Break the Records Concert Report (090531, Osaka) - Part 1of2
Laruku and I went to the concert on Sunday the 31st. It was the last concert they were holding in Osaka before heading back to Tokyo. I'm mostly an ABC-Z/Kis-My-Ft2 fan so this report includes them a lot as well. ^^;
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Before I start, I feel it only appropriate to warn you all that I’m not exactly a KAT-TUN fan. I’ve never watched one of their concerts in full and I don’t know too many of their songs outside of the singles they’ve released. The most I had heard of their new Break the Records album were the snippets they were playing outside in the area the goods were being sold.
So now, you’re probably wondering, ‘Then why the hell did you go to the concert?!’ Two reasons, the first being that the tickets were going for relatively cheap. The second and more important reason… I love ABC-Z and Kis-My-Ft2. They were the back-up dancers for this concert, performed 2 of their own songs and even made it into the concert pamphlet… well… sorta. Haha… Anyway. Really wanted to see them again.
That being said, there are times where I have no idea what KAT-TUN were doing cause I was more than a little distracted by the members of EbiKisu. On top of that, the Osaka concerts got the Kansai Jrs., too. I apologize profusely to those of you who wanted but couldn’t go see KAT-TUN while I basically went to see the juniors.
Ok. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, hopefully my report will make a little more sense. ^^;
We went to the last concert at KyoCera Dome this past Sunday. I was really lucky that Laruku is here visiting at the moment cause I was having a hard time finding someone to go with me. Knowing that the seats are basically assigned, we got there maybe 3:30-ish? About 20 minutes before the concert was supposed to start. Wow. The line for goods was pretty long. I had taken orders for goods so I went the day before cause I didn’t want to carry the goods to the concert. Good thing too. The make-up bag was sold out by Saturday afternoon.
Our seats were not bad. 1st level, 28th row. Laruku got the aisle seat. If you’re facing the stage, we were toward the back, a little to the left. Maybe some wouldn’t see these as good seats, but it made it really easy to see all 3 stages at once, which is something I prefer if I’m only gonna get to see the concert once.
When we walked into the stadium, the first thing you notice are these large, planet-like globes hanging from the ceiling. I was glad we’d skimmed the pamphlet the night before or else I wouldn’t have known that they were the 6 elements, one for each member. I probably would’ve made some comment on how the planets don’t look like that. ^^;
There were three stages: the main stage, the middle stage, and the back stage. There was one path connecting the main to the middle stage and two going along the sides to connect the main and back stages. I was a little confused because usually there’s also a path to connect the middle to back. Found out why later.
I’d try to describe the main stage more, but I’ve tried and failed several times so far, so here. Have a picture. (and yes, I know. I wasn’t supposed to take one. ^^;)
**sorry. Will post the picture later**
The Opening VTR was pretty cute. All the members had little chibi animated versions of themselves and got onto a shuttle headed out for space. There was talking involved, but the screaming around me was too loud for me to hear clearly. Sorry.
The opening song, as many of you already know, was RESCUE. The members appeared from the top of the stage and came down one of those things that painters and window washers use (scaffolding?). They were wearing black and white outfits (none of that ridiculous plastic and feathers… thank god). The overall visual theme (surprise, surprise) was fire. I was really excited that they started with this song ‘cause it’s one of my favorite songs from them. They stayed on the main stage throughout the whole song. EbiKisu came out to back dance. ^-^ I forgot, unfortunately who danced for who’s solo part, but Senga was the ‘girl’ to go through Nakamaru’s legs and do the body role. They didn’t change any of the solo dance sequence choreography… it’s just that EbiKisu did it… not girls. I was incredibly amused. Haha…
Oh…. Wait. I think this is where the wall of chibi’s came out. That backdrop? It’s geometrical because it’s like a grid… with a chibi junior in everyone. In red. It was quite creepy. … I shouldn’t call it creepy. Maybe… overwhelming? It was like Kame’s Someday for Somebody, but red and dramatic and the entire width of the stage. (music+wall of chibiko juniors = cult) ^^; Kinda scary. Actually. In one of the other songs, they only lit certain parts of the grid to spell out ‘KATTUN’. That was kinda neat and a lot less scary.
