Must-see concerts?
 

I think I posted it in a good place, if not, please replace it. ^^'

Maybe I don't like every Ayu tour, but it's one of things which I respect her as a singer. Then I think I can like singer or group if he/she/they make great shows, visually and vocally. Can you recommend me artists who do the concerts in that way? I've never prefered watching a concerts where the artist only sings. (Of course he/she might get awesome voice, but I'll be never satisfied of this.) I know many asian singers, but I've watched only Ayu shows. Will you help me? :D

aww, sorry for my baaad English _-_'

EDIT: I changed thread title, I just search concerts which you've loved and would like to recommend ^^'

For asian concerts, I would say nearest concertwise would be Koda Kumi...but I don't like her concerts, I actually think her concerts and her songs are crap. Then there's Nana Mizuki who is reaching her peak at the moment, her concerts are becoming more and more epic, I estimate the cost of her first Dome Tour(LIVE DIAMOND) of summer 2009 to be actually higher than Ayus AT09, so you might want to watch her LIVE DIAMOND concert. Her vocals are amazing and the visuals are really good as well(screen videos, 6 or 7 costumes, giant stage, water, fire, dust, lasers, props...I think Ayu inspired her very much the last years) the only thing that's bad about her concerts is that it usually has 2 "cutesy" portions instead of the one Ayu does.

Then for internationals you should check out Madonna and Mylene Farmer, both have amazing concerts similar to Ayus.(Ayu actually is a BIG Madonna fan)

Thats the artists that IMO come nearest to ayu when performing

No-asian artists are needless, but of course thank you for it too :) I'll check Nana Mizuki, her concerts seem interesting :)

Yeah, the only person I can think of who has such extravagant concerts like Ayu is Kumi Koda. I mean, some of the things she does aren't as big, but there are only a few exceptions. She relies heavily on dancing (more-so her than the actual dancers, sometimes, lol), has a huge stage and audience, lots of props, over-the-top costumes, and really story-driven (and kinda unnecessary, lol) intro videos. Personally, I like Kumi's concerts even better than Ayu's. She's either blowing me away with her vocals, or making me laugh with a ridiculous outfit, or I go aawwww~ because she brings a fan onstage, or whatever.

Wow, are all the others seriously that boring to watch? I don't think so, it's mainly preference when it comes to these kinds of things because it's the love for the artist that makes you either love or hate the tours/concerts.

I know you prob. don't want to hear this, and she is alone on stage. but Utada United 2006. I just thought utada was finaminal. even though it sounded like she had a cold. the visualizations were beautiful. the costumes were great and it proves that that is all you need to have an amazing concert. You know, not 20 backup dancers, backup singers, tons of costume changes and a video interlude after every song.

Crystal Ageha, Thanks for suggestion ^^ I've watched many Kuu's concert performances on You Tube, I think I'll be satisfied during watching whole live :) (In your opinion, which Kuu's tour was the best? I'll watch it first :D)
I've thought it over and I add another question to it: of course I search concerts similiar in Ayu's way, but I search also 'big show' concert generally, hmm... How should I say it... Huge, great visually, etc. (my english word vocabulary is poor, to be honest xDD)

EDIT: ^ Yeah, I forgot about Utada United! I've heard many positive opinions about it. It's must see for me :D

Of course it's not that if some singer's concerts are boring for me, I don't like her/him at all... Because that singer or group can have great songs, write amazing lyrics etc. I just search concerts which in others opinion are very good :)

@ AyUta
Actually...for me it isn't, I don't like Madonnas music much, still I love watching her concerts, for Kuu I liked her music in the beginning but always hated the concerts and kind of grew to dislike her overall that way except some songs.

Must see concerts:

*Koda Kumi's TRICK Tour and Black Cherry Tour ==> She's hardly my favorite singer, but she IS and AMAZING vocalist (some people forget that) and has stunning visuals in her concerts as well

*Perfume's GAME Tour and BUDOUKaaaaaaaaaaN!!!!! concert ==>These shows are just so exciting and fun! So much energy and visually fun to watch. Choreography is always spot on. Caution, they basically lip-sync most of the concert (save a few songs). You might not like that.

*BoA's The Face Tour ==> No one dances and sings like BoA. As with Perfume, she is very "Energetic" in her performances and that's just great to watch.

One comment on Utada United....I'm a huge Utada fan...obviously...and I LOVED the whole concert. Her voice in that is just great! However...it's basically just her standing there singing, no dancers or anything (and you've mentioned that you don't really like that). It might bore you...but it's also very fun too I guess!

So overall, those were a few suggestions...but if you really want visually good concerts with great vocals...stay with Ayu or go with Koda Kumi. Utada if you can handle a couple hours of pure singing...Perfume and BoA if you want a very fun show.

If it's only about must-see concerts now:

Nana Mizuki's Live Formula 2007-2008 and LIVE FEVER 2009 as well, both are medium-sized productions(tours with around 70k attendance each, filmed concerts in Saitama Super Arena and Budoukan). LIVE FEVER is just really much fun, especially the beginning with "DISCOTHEQUE" and it's stupid but funny choreography and costumes. Later there's amazing ballad and rock performances in it. For Formula basically goes the same, with less fun and more ballad and pop.

Of course lots of people mention the artists that foreign fans know the most, but there are actually a number of artists in Japan (usually older artists) that are known for their stage shows but don't really get much attention from foreign fans.

Yumi Matsutoya is known for massive shows so you should check her out if you can but finding videos on foreign sites are few and far between.

http://img.barks.jp/image/review/1000039002/001.jpg

^ Yes, that is a pool on the stage!

