Yoko Kanno in Super Space Time Tanabata Sonic - Meeting of Stars, of the Most Wonderful Sort
[Updated twice…]
So you might have heard about “超時空七夕ソニック” and how it’s got this Yoko Kanno chick, amirite?
Where can I begin? Let me just say that despite being a fan for 10+ years, there are many others who are worse off (ie. bigger fans), and/or just gush better. Try this forum thread over at Mac(ross) World or Danie’s casual observations. You can also read about it in the comments over at a Gabriela Robin site (among other things there). In fact, only read on if you care about the show so much that you just want another cross sectional view of this entirely way-too-awesome experience. I’ve got nothing much to add. This concert report is going to be as blow-by-blow and detailed as I can, given the time and mental restraints, so this is going to be a really, really long post.
And this post is just a cross sectional view. I had arena/floor level seats, so I couldn’t see the whole stage as well as the guys on the 200 or 400 level, even if, for a change, I can actually see the whites of the eyes of the performers! And darn, that Megumi Nakajima girl is a cutie. (Hur hur hur.)
So read on, if you want a very fanboy-ish recollection of that fateful Tuesday…ever been to a show that kept you in a reverie for (almost) a week? Yep, this is it. And it’s an understatement to involve a mere meme like “over 9000″ because it’s a lot more than just that.
But let’s get the ugly first: Say hi to Steve Conte and his new friends!
For the basic info like the massive list of tracks, this is a good start. And the Gabriela Robin site above. I’ll do a track-by-track-play-by-play once this rambling drip of a report hits its stride. For now, read the boring/embarrassing background stuff.
The concert itself is an interesting experience on some level simply because I was n00b. Let me frame it by saying that I had to travel to Japan, and brave the foreign elements for the first time with help from many other people. The baptism by fireNana Mizuki’s Seibu Dome show the previous Saturday, Live Diamond 2009, was both a challenge and a warm-up exercise. Or a worn-out exercise… It’s odd. By the end of the Kanno concert I was full of pent up energy, waiting to be spent for an encore that never took place, all thanks to the 4+ hour of wotagei exercise that I had to endure to get to CHU-LU CHU-LU CHU-LU PA-YA-PA, two days prior. But (no) thanks to that great show put on by Nana, I didn’t think I was at 100% mental capacity to receive all the legendary epic-ness this Super Space Time Tanabata Sonic had to offer. In other words, it was almost too much of a good thing in too short period of time and I’m not sure I can fully appreciate it at the heat of the moment.
Among other things that I had to deal with–the brain wrecking and bank-account-emptying proxy 2nd-hand ticket buying being the biggest challenge–it made me appreciate all the guys who helped. Seriously. I also know what a Japanese scalper looks like now, lol. Some things are just based on luck, DNA, and you might wanna ask your mom about overcoming jet lag, but all in all, it was quite manageable.
Did I ever mention that I went to Japan primarily just for this concert? I guess I just did. Sometimes you just got to live it up and have no regrets, you know what I’m saying?
Luck, however, does strike both ways. While I’m lucky enough to be there, not everything went my way. Like how going an hour and a half early to line up for merchandise scored me everything except the poster. And what’s worse is that the poster is a “secret” in that no samples of it was hanging around. It really sucked too because they sold out right about 200 people ahead of me.
Two hundred people sounds like a lot, but it was a tiny portion of that line. For the uninitiated, the Saitama Super Arena holds up to 37,000 people in its largest configuration (IMO probably just 1/2 of that for this show). For the concert, special merchandise can be purchased (in this case, only by ticket holders!) at 2pm on the day of the show, at the venue. With alexd00 and Wildarmsheero, we got to the snaking line roughly at around 12:30. I wonder why they only had the posters in limited quantities though, since it sold out to like, the first 2000 people or something. It was also the cheapest thing on the menu.
Anyways, spending precious time in Japan, in a line, is hardly the wisest thing I could do, so it’s not a wash that we didn’t line up for much longer than we did despite not getting all that I wanted. I did end up with a copy of the special booklet for the concert, which is full of photos from their rehearsals, introduction pieces to the SEATBELTS members, and other nonsense (in English and Japanese!) regarding Yoko Kanno’s weirdness. What was particularly interesting is that a partial set list was included in the booklet, along with a CD with a single audio track on it.