They continued straight into One Drop and we found out why there was no path connecting the center and back stages. The main stage moves so for parts like this, I will refer to it as the ‘moving stage’ instead of the ‘main stage’. Think Arashi’s clear stage, but a horizontal ‘I’ instead of the rectangle. EbiKisu remained on the main stage (ABC on the upper level, Kisumai on the lower) while the moving stage brought the KAT-TUN members to the back stage. By the way… The middle stage and the path to it have water effects. Think… hmm… NEWS’s Pacific Concert. It was really pretty with the lighting and the backdrop of can be used as one large screen. Lots of water imagery. Very pretty.
The following songs came in a sorta medley form so the full songs weren’t performed. LIPS was first and I don’t know what KAT-TUN did, but Kisumai came out on their skates. ^-^
By the way? I was overall very happy with their singing at this concert. KAT-TUN doesn’t have a reputation for being able to sing well and on pitch together, but they did a really good job. I’ve never heard a more on pitch Yorokobi no Uta before and that’s always made me cry cause I love the song (Ueda looks so good in the PV! >.<) But yeah. The fact that they’re getting better at singing was clear when they got to this song.
At some point within these songs, there were 4 on the back stage and 2 (obviously Kame and Jin. Kame was infront of us) in the cranes one either side. There was seaweed like vines hanging from the cranes and I didn’t understand why, but whatever. That back stage was freaking awesome. It’s round right? It splits into 4 quarters, rises (sometimes to different heights), and rotates.
Keep the Faith and Don’t U Ever Stop were next. I don’t remember anything in particular besides Laruku and I looking at each other saying, “Holy crap we’re screwed for the second half of this concert.” We’re both really bad at listing to the actual albums, so for them to perform practically all their singles within the first half hour of the concert was very worrisome. (-_- ;)
In one of the other songs, I think, they got onto 2 carts that go around the stage.
Oh god. And then they started to perform White X-mas and we were like, ‘we’re definitely screwed.’ They started the song on the main stage (the moving stage at some point went back to the main), and then walked to the middle stage. They turned off most of the lights and the backdrop image was of these greenish-yellow star-like lights… kinda looked like the penlights. Koki added a rap at the middle of the song and it was really smooth and had a nice flow to it. I want it. Haha… They should have done that for the CD version. While they were on the middle stage, these arches (6 of them) were pulled up to form a dome over them. Nice effect, I guess, but a little unnecessary and I think they were having issues cause the arches were a little jerky in movement.
Sadistic Love. The first song of the concert I’d never heard before. It was nice. They were on these iron gate-like podiums that were turned depending on who was singing. Kisumai were the backup dancers and also helped to turn the podiums. On the upper screens there were lots of images of metal chains and the lighting had a kinda bleak feeling to it (white-ish blues?)
Not sure when, but ‘Kame’ was all of a sudden in this cage raised high above the audience. I say Kame in quotation marks cause the only reason we think it’s Kame is because they showed him on the VTR screens. The guy in the cage tries to escape and is clinging to the edge, legs dangling. He looses his grip and free falls into the audience. All the lights were out except for the red-ish spotlight on the cage, so it’s like the guy disappears right before hitting the audience.
1582 starts and Kame’s suddenly on the top of the backdrop, dressed as a geisha with a hanya mask (see why I don’t think it was really him in the cage?). Akito, Hama-chan, Dai-chan, and Junta were up there with him, dressed in outfits with a similar traditional Japanese feel to them. Akito was holding Kame’s umbrella (^.^). It was all very pretty, but I honestly couldn’t stop laughing at first cause the lipstick and whole slutty geisha thing looks REALLY good on Kame.
They all came down and moved to the center stage. There were scrolls of white paper and flying involved. I can’t stop saying how pretty this whole thing was. I want to see it again so badly. There was a break in the song and Koki came out to play a large taiko and the song continued as Kame (wearing a white kimono now) took out the pretty hair pin (seriously makes an awesome slutty geisha).
