IDS Fan Club Tour 25/09 Osaka Report

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dillpops
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IDS Fan Club Tour 25/09 Osaka Report

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Well, I arrived in Japan on the 19th of September, the concert was on the 25th. I was in Tokyo for a few days before going down to Kansai to meet my friend. The girl I went with is a girl who did her year abroad at my uni this year, that's how we met. We watched the Kazeyomi DVD together and stuff.

Anyway, she's also a big Maaya fan and was just as anxious as me to see her live. She spent about a month waiting for Osaka tickets to come up and then a nice guy off the MIXI Maaya community happened to have extra tickets he was willing to see. We got them for 4,000 yen each. I got to her place the day before the concert and we spent the next 24 hours going 'Argh, we're going to see Maaya' every half hour or so.

Unfortunately I caught a cold a couple of days before and the day of the concert was pretty sketchy. I felt awful, streaming nose and eyes, coughing, fever-ish. And as I had to meet my friend out of university lectures I was waiting at the university. My friend was like 'oh my god, you look like you're about to die...are you sure you're ok?'. Now, Maaya's concert was in a few hours, I was not NOT going to miss it 'I'm...fine...perfect...woo!'. What an obvious lie but we both were anxious to go to the concert. Cue taking medicine, buying a mask and billions of tissues.

The doors to the venue opened at 6pm with the concert to start at 7pm. We arrived as the doors were opened and there were lots of people milling around Zepp Osaka. It was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be and instantly I got more excited. No more feeling ill, adrenaline or something (the power of Maaya) was suddenly giving me the strength to go on!

Queue up, give ticket, give 500yen for a drink token and we were inside!! After a bag check of course (no cameras!!) we were inside! A pamphlet was being shoved into our hands and suddenly we were in the queue for goods. Zepp Osaka is like, tiny, once you're in the doors you are in another queue, then another, then another.

The pamphlet was like those little booklets you used to make at school, two pieces of A4 folded to make a little book, it was obviously photocopied from the original that Maaya had made because the whole thing was hand written with the little drawings Maaya does. A little message, a note or two about the tour, band introductions etc. There was also a sheet of stickers with the IDS logo and OSAKA 25/09/09 on them. Each venue had their own venue sticker it seems.

Goods! This is where me and my friend were like '….oh no....' - there was so much I wanted. The 2009 calendar, the ID essay book, the brand new 2010 calendar, a Kazeyomi tour towel, two designs of IDS t-shirt, a tumbler mug and...and...er....I think there might have been something else but I can't remember. It was hard to decide but I eventually went with the essay book and 2010 calendar. The calendar is really nice, shot in Portugal. The locations aren't as varied as the 2009 one but it's really pretty. The essay book I've wanted for ages, I know someone said it doesn't have many pictures but I was still surprised at the amount of photos....like.....2 per 100 pages ^^;;; silly me! I shouldn't have been surprised. (side note: I've nearly finished reading it, really, really good so maybe I'll get round to translating some of it!)

They didn't give us bags to put our goodies in so we ended up paying 300 yen for a locker to shove it all in. Good plan. Then we picked up a drink with our tokens and then it was into the venue!!

It's a bit like the theatre we had at school, not so big, I'm not sure how many people it holds actually. According to the Zepp website it holds about 900 people on the bottom floor and 180 on the top foor when everyone is seated. It felt pretty small though!! All the seats were filled but it felt really intimate. The stage was all set up with the instruments and mics. There were only 4 band members on this tour – percussion, piano, cello and guitar. The pianist doubled up on a little pipe thing and accordion sometimes though. That was later.

I was on the second floor, there were only about 5 rows and we were the third one in. So a really, really nice view. It all seemed so close! Or maybe I'd over-estimated how far we'd be when my friend said they were 'bad' seats. Not bad! I prefer 2nd floor (if it's not front row of course, haha) as you don't have to see over people. As it was a MASSIVE tall guy sat in front of me, er....excuse me? What happened to Japanese people being short on average? But I think he knew because he tended to sit to the side and I got to see more.

A couple of girls about our age (20ish) sat on my right, I think they were massive fans as well because when the lights went down they were like 'I'm going to die!!'. Also, they were crying loads. As was I. And my friend. And a lot of people. But more on the later.

The lights went down!!! The stage was pretty sparse, just the instruments in the middle and a few tall standing lamps here and there. The band came on, did a little tuning. The tension was palpable, the audience waiting with bated breath then....

