AT 09 Report: Sat. 6/6 Sapporo Show! - Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai
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  #1  
Old 11th June 2009, 04:06 AM
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AT 09 Report: Sat. 6/6 Sapporo Show!

Hi everyone! Sorry that my review is late, I have a full time job and sometimes it's hard to find time to post! This is only part one, but it’s taken a while just to write this, so I’ll post part two soon.

In any case, I went to the Sapporo, Hokkaido showing of AT 09 last weekend. I had an amazing time, and I wanted to share it all with you!

The day was a cloudy and rainy one, but I still showed up early to look at merchandise and get in line. I got a hoodie in white, a black tshirt, a bag and one of those glow stick fans, which seems vital to any Ayu performance.

Unfortunately there were some technical problems with setting up, and we were let into the building 15 minutes late, meaning we were left out in the rain. Finally they let us inside, and I went to my seat. Because I couldn't get TeamAyu tickets, I was located in the stands, pretty high up, but in the very middle in front of the catwalk. Overall, it was a good seat for a regular seat!

The technical problems still hadn't been resolved it seemed, so we had to wait for an additional 35 minutes while some problem or another was worked out. Needless to say, the crowd got really antsy! The technicians were playing a random western music cd while we waited, and the crowd started to groan and complain everytime a new track started. Finally a woman's voice came on at 7:05 pm, and appologized for the wait, telling us that the concert would be starting.

Shortly after that, we went into Pieces of Seven. At first it was dark, but when the fast paced part of the song started, the screens on the stage began randomly flashing a colorful barcode pattern or TV snow. When it ended, Ayu's voice welcomed us to Arena Tour 2009.

Then Rule started. Ayu appeared in the same costume that has been reported; the black leather catsuit with rhinestone belt and her hair back in a bun. The screens in the background had flashes of red running up them in time with the guitar. Ayu's singing here was very off in the first chorus, but as the song progressed she became more controlled. And I was so excited to hear her live, that even her bad singing gave me goosebumps! At the end of the song, it finished with fire exploding from the front of the stage.

Ayu continued in the same costume for UNITE! It was sung pretty well and was very energenic and fun. I found myself doing the arm movements with many other memebers of the audience. The choreography was the same as any other performance. After the song finished, Ayu disappeared for her costume change, and the center screen started playing a video.

The video was for Disco-munication, and it was the mario themed video that other people have mentioned. Ayu acted like Mario in her cheerleader outfit, with objects that made her bigger and enemies she had to stomp on. Her outfit also changed color, from red to green to blue (I think those were the colors). There were even some pipes in the scenery, and a moment where she collects a bunch of stars, which were like the Mario coins and even had a similar sound effect.

The video lead right into EnergizE, and the screens/stage staircase began lighting up in rainbow colors with stars. Ayu appeared in the red cheerleader outfit from the beginning of the video and her female dancers were dressed the same but in other colors. She sang using her normal voice for the English parts, but used her “cute” voice during the Japanese verses. It didn’t sound like her chipmunk voice, but it was hard for her to maintain because she kept dropping syllables like “tte” in “dakara tte wake janakute.” The male dancers came out in baseball uniforms, and they played around on stage. It was pretty good, but not the best part.

AUDIENCE was sung in the cheerleader outfit as well. She tried to use her higher register (think her voice during the RAINBOW period ) and she did pretty well for the first half of the song, but slid into her more recent singing style towards the end. It was still exciting and the crowd loved it.

Next was another costume change, and therefore the video for Load of the SHUGYO. Ayu and the female dancers were prison guards, and the male dancers were prisoners. Ayu takes pity on Shu-ya who is thirsty, and tries to give him a glass of water. He refuses it, instead taking the opportunity to escape with the other prisoners.

Next begins LOVE ‘n’ HATE. It was pretty good, the screens were very dramatic and displayed numbers every time the song counted up. Ayu showed up in the grey costume with a jacket and short shorts. She also forgot to count “one” during 1, 2, 3… for the counting parts in the middle and end of the song. Her voice sounded really comfortable and nice here.

Next was identity. She shed the jacket and continued in the same costume. The song was also good, mostly involving Ayu pushing away her male dancers. She danced primarily with Shu-ya, who slid his hand up her leg, almost to her butt, before she pushed him away. (I have to admit, I was happy when she did). After the song finished, the stage went black.

It was black for only a few seconds, but when the lights came back up, there were chairs and canes on the stage, causing the crowd to gasp in amazement. The dancers came out followed by Ayu, to do in the corner, just like the PCDL version, but with a black tie. Although it was the same, it was nice to see it performed live, and the song was sung nicely.

Next there was some extended guitar work before Ayu reappeared for HOPE or PAIN in that awful white dress. I admit that it was prettier on the stage than in pictures though. Ayu sang this song the same way she sang it for PCDL, but it was only her on the stage.

Directly afterwards, GREEN started, with Midoring dancing in a feminine white dress that looked like pajamas. The screens had a golden dragon design on them. She disappeared, and Maro appeared, dancing as though he were looking for someone. Ayu sang on, watching the two of them, and eventually they found each other, and began dancing the same dance that Ayu/Midoring did in the PV.

