No real special effects other than the fact that the jacket he was wearing could very well have been a mirror.
Next up was Yuichi's solo Step by Step. He appeared in a white suit with 2 other dancers. At the start of the song, he pressed his chest and a small pink heart lit up. He turned on the hearts of the 2 other dancers as well. Then the whole suit lit up and 2 more back dancers appeared. Towards the end of the solo 2 more dancers appeared and all the lights where turned off/down so you could only see the glowing parts of the suits moving.
After step by step were video clips of the guys doing retarded stuff. Udea was getting beat up while boxing in a bear mascot costume. Koki was doing a work out video where the work out involved large white underpants and exercises that included how to pull down said underpants. Taguchi was done up as a fancy samuari and given 2 challenges. The first was to eat a large pudding in a certain amount of time. The second was to complete a large kendama challenge. He failed at both.
After the clips were Ultimate Wheels and Perfect. Then it was MC time. Uh...I sort of don't remember much of the MC. There was something about the rice in Niigata (which is what it's famous for) and something about someone in Yuichi's family being from Niigata? Lot's of teasing and poking fun at each other. They discussed their favorite goods of the tour. Koki like the pouch and Kame like the Tshirt. Yuichi claimed he wanted to see a mousepad good. Kame had his standard MC time towel and water bottle. At the end of the MC, they all came out in different black and white jackets that had different pattern combos of KAT-TUN and the chain smiley face. Made me wish they'd sell a similar style parka. At some point, either right before or after the MC. Yuichi came out wearing a super large pair of glasses.
After the MC was Run For You and then an intro to their band and Yuichi's beatbox! After beatboxing was Koki's solo! The much anticipated Part 3 of Make me Wet. It started with Koki in a sparkly captain hat and uniform with 2 female dancers all dancing with chairs through the intro. The female dancers where dressed as cats. The song itself is pretty lulzy. It has a cat/dog theme so you hear a lot of growls, meows, and 'good boy'ing. At some point during the song, Koki ends up with 4 dancers/juniors? on chain leashes who appear to be his 'dogs'. They break free at some point, but spend the rest of the song dancing with chains hanging from their collars. This was really the only performance where I noticed the use of chains.
Koki was followed by Kame. This time around Kame sings a ballad. Very nice. Some people have said he was crying during it, but I didn't notice. Given his last 2 solos, my expectations were high, but the performance was a bit disappointing. The set had a few small stationary glowing orange balls and a larger back-lit globe. He stood in an ill fitting white shirt with black ribbon/corsage thing and sang. The only thing besides singing that happened during the solo was at the end. As he sunk into the stage and threw a bunch of glitter and it started snowing.
Then it was Ueda's turn. As the snow fell, you could tell something was happening as the music got rougher and the lights started turning all red (thus making the snow appear red). Then a straight up rock beat starts and Ueda appears with a fuzzy/furry guitar and rocks out in English. Yes, all English (well probably more like Engrish, but he tired!). The lyrics don't always make sense, but English lyrics often don't make sense in KT songs. For most of his solo the lights were going crazy, flashing and moving around in reds and blinding whites.
Then it was another new non-solo song. あの日のように. It's okay? I don't really remember it much. Cause after than song the video clips started up again. This time it was Kame and Yuichi's turn! The clips showed Kame's Dracula character from the last concert and Nakamaru's doctor character being interviewed about each other. Ueda makes a guest appearance in Kame's clips and Taguchi in Yuichi's. During the clips, they arrange for Kame to visit the clinic. And then they both appear on stage! There is a cute meeting and Kame then busts out several signed posters as a gift. If you've seen the group poster, they are all in black suits. Every member but Ueda signed the poster in white. Ueda's signature is in black....on a black suit. Teasing followed.
Anyway, the posters were for the crowd. To decide who got the posters, they asked us to play a game. They has a big white chain simley face ball and a big black one too. Half of the audience was the white team and half the black. I was on the black team. They brought the balls to the very back of the venue (where I was!) and we raced to see which side could get the ball to the front first. The white team won so when they drew seats for the poster winners, it was only from the white team side. That made me a little sad.
