OK, concert report time. Chiaki Ishikawa One Man Live Shibuya O-East 2013-08-29.
After initially getting lost on the south side of the expressway west of Shibuya station I regained my bearings and took the side streets to Shibuya O-East.
The concert was not unexpectedly sold out. I joined the merchandise queue and bought a fan, the new 12 page booklet (see above post) and a t-shirt and towel. The book and fan were both autographed, and the t-shirt included an autographed postcard. Chiaki-san must have spent a long time writing autographs.
Doors opened at 6pm for a 7pm start which gave people time to get a drink and find their seats, which were packed pretty tightly. The curtains were closed until the start, with screens either side of stage showing some PV's and footage from Chiaki-san's OWN WRITE dvd. An elaborate light show including projections was revealed when curtains opened, with Chiaki-san in front centre with her microphone on a stand, and the musicians (on grand piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar) behind a semi-transparent screen until a few minutes later. Chiaki-san was wearing a long, cream-coloured dress with separate cream coloured lace-up sleeves, black waistcoat with gold patterning, and white top hat with glasses on the hat band like the picture above.
Question marks indicate songs I forgot the title of.
1)?? The first song's name escapes me, from the last CD album and reminding me of "Mislead". Long intro with vocalese by Chiaki-san.
2) Vermillion. Great to hear this live.
MC-1. Chiaki-san was calm and in great humour as in her other lives.
3) Piano introduction leading to TW - the live pianist was a really great addition to this song compared with the July 2012 live(s) at Shimo-Kitazawa which were with live guitarists only, and added a more complex arrangement than the studio version.
4) Fukanzen Nenshou
5) 49 Scale
MC-2.
Guitarists switched to electric bass and semi-acoustic.
6) Namida
7) Uninstall - original version
MC-3.
Guitarists switched to acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars.
8) Sayonara Tteiu
9)?? song with wind instrument opening and "ah" sounds, first word of lyrics is "Watashi"
INTERVAL - a sensible idea.
10) The Giving Tree
11) Utsukushikereba sore de ii. So glad to hear this live.
12)?? song that has what sounds like an accordian instrumental in it, replaced in this live with piano.
13) Insomnia
14) Gyakko
MC-5.
15) Little Bird
16) Prototype, complete with long piano introduction
MC-6
17) Mou Nani mo Kowakunai, Kowaku wa Nai
ENCORE
18)?? something with just mournful sounding piano accompaniment
19) First Pain
END (around 9:45pm)
Overall impressions - Chiaki-san was relaxed, in good humour and had obviously paced herself to deliver a relatively long concert for a solo vocalist, singing in a less forceful way than for 2 song Animelo Summer Live sets. She used a lot of long introductions with vocalese. A lot of work had gone into the light show and projections, and the sound level while louder than Kalafina's Otodama Sea Studio concert was still at a comfortable level. The audience clapped along during instrumental parts of more energetic songs, but kept quiet during all of the times that Chiaki-san was singing live.
There weren't as far as I can remember any songs that were performed live for the first time.
Afterwards I started walking back towards Shibuya station, then realised that I should have taken some pictures and was just able to take a picture of the "sold out" sign and the single flower display before they were taken inside again, and then managed to get lost again for a little while before finding a JR station entrance and had to miss one Yamanote line train which was full, just making it back to Nippori in time to call the hotel and apologise for being late without my room key.
Picture from Chiaki-san's twitter:
https://twitter.com/ishikawachiaki3/sta ... 5381967872