Arashi at Kokuritsu Kasumigaoka Stadium: 9/5/08

[meimichi]

+ I got there early, and wished I hadn't, as the sun was just horrible. Staff wasn't letting people use parasols, so everyone had their tour towels draped over their heads. x_x

+ CMs for Truth single, Maou, and Ryuusei no Kizuna. The last was just promo photos of Nino, Ryo, and Erika, set to that Bowie song that goes, "this is command to Major Tom..."

+ They timed the concert perfectly with sunset. It was a little too bright when they started, but by the MC it was totally dark.

+ Setup: geared to reach as many people as possible and very very very well-staged. They weren't very gimmicky this time, and the few gimmicks they used felt very purposeful and to-the-point. The main stage took up about 1/4 of the stadium seating. The stage was decorated with red and yellow cut-off "A" logos. Jutting out from the main stage was the catwalk, stretching all through the arena in the shape of an "X," with a circular center stage in the middle. I think this was the same stage they used as the backstage for Dream-A-Live, with the lifting platform to raise them up higher, but this time the stage itself rotated so everyone in the arena could see.

Near the stands were giant tracks for the moving stages, which they rode all through the stadium, with the stages joining together for them to cross from one to the other. They didn't go overboard with fancy tricks, they just seemed to be aiming to get near as many people as possible, and did a very good job of it.

+ No girl dancers. MADE, M.A.D., and junior boys. A live band was performing many of the songs. Does Tsubasa play keyboards, was that him? I wasn't paying attention. Very little lipsynching last night because they were singing with the band ("truth" was the only song that stood out as seeming lipsynched to me)

+ Only real complaints are the sound and that the camera direction could have been better. The members seemed very unaware of the cameras at points and would turn away from them, and then the cameras wouldn't cut away. Annoying, to be watching the back of the members' necks for extended shots. I also think they should have used the giant screen more.

The sound...it was very clear Kokuritsu's sound system wasn't intended for concerts, it felt like all the speakers were in the arena and like there was nothing for the middle of the stands. When the band played, the bass completely overpowered every other sound and you couldn't hear the vocals well. :/

---

SETLIST (I think this is missing one song somewhere still)

Love so sweet <---opening
Oh Yeah!
Kitto Daijoubu <---member greetings
La Tormenta 2004
Happiness
Hadashi no Mirai
Aozora Pedal
Hello Goodbye
Subarashiki Sekai
Tomadoi Nagara
Still...
Lucky Man
Take me faraway
Niji <---WITH GLASSESSSSSSS
Smile
WAVE
CARNIVAL NIGHT (part two)

MC

Kaze no Mukou he

Re(mark)able
truth
Step and Go
a Day in Our Life
Tell Me What You Wanna Be?
Ichioku no Hoshi
Sirius
Hip Pop Boogie
theme of Dream-A-Live
A.RA.SHI
Pikanchi Double
Asu ni Mukatte Hoero
One Love

ENCORE
Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi
Fight Song
Kaze
Kotoba Yori mo Taisetsu na Mono

DOUBLE ENCORE
Sakura Sake
WISH <---closing

---

Love so sweet
They rose out of the center stage's platform and danced it, wearing neon orange costumes that looked like they could glow in the dark. I wasn't expecting this as the opener at all, but it was a great choice. (The stands were really tight in terms of space though, so people kept knocking elbows a bit while dancing)


Oh Yeah!
;adha;ehfra;rhfa; I LOVE THIS SONG NEVER LET IT LEAVE. I keep fucking up the furi and doing the peace sign on the first "Oh yeah!" instead of the second. orz For some bizarre reason, Aiba was absolutely drenched in sweat from the very beginning. People were like, "?!!!" when he showed up on the screen, it was ridiculous.


