[Report] 2009 PUZZLE TOUR - Hiroshima (May 10th, 2009 @16:00)
I will probably have a more specific concert report towards the middle to the end of the tour, but for now, here's a brief recap of this PUZZLE tour. For the summary of the "you know what" (surprisingly, I wrote this first this time, haha!!!) please go HERE.
Okay, the following is the overall flow and setlist of Day One. They might change it up a bit later on in the tour, but for now... here it is!!
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**YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!! LOL**
In Hiroshima, I sat in the arena. Personally, I enjoy watching from the stands especially for a show that I haven't been spoiled for yet. But... I'm not going to say no to my ticket luck, haha!! It was nice and close, but the angle wasn't the best... I was like right next to the main stage, which made it harder for me to see them during the MC because of the light that comes directly towards us!! Yoko would get in the way of the light every now and then, so I seriously was like "Yoko!! Stay where you are!!" hahaha. Because the arena is set a lot lower than the stage, when they come close they're really close but at a certain angle, you don't get to see them much because they're up there!
Anyway, they started off with the gorilla VTR. I wrote about that in the short recap HERE. There was a VTR of Ohkura telling us to enjoy ourselves right after that (in the 1st show it was apparently Hina).
1. MUSEKININ HERO - I liked the pink outfits they were wearing; they looked pretty cool! The round center stage came up and then down to reveal the boys, and it was nice seeing Shota facing this way from the start :-) Funny story is, with all the lives/concerts I've been to the past few months, this was the first time I've seen K8 perform this song as a group! The only time I've heard it live was during Ohkura's solo concert.
2. IT'S MY SOUL - I love this song at concerts!! Hina was right in front of us so I said Hi to him for my friend, lol.
3. KANFUU FIGHTING - Definitely did not expect them to sing it here!! I should be used to this song at concerts by now but somehow it felt weird to me because... it doesn't really fit into the "PUZZLE" mode I was in, haha. They all lined up in the back stage area (Yoko almost forgot to get on his rising platform, haha) while they sang.
4. ICHIBYO KISS - I LOVE THIS SONG LIVE!! The guys kept on saying they liked this song doing the rehearsals and stuff... I agree!! There are cute dances to it. The chorus part is easy enough to memorize... although I would need another show to perfect it, lol. From my seat, all I could see was Maru for the most part so I had to follow his moves... I sure hope he was doing it right!!! I had plenty of Maru during this show, haha. During the second verse, Shota, Subaru and Yoko danced where I could see them and they were so cute!!
5. GLORIOUS - I honestly think that this is way too early in the setlist. This should come after the MC or something, like they did for desire, Torn and Hoshii mono wa last year. It was funny how Ryo kept on looking at the screen for lyrics, haha. Subaru was right in front of us so I was watching him. It's an okay song, but there isn't much to it (they were still in their opening outfits, too!)... sorry :-(
6. KICYU - The dance is ADORABLE. Hahaha Yoko was dancing really hard!! He was doing a good job!! Shota... oh Shota... lol. Yellow green suit, bow tie, pink glasses, yellow green (I think?) hat. Shota's voice sounded very live, but I am pretty suspicious about Yoko, espeically at the beginning... haha. I need to memorize the moves but they are sooo fast and complicated!! The animation doesn't help much either because the fingers look weird, haha.
7. YOU CAN SEE - They did a lot for this song. Both of them came out in a rising platform (after Shota performed some "magic" with the red cloth flying out to both ends of the arena where the two were standing) in their outfits from the PV. At first, they were singing with the stand mics standing still. The platform came down and the two of them sang as they walked back towards the main stage. Then there was the head of the knight and the ochobo-guchi mask that appeared in the PV (what Hina was holding). They used those in the dance and in the end Hina was wearing the fur coat instead of Maru.
8. PUZZLE - I was shocked!!! This came too early as well, haha! I was expecting this to be the last song with an orchestra playing behind them or something. The old vs. recent pictures of them showing on the screen was nice though. They were so young!! Compared to those pictures, I really think they have aged!! Hahaha. They all sang on the center stage wearing light blue suits.
