[Concert Report] Tegomass no Uta (090722, 14:00 part 2of2)
(._. ;) Like I said... it's long...
They arrived at the middle stage again to sing Chicken Boy. Does anyone else think that song title is odd? Haha…
At the end of the song, it was really cute.
MASSU: Are you having fun?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
MASSU: Are you all enjoying yourselves?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
MASSU: Did you all hear Tegoshi screw up?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
Massu… you’re so nice. Haha… Tegoshi missed his entrance for one of the ‘Arigatou’s and tried to sneak in.
Now, raise your hand if you were worried about the MC portion of the concert. *raises hand* At NEWS concerts, Tegoshi and Massu don’t talk to much and if they do, it’s because Koyama asked them a question. Yeah. I was really worried. They were too. Did you all see them asking Koyama to be at the concerts to MC? Haha…
They started off by talking about how Tegoshi makes a lot of mistakes and he’s like, “Yeah… It’s really terrible. I need to stop doing that.” He said that he makes mistakes a lot during his solos. Massu says that he himself isn’t the mistake making type of person, but when he does make a mistake, he’s just like, “Oh. Ok,” and Tegoshi’s tells him that’s very cool of him. Haha…
Then Massu’s like, “So you’re all probably wondering about the horses…” and Tegoshi’s like, “I’m wondering about the horses too.” Massu tries to say that because it’s Tegomass, and since it’s Tegoshi… and Tegoshi agrees saying that if it had been Yamapi (he calls him ‘Yamashita’) he would have been told that they can’t do that. And then they made fun of KoyaShige and how they would have reacted. Tegoshi says that he was really surprised when Massu one day came up to him and said, “Tegoshi… I definitely think horses would be good.” He initially thought that he meant real horses and in his mind thought that that would be really cool, but then Massu clarified that he meant the carousel horses, and well… haha…
Massu went to the corner of the stage to pick up the concert towel to wipe his face. I don’t know if he just sweats that much more than Tegoshi or if it’s because he just moves and bounces all over the place, but he was sweating a lot while Tegoshi looked totally fine. Haha… but it gave them a new topic to talk about cause they held up the towel. Both of them contributed drawings to the goods (not just Massu, like I had previously believed).
Now, we all know that Tegoshi is not exactly what you would call an artist. He then claims that all those other drawings were done in 30 seconds, but for the concert goods, he took 30 minutes. Massu was like, “You only spent 30 minutes on drawings that were going to appear on our concert goods?” (as if saying, “Wow… 30 whole minutes? That’s it?”) But Tegoshi was like, “but I’m saying that I spent a lot more time than usual on these drawings. I took extra care. *proud*”
Massu said that although Tegoshi’s drawings came out all cute and stuff on the actual goods, that’s not how they originally looked and announces that he has a picture of what he’d seen previously. So on the main stage screen a drawing appears. It’s of 2… bears? Maybe? Anyway. Tegoshi says that he’s on the right and Massu is on the left. “I even drew your pudding hair.” (the ears were colored in) Hahahaha… For those of you who’ve seen the shopping bags, I think the refined versions on it, but the originals really didn’t look too bad.
Massu says that for the next NEWS concert, they should all do drawings for the goods. I highly approve of this idea. Tegoshi said, “Like how you did the happy face for the NEWS concert.” Apparently, Massu didn’t know they were gonna use that drawing until they were shown the goods and even then it took him a while to realize that it was his drawing. Geez… they don’t tell you guys anything yeah? Haha…
They talked a bit about how worried they were for the MC portion since both of them don’t normally talk. They were worried to the point where they asked TONISEN (the older half of V6) for advice. While I think it’s really funny and cute how they asked for help, I don’t know how it came to be that they asked ToniSen. Was surprised. I mean, yeah, they’re all in the same company, but that doesn’t mean that everyone knows everyone else, and I was under the impression that when it came to TOKIO and V6, they don’t really know anyone that came after Arashi. So if someone can answer this for me, by all means.
