COUNTDOWN LIVE 2011-2012 A ~HOTEL Love songs~ information thread

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Probably because it's the ~THEME SONG~ to this tour. I wonder if the live arrangement helps the song at all. I like the studio one but that "retro" sound kinda grates after a while.

It is a bit more fun live but I could have done without it twice.

[ayumimylove]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Probably because it's the ~THEME SONG~ to this tour. I wonder if the live arrangement helps the song at all. I like the studio one but that "retro" sound kinda grates after a while.

You´re right, I forgot the "theme song" thing. Now I understand why was performed twice.

Short hair again? nooooo I want ayu with long haaaaair!!

[reilachii]

is it from cdl? just found it on weibo

[natapan]

^^ Me too, I want long hair... Short hair is ok, but form me she looks better & younger with long hair... and if it's dark long hair... better lol

^ I think it is... I've never seen that outfit before O.o

[RayJason]

I didn't like PECO but I did feel like she was a part of it all . Think that I'm going to miss her for a little bit.

But, I'm disappointed with the 'party queen' lyrics, seems like another English song [I]again[/I. It might be good, but for now I have my doubts. The tracklist looks promising too! I just don't hope that she goes all PoM and throw in those powerful vocals in some of the songs.

And Timmy's now a dancer? ...

^^ Might be, I also never saw that outfit! I'm curious to know what's on her leg ~
^^^ I want long hair ayu too! I really don't like the short hair. It's getting really boring now.

[Beffi]

^ She looks like she's wearing tights and there are holes in them. Either that or it's the knee brace she wears, idk.

I like the look of the setlist! But no PECO? A part of me is happy, but a part of me is sad haha.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by reilachii

is it from cdl? just found it on weibo

Yep it is. She wore that during the evolution/flower garden etc portion. and yes, she was wearing ripped tights.

[AyUmIXx]

wow love the outfit.
so colorful~
can't wait to see pics of her outfits.

[YUKARI]

oh my, the setlist is amazing!!!

[SunshineSlayer]

Ok, so I'm home now where I can properly type my review. Before I get into this, let me preface this by saying what I love about Ayu's concerts - I love the parts where it is just her on stage or her and her band, and if the dancers are a part of it, I like them to be in the background. Now, unfortunately, this was NOT that concert at all. For those that are more a fan of her performances with her dancers, you will probably love this show. But for me, this was about the 15th time I've seen her live and unfortunately I thought it was the worst time that I have seen one of her shows. I really loved loved loved the Love Songs album and I thought the Rock n' Roll Circus tour was one of her best ever, so I was really looking forward to this but I felt somewhat underwhelmed while watching this show tonight.

I look forward to seeing the opinions of others who went to the show because I have a feeling that this show will really divide people's opinions.

First, what I LIKED about the show:
- No, PECO! lol
- How Beautiful You Are is a really pretty song and it was also the only one of the night that Ayu sang totally solo. People were wondering if the song picks up or not. It's does somewhat, but it firmly remains a ballad, so it doesn't pick up to the point of say Progress or something. Something that might divide some fans I guess though is that Tim's vocal shows up towards the end of this song; I didn't mind it though.
- There was no lip synching
- Her hair and outfits were better overall than last year imo.
- The November performance was really nice and if not for the aforementioned Shuya, would have been amazing. The performance also incorporated the fountains from the My Story tour. That would probably be considered the "wow" moment I guess.
- I'll put this as a positive: If you are a Maro fan this just might be your favorite concert ever. He spends a lot of time on a bed with his shirt off.

ummmm, that's it. Like seriously. haha

What I didn't like:
- To pick up the last point; this concert didn't really feel like it had a wow moment. At least nothing newish. There are the fountains in November and she performs Ladies Night suspended from the ceiling in a chair, but that's all been done before, so I don't think anyone really sat back and was like amazed or anything. I'm not sure how much different the Arena tour will be because Ayu asked the audience in the encore "what did you think of the real love songs?" If this is for the most part going to be it, it really pales in comparison to Rock n' Roll Circus.

-Ayu herself I thought was lacking some energy in this show.

- The setlist doesn't read like it would flow well together and it didn't really.

- The set and props in general I thought looked pretty cheap. More so than usual for a CDL and if this is what is being used for the Arena tour, then even more so. I also couldn't really tell what theme they were going for. Often times the costumes and what not for the dancers were just all over the place. It really looked like kind of a mish-mash onstage a lot of times.

-The band members were not highlighted even once. Enrique and Yoshio were in the background off to the side and did not move from their positions the entire show.

