SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

10 years after their first concert in the city, Japan's all-female rock powerhouse SCANDAL finally returns to New York! This is part of their "Special Thanks" tour of North America, for fans who don't often get to see them in a live setting. What follows is my show report, as I've done after all five shows of theirs that I've attended (the previous four in Japan). I had a VIP ticket to this one.

What did that VIP ticket buy? Well, early access to the venue and merchandise, and most importantly, a meet & greet with the band! SCANDAL never do this in Japan, so I couldn't pass up the chance.

You can get an idea of the makeup of the crowd from the above pic of the line. This was the two sections of the VIP line - I was told initially that the other section was General Admission and was a little confused when they were let in first, but no, they were the VIP's too. They're people just like us!

Unlike the past four SCANDAL shows that I've been to, this time I was by myself. I'm fine with going to concerts alone and this is not my first time doing it, but I had nothing but my phone to take my mind off the oppressive heat while standing in line. (The photo above may look like it's indoors, but it's more like an open air garage - actually worse than being on the sidewalk because there's no wind!) I was already drenched in sweat before entering the venue, which didn't help my nervousness about meeting the band. "Luckily" there was still about a 30 minute wait inside before getting to them, in air conditioning.

I'm going to do something I normally don't do here and post a photo with myself in it, because it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime occasion:

Yes, I'm a huge doofus, literally. They look great while I look like the Jolly Green Giant. And what do you do with your hands in this situation?! That's a dilemma I hadn't considered! I had to laugh when I first looked at this picture afterwards (at myself, certainly not them!). I'm 6'4", but I look about 7 feet tall in this photo. It's like a bad Photoshop job. But no, it's real. And it's proof that I met SCANDAL and I am really happy to have it.

There - all fixed!

Everyone had about five seconds at the meet & greet, which I expected. I had come up with some short things to say that I thought they'd understand in English like "welcome back to New York!" and "you guys rock!" and "have an awesome show!" I'd given up the idea of trying to say anything in Japanese because I knew I'd never pull anything out of my head quickly enough. But in the end, all I even managed in English was "Hello!" while walking in and "Thank you!" while walking out. They repeated both back to me with big smiles and waves and were very friendly - they seem like nice people! They'd probably have been ok with me saying a few more things, but I was a little star struck.

After the meet & greet, I kind of expected I'd be handed an "exclusive gift" that I'd seen advertised for some of the US shows, but no - no one got anything, and the staff knew nothing about it. (Other people online seem as confused about this as I am, so it's not just me.) Well, since I was at least satisfied that I didn't miss something, I shrugged it off for the moment, still happy to bask in the afterglow of having just met the band, and took my place on the floor.

This is not much different from where I was when I saw them in Nagoya, about 4 people deep and right between Haruna and Mami. Very close! I didn't think I cared about being so close this time because I've been that close before, but when I saw the space available, I couldn't resist. And once the show started, I was glad I ended up there.

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

The venue itself seemed pretty full from where I was by the time the show started, although I couldn't really tell if the crowd filled all the way to the back wall.

Unlike at their Japanese shows, photos were allowed at this venue - though with only "non-professional" cameras, which means no interchangeable lenses. (And no video.) My phone is the best non-professional camera I have right now, so it's the only one I brought with me.

The show started on time and began with a thunderous rendition of "Shunkan Sentimental". A real crowd-pleaser and tone-setter right from the start, and a good sign for the set list to come! In fact, no need for suspense - here's the full set (from Scandal Heaven - I didn't write it down myself):

01. Shunkan Sentimental
02. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
03. Stamp!
04. Your song (English ver.)
05. SCANDAL BABY
06. Platform Syndrome
07. OVER
08. FREEDOM FIGHTERS
09. Morning sun
10. Departure
11. Koe
12. Sisters
13. Koisuru Universe
14. Electric Girl
15. LOVE SURVIVE
16. Take Me Out

Encore:
17. Shoujo S
18. DOLL

Great choices, I thought, and a decent length to the show - although it felt very short! It was a rock-heavy set, which suits my tastes. And SCANDAL, unlike many bands, fully embraces their history and never seems to tire of playing their past hits, even while mixing in new ones.

They blasted through the first four or five songs without a break before finally pausing for a short MC. Their energy level right from the start was very high, jumping around as much as I've ever seen them, and they seemed to be in a good mood. The MC segments, if you're wondering, were very short, because they don't speak a lot of English. But they (mostly Haruna) did their best, sometimes mixing English and Japanese, sometimes speaking only Japanese but using hand gestures and sound effects (which was funny!) to make a point. But none of the few MC segments were longer than a couple of minutes.

They did mention their previous New York show several times - the first overseas show they'd done - and said because of that, playing here felt like "coming home". At one point, Haruna asked if anyone had been at that first show - when one fan raised his hand, she asked, "are you a liar?" I personally discovered them just about a month after that show - maybe it was even reading about it that turned me on to them - so I've been a fan for nearly as long as they've been around, but just missed their NYC debut.

Since a New York show by SCANDAL is not exactly an everyday thing and I'd basically paid extra to be close to the stage, I decided to do my part to give them a good show and make it worth the trip for them. I've been in bands and it really is true that the band can feel (and see) the energy from the crowd, and it affects the effort that the band puts in and the way they feel about that show afterwards. So, especially being that I was alone and not worrying about what anybody around me thought, I went pretty much all out with as much energy as my own now middle-aged, lanky body could muster up. (I wasn't middle aged yet when I first started listening to them!)

