[News] ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2014-2015 A, Cirque de Minuit INFO II

[maxikot]

I haven't watched the whole thing, just parts cause was super excited and i see she is really trying to surprise people. Ideas like moon or 1love screens, circus duty are really great. I see Ayu is really working hard now both on music (single was lovely and had her feeling all over) and lives. Also her voice, she is reaching parts that were long forgotten zutto, walk...

[stepYOU1234]

I might try and watch it later but I'm excited so far. Aerial stunts for GAME is inspired, the outfits look good and her lipstick at the start makes her look even more beautiful. I love the effort she is putting into lives now and I think there's real potential in some of the ideas.

[Aderianu]

[Emperatriz Ayumi]

OH-MY-GOOD!!! I have watched it completely and it is AMAZING!!! She sounds so good and the stage, costumes, dancers everything looks great. Great Ayu!!! This show is going to be one of my favourite ones!!!

[FoxyPinkGirl]

I don't want to signup for something just to watch a clip I'll wait for somebody else to upload for downloading

[chocopockymaster]

I was thinking of waiting to watch the whole thing before stating my opinion, but I have to say--I'm only as far as 1 LOVE and she is ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL. I don't remember her voice ever sounding this good, tbh. Not just the pitch, but the control, and not sounding out of breath despite the complete lack of lipsyncing thus far. GAME was amazing and the screens in 1 LOVE are giving me life. I hope avex barely tweaks her vocals for the DVD/bluray release (asking them to leave the vocals alone would be asking too much of them, I'm sure) because this is one of her best performances in a long-ass time.

[holy_arrow]

Having watched some of my promising parts, her vocal is good with the lower tunes ... Trio of her new songs are excellent... I must say WOW while watching ...
The most disappointing part to me is "XOXO-Lelio", her voice is weak and "have fun" is not high enough and lack of energy
This show is pretty cool, custome,... I 'm pretty sure that Arena Tour 2015 will similar to this one ...

[chocopockymaster]

Last minute had me sobbing and just as I had recovered, forgiveness sent me spiraling into more tears. I can't deal. She just looks so regal and beautiful, and I've yet to see any of the crazy overacting that usually makes her concert-watching (when it comes to her recent tours) so painful.

Anyone who's still stuck in 2014, if you want to watch the video Aderianu so kindly posted and ring in the new year with Ayu, make sure you start the video at 23:06:47 local time. That'll align the countdown part perfectly with hitting midnight on January 1st

Edit: I am officially dead @ Enrique's pink mohawk

[FoxyPinkGirl]

I just watched some clips on YouTube. I can see what Ayu was going for. It definitely has a cirque du soleil and Las Vegas shows (Ive been to several, I love that city) feel to it. I can't wait to watch the whole thing

[stepYOU1234]

Originally Posted by maxikot

I haven't watched the whole thing, just parts cause was super excited and i see she is really trying to surprise people. Ideas like moon or 1love screens, circus duty are really great. I see Ayu is really working hard now both on music (single was lovely and had her feeling all over) and lives. Also her voice, she is reaching parts that were long forgotten zutto, walk...

Definitely! I love the effort she is putting in and focusing on her fans instead of sales. It is coming together and making sense in my head now!

So far it seems more like an Arena Tour than a CDL! And I can hear her breathing in GAME so that looks like it is live. Ayu must be really working hard at the moment! It's sort of like she was always confident in singing on stage but now she is reaching into the other areas to create a more complete performance. She isn't shying away from dancing as much such as the end of my name's WOMEN. Loved the use of lighting backgrounds for 1LOVE- sometimes it was a bit much and hard to see Ayu. Zutto was cute, Last Minute was great and walk almost made me cry. The background lights for forgiveness are just beautiful and Ayu's voice for most of it!! Nitpicking, the beaded top doesn't flow that well with the feathery skirt. Some beaded overlay on the skirt and a couple of feathers say on the shoulders would have blended them better. It's just obvious that the skirt is an add on.

Also, Ayu just looks so beautiful. I think she's got a new lipstick colour on but it looks amazing on her.

I am excited for the tour next year!