They kinda started wandering towards the edges of the stage looking for something. They kept saying how there was something that would help them and when it didn’t appear right away, Massu was like, “Ee? Nai!? (It’s not here!?)”
So ToniSen’s idea was to have the members of the band and the staff to write topics for them to talk about on little pieces of paper and put them in a can. Massu holds up the can saying that they were told to write “ToniSen” all over the can, but it somehow became “Tegomass”. Haha…
The first one they pulled out was from the drummer, calling for them to do monomane (impersonations). I know Tegoshi can, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Massu do one. The audience was calling for Tegoshi to do an impersonation of Massu, but he did some monomane of Jin? Maybe I just don’t know KAT-TUN well enough, but I don’t know what it was from. Then he tells Massu to do a monomane of Ryo. The audience died. He first tried to imitate the way Ryo sings (he tried. It was kinda low and raspy?), but then stopped to talk about Ryo and how he’s kinda scary, then claiming that yappari, he can’t do monomane. Haha…
The next one Massu pulled out was from the keyboardist. Haha… He couldn’t read the name at first because part of it was written backwards? It only said, “What part do you like?” They were like, what part of what do we like? And then they started laughing saying that the question was too vague, so then someone in the audience (really loud too) said, “About each other!” I think that if the girl hadn’t been so loud (like seriously, it sounded like she had a mike it was that clear), they would have avoided it and done something else.
Tegoshi says that he likes Massu’s smile and Massu’s like, “Ah, so we’re going to do it that way.” (like, oh, that’s how we’re going to approach this.) So Massu’s like, “I like that Tegoshi kills bugs for me.” Haha… Then he continued to say how during the Tanabata Matsuri PV shooting as he was singing the chorus, there were bugs flying around his legs, and then I guess Tegoshi killed the mosquitos in their dressing room earlier that day (yeah… we got lots of them here in Osaka). Massu seems to talk about bugs a lot recently… last year it was lacking of an AC, this year it’s bugs.
One of the staff asked them to talk about what singer they respected when they were little. Tegoshi couldn’t think of one, but Massu liked B’z a lot. Then, as they were trying to figure out Tegoshi’s, Massu talked about when he first started going to karaoke, he often picked Kinki Kids songs and says that he must have looked up to them a lot. Tegoshi agrees, saying that he’s liked Kinki Kids from before he joined Johnny’s.
They did a pretty good job. There were some pauses, usually cause of Massu (*pats him on the head*), but because they’re so close, they were really comfortable talking to each other. So while they’re not really used to doing MC segments, because they have such a good friendship, it still felt natural and I thought it was really funny. Haha… Yep. No pulling teeth here. *cough* KAT-TUN *cough*
Then they move back to the main stage (hello inflatable walkways) and Massu announces that Tegoshi will be playing the guitar. Laughing a little, Tegoshi’s like, “And what will Massu be playing?” and Massu’s like, “Masuda Takahisa will be playing the tambourine.” Hahahaha…. Oh he’s so cute. Haha… I still die laughing when I think about it, because the look on his face as he said it was so priceless. Haha….
Together with the band, they perform a song called La La Sakura. Tegoshi’s not bad. Wonder if he learned from Pi or Ryo. It was pretty up beat and the VTR screens were bright with images of cherry blossoms. Massu’s really cute dancing around with the tambourine.
They performed What’s Going On? next. I don’t remember anything in particular other than that they stayed on the main stage the whole song.
It went right into Chocolate and it actually took me a little while to figure out that it had changed. The way they performed it, the songs sound really similar up until when they start singing. And oh my god I love them. The VTR was of bars of chocolate and circles of little Apollo Choco (the cone shaped strawberry chocolates). They just make me smile so much. (/ ^_^)/ They did some of the band intros in the middle of the song, but only the drummer, keyboardist, and the trumpet, so I didn’t really understand why.