Next was Days, in the pink mermaid dress. Ayu started bawling during this one, as Shu-ya did his usual flailing I’m-wearing-a-prince-jacket-with-no-shirt routine . There isn’t much to say about this one, except that at the end Ayu started to leave, sobbing, and then Shu-ya saw her. Finally, he came and embraced her as they disappeared from the stage.

Up next, evolution-My all!
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  #2  
Old 11th June 2009, 04:08 AM
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Thanks so much for this review!

I look forward to the next segment of it, haha.

-links to it in my thread-
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:13 AM
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Thank you for this. Looks like you remember a lot of the details. Will wait for part 2.Sounds like you enjoyed yourself.
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:17 AM
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I'm glad to hear she's singing HoP and GREEN as if she were singing someone else's lovesong, instead of her own (and I wish she had done the same with Days).

I'm so glad to hear another in-depth review of the concert! There haven't been too many this year, but I'm glad to see all the ones I've read have been really positive =D

I can't wait to read the rest of your review! Thanks!!! =D
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:22 AM
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thanks!
I look forward to reading the next part ~
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:23 AM
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I love to read this! It's so exciting. Thanks for sharing. What about the pictures? any pictures taken there?
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:31 AM
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thx for the LIVE reports
since u looks like much enjoyed in it and could remember much of it!
waiting for the next part!
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:38 AM
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Awesome review! Thank you so much for sharing it with us Taka~
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Old 11th June 2009, 04:47 AM
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Wow, sounds awesome! So Midoring was in this show this time? GREEN performance only, I mean. That's cool, can't wait to see this.

Thanks for your review! Waiting on part two .
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Old 11th June 2009, 05:12 AM
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Thanks so much for your hard work.

Reviews like yours are the only way fans like us who cannot attend Ayu's concerts experience a tiny bit of what's it like to be there.

Much appreciated.
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Old 11th June 2009, 06:15 AM
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Wow! The tour seems more and more exciting after each review! Thanks!

You talking about Shu-ya made me lol. (In a good way)
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Old 11th June 2009, 07:10 AM
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thanks for this review!
Quote:
She danced primarily with Shu-ya
I'm so happy =)
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  #13  
Old 11th June 2009, 08:59 AM
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….And here is part 2! Picking up from where I left off, Ayu changed from her mermaid dress to her costume for evolution, which was the silver sparkly jacket and pants. She also put her hair back in a bun, as it was for Rule. (Which is different from pictures we’ve seen!) evolution was AMAZING, and my second favorite performance of the night. She sang back and forth with the audience; she would sing one line of the chorus, and then we would sing the answering line, which everyone did as loud as they could!

evolution lead into SIGNAL, and for this song the screens flashed tons of colors again, of course using red and green for the key points in the lyrics where she mentions them. Towards the end, streamers exploded out from the ceiling, and fans rushed to gather some up. This song was really energenic, and it almost felt like this should have been the climax of the concert… but there was still the best to come!

The band and dancers had their extended performance here, while Ayu changed, and it’s also where we had the band intro (if my memory is correct). When Ayu reappeared, she was wearing a purple jacket and black pants, with that fake square blond wig, and red Geordi La Forge inspired glasses (I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Star Trek the Next Generation, but if not, please Google). rollin’ starts, and she acted like a creepy robot throughout the song – and I mean it was seriously scary looking. At the first chorus, she removes the red glasses and her eyes looked dead, like they did during marionette, but without contacts. That being said, rollin’ is still my favorite song from the album, and I was not disappointed with the live performance of it.

Sparkle picked up right after rollin’ and the dancers began acting a little bit sexy again, although not as in your face as Identity was. Ayu did not really replicate her sexy dancing from the PV, but instead pushed away her dancers, as she sang “no no no.” There was A symbol shaped confetti falling in front of the stage during this song. At the end, she kept shouting “more more!” to the audience and had us sing “no no no!” repeatedly. It was a lot of fun.

Next, the stage went black, and Bridge to the sky began. On the middle screen, photos of Ayu began flashing by – from the most recent images, and backward through time. They scrolled rather quickly, so it wasn’t as easy to see her young pictures as I’d hoped, but when it finally reached her baby photo, the progression slowed down so that we could get a good look. Then, the photos reversed back to the most recent picture very quickly as we transitioned into NEXT LEVEL.

After all of the shouting at the end of Sparkle, Ayu’s voice was getting a bit horse during NL. She appeared in her white costume with the hat and Aladdin pants. There was a chair at the top of the stage’s staircase, but at first Ayu appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Eventually she made her way up to the chair, sat down, and the chair was lifted up toward the ceiling. The chair had a chandelier hanging from the bottom. She floated forward to the front of the stage, and then the chair went down. Overall, considering how much I love the song NL, this part could have been better, but it was still good.

At this point, Ayu and her dancers take a bow, say thank you, and disappear from the stage – It was the end of the main concert. The A symbol video starts up, and on the screen it said “Since we haven’t been to Hokkaido in three years, here are highlights of the A!” At this point we were shown video from AT 07, CDL 07-08, and AT 08, with imitation Kojima Yoshio and Omuro. This was special only for Hokkaido, but as a result we didn’t see the new AT 09 A! Oh well.