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

I was drenched in sweat again by the middle of the set. Luckily I had brought my old SCANDAL towel with me, and bought a second one at the show to swing around. (I don't want to fling my sweat at the rest of the crowd.)

The first five songs in the set all seemed pretty well known by the crowd, and many people even knew what they were supposed to do - if you've never seen a Japanese band live, there are specific actions for different songs that everybody does in unison. Jump at certain times, wave your hands at certain times, yell "Hey!" at certain times, clap at certain times. In New York, obviously not everybody knew those things, but a lot of people did, and those of us who did led the rest of the crowd.

I felt a little bad for the band during "Platform Syndrome", "OVER" and "FREEDOM FIGHTERS", though, because clearly most of the audience just didn't know them. I do know them but I didn't know what to do during them... so I just did my best. A lot of people just stood around listening, but I think those are some of SCANDAL's best songs ever, so I was still in full bounce mode. I guess most of their US fans just haven't bought those albums. If you haven't, do it!

"Morning Sun" and "Departure" felt like a break for both the band and the crowd, and I definitely needed it. I've noticed that they often put a couple of slow songs in the middle of their longer sets, probably for just this purpose. It's also when I was able to take the few pics that I did - it was one of the few times peaceful enough to do it! Again, I felt like "Morning Sun" was probably over some of the crowds' heads - did some people just stop buying SCANDAL albums after "STANDARD"? But I love that song. I'm not as into "Departure" but I know some people are, and more people seemed to know it.

The back half of the set kicked back into overdrive (no pun intended) beginning with "Koe", which I failed to recognize at first and the crowd took a strangely long time to react to. (In Japan, this song always causes an immediate eruption. According to the band's own fan club poll, it's their second-most popular song there, next to "SCANDAL BABY".) I think the band might have slightly altered the intro, but it's hard to remember. When we all did finally recognize it and began rhythmically clapping during the first verse, Mami smiled, looked around at the crowd and nodded as she sang.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

"Sisters" came following a short MC in which Haruna dedicated the song to New York City (I'm not quite sure why), and without an acoustic guitar she created a new quiet electric intro that led to a funny moment when an audience member blurted something out just as the intro began. Haruna abruptly stopped, looked at the audience member and said "Really??"

Throughout the set, being so close to the stage and one of the tallest blades of grass, I got plenty of eye contact from both Mami and Haruna. And whenever Haruna looked at me, she smiled - no doubt because I'm a big, goofy guy who was going nuts. I've been this close to them before but never seemed to catch Haruna's eye; I think this time I was just able to give her something fun to watch. Especially in the songs where not many other people were doing much.

And I like to think I was partially responsible for the little burst of extra energy she seemed to muster towards the end of the show - she was really going crazy herself by the time "Love Survive" and "Take Me Out" came around. I don't think I've ever seen her jumping so much, and the only time I've seen her scream and come to the front of the stage so often was in Nagoya. She was uncommonly aggressive, especially during "Take Me Out" - a song that I have no real feeling for on the album. But it just goes to show how songs can take on new life when played live, as all of the band were bouncing around the stage like Super Balls. It was an awesome close to the main set.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

The encores were expected, but the song selection was a surprise. I didn't expect them to do anything with choreography on this tour (not sure why... playing in America plus getting older plus generally de-emphasizing choreography over the past few years, I guess). So when they launched into "Shoujo S", probably their most famously choreographed song ever, I just about lost my proverbial shit. It was the extended version with the solos for everyone - the only time Rina was really able to do anything directly for the crowd, but one of several moments when Tomomi was able to show off her frankly amazing skills on bass. And yeah, they did all the choreography they've ever done for that song live (which is a bit less complicated than the video, but not much), and they still look like they love doing it.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

Closing with "DOLL" seemed appropriate but was still unexpected - normally they have only one towel-waving song on a tour, and I'd heard that "Electric Girl" served that purpose on the recently concluded Asia tour. But "DOLL" is the original towel-waving song, and it was their major label debut, so closing with it on this tour is kind of a love letter to the fans, and seemed an intentional book-end to their two NYC shows 10 years apart. By the end of the song, I could barely even keep my arms in the air. I will say that I was the only one in my area of the crowd waving a towel, but goddammit I didn't care. That's what you're supposed to do during that song! I know the band appreciated it.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

The band did an extended goodbye like they do at one of their big special shows, and when they walked off stage, I could see them high-five each other backstage. They may always do that, but like everything else at this show, it looked particularly forceful and with real emotion behind it.

Overall, this was the most raw and most into it I've seen SCANDAL in some time. I wrote in my last show report from Tokyo in 2015 that they'd almost become too polished for a live house setting, but at the NYC show they seemed to embrace the casual venue and let it all hang out. And no one can connect with a crowd like they can. Seriously, no one. Even across the language barrier. Rock music is a universal language anyway.

Let me close by saying (admitting?) that after all these years - and it has been a lot of years now - SCANDAL can do no wrong in my eyes. Trust takes time to build up, and I admit that they almost lost me a few times, what with their occasional forays into rap and pop. But I've grown to trust them completely as a rock band - after 10 years, it's obvious that there's no one more genuine. They've come a long way and done a lot of different things since that first NYC show in 2008. And I know that whatever they do in the future, I'll always be a fan.