Yeah, her spectacles are just epic... Pool, fountains, fire, acrobatics, huge stage, etc. The "Shangrila I" is the best show ever... Though I personally dislike her music

^ yeah I agree. I'm not a big fan of her music, or I just maybe simply haven't heard enough of it. But her shows are second to none.

Could you point me to a place to download/torrent for Yumis concerts? jpopsuki only has her albums

I don't think anybody's saying other artists are boring. We're just listing artists who have such huge productions, like Ayu. (Personally, I actually tend to like concerts that are much more simple, even, without all the dancers and props and such. Ayu is often way too much for me... But that's actually probably why I like Kumi's tours so much. Even with all the extra crap I tend not to like, I still love her tours. :))

Black Cherry is my overall favourite. :D It has a great setlist, and the Blue Man Group appearance is amusing. AND... OH MY GAWD, she does a rock version of real Emotion, and it made me go CRAZY! :luv2 I don't know if anybody has or will have such a flailing reaction to this song on the tour [lol], but I thought it was a hundred times better than the original version. I wish it were real!!!! :weep The Ningyo Hime performance was another highlight for me. She looked awesome, hah. :P Ohohoh, and FREAKY was a very good one.... And she has a very interesting fan interaction this time, lol. :lech
Kingdom is also amazing, though. Definitely my second favourite, if not for her beautiful vocals alone. :heart I mean, her performance of MORE actually made me like the song! :O And hands is a gorgeous arrangement~ (she turns it into a real ballade, rather than how poppy the original was, and it works perfectly), with just as beautiful vocals... And then you... Oh my gosh--she starts out a capella, and it literally made my jaw drop. And the whole performance, she's singing this to a fan who came up on stage with her. It's cute. ^_^

Hmm, I've had a Yuming concert on one of my HDDs for the longest time. Never got around watching it. I believe it is 1994 concert tour or so. Here are some caps:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5408/yuming.th.jpg

I've always had great respects towards her. After all, she has written songs for many well-known artists. For example Seiko Matsuda's "Akai Sweet Pea", "Seifuku" and "Rock'n Rouge" (to mention a few) were all written by her. :yes I do enjoy some of her music too, definitely. Going to check out that concert tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me about it. :laugh

Yuming do huge concerts but I think they're extremely boring since she does NOTHING. Like, all stunts happen AROUND her while she just stands there, singing, you know? She barely even moves. It's like she's suffocated by all the stunts. In my opinion, it's not as good as Ayu concerts. It's a bit like going to Cirque du Soleil, not to a REAL concert. I don't know, after hearing so many great things about her shows, I was extremely underwhelmed when I finally watched it. It's BORING (and this is coming from someone who LOVES effects, amazing set designs, etc). But no question they are amazing visually.

For me, "Utada United" worked better than most Yumi Matsutoya concerts I've seen. Hikki just stood there singing while lots of cool images were projected around her but I didn't feel she was overshadowed by the big production like Yumi. But Utada's concert DO get boring after awhile if you're not a big fan of her music, so I don't think it compares to Ayu either.

Koda Kumi do huge concerts too but I don't know, in my honest opinion, they look extremely TACKY. Everything looks expensive but ew, such bad taste (to the point where some expensive effects look CHEAP).

There's also MISIA. She does huge concerts full of effects, etc. Her concerts are easily available on Youtube I think (at least, they were). Again, I was not very impressed but they're also huge.

I used to LOVE Ayumi concerts with all my heart. They were always amazing and very interesting. Until My Story, most of them were very good (except for the Countdowns which I never particularly liked), then (miss)understood was nice and, with Secret, things started to go downhill, it started being boring and repetitive. It's such a shame they repeat the exact same pattern year after year, to me this is quite bad for someone who was once known as a "chameleon" and it really is a proof of how quality has gone downhill in her career (in my opinion obviously)...

But, overall, most popular Japanese artists have big productions: Exile, Johnny's artists, Mr. Children, GACKT, Seiko Matsuda. Neither of those impressed me as much as Ayu did with her earlier concerts but you could give it a try...

By the way, like you, I'm also a HUGE fan of big productions and big concerts, I've seen plenty (and it's hard to impress me) and can I give you a suggestion that has nothing to do with Asian artists? Take That. I hate boybands but one day I accidentally started watching their concert DVD and I've never seen anything so impressive (and I've seen Madonna, Britney, Mylene Farmer, U2 and the Rolling Stones LIVE). Here is the complete concert and I REALLY recommend it for anyone who appreciates big concerts. It's simply breath-taking and they're amazing performers. This is one of the most amazing visual effects I've ever seen and this is also amazing.

If you don't mind boy-bands, a great visually stimulating concert that I just watched is KAT-TUN's Break the Records Live concert. The visual effects are seriously epic. Reminds me a bit of Ayu's dome tour except with better effects. Twas very impressed with it.

Or even Live of KAT-TUN "Real Face" or Live Kaizokuban. Those are incredible, especially the former. I haven't watched Break the Records yet, but I guess I should soon. :3 Nowadays I prefer KAT-TUN's concerts a hundred times over Ayu's concerts, and I like KAT-TUN nowhere near as much as I love Ayu.

I wish I could. As I said, older artists stuff is hard to find in the english speaking JPop world. You've probably gotta be hooked up with some Japanese file trading networks to get them.

Yeah, if visual stimulating big productions is what the original poster wants, definitely check out Johnny's concerts as well. Who knows, you might actually end up liking the groups too. That's what happened to me with SMAP anyways.