The encore started fairly quickly. When the lights went up, there was an acoustic piano at the top of the stairs, and Ayu was there. She sang Curtain Call with only the piano and it sounded beautiful (better than the recording, I thought – even with the inclusion of Peco and Princess).

Next up she sang For my dear… also acoustically, and her voice went sharp/flat quite a bit, but it still sounded better than the ASFXX version. She also switched the lyrics of two of the verses a little bit.

Then she started the MC. I finally got a good look at her outfit, she was wearing a white AT 09 tank top, with overalls, and her hair was pulled up only at the front with two bobbles (this reminded me slightly of a Pomeranian). She apologized for not coming to Hokkaido for 3 years, and also for the late start our show had. Then she called up Subaru and Jin to be guest MC. Zin sang “negai ga kanau nara” in a high pitched falsetto, and then Subaru launched into a Hokkaido dialect quiz. It turns out that Jin, Locky and Shu-ya are all from Hokkaido originally. They quizzed her on “bakuru” which means “koukan/exchange” but she couldn’t guess it for the longest time. Next, they played a game which was a bit like telephone combined with pictionary. In this game, one person sees a word and has to draw it. Then they show their drawing to the next person, and so on down the line, until the last person has to draw and name the picture.

The first drawing was corn, and 2-yan went first. His drawing looked a bit more like a corn dog than corn… and poor Locky then drew a tree. Somehow, Jin started bringing it back when he turned the tree into a pineapple, and Shu-ya turned the tree back to corn. Ayu finally drew a quick scribble and wrote corn, winning this round!

Round 2 was “horse.” This time, Jin, the best artist, went first, and he drew a great horse. Unfortunately, 2-yan went second, and his horse had a strange bulbous head and a round tail. Locky went next and drew what looked like a fox or squirrel. Ayu drew what seemed most like a Coyote with a huge ear. And Shu-ya finally drew and guessed that it was a chameleon, losing the second round. At this point, Ayu had enough and decided to continue with the singing!

The next performance was everywhere nowhere, and Ayu’s vocals recovered quite a bit from For my dear… She sang it mostly on the catwalk with the dancers dancing around her in a circle. In the middle of the song, she forgot the lyrics, and screamed sorry to everyone before continuing. Everywhere nowhere lead right into Humming 7/4, which I don’t really like on cd, but I’ve decided it’s a lot of fun to jump live!

Next came Boys & Girls. Now, anyone who’s seen her concert DVDs knows that Ayu usually screams out lines and then has the audience sing the next line. For this concert, she actually SANG her lines, to my great relief! It sounded great and was fun to sing along to. At the end of the song, the she did another band intro, then followed by the dancers. Finally the song ended with smoke coming down from the ceiling at the front of the stage.

Ayu announced that the next song was the last song, and then launched into My All. However, since this song had never been performed in Hokkaido, and since we didn’t get lessons on how to do the dance, the para para parts were very disorganized in the audience… :p. The dancers and Ayu all did it though, so we slowly caught on. Ayu’s voice was very hoarse during this song, but it was still a good finish.

Then, Ayu and the dancers took several bows she thanked us all a bunch of times. After the band and dancers left the stage, she made us be quiet, and screamed thank you without the mic. Then Who… started playing and it was announced that the concert was over.
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Old 11th June 2009, 09:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TakaSama View Post
as Shu-ya did his usual flailing I’m-wearing-a-prince-jacket-with-no-shirt routine . There isn’t much to say about this one, except that at the end Ayu started to leave, sobbing, and then Shu-ya saw her. Finally, he came and embraced her as they disappeared from the stage.
Oh what's new! *yawn* Lol.

Thanks for your review! I'm really excited for the NEXT LEVEL album tracks performed :3
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Old 11th June 2009, 09:16 AM
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aww... thanks~~
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Old 11th June 2009, 09:53 AM
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Awwwh, Ayu actually sang Boys & Girls!! I secretly like how high her voice screams when she does Boys & Girls though.

And how strange it is for Ayu to not visit Hokkaido for 3 years! It's good that the audience caught onto the parapara!

Thanks for sharing!
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Old 11th June 2009, 10:12 AM
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OMG what a great report!!!

Thank you so much! This gets me superexcited!
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We had such a nice time. We started dating in t2m PV, took it slow you know, let our love grow. Then it got really serious in 2008. Then after AT2009 we moved in together. It was lovely. Then on AT2010 he asked me to marry him. He was such a sweet. And Ayu gave us our blessings. She was also such a sweet. Now me and Maro are such a sweets together. Aaaw, how time flies.
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Old 11th June 2009, 10:18 AM
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Ooh! I love part 2 of your review! From what you said, Curtain call seems/sounds awesome! And the MC game sounds really fun too!
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Old 11th June 2009, 10:20 AM
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Awesome review, thank you!
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Old 11th June 2009, 10:35 AM
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Thank you for the review, Im really glad ayu decided to sing Boys and Girls again, I already excepted that when she sung and not screamed the first part of it in PCDL, but then she later screamed again...
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