He was in the center of the middle stage with an umbrella and then was suddenly using the umbrella as a platform being pushed up by a stream of water. It seriously looked like he was standing on a pillar of water as he sang.
Streams of water shot out across the circle to the other side forming short arches creating a really nice effect. Then the water shot up vertically around the middle stage and he danced in and out getting completely soaked. He came out in the front and some of the members of EbiKisu threw buckets of water at him. I hadn’t even realized that the white kimono became a red-designed kimono until it turned back white with the buckets of water. So basically, water fountain = cold water. EbiKisu = hot water. Kame danced through the fountain water again and then at the end of the song, got 6 buckets of hot water tossed at him.
I really liked this song. Listening to it later, I don’t know how he got from the song to the performance he put together, but wow. I highly appreciate.
Pierrot was next with Kisumai as backup dancers. He got onto a motorcycle and rode it on the path to the back of the arena where this metal spherical cage was waiting for him. Another guy on a motorcycle got in with him and rode along all the interior of the cage while Koki sat on his bike on the bottom. He then rode the bike to the large cart (can I start calling them parade floats?) where Kitayama, Fujigaya and Ishigaki were waiting for him. Mitsu and Taipi sang the rest of the song with Koki and at the end, Junno (in a light blue, sparkly suit) popped up.
Junno and Koki hug and Junno tries to get Koki to sing a duet with him. Koki sings a little, but then leaves Junno to perform WIND. Ishigaki played the keyboard while Junno sang and dance. ABC-Z (in the blue Star Seeker outfits) danced on the back stage. WIND is a pretty nice song. Aside from Samurai Love Attack, I tend t like Junno’s solos a lot. He did this tap dance thing on the float before going to join ABC-Z on the back stage, at which time ABC-Z did that awesome toss where Hasshi does a back flip while the rest of them toss Tsuka-chan over his head. I never get tired of seeing it. ^___^
Next was the Kansai Jr Corner. I’m really glad I was at the Osaka Concerts. The Kansai Jrs were supposed to have their Ume (pronounced ‘yume’) concert last weekend, but it got postponed due to the whole swine flu thing. Hey!Say!7 West performed Dial Up!, BOYS (Hama-chan and Dai-chan in the red, black and gold outfits) performed Stay Gold, and the BAD (I’m trying to remember if it was the purple or orange outfits… leaning towards orange) performed Kowaresou. Laruku’s never seen the Kansai Jrs before but I looked at her and was like, “Now that is talent”. I know that some of you reading this don’t pay attention to the juniors, especially not the Kansai Jrs, but those guys are really GOOD.
After that, Nakamaru came out to do his beat boxing thing. I love Nakamaru. He and Ueda are by far my favorite members of KAT-TUN. It was a little short for my liking, but he’s gotten better. Very enjoyable.
Peak was never a song that I really listened to before and sorry, but all I remember is that they members of KAT-TUN came out on these metal cubes made from poles that were lit up with different color Christmas tree lights (I saw it and thought of ABC’s performance of Attraction if that helps). Each member had their own cube, some hanging off of it a lot (like Kame) and others sitting at the top, holding on for dear life (like Nakamaru. Poor guy).
I don’t think I’ve hear Jumpin’ Up before, but the most memorable thing was that Jin screwed up the lyrics. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed (I’m sure you guys would’ve), but when he realized it, he let out a frustrated, “Argh”. I laughed cause it’s the same sound he made when he couldn’t get the solo dance part right in the making of the RESCUE PV. I personally like little screw-ups like that during concerts cause they’re highly amusing and proves that they’re doing this live. Nice try Jin.
I was singing along very loudly to No Matter Matter and Laruku gave me this look like, “Why the hell do you know this song?” Simple. In the NEWS/KAT-TUN Summary concert in 2004, in the middle of the NEWS song, KAT-TUN came out in those white outfits and sang No Matter Matter, wagging their butts at the audience (and then Ya-Ya-Yah sang HARUNATSUAKIFUYU… Shoon… Taiyou… T^T) Anyway. Really like this song, although Kame has a tendency to rush the tempo. They were making their way back to the main stage, so you could kinda tell that the MC was next.