Kitto Daijoubu
Members split up on the catwalks. Sho was on my side doing the rap. Member introductions. Pretty standard, don't recall anything eloquent being said. I loved Sho doing his, "saigo made yoroshiku!" and then jumping right into the rap, like from Time. *_*


La Tormenta 2004
! I was so surprised to hear this!!! First surprise of the night. Sho introducing Jun. Jun introducing Nino. Nino introducing Aiba. Aiba introducing Ohno. Ohno introducing Sho. Catwalks for this. Jun was being a huge camera whore and looked very seriously into the camera during his intro, until finally bursting into a grin at the end.


Happiness
I think here is where they broke out the moving stages. They were used so well, the staging the entire night was really flawless.


Hadashi no Mirai
Dancing! I was starting to get tired by this point, I thought the song choices up until here were incredibly well-chosen. Everything was geared towards getting the audience excited and it worked really well.


Aozora Pedal
!!!!! Surprising!!! I don't think anyone remembered the furi to this, I never bothered learning it since I didn't expect to hear it live, and nobody around me was doing it. This sounded really lovely with the live band though. Sho's solo was very good.


Hello Goodbye
I still love the furi for this like pie!

Same costume as Dream-A-Live. Aiba looked totally winded at this point though, and had trouble collecting enough breath for his harmonica playing. It was so cute, he was desperately sucking in breath and then playing, and everyone applauded him for doing his best. :3


Subarashiki Sekai
I CRIED AND I'M NOT ASHAMED. This was definitely in my top five of "songs I want to hear once at an Arashi con before I die." This also benefited greatly from the live band, very nice.


Tomadoi Nagara
I don't remember anything interesting here XD; I'm not that crazy about this song but it was the first time hearing it live for me so it was nice.


Still...
!!!!!!!! I WAS MADE SO HAPPY BY THIS IT'S RIDICULOUS
Ohmiya were walking down the catwalk with their arms around each other (not sure if it was this song, but somewhere around here)


Lucky Man
Kept the furi intructional vid from Dream-A-Live, I still am crap at this song. So much fun anyway, though!


Take me faraway
Same as Dream-A-Live, but the chair dancing was a much bigger deal, with about ten juniors dancing on chairs on center stage, instead of two like before. Kept the prerecorded dance footage.


Niji
Same costume as Time with the red pants. He wore his glasses.

The person editing the screen footage should be shot. It started out beautifully, showing two different angles, but they turned off the screens right when he was taking the glasses off so the "arigatou" screen would show up better. THANKS A LOT FOR MISSING THE POINT DIRECTOR.

I'm not complaining much. I cried here, I never thought I'd be so lucky as to see this again. I really love this song, it's one of my absolute favorites for Arashi.


Smile
My mp3 file of this got all messed up so I've only listened to it once before, didn't recognize it at all initially. This was fun!!


WAVE
None of the overdone directions from TIME, Sho was on the moving stage on the right and basically just yelled, "GO! at the stands, and the spotlight followed the wave as it went along. :3


CARNIVAL NIGHT (part 2)
Confetti and just general perfection from a stadium full of people ready to dance. Dream-A-Live made me conclude that there is nothing more depressing than this song with a crappy audience that won't dance, but there's nothing better than this song with a good audience that's into it.


(random)
I can't remember what song it was in the first set, but everyone was showing off on the center stage. Aiba did a one-handed handstand jump, and then Nino followed with an attempted backflip and landed right on his head. Everyone freaked out, but he got right back up, and everyone's attention was swiftly called away as Nino gave chase to Aiba, jumped on top of him, and sat on his legs while holding him face-down on the ground, so he could wave the cameras over to display that Aiba had split his pants right down the middle while doing his handstand jump.

Aiba was flailing his arms and frantically trying to escape mortification in front of a stadium of people and cameras from all the TV stations, to no avail. BEST MOMENT EVER.

They also stole NEWS' fountain act, but I don't remember which songs they used them for, it was definitely near the start.


MC

+ MC was short and kinda meh (announcement will be tomorrow I guess). Everyone said it was good it didn't rain, though Sho said "since we're Arashi, of course we can say things like 'look, Arashi called up a real arashi!' but we really don't want you to get wet..." Aiba piped up, "I've been wondering this the whole time, actually: if it rains, are we allowed to have umbrellas during the MC??"