While still standing on the side-main stages, they sang Highway. They’re so literal with some of their imagery that it makes me laugh a little. The VTR was of a highway/freeway. To me it looked like we started on Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo and then just kept driving… but it might as well have been any suspension bridge in Japan. Haha…
At the end of the song they were still on the main stage, I guess they needed to now be on the middle stage. They both run on the inflatable walkways, but wow is Massu fast. He was already at the middle stage when Tegoshi was only halfway there. I guess he ran that fast cause the dancing started right away. Tegoshi was late. Haha…
I don’t know how many people know Fantastispo. I actually don’t really know why I do. Anyway. It was a disco sounding song that Kokubun Taichi and Domoto Tsuyoshi did together and Tegomass basically did a cover of it. On the main VTR there was an outline of an old fashioned TV screen and they were doing the dancing and everything. I thought it was a little unfair for Tegoshi to have to dance with Massu just because Massu’s style of dancing is more fluid and stands out a little bit more. But it was a cute and fun song. Halfway through the song, they used the horses to move (finally) to the back stage. Tegoshi said that he was having a lot of fun and got a little too excited. So because of that, he accidentally said Domoto Tsuyoshi when he was supposed to say Tegoshi Yuya. Haha… then Massu teases him saying that he was dancing like Tsuyoshi-kun too.
Aiaigasa is such pretty song. The melody is just so soothing… even if the lyrics are a little over the top. Tegoshi made a mistake during the first verse, but we forgive. Haha… They were on the ends of the back stage and each rise up really high on these square platforms (like the ones they were on when they performed Dreams during the Pacific concert) while the PV played on the main VTR.
Still high up on the raised platforms, they started singing Boku Rashiku. I really like the feeling I get when I hear this song. It’s just… so encouraging and the melody is so catchy. Did I mention before that I really liked the Tanabata Matsuri b-side tracks? Yeah. I wasn’t kidding.
Owaranaide was next. I like this song a lot too. ^^; This is where they pulled out the sign boards, 3 each. Massu was trying really hard to get one up to the standing seats at the very back, but it hit the ceiling at an angle and fell… 5 rows in front of me. >.> And at some point, I’m pretty sure in this song, they moved back to the middle stage, probably via the horses. Me thinks Tegoshi should just admit that he likes the horses. Haha…
The last song of the concert was Kimi+Boku=Love. I’ve never actually heard this song before. Heard of it, but never actually heard it. It was cute and upbeat and you could kinda tell that this would be the last song. Staff brought out huge inflated yellow and pink balls to bounce over the audience (like a beach ball) that got popped halfway through the song and all these balloons exploded over the arena seats. On the main stage VTR screen, balloons with the drawing from the t-shirt were floating around, so I can only assume that the balloons being fought over in the arena seats also had the drawings on them.
…
Lucky arena seats.
As they moved back towards the main stage, they were throwing sign balls.
…
Lucky arena seats.
And then, at the end of the song, streamers poured out over the arena seats.
…
Lucky arena seats. *not bitter*
They did the band intros towards the end of the song. Then, after thanking everyone for coming, they asked everyone that whether it be NEWS or Tegomass to please continue to support them. Then, they left the stage through the passages on the main stage and as Massu was trying to get to it, he bumped into the microphone stand and had to bounce around to keep his balance as he turned back to fix it. Haha… The mike was on so it was kinda funny cause he made an ‘oh crap’ face.
As everyone called for an encore, I nearly laughed ‘cause they didn’t even bother pretending like there wasn’t more. At other concerts, they turn on the lights and staff announces that the concert’s done. They didn’t even turn on the lights. There was a mixture of blue and red lights going across the audience.
The first song of the encore was Kataomoi no Chiisana Koi and was really pretty. They (and the band) came out in the concert t-shirts and all across the VTR screen were little pink stars painting hearts on the night sky. It was really pretty.
They stopped to talk a little individually about their vision for this concert and things that they were worried about as they were planning. Since this was their first time doing a concert just the two of them, they were worried about whether people would enjoy themselves, so Massu was like, “Did you have fun? (Tanoshikatta?)” and asked several times cause he said that we weren’t loud enough. Haha…
The last song of the encore, and the entire concert, was KISS ~ Kaeri Michi no Love Song. As cheesy as this song is, I absolutely love it and never get tired of it. I think it’s one of the few songs that I do honestly know by heart. Out of all the singles they came out with as Tegomass, I feel like this one had the biggest impact.