Sonic Boom

Maaya came on!!!!!! She walked to the center of the stage, we were all silent of course, and then Sonic Boom began. We couldn't see much though because for this song the stage was lit from the foor at the back, so it we could see dark silhouettes only. Can't describe the feeling of seeing her in person. She wore a black dress which was kind of...like the one from the Kazeyomi tour but different ^^;;

Mostly I just stared at her (with my mask on, of course) while this song was on. Occasionally patting my friend's arm in a sort of 'OMG' gesture.

When the song finished and we all clapped it suddenly felt like the room was really small. Maaya really makes you feel included, like it's just you and her. The live was less of a concert, more of 'an evening with Maaya Sakamoto' due to the amount of talking and songs there were. It was nice.

She introduced herself (needed??!) and then it was time for a chat. This tour was based on postcards that the IDS members sent in, apparently they had been asked to tell IDS their favorite Maaya songs and say why that song was their favorite. Interesting. Then this tour was made up from those songs. Which is why the set list was so different to the Kazeyomi tour...? Anyway, Maaya produced a book which had some of the postcards she had selected to read out. A lot of these were the same for each stop of the tour but some where different, for example she read out some Osaka fan's postcard. I'm not sure but I think maybe the person behind me WAS that fan because they started crying loads and going 'aah, thank god', sort of. Actually I think a lot of people were moved by these post cards because suddenly a lot of sniffing was heard!! I'll give you a few examples later!

Anyway, someone's favourite song was....

Strobe no Sora

Now, this is when I cried for the FIRST time. We'd been listening to Lucy in the car on the way to Osaka and somehow hearing it in person, live, was just...amazing. The arrangements in this concert were all acoustic so they all sounded a little different from the original tracks which was a nice touch. The cello especially was really nice in all the songs.

Me and my friend both agreed afterwards that Maaya sang beautifully. Even better than the Kazeyomi DVD. I'm not sure why but we were both confused as to why she would be better than on the DVD to such a noticeable degree. I think maybe she was less nervous?...no filming etc. No idea but she was incredibly. Really powerful.

Remedy

Girls next door crying. I think I did at the end. I'm such a wimp, haha.

Kodoku

THIS is what I was waiting for. One of my most favorite, favorite Maaya songs ever. Stunning, really stunning. Acoustic arrangements are the best. And Maaya singing it as an adult...amazing. Before the performed this song she had a chat with us again. This time about how, when she was a teenager, although she tried her best to sing Yuho Iwasato's lyrics to the best of her ability, it wasn't until she got older that she realised how beautiful the songs she had been given to sing really were. As I understood it, her understanding of the lyrics and the craft of writing lyrics grew and with it came a new appreciation of her older songs. Which was nice. This was one of the ones she said she had a a new appareciation of.

Awesome performance. Amazing. Argh.

I can't remember were it was but it might have been before this song the she told us about being obsessed with a DS game called 'Tomodachi Collection'. It's a bit like the Sims but you build all your friends and family etc. and then...I don't know, control them, make them a life etc. So she said 'At first I did the normal things like making my family, friends etc. but then I ran out of people...so I made my staff. Then...there was nothing for it but to make Johnny Depp!' etc.

Apparently her parents FINALLY got married on the game the day before (we cheered) after a lot of work on Maaya's part. Apparently her best friend had fallen in love with her father and Maaya had had to take a lot of time going 'Father loves mother, father loves mother' and making them fall in love. Also, it seemed like two of the band members for married on the game too (we cheered again). Made me was to play the game. Strange love triangle.

The band members left the stage apart from the pianist after Kodoku and then came...

Ao no Ether

This was unexpected. I tried to avoid setlists before I went so this was truly a lovely surprise. The stage was pitch black, lit only by a light beam that shone in from the right side of the stage, so everything was lit up in profile (afterwards she joked that it was black instead of blue) but...oh man, the ATMOSPHERE. I don't know whether it was the way Ao no Ether echoed in the hall or something but it was like you could FEEL the atmosphere. Almost like 'this is what ether must be' haha, 'I can feel the ether'. But it was electric. Note perfect. I'm not sure but I think the pianist might have changed the arrangement slightly in one place or two but I couldn't tell you as a fact.

You could hear a pin drop when it finished. Then we clapped.

Pianist left the stage then Maaya had a chat to us again. She's been thinking over what to give the IDS members as a Christmas present this year. She's done DVD's, radio shows, and she's decided to do a surprise message. At every tour stop she's asked the audience to shout a word, she records the words and then puts them together to make a sentence. We got the word 'Sound'. And we had a jolly old time practicing the way Maaya wanted us to say it then recording it. SOUND! I wonder what the sentence will be...also, there was a staff member at the end of the concert waiting to record messages from the fans for other fans. More on that later.

