Lately I have been on such a Grasshopper listening binge.. if you see my tweets, and hear my sister complaining about how much links I throw on. But FYI, Grasshopper is a Cantonese pop trio, who sings a lot of sappy romance songs. I grew up with listening them when they were students of the late and great Anita Mui. But I digress..
What promoted this entry is just a need to show a slew of Youtube videos.. and raise questions on gender thoughts…
While you don’t need to understand the video, the song is basically on how easy it it is for woman to be emotional, while to be a man is something of strength, so Grasshoppers were singing of this desire to be born a woman, with men kissing fanservice thrown in. That I see a lot of when my friend Aya shows pictures of Japanese concert fanservice. Fanservice for men and woman.. there’s also half naked woman in this clip. Brings to mind another video on DJ Ozma, and Kohaku several years ago.
Now take a look on the opposite side, with Hikki’s You Make Me Want to be a Man. Her inspiration for writing this though was, born of wanting to deal with her martial issues at the time. Leading to the issues of how gender issues between men and woman are different.
Lastly, there is Haruna Ai… I always find her to be a great Japanese celebrity example of crossing the barrier between gender reassignment, though I am not sure about her gaining a boyfriend. At times it boggles the mind of how confident she appears to be, she’s always wearing these outfits, and how she acts as a celebrity to earn money for her surgery.
This following video is when she went to the Philippines and visited the CPDRC prison there. The warden is saying what type of prisoners are there, a tour thru the facilities, then a look at the prisoners. Finally the video ends on 700 prisoners following after Haruna Ai in a dance.
So then gender thoughts…. it is a pretty interesting thought to think about, and you see either through song, or an example of what makes a desire of this either figuratively or literally.
Edits: Added some pictures, courtesy of Braz_Ed’s Twitpic page and from Utada’s Messages…
So I am still thinking about last night and what a show Utada gave! It was……AMAZING.
I came back home thinking I NEED to tell the world about this LoL. And since a lot of fans couldn’t make it to the London shows etc , I remembered I read a review made by @animemiz and since I don’t have a blog I asked her if I could write the review and and if she could post it to which she agreed ( Thank You) ^.^
So first things first, let get the bad things out of the way first okay because as I said I want everyone to remember the good stuff!
I heard some people were on line since 8AM and it was FREEZING on Thursday here in London. The night before, it was apparently -6 degrees Celsius so you can only imagine what it could feel like
As I was working and had permission to leave early. I got to the line around half past four. My brother was already there, there was still very few people maybe 20 people but then some people were cutting the line and wouldn’t even care! (Ugly face for you guys)
Oh BTW if you are going to a show with your girlfriend I understand you want to cuddle and stuff, but ALL THE TIME?? – there was a couple in front of me a short Chinese man and his girlfriend who was a bit taller than him, I think he had issues with other people because he was protecting his GF and like kept pushing me back and he was making sure his girlfriend had space to dance and do whatever, but after the first half of the show he kind of got tired (Thank God). This was an aspect that was VERY annoying, in other aspects things can be worse though =/
Oh the people from the Venue 02 Islington were really badly organised.
Last but definitly not least, DJ Marlene who was there to replace DJ Mike Rezzo was soo BAD! She came on stage, didn’t even say hello and didn’t introduce herself and she didnt work the crowed at all! She played two well known tune’s : one by the Japanese all girl band ”The 5.6.7.8′s ” and another song that plays in the movie ”Ocean’s 13” or 12 or whatever… And apparently SHE was a Man! :O
YAY NOW LETS TALK ABOUT THE GOOD STUFF!
After all the waiting in the cold,the awful sound of DJ Marlene and the guys arranging the instruments,
The lights go Dim, the band is in place…suddenly we hear a familiar sound,starting really low and getting higher and higher…..
UTADA APPEARS!
She looks like a rock star and I got to say this, the clothes she picked for this show in my opinion, was THE BEST ONE SO FAR!
She wore like some crazy black and white pants, each colour on one side of her legs, black hills,a black dress (?) on top of her pants with some feathers and a white half of a shirt (?) , some black bracelets and a star ring!
She started singing On and On…the crowed went wild and we were sooo close! I couldn’t believe it! The stage was very small too….but that was a good thing because it made it all very intimate in a way. Here’s her set list and its not so different from animemiz’s NYC set list except I believe that she didn’t sing Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence right after On and On but Poppin‘ then Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence‘ but i may be wrong because I dont remember it very well. (Sorry if I gave the wrong set list)
Opening (from Exodus)
On and On
Poppin’
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
This One (Crying like a Child)
Passion / Sanctuary
Sakura Drops
Stay Gold
Devil Inside
Kremlin Dusk
You Make Me Want to Be a Man
The Bitter End (Placebo cover)
Apple and Cinnamon
Come Back To Me
First Love
Can You Keep A Secret?