Click for part 2*
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Before I start, I feel it only appropriate to warn you all that I’m not exactly a KAT-TUN fan. I’ve never watched one of their concerts in full and I don’t know too many of their songs outside of the singles they’ve released. The most I had heard of their new Break the Records album were the snippets they were playing outside in the area the goods were being sold.
So now, you’re probably wondering, ‘Then why the hell did you go to the concert?!’ Two reasons, the first being that the tickets were going for relatively cheap. The second and more important reason… I love ABC-Z and Kis-My-Ft2. They were the back-up dancers for this concert, performed 2 of their own songs and even made it into the concert pamphlet… well… sorta. Haha… Anyway. Really wanted to see them again.
That being said, there are times where I have no idea what KAT-TUN were doing cause I was more than a little distracted by the members of EbiKisu. On top of that, the Osaka concerts got the Kansai Jrs., too. I apologize profusely to those of you who wanted but couldn’t go see KAT-TUN while I basically went to see the juniors.
Ok. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, hopefully my report will make a little more sense. ^^;
We went to the last concert at KyoCera Dome this past Sunday. I was really lucky that Laruku is here visiting at the moment cause I was having a hard time finding someone to go with me. Knowing that the seats are basically assigned, we got there maybe 3:30-ish? About 20 minutes before the concert was supposed to start. Wow. The line for goods was pretty long. I had taken orders for goods so I went the day before cause I didn’t want to carry the goods to the concert. Good thing too. The make-up bag was sold out by Saturday afternoon.
Our seats were not bad. 1st level, 28th row. Laruku got the aisle seat. If you’re facing the stage, we were toward the back, a little to the left. Maybe some wouldn’t see these as good seats, but it made it really easy to see all 3 stages at once, which is something I prefer if I’m only gonna get to see the concert once.
When we walked into the stadium, the first thing you notice are these large, planet-like globes hanging from the ceiling. I was glad we’d skimmed the pamphlet the night before or else I wouldn’t have known that they were the 6 elements, one for each member. I probably would’ve made some comment on how the planets don’t look like that. ^^;
There were three stages: the main stage, the middle stage, and the back stage. There was one path connecting the main to the middle stage and two going along the sides to connect the main and back stages. I was a little confused because usually there’s also a path to connect the middle to back. Found out why later.
I’d try to describe the main stage more, but I’ve tried and failed several times so far, so here. Have a picture. (and yes, I know. I wasn’t supposed to take one. ^^;)
**sorry. Will post the picture later**
The Opening VTR was pretty cute. All the members had little chibi animated versions of themselves and got onto a shuttle headed out for space. There was talking involved, but the screaming around me was too loud for me to hear clearly. Sorry.
The opening song, as many of you already know, was RESCUE. The members appeared from the top of the stage and came down one of those things that painters and window washers use (scaffolding?). They were wearing black and white outfits (none of that ridiculous plastic and feathers… thank god). The overall visual theme (surprise, surprise) was fire. I was really excited that they started with this song ‘cause it’s one of my favorite songs from them. They stayed on the main stage throughout the whole song. EbiKisu came out to back dance. ^-^ I forgot, unfortunately who danced for who’s solo part, but Senga was the ‘girl’ to go through Nakamaru’s legs and do the body role. They didn’t change any of the solo dance sequence choreography… it’s just that EbiKisu did it… not girls. I was incredibly amused. Haha…
Oh…. Wait. I think this is where the wall of chibi’s came out. That backdrop? It’s geometrical because it’s like a grid… with a chibi junior in everyone. In red. It was quite creepy. … I shouldn’t call it creepy. Maybe… overwhelming? It was like Kame’s Someday for Somebody, but red and dramatic and the entire width of the stage. (music+wall of chibiko juniors = cult) ^^; Kinda scary. Actually. In one of the other songs, they only lit certain parts of the grid to spell out ‘KATTUN’. That was kinda neat and a lot less scary.