[I got two copies. Taking bids on one of them…post a comment if you would like?]
[Speaking of which, all of these troubles are merely mental hiccups at worse–they are problems you can solve by throwing enough money at them. Not really a great way to solve problems, but sometimes that’s just how it has to go.]
The other two things were a simple T-Shirt, with the chicken feet right by where your boobs are (it’s this picture); and the “wotagei” kit. Normally at a Nana or Yukarin or whatever show, that’d be the towel. Fans would swing or wave or otherwise do something with the towel at the show, to the cues of back-up dancers, for a song or two. But being Yoko Kanno, you get a bag (which has a resealable string thing) which contains a yellow towel and a rubber ducky. It says “SAVE THE HIYOKO” on the clear plastic bag. Right. Ha. Sure. Of course we were speculating “there’s no way you can ‘towel’ any of Kanno’s songs” but little did we know…
At the venue, various Kanno CDs were being sold as well (along with the Yoko Kanno issue of Music Magazine). There was a promotion that if you buy a CD you can get a SEATBELTS sticker (and you can pick between pink or green). It was a crappy sticker, but I ended up with one anyway (bought a copy of The Cream PUF, lol). Would have picked up Genius Party OST if I had enough cash left at that point…
At any rate, I think at some point Wildarmsheero will talk about something regarding to the concert. Something delicious and probably related to giant, rampaging robots. Or shimapan. Brought to you by Pepsi shiso!
Oh, before I forget, a big shoutout to the Japanese guy who helped us change train over at (IIRC) Urawa, who’s in a fedora and traditional Japanese casual men wear…whatever it was called. Sorry we cut the line on you not on purpose (GAIJIN SMASH)!
I think some other foolish things that happened between getting the goods at around 3pm and when we seated for the show at 6:45pm included:
- Gaijin watch–okay, we know there are ninja gaijins like myself, who blends into the crowd like any good, properly-behaving East Asian in a sea of East Asians. We met up with danie and her friends from Singapore, so that much is obvious as well (small Asian girls are hard to find! Or should I say easy?) We somehow had this expectation of seeing more westerners, though. Were we correct with those (not so) great expectations? Probably less correct than we thought but more correct than what would have happened if this was some random Japanese musician. In reality we saw a bunch of people who did spoke English, had naturally non-black hair, what have you. It’s just that they were few and far in between. We got a picture from one of them, as a bunch of people were snapping away at the front entrance of the Saitama Super Arena.
- Pictures–we took pictures of ourselves and things like the crowd. Some of us snuck pictures of the stage.
- Talk about Strike Witches. Because WAH has his stupid hat with him the entire time, it became an instant “identifiable” source of conversation. And believe it or not too many people know what the hat is!
- Expensive restaurant–I mean, coming from someone who eats at NYC midtown on a regular basis, it’s not that expensive at all to have a 1100 yen plate of pasta, dressed with crab. Especially since you don’t take tip into account. But that was kind of expensive compared to my average eats in Tokyo, even. It was the second most expensive meal I’ve had on the trip (once taking drinks and other stuff into account, and not counting the silly service-oriented LittleBSD-like adventures) and at least the food was good. Then again, the higher price made that place crowd-free and it was the crowd that drove us there in the first place as every other eatery was packed. By the way, this Italian dig is located on the top floor of this…building near the Arena, accessibly mainly via an elevator only. It plays crappy American radio music you hear from places like, uh, the Gap. In 2006. You know it’s bad because even I can recognize them…
- Buying a meal for WAH. This man has peculiar tastes but eats like a swarm of locus. Or maybe he was just really hungry.
We gaijin-smashed our way down to the Arena floor seats after dinner and photos. The seats I had was by all means pretty good, but it wasn’t THAT good. Like, we could’ve been closer for the same price. At the same time, however, most of the concert took place on the catwalk, and far most of the vocalists were fairly close by where I sit. I had very good looks at Megumi Nakajima and May’n, if that matters to anybody.
That’s from where I sat (after the show).
So yeah, the stage is made up of this back portion (rear stage) and the catwalk portion. The catwalk looks like an arrow and most of the vocal performers stood near the front, the pointy part of the arrow. Kanno and her piano-on-a-lift was in the middle of the catwalk. The orchestra and choir sat in the rear, hidden with a curtain. So if you had a really front row seat, you get nice dibs at the orchestra and when Maaya Sakamoto was doing her trio thing with May’n and Megumi (hereinafter as Mamegu, keke), because she stood at the front of the rear stage.