As usual, a couple of random notes that didn't really fit in elsewhere:

• The actual sound at the show wasn't great. This was almost certainly a venue problem, not anything the band had control over. If you were there and it was your first SCANDAL show, just know that they usually sound better from a technical perspective. In fact, their great live sound is something I've talked about in my other show reports.
• The merchandise available at the show can be seen on the SCANDAL official Facebook. They also had "HONEY" CD's, but nothing else extra. (If you're going to a later show and don't have it, buy "HONEY"! It's great!) I personally bought the XL black t-shirt and a towel. I recommend buying a towel, unless you have a SCANDAL towel already. As mentioned, there's always at least one song, and in this case two, where you're meant to wave your towel around.
• Haruna's short hair actually looks pretty badass live. It bounces around and gets in her face and makes her look even more like a rock star, if that's even goddamn possible.
• I was pleasantly surprised by their tour outfits! Last time in the US, they wore what looked like street clothes. Their current outfits suit their image better, and look more "designed" and coordinated. I don't ever expect them to go back to stuff they wore in the distant past, but their current outfits are an improvement over jeans, overalls and football jerseys.
• The old Squier signature guitars were mostly absent - though I was happy to see Haruna break out "Skullsilver" for the encores. I think she still likes it! Mami only played her black Strat, from what I remember, while Tomomi played her navy blue P-bass and her white Yamaha BB2024X.
• The band has to bill themselves as "SCANDAL from Japan" here, because of a certain other Scandal that's been around a lot longer in the US. Unlike some people, I don't mind this and I honestly doubt the band does either, because the American band is still active and has been since the 1980's (and there is no better example of the 80's than that link). I probably would have preferred the simpler "SCANDAL Japan", though (similar to "X Japan", who took that name for the exact same reason). The "from" just makes it sound like it's part of a sentence. It's kinda weird, but ultimately doesn't really matter.

This is my fifth SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market, 10/21/2015

So I saw SCANDAL for the fourth time in four years on this trip, which is pretty unbelievable, to be honest. I never plan it out; they just always happen to be playing when my wife and I go. This time they were doing some kind of special show for the annual Tokyo International Music Market with Androp, who I'd never previously heard of, and FLiP, the guest opening band.

By now I've been to several Japanese concerts but this was my first "live house" (aka club) show as a member of the general audience. (I'd previously seen Aldious as a guest of the band). It was at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo, not to be confused with Zepp Tokyo (where the "Everybody Say YEAH!" DVD was filmed), although they are literally a few hundred feet apart. (We went to Zepp Tokyo the night after for Chara's Yen Town Band, although that's another post.) Both venues are in Odaiba, one of my favorite areas in Tokyo, and within walking distance to our hotel, which was pretty awesome.

Zepp DiverCity is right behind the giant full-size Gundam that the area's sort of famous for. It's literally inside a mall, with a giant food court right next to it. How many rock clubs have a food court? It feels kind of like going to a 1980's mall multiplex. We did have to wait outside for the show, though - and I'll write up a lot more about the general Japanese club show process and experience in my Yen Town Band post. Things were pretty chill at DiverCity because the crowd wasn't actually that big, but Zepp Tokyo was a lot more hectic.

We got our tickets to SCANDAL from e+, the official ticket seller, and by the time we did we had a pretty high number, so we were lucky to get pretty close to the stage (about 8 heads deep) with a railing to lean on. The venue was not full, which was surprising for a couple of big bands. I don't think SCANDAL advertised this show all that much, and anyway their fans would know it's a small show and probably a short one. Still, these days you don't get a lot of opportunities to get really up close at one of their shows without getting very lucky, so I'd have thought the place would have sold out.

As always, photos inside the venue were not allowed. I tried to grab a snap of the stage but the venue staff were staring at me the entire time - I was right at the side railing with security sitting right next to me (and I'm a westerner so I draw more scrutiny). Luckily the band themselves posted a few shots to their blog and Facebook:

The band looked exactly the same as they did at Rock in Japan Fes. 2015, if you can't tell by the photos.

Some thoughts on the opening bands:

FLiP: To be honest, I didn't know who they were the entire time they were on stage! I've heard of them and seen pictures, but I don't know their music and I'd never seen them play. They rocked pretty hard, though. They feel a lot more like an American indie rock band than SCANDAL does these days, and I dig that. They're raw and unpolished, but in a good way. They only played three songs, but they extended the last one for some audience participation, with the drummer coming out to rile up the crowd the same way Rina sometimes does for SCANDAL.

Androp: There were actually quite a few people in the crowd who were there just for Androp - I saw a lot of Androp t-shirts being worn, and more than a few people left after they finished. But I just didn't get it at all. To me they sound like any generic Japanese rock band you could name; they're a walking stereotype. I suppose their distinguishing feature is supposed to be that they mix electronic music and rock (that's "genre-defying", apparently), but a lot of bands have done that over the past 20 years - it's not unique. I found their melodies unsatisfying, their songs mostly boring, and their stage act predictable. They're like a Japanese Jesus Jones.