But I got over it quickly as the next song was NEVER×OVER～｢-｣IS YOUR PART. Another one I've really been wanting to hear live! During the song they had 5 aliens with penlights showing us the proper penlight movements. The audience really sang along during this song and you could tell the guys where having fun with it. Great song!
Then it was Give me, Give me, Give me, LIPS, 喜びのうた, Peacefuldays, and 勇気の花. The encore was Real Face and Going. Towards the end of the concert I started paying attention less as I was feeling nervous about the back stage tour. Right after Going and doing the hold hands We are KAT-TUN thing I practically ran out the door to get to the backstage meeting place on time.
For starters, a ton more people won the backstage tour thing than I thought. About 150 people in total. First we all had to get in line to get our premium tour pass thing, which we got to keep in the end as omiyage! They check everyone's phone for their winning bar code and check the information against ID so to those who are curious, it is not possible to buy one of these passes. You had to win one via the Birth CD code lottery!
No photos allowed during the tour, obviously. And there were staff members stationed about every 3 steps to make sure no one was trying. We all got to go up and walk along the hanamichi and then up onto the main stage. On the main stage they had us stand in the center of the stage and let us experience the spotlight and flame effects from the area where the members usually stand. The flames are insanely hot. You can feel them from the audience, but I never though about what they must be feeling when the flames go off given how much closer they usually are. We then got to go though one of the passageways under the stage to the backstage area. We got to see the space where they change and all of their costumes hanging up. Then, as we exited the stage area, KAT-TUN was there to see us off! I got to shake hands and say thank you to everyone but Yuichi! He actually had to leave before they finished the encore and Kame had to borrow an uchiwa from one of his fans to 'represent' him during the final 'We are KAT-TUN' moment. I was the 8th person in line to shake their hands and it was funny seeing their reactions when they noticed I was foreign. Everyone said thank you in Japanese. Only Kame seemed to be able to overcome his shock and actually said thank you to me in English! Kyaaaaa~ Both him and Ueda are damn pretty up close! And I'd have to say that Koki had the best smile.
EDIT: It has come to my attention via reading other reports that I forgot 2 songs. This is actually not so bad cause I thought I'd forget a lot more. The also sang One Day and Solider at some point during the show!
Didn't have time to make my usual uchiwa and wasn't really feeling motivated as my seat was pretty crappy. But I did do my nails in what I hoped was a theme appropriate matter. They turned out better than I could have hoped!
Traveled via overnight bus from Tokyo to arrive in Niigata at 6:30am on the day of the show. I dropped off my suitcase at my hotel and took a bus from Niigata station to Toki Messe. You can walk, but it is far and has been snowing since I arrived. The bus is only 200yen and very convenient. The goods line wasn't set to open until 11:30am so i was there super early, but Toki Messe is a large convention center type place and was already open when I arrived. So I got to wait in the goods line inside, which was nice. But, even though I was expecting them to open the line early, they didn't let us in until about 10min. after the official 'start' time. While I was waiting, the goods line got super long!
I was in the very first wave of people to enter the goods area. Loving what they had available! My favorites are the bag charm/strap and the pouch. Also, loving Ueda's short hair! I'll put up goods pics and a review of my faves tomorrow.
After buying goods, I took my giant suitcase of stuff back to my hotel via taxi and dropped everything off. At this point I started getting a really bad headache, probably because I didn't sleep well on the overnight bus. So I took some headache medicine and had a quick nap before the concert rather than sharing my goods previews. Sorry! Luckily the headache was gone when I woke up and started getting ready for the show!
I was running a bit behind, but manged to catch a taxi back to the venue with 2 other girls staying at my hotel. One of them managed to paint the concert's signature chain smiley face on her thumb nail. Super impressive! I headed straight to my seat upon arrival and managed to snap a rather crappy pic of the stage.
The large screen in the center say KAT-TUN Chain Tour 2012 with the chain smiley face. Around the screens are large chains fitting with the theme. I was sitting 3rd from the very back row. Even though the seat wasn't very good, the Niigata venue is so small I still felt like I had a pretty good view. Especially of the back stage. The one annoying thing about my seat was that it was on a temporary stand type thing that would sway and move all the time. I spent the whole concert feeling like I was in the middle of a earthquake!