I reference the star holiday meaning of Tanabata several times because that’s what it is–all these “stars” (whether you know their names or not) gathers and meet for a once-in-a-lifetime event. I’m not sure if that was intentional, but it definitely seemed fitting once you hear all the vocal collaborations among Maaya, Origa, Mai Yamane, Scott Matthews, Steve Conte, and of course the Macross Frontier duo.
And like the other Yoko Kanno shows, this show was entertaining beyond just getting the audience into it. It’s a complete show–the acts entertained fanboy dreams and fantasies, but they were solid musical acts–the acoustics at the Saitama Super Arena blows the hell away that of a baseball stadium. And the Warsaw Philharmonic sounded like they were cutting a track. What’s more, some of the acts are basically comedy acts, and the show is packed with surprises via just the different ways each song is presented, how the dancers played with the singers and with Yoko Kanno. Some of the songs were performed in a way that you just had to see it to believe it. It’s one of those evenings that was magical with a heavy dose of crazy genius, that sets this fan’s years-long admiration and respect aflame as he was entertained not just musically but visually, as a group, with laughs and cries of joy.
So why weren’t you there?
Speaking of surprises, while the set list was published in the booklet that was sold since 2pm that day, it is in a little “lol spoiler” page which folded itself in, so you couldn’t just glance at it. I took a peek at it just to get a feel, but even so a lot of it was surprising in terms of how each song is arranged, performed (by who and how), and how it sounded. It’s kind of unreal.
It’s as unreal as the first track of this set of bootlegs.
I’ll try to just pin down what happened as far as I can recall… there are definitely going to be errors so please correct me where necessary.
Opening musical segment: Basically the usual pre-show effects. There are some teasers while people were getting seated, but it was kind of an odd surround sound thing with a visual that came in and out. Anyways, the show kicks off with Early Bird, and Santi-U? Anyways, from that point on there’s a video montage of all of Kanno’s anime discography done by year and by anime title, with a matching music clip to that show. People cheered to their favorite titles (lol Brain Powered).
A warped version of Tank begins to play, as the members of the SEATBELTS band files in on to the catwalk. Crowd begins to cheer for every head that rears and every man that picks up his instrument, drumsticks, or whatever.
The pre-show continues with Torukia, which plays in the background to a dark stage. Different performers appears on the catwalk, each drawing applause as matching their popularity–the five girls at any rate. And Kanno Yoko, who appears last with her fabulous red trench coat. It’s all done to the beat of the song, naturally. I think she is wearing something similar to what she wore in the Cowboy Bebop live… This is definitely a good track to build up to a live, to get that beat going on. In second recollection, I think the girls and the band are actually singing and performing it live, at least once all the vocalists get on stage.
The first actual track to the concert is Inner Universe performed by Origa. Maaya sings backup for her during the “Nalyubuites / Aeria gloris” bit, and the like. It’s kind of funny to see May’n, Mamegu and Mai Yamane just hang chill in the rear, before the piano and wiggling to the music. Well, “weird” would just mean I was in a state of giddy disbelief that I’m actually THERE. And then, “oh woaaah Maaya doing backup vocals” kicks in.
After getting my throat warmed up, the MacF duo start up with Lion. The other three girls hang back. One of them (Mai?) started to dance. Being the first time for me seeing the two live, it is fun to see how they’re coordinated and all. I think they are trying to keep it a notch down, being just the second song to the massive set, so the body motions are rather muted. The two of them are at the front edges part of the arrow-catwalk, with Mamegu on the left and May’n on the right, and they switched after the first part of the song. I distinctly remember May’n’s dress with this short skirt(?) and blue glitter, which works well on a stage like that. Speaking of dresses, Maaya has this white-color one piece and both Origa and Mai have some layered outfit on them that I can’t really tell very well. I don’t remember what Mamegu wore at first besides it had a miniskirt.
What’s next is a bit of a surprise: Player from Ghost in the Shell. I think Maaya has the backup vocals again with Origa, but I don’t know for sure/remember. I hoped someone would try to rap the female talking bit, heh. I think this might be slightly abridged version of the song, but the three girls in the back starts to dance more and get into it more.