SCANDAL
As for the main event, let's start with the set list:

M1.Stamp!
M2.EVERYBODY SAY YEAH!
M3.DOLL
M4.Shunkan Sentimental
M5.Shojo S
M6.Kagen no tsuki

MC
M7.Sisters
M8.Your song
M9.Image

ENCORE
EN1.Awanaitsumorino, genkidene

When I saw SCANDAL on the STANDARD tour, they practically blew the house down with their opening song (the title track to STANDARD). "Stamp!" does not have that same effect, and in fact the mix was strangely quiet - I'm used to them being very loud but this was almost like listening at home. Thankfully they got louder as the show went on. I will say that the crowd was into it from the start - now that I've seen a few more Japanese bands (in fact seven bands in two nights on this trip), I can definitively say that SCANDAL's fans are easily the most nuts about the music. SCANDAL somehow can get the whole place jumping in a way that no other band can.

From "EVERYBODY SAY YEAH" through "Shojo S", it was like the SCANDAL of old. In fact I was a little surprised at how many old songs they chose to play at such a short show, but I was happy that they did. "DOLL" served as the towel-waving song at this show, and luckily this time I managed to buy one so I finally got to participate. It's surprisingly tiring!

All of their old songs sounded heavier than they do on the albums, and I think "DOLL", "Shojo S" and "Shunkan Sentimental" sounded better than I've ever heard them before. They were very crisp and had that nasty attitude that the band used to have but that you rarely hear from them anymore. Haruna's voice has also just gotten better and better since her pre-Budokan vocal troubles, and she's easily hitting all their high notes now with no problem at all. Maybe for the first time, I felt like I was really seeing the same band sing these songs as I saw in their original promotional videos.

Even the choreography for "Shojo S" looked better than I've ever seen it - and it's always one of the most fun things to watch anyway. Haruna obviously loves to do it - I wrote in my Budokan report that she seemed a little over it, but this time she got completely giddy when they started doing those kicks, and all of them were in perfect unison and really put their whole bodies into it. With a short show, no need to save energy!

I missed a bit of the MC but what I did catch sounded like the standard stuff they say at every show, with nothing extra except a couple bits about the HELLO WORLD documentary and their upcoming arena tour. They hadn't prepared any little skits or special announcements for this short concert. Haruna dominated the MC; I don't even remember the others talking at all. Rina fans would have been really disappointed by the entire concert - she was basically invisible from start to finish. At smaller shows the band seems content to just let their leader do all the talking.

The second set was all newer songs, although they all sounded really good - even "Sisters", which is... not my favorite. It works a lot better live than on a recording - if you've seen the video, it really is like that (except their concerts have a lot more guys in the crowd). It's a song tailor made for pogo dancing. And they played it perfectly.

"Your Song" was used for audience participation, as it was last year when I saw them in Nagoya. The "whooooa" parts were extended, with Haruna coming out to fire us up, but it wasn't quite as energetic as Nagoya and it was also a bit shorter (I wrote last year that I felt like Haruna led us into many more "whoas" than planned, just because she loved it). She also hit a couple sour notes on her guitar duet with Mami, which I could see her frown a bit over before shrugging and laughing it off.

Overall it was a really good set for a short show, although I'd always rather see "SCANDAL BABY" in the set list somewhere, and preferably as the encore.

Some random thoughts:

* It was fun to see them in a live house setting, but they really "feel" like more of an arena rock band at this point, unlike FLiP. They're just really polished and professional, and they project seemingly beyond the walls of a live house.

* The rest of the band is always consistent from show to show, but Haruna seemed happier, more relaxed and more confident at this show than at any other I've been to, including Budokan. Maybe it's the effect of getting the braces off?

* SCANDAL's live and recorded personas are definitely diverging. Their releases over the last year have been pretty poppy, but live they are still a really straightforward rock band. In fact, at this show I felt like they had even finally found a way to channel their younger, more aggressive selves a bit to better fit their older songs.

I have a feeling this might be the last time I see them for a while, barring something unexpected - I don't have another Japan trip planned for next year, and anyway my luck's going to run out at some point. I've now seen them play at least one of every type of show - arena, hall, live house. (I guess I haven't seen them play a festival, but that's ok with me - festivals are always a nightmare.) I wish I could have seen another of their big arena shows, but if my last time turns out to be seeing them play these songs this well, and this close to the stage, I can't really complain.

This is my fourth SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000, 10/25/2014 live report!

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!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013 live report!

It's been more than a week but I'm finally able to get to writing this!

SCANDAL is a natural live band; one of those bands whose albums originally existed to try to capture the experience of being at one of their daily live shows. That's how they cut their teeth, and that's who they still are. YouTube and TV clips don't really capture it - you've gotta feel the beat and be part of the energy. I first saw them at Budokan last year at a big special event show - NHK Hall this month was my first "regular" tour experience, promoting the STANDARD album. Both shows blew me away, but this show was a lot different. I was practically right up front instead of in the nosebleeds, for one thing!

PRE-SHOW
Showtime was at 7PM with a door opening time of 6, so my wife and I arrived at about 5:15 to hit the merchandise tables. Many things sold out early at Budokan, so I was a little worried. In fact, we'd gone to the Kitty Records shop the day before to see if we could get a jump on things - they've turned this store into a temporary SCANDAL shop:

Between the Kitty Shop and NHK Hall, I ended up getting everything I wanted. Incidentally, I discovered the next day that this shop is only about 1/8 of a mile from NHK Hall - you can almost see one from the other.

If you want to see the actual merchandise I got, read to the end and I'll go through it.

The merchandise tables were set up inside a corner of the hall but were aligned such that you couldn't move out of that area. We'd read that if you bought the STANDARD CD at the show, you'd get an autographed card along with it, so we asked about this and were told we needed to wait until the main doors opened. (The regular merchandise tables were open to anyone, not just people with tickets.) We got in line at about 5:30 and waited in what suddenly felt like freezing cold.