On to the show! I will warn you that my memory is not always up to par so consider this a rough guide as to what happened as I may be missing a few things. What happened at the end of the show sort of blasted away all the things I was telling myself to remember to write in the report!
The concert started with a video clip. Different members of KAT-TUN were doing random stuff in a room like looking in a mirror, sitting in a chair, reading a book. The camera pans the room and zooms in on them as they stop what they are doing and appear to be getting ready to head outside. Room was colored in beige and browns while their outfits were black and leather, It made for a nice contrast and I think there are similar images in the pamphlet. Everyone was looking good!
Then, somehow, they all end up outside on various tall buildings with wings. Not like feather wings, but sheer wings that seems to be made of some kind of tulle. Very nice! They each grow a grey ball in their hands. Then different kanji appear on the grey balls. Sadly, I had trouble seeing what the kanji were. But I think Ueda's may have been love? Kind of love/friendship type words. They then toss their balls one at a time and you see an image that I assume reflects whatever their ball said. I hope that makes sense......
The first song was Birth. I actually lost a bet on this one as I thought they'd start with Lock On. KAT-TUN appeared on the main stage in black super shiny vinyl type outfits with various sparkle and gold accents. The next song was Star Rider. Yay! This is one of the songs I was most looking forward to but was worried they might not sing as it was a B-side. But the B-sides got a lot of love this concert! The stage while the were singing took on a space/starry night type image during the song. They totally rocked it!
Next was Change Ur World followed by Keep the Faith and One Drop. Those where all sort of a blur. Then was the song I was most looking forward to hearing! Lock on! We got to see what I assume is the full PV and on stage, KAT-TUN did the same dance as in the PV. PV is a bit weird. Like the song, but wish the PV was better. Creepy robot in a tank is creepy.
The it was Cosmic Child followed by the first solo of the evening! Taguchi's Finale. This is the first time the solos have been heard by fans, so it was interesting to hear them for the first time in concert. Finale has a sort of techno-jazzy feel to it. The performance was Taguchi dancing. No real special effects other than the fact that the jacket he was wearing could very well have been a mirror.
Next up was Yuichi's solo Step by Step. He appeared in a white suit with 2 other dancers. At the start of the song, he pressed his chest and a small pink heart lit up. He turned on the hearts of the 2 other dancers as well. Then the whole suit lit up and 2 more back dancers appeared. Towards the end of the solo 2 more dancers appeared and all the lights where turned off/down so you could only see the glowing parts of the suits moving.
After step by step were video clips of the guys doing retarded stuff. Udea was getting beat up while boxing in a bear mascot costume. Koki was doing a work out video where the work out involved large white underpants and exercises that included how to pull down said underpants. Taguchi was done up as a fancy samuari and given 2 challenges. The first was to eat a large pudding in a certain amount of time. The second was to complete a large kendama challenge. He failed at both.
After the clips were Ultimate Wheels and Perfect. Then it was MC time. Uh...I sort of don't remember much of the MC. There was something about the rice in Niigata (which is what it's famous for) and something about someone in Yuichi's family being from Niigata? Lot's of teasing and poking fun at each other. They discussed their favorite goods of the tour. Koki like the pouch and Kame like the Tshirt. Yuichi claimed he wanted to see a mousepad good. Kame had his standard MC time towel and water bottle. At the end of the MC, they all came out in different black and white jackets that had different pattern combos of KAT-TUN and the chain smiley face. Made me wish they'd sell a similar style parka. At some point, either right before or after the MC. Yuichi came out wearing a super large pair of glasses.
After the MC was Run For You and then an intro to their band and Yuichi's beatbox! After beatboxing was Koki's solo! The much anticipated Part 3 of Make me Wet. It started with Koki in a sparkly captain hat and uniform with 2 female dancers all dancing with chairs through the intro. The female dancers where dressed as cats. The song itself is pretty lulzy. It has a cat/dog theme so you hear a lot of growls, meows, and 'good boy'ing. At some point during the song, Koki ends up with 4 dancers/juniors? on chain leashes who appear to be his 'dogs'. They break free at some point, but spend the rest of the song dancing with chains hanging from their collars. This was really the only performance where I noticed the use of chains.
