mink, Live at Shinagawa's Stellar Ball, July 15, 2006 (My narrative/review)

[sexysaucestar]

I am still quite hyped up from tonight's concert! Below is a recap that I just finished typing up--please excuse any poor grammar/oddities in it...read and enjoy! If you guys do not know who mink is--please visit my mink thread to read some information about her. I'll have some mink goodies up in the Downloads section soon Watch out for it

Edit: Download mink albums/singles/PVs if you liked what you read here

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mink: summer live 2006 “THIS time”

On July 15, 2006, I had the opportunity to attend mink’s summer live concert in Shinagawa. The concert was held at Prince Hotel’s Epson Aquarium Stellar Ball concert hall; I had expected for the concert hall to be much larger, but it was tiny (compared to Yoyogi Stadium) and all seats were on the first floor. The doors opened at 6:00pm and the concert started roughly around 7:00.

I arrived a little early at Shinagawa so I could find the concert hall and scope out the area. Luckily, the Epson Aquarium wasn’t too far from the Shinagawa JR Station; plus, there were a lot of signs pointing to the aquarium, so I found the aquarium and concert hall with no trouble.

The concert hall is tucked into a small corner of the large Epson Aquarium; I was expecting for there to be some signs promoting mink’s live in the evening, but all I saw was a small text sign saying “This is where mink’s concert will be tonight, July 15. Doors open at 18:00, the concert starts at 19:00.” Below this sign, however, was another sign stating: “SOLD OUT! Tonight’s performance is sold out. We apologise for the inconvenience.” The sign also said something about 4500 yen, but I couldn’t read the kanji characters. I was pleased to see that the concert was sold out; this meant that there are more fans of mink than I had expected.

I walked around the Prince Hotel area for a few hours since I had time to kill before the doors opened. When I returned to Stellar Ball, there were already a handful of fans waiting at the entrance. We waited for around 45 minutes…during that time, a line formed behind us all. I was observing the other fans, and they were definitely different from the fans I saw at Ayumi Hamasaki’s concerts. These people were all mostly 20something and older and dressed a little more conservatively than the fans at Ayumi Hamasaki’s concerts.

The doors opened at 6 as promised so I was one of the first fans to step inside the Stellar Ball area; there was a small lobby outside of the actual concert hall and they were selling mink’s CDs and some concert goods. This confused me slightly since the sign outside of Stellar Ball stated “no concert goods available.” Anyway, they were selling a 4-postcard set and two types of posters; the postcards had images from mink’s four CDs (the prologue album, beautiful/One Suitcase, e+motion, and 4Love) and the posters were the beautiful/One Suitcase and the prologue album covers.

Like I mentioned earlier, the concert hall itself was small, but it had a nice jazzy and intimate atmosphere. There was soft jazz music playing through the speakers and there was even a cocktail bar in the back of the concert hall. I ended up sitting between a few middle-aged Japanese; to my right, there were two women (maybe grandmothers) and on my left was an older couple. I felt a little out-of-place and underdressed, since it seemed everyone else was kind of dressed up in some way.

The concert started a few minutes after 7…I could tell that the ladies beside me were getting antsy (and so was I). We kept listening to the jazz, and when one of the jazz tunes stopped playing, we were hoping mink would pop out at any moment; this happened a few more times until finally, the lights dimmed and the band started playing.

mink was very amazing in person. Her voice was reminiscent of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston; when she hit strong points in her songs, her voice was so powerful that it filled up the whole concert hall. I was genuinely impressed; even before the concert, I was already enamoured with mink’s powerful, moving voice. The concert only convinced me even more that she’s a true, magnificent artist. She sang a selection of songs from her four releases and also sang a few covers of American artists. My favorites were “Amazing Grace,” “手紙 ～あなたへ～,” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” “Saving All My Love For You,” “Bring it on ～新しい世界へ～,” and a couple of songs which I didn’t know the titles of. A complete setlist follows this narrative.

mink also talked a little bit between a few of her songs; her Japanese speaking ability was very good. She spoke at a considerably fast pace, but I was able to understand most of what she said. She seemed like a very generous person; at one point she said “Today I have a special surprise for one fan; let’s make today your birthday!” and she chose a fan from the middle of the crowd to give the “birthday gift” to; she sang her song “All my life” to the fan, which I thought was so sweet of her to do.

In the middle of the concert she also interviewed her band members, although they all seemed like they did not want to talk in front of the crowd. mink was pointing out how her backing vocalist always wore “sexy clothes” to every performance, and her guitarist was picking on mink playfully about the thunderstorm (from earlier in the day). The drummer was rather funny, talking about how the hairstylist made him look like Robert De Niro for the concert. They all sounded like such a fun and relaxed group!

