NEWS WHITE TOUR REPORT [Sapporo 3/28-29, Sendai 4/5]
NEWS
☆☆ 2015 WHITE Tour ☆☆
Earlier this year, Shige and Koyama told a story that punched me right in the part of my brain where happiness comes from. In the time after Ryo and Yamapi left the group, the four remaining members of NEWS were essentially told they were a lost cause and no one would pay to see them. "You're a shortcake without the strawberries," many people said.
So when NEWS's tour was announced, I made this:
Because fuck that. They are delightful strawberries.
I've loved NEWS for eight years, and their music is thoroughly interwoven into many of my university memories: watching 星をめざして for the first time thinking Tegoshi was Shige, riding my bike through the park listening to SUMMER TIME, waking up to weeeek for two years, etc. If they had been disbanded when Yamapi and Ryo left, I would have been heartbroken. Even through all the hiatuses and the member drama, they've never been anything but a source of pure, uncomplicated happiness for me. I adore those fucking strawberries, all of them.
And for some reason, I never worried about their future. When I heard Yamapi and Ryo had left, I thought, I'll miss them, but I wasn't worried about the future of the remaining four because from my perspective it was clear they were still loved even without Yamapi and Ryo. I never thought for a second that they wouldn't come back.
So when I heard Shige say the thing about the strawberries, I was stunned to learn that there was a real chance that they might have been disbanded.
And damn, to say something like that to Koyama of all people. I feel confident in saying I doubt anyone in the history of existence has loved anything as much as Koyama loves NEWS. And so for someone to go, "Yeeeah you four are only appealing as backup dancers for Yamapi and Ryo"?
SO I MADE A CAKE ON A STICK TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.
Yeah. Take that. You make Koyashige cry, I make cakes on sticks.
...And now onto the report! :D
So I went to Sendai and Sapporo. Because tickets for this tour were insanely difficult to get. Which I am DELIGHTED about because it means they're gaining in popularity, which they have seriously earned. In spades. Some people didn't even hit for Tokyo Dome. And there are two concerts there. HOW'S THAT FOR STRAWBERRIES.
And these strawberries have excellent goods this time around. Shige's obvious contribution made me especially happy: a notebook with black pages and a white pencil. Cos the tour is WHITE. Geddit. Dya geddit.
I opted against buying the towel because...it's white. It's a white towel. With the name of the tour. In white. So I followed the suggestion of a new friend and brought my hotel's towel to the venue instead. Ha.
The T-shirt is surprisingly big! It looks very narrow in photos but my chest and I were delighted at how baggy it felt once I had it on. Thank you, NEWS. I still want rhinestones as an option on T-shirts, though. C'mon. FULFILL MY SPARKLING DREAM, GOODS DEPARTMENT. AND STOP GIVING ONLY MASSU THE PAJAMA-SIZED SHIRTS. THOSE LOOK COMFY AS HELL AND I WANT THEM.
1 MR. WHITE
Right off the bat, this tour feels different from NEWS's typical style. For one thing, they've got a kind of story going on. The VTR is a continuation of their Mr. White mini movie that came with the KAGUYA single.
The camera pans through all four members and we're told the evil organization is being evil but NEWS will save us.
MR. WHITE starts with NEWS at the top of the stage in mist and whatnot and it looks awesome. Catchy singing, crisp dancing, very good opening number.
2 ONE -for the win-
This was a pretty good representation of how this tour differed from the last two. They sang the song as normal, then the stage goes dark toward the end of the song and Massu leads into Tegoshi belting, "WE'LL BE OOOOOOOOOOOONE" and as he finishes his note and winks, rushing offstage, the note continues, carried electronically as, on the VTR, country names fly by like you're soaring through space.
Then, after a good ten seconds, the four of them shoot up from trap doors in the stage. There's dead silence for a moment, all of them all Serious. Then they snap their heads to one side to a WHOOSH Sound Effect and then slowwwwly turn their heads to the other side. Another sound effect, moving of the legs, more elaborate dancing, and then back into the song. Tough to describe, but very cool.
Hmm, maybe it's clearer to explain it like this: when they burst out from the stage some of us laughed because they were so solemn but by the end of their dance we were like, "Oooh."
3 フルスイング
4 NYARO
This is always the cat song to me. Forever. Summer cat song.
They wanted us to do this pointing thing for the song but I rebelled and made cat paw instead because fuck you, NEWS, I will decide my own path in life, and I say NYARO is a song about a cat in summer bucking the furitsuke system.