They continued straight into One Drop and we found out why there was no path connecting the center and back stages. The main stage moves so for parts like this, I will refer to it as the ‘moving stage’ instead of the ‘main stage’. Think Arashi’s clear stage, but a horizontal ‘I’ instead of the rectangle. EbiKisu remained on the main stage (ABC on the upper level, Kisumai on the lower) while the moving stage brought the KAT-TUN members to the back stage. By the way… The middle stage and the path to it have water effects. Think… hmm… NEWS’s Pacific Concert. It was really pretty with the lighting and the backdrop of can be used as one large screen. Lots of water imagery. Very pretty.
The following songs came in a sorta medley form so the full songs weren’t performed. LIPS was first and I don’t know what KAT-TUN did, but Kisumai came out on their skates. ^-^
By the way? I was overall very happy with their singing at this concert. KAT-TUN doesn’t have a reputation for being able to sing well and on pitch together, but they did a really good job. I’ve never heard a more on pitch Yorokobi no Uta before and that’s always made me cry cause I love the song (Ueda looks so good in the PV! >.<) But yeah. The fact that they’re getting better at singing was clear when they got to this song.
At some point within these songs, there were 4 on the back stage and 2 (obviously Kame and Jin. Kame was infront of us) in the cranes one either side. There was seaweed like vines hanging from the cranes and I didn’t understand why, but whatever. That back stage was freaking awesome. It’s round right? It splits into 4 quarters, rises (sometimes to different heights), and rotates.
Keep the Faith and Don’t U Ever Stop were next. I don’t remember anything in particular besides Laruku and I looking at each other saying, “Holy crap we’re screwed for the second half of this concert.” We’re both really bad at listing to the actual albums, so for them to perform practically all their singles within the first half hour of the concert was very worrisome. (-_- ;)
In one of the other songs, I think, they got onto 2 carts that go around the stage.
Oh god. And then they started to perform White X-mas and we were like, ‘we’re definitely screwed.’ They started the song on the main stage (the moving stage at some point went back to the main), and then walked to the middle stage. They turned off most of the lights and the backdrop image was of these greenish-yellow star-like lights… kinda looked like the penlights. Koki added a rap at the middle of the song and it was really smooth and had a nice flow to it. I want it. Haha… They should have done that for the CD version. While they were on the middle stage, these arches (6 of them) were pulled up to form a dome over them. Nice effect, I guess, but a little unnecessary and I think they were having issues cause the arches were a little jerky in movement.
Sadistic Love. The first song of the concert I’d never heard before. It was nice. They were on these iron gate-like podiums that were turned depending on who was singing. Kisumai were the backup dancers and also helped to turn the podiums. On the upper screens there were lots of images of metal chains and the lighting had a kinda bleak feeling to it (white-ish blues?)
Not sure when, but ‘Kame’ was all of a sudden in this cage raised high above the audience. I say Kame in quotation marks cause the only reason we think it’s Kame is because they showed him on the VTR screens. The guy in the cage tries to escape and is clinging to the edge, legs dangling. He looses his grip and free falls into the audience. All the lights were out except for the red-ish spotlight on the cage, so it’s like the guy disappears right before hitting the audience.
1582 starts and Kame’s suddenly on the top of the backdrop, dressed as a geisha with a hanya mask (see why I don’t think it was really him in the cage?). Akito, Hama-chan, Dai-chan, and Junta were up there with him, dressed in outfits with a similar traditional Japanese feel to them. Akito was holding Kame’s umbrella (^.^). It was all very pretty, but I honestly couldn’t stop laughing at first cause the lipstick and whole slutty geisha thing looks REALLY good on Kame.
They all came down and moved to the center stage. There were scrolls of white paper and flying involved. I can’t stop saying how pretty this whole thing was. I want to see it again so badly. There was a break in the song and Koki came out to play a large taiko and the song continued as Kame (wearing a white kimono now) took out the pretty hair pin (seriously makes an awesome slutty geisha).
He was in the center of the middle stage with an umbrella and then was suddenly using the umbrella as a platform being pushed up by a stream of water. It seriously looked like he was standing on a pillar of water as he sang.
