Another trip to Japan, another Scandal concert! This is my third time seeing them, and this time they just happened to be playing at a university festival while my wife and I are here. Before you read my report, be sure to check out
Rina's blog post about it.
All three shows I've seen have been very different.
Budokan was a huge, special arena show.
NHK Hall was a regular hall tour show, more intimate but still a pretty big production. Tonight's show was
very casual. The tickets were cheap, the light show very basic, the outfits coordinating but neither matching nor intentionally "sexy". Imagine a big American band playing a county fair and you wouldn't be far off.
But... we were in the 3rd row! ("4" at Fujita Hall 2000 is actually row 3 - more on this in a sec.)
The show was in Aichi prefecture, which made it kind of a trek from our hotel in Tokyo. A ride on the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya, then the Nagoya subway (to the last stop!), then a bus (to the last stop!). Fujita Hall 2000 is in kind of a strange location, sandwiched between the university hospital and what looks like a dorm. Charmingly hand-made signs showed us the way:
Doors opened at 5 and the show started at 6. We hit the merchandise table at around 4:30 - there wasn't much (and just a single table!) and towels were sold out. I bought a
quite interesting hardcover photo book and the shopping bag to put it in - that was it.
The book has a lot of pictures of them over the past year - it's similar to the 2012-2013 book I bought last year, but it has stuff all the way up to the Yokohama Arena 360 concert, including photos from the hall tour I saw them on last year. I've never seen these photos before, anywhere.
Scandal crowds are always pretty interesting - here's the one shot I took outside Fujita Hall:
We looked for our seats and ended up just as confused as everyone else in the hall - there's no row 1, and the seat numbers for your seat are printed on the
back, facing the person behind you. Half the hall ended up in the wrong row - I actually think the hall was designed so that the row you're in is printed on the back of the seat in front of you, but at some point they changed it. Many announcements were made to try to clear things up, and we were directed to the third row (with a "4" printed on the back of our seats).
You're not supposed to take photos during Japanese shows (they will confiscate your camera/phone if they catch you) but I managed to snag this one of our view just after we sat down:
We were a little further to the side than I'd hoped, but you see how close we were to the very edge of the stage. The awesome thing was that at various times, Mami and even the other girls came right up to that edge,
directly in front of me - I was maybe six feet away from them. Of course I had the best view of Mami most of the time - she is awesome on stage. She just loves what she does.
SET LIST (from memory):
Yoake no Ryuuseigun
Taiyou Scandalous
MC
Awanai Tsumori no Genki de ne
Kagen no Tsuki
Osaka Lover
MC
Image
Satisfaction
DOLL
Your Song
SCANDAL BABY
Encore:
MC
Everybody Say YEAH!
It was a short set - the two other shows I've been to were both about 2 1/2 hours long, and this one was about 75 minutes total, including the break before the encore. It would have been disappointing given the amount of work (and money) it was to get there, but if you've never been so close to a band in concert before, you have no idea what you're missing. It's a completely different experience. It was worth it for that alone.
I could see every scratch on Mami's black Strat pickguard. I could see the suede texture and yellow stitching on her Doc Martens. I could almost read the tiny "Seymour Duncan" on the Hot Rails pickup on her Stratomaster. She made eye contact with me a bunch of times - the best was during the opening riff of SCANDAL BABY, when she came out to the front of the stage and smiled directly at me as she played. That's obviously their most iconic song, so that was pretty special. That memory's going to stick with me for a long time.
At the end, both Rina and Tomomi also came over to the edge of my side of the stage to wave goodbye, and there was plenty of eye contact there too (I'm tall, American and hard to miss at a show like this). Haruna never did make it to our side, which was a little disappointing, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
The set itself was pretty densely packed with good live stuff, although the choice of opening song was interesting, and I still don't think "Kagen no Tsuki" is much of a crowd-pleaser (it was better tonight than at NHK Hall, though). The Dreams Come True cover "Osaka Lover" was also kind of unexpected, though they have played it before - but they had to explain what it was to the crowd during the MC afterwards. Nobody really knew what to do with their hands during that song, which was sort of funny - most of their songs have what amounts to defined crowd choreography.
I was a little disappointed that there was no "Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku Story", which always puts the crowd in a frenzy, but I guess they had to cut something for such a short show. "Doll" served as the towel-waving song on this night.
Their new song "Image" has the makings of a great up-tempo live song but it's not quite there yet - it's new and they're still learning it. I look forward to it on the Hello World tour, though - I'm sure it'll be fantastic. It is a hard rocking song.
"Your Song" was the designated audience participation song, and Haruna got
really into it, which was fun to see. The "whooooooa" parts of that song are designed for a live crowd to sing, and on this night Haruna led us into literally about 20 refrains in a row before finishing the song. (I truly believe it was more than originally planned, because she just couldn't stop!) She seemed genuinely surprised by the strength of the audience in the early verses and did something I've never seen her do - she came out to the front of the stage and did some
Dio-esque double devil horns as she led us into the chorus in the song's latter half. I thought she could not get any more badass than she already is, but she proved me wrong. She's totally metal!
The MC's were pretty short but they talked about their upcoming new album and single, the aforementioned DCT cover and tribute album, and Haruna's good mood tonight. If you read my
NHK Hall report you know that I thought she seemed borderline angry, but there was nothing like that tonight. She was smiling throughout the show (and not just during the MC's), to the point that Rina actually commented on seeing so much of Haruna's teeth. (Tomomi said Haruna's smile was the "best thing in the world.") It sounded during the MC's like Haruna may have actually had a cold, or just a tired voice, but she sounded fine when singing and she was definitely really into this show.
They weren't quite as loud as the other two shows I've seen, which may have been a blessing in disguise for us tonight because we were pretty much right in front of a giant speaker stack. I was hoping we'd still have eardrums at the end of the show, and we did... and then I was kind of disappointed by that! Scandal is normally one of the loudest bands I've ever heard in concert, but tonight their volume was pretty average - so I guess your mileage may vary if you go to one of their smaller shows.
Oh, and I can't close out without mentioning how they looked (it is Scandal, after all):
First of all, yes,
Haruna's blonde. Again. But her hair's still long, and she looks better than last time - picture Olivia Newton-John:
It actually fits Haruna well, and looks "right". You'll see it eventually, if you haven't already. She had it parted on the side, and the front is shorter than the sides and back, as above - she must be wearing extensions in their recent
6th anniversary photo.
Mami's hair is long again, with front bangs, and it was tied in back. She's also back to blonde, with some streaks. (Also different from the anniversary photo.) So as in the "Harukaze" era, we now have two blondes in the band.
Tomomi and Rina looked pretty much like always. Rina still has long hair and bangs (same hair style as the
Budokan show), which I think suits her.
All four of them were wearing black and white coordinating outfits, though not matched. Tomomi had a leopard print one-piece jumpsuit. Haruna had an oversized (striped?) sweatshirt with skin-tight pants. Haruna really does not look so skinny in person - she's one of those rare people that the camera
subtracts 10 pounds from. Mami was wearing a spotted top with matching spotted sarouel pants, which I usually hate, but she pulled the look off. Rina was wearing a dress, as she usually does.
I don't know if I'll try to make it to a show like this again, but it was worth it just for that memory of Mami playing SCANDAL BABY
directly at me.
This is my third SCANDAL live report - read them all!