Automatic
Dirty Desire
Encore:
Simple and Clean
Me Muero
Okay, she also made as well lots of comments at this show, I am going to try to remember them just like animemiz did. LoL promise not to cut and paste:
- She greeted us and made some comments, mostly on the English accent that was very funny
-The crowed started shouting lots of ” Paris Loves You” ”Italy Loves You” and I shouted ”Brazil Loves you” to which she made a face like ”How random” LoL very funny. She only responded to a Paris I Love You by saying ” Je T’adore”
- She said as well that she was CONSIDERING moving to London for real! People went wild! And that she liked it very much and the only other place she could see herself living in is San Francisco but that she couldn’t actually live there
- There was a girl who kept shouting ”Marry me” she commented on that by saying : “There’s a small voice shouting and I think it is a girl saying ‘Marry me’ LOL well in some countrys” Everyone started laughing
- When she was going to play the piano one of the crew member almost hit the microphone on her mouth. she got scared at that point, remarking by wow that could have chipped my tooth
-Before singing Apple and Cinnamon she said London was very rainy, but she liked that because in Japan people value rain alot and she grew up somewhere like that as well and that some of her songs always have rain in it.
-When she was introducing the band she introduced the Brazilian guitar player and said this is Rafael Moreira and started laughing and said he is Brazilian as well and said look there a Brazilian guy out there as well ( I think people know me as the crazy Brazilian guy) and pointed at us and waved! AWESOME!
To wrap this up because I think i said too much,
It was an AMAZING show, and I feel so blessed that I was there at her first European concert and made history with her! I wanted her to notice as well, that she has brazilians fans, because she does. There are so many Brazilians that actually know her and like her, so I was happy to get noticed.
Oh and I got the guitar pick Rafael threw! LoL very happy!
Wanted the ball though =/
It doesn’t matter, because it was all worth it.. the cold, the bad dj,the waiting…
Edited: To include link that inu-liger was great to provide – 2/14/20
Oh my god… I have to say this was an amazing experience. About ten times better than last year’s Sephora event, but oh my god!!!!! I am still getting quite emotional with the experience. That, yes if you ask me how I felt yesterday, I would have probably had a different reaction. Now with the time to sleep, and maybe rest my lost voice, I feel much better to write this con report up.
So this version of Hikki’s sold out concert took place at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in NY, and this is nothing, but a nightclub spot with no seats, save for on the balcony area. Very similar to Webster Hall, where I know people went to go see AKB 48 last year. Still Fillmore is also the venue where VAMPS and Dir En Grey played. So there must be a reason other than, that they can sold as much as they can, for the reason why it seems like Japanese singers would be playing here. Polysics would be having their concert here soon as well.
What was my journey like though? I was following concert coverage with @ublog, and on Sunday got these two tweets..
ublog: Some people are borderline crazy RT @autumnmycat: Wtf, people are already lined up for the New York #Utada concert. #ublog
Based on last year’s experience, I was already planning to go and do a marathon wait at around 5-am-ish. So after a very sleepless night paired with moments of just grabbing my cat, and nodding off here and there. I left at around 4:30-ish am.. and of course mentally cursing out the MTA, I made it to the Fillmore at around 5:30-am-ish and I was the 7th person on the line at that time. Heard that people were there from 2-am-ish onward. Even saw some acquaintances from Sephora that early there also.
Temperatures were freezing. It felt so much like my college town’s weather, that even with the layers I was packing, by the time it was around 10-am-ish I broke down and got some heat pads from the nearby Walgreens. So not fun, that it was. For a large portion of the time I was on the line, I was pretty much just tweeting about the cold and the line..
animemiz: My god this is soooo cold… (toes and fingers growing numb)
Ten more hours, you can imagine my dismay, but thankfully the morning zoomed by fast, friends, and the line formed as the day went on. Then came the afternoon and time dragged. Literally dragged. Of course I was the first one there, @ericmchu and @1moy also came at a later/early-ish countdown time to Hikki, there was also the appearance of a lot of other friends, who were great to hang out with. I was also pretty grateful when my sister showed up, and I got an extra glove set from her. Between the shuttling back and forth to the Dunkin Doughnuts, lines or Starbucks, I was at points of losing feeling from my hands and feet. This is not pleasant, as I am thinking from what friends allude to this, as being hardcore and dedicated to the extremes. This is a test of endurance I tell you. Especially on a cold winter day, with the a blizzard coming in a couple of days. Will get frostbite in this type of weather.
