The Bonkurasu Brigade

And here’s what I hope to the last post for day one.

Victorian music being played? It can only be ALI Project! Her set basically consisted of what she has done since the previous concert. During the last piece, Waga Routahi Aku no Hana, Arika was brandishing a short sword and waving it around.Is that even safe? Okay, Nana had a mock sword fight in Museum X Universe but at least that look professional. Akira? Well, even a fake can be dangerous if she had hit one of her band or her dancers.

Her dressing this year was more in tune with what we are used to. But her new album’s cover is mind bogglingly different.Most of the stage preparation to this stage was down in the dark but for the next set, it was done in full view of the audience with lights on. And going by who had already performed, it was time for the climax performance for day one.

OH SHIT! CELTIC MUSIC! ZANKOU NO GAIA! I believe this is one of the songs that Nana doesn’t often perform live. I think the last time I seen it on the set list was in the concert she did in Osaka (the source of her awesome pink meido uniform). I have all of her live performances on DVD but seeing her live is something to truly behold. After ZnG, she followed up with Dancing in the Velvet Moon, with a dance number added in. Sometimes I wonder why this was chosen as the ED to Rosario Vampire. It has more of an OP feeling to it with its pace. But, hey, it’s Mokka performing on stage!

During the MC period, she started introducing her band. But she did not stop at two guitarists. She ended at SIX. YES, SIX GUITARS FOR HER NEXT SONG. The last guitarist drew a lot of laughter because he was wearing this funny scowling face.  An artiste is only as good as her band when doing a live performance and Nana is no exception to this rule. Over the years, the Cherry Boys have been backing her up very well, not to mention her dancers as well. And PRAY with six different guitars sounds truly great and the individual solos were a sound to behold.

Remember Nana’s duet last year with ALI Project and how Arika said she wished to reciprocate by doing a song with Nana? And reciprocate she did. Arika’s range allowed her fit into ETERNAL BLAZE very nicely. And this year, they added some flame effects on stage.

And all things have to come to an end. The day’s lineup came out and performed Yells It’s a Beautiful Life. It’s a great song but it was utterly let down by some mikes not working. Poor CooRie had to make do with a dying mike. She looked very upset with the mike but still pressed on with the performance. Akino took over May’n’s solo portions and they did sound very similar to each other.

After the first Yell, the line up left the stage to change into the concert t-shirts. Even after close to four hours of constant jumping up and down, lightstick routines and shouting, the crowd still had the energy to chant encore for ten minutes. Me?I just sat down and drank the remainder of my Pocari Sweat. I think in the days I was there, I consumed about twelve one litre bottles of the stuff, with three on each concert day. There’s something about the water here that doesn’t quench my thirst as well as the water back home.

As expected, the line up came back out and performed Generation A’s, with Motsu doing his rap routine again, and Yells again. At one portion, poor Kisho Takiyama forgot his part and had to rush to the mike to cover himself. By the time the line up finished thanking the crowd, it had already hit 9 pm. The concert had lasted four and a half hours.

All in all, it was a very good concert for me. I will admit that I was unfamiliar with about half the songs but I did enjoy myself a lot. The bad sound system did not do anything to deter my mood.

So that wraps up day one of Animelo 2008. I will be doing day two soon.