This was just as we got in line. It may look long at this point, but trust me when I say it got a lot longer than this. By 6PM, this was the front of the line. The entire plaza became crowded, and the barricades came out to hold the crowd back behind us and get the line to snake around.

The doors opened a bit late at around 6:10, and the people in front of us ran towards the CD table, which was located in the back of the quite large hall lobby. They announced that there were only a limited number of autographed cards. The line moved excruciatingly slowly as the staff stopped it periodically to randomly shuffle CD stacks around for no apparent reason. As we finally approached the CD tables at about 6:30, they announced they had only 10 cards left. I counted exactly 10 people in front of me. Argh!

And yet...

When I went up, they told me they had one card left, although I actually saw three. I like that it has the date and venue on it; it's not generic. And yes, those are real signatures. Interesting that Rina apparently romanizes her name "Lina"!

I knew from reading elsewhere that the band has "present boxes" set up at their shows, so we brought them a couple little gifts - four "I Love New York" keychains and a ramen set from the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. I really didn't know what type of stuff people normally leave for them and I couldn't tell when I looked in the boxes either, because they'd been emptied once already and the few things remaining were all wrapped. Of course we stuck a note and some business cards in with our stuff :)

Hey, we sent Aldious $200 flowers - I figure spending $30 on keychains and ramen is a little less over the top.

Here were the flowers others sent to SCANDAL. It's hard to read the signs with my blurrycam-phone but it was pretty much the usual suspects - MTV, Music Japan, etc. I did notice FLiP, another popular girl band, sent them flowers too. That was nice. If I remember right, the merch tables were originally right where those barricades are; they moved them once the main doors opened. The present boxes were right behind me.

We took our seats at about 6:45 and the hall filled up fast. I'd been checking and the show wasn't sold out up to that day, but it sure seemed like people were filling in all the way to the top. NHK Hall is big - at 3,800 seats, it's almost twice as big as Carnegie Hall in New York City. Looking backwards, it was shocking how far away some seats are - our original tickets would have put us further away than we were at Budokan. Our seats that we'd upgraded through Yahoo Auctions turned out to be amazing - probably as good as I could hope for without either paying a thousand dollars or just getting really, really lucky in the public lottery.

It's forbidden to take photos at concerts in Japan (and people follow that rule) but my wife chanced just this one before the show started. I believe we were in the 8th row overall. The four girls were spread evenly across the stage, with Rina out front, so we were sort of in between Tomomi and Haruna, while Mami would be off the right edge of this photo. The stage itself comes out a little further than it appears here - there's some extra space in front that all the girls used when they wanted to come out to rile up the crowd. At their closest to me, it looked like they were about 15 feet away.

This traditional Japanese stage set changed about halfway through the show, which I'll explain in a bit.

One thing I like about Japanese shows is that there is no messing around with opening bands or vague start times. At exactly 7PM, the lights went dark and the crowd roared. Everybody stood up and stayed that way for the rest of the show. Suddenly and without warning, Rina's snare drum popped in the darkness like gunshots going off and I jumped in surprise as SCANDAL launched into "STANDARD".

SET LIST (aped from Scandal Heaven)
01. STANDARD
02. Brand new wave
03. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH
04. Orange Juice
05. Houkago 1H
06. Uchiagehanabi
07. Hachigatsu
08. Koe
09. Metronome
10. Koi no Gestalt Houkai
11. Kagen no Tsuki
12. Weather report
13. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
14. Kimi to Mirai to Kanzen Douki
15. OVER DRIVE
16. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
17. Namida yo Hikare~STANDARD

Encore:
18. Space Ranger
19. SCANDAL BABY
20. DOLL

I'm actually not quite sure of the placement of a couple of these songs - I think "Koe" and "Metronome" might be flipped, at least.

"STANDARD" was incredible; even momentous. It felt like an entire new direction for the band, and one completely at odds with where I was worried they were headed only a few months ago. It's all their own song (no outside writers or arrangers), and they played it so loud, so noisy and so recklessly that, combined with the fact that it both opened and closed the show(!), I have to believe this is who they really want to be now. It was like an explosion, or a pack of wild animals that had been caged up and finally let loose. The crowd went crazy; if this was America, I swear there would have been a mosh pit.

The band kept the energy up for the next few songs before things started to mellow out a bit for "Orange Juice" and then of course "Houkago 1H", which was almost kind of a break for them and the crowd. Both Mami and Tomomi got exactly one song that featured them as singers; "Houkago 1H" isn't the one I'd have picked for Timo, but it's nice to hear songs they don't play live a lot. "Uchiagehanabi" and "Hachigatsu", the next songs, were a little disappointing, feeling slower than they do on the album and with less emotion.

Things really picked up again with "Koe" and "Metronome", though. "Koe" literally had the audience jumping again during the chorus, to the point that I had kind of a hard time even watching Mami sing it. The song felt much harder than it does on its album. Haruna said later that "Koe" is surprisingly the #2 ranked song of all time by their fan club members (#1 is "Scandal Baby"), but I could believe it based on the crowd reaction. During "Metronome", Haruna held the high notes an extra second or two and you could hear the crowd roar for her over the music whenever she did. She is fully back from her earlier vocal problems, and now has one of the best voices in all of rock music.