Maaya then lamented that she could still only play two songs so we wouldn't be surprised but I was still looking forward to hearing them!!

No Fear
Kazamidori

No Fear was, as you might expect, lovely. Kazamidori though....lovely.....but...she got the lyrics wrong! My friend seemed to think she got the lyrics wrong in two or three places during the concert including this one (I couldn't tell! I thought if I got it wrong then it must be because I forgot Japanese and I was wrong but I wonder...). It was the last chorus, she started to sing a different chorus then had to correct herself. But the piano seemed more difficult than on the Kazeyomi DVD so maybe that's why...still. It was gorgeous. She said that Kazamidori was a song that she wrote when she was wanting to go traveling and it is still the one closest to who she is right now.

Band came back, band introductions. Apparently they are the same band as last year but she reintroduced them anyway. The band is called 'Cucumbers!' Why?...well, three out of four of them hate cucumbers. Maaya asked the audience if people didn't like cucumbers, I didn't, as did some others. So it's not that rare!

Then it was time for...

Yakusoku wa Iranai

This was fun! The marching band bit in the middle was extended and the pianist brought out a little tin whistle/pipe thing, it was like a scottish jig! Really cute. I tried to start a clapping thing but...Maaya fans are serious! No one joined in so it was just me.

Dive

Think I cried again here. Stage was lit from the back with some kind of light that made it looks like we were under water. I'm not sure how often this song has been performed but I felt privileged to hear it. Really, I did. Beautiful. So much emotion put into it and the arrangement was beautiful. I would never have thought a four piece band could put so much into a song like this. Better than the original. Not just because Maaya's vocals were so much stronger than they were ten years ago.

Back to the postcards. Reasons why people like the songs! A few examples from some of the other tour stops I heard about:

- a couple who just got married, not sure what song they said they had at the wedding but Maaya made them stand up (maybe this was Tokyo?) and they had a round of applause
- someone who had been in hospital for a long time listened to Maaya songs, argh, what was it...um...oh, I can't remember. But I think it was a 'Kazeyomi' song. Maybe Remedy. He was able to go to the Nagoya concert and got a round of applause too.

No one got picked out like that at ours but there were a really, really affecting story before Wakaba, A man and his older brother spent a long time looking after their dying father in hospital. They took turns watching over him for a week before he finally passed on. The young man did everything that was expected of him, until the body was cleaned etc. and they put it in a hearse, the young man following in his own car. He hadn't cried even though he was sad. And it was finally in the car, in the rain, following his father's body in the car in front, that he started to cry (he added that he did pull over!) and it was Wakaba that was the song that came to him in this situation.

I think a lot of audience members cried here. It was a really sad story. Then Maaya sang...

Wakaba

Made me like this song more. Maaya explained that it's really interesting hearing people's interpretations of her songs because she writes them in completely different circumstances. Wakaba was written about her friend's experience in university, for instance. So she liked reading everyone's impressions of her songs.

Get no Satisfaction was written after an IDS concert last year. She wrote it because of all the energy she got from the fans who attended and wanted a song that reflected that energy (we all stood up and went crazy in this song...well.....me and the two girls next door and my friend got up and clapped etc.) and this was the result. Also, this years IDS tour tshirts were designed as a uniform for everyone to recognize each other. She wants all fans to cheer each other on – you are not alone!

Get no Satisfaction

Clapped loads, waved to Maaya a lot too. The venue was pretty sure and we were the only people going crazy on the balcony so hopefully, fingers crossed, she saw us and appreciated our energy!

Encore

Same as above really, dancing, cheering, going crazy when she looked our way. Apparetly at the Sapporo tour venue like, it was embarrassing because NO ONE was dancing or clapping or anything. The guy who sold us the tickets apparently went and said it was like....he felt embarrassed because he felt he couldn't go crazy because everyone else was so stoic. Apparently Maaya caught the eye of someone in the front row and had a giggling fit at the lack of reaction. Also, in Tokyo she actually had to say 'come on, stand up!!!'. The Osaka people, I'm glad to say, on the bottom floor, did stand up and clap straight away. We rock.


It did look like she looked our way. It was really bright and lit up and we all sang along etc. Especially Pocket!! Really nice end to the evening! Bright, upbeat, happy!!