[AyuGAME]

1 LOVE performance superb!

Michi voice is so good..i love his cover of End roll

[andycruize]

Crazy!!I can't believe that ayu sing really good live, but now I believe it. Her voice is really great

[kotora]

Duty - I love the new version. ayu performs it well with the deeper voice. The dress <3.
Microphone - It is ok. Nothing special to me. I prefer RnRC tour one.
GAME - It is surprised to me. air acrobatics for a rock song!
my name's women - Recycle from arena tour 05.
1LOVE - I LOVE THE VISUAL EFFECT! I was like Beyonce? ?? ? ?
End roll - first time ever someone performs ayu's song in tour!
Zutto... - WOW! First time and the thing I have been waiting for many years - ayu performs on Moon! This. Please.Be. For. Disc Cover.
Last Minute - Reminds me Memorial Address performance.
Walk - Reminds me PoS opening.. ayu cries at the end.. why?
forgiveness - Creative but I feel like she is removing my heart and moving around on the stage.
progress - ok performance

[freedreamer]

Are there any sources to watch?? I would love to see 1 LOVE?

edit:
Just watched Zutto to forgiveness

Zutto: some high notes were almost there but those she hit were really beautiful
Last minute: PERFECTION OMGOSH. Ayu's emotions were so on point and it didn't affect her vocals. Love this so much! I think this deserves a live audio rip
Walk: Really emotional especially when it builds to the chorus. Definitely a strange tug at the heartstrings :'(
forgiveness: Wow, this was super powerful as well! I loved the part when the dancers put their wishes up. Very symbolic

I think Ayu definitely gained so much more control over her voice and that vibrato is GORGEOUS to my ears especially when she does it stably and strongly

[hidekirby]

Ok guys...

I just watched Duty+Microphone & Walk+Forgiveness, and OH GOD.

She looks ridiculously amazing... Dark hair + red lips... oh my
The stage is great too, nothing really fresh but it reminds me of RnRC tour which was perfect.

About her voice...
I was a bit worried when I heard the first video previews, but the "whole" thing in itself is far from being bad. I won't say it's amazing or really good like some of you said because it's definitely not.
But god what an improvement!!! Her voice is not as flat as it used to be, she can hit some notes I thought she wouldn't; at times I was surprised thinking she almost sounded like she was lipsynching (while she is definitely not) or like it already was processed a bit.
Her vocals are really powerful when needed, gentle when needed, she has much more control on them. Of course she is not hitting every notes and you can see she is still struggling when she is trying to hit high notes (I don't know the term...). But once again what an improvement... I'm quite impressed and I hope she will still work on it cause there is a lot of room for improvement. But I'm relieved she didn't just focus on aerials and visuals (I'm not fond of them at all) but also seriously worked on her vocals.

I don't know if it's the theme or else but it definitely gives me a RnRC vibe and I hope I will enjoy it as much! Hope the dancers/Timmy won't be overexposed and kill the amazingness.
It's been a long time I haven't been so excited by a new CDL/Tour. I'm glad everyone is excited too!

PS: too bad she is crying for the second part of Walk, I would have wanted to know how she would do for the orgasmic ending ("ikiteru yo"). I must say I doubt she can hit the notes without any help.
forgiveness new arrangements just destroy an awesome song...
Sorry for my awful english -_- and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[jbrat2219]

All of the positivity has me really excited to see this! I haven't really liked a Countdown Live of hers since '06!

[holy_arrow]

Originally Posted by freedreamer

Are there any sources to watch?? I would love to see 1 LOVE, the new songs and forgiveness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KwszPevudk

[chocopockymaster]

Originally Posted by hidekirby

forgiveness new arrangements just destroy an awesome song...

It's not a new arrangement--that and progress essentially have the same arrangements that they did for the opening of POWER of MUSIC. The choreography, the outfit she wore, everything seemed to be a throwback to that, which was awesome. forgiveness from PoM had the potential to be awesome but she killed it with the over-acting and the ad-libbing...but this time around she totally nailed it.

[Tom Punks]

OK, so I just watched it.

The first half of the concert is good. I really liked 1 LOVE despite the awful camera positioning. The moon + starry BG for Zutto... was cute. It got kind of boring starting with Walk, and increasingly more so as the next... every song for the rest of the concert... was extended to 10 minutes each. Ode to Joy in the middle of SURREAL~evolution~SURREAL was SO wtf lmao. It didn't feel like a full concert overall, considering the second half was basically just the same thing over and over. It didn't feel complete or like it really climaxed idk. It really could've used at least SOMETHING fun in the second half to make it not so monotonous. But then I don't consider SURREAL~evolution~SURREAL fun at all so whatever lol

I still don't think saving all the "fun" for the encore was a remotely good idea, but the first half of the concert was really solid. The second half was just boring same old same old.

[holy_arrow]

Does anyone realize that Her vocal is very weak and sleazy ?