Anyways, I think the next song, Want it all back, is my favorite of the show. Why? Because Mai Yamane is pretty good live, the song is swanky to all hell especially when it’s live, and it shows off that SEATBELTS jazz style the best. That’s on top of seeing Maaya, May’n and Mamegu doing the whole mic stand dance/back up vocal routine. It’s really cute! Plus, it’s a song I can sing along to well. I think everyone got into that song big time at that point. It’s also the last vocal of the first set of songs. Sort of. If there was anything bad about this performance was that Mai dropped the ball on the first stanza of the song…
The next track is also distinctively Cowboy Bebop-style jazz that we love the SEATBELTS for, as you gotta ask What Planet Is This? “What Planet Is This” is the first song with audience participation in the direct sense, as the Arena screamed curiously on cue. I believe it’s written in either the handout or the booklet to let everyone know that you ought to yell along. Not surprisingly, this song works really, really well with a crowd. It’s definitely my top 5 of the night, too, as the horn ensemble, dressed in stylish black, came on stage in a very MiB fashion. The different sections broke off once they filed up the catwalk to the tip, and split up to cover both sides of the “arrow’s edge.” The song also had that notable pause, in which the horn group regroups, files back to the rear stage, and kicks it up again after they traded places with the vocal girls. By that point most of the crowd forgot the song went that way, lol.
Maaya, May’n and Megumi participated in the next song, Chikyuu Koumei, as chorus. I’m not sure what they sang exactly (gibberish lyrics and all), but it was a transitional piece. From a flow perspective that was how things wind down for the first Yoko Kanno highlight performance of the night. A bit of a surprise for this song–there are backup dancer-types. More like free style, expressive dancing?
On a pink grand piano, Kanno bangs out her usual piano solo, stringing the pieces of 3-4 different songs together into one performance. The piano is on an elevator platform at the middle of the catwalk, and it can rise above the catwalk, which it did briefly. (As a side note, on top of the piano is also a keyboard, which makes Yoko a useful member of the SEATBELTS in most other songs.)
The piano platform eventually lands, and the two front man-holes pop up with two dancers dressed in chicken outfits. What proceeds is one of those cute narrative skit done to music, in this case, Tachikoma no Iede. The song is done mostly on piano with a few twists, especially when the chicken dancer pranked Kanno and she got off the piano and joined the skit.
The skit ends right as Kanno got to the front of the catwalk, getting a cheer with her final handshake…thing with the chicken dancers. Suddenly, from under the stage two guys and a table of weird instruments (and a mic) pops up, and we get our one game soundtrack piece from Napple Tales - Dove Clock. It is by far the most “creative” piece of music played that night, where three people, using about 10 different instruments, just made a bunch of random sounds that somehow sounded like music when all put together. Kazoos and recorders aside…I’m not sure if I know the names of them all. It’s pretty amusing to see it played out like that.
The chicken dancers sat by the piano during Dove Clock and nodded to the music. When that’s over, the table and the guys drops down and from the rear stage come walks a male dancer in a cat costume. Most notably, the costume has a really long tail. And what other song besides Cat Blues can get played for this skit? Kanno is totally just a part of the skit as the SEATBELTS members come back to man their instruments. This cat-and-mouse/chicken thing goes on for the duration of the song until Kanno steals the cat’s tail, and then it switches. The dancers and Kanno moved to the horns and beat. The brass guys also took the stage as Kanno, cat and chickens pranced among them.
The stage clears out in between Cat Blues and the next song, Be Human. It’s exciting time for our male vocalist from overseas! Scott Matthews renders the song a bit like a soulful hobo, sitting on a wooden block of some sort as he walked up the stage. The vocal, despite smoothness, shows a tinge of nerve. I guess it might be the largest venue he’s ever played in?
The hairy man Scott quietly exists the darken stage as the song ends. Spotlights illuminates the left and right sides of the catwalk end, and the middle of the rear stage. Each reveals a Japanese girl in the identity of Mamegu (closest to me), May’n (opposite side) and Maaya (rear stage). Thus begins a vocal medley portion…
Actually the spotlights came on right after Maaya starts off on the pre-chours part of Tune the Rainbow. Without the repetitive instrumentation, the piece sounds very serene, almost lonely with just Maaya’s voice. Not much was happening; May’n and Mamegu was facing towards each other and Maaya, so I only got to see their back and side. I think both May’n and Mamegu changed their outfits but Maaya is still in her whites.