Koki was followed by Kame. This time around Kame sings a ballad. Very nice. Some people have said he was crying during it, but I didn't notice. Given his last 2 solos, my expectations were high, but the performance was a bit disappointing. The set had a few small stationary glowing orange balls and a larger back-lit globe. He stood in an ill fitting white shirt with black ribbon/corsage thing and sang. The only thing besides singing that happened during the solo was at the end. As he sunk into the stage and threw a bunch of glitter and it started snowing.
Then it was Ueda's turn. As the snow fell, you could tell something was happening as the music got rougher and the lights started turning all red (thus making the snow appear red). Then a straight up rock beat starts and Ueda appears with a fuzzy/furry guitar and rocks out in English. Yes, all English (well probably more like Engrish, but he tired!). The lyrics don't always make sense, but English lyrics often don't make sense in KT songs. For most of his solo the lights were going crazy, flashing and moving around in reds and blinding whites.
Then it was another new non-solo song. あの日のように. It's okay? I don't really remember it much. Cause after than song the video clips started up again. This time it was Kame and Yuichi's turn! The clips showed Kame's Dracula character from the last concert and Nakamaru's doctor character being interviewed about each other. Ueda makes a guest appearance in Kame's clips and Taguchi in Yuichi's. During the clips, they arrange for Kame to visit the clinic. And then they both appear on stage! There is a cute meeting and Kame then busts out several signed posters as a gift. If you've seen the group poster, they are all in black suits. Every member but Ueda signed the poster in white. Ueda's signature is in black....on a black suit. Teasing followed.
Anyway, the posters were for the crowd. To decide who got the posters, they asked us to play a game. They has a big white chain simley face ball and a big black one too. Half of the audience was the white team and half the black. I was on the black team. They brought the balls to the very back of the venue (where I was!) and we raced to see which side could get the ball to the front first. The white team won so when they drew seats for the poster winners, it was only from the white team side. That made me a little sad.
But I got over it quickly as the next song was NEVER×OVER～｢-｣IS YOUR PART. Another one I've really been wanting to hear live! During the song they had 5 aliens with penlights showing us the proper penlight movements. The audience really sang along during this song and you could tell the guys where having fun with it. Great song!
Then it was Give me, Give me, Give me, LIPS, 喜びのうた, Peacefuldays, and 勇気の花. The encore was Real Face and Going. Towards the end of the concert I started paying attention less as I was feeling nervous about the back stage tour. Right after Going and doing the hold hands We are KAT-TUN thing I practically ran out the door to get to the backstage meeting place on time.
For starters, a ton more people won the backstage tour thing than I thought. About 150 people in total. First we all had to get in line to get our premium tour pass thing, which we got to keep in the end as omiyage! They check everyone's phone for their winning bar code and check the information against ID so to those who are curious, it is not possible to buy one of these passes. You had to win one via the Birth CD code lottery!
No photos allowed during the tour, obviously. And there were staff members stationed about every 3 steps to make sure no one was trying. We all got to go up and walk along the hanamichi and then up onto the main stage. On the main stage they had us stand in the center of the stage and let us experience the spotlight and flame effects from the area where the members usually stand. The flames are insanely hot. You can feel them from the audience, but I never though about what they must be feeling when the flames go off given how much closer they usually are. We then got to go though one of the passageways under the stage to the backstage area. We got to see the space where they change and all of their costumes hanging up. Then, as we exited the stage area, KAT-TUN was there to see us off! I got to shake hands and say thank you to everyone but Yuichi! He actually had to leave before they finished the encore and Kame had to borrow an uchiwa from one of his fans to 'represent' him during the final 'We are KAT-TUN' moment. I was the 8th person in line to shake their hands and it was funny seeing their reactions when they noticed I was foreign. Everyone said thank you in Japanese. Only Kame seemed to be able to overcome his shock and actually said thank you to me in English! Kyaaaaa~ Both him and Ueda are damn pretty up close! And I'd have to say that Koki had the best smile.
EDIT: It has come to my attention via reading other reports that I forgot 2 songs. This is actually not so bad cause I thought I'd forget a lot more. The also sang One Day and Solider at some point during the show!