Somewhere around this time is when they had their first and main MC break, which lasted around 20 minutes. After doing their standard intro, Haruna told us we could sit down. They talked about various things including a radish Tomomi had left in her refrigerator during the tour, how they can remember playing early shows attended by exactly zero people, and whether cats or dogs were better. Haruna brought out her "Harupedia" (an actual binder she has) that she read various facts from about cats and dogs. The girls all voted on whether they liked cats or dogs (Haru and Timo: dogs; Rina and Mami: cats) before asking the crowd to break the tie. On this night, cats won.

They also announced during the MC that yes... the show finally sold out!

During "Koi no Gestalt Houkai", Haruna put her guitar down and picked up a megaphone so she could strut around the front of the stage. She did a little sexy dance as she walked around, which was pretty fun to watch from where I was standing, though I've read from others at other shows that it didn't translate as well further away and higher up. But standing below her and only a few feet away.. I mean, I actually said "Jesus Christ!" out loud as I was watching her. She may be a little thin for my tastes these days, but that woman still knows how to move.

As the song ended, she strapped her blue Mustang back on so she could do the craziest extended intro to a song that I've ever heard them do. It started out as about two minutes of straight up random guitar noise. Slowly she used some kind of effect (it looked like a Maxon AD999) mounted to her mic stand to manually blend the sound into a pulsating single tone. It was like I was suddenly at a My Bloody Valentine show. That tone then formed the basis for Mami to launch into the opening notes of "Kagen no Tsuki".

"Weather Report" was again a little disappointing in the same way as "Hachigatsu" and "Uchiagehanabi", but as "Awanai Tsumori no Genki de ne" began, the set peeled apart to reveal a massive open and modern (and freakin' bright) light setup behind them, the crowd went wild again and the energy feedback loop between band and crowd was restored. They maintained that energy through the rest of the set - it didn't hurt that their remaining songs were all great live songs. I even thought "OVER DRIVE" was fantastic, and I'm a little iffy on the album version. "OVER DRIVE" is also one of the only songs they did featuring any synchronized band choreography (they did the little jig from the video any time they weren't singing), and it was cute.

(I realized a few weeks after writing that that they also did the choreography from "Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY", which was a towel-waving frenzy near the end of the show that was also physically difficult to actually watch them play from my spot on the floor. I was just caught in a mob.)

And yes, after finishing up "Namida yo Hikare", they immediately launched into the ending chorus of "STANDARD" again, which was an amazing way to finish. Many of their songs are obviously intended for audience participation, and "STANDARD" is one of those - I was looking forward to being able to sing "yeeeeeeeeah whooooooooooa!" along with them, and I wasn't disappointed.

For the encore, the girls changed into their tour shirts as they always do, then performed three of their most crowd-pleasing early songs. I was personally hoping they'd do "24 Jikan Plus no Yoake Mae" as they did at some of the earlier shows on this tour, but no dice. I am happy they did "Scandal Baby", which I think should never be out of the set list, and it was absent at some of the shows on their last tour. During that song, Tomomi went behind Haruna and teased her a bit, and Mami tried to do something similar with Rina (it's a little harder with a drummer). It wasn't quite as fun as when I saw them do this song at Budokan, though.

After "Doll", they did another little MC/personal introductions/thank you to the crowd, and that was that. I left drenched in sweat and wishing I'd bought one of the towels they were selling! (They're not just for waving around.) My wife said this was the first time she learned that I could jump.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND NOTES

• Their outfits were fairly simple white dresses, pants and skirts; not very flashy or elaborate like they sometimes wear, almost under-designed if you ask me, but better in person than in pictures. Still, not my favorite outfits that they've worn (but also not the worst).
• They've really gotten a lot more serious as a band. You can especially see it in Haruna, who is just all business when she's playing and has started doing some creative guitar stuff on stage. The way she is in their recent videos is pretty much the way she really is on stage now. She's no longer the bubbly, slightly awkward teenager of Koi Moyou, that's for sure! She's even a little less goofy than when I saw them at Budokan a year ago. If not for the MC parts, where she was smiling and laughing more than anyone else, I'd have almost thought she was angry at this show. But she has just gotten really intense. She's become the dark and brooding one, at least while she's singing and playing.
• I still think something might have been going on between Haruna and Tomomi - Haruna barely ever even looked at Tomomi during either the MC's or while playing, and Tomomi seemed almost scared of Haruna, rarely moving from her spot and mostly staying out of the MC conversations. There was one awkward moment that really made me feel bad for Tomomi when she walked over to Haruna, literally stood there looking at her for about 10 seconds, and then walked back without even being acknowledged. It was weird.
• I don't think I like Rina being in front - it messes up the band dynamic. Drums are a large and disruptive presence on a stage, and their being in front means none of the band members can really play off each other and they all need to mostly stay in one spot. It also means Haruna faces to her left during the MC's, since that's where half the rest of the band is - that could be partially responsible for why Tomomi looked so left out a lot of the time. I understand that Rina's an equal part of the band, but the drums need to be in back.
• If you didn't get it, SCANDAL is loud. I've seen Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth - none of them are as loud in concert as SCANDAL. Whenever I see them live, I have Marty DiBergi going through my head saying they've earned a place in history as "one of Japan's loudest bands." They're also heavier than on their albums, and at this show they were a bit messier and less precise... but in a punky kind of way that mostly sounded good. They are a noisy and powerful band live.