Maaya passes the voice-baton, a Megumi Nakajima lets loose the best live version of Voices NOT done by Arai that I’ve heard. It was really beautiful and her voices fits it to a tee. The song itself is mostly just a cappella but some light instruments kick in a little bit into the song. Color me impressed, that her voice can hold up like that…
But not to be outdone, May’n puts on possibly her best performance of Diamond Crevasse in her life! Not only was the performance good, the music was just as superb. The arrangement is also a super-long-soulful version that has bits and pieces of its various takes from the different MacF remixes thrown in. Orgasmic doesn’t begin to explain it… Over the course of the vocal trilogy, more and more of the band shows up, lit up by lights, and over the Diamond Crevasse performance everything goes full power.
Between the applause, the next set of songs lead into quieter stuff, and it begins with gravity. It’s Kanno’s Piano, some crazy strings courtesy of [insert name] and [insert name], and Maaya’s less-engrishy-than-ever wondering about how gravity will take flight? Is somebody there beyond these heavy, aching feet? No siree, those feet can last another couple hours just fine. If it wasn’t obvious, I think the entire audience stood pretty much from the beginning of the show until then (and to the end!).
And it really isn’t much if that means we get a little bit closer between the duet action of Maaya and Steve Conte in The Garden of Everything. Steve is on twitter and he’s been leaking what he’s doing on the net by MySpace and whatever. This is definitely a fan splooge song, a dream duet that probably has never been performed live before anywhere. Sadly, it shows…the duet is a little weak even if both performed solidly. Maaya took her vocals up a notch so it sounded more like a duet than she backing Steve up like how it is on the CD. The song ends as Maaya is escorted off stage by…Tuxedo mask? I guess they were playing to the lyrics.
From that point on it’s Steve’s moment to shine. Could You Bite the Hand is a ballsy song where it’s just him and his guitar. In transition from Garden of Everything, Steve just slowly paced up to the tip of the catwalk where a guitar and mic stand awaits him. With those things armed, Steve made rounds of the stages and tried to get people to sing along…well that’s a tall order for a Japanese crowd, so we just clapped. Also this is the song that made me think about how each and successive song might be connected in some way? Just a thought.
The rest of the SEATBELTS do have to join in for the next piece, which is Call Me Call Me. Steve continues on in pro style. It almost bothers me how much the songs sound like their CD version at times. The song ends in darkness and that sets up the next epic moment…
How can you have a Kanno concert with Maaya Sakamoto and not do Yakusoku wa Iranai? It is simply inconceivable. And naturally, we have Maaya standing pretty next to the pink piano while Kanno rocks out on it, sharing a spotlight. Normally that is sight alone for massive fan splooge as is, but wait, what the hell is going on? Where’s Kanno running to? It’s the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra! The song played on at first normally up until the bridge, and taking advantage of that, Kanno makes a mad dash from the catwalk to the rear stage as the rear stage curtain blows open and the Warsaw Philharmonic HSBs the crowd to make the most awesome version of Yakusoku ever. I think at some point the song changes into the normal version back from the too-many-instruments version, but I’m not sure. Kanno stayed back at the rear stage and conducts so someone else was on piano and I don’t know who…
The crowd got really excited at the sight of those Polish guys and girls, but they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. What’s on stage, however, is the Macross Frontier segment of the concert. And knowing that crowd it was probably the most comfortable yet rowdy part of the show. All the super orange sticks went up when Iteza Gogo Kuji Don’t Be Late (SOS version) kicks up as the crowd screams MO~TTE~KE~ in unison, fists pumping and all. Or I guess that’s what happened when I took a quick survey.
Ranka cannot be outdone by Sheryl, right? “Minna, dakishimete; ginga no hatemade,” or so it goes, for the most ludicrous version of Seikan Hikou ever. Granted, I haven’t seen Nakajima’s lives to know if she does this normally, but besides the cute singing, during the bridge Mamegu also made all the SEATBELTS members do the *kira*–including our Human Hiyoko Taicho. And of course, all the kids in the Arena did it too, by section–arena level, left, right, and center. Did someone say “moe”?