+ The running theme was that Sho decided to save everyone else the trouble of mocking him, and abuse himself the entire night. Like, he would say something, and then mock himself for not being funny or entertaining or accepted by the audience. Everyone was like, "What is with you??" and he was like, "I just thought I'd give it a try..."

+ Nino said he was nervous 'cause Higashiyama-san was at the concert tonight and that was why he fucked up his backflip. Much was made of Aiba splitting his pants. Aiba said he'd tried to hide it (he demonstrated his attempts to dance while trying to keep his legs locked together as much as possible XD). Nino said it was totally obvious, and asked the people Aiba had been dancing in front of if they'd noticed, and they all screamed in response gleefully. "See?"

Nino teased him because the pants were still pretty new so there was no excuse for ruining them. (I LOVE THOSE COSTUMES WHYYYYY. They were the pastel pants from the Dream-A-Live One Love performances.)

+ Jun got the tape of 24 Jikan Terebi and is still watching it for his own reference. He's only just gotten to the first experiment part. Sho sang, "Tonari no Totoro, TOTORO..." making his voice go all shrill like the instruments. They thanked the audience for their donations, and Nino asked who had managed to stay awake for the magic (seemed like one in four or five people had watched it, he was surprised but pleased). They asked who watched the entire thing and a surprisingly significant amount of people answered affirmatively.

+ They talked about Maou very briefly, but Jun laughed, "You guys are gonna miss it tonight!" Ohno looked affronted in a pouty sort of way, and demanded the audience rush straight home to catch it.

+ Nino said Ryuusei no Kizuna would start Oct 17th! He said it was his mother's birthday. Aiba asked, "How old is she turning?" Nino answered, "Um, actually, if I can choose the way the conversation's going, I'd rather talk about the drama than my mom's birthday. And she would get pissed if I told how old she is anyway." Aiba said, "Because you and your mom are so alike, huh."

+ Much was made of being at the Olympic stadium after Sho had done the Olympics. They asked him how many medals he'd won, and he thought for a really long time before saying he didn't get any.

Aiba said after they'd talked for a while, that they wanted to sing "Kaze no Mukou he" because of the Olympics talk, and asked if the audience was ready:

"Ready?"
"YEAH!"
"Yeah?"
"YEAH!"
"Yeah?"
"YEAH!!!!!"
"YEAH?!!!!"
"YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Jun said dryly, "Was that really necessary?" Aiba wailed, "Oh no, I pissed off Matsujun!" Jun said pissily, "I'm not pissed off!"

But Aiba wouldn't stop looking wounded, so Jun went after him and ended up grabbing Aiba's wrist and sticking Aiba's fingers in his mouth as if to chew them off. XXXXXD


Kaze no Mukou he
Think this was center stage...I don't remember.

After "Kaze no Mukou he," they talked more about the Olympics and how they were honored to be performing in the stadium. Then there was a VTR from Ogu-san talking about his memories of the Tokyo Olympics, with footage of the torch being lit. Then each member had a prerecorded statement regarding the new tour and Kokuritsu. Everyone talked about their thankfulness to make it this far, Jun finished off saying, smiling, "We swear we will stay with all of you, forever."


Re(mark)able
The VTR ended and the lights went up at the top of the stadium on the opposite side. Arashi stood up at the very top where the Olympic flame had been lit, and there was fire there and pyrotechnics all over as they sang "Re(mark)able."

I honestly didn't think much of this song on the CD, but this performance had the same sense of unbelievable style as "Cool&Soul" from AAA+in Dome. The choreography was really good too, like a more complicated "Yes?No?"

That part of the stands was rigged with a elevator-like stage, so they could ride the stage from the top of the stands to the bottom to get back down to the back stage. As they did this, the music from "Re(mark)able" transitioned almost seamlessly into "truth."


truth
Continuing with the pyrotechnics (the amount of them was staggering), and green laser lights. They danced this on the center stage, and the screens showed the tarot cards from "Maou" and the CG butterflies from the "Maou" opening sequence. This was really incredible.


