Fukuoka concert. New Year's Eve 2012

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newrynyuk
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Fukuoka concert. New Year's Eve 2012

Post by newrynyuk » Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:38 pm

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The Marine Messe Fukuoka arena is in the port area of the city and miles from a metro station. I got the by taxi a little after 9pm to find the merchandise queues quite packed.

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There was no tour brochure (although a 24-page booklet was given free upon entry to the venue) but I snapped a red Dreams Come True Urawan 2012/13 t-shirt and bag. By now the snow was beginning to fall, so I made my way inside.

Despite having next to no Japanese language skills, I had no difficulty find my seat. Turns out the my ¥7,800 bought me an upholstered leather executive seat right at the back of the 11,000 capacity arena, but I still had a brilliant view of the stage, set in the middle.

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A little after 10pm, the arena darkened, the big screens flickered to life and the familiar sound of the Wonderland theme began to blast out. Flag bearers emerged from the tunnel to my right, followed by Miwa and Massa on the back of a motorised chariot. We were off.

In hindsight, I should have brought a notebook with me and kept notes, and I wish my Japanese was better. But it was a great show. Here’s what I can recall:-

Lyrics for all the songs appearing on the big screens as subtitles

The majority of the set was from the last three albums. But a lot of lesser known old material was aired too. Notably Sweet Revenge from Love Unlimited, and Don’t You Say... all the way back from their debut album.

Masa donned the blonde wig to sing Natsunakute again! A backing singer filled in on the Taka parts.

Miwa and Masa strapping on the Monkey Girl Odyssey monkey tails for the performance of (I think) Gomen ne DJ.

4 minutes before midnight, a countdown clock appeared on the screens as they stopped performance and chatted to the audience and each other. We counted down to midnight and on the stroke of 12 we chanted Happy New Year (there was no Auld Lang Syne. As you know, that song isn’t sung on midnight New Year’s Day but played every day in shops to indicate they are closing). For the first song of 2013, there could be only one. A blazing rendition of Ureshii! Tanoshii! Daisuki! predictably brought everyone to their feet again. Starting a closing set of four songs that also included Snow Dance, Sono saki e and the disco version of Winter Song, in which during the long note at the end of the final chorus, gold and red streamers were fired from all around the edge of the stage and into the crowd (and collected as souvenirs by fans, none was left behind!).

Most notable in the encore was the mass singalong to Nando Demo. The final song of the show was the most recent single My Time Is Now. With Miwa extending the ending with improvised freestyling. It all ended at about 12:55am. After missing Wonderland 2011 because of a typhoon in Osaka caused the shows there to be postponed, I was so glad I come along to this. My 2013 got off to a great start. For sure.

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Jei
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Post by Jei » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:03 pm

Thanks so much for the great review and pics! :)

Sweet Revenge and Andre Nakamura! I'm jealous ^_^

Did the stage rotate?
-Jay
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newrynyuk
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Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: London

Post by newrynyuk » Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:36 am

Thanks Jei!

Photos were the best I could do with my phone. As you'd guess, all cameras were banned from the venue and all phones had to be switched off before the concet began.

Yes the stage was revolving. Although rather than stage there, Miwa and Masa did mostly wander around the outer square rim. And at one point early in the show, Masa descended from the stage into the crowd to shake a few hands.

Just to add that the souvenir t-shirts were worth getting because they were venue specific. On the back of mine for instance underneath the DCT logo it said Fukuoka and had a ramen illustration. Fukuoka bring from where Japanese ramen supposedly originates.

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