From Seikan Hikou we go into the final stretch of many, many random songs chained together. I’m going to bullet them off as this is really a tl;dr post already…
Naturally since Nakajima is doing Seikan Hikou, May’n picks up the next piece by doing both English and Japanese lines of Genesis of Aquarion. She actually has a choir, who takes the orchestra’s place behind the curtain. I was cringing a little because I don’t know how good her English is compared to Akino’s near-perfect delivery. At any rate, it was fine as she only belted out a couple lines in English as she urged the crowd to join in with the Japanese version (complete with karaoke lyrics in the projectors).
Macross Frontier strikes back as Mamegu starts off the Forno version of What ’bout my star?, which then May’n picks up the second part of the duet back on the catwalk. Or is it the SOS version? It feels a bit of both.
It’s almost like the mega-compilation mix version from Frontier, but the music bounces to Ai, Oboeteru? by Mamegu once May’n completes her part.
The two comes together again for a brief duet of My Boyfriend Is a Pilot. I think at this point the audience is just trying to cope with the rapid changes, because there are no pauses! The set flips back to What ’bout my star for a little bit, too…
…and it switches right to Welcome to My Fanclub’s Night! And it’s slightly modified–SEATBELTS ON STAGE. May’n begins this one with the trademark “atashi no uta wo kike!” and, well, you know how it goes.
By now most of us were kind of woozy from all the Macross Frontier-ness, and we’re on guard, if not expecting, something of a curveball from Kanno’s genius mind. What comes next, though, no preparation can be sufficient…to see Maaya bounce around with a poofy green-ish dress singing “I AM A DREAMER.” Platinum is a fan classic from way back and it’s probably a good choice. But yeah, to hear old school Maaya pop in context of these high-energy Macross Frontier stuff is something both fresh and strangely fitting.
As if they read our minds, the next up is Rise, as Origa gets a turn with the other high-pitched girls backing her up. It’s good to get a different voice in the mix at this point, but the slightly different take gives it a unique touch. Actually this song turns nicely right after the first chorus into the next song, Infinity.
Infinity turns out just like how it was in the Macross Frontier megamix, where the pre-chorus and chorus makes up all what we hear. No big deal, because I think the crowd likes the next song, Hemisphere, a lot more. Old anime Maaya goodness! It’s almost expected but the set list throws so many surprises that by then I was pretty dizzy.
Are you still with us?
We get a good chunk of Hemisphere out of Maaya, and Steve Conte follows up with Beauty Is Within Us. The merry vocal train continues, if flowing slowly. It sets up the next song, which is Origa’s duet with Steve of ELM. I think that song is just a showoff! A wonderful show-off however.
The next pieces, supposedly, are Kiseki no Umi, and After in the dark, but I sure couldn’t tell. Maybe I was just entranced by that wonderful ELM performance and that Faye Valentine tribute video that was going on the background, but anyways, so says the booklet and the pounding drum beats. Supposedly only the very beginning of Kiseki no Umi was played…
Anyways, soon after Mai Yamane-nee steps forward on the catwalk and cranks out Rain with Steve. And now this is an epic duet that people want to see. It’s one of those duets that only really hardcore fans “wish” for, given both of them has done the song solo.
The next piece is also a bit of a duet, although it was more like seeing Maaya, May’n and Mamegu standing at each side of the piano with Kanno hammering onwards and then Nakajima squeaks out her version of Ao no Ether. I almost thought Maaya would join in, but instead May’n mixed in some verses from Diamond Crevasse towards the ending portion. Who knew you could play the same music and sing a totally different song to it?
Following that very nice trick comes the biggest act of the medley–which is everybody on stage singing Gotta knock a little harder. Everybody now means both Scott and Steve, plus Mai, Origa, Maaya, May’n and Mamegu. It’s a beefy performance, to say the least. But, well, it was more for fun than anything, and the crowd eats that stuff up with a lot of cheers.
The giant song twists around to Maaya’s solo ending to Yubiwa, kind of like how a babbling corporate prayer ends at a pastor’s end note. It’s quite the way to end it.
Except, it’s not quite the end, since the brass and guitar stuff kicks in for The Real Folk Blues. The fans are elated because they can sing along that one, lol. I’m not sure if it’s all Mai on this one, but it’s mostly her. During the bridge of the song, the 6 singers called out to each other, and Yoko Kanno, for more cheers.