The concert lasted approximately 2 hours; mink came back out for a small encore at the end, in which she sang “Hold on to a dream,” her upcoming new single (in August 2006). Overall, the concert was well worth the money; on my way out of Stellar Ball, there was an usher handing out flyers with news about mink’s next live concert (in the wintertime) and about her new single. I really would not mind seeing mink perform live again, but I am not sure when I can come back to Japan again. I am thankful that I was able to see her perform live at least once, though.

Setlist and Notes:

1. Amazing Grace: A very powerful opening song; the keyboard organ at the beginning made me feel as if I were in a church. When mink started singing, I felt like the voice of an angel was singing. Her voice immediately filled the concert hall with this song.
2. Eternal Love: During this song, they had lights shining all around the concert hall. Unfortunately, I was caught in the path of one set of lights, so I was blinded during this song. mink performed this song really well, though.
3. as It’s: I was not sure of the song title at the concert, but the chorus stuck with me throughout the performance. The piano at the beginning of the song was touching.
4. if…: A sad ballad from her maxi single “beautiful/One Suitcase.” I cried a little bit during this song because the lyrics contain very heartfelt words.
5. 手紙 ～あなたへ～: The song title translates into “Letter-to you;” a smooth soul ballad.
6. All My Life: This was the song mink sang as a “birthday present” for one of the fans. Part of the chorus is: “All my life I’ve been searching for you…” What a sweet song for a fan!
7. Beautiful: Beautiful song, as always.
8. **name unknown**: This was a VERY powerful song; during this performance, the lights were red, which seemed to reflect a bit of the fury of the song. The piano and guitar parts of this song were astounding; during the chorus, mink sings “Please stand by my side” and “Please watch over me.” I think mink was saying that this song has not been released yet. I anticipate this song to be on her next single or her next album.
9. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing (Aerosmith cover): mink performed this song very well; she gave a nice touch to the song and it made me have goosebumps!
10. The Rose(Bette Midler cover): Another good cover, but it didn’t really blow me away as much as the previous song.
11. Saving All My Love For You(Whitney Houston cover): This was another cover that made me have goosebumps. I sang along during the song (well, I mouthed the words). Mink’s voice is very similar to Whitney Houston’s, so she did a lot of justice to this song.
12. How Do I Live (Trisha Yearwood cover): mink can certainly cover all sorts of genres! I was kind of surprised when the music started playing for this song; I wondered if any others in the crowd recognized all these covers that mink was performing! All the covers made me nostalgic for my childhood.
13. **name unknown**: Another song that has not been released yet; mink said she sang this song last year in Hiroshima. She also said the song had a sweet melody.
14. Rescue Me ～君がいたから～: Great song.
15. Like There is No Tomorrow: This was one of two songs I wanted mink to perform, and I was glad she sang it. I love the lyrics to this song—they kind of reflect a lot of my emotions.
16. Bring it on ～新しい世界へ～: This was the next to last song (before the encore), so they started spinning the disco ball (there was a disco ball at the top of the auditorium). This song got the audience clapping and “into the groove.”
17. Glory of Life (Darryl James remix): I like this remix of the original; really makes the song more upbeat. Great ending song.
18. *ENCORE* Hold on to a Dream: I was glad to be able to hear her newest song performed live. I can’t wait for the single to be released!
19. *ENCORE* Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The first part of the song was performed with only the keyboard organ; the second part was performed with the whole band. I really liked how she sang this song; it kind of seemed like her encore had a theme about achieving dreams and life goals.

I was a little disappointed that mink did not perform “おまじない” or any of her other covers, but I was generally satisfied with the setlist otherwise.

Here are some photos of the concert goods:

This was the poster I bought, poster B. The other poster (e+motion cover) was poster A.


The 4-postcard set. Simple but nice.
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Hope you enjoyed reading

[JesA]

wow! thats cool that yu got to go to one of her concerts. ive gotta get her other albums....

[HvnSntGurl]

That sounds great. I heard she perfromed Somewhere Over the Rainbow as well as her latest single. I'd pay so much just to see her sing Amazing Grace live. She did quite a few covers. I have to see her when I go to Japan sometime.

[minkAYuko]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I mean.. YESSSSSS but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo x_x I can.t read you rreview atm x_x but I will!!!! thank for sharing it!!!!!!!!

OMGAD THE PPOSTEEEEEEEER x_x

[sexysaucestar]

^ o_O........o_O I was thinking of picking up a few extra posters/postcards to sell to AHSers later, but I forgot -_-; Gomen ne!

[hallelujah_united]

She performed "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"?

[Ryoko]

Too bad she didn't perform Omajinai! Thanks for the review.

[destiny_ayu]

Originally Posted by Ryoko

Too bad she didn't perform Omajinai! Thanks for the review.

yeah.. Omajinai is nice
I hope she will release a concert DVD soon >"<

Thanks for sharing to us, Soysaucestar