- The biggest problem I felt was actually most of the whole first part of the concert. Of the first 7 songs, she is actually sitting for the majority of 4 of them. She sits through most of Moon, Fated, Never Ever, and Sparkle. Yes, Sparkle. She is only up and moving in the last chorus of that song. That imo, is way too many and they were all right around each other in the set list. She then also later sat through a good chunk of Ladies Night. That just seemed odd to me in an Ayu concert and kind of dampened the excitement. She also didn't even touch the catwalk or circular stage until the 10th song in the setlist. I hope I'm not the only one that thought the first half of the concert felt kind of dead.

And this then led to what is imo a problem with the dancers. I really felt like they were highlighted waaay to much. In the first half of the concert I often felt like Ayu was singing backup vocals at a dance performance instead of the other way around like it should be. In Never Ever and Sparkle Ayu is even seated upstage while the dancers are down stage, meaning the audience had a better view of the dancers than Ayu.

Sorry to say, but this was just not my type of show. Hopefully the others that went got more enjoyment from it than me.

[!Lawi!]

^Thanks to the review,it sounds a bit disappointing but I hope and think she will change many things for the Arena Tour !
Do you remember more or less precisely what "Party Queen" sounded like ?

[YUKARI]

^^ thanks for the review!!
I'm glad she looks better now than last year. I didn't like her last year's outfits and hairstyle. But sad to read that she was sitting while performing Sparkle

[SunshineSlayer]

Oh I forgot to mention about Moon and Fated - she performs Moon on a bed in her pajamas and Maro is on another bed shirtless with another dancer. He then seemingly has an "affair" with Ayu on her bed but then goes back to the dancer on the other bed. Fated is performed still in the pajamas but now seated on a sofa in front of the bed with Maro still flailing shirtlessly in the background. Like I said, Maro fans will love this show.

Originally Posted by !Lawi!

^Thanks to the review,it sounds a bit disappointing but I hope and think she will change many things for the Arena Tour !
Do you remember more or less precisely what "Party Queen" sounded like ?

It was a happy sounding dance track. It was kind of fun and might grow on me. But never in a million years would I have thought that Ayu would have a song possibly titled Party Queen that has as it's chorus, "Party queen, party queen I'm your party queen." That combined with the title "Shake It" for apparently another track is kinda making me have to do a double take.

[Onton]

Thanks SunshineSlayer for your review. seems that the show is just so-so..

one thing I wanna know is how ayu appear on stage in the opening? Any intro movie or special effect that she appears on stage?

[ExodusUK]

The show does sound really bad...argh Ayu needs PECO, she also did a lot of stuff regarding direction on stage too.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Yeah, that could be it. I didn't like PECO as a singer with Ayu, but as a production designer maybe she wasn't half bad.

I honestly want to see other peoples reactions though. Maybe it was just me who felt like it wasn't that great. Like I said, I think it will come down to what type of Ayu concert you like.

Originally Posted by Onton

Thanks SunshineSlayer for your review. seems that the show is just so-so..

one thing I wanna know is how ayu appear on stage in the opening? Any intro movie or special effect that she appears on stage?

The intro movie shows the do it again performance from CDL. But it seemed like there were major technical problems while playing the video. Actually I couldn't tell if there were technical problems or if they actually were aiming for it to look and sound messed up. She then(along with 4 or 5 other people) comes down on stage from the ceiling while on a platform. Could have been a spectacular opening, but fell a bit flat for me. Not quite sure why. It kind of felt like the last CDL went out with a powerful bang with Do it Again, but then kinda opened with a whimper here.

[mizuki-7]

maybe the 31st will be better ?

[RayJason]

Oh duh, ofcourse these are ripped thighs. facepalm

Thank you very much for the review!
It doesn't sounds as awesome as I thought it would have been.

Were you satisfied with ayu's vocals?

[truehappiness]

It definitely doesn't sound as ultra luxurious as the claims of what HOTEL Love songs could've been back when POWER of MUSIC was happening but ehhh... we'll probably see a rather different show once the tour starts up since they had already done costume work and filmed special screens.

I'm interested in this CDL of course, but I suppose I really just want to see the tour soon, lol. I wonder just how much of this concert was previously planned for the concerts back in March/April?

Now that I think about it, since there are going to be two "HOTEL Love songs" related shows, are they going to release a dual Blu-ray/DVD featuring the tour and CDL sides of the concept?

[AyuGAME]

thanks for the review...i think your opinion is fair enough...

i hope her arena tour will be totally grand, and from your description, i don't understand the corelation between the theme and the whole show...it's doesn't sound hotel to me..
i expecting something more related to each other...