9. KAWAITA HANA - I saw stand mics with flowers on them lined up on the main stage, so it was pretty easy to figure out what was coming up next, haha. Subaru stood in the middle of the round stage as the "others" (as Yoko had complained during the Eight Ranger skit, lol) sang the harmony. They came to the main stage and of course all I could see was Maru again, haha. They were wearing white gloves and had a very easy hand movement to go with the chorus. Maru you better be right about this or else I have learned it wrong, haha!! During the song, 6 of them (except Maru I think? He was humming during that time) lined up across and danced cutely, haha.
10. EIGHT RANGER - HERE. The song that the 6 sang at center stage (with the Veterans dancing behind them, haha) was pretty cute. It was like Hanaichi monme, where two sides were singing at each other. "I want it" "Nandeyanen" "'Cuz I want it" "Nandeyanen" "I want to change" "But you don't have to" or something like that, hahaha. They did Kyaiin moves (Japanese comedy duo) etc. By the way, there's this part where Black (or the new Red) pulls out a gun and fires it and it was supposed to hit Green (or the new Blue)... but for both shows it didn't work, lol. They'll need to work harder on that!!
11. DONNA NI HANARETE TATTE SOBA NI IRUKARA - Hahahahaha I totally didn't expect them to sing this right after the skit, lol. But it all fit nicely, with Nasu starting it off! They went around the arena during this, and I had the Green/Blue side <3 They were love love throughout the song, hahaha. Shota starts off the second verse saying that "I stopped at a red light and looked into the car beside me; I was simply jealous of the two in the car smiling at each other" and walk right by Ohkura. Ohkura then sings "The lights turned green so I hit the accelerator" so the both of them "hit the accelerator," hahaha. Shota ended up linking arms with Ohkura, too!! For the last chorus, the 7 of them lined up on the back stage and swayed left to right according to the melody, haha.
12. GIGA MAJI MEGA FIGHT - Kitaaaaa!! Hahaha. I was looking forward to this song... but I didn't think that they'd sing it in their Ranger outfits, lol. I liked the intro part where they got into a circle and danced around.
13. MC - They actually didn't talk much... they were saying how it's already been 5 years since their debut. They said that they used to go BBQ'ing and stuff when they were younger. The first BBQ they went was Yoko, Subaru, Hina and Ryo. They went with two cars; Yoko sat in the passenger seat next to Hina (he's actually not sure which one drove, haha) and Ryo sat in Subaru's passenger's seat (or was it the other way around?). Everyone was curious as to what it was like in Yoko and Hina's car. Shota was like "Were you recommen'ing in the shachuu (=in the car) as well?" hahaha what the hell, lol. They listed all the solo things that they've done the past few months (Kagotsurube, If Or, Uta Oni, Yasuken and Hissatsu, Ryuusei, J-Rock, Quiz Show) and said that it's something that's very hard to imagine back then. Then we all started celebrating Yokocho's birthday :-) The Veterans brought out cake and Yoko blew out the candles (two of them) in the dark. He said that during their rehearsal the day before, the screen showed Happy Birthday and the song played right after Giga Maji- so he thought "Haha! They made a mistake! They were planning on doing this tomorrow!" but actually they were going to celebrate it then for him, haha. The Veterans gave Yoko a present too, but he was like "Of course you should give me presents! I buy stuff for you all the time... just because it's on me, don't keep putting things in the cart when we go to the conbini!!" Yoko said that he kept on apologizing, but Maru said "Instead of saying 'sorry,' say 'thank you!'" Aww :-) Maru gave Yoko a personal gift; it was a "hachi-mi" from Kyoto. Normally it's an "ichi-mi" or "shichi-mi" pepper; I've never heard of a "hachi-mi." Maru said "You're an ichi-mi of the hachi" hahaha good one! The guys left, leaving Hina and the Veterans. Hina introduced the Veternans' next song, in Shinsuke-style... he did not sound like him AT ALL and NO ONE would have guessed unless he said it, lol.