During Massu’s part in the second verse, either he messed up and didn’t come in, or he wanted to see if everyone in the audience was singing. Then after the part in the song where they sing with less background music, Tegoshi asked everyone to sing and the audience sang the rest of the song for them minus the last chorus. I don’t know about you guys, but I love hearing the audience sing for them. And it was really pretty because there are parts where the choruses overlap a little so they would sing a little to help and then there were times where Massu would join in with the harmony so that you could hear both parts. I think Massu was crying (or sweating a lot, but I’m leaning towards crying).
They talked a little bit more, thanking everyone for coming and that they hope that everyone will continue to support them whether it’s as Tegomass or NEWS. They both said that when NEWS first came to Osaka, it was the scariest because lots of comedians and interesting people come from Osaka and they didn’t want the audience to think they were boring. They said there was a heavy pressure. Then Massu says that he would be right in front of some people who have uchiwas to get their attention, but the girls are looking somewhere else (some with binoculars). When he looked up to follow their line of sight, it lead straight to Yamapi. Haha… He was like, “hey… I’m here too!” Poor guy. Haha…
Both of them moved up the stairs to the upper-main stage and as the VTR screen split open to form a path, Massu asked for the audience to be quiet. Shh… “ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA~!” NEWS style without the mikes and everyone just died screaming.
They did a good job closing the concert. Normally, people just keep calling for an encore until staff kicks everyone out, but with the way they did it, we knew that the concert was finished.
This time, it was really just them and the band. No over the top special effects, no Juniors running around, very little dancing… and they themselves said that they were really worried about how it would be received, but I’m really glad they decided to do it this way.
It’s good for them to express themselves differently from when they’re with NEWS because Tegomass’s music is different from NEWS. It’s funny… I thought they would perform at least one NEWS song (and from what I overheard from other people, they thought so too), but they didn’t. They talked about NEWS constantly throughout the concert though. There was a definite fondness in their voices as they did it too. There was no… hmm… feeling of trying to prove themselves? There was no sense of competition, like ‘look what we can do without you guys’ kind of feeling. NEWS is very much a part of them and they acknowledge that. Like they say all the time… NEWS concerts are fun, but they wanted to make a different kind of fun for this concert.
I think their focus is different depending on who they’re with. When I saw them sing Aiaigasa at the Winter Party Diamond concert at Kyocera Dome, I was happy to hear it, but I didn’t really feel anything special. At WPD, they were on cranes reaching out to entirely different parts of the dome. Because this time it was just the two of them, in a much smaller arena, the connection between them is much more evident, and I think that matters a lot to me. They looked towards each other constantly and they’re both very aware of what the other was doing.
I think that their attempt to put the music first and then the special effects went really well. When it comes to those two, I do think that the music does come first because when they sing together, especially live, it’s really something. Tegoshi, throughout the concert, kept mentioning that they were being allowed to bring in a live band, so I think he must have been really worried about that. The live band, I feel, was an essential part of this concert and I’m so glad they were there. The atmosphere was just that much more intense.
They made me cry… TWICE. I was really surprised considering the only other time I cried at a concert was at the end of the first ABC-Z Kis-My-Ft2 concert. It’s just that… I wonder if ‘proud’ is the right way to describe how if felt. I was just watching them put their all into every song they sang and was just so moved by the honesty in their singing.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concert. I wasn’t planning on going since I missed the balloting deadline, but bought the ticket last minute (like, last week). I’m so glad I went.
For those of you going to this concert at some point in the tour, I really hope you’re looking forward to it, because I enjoyed every moment of it. Then, for those of you who can’t attend, know that they are doing a wonderful job and there is nothing to worry about. They did good. And lets all hope together that at least some of it makes its way onto a DVD.
