Recommend concert DVDs 2009-2015
 

So it's my birthday month and as my brother usually asks me what I'd like I thought I'd ask him for another Ayu concert DVD as he lives in Hong Kong and can get the official ones there cheaper than online. I'm not sure which one to ask for so I thought I'd ask what your favourite ones are and why. The one that gets the most mentions is the one I'll ask for. He already got me POWER of MUSIC so you don't need to tell me about it ;) I'm not sure which are available in the shops so that's why I'm asking about more recent ones - easier to find (hopefully!). Thanks :)

One of the few dvds that I own is Countdown Live 2011-2012 A. I love that concert so much that I had to buy it. The problem is that it comes exclusively with Party Queen in the CD 2DVD Version. But its just worth it,she sang so many new songs there (sending mail, November, Party queen, hbya, insomnia) plus so many rare songs from love songs (do it again, moon etc.)

Ayumi Hamasaki Premium Countdown Live 2008–2009 A.

Countdown Live 2010–2011 A: Do It Again. I love almost all songs in the track list

^ I can't stand that concert :no The only good part about it is the ballad medley.

I highly recommend AT2009, her NEXT LEVEL tour. It's a really well-done show and the MC disc is hilarious even if you can't understand Japanese...it's worth it to see the band/dancers playing (trying to play?) charades, lol :laugh

CDL 12-13 and 13-14 are epicness in the format of a concert. NEXT LEVEL Tour is also great, plus Rock'n'Roll Circus Tour

my favorite part =)

RnRC best grand tour from this period

I would NOT recommend power of music unless you're cool with all of the alternate arrangements. Personally, I don't care for them.

RnRC Tour is very fun and entertaining. One of my favorites! Microphone, INSPIRE, Don't look back, Rule, LOVE 'n' HATE, Sunrise, all fun!

PCDL 2008-2009 I remember loving. Especially if you like the setlist- songs that are rarely performed.

Maybe I'm biased, but definitely A BEST LIVE. I love all of the songs performed. Excellent concert! The poker face, Fly high, HONEY medley is awesome! I also loved, A song for XX, Memorial address, You & Me, JEWEL, and Tell all.

Rock 'n' Roll Circus and HOTEL Love Songs arena tour!

It REALLY depends on what you want in an ayu concert lol... If you like the more big, grand type visual spectacles, RnRC 2010 can NOT be beat. It's nuts. But if you like the more music-focused, smaller scale ones, then PCDL 08-09 and AT2009 are gonna be more for you... And if you enjoy creative staging and club atmospheres, CDL 13-14 is highly enjoyable.

I wasn't nuts about either of the HOTEL Love songs concerts, I found them irritating - the focus is more on the broadway show playing out than Ayu, and it felt like Ayu was a side note or something for the whole thing. I prefer when Ayu has the focus.

A BEST LIVE was a great show but on the DVD I feel like you can tell she's not enjoying herself much - it comes across really strongly for some reason, especially if you watch CDL 13-14 immediately before or after it. It seems... stiff? I guess?

CDL 10-11 had a great setlist but was, IMHO, profoundly disappointing as a show.

Arena Tour 2009 Next level or Rock 'n' Roll Circus. Or if you like very much Love Songs, I think you should get HOTEL Love Songs arena tour!

SO.EFFING.TRUE

Glad I'm not the only one.

I do want to elaborate on what I mean by that... It's like the whole concert is at this weird place in between trying too hard and not trying hard enough. Every performance seems to be moving toward a concept but then not following through. (Why, for instance, is Shuya's outfit during Free & Easy not red? Why is Ayu not wearing simpler, more tattered looking clothing? Are the stake & the red spotlight REALLY as far as you're gonna go with the imagery?? REALLY!??)

I'd probably love at least the encore if she didn't have that short blond wig on during it. It's like she couldn't even decide if she wanted to commit to a more casual, natural appearance for the encore - again, so close to being a concept, but no completion of the idea.

The audio has its issues too - since "Dream ON" is very bassy, it sounds REALLY REALLY out of place in context. The whole show should have been mixed with a bassier sound as it went on, so "Dream ON" wouldn't be so odd. (I'm not even gonna get into how frustrating the singing - back track - singing - backtrack switching during "Last angel" was - and that was how she OPENED the show! Doesn't bode well.)

There's so much about the show that I like though - about half of the costume design (the other half being absolutely dreadful); some of the choreography (the new choreography for Marionette in particular is quite good); the fact that the cameras focus so much on Ayu instead of the dancers for most of it (although this was done better on the live stream than on the DVD version, it's still done better here than most of her concert DVDs); the consistent purple color scheme in costumes & lighting but with occasional red sections, which help the concert to have its own cohesive identity to some degree, which most of her concerts lack... And the set list itself was a GREAT mix of classic concert staples, new songs, and stuff that didn't get performed often.

