Highlights for me were the madoka medley, first love, my dear feather, ring your song, sweet memories, red rose and seeing the uilleann pipes in action for the first time ever. The hanako songs with the pipes were very enjoyable too.
The concert opened without any intro music today, which was pretty unusual for a kajiura concert (?). Very long intros that played as everyone walked in were her specialty after all. After the initial applause, the hall fell silent. Yoshiaki appeared at the top of the stairs and started playing his accordion. Soon after, a select few other musicians joined him. I can't remember exactly but I think the guitar was there.
When the song ended, a few more musicians came on stage. The percussionist and the violin I think. It's the first time kajiura invited the percussionist to perform live and it's quite a sight to see. He has a lot of percussions and he seemed very busy a lot of the time. In fact, he had to get someone to help him out for this hanako song. Why... It's... isn't that Satou the drummer there behind the percussionist, ringing the bell? Lol. With a bell in his left hand, he used his right hand to hit his left and rang the bell at constant intervals. I had to suppress my laughter a bit when I noticed that it was him. Kajiura said later on that she found the sight of him ringing the bell to be kinda moe. Lol.
Then the uilleann pipes came on for the next. A single light shone on her, putting everyone's attention on her as she started her pipe solo. When kajiura asked the crowd in the mc afterwards, a huge majority of the crowd answered that they had never seen the uilleann pipes before. It's an interesting instrument and not what I imagined it to be. I was kind of expecting something like bag pipes? Lol. It did have a bag with air in it which the guest musician, nakahara-san squeezed, but the instrument didn't require her to blow into it at all. There was a pump of sorts? All she did was sit there and and move her fingers. She often closed her eyes as she played, not needing to look at the music sheets. I'll add that Satou was back on his drums for this song.
The first mc was a very long one. Instead of doing just the usual hellos, she also went straight into the topic for today, "what is the most delicious point about your instrument?" (read: what is great about your instrument?). Since Nakamura, the uilleann pipes player was around, she asked her first. Her answer was that you could perform imitations with it. She pumped her pipes a little, after which she did an imitation of a chicken clucking, leaving the crowd roaring with laughter.
After talking about the pipes a bit more, they moved on to the next hanako song, mother land nostalgia. It really is quite amazing to see her play those pipes. I can see why she chose to put in so many hanako songs. There's no better time to play them. It's also the first soundtrack day since hanako was released after all. Kajiura talked fondly of how when a job ends, she will feel a little lonely. But the show will then air on TV. And when she performs it live, it makes her feel like it hasn't ended yet.
We also moved on to the other musicians. Junior said that the thing about the bass is that you don't hear it, but you can feel it. Kajiura then retorts that we can hear it. The point is that the bass supports the band quietly in the back, seldom standing out. Kajiura says that from her experience, bass players are all usually very good people. To which junior then starts looking at korenaga, and the two do a little back and forth. Lol. In contrast... Korenaga straight out says the good thing about the guitar is that he gets to stand out front. Lol. He then looks to junior, to which junior does a shrug. But that's not all! He goes on to say that the good thing about the guitar is that it has two more strings than the bass! Lol. Oh you two. Thirdly, the guitar can be performed on its own. All those digs at the bass. But he also says that the bad thing is that there are so many strings that it's a little troublesome...
Hitoshi then let his strings sing in the eat man theme. Then we head into territory that is kinda unknown to me. I remember that one part of the drums was kinda cool but that was it. Sorry.
In the next mc, we moved on to Akagi Rie. Kajiura mused about how amazing it was the way the flute produced its sound.
When asked about his violin, hitoshi says it's actually harder to find bad points about the violin. Kajiura then agreed with him (strings bias detected!) and went on to talk a lot about string instruments.
Having talked plenty about the flute and violin, we moved on to decretum, which showed off the flute and the violin beautifully. Deserdium was really short, with only kajiura on the piano. Salve, terrae magicae was fun to listen to. Then the music started up again. It was a high energy song this time. There were only drums (might be the percussions) at the start, but the song was immediately recognisable once the violin kicked in. Venari strigas! Fyeah! The stage then turned a blood shade of red. It's time for oktavia von seckendorff's theme (I think decretum was blue? But the live is generally blue). The violin cried while the cymbals rang. At this point, I remember thinking what a treat it was to have so many madoka songs (big fan, I am). My friend and I have been itching to hear numquam vincar live again after the excellent performance at the budokan so we were really excited when the intro to it started playing. There was no piano solo this time (sakurada had a super long one) so it went straight into the song. The drums hit just as hard as before, but unlike the budokan, it lacked the amazing light show. It's strange but the lights really does increase the impact of those drum strikes. More than just aurally, the budokan performance assaulted you visually as well. Still, it was a great performance this time too.