Supposedly the medley ends here, and the last song of the “set” is Blue. I’m pretty sure Maaya, May’n and Mamegu helped out with the chorus bits. Anyways, it’s wonderful as you can imagine a live version of Blue could be. The special twist, if there’s one, would be the additional string ending segment.
At this point, the program book set list ends. What comes after is totally unknown to everyone in the audience, but somehow people have pieced the set list together the old fashion way.
I think I made the mistake of following a couple silly guys next to me in an encore call during the brief quiet moment. We got shut down, lol.
Anyways, the second part of the show kicks off when the SEATBELTS came marching in to the tune of Yo Pumpkin Head. What a catchy song to play live! And they act as such. The horns players are in full swing with Hiyoko-taicho in the lead and the vocalists behind her.
The audience are in a riot as the song ends and everyone assumed their position for the next song. It is quite obvious to me what it’s gonna be–Tank. Mainly because they haven’t played it, and the act comes to a complete stop in anticipation. Of who? Tim Jensen of course… He’s the bald dude in shades that has one job at the show: “I think is time to blow this thing, get everybody the stuff together…” The crowd joins in at 3 and the rest is history. And if you haven’t heard, there is a super-long-butt sax solo segment. It’s [sax]’s time to shine, just like it ought to be. All Tim did was get on stage, say his lines, and disappear, lol.
The crowd gets the wildest all night at that point, but the flow of the show takes a sharp turn as everyone lines up and marches off stage…until Kanno goes to the rear stage to do a set with Warsaw Philharmonic. It would be kind of a sin to have a full however-many-pieces orchestra to do just one song for the show, right? She assumes the conductor’s position and it’s probably what some of us are truly looking forward to all night.
The next segment with the orchestra and choir is non-stop, so I think it’s best to just list them all. The only real notable portions are where the crowd goes up and where the crowd goes down, and they didn’t play the full pieces but rather a recollection-arrangement much like how the End Theme for Turn-A Gundam was. You’ll see “Vision of Escaflowne” twice because they use the choir portion to set the tone for the last Escaflowne bit. It’s good to note that after all, Escaflowne is where she and Mizoguchi worked together…
- Vision of Escaflowne
- White Falcon
- Flying Dragon
- High Spirit
- Dance of Curse
- Shiro, Jong tails
- Dog Fight
- Vision of Escaflowne
- Story of Escaflowne
I haven’t personally verified the list, but the list looks right. The crowd cheers after the end of the set, but obviously the flow of the show is at a low point. I think we’re still on-guard though…this show has been full of surprises up to that point.
The next bit is pretty wonky too, because the Warsaw Philharmonic busts into SMS Platoon Theme~That Girl’s an Alien~, as the SEATBELTS marches on stage yet again with Kanno taking the lead. Did we scream “Alien” or did we not scream “Alien” LOLOLOL. So true, too. I like how they use the marching band to good extents, as it is completed with portable instruments.
After that dies down, Kanno goes into a MC segment and everyone gets some nods. Most notably, Steve and Scott both had a line about loving Kanno, lulz. At any rate, it was the only chance she really got to talk. But she didn’t really say all that besides giving props to all the performers yet again.
When the performers are walking around, I noticed Maaya was carrying a rubber duck, the ones they were selling outside. Why would Maaya carry a rubber ducky? Because the next song is the “duck” song. Danie said it best that the arena is filled with funny noises, because that is how it went. Mamegu lead the crowd with a mostly a cappella performance of Anata no Oto, in marching band format. Kanno picked up an accordion too, lols. After the initial instrumental/music portion and the first couple verses, the crowd got into action as the “marching band” takes a stroll around the catwalk. Mamegu, May’n and Maaya were all doing this quacking hand motion when the song goes “dokun dokun dokun.” And on cue, she sings “ahiru no oto” and between Maaya, Kanno and May’n, they squeezed the poor rubber toy into the mic for the lulz. The audience’s reaction was actually uneven; some people squeezed along, others just laughed, some just did the hand motion without the ducks. It was luls.
With that the concert is coming to an end as the marching band exits stage right. Or is it? Kanno u-turns and makes a tiny bow and goes back conducting! The crowd does little else than what it has been doing all night–cheer some more!