Step and Go
They moved down onto the catwalk on my side and danced this on the catwalk! The part with them dancing in the line was very very well-directed for the screen.


a Day in Our Life
Standard amazing fun. XD


Tell Me What You Wanna Be?
Best-dressed performance of this song so far, but that's not hard. He wore his sunglasses, and I think maybe a leather jacket with jeans? That could be wrong, but the costume was very standard rock star.

Jun tried very hard to act like a rock star the whole time. As usual for when he tries too hard, I found about half of it attractive despite myself, and the other half I felt extreme secondhand embarrassment just watching him.

This is nowhere near my favorite solo of his, and if they were going to ressurect it then I wanted Nino on guitar and sexy fanservice again :( My friend emailed me afterwards commenting, "I was surprised by Jun's solo, it was really sexy~" and I answered, "It would have been more dokidoki if Nino had been on guitar," and she replied back, "Yeah, I wouldn't have said no to them with their faces up close together again..." CONCLUSION: most heterosexual performance of this song yet? (I was hoping he'd sing Yabai. SADFACE.)


Ichioku no Hoshi
Sirius
These both used a giant starry night screen backdrop. The penlights for the tour looked very nice here too, since the tour light was clear it really looked like a planetarium.


Hip Pop Boogie
It started out dead silent, with Sho alone onstage rapping with no accompaniment. But with no music, it sounded more like beat poetry recitation, maybe?? That part's lyrics seemed new (could be wrong), though he then said very slowly at the end, "kono mic and pen de rock, rock the world..." and then the music started. A bit different, I don't think we clapped to the rhythm at the start this time.

The music was a little remixed, and I think the lyrics were a tiny bit different too in spots. Felt more geared for audience participation, definitely. We did the "YEAH!" responses like before, and we yelled the, "What's going on?" bit too. I can't tell if he wants the audience to scream the, "SHUUGOU!!!" response or not, it didn't show on the screen, and the audience never seems sure of it either. XD Near the end we did C&R with him calling us to scream, "Hip Pop Boogie!"

They reshot the bit with Arashi rapping along, because the world hates me and doesn't want Jun in his old sexy red shirt to make it to DVD. ;A; (Aiba looked pretty damn fine in the new taping though.)


theme of Dream-A-Live
Everyone's acts stayed the same except Aiba, who did a robot-type move but was trying to blow on his arm to make it move at the elbow, to no success. He ended up sucking in air and only then his arm moved, sucked against his mouth. I can't explain this well, but it was HILARIOUS. (Jun: licked his finger, Ohno: did his crossed-eyes routine, Nino: did his card trick but again the cameras didn't pick up on it very well, Sho: had us do the rap along with him.)


A.RA.SHI
HELL. YEAH. Obviously the vast majority didn't get to hear it at Sapporo, so everyone was clearly beside themselves with joy to hear it again. It was a BLAST.


Pikanchi Double
I love this song, but after Dream-A-Live, it became the anthem of encore disappointment and defeat. I thought it was nicely placed to finally get to hear it after A.RA.SHI this time. XD


Asu ni Mukatte Hoero
Another first for me! This was super-fun!!!


One Love
They released about a gazillion white balloons with the "A" logo here, it was incredible. They danced this on the center stage. As the song ended, all five walked up the catwalk in a line with their arms around each other.


ENCORE

Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi
I loooove this song and always will. They did an amazing fireworks display that went on for quite some time. At least I think it was this song.