Streams of water shot out across the circle to the other side forming short arches creating a really nice effect. Then the water shot up vertically around the middle stage and he danced in and out getting completely soaked. He came out in the front and some of the members of EbiKisu threw buckets of water at him. I hadn’t even realized that the white kimono became a red-designed kimono until it turned back white with the buckets of water. So basically, water fountain = cold water. EbiKisu = hot water. Kame danced through the fountain water again and then at the end of the song, got 6 buckets of hot water tossed at him.
I really liked this song. Listening to it later, I don’t know how he got from the song to the performance he put together, but wow. I highly appreciate.
Pierrot was next with Kisumai as backup dancers. He got onto a motorcycle and rode it on the path to the back of the arena where this metal spherical cage was waiting for him. Another guy on a motorcycle got in with him and rode along all the interior of the cage while Koki sat on his bike on the bottom. He then rode the bike to the large cart (can I start calling them parade floats?) where Kitayama, Fujigaya and Ishigaki were waiting for him. Mitsu and Taipi sang the rest of the song with Koki and at the end, Junno (in a light blue, sparkly suit) popped up.
Junno and Koki hug and Junno tries to get Koki to sing a duet with him. Koki sings a little, but then leaves Junno to perform WIND. Ishigaki played the keyboard while Junno sang and dance. ABC-Z (in the blue Star Seeker outfits) danced on the back stage. WIND is a pretty nice song. Aside from Samurai Love Attack, I tend t like Junno’s solos a lot. He did this tap dance thing on the float before going to join ABC-Z on the back stage, at which time ABC-Z did that awesome toss where Hasshi does a back flip while the rest of them toss Tsuka-chan over his head. I never get tired of seeing it. ^___^
Next was the Kansai Jr Corner. I’m really glad I was at the Osaka Concerts. The Kansai Jrs were supposed to have their Ume (pronounced ‘yume’) concert last weekend, but it got postponed due to the whole swine flu thing. Hey!Say!7 West performed Dial Up!, BOYS (Hama-chan and Dai-chan in the red, black and gold outfits) performed Stay Gold, and the BAD (I’m trying to remember if it was the purple or orange outfits… leaning towards orange) performed Kowaresou. Laruku’s never seen the Kansai Jrs before but I looked at her and was like, “Now that is talent”. I know that some of you reading this don’t pay attention to the juniors, especially not the Kansai Jrs, but those guys are really GOOD.
After that, Nakamaru came out to do his beat boxing thing. I love Nakamaru. He and Ueda are by far my favorite members of KAT-TUN. It was a little short for my liking, but he’s gotten better. Very enjoyable.
Peak was never a song that I really listened to before and sorry, but all I remember is that they members of KAT-TUN came out on these metal cubes made from poles that were lit up with different color Christmas tree lights (I saw it and thought of ABC’s performance of Attraction if that helps). Each member had their own cube, some hanging off of it a lot (like Kame) and others sitting at the top, holding on for dear life (like Nakamaru. Poor guy).
I don’t think I’ve hear Jumpin’ Up before, but the most memorable thing was that Jin screwed up the lyrics. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed (I’m sure you guys would’ve), but when he realized it, he let out a frustrated, “Argh”. I laughed cause it’s the same sound he made when he couldn’t get the solo dance part right in the making of the RESCUE PV. I personally like little screw-ups like that during concerts cause they’re highly amusing and proves that they’re doing this live. Nice try Jin.
I was singing along very loudly to No Matter Matter and Laruku gave me this look like, “Why the hell do you know this song?” Simple. In the NEWS/KAT-TUN Summary concert in 2004, in the middle of the NEWS song, KAT-TUN came out in those white outfits and sang No Matter Matter, wagging their butts at the audience (and then Ya-Ya-Yah sang HARUNATSUAKIFUYU… Shoon… Taiyou… T^T) Anyway. Really like this song, although Kame has a tendency to rush the tempo. They were making their way back to the main stage, so you could kinda tell that the MC was next.
Click for part 2*