5 weeeek
Amazing. Always amazing. This is my favorite NEWS song forever. Nothing tops it. NOTHIIIING. ♡
6 バタフライ
7 恋祭り
Towel song! During the second Sendai show, I had a great seat in the back facing the stage. For this song, the four of them had carts rolled to the back facing my section. At every concert I switched between two uchiwa held back-to-back: my shortcake that I made, and Shige's head on a stick. Whenever Shige was on his own near my section I had his head on display, and whenever the four of them were nearby, I switched to the shortcake.
So there I was, bouncing up and down with my shortcake on a stick, flinging my hotel towel aloft (I refuse to buy a plain white towel from you, NEWS, I don't care how cute you are) when Shige saw it. He paused between jumps to look at it closer, then he got a little misty eyed and looked up at me, pointing to it with a little nod.
That's right, you brilliant little strawberry. ♡
I love this song. The best things happen during this song. :D
8 恋のABO
9 ロメオ 2015
KOYAMA HAS A GREAT BODY.
10 ESCORT
...So yes, Koyama dances without a shirt on, just an open suit jacket, and then he takes the jacket off at the end. Koyama has a great body, and then he leaves the stage. ...He sang, too.
And as Koyama of the Great Body leaves the stage, who holds the door for him as he departs but
SHIGE THE BELLBOY.
This solo is amazing for three very key reasons:
1) Shige is a bellboy.
2) Shige is singing in English.
3) Shige is a fucking bellboy.
Seriously, he's got a blue suit and a little cap and I nearly died from how hard it was not to laugh. Especially the part where the Juniors pushed him up a ramp on a luggage cart.
Just...thank you, NEWS. You're so good to me. ♡
11 KAGUYA
THIS SONG. Just...damn. I love this song ridiculously. Weeeek will always be my favorite PV but KAGUYA is firmly in second. The colors, the costumes, the song. I love this song insanely, so I was looking forward to the stage version a lot.
They built up to it in a unique way, too.
They had the Juniors with black salaryman umbrellas doing a dance and the first time I saw a concert I thought they were leading up to BYAKUYA but then the red paper umbrellas came out and I was all "Whoaaa" at the transition from modern umbrella to traditional. Very cool move.
And then the rest of the song was as you'd see in the PV, which was awesome as expected.
12 チャンカパーナ
Not much to say. チャンカパーナ is チャンカパーナ. I spend most of this song trying to remember how the furitsuke goes, to be honest. XD
13 WORLD QUEST [R-midwest Remix]
I had no idea this song had a remix! At the first Sapporo concert, I turned to one of my new friends and went, "THIS IS AWESOME," and she blinked back at me. "This is on the CD."
So I will be getting that version of the single because this was a glorious remix of an amazing song. I love NEWS's soccer songs so much. ♡
14 さくらガール
15 Weather NEWS
-MC-
I didn't take notes or anything for the MCs and I'm writing this somewhat after the fact so! Here's a jumble of things they discussed:
Sendai was my favorite MC so far because Shige was amazing in it. They were all discussing the moment they realized they'd become adults. Koyama said something about the first time he had eggplant, I don't remember if/what TegoMass said, because Shige's answer killed me.
He said it was the sounds of his apartment, and the other three were like "..." and just kind of looking at him in a mixture of confusion and expectation. Shige then proceeded to go through various appliances in his apartment, making sound effects for each one. So he'd go, "My refrigerator goes MMMMM and my washing machine goes FUSHUFUSHUFUSHU. And if I get hungry I'll go the convenience store and buy some ramen. Then I'll bring it back up to my apartment and boil some water on the stove. And the stove goes KEKEKEKEKE, that popping noise while it's starting up, you know-" Around this point Massu or Koyama interrupted with, "Exactly how many noises are you going to be making in this jolly story, dude?" but Shige blithely continued his story of hermit life.
What it boiled down to was, "I realized I'd become an adult when I realized I was lonely." Which is the broody way of saying, "When I moved out of my family's house and started living on my own."
It was such a dramatically stark depiction of his life, I was deeply amused. Especially when I heard a girl nearby telling her friend, "Poor thing! I'd cook for him!"
Kato Shigeaki, you clever little so-and-so.
Oh wait, but my favorite part was this:
This was also Sendai. They talked briefly about how Koyama's birthday will be on one of the Osaka con days, so they told Koyama to take a practice run around the ramps. Koyama was like, "Nooo fuck you guys," but they were like, "NOPE TIME FOR RUNNING AAAAND GO." So Koyama set off jogging while Tegoshi sang to cheer him on. The best part of this is that the other members were calling out people for Tegoshi to imitate and Tegoshi was incredible.