And to be honest all those good aspects just serve to make it even more of a frustrating watch for me, hahaha. Ah well. :P

^ I want to marry that comment and then take it on a really swanky honeymoon

I'm not too familiar with her recent tours but I love PCDL 2008-2009, it has a great setlist, with quite a few older non-singles songs which I adore (except for the cute section (HONEY :eviltongu))

Gotta say that my favourites are A Best Live and Premium Showcase ~Feel The Love~.
A best live has such a good setlist! And her vocals and stage presence are great, tho a few songs were lip synced (poker face painfully so).
I may be biased because I love Colours but the Premium Showcase is just fantastic! Whatever and Last Angel as the opening is my favourite opening of all time. Also Terminal & Connected are marvellous together...Feel the love itself is really really fun too!

I think almost everything since 2008 has been really good and worth watching. But if I had to recommend 1 I'd say AT 09 ~Next Level~. The concert and videos are some of the best. But honestly what makes this the best concert ever is the encore. Watching them play charades and do other games/activities really makes this the most enjoyable to watch.

Funny seeing so much people recommend AT09, I remember people really hated it when the DVD was out... The vocals were bashed to death and people keep calling it cheap looking.

My all time favorite Ayu concerts are AT10, AT11, AT12 for different reasons... But to be quite honest, IMO 2009~2015 had Ayu at her best concert wise, so, you will be good getting any of the ones released on that time spam.

AT09 got a ton of backlash cuz of the "epicness creep" of ayu's shows before that... From Arena Tour 2003-2004 on, each major tour got bigger and bigger than the one before it. After the huge freaking ship at the climax of AT2008, Ayu fans were somehow expecting something bigger to follow at AT2009. What they were expecting, I have no idea. When AT2009 took a more understated, intimate direction - scaling it back to about the size of AT2003-2004 or the MY STORY tour - people were understandably disappointed. (Although folks here who know my attitude regarding Ayu concerts will not be shocked to learn that my reaction was OH THANK GOD, hahaha)

Ayu didn't learn soon enough to be careful with "outdoing" herself each year... you do that kind of thing, you're gonna hit a limit at some point and all you'll do is disappoint people when you can't keep the implied promise that everyone imagines you made. It's the truth. Film series, game series, and events like conventions all have EXACTLY the same problem.

^Oh, I understand that, and I also understand why AT09 was smaller. But I also find it funny seeing people praising the releases generally considered shit at first. I myself love AT09, always did, I find the Rule performance as an opening to be among her best, if not her best.

Ayu would be far more palatable as a popstar if she gave her public exactly what they wanted at the time like most popstars do, but the fact that she is always breaking expectations plays against her with the part of the public looking for a more immediate gratification.

Totally agreed on both counts.

I guess I just don't find it surprising, funny, or interesting that people finally like AT2009, lol.... I knew the fanbase would see its merits eventually, once it could finally be viewed outside the "HOW EPIC IS THE NEXT TOUR GONNA BE!??! THAT SHIP LAST YEAR WAS NUTS!!" context, hahaha. :)

And yeah, Ayu's first few years of success were really dumb luck - she did her own thing, and it turned out to be EXACTLY what everyone didn't realize they actually totally wanted. Which is how trendsetters become trendsetters. These days, she does her own thing, and it's either something that someone is already doing or it's something fans are tired of hearing or it's something off-puttingly unexpected... but those complaints are ALL based on context, you know? So years later you can listen to it with a more objective ear, but in the moment - when it's released and when most sales are counted - it doesn't really resonate. Eh, go figure.

^Well, I find it funny that it happens with pretty much every release since Next Level, that was massively considered her worst release ever at the time... The exception being RnRC that was loved from day 1 and now is pretty much forgoten (what makes me wonder how well A One will age).

What's funny is that people are pretty much complaining about the stuff that will keep them coming back. :P

Exactly! Art lies in the imperfections!

If something's perfect, then yeah it's impressive at first but you don't really notice it after awhile cuz it has no character. If something is imperfect, you notice it at the time and it's hard not to be like "NOPE DO NOT LIKE" because it interrupted your sorta chilled-out "enjoying the music" state, but those imperfections are what you come back for down the road. :)

Of course some imperfections are going to bother me no matter what, same as anyone, and there are some people who adore "perfect" songs and always will because that's just their taste... but if the Ayu fan community has one thing in common, it's that we're not afraid to get to know things and learn to accept their flaws over time. *nod nod*