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That was really long. Thank you to those of you who read the whole thing. I'm impressed. I'm not good at reading concert reports so I'm kinda impressed by those of you who do. ^^;
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They arrived at the middle stage again to sing Chicken Boy. Does anyone else think that song title is odd? Haha…
At the end of the song, it was really cute.
MASSU: Are you having fun?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
MASSU: Are you all enjoying yourselves?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
MASSU: Did you all hear Tegoshi screw up?
AUDIENCE: HAI~!
Massu… you’re so nice. Haha… Tegoshi missed his entrance for one of the ‘Arigatou’s and tried to sneak in.
Now, raise your hand if you were worried about the MC portion of the concert. *raises hand* At NEWS concerts, Tegoshi and Massu don’t talk to much and if they do, it’s because Koyama asked them a question. Yeah. I was really worried. They were too. Did you all see them asking Koyama to be at the concerts to MC? Haha…
They started off by talking about how Tegoshi makes a lot of mistakes and he’s like, “Yeah… It’s really terrible. I need to stop doing that.” He said that he makes mistakes a lot during his solos. Massu says that he himself isn’t the mistake making type of person, but when he does make a mistake, he’s just like, “Oh. Ok,” and Tegoshi’s tells him that’s very cool of him. Haha…
Then Massu’s like, “So you’re all probably wondering about the horses…” and Tegoshi’s like, “I’m wondering about the horses too.” Massu tries to say that because it’s Tegomass, and since it’s Tegoshi… and Tegoshi agrees saying that if it had been Yamapi (he calls him ‘Yamashita’) he would have been told that they can’t do that. And then they made fun of KoyaShige and how they would have reacted. Tegoshi says that he was really surprised when Massu one day came up to him and said, “Tegoshi… I definitely think horses would be good.” He initially thought that he meant real horses and in his mind thought that that would be really cool, but then Massu clarified that he meant the carousel horses, and well… haha…
Massu went to the corner of the stage to pick up the concert towel to wipe his face. I don’t know if he just sweats that much more than Tegoshi or if it’s because he just moves and bounces all over the place, but he was sweating a lot while Tegoshi looked totally fine. Haha… but it gave them a new topic to talk about cause they held up the towel. Both of them contributed drawings to the goods (not just Massu, like I had previously believed).
Now, we all know that Tegoshi is not exactly what you would call an artist. He then claims that all those other drawings were done in 30 seconds, but for the concert goods, he took 30 minutes. Massu was like, “You only spent 30 minutes on drawings that were going to appear on our concert goods?” (as if saying, “Wow… 30 whole minutes? That’s it?”) But Tegoshi was like, “but I’m saying that I spent a lot more time than usual on these drawings. I took extra care. *proud*”
Massu said that although Tegoshi’s drawings came out all cute and stuff on the actual goods, that’s not how they originally looked and announces that he has a picture of what he’d seen previously. So on the main stage screen a drawing appears. It’s of 2… bears? Maybe? Anyway. Tegoshi says that he’s on the right and Massu is on the left. “I even drew your pudding hair.” (the ears were colored in) Hahahaha… For those of you who’ve seen the shopping bags, I think the refined versions on it, but the originals really didn’t look too bad.
Massu says that for the next NEWS concert, they should all do drawings for the goods. I highly approve of this idea. Tegoshi said, “Like how you did the happy face for the NEWS concert.” Apparently, Massu didn’t know they were gonna use that drawing until they were shown the goods and even then it took him a while to realize that it was his drawing. Geez… they don’t tell you guys anything yeah? Haha…
They talked a bit about how worried they were for the MC portion since both of them don’t normally talk. They were worried to the point where they asked TONISEN (the older half of V6) for advice. While I think it’s really funny and cute how they asked for help, I don’t know how it came to be that they asked ToniSen. Was surprised. I mean, yeah, they’re all in the same company, but that doesn’t mean that everyone knows everyone else, and I was under the impression that when it came to TOKIO and V6, they don’t really know anyone that came after Arashi. So if someone can answer this for me, by all means.
They kinda started wandering towards the edges of the stage looking for something. They kept saying how there was something that would help them and when it didn’t appear right away, Massu was like, “Ee? Nai!? (It’s not here!?)”