Someone shouted "SUBARU" at some point and Tegoshi flawlessly lifted his entire voice into his nose and he sounded exactly like Subaru, it was so creepy. The audience cracked up and my jaw just dropped. Tegoshi's skill in singing is not a thing to be fucked with. Bravo, you adorable little sociopath. ♡
Ah! And kind of shockingly, Tegoshi mentioned Ryo!
Maybe it's not that shocking. I honestly don't think the four of them hold any ill will toward Ryo since it was always inevitable he'd leave, but I can't remember anyone referring to him by name in the last few years.
It was a pretty casual mention, too. They were talking about hair colors, since at the moment they've each got a different shade going: Massu's red, Tegoshi's blond, Koyama's brown, aaaand Shige's black.
So Tegoshi goes, "Shige you're so damn boring you never change your hair color."
Shige said, "That's not true, I've dyed it blond."
Tegoshi brushed that off and said, "Yeah, but most of the time it's just black. You and Ryo almost never dye your hair."
So yeah, it was a very casual reference, but I was still surprised he did it. And a little happy. I think Ryo sometimes misses being in NEWS, and he was always very fond of Tegoshi, so I'm glad there seems to be no bad blood there.
On the other hand, while I do like Yamapi, I'd completely understand if NEWS ignored his existence for a few more years.
Ah! I haven't mentioned Sapporo much! It's farther back in my memory.
One cute thing was Koyama startling and realizing that behind them, there were four screens with each individual member on film at all times. So Koyama went over to Tegoshi and the cameraman had to follow him, leading to an overlap on Tegoshi's screen and Koyama's.
Aaaand that's all I can recall for now. If I remember anything else I'll come back and edit it. :D
16 勿忘草
THIS SONG. SHIGE SINGS SO WELL IN IT BY SHIGE STANDARDS. When I first heard this on the single, I didn't recognize him. I thought, "Who is that? It's not Massu, because Massu just sang. Is it Koyama? No, that's Koyama. And now this is Tegos-NO FUCKING WAY." But indeed, Shige sang this incredibly well! Just, damn, Kato. TAKE VOCAL TRAINING LESSONS, I BEG OF YOU. SING, MY ANGEL OF AWKWARD, SING. SING.
So, in Sapporo the first time I saw them perform this song live I was holding my breath all through Massu's part because it's one thing to sound polished on a CD but quite another to sound good live. Then Shige opened his mouth and~! He sounded fine. Not amazing, but he carried the notes in tune and he even managed the swooping note up and I'm very proud. But I will carry him into vocal training myself, mark me.
17 あなた
I love Tegoshi's voice but I'm not especially fond of this solo. I'm not enormously into J&A ballads on the whole, so for both Sapporo concerts I was a little bored and missing his last tour's solo where he had a guitar and a band and was all rock and stuff. This time he just plays piano and sings, and he's very good, but it's not my thing.
That being said, in Sendai something magical happened.
First off, there was a troupe of girls who decided to take a pilgrimage to the bathroom all at the same time as Tegoshi was sitting down to his piano. I wouldn't have noticed, except that they were all wearing heels and were clomping up the steps so loud the sound was echoing off the ceiling.
So I was distracted when I heard Tegoshi say, "Hmm, no sound is coming out of the piano, so I'm going to wing this."
The fans burst into cheers and I blinked back at the stage, half expecting a sing-along strip show.
Instead, Tegoshi leaned into the mic attached to his piano and belted his solo like a pro. I'd been prepared to endure the song mildly bored but I was rapt the whole time. Something about it being acapella made it even more impressive and interesting to listen to. It also made me respect Tegoshi as a performer that much more.
18 Skye Beautiful
MASSU'S SOLOS ARE BEST SOLOS.
This realization crept up on me gradually over the last few years. I just realized at one point that I love Massu's solos the most. Pumpkin, Remedy, the other one, etc. And this one is hands down my favorite.
Also, the VTR has a bird in it with wings all over the place so I was all, "Tsubasa~!" because of course I was.
Massu's solos are amazing.
19 Black Jack-Inter-
Assorted Juniors dance for the intro to BYAKUYA. Sadly, it's not 4U. Man, if I owned Johnny's, 4U would always be the backup dancers. ...No, scratch that. If I owned Johnny's, 4U would debut instantly and I would replace ninety percent of current TV's cooking/travel shows with 4U programming. And then I would make KinKi Kids Kings of TV and give them a show where they get to do literally whatever they want for as long as they want. And then I would give T&T two shows because fuck it, why not. \:D/
20 BYAKUYA
This is my favorite song off the album, so my expectations for this were pretty high and I'm a little disappointed in the execution. I was expecting something more from the choreography, honestly, and the weird grim reaper thing on the huge screens was cool the first time and then quickly became annoying because I wanted to see them, not death.