14. EXPLOSION - Kunta sang the rap and the Veterans danced and sang to the song. Bun-chan's a really good dancer AND a singer :-)
15. AKAI SHINKIRO - I regret saying that I didn't need to see this live, because it was actuall very cool!!! Maru first came out and danced & sung his part. Then, Ryo came out and did his part. Subaru came out in between them and sang his part, and the three sang the first chorus. This all happened on the other side of where I was, which meant... YES Shota was on our side! ...But his back was to us damn it, haha. Instead I had Ohkura right in front of me. Hina came in between them and these three sang the second chorus. Yoko joined everyone at center stage where they gathered for the last part of the song.
16. BURLEE - WHEEEE my favorite song from the main album! I just LOVE the rock tune!! Yaracchi's choreography looked complicated as usual but very awesome :-D I didn't notice it in the CD, but now that I've seen how they're singing it, I could hear it in the CD too; They've split the chorus in two, and the first half was by Shota, Ryo and one other person (I don't remember!) and the other half was Subaru, Yoko... and two others, haha. I was wondering how they were gonna fit the band into this, but they ended up without it. Shota, what the heck were you saying in the magazine interview!?
17. MY LAST TRAIN - They all spread out in the long, middle part of the stage. Shota was in the middle, and we had Yoko and Subaru near us... I don't remember the rest, except for Ohkura being in the far end. During the song, four of them got on the carts to go through the arena. We got Yokocho :-D
18. OSAKA RAINY BLUES - I definitely didn't see this coming, haha. Yoko went up to the surrounding stage and on to the rising platform right in front of us. It reminded me of Fukui last year (go down to the MC report from "12th 2nd show") when Yoko just couldn't get the dance moves right! STILL! lol But Shota was dancing right on the main stage so I was facing him... even though I was looking at Kikuoka the most because my friend had told me to go stare at him if I had the chance... so I did!! Hahaha.
19. ZUKKOKE OTOKOMICHI - Noooooooo, lol. I actually had completely forgotten about this song!! It felt so weird to hear it now though!!! During this song, the band boys left the stage. The others remained to do the "wooooo soiya soiya soiya soiya!"
20. BAND SESSION & DO YOU AGREE? - Personally I thought that Shota's guitar skills improved a lot!!! Not that he was bad before, but after going to all the J-Rock lives I kinda forgot how Shota's guitar skills were like... but it definitely sounded GOOD!! I didn't think they'd do Do you agree? this time around, but I guess they just can't remove this from the setlist, haha!
21. GORI GORI - Yesssss I knew they were gonna do this as a band, haha.
22. JYONETSU PARTY - Yesssss I was right about this song being a band song as well, haha!! I like this song too; I think I had this going around in my head a lot during work today, haha.
23. ROLLING COASTER - They all gathered on the main stage for the last song. While Yoko was thanking us all for coming, I was going through the album quickly in my head trying to figure out which songs they hadn't played yet... there were 3 but I figured the last one will be a band song (Yoko was at his bongos and Hina was in front of his piano) so I thought that maybe they were going to finish up with BJ again... HOWEVER!! Nope, they played Rolling Coaster!! Cool!! ...What was not cool was how OFF Ryo was to start off the song, lol. He didn't hit the correct notes at all, haha. I was impressed with Shota's guitar especially with this song.
EN1. MUGENDAI - I had forgotten about this song, too! Geez, it's been so long since their last tour!! We all sang along as usual.
EN2. SAITE IKIYO - I kinda had the feeling that this was a song for the encore... I don't know why but I think it has that feel to it, hahaha.
DOUBLE EN. WAHAHA - They came out once again asking us what we wanted ("Donnan hoshii noooo") and they said "How about a song that everyone can be GENKI!" It was pretty obvious to me that it was going to be Wahaha though, haha. How hilarious it would have been if they brought Wanshan Ronpin here though...!!! I think it was during this that Ryo came by in the cart. He stopped for a few seconds and I had a staring contest for a while... I didn't look away this time HA! (Usually I do because he's kinda creepy, lol)
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Anyway, that was about it for Day One. I wouldn't say it was their best performance (sorry but I am starting to raise the bar these days, haha!) but I know that they'll make changes and improve a whole lot during the course of the tour :-) Looking forward to the rest of their shows!