Kazemachi Jet
Poketto Kara ni Shite


After all the clapping and goodbyes it was time to go. Outside we all lined up to give our recordings to the IDS staff member. Of course, I got it wrong, AGAIN. Stupid hand written Japanese I couldn't read. We had to give where we were from, our goal for 2010 and where we would like to travel to. Fine. Did it. Then apparently we had to give the IDS slogan call or whatever. Couldn't read it. Made one up. Ran away. Haha, so embarrassing, I can't believe I made one up (-_-);;;;;; boo.

It looks like those will be collected for the new year present thing though.

Anyway!!! There we go.

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING! Apparently I was shouting 'Maaya' a lot at the end. I'm not surprised (although I don't really rememeber haha) it was stunning. Incredible. Awesome!
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Kaimugen
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Post by Kaimugen »

Thanks for the report Dilly. Were you cured after seeing Maaya?
I noticed the same thing with people from Osaka and people from Tokyo. The latter seem more reserved, you'd expect them to cheer more for the hometown girl.
It sounds like a great concert, I just hope she performs more Dive songs in the future now.
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kirei_lanford
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Post by kirei_lanford »

Hearing DIVE live... it's something i can't imagine even in dreams... ToT... dilly i wish i switched body with you.. kidding... that'll be too cruel.. :p

in Ao no Ether.. did maaya change the arrangement? or still just piano.. ah.. i wish she sing with megumi's arrangement.. that it'll be mind blowing...

and then Sutorobo no Sora,.. Wakaba.. i like these songs so much!!!! Wakaba has that type of emotion that type hard to explain... between sad and happy.. i dunno. then i like every songs that's on the list of course...

oh dilly im glad u finally make it.. i just wish im the next lucky enough person... Seriously if im there i might've can't stop wetting my cheek.. thank you so much for the amazing report. \(^-^)/

*and i hope ur getting better, if u havent :wink: *
just close your eyes and follow your HEART --> vanished to dust T.
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dillpops
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Post by dillpops »

It was incredible, I'm just glad I was able to remember so much of what Maaya talked about so I could share it with you guys!! I'll try my hardest to get some of the ID essay book translated some time too :)
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kirei_lanford
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Post by kirei_lanford »

please do... XD
just close your eyes and follow your HEART --> vanished to dust T.
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dillpops
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Post by dillpops »

Check the translation thread, there's one up now :)
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itada19
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Post by itada19 »

T_T.......mumumu!
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gradualpetrify
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Post by gradualpetrify »

ma- ma- ma- mask! lol your mask comment just reminded me of how many nice cartoons existed back in the 80s.

all the secret tickets acquirers! im jealous :cry: i would pay more than 4000yen even if it will make me broke. cmon spend me 2 tickets!!! didnt know it was a small tour again... in 3 citys?

it would be so funny to see me there and ppl ask me to say a slogan and i only know like 150 japanese words so far. i probably even forgot half of them alrdy because the only time i use em is when i learn em o.O. i think i would run away like you with a red head haha. what slogan did you create?

felt like an evening with maaya sakamoto? good! where are the candles and the lighter!? hmm i dont wear suits. i would but without cravat.

dont tell me she likes johnny depp :( . damn then i need to let my hair grow again and copy that mustache lmao. luckily my hair is dark enough now. its black with some grey (lol i switch back and forth from AE to BE creating my own language) hairs :? when i was a kid it was blonde like this smiley :) . grey hair with 27... sick.

i want to put maaya into the tomodachi collection and press some buttons...

would be interesting to know if she used different lyrics for kazamidori on purpose or by accident. ppl may change over the years so they replace something from time to time in live-gigs. okay now it was just an accident i guess.

this forum here is like "all about lily chou chou". some1 know that movie?

for the record: im from the ruhrgebiet, the biggest megalopolis in germany. my goal for 2010 is the birthday concert and so you know where i want to travel. i go there even if i need to fight my way through that jungle with sign language lololo.

--- better true weakness than fake strength ---
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kirei_lanford
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Post by kirei_lanford »

i wish im as positive as you..

but i have some weight in my back so i can't do the same madness.... i really really wish it's not like reaching the cloud with bare hands.. im thinking of proposing a week-off around the concert time and use all of my vacation quota... but there's that family factor,... money factor,... rate of possibility to get ticket factor,.. and so on... so, i must be careful in deciding things... XD

@dilly
heading to the translation thread... many thanks as usual.. :)
just close your eyes and follow your HEART --> vanished to dust T.
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misssakura
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Post by misssakura »

dont tell me she likes johnny depp
What girl doesn't?
If you have any poo, better fling it now.
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