Also, this is very much my T&T fan side speaking, but I wanted a penlight dance to go with this song because it's like Sayaendo 2.0 only darker and more badass, so I made up my own. That's how T&T has ruined me: I make up my own penlight dances now. Talk about indoctrinated.
21 supersonic
I don't have much to say here except this song is amazing and it's great live and it's so hard not to dance while it's playing.
22 SNOW EXPRESS
So-so on this song. It's pretty old so in Sendai my friend said quietly, "Wow, this one?"
I love that NEWS still sings their older songs despite all the members who've left. Honestly, the music doesn't sound much different without Ryo and Yamapi, and you'd only notice if you knew which verses they sang before.
All in all it's a nice song but I would have preferred something like 星をめざして instead.
23 Winter Moon
24 NEWSニッポン
This had a great lead-in! We played video games with NEWS! :D
Basically NEWS jump into walls and become 2D to fight the big black blob terrorizing...nothing, really.
With Massu, you have to clap on beat, and then he defeats the monster.
With Shige, you have to stomp your feet, and then he defeats the monster.
With Koyama, he tries to chankapaana the monster to death and fails. XD
With Tegoshi, you have to fan your uchiwa, which I didn't do because my shortcake was not designed for strenuous battle.
25 希望 ～Yell～
It was during this song that my friend told me something about Massu that I'd never noticed before.
They were up in the stands for this number, driven around on carts. When the carts stopped, they disembarked and walked down the aisles back to the stage ramps.
All except Massu, that is, who bolted down through the fans with two guards protecting his head.
Koyama, by comparison, walked down casually, touching fans' hands and smiling easily. Even Shige seemed okay with it all.
Massu, it turns out, is not as cool with the grabbiness of fans and I could see why when I watched him the next time. People do yank at him and try their best to touch him as he goes past, and so if you valued your personal bubble I could see that kind of thing being stressful for you. Poor dude. ♡
26 サヤエンドウ
SING THE WHOLE SONG. WHICH GRANDMOTHER OF YOURS DID THIS SONG SLAP.
27 ポコポンペコーリャ
At this point, Koyama said to us, "Will you help us make a concert?"
I blinked, because I had been under the impression that until this point, I had, in fact, been attending such a thing.
What he meant by this is that he wanted us to clap and keep the beat for the next song. So we all clapped to Koyama's rhythm.
In Sendai, he fucked it up. Word had gotten around about this part of the concert so most of us already knew what he wanted us to do. The clapping was pretty much on point, then Koyama started clapping trying to catch up with us and then some fans followed him and he squawked and said, "No, no!" and flailed back because he'd messed us up.
Then they sang about being hungry and it was adorable.
28 4+FAN
Amazing song. I don't remember anything specific, just a lot of dancing. From me.
29 Fighting Man
30 SEVEN COLORS
This is the best song to end on because it's all catchy and jumpy and delighted.
And then at the end of the song at the last con in Sapporo, Koyama came running to the main stage and started tacking -nyaro onto everything. "楽しかったにゃろ？おやすみにゃろ！かわいいにゃろ〜〜〜” It was the cutest thing ever. I hope he keeps this up. XD He did it in Sendai too, iirc.
-ENCORE-
31 White Love Story
This was pretty damn cute. As the concert "ends" and NEWS are lowered under the stage, the VTR shows them all waving to the audience still. As Massu did for weeeek, they each pass a white marker and write one letter on the camera lens. They all wave, Tegoshi blows one last kiss to the audience which makes 93% of his fans shriek as if witnessing cold-blooded murder, and then the camera pans back to reveal the word LOVE as NEWS run away to lands unseen.
The usual clapping goes on. "NEW-ZU NEW-ZU NEW-ZU" and then they return for this lovely new ballad.
So I don't usually like J&A ballads, but the exceptions are always outstanding (does ただ count as a ballad?) and this song is just beautiful harmonizing. Big fan, great song. ♡
32 渚のお姉サマー
33 愛言葉
Ahh, beautiful song. ♡ Very touching.
ENCORE II
34 NYARO
CAT REBEL SONG. ♡
Luckily, I have one more concert left to attend, and that's Tokyo Dome in June.
And with any luck, T&T will announce something of their own soon, too. ♡