So later toward the afternoon, around 4-pm-ish, Fillmore finally started to offer the line a bit of hot drinks. It was also around this time, they started to put up barricades. Of course there were still about 3 more hours of waiting.. I think it was around this time, that two fans came up to me and were like, “We recognize you.. you were wearing that Blue Hoodie” [from Sephora event] “Singing your praises down the line” “knew that you would be at the front of the line..” I was pretty flattered.. so thanks.. ^_^
Also a few hours earlier, this guy came up and was trying to offer one of us, $20 for a chance to stand near us. That was pretty rude, and he gave pretty lame excuses, so if none of us knew him, then why give him a spot, he would have had to pay each and every one of us a portion. Then before that guy came along, a homeless guy was soliciting the line for quarters.
Finally it was around 7-pm-ish they let us go in, of course security pat people’s bags for no drinks.. and there was a mandatory bag check in, no camera or cell phones video camera recording were allowed. People still got photos or video taped parts of the concert though.
After a long time of waiting, the crowds were let in, and I quickly found my way to the front left. For one hour, DJ Mike Rizzo was playing and trying to work the crowd, but the crowd wasn’t as enthused, probably because of the wait, and or cold or the fact that it was Hikki that a lot of people waited to see. (That was my personal feeling though, because I was feeling very tired.) He did spin several songs I enjoyed Paparazzi, I Gotta Feeling, and for his last song, a remix of Dirty Desire. Then she came..
Hikki wore a black sequin shirt, with an animal print skirt, bracelets on her arm, a black star ring, star earrings, and black boots with silver chains. I was so excited to see her. Here is her set list for New York:
Opening (from Exodus)
On and On
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI
Poppin’
This One (Crying like a Child)
Passion / Sanctuary
Sakura Drops
Stay Gold
Devil Inside
Kremlin Dusk
You Make Me Want to Be a Man
The Bitter End (Placebo cover)
Apple and Cinnamon
Come Back To Me
First Love
Can You Keep A Secret?
Automatic
Dirty Desire
Encore: Simple and Clean
Me Muero
During songs, she was making comments, and let’s see what I can remember. Here’s a youtube clip:
These comments are very out of order.
She mentioned how she liked to walk around different cities to get a perspective on what to say, that since this was NYC, a place she spent her childhood at, that she was happy to be here.
She mentioned how much diversity that there was, somewhere I heard “Love from Canada.” She also mentioned that the people who were waiting from 2am “Crazy” and the response was “It was for you!” “Love you Utada”
She said NYC beats out Las Vegas in terms of sound, that she should have probably brought a sound tester to see which audience was the loudest.
She also asked a fan to stop talking. Of which this was after he said, to the band “You’re amazing” “He’s amazing”
She mentioned that high school friends, and a cousin was in the audience.
She mentioned that if she forgot the lyrics, that she can look out in the crowd and see the crowd singing the lyrics for a majority of of the songs. I was one of them.. because it’s not like every day you can see one of your favorite singers, and to say that imitation is considered to be a high form of flattery, ahh my ears and voice were definitely feeling it.
At some points or probably from my position, the bass over rode her voice slightly, but I was still very happy. She sang mostly English songs, but I was very happy when she started to sing her Japanese songs, my high points were “Stay Gold,” and “First Love.” Then after her ‘last’ song “Dirty Desire,” the crowds had to work for an encore, with wild cheering, “Encore,” “One more song.” Then she came out and introduced her band, one of the keyboardist was a New Yorker, another keyboardist was from Connecticut. One of the guitarist was from Brazil. Then sang her encores, I was slighly dissappointed that she didn’t sing “Boku wa Kuma” but maybe after the Boston incident?
Afterward she threw out the NY foam baseballs ver. 1 and ver. 2, that I wrote a blog entry based on the Las Vegas set. Based on the number of baseballs, I believe she threw out about 24, so lucky for those who caught it. I believe Omo or Eric or Moy said this to me, that since I was up in the front, I had made a choice of not catching the ball. I do know that a friend of mine nearly caught the ball, but didn’t. Then I think @usagi_hoshino might have caught one. (I met her on the line, and she was behind me at the concert.)
Viewing from comments on the forum, and of course happy that a lot of people were having fun, and definitely enjoying the concert. Also there were video taping, so there is speculation that there might be a DVD that would be sold. I contemplate on it being available in Japanese Region 3, but of course I would purchase it.
I have broke over 1000 words for this report, and it was an actual press con report I would have probably set it into two parts, but since I am so wordy. I am going to leave with a few videos I found of some parts of the concert. What a fantastic experience… and I lost my voice.. still trying to recover it.
Sakura Drops
Can You Keep A Secret?
Automatic
Encore: Simple and Clean
Also… got notification of this link in the comments, so inu-liger was great to get an audio recording of the entire concert.
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