Fight Song
They janken-ed, and it came down to Jun and Aiba. Aiba lost, and then promptly disappeared backstage, leaving everyone wondering what it was the loser had to do this time. The staff hauled out a huge tank of water to the stage, and Aiba reappeared in his swimsuit. He had to jump in on cue as everyone was singing, "Ganbare! Ganbare!" XXXXXD

He started shivering when they hauled him out and screeched, "I'M GONNA CATCH COLD!" when asked for comment, but then immediately grinned and flashed a peace sign. Staff threw a towel on him and he had to go around on the moving stage track for the rest of the encore, sopping wet still only wearing his swimsuit XXXXD


Kaze
I cried getting to hear this again. I actually thought nothing at all of this song until I heard it live last year, and it made me cry so hard then. The lyrics just really go well at the end of a summer tour (even if this is the beginning of the new tour, they were hyping it as the last show of summer vacation). I love Sho's rap for this one. The bit with, "sou, mata atsumatte, nayandeitatte, katatte, waratte..."


Kotoba Yori mo Taisetsu na Mono
They took the final bow here. Jun called, "I'm gonna ask you guys what our name is, and I'm only gonna ask you once, so get it right! Who are we? Se-no...!" and we screamed the, "ARASHIIIIII!" response. They bowed for a while and then exited.

The cameras didn't pick up the exit soon enough (even though they were waiting for them ;P) but Sho and Ohno seemed to continue doing their slapstick exit from Dream-A-Live. <3

The fountains were going crazy again on their way out.



DOUBLE ENCORE
Nino asked Ohno for a comment. He said, "The fireworks were so amazing!!" Nino told him, "We'd prefer to hear that you thought the concert was amazing instead..."

Jun started out very sincerely, saying in great detail, how that they could put on such a tour, that they could perform in such a huge venue, that they could go to Asia again, that they could have all of this happening going into their tenth year, was thanks to every person there that night, and every person who couldn't make it to the concert who had supported them for the past ten years.

Then he said, "At the next concert, after we're done here..." and trailed off as if to say when it would be, but finished, "...I want to see all of your pretty faces again!" and everyone went, "EHHHHHHHH." Tease.

They asked if we still had energy for more, and we screamed in response.


Sakura Sake
The filed down the catwalk to get to the back, but the stage and catwalk were SOAKED from the fountains. Two of them were clinging to each other for dear life to keep their balance (I didn't see who), and Sho was last, making a show of sliding down the catwalk, arms flailing to keep his balance.

They rode the elevator stage back up to the top of the stands to get near the people there again, the furi here was fun as always, and everyone screamed their lungs out at the rap's C&R.

WISH
Closing. I still haven't learned this dance cold yet, but after last tour I've gotten good enough to fake it if there are people around me I can follow.



Overall...

It felt like Time again. God, the setlist for Dream-A-Live was really crap. Dream-A-Live's unchanging setlist resulted in concerts that were entirely dependent on whether they had an audience that was determined to have a good time and was willing to work for it (granted, when I went to the concerts where the audience was like that, it was incredibly touching and fun! but it was fifty-fifty). This time, getting into it didn't feel like something you had to work for at all. The first set was absolutely perfectly chosen. There wasn't a single misstep with this setlist.

I think another factor was that Dream-A-Live always felt hurried. I know when their schedules are that busy we should just be grateful for a tour at all, but the rushed encores were disheartening at points. Tonight just went on forever, in the best way possible.

Also it felt like there weren't many new people this time, totally different from Dream-A-Live. Or maybe they just spaced them out better. In any case, the whole stadium was into it and going crazy. CARNIVAL NIGHT was so much fun, to dance and to see everyone else dancing along in the stadium.

This was just so much fun. It really felt like they chose the setlist to make the fans as happy as possible. I'm still unrecovered from the glee at getting to hear "Subarashiki Sekai."

I woke up today in serious pain (I think I overdid it dancing XD) but still totally happy. So much fun and I left completely satisfied. It's such a good feeling to finish off summer vacation with a concert, the timing for this was really nice.

Comments

[satosuki.livejournal.com]

thanks for your report!! ^^

ah... its so nice to know it was a great concert esp for those of us who can't be there... i din like those weird clownish costumes they wore for Dream-alive concerts... glad to know they din go overboard this time round! XD

[nha2410.livejournal.com]

thanks for your report and sharing it with us...^^