So ToniSen’s idea was to have the members of the band and the staff to write topics for them to talk about on little pieces of paper and put them in a can. Massu holds up the can saying that they were told to write “ToniSen” all over the can, but it somehow became “Tegomass”. Haha…
The first one they pulled out was from the drummer, calling for them to do monomane (impersonations). I know Tegoshi can, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Massu do one. The audience was calling for Tegoshi to do an impersonation of Massu, but he did some monomane of Jin? Maybe I just don’t know KAT-TUN well enough, but I don’t know what it was from. Then he tells Massu to do a monomane of Ryo. The audience died. He first tried to imitate the way Ryo sings (he tried. It was kinda low and raspy?), but then stopped to talk about Ryo and how he’s kinda scary, then claiming that yappari, he can’t do monomane. Haha…
The next one Massu pulled out was from the keyboardist. Haha… He couldn’t read the name at first because part of it was written backwards? It only said, “What part do you like?” They were like, what part of what do we like? And then they started laughing saying that the question was too vague, so then someone in the audience (really loud too) said, “About each other!” I think that if the girl hadn’t been so loud (like seriously, it sounded like she had a mike it was that clear), they would have avoided it and done something else.
Tegoshi says that he likes Massu’s smile and Massu’s like, “Ah, so we’re going to do it that way.” (like, oh, that’s how we’re going to approach this.) So Massu’s like, “I like that Tegoshi kills bugs for me.” Haha… Then he continued to say how during the Tanabata Matsuri PV shooting as he was singing the chorus, there were bugs flying around his legs, and then I guess Tegoshi killed the mosquitos in their dressing room earlier that day (yeah… we got lots of them here in Osaka). Massu seems to talk about bugs a lot recently… last year it was lacking of an AC, this year it’s bugs.
One of the staff asked them to talk about what singer they respected when they were little. Tegoshi couldn’t think of one, but Massu liked B’z a lot. Then, as they were trying to figure out Tegoshi’s, Massu talked about when he first started going to karaoke, he often picked Kinki Kids songs and says that he must have looked up to them a lot. Tegoshi agrees, saying that he’s liked Kinki Kids from before he joined Johnny’s.
They did a pretty good job. There were some pauses, usually cause of Massu (*pats him on the head*), but because they’re so close, they were really comfortable talking to each other. So while they’re not really used to doing MC segments, because they have such a good friendship, it still felt natural and I thought it was really funny. Haha… Yep. No pulling teeth here. *cough* KAT-TUN *cough*
Then they move back to the main stage (hello inflatable walkways) and Massu announces that Tegoshi will be playing the guitar. Laughing a little, Tegoshi’s like, “And what will Massu be playing?” and Massu’s like, “Masuda Takahisa will be playing the tambourine.” Hahahaha…. Oh he’s so cute. Haha… I still die laughing when I think about it, because the look on his face as he said it was so priceless. Haha….
Together with the band, they perform a song called La La Sakura. Tegoshi’s not bad. Wonder if he learned from Pi or Ryo. It was pretty up beat and the VTR screens were bright with images of cherry blossoms. Massu’s really cute dancing around with the tambourine.
They performed What’s Going On? next. I don’t remember anything in particular other than that they stayed on the main stage the whole song.
It went right into Chocolate and it actually took me a little while to figure out that it had changed. The way they performed it, the songs sound really similar up until when they start singing. And oh my god I love them. The VTR was of bars of chocolate and circles of little Apollo Choco (the cone shaped strawberry chocolates). They just make me smile so much. (/ ^_^)/ They did some of the band intros in the middle of the song, but only the drummer, keyboardist, and the trumpet, so I didn’t really understand why.