I'll take this opportunity to touch upon the lighting in Yk live 12 in general. It's obvious that the lighting wasn't anywhere as good as kalafina's budokan. There were quite a number of errors, lighting up the players at the wrong time, accidentally lighting up the whole stage and audience when it wasn't time for the mc yet (one song early!). It makes you realise how much effort they put into the budokan live for kalafina. They understood that the lights were a part of the performance, and sought to perfect it. I recall that the staff handling the lights were a part of the rehearsals at the budokan as well. The entire staff perfected their performance together with the girls. At the Yk live, I would occasionally find the lights annoying when it shone in my face for extended periods of time. Like who was it who thought it was a good idea to occasionally keep the light directly on my face for the whole song. Perhaps it also happened at the budokan for some. The place was probably large enough for the lights to miss me most of the time.
Can't remember this mc much. I think she touched about how much fun it was to be a composer? The musical scores are a nothing but a fabrication of hers and the lovely players are the ones that bring her imaginary songs into existence. But before going on to first love, Kajiura said that first love was really the song that allowed her to become a composer. It was because that a certain director listened to first love that it was decided that she would have her very first composing gig. I found a whole new level of appreciation for the song right there. What joy it was to listen to the flute harmonise with the violin. Such a beautiful song. I'm glad the director recognised it too.
We then moved on to sweet memories. It's such a fun song with an amazing flute melody. Continuing with more songs that were also in the live album, the accordion came back on for we're gonna groove. The segment then ended with carnaval in blue.
When kajiura said that the next song would be the last, I was genuinely surprised. It didn't feel like that much time had passed! I was sort of expecting 4 more songs!
Hit and run. I'm not sure how I missed the song in the Ost but I thought it was a really fun song. Had the sort of noir criminal feel to it. Lol.
We clapped for the encore. It was a little longer than yesterday. Clapping seems to be the preferred method for encore calls in both kajiura and kalafina lives, which I preferred as well. It's easier to just clap. Everyone synced their clap and it never stoppdd or waned. The lights dimmed and our claps faded after some applause. Silence again. No intro. A spotlight suddenly lit up a small area on the left, beside the stage. It was Yoshiaki on the accordion! He played a solo. When he was done, the light disappeared and the musicians were already back on the stage. That was when we spotted a figure at the top of the stage. It was a guest singer! Itou eri! Yayyyyyyy. She sang what I recognised immediately to be my dear feather. This song. It's sublime with live percussions, which included those little hand drums. I look forward to listening to it in July with a strings quartet! (pleasepleaseplease). I am not sure that the percussions will be there though. My dear feather was one of my favourite tsubasa songs so I was really really happy to hear it live. Eri was amazing too (again, sorry! Please come again). Her beautiful voice makes the song sound so heartbreakingly sad. She was really beautiful today too. She had her hair up and wore a beautiful long dress.
All the musicians, including the uilleann pipes and the accordion, then got on stage. Full member performance! Kajiura says it's really hard to have the all the musicians around for the song so, taking the opportunity, they performed red rose. The guests got a few solos of their own and they all seemed like they had a lot of fun with the song.
Just as I thought that was it, another mc! Kajiura thanked the musicians a lot. She was really really thankful for the musicians who bring her music into existence. As they get ready for the last song, the uilleann pipe left the stage, to huge applause and cheers. Kajiura really is so good with her MCs (the kajiura family as a whole are amazingly good at talking). She's funny. She knows how to keep the crowd entertained but at the same time, knows just how to move you with her words of gratitude. I suppose the latter isn't that surprising. She always has such amazing lyrics and gives such insight into how much thought she puts into her work.
We finally ended the day with a very moving performance of ring your song. Both the flute and accordion were present, adding subtly to the song. Itou eri sang the song perfectly too.
And with that. The sound track day came to an end to huge applause. Kajiura introduced the musicians one last time, and took the time to thank the audience. As they came forward to do a bow, Kajiura said thank you, as always. But she was so happy she said she really loved the audience today. I suppose it's because today is the day the audience came purely for her and her music, and not the utahimes. Like yesterday, Kajiura signed on the two towels of hers and tossed it to the crowd. Here hoping I have a chance tomorrow when I move up to row 8!
I was told by some of my friends that they spotted Hikaru in the audience. I never thought to look around. ;_; only Hikaru was around and she kept a very low profile at the back. This being Japan, everyone kept their manners and didn't make a fuss about it or bothered her. I think Hikaru blogged about it already.
Edit:
My sole disappointment still remains the fact that she keeps going back to the madoka TV series. I love that sound track but the rebellion movie needs some love too!
