Hey, I just got back from the concert tonight. I had a great time.
First, the accapella song tonight was A Song For Xx, but less than half of it was performed. (I'm guessing all the accapella songs were like that)
Secondly, about the lip syncing issue. I strongly believe that yes, she did lip synch. Only for two songs though - Don't Leave Me Alone and Marionette. The rest were completely live. In Don't Leave Me Alone, not only does she turn upside down and her voice doesn't change at all, but the most telling thing is that with the head set mic that she is using, there should be some mic effects that can be heard when she pronounces sounds like 'shi', 'p', 'chu, chi, cha etc' however there were none, yet on the next two songs Decision and My Name's Women where she uses the same microphone, those sounds are present and the vocals sound much more live. Then on the next song, Marrionette, they are gone again and the vocals are much too smooth considering the amount of jerking around she is doing. It seems pretty physically impossible for your voice to stay perfectly smooth while jerking around violently. I'm sure that both are "live" re-recordings of the songs.
Overall, I loved the show though. I've seen live the My Story tour, Miss Understood tour, CDL 06-07, and A-Nation 2007 and this one is probably my favorite. Mostly becuase I love this set list the most.
Vocal wise, she isn't as good as durring the My Story/Miss Understood time period, but that is expected. She is at least as good as CDL06/07 and waaay better than A-nation 2007. The songs that sounded the worst were probablly Depend on You, Fly High, and Surreal again (though not as bad as at the last CDL). Hanabi and End Roll were both very good. (The dress is very pretty as well)
Costume and set wise is about on par with the Secret tour, but not as impressive I don't think as anything from the My Story or Miss Understood tour. The outfits at least look better in person than in the pictures here.
So, I tried to give a pretty even handed review, but as I said overall this is actually my favorite of the times I've seen her. Ayu is always fun to watch and this set list was the best so far.
Tomorrow I'm off to see Biyuden's final live and then the Hana Yori Dango movie on Monday. I love being in Japan!