If you're wondering about the merchandise, here's everything I walked away with:

That's the bag (which you have to buy), the regular Standard t-shirt, the packet of stuff they give you just for showing up, the signed card, the keychain set (we exchanged keychains!), the CD that I had to buy to get the card, and the photo book. The book is actually pretty fantastic - it's hardcover, and it shows them in a very different and more mature light than past books have.

The keychain set is also pretty rad - the designs of each of their signature instruments are reproduced in the metal down to really fine detail:

Tomomi's bass also has the competition stripes. Rina's bass drum has the stylized Scandal "S".

I thought after Budokan that that was my one chance, but I'm determined to see them again now. I actually scheduled this trip partly around this show and I will be doing that again. It's worth it.

(Feel free to leave a comment here if you'd like to say or ask anything that's restricted on the Scandal Heaven thread - I don't have the same rules.)

This is my second SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

SCANDAL vs. BUDOKAN show report: Japan 3/2012 Day 5

I'm jumping around a bit here with my trip report, but one thing I've learned with show reviews is you've gotta do them while you still feel it. Otherwise it's like a dream; it's fleeting, and you forget too much. Also, a warning: you are about to read a report from a fanboy. It is incredibly detailed and quite long. Feel free to skip it if this does not sound appealing.

Tonight was the SCANDAL show at Nippon Budokan! This was the centerpiece of this trip for me, and I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. How often does a person from overseas get to see one of their favorite Japanese bands at Budokan? It's rare for most bands to even get the chance to play there, and then for me to just happen to be here at the same time and be able to actually get tickets from the United States, well, it's almost impossible. Everything had to line up perfectly, and it did.

I've actually been following Scandal since probably 2009, just after their major label debut. They were a different band back then; really young and raw and I thought of them as more of a curiosity - these Japanese girls dressed up in school uniforms playing hard rock music. What's not to like about that?? But I didn't really take them seriously, and their music - while good - was basically stuff high school kids make with Garage Band.

Today they're a real professional rock band, with all that that entails - actual competence at playing their instruments, glossy production, hair and makeup stylists, custom clothing designers and all that jazz. They're also pretty confident on stage. They've lost some of their edge but it's not embarrassing anymore to admit that I like them - they look, sound and play like a band that should be filling arenas. And now they are.

This was my first concert in Japan, and as I expected, it was a different kind of experience vs. an American show!

We arrived at about 4:45PM for a 5:30PM door opening. I didn't really know why we even needed to get there early at all since we had assigned seats, but I knew the Japanese like to line up, so I figured we may as well get in it. I was glad we got there at least a bit early, because they had the merchandise tables set up outside the arena and had started selling some time before - they were already sold out of various things, including several items I wanted. I did manage to get a t-shirt in large (which I doubt will fit me), a photo book and obviously the bag to put everything in - which you had to buy for 500 yen. Picked up a few gifts too.

This is a stitched together panorama photo of Budokan when we got there - the main merchandise tables were on the left. On the right was a smaller booth selling their CD's and DVD's, plus a table where you could sign up to join their official fan club. (I almost did it! But it's 5,000 yen, and the main benefit you get is early access to show tickets. It's doubtful I'll ever have the chance to use that again.)

Incidentally, if you're wondering what kind of fans Scandal has in Japan, it was a pretty even mix between guys and girls, and even young and old (definitely more young than old, but I saw more than a few middle aged people there - and not all of them were with their kids!). It wasn't just a bunch of nerdy anime fans or perverted guys or alternately a bunch of girly girls. It was just regular people, most a bit cooler and more fashionable than average. It was like walking through Harajuku at any given moment. A lot of the girls there were obviously trying to look like the band.

We finally lined up for the opening - as always in Japan, the lines were completely organized and snaked around without any sort of line management system. People just know how to line up here. We ended up near the front anyway - here's the view of the front of the line (I actually think this is kind of a crazy pic - imagine somebody falling backwards!):

As my ticket was taken, a guy came up to me and asked if I had a camera. I said yes and was forced to check it. They weren't asking everyone - someone must have seen me snap the pic of the line. Japan is still really strict with pictures at concerts, so I didn't get any during the show itself. I really didn't see anyone trying to buck this rule either, so I wasn't going to chance it even though I still had my cell phone (which I can't be without!). There will be a DVD of this show soon enough (update: yup)... my original clip that I posted here died, but that's ok, because here's a better one from the show itself - imagine being in the crowd during this:

Haruna's wearing circle lenses! They all look very, very cute, don't you think? It's almost too much! Haruna's a badass no matter how she's styled, though.

I'll try to describe the stage setup. It was actually a pretty standard Japanese arena stage. The north side seats (including NE and NW) were completely blocked/draped over because the stage was either in front of or directly to the side of them. The stage itself had a standard full-width front stage and (if I remember right) a slightly smaller raised back section with staircases leading up. In front of the main stage was a smaller platform connected by an elevated "runway". The girls' positions were marked with large orange stars that glowed under certain types of light. Two large monitors allowed those on the upper floors to see what was going on at ground-level, and four large connected monitors backed the rear stage as well.

We were seated on the East side, row K, seats 22 and 23. Middle quality seats - not great, but there were a lot of people further away than we were. I can't complain given that we paid regular price and managed to buy our tickets from the US. We did have to watch the monitors a lot; I couldn't really make out anyone's face from where we were. The arena was full - it was a sellout (in 15 minutes!) - though oddly enough, the people next to us never showed up. They were the only empty seats I could see in the entire arena.