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra goes back and gives us a line from Turn-A Gundam, something to the notes of Memory of Military Boots. Or End Title. And from there, Kanno does something really, really special. If you’ve read the other reports already you’d know what that is…
And that something is going to be a first, a last, and an once-in-a-lifetime event as Yoko Kanno abandons the conductor’s podium for a microphone on a stand, under the spotlight. She then belts out the gibberish lyrics that adorns MOON in front of the Warsaw Symphonic. Wow. I mean, the song itself is a water-downed version from Aki Okui’s almost-oppressive masterpiece, and Gabriela Robin’s delivery has always been airy and flirting with fancy, but this is something a bit in between the two. Well, it was hardly a secret, but I think this counts as an admission about Robin’s identity? It was a shaky delivery but I think Hiyoko-taicho scores!
With the final beats of MOON coming to an end, the concert ends with a heartful goodbye from Kanno.
There was, at some point after the encore break, a video montage of all the behind-the-scene stuff for the show. I don’t remember exactly when it was, probably before the Warsaw Symphony suite, but I can’t be sure. I just remember seeing a clip (a few seconds long!) of the four Japanese vocalists trying to get the dance motion right for Want It All Back. It was so…moe. Or something.
At one point, the confetti came out and showered over seats sections C2, C3 and C4. I guess if I really wanted I could’ve picked up a pedal on my way out of the arena, but bleh. It was one of the very first set of songs too, I can’t remember which song anymore…
I do remember the ribbons that came out. They were silver and I bagged a couple that fell near my head. Those went all over the place in the C section seats. It was also early on in the show… Probably Iteza Gogo Kuji?
Hmm, what else? Check WAH’s flicker for some pictures, including some of the booklet that they were selling. Should have had him take pictures of the duck too…
I think I better hit that “publish” button or else this post is never going to go out, lol.
Uh… how much do you want for the brochure? I really don’t think I can fight a bid war with some of the other fans, so let me just refer them here…
And thanks for your very detailed review!!!!
Well the going price for them are about 5000 yen on yahoo auction Japan, and since I live in the US it would be best if someone in US or Canada decide to buy it from me since it saves them the shipping at the very least.
If there’s enough interest I would put it on eBay, but if it’s just a couple people I’ll let you guys figure it out ;)
;_; I so wish I was there. So sad.
Then again thank you for making this as detailed as you’ve made it.
Thanks for this post, I’d almost forgotten the overall flow of the concert until you posted this reminder!
Btw only the first bar of Kiseki no Umi was played, which is somewhat disappointing, but who am I to question genius?
What ghostlightning said. Oh my god. D:
Thank you for being willing to bust out and post this. It seems like you still probably aren’t going to get off this high anytime soon either. But there’s no problems with that.
This also reminds me that while I know and love a lot of Kanno’s stuff, there’s still a ton that I don’t know either.
Only the first bar? That would explain why I couldn’t pick it up. Yeah, that’s kind of weak…
I made some changes as repeated listening to the bootlegs helps, lol.
;_;
So much fun!
It’s great that you were able to do this — it sounds like a wonderful trip.
(I was wondering what your kanji-hyperdimensional-Tanabata comment in that other place was about — Rikaichan got the translation right, it just remained as cryptic as ever, since I’d not been following the Kannonews.)
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Can’t believe I missed the most epic concert. Ever.
I would’ve made a bid on that extra book, except miss fiancé would probably bite my head off =) Thanks for showing it to me.
No problems! It still can be yours! (but for my copies you’ll have to outbid seph, since he has the sole possession of lead right now).
So lucky.. I would have killed for tickets to this. I was without a computer for months so had no idea this was going on.. big fan of all these guys. Do you think they’ll release a DVD like they did with the Earth Girls are Easy tour? daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn i feel like shitt for not going
[…] Recounts of Yoko Kanno’s recent Super Space Time Tanabata Sonic concert in Tokyo has me crying. Looks […]
I had to pay 20,000 yen to go to this show. And it was worth every single yennie.
Dudemanbro, nice article. It’s just as I remember it. I’m sure you know as well as I do that this experience is one that will never be forgotten.
Let us know if there is a cd/dvd in the works.
I’ll see you next millennium for the next show.
See you in a thousand years! And 20000 yennies is a relative bargain!