While still standing on the side-main stages, they sang Highway. They’re so literal with some of their imagery that it makes me laugh a little. The VTR was of a highway/freeway. To me it looked like we started on Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo and then just kept driving… but it might as well have been any suspension bridge in Japan. Haha…
At the end of the song they were still on the main stage, I guess they needed to now be on the middle stage. They both run on the inflatable walkways, but wow is Massu fast. He was already at the middle stage when Tegoshi was only halfway there. I guess he ran that fast cause the dancing started right away. Tegoshi was late. Haha…
I don’t know how many people know Fantastispo. I actually don’t really know why I do. Anyway. It was a disco sounding song that Kokubun Taichi and Domoto Tsuyoshi did together and Tegomass basically did a cover of it. On the main VTR there was an outline of an old fashioned TV screen and they were doing the dancing and everything. I thought it was a little unfair for Tegoshi to have to dance with Massu just because Massu’s style of dancing is more fluid and stands out a little bit more. But it was a cute and fun song. Halfway through the song, they used the horses to move (finally) to the back stage. Tegoshi said that he was having a lot of fun and got a little too excited. So because of that, he accidentally said Domoto Tsuyoshi when he was supposed to say Tegoshi Yuya. Haha… then Massu teases him saying that he was dancing like Tsuyoshi-kun too.
Aiaigasa is such pretty song. The melody is just so soothing… even if the lyrics are a little over the top. Tegoshi made a mistake during the first verse, but we forgive. Haha… They were on the ends of the back stage and each rise up really high on these square platforms (like the ones they were on when they performed Dreams during the Pacific concert) while the PV played on the main VTR.
Still high up on the raised platforms, they started singing Boku Rashiku. I really like the feeling I get when I hear this song. It’s just… so encouraging and the melody is so catchy. Did I mention before that I really liked the Tanabata Matsuri b-side tracks? Yeah. I wasn’t kidding.
Owaranaide was next. I like this song a lot too. ^^; This is where they pulled out the sign boards, 3 each. Massu was trying really hard to get one up to the standing seats at the very back, but it hit the ceiling at an angle and fell… 5 rows in front of me. >.> And at some point, I’m pretty sure in this song, they moved back to the middle stage, probably via the horses. Me thinks Tegoshi should just admit that he likes the horses. Haha…
The last song of the concert was Kimi+Boku=Love. I’ve never actually heard this song before. Heard of it, but never actually heard it. It was cute and upbeat and you could kinda tell that this would be the last song. Staff brought out huge inflated yellow and pink balls to bounce over the audience (like a beach ball) that got popped halfway through the song and all these balloons exploded over the arena seats. On the main stage VTR screen, balloons with the drawing from the t-shirt were floating around, so I can only assume that the balloons being fought over in the arena seats also had the drawings on them.
…
Lucky arena seats.
As they moved back towards the main stage, they were throwing sign balls.
…
Lucky arena seats.
And then, at the end of the song, streamers poured out over the arena seats.
…
Lucky arena seats. *not bitter*
They did the band intros towards the end of the song. Then, after thanking everyone for coming, they asked everyone that whether it be NEWS or Tegomass to please continue to support them. Then, they left the stage through the passages on the main stage and as Massu was trying to get to it, he bumped into the microphone stand and had to bounce around to keep his balance as he turned back to fix it. Haha… The mike was on so it was kinda funny cause he made an ‘oh crap’ face.
As everyone called for an encore, I nearly laughed ‘cause they didn’t even bother pretending like there wasn’t more. At other concerts, they turn on the lights and staff announces that the concert’s done. They didn’t even turn on the lights. There was a mixture of blue and red lights going across the audience.
The first song of the encore was Kataomoi no Chiisana Koi and was really pretty. They (and the band) came out in the concert t-shirts and all across the VTR screen were little pink stars painting hearts on the night sky. It was really pretty.
They stopped to talk a little individually about their vision for this concert and things that they were worried about as they were planning. Since this was their first time doing a concert just the two of them, they were worried about whether people would enjoy themselves, so Massu was like, “Did you have fun? (Tanoshikatta?)” and asked several times cause he said that we weren’t loud enough. Haha…
The last song of the encore, and the entire concert, was KISS ~ Kaeri Michi no Love Song. As cheesy as this song is, I absolutely love it and never get tired of it. I think it’s one of the few songs that I do honestly know by heart. Out of all the singles they came out with as Tegomass, I feel like this one had the biggest impact.