The show started nearly on time, at 6:35PM. No opening band. I appreciate this - there's just way too much waiting at American shows. At Japanese shows (this one plus others I've read about), you get there, you sit down, the show starts.

Here's the set list for the show (aped from Scandal Heaven, who aped it from Scandal Mania):

1. SCANDAL no Theme
2. Shunkan Sentimental
3. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH
~MC
4. BEAUTeen!!
5. Shoujo S
6. LOVE SURVIVE
7. Hi-Hi-Hi
~RINA drum solo
8. SCANDAL Nanka Buttobase (dance)
~MC(Candid Timo)
9. Pride
10. Haruka
11. BURN
12. Switch
13. Aitai
~MC
14. HARUKAZE
15. SAKURA Goodbye
16. Hello! Hello!
17. Taiyou to kimi ga Egaku STORY
18. SCANDAL BABY

Encore
1. Space Ranger
2. Kagerou
3. DOLL

The show actually opened with a "SCANDAL vs. BUDOKAN Title Match" video, that was intended to be funny and kind of was but I really just wanted them to get on with it. The first real song, Shunkan Sentimental, opened with a bang - literally. So much pyrotechnics that we could feel the heat on the second level! The band was wearing some very Harajuku-ish pop punk fashion - I've never seen them dressed like that before; they looked very cute, although some of their fans (including me, sometimes) probably wish they still just wore the uniforms. They were all wearing wireless headset mics so they could move around - also unusual for them (and Tomomi seemed uncomfortable with hers all night).

The entire first set (up to Rina's drum solo) just totally rocked, and I've never seen an arena crowd so into a show before. Japanese crowds are amazing in exactly the way I thought they might be. They go totally nuts in a completely organized way. They will come up with a collective action totally spontaneously. It's like being in an unrehearsed line dance, but somehow everybody knows what to do. I just tried to keep up, and I think I did a pretty good job of it. But it was amazing to look around the arena and see everyone doing the same thing, at the same time, whether it was pumping their fists in the air, waving their arms back and forth, chanting (that's the one thing I had trouble with), or whatever. Absolutely no one just stood there and watched, or did their own little individual dance. Everybody went with the crowd.

During Shoujo S, the band used the raised rear stage to show off their choreography - I was so happy they did this, because the choreography for that song is just such a perfect match for it and that video is one of the first things I ever saw from them. They didn't do a lot of choreography tonight but there seem to be a few songs with choreography that they must just like, and they did do it for those songs. They were dancers first before they were a band, so they must just enjoy it sometimes.

Rina's drum solo allowed for a wardrobe change for the other three members. It was a long drum solo that she used to rile up the crowd with some audience participation, while throwing in some of the cuteness that she's known for - several times she'd stop and just toss in a few randomly cute facial expressions to get the crowd on her side. She's a better drummer than I thought she was, but honestly her solo went on a little too long.

She followed this up with a pretty lengthy monologue by herself. When the other girls returned, they had changed into some faux-Yanqui outfits, which somehow sort of suits them and their tough Osaka street image, though it's not the sexy look they're known for and that most of the crowd was probably hoping to see. Now it was Rina's turn to take a break while the rest of the band did a full-on dance number; rather than playing "SCANDAL Nanka Buttobase", they instead just did all the choreography from the video as it played on the screens in the background. It was fun to just watch them dance for one song.

When Rina returned, there was a long MC section as the girls bantered back and forth about some pyrotechnics Rina had set off at the end of her drum solo, with the joke being that the rest of the band had tricked Tomomi into paying for it. Eh. Long setup, not a big payoff. By the end of this, it had literally been about 30 minutes since the band had played a single note of music together. And what followed was a series of songs that, while all good mid-tempo songs, were obviously intended to give the girls kind of a break and help them make it through a long set. And the audience calmed down a lot too.

Luckily, things did build again towards the end, as the crowd sensed the end was coming and the band started throwing in some more up-tempo songs to bring the energy back up. By the time they started up "SCANDAL BABY", everyone was back in frenzy mode. From what I remember - and it's now the next night as I finish writing this - they brought up the arena lights completely during this song so the audience and band could feel closer together. Definitely one of the highlights of the night.

Of course there were encores, with the girls having changed into their tour t-shirts (as Japanese bands generally do during encores). They played three of their oldest songs, and they all moved to the little sub-stage in front of the main stage. They said that while this was a special night and it was great playing a big arena, they wanted to bring back the feeling of playing some of their early club shows. So they set up a small stage in the middle of the crowd and simplified the light show. It was just them out there jumping around in a very small space. I'm sure this was great if you were on the floor but for us up on the second level, it didn't really translate well. The cool part about it was hearing them play these really early songs, though. Like going to see Pink Floyd and hearing them play "Bike" or something.

And, that was that. The show overall lasted about 2 1/2 hours, but I was sad when it was over - I wanted more! I don't know when I'll ever be able to see them again, though I did get some nice souvenirs and of course, the memories. There will be a DVD and I'm actually pretty confident I'll be pretty easy to pick out in some of the crowd shots (I am a big, goofy American guy in a sea of Japanese.) Here are some pics of the swag I picked up:

T-shirt front and back, bag and photo book.

Some random shots from after the show - flowers people had sent them, and then the nearly-empty merchandise tables:

This is my first of several SCANDAL live reports - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012