During Massu’s part in the second verse, either he messed up and didn’t come in, or he wanted to see if everyone in the audience was singing. Then after the part in the song where they sing with less background music, Tegoshi asked everyone to sing and the audience sang the rest of the song for them minus the last chorus. I don’t know about you guys, but I love hearing the audience sing for them. And it was really pretty because there are parts where the choruses overlap a little so they would sing a little to help and then there were times where Massu would join in with the harmony so that you could hear both parts. I think Massu was crying (or sweating a lot, but I’m leaning towards crying).
They talked a little bit more, thanking everyone for coming and that they hope that everyone will continue to support them whether it’s as Tegomass or NEWS. They both said that when NEWS first came to Osaka, it was the scariest because lots of comedians and interesting people come from Osaka and they didn’t want the audience to think they were boring. They said there was a heavy pressure. Then Massu says that he would be right in front of some people who have uchiwas to get their attention, but the girls are looking somewhere else (some with binoculars). When he looked up to follow their line of sight, it lead straight to Yamapi. Haha… He was like, “hey… I’m here too!” Poor guy. Haha…
Both of them moved up the stairs to the upper-main stage and as the VTR screen split open to form a path, Massu asked for the audience to be quiet. Shh… “ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA~!” NEWS style without the mikes and everyone just died screaming.
They did a good job closing the concert. Normally, people just keep calling for an encore until staff kicks everyone out, but with the way they did it, we knew that the concert was finished.
This time, it was really just them and the band. No over the top special effects, no Juniors running around, very little dancing… and they themselves said that they were really worried about how it would be received, but I’m really glad they decided to do it this way.
It’s good for them to express themselves differently from when they’re with NEWS because Tegomass’s music is different from NEWS. It’s funny… I thought they would perform at least one NEWS song (and from what I overheard from other people, they thought so too), but they didn’t. They talked about NEWS constantly throughout the concert though. There was a definite fondness in their voices as they did it too. There was no… hmm… feeling of trying to prove themselves? There was no sense of competition, like ‘look what we can do without you guys’ kind of feeling. NEWS is very much a part of them and they acknowledge that. Like they say all the time… NEWS concerts are fun, but they wanted to make a different kind of fun for this concert.
I think their focus is different depending on who they’re with. When I saw them sing Aiaigasa at the Winter Party Diamond concert at Kyocera Dome, I was happy to hear it, but I didn’t really feel anything special. At WPD, they were on cranes reaching out to entirely different parts of the dome. Because this time it was just the two of them, in a much smaller arena, the connection between them is much more evident, and I think that matters a lot to me. They looked towards each other constantly and they’re both very aware of what the other was doing.
I think that their attempt to put the music first and then the special effects went really well. When it comes to those two, I do think that the music does come first because when they sing together, especially live, it’s really something. Tegoshi, throughout the concert, kept mentioning that they were being allowed to bring in a live band, so I think he must have been really worried about that. The live band, I feel, was an essential part of this concert and I’m so glad they were there. The atmosphere was just that much more intense.
They made me cry… TWICE. I was really surprised considering the only other time I cried at a concert was at the end of the first ABC-Z Kis-My-Ft2 concert. It’s just that… I wonder if ‘proud’ is the right way to describe how if felt. I was just watching them put their all into every song they sang and was just so moved by the honesty in their singing.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concert. I wasn’t planning on going since I missed the balloting deadline, but bought the ticket last minute (like, last week). I’m so glad I went.
For those of you going to this concert at some point in the tour, I really hope you’re looking forward to it, because I enjoyed every moment of it. Then, for those of you who can’t attend, know that they are doing a wonderful job and there is nothing to worry about. They did good. And lets all hope together that at least some of it makes its way onto a DVD.
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That was really long. Thank you to those of you who read the whole thing. I'm impressed. I'm not good at reading concert reports so I'm kinda impressed by those of you who do. ^^;
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