Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Taipei, 12/7 - part 2 - DREAM_STAGE_YUI_AND_MINORI

Following on from before...

The concert has a scheduled entry at 6:30pm, which is about the time when I got there, since the dinner place was busy. I should have got there earlier, as I missed out on buying the special T-shirt they were selling, and the 500NT a draw to get an autograph from Yui & Minori. However, as I only arrived in Taiwan like... 3 full days ago, I didn't get much time to check what is on sale etc. Instead, I just bought some glowsticks and headed on in.

The gym was pretty packed, and most of them was male. I did spot quite a few female faces, though. A lot of people was wearing those T-shirts, and a few was wearing clothing with Nagato on it. Pretty supportive, Taiwan. I saw a person with a Watanagashi Shirt thing. After a few minutes of waiting, the lights dimmed and LET THE SHOW BEGIN! Btw, I was in row 2 (almost right infront of the stage), and right in front of the speakers. Extra epicness.

The crowd cheered and stood up. Glowsticks were unleashed filling the gym with pink and blue (Pink for Yui and Blue for Minori). First out was... SAKAKIBARA YUI, and her two assistant dancers, Hitomi and Chika. Yui wore a pink glitter top with a frilly pink skirt, standard performance clothes imo. I'll talk about my thoughts on her performance first (which is the first half of the show).

Yui is a brilliant live performer. Her dancing background means that she can add in a lot of dynamics while singing at the same time. Her dancing fitted great with the tune, and the dancers were also in great sync. She know when to move around the stage and interact with the audience. Her singing is also awesome. She swapped between songs that require different moods and voices one after the other, and changed it accordingly. The crowd was also very supportive, and glowsticks moved in (almost) perfect synchronisation to each other and the music. There was plenty of cheering to the beats. I was thinking that my $2500NT ($100 NZ and $65 US when I bought it) was totally worth it not even halfway in.

After about 3 songs, she made some small talk. Asking us if we are fine with her speaking Japanese. The crowd answered "YES" really loudly, lol. Ten she joked about the Japanese people (there was a Minori fanclub tour group) being fine :P. She also introduced her dancers and herself to much more applause. She then introduced her next song - the Galaxy Angel OP.

Again, there was much excitement and support from the audience. One great song followed the other, and much time was spent in absolute enjoyment. She took a small break, drank some water and did some more small talk. She said that she went to Animate the day before the concert, and some people put it on their blogs. She also said that she sometimes go to Maid Cafes, lol. I'm glad I took Japanese.

More songs was thrown out, until she finally had to finish to let Minori have her turn. However, the crowd demanded Encore, and she responded with 3 more songs (I think they have a few songs in reserve in case an encore is demanded). That ended the first half, or the Yui concert.

Intermission was 20 minutes. My glowsticks ran out so I went and bought some new ones that will probably last longer (which it did, its still working right now). Then the crowd took their drinks, reloaded on their glowsticks and got ready for the Minori part.

The appearance of Minori was greeted with MASSIVE cheers (me included). It seems that there are more Minori supporters. The gym was also filled with blue glowsticks! If Yui was a brilliant live performer, then Minori is an EPIC live performer. Although she has less action than Yui, she did even more interaction with the audience. Her voice also projects better and clearer than Yui. MP3's/CD's/FLAC's are no match for her live epicness. The crowd probably knew this as well, and I'm sure they showed more support. I ended up spending 1.5 hours shouting "Minori, hey! Minori, Hey!", and jumping up and down like a madman (not like I didn't for Yui, but this time, I put a lot more effort into it XD).

She also sang 2 or 3 songs, then stopped to make small talk as well. Talking about how good it is to be in Taiwan and seeing our support. She was nervous because we showed so much support for Yui, but was glad to also receive so much support. She also mentioned how hot it was, because it was. Lol. She went to the Night markets the night before, and found it interesting. Taiwan Night markets are the best (my opinion XD). Then she talked about some character songs and started to sing them.

The Nagato Ch song (Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite) was awesome. The audience practically went crazy when she sang it. Listening to the song on the computer again justg doesn't seem so good anymore. Oh dear. Her 3rd song after her small talk was... you know it, PARADISE LOST. The live performance was OVER 9000 times better than the mp3! She would sing "wakari au" and we, the audience will echo "wakere au" etc. After I finished listening, I felt that I could die with no regrets. This live also sealed the deal for me. Paradise lost is now the best song of the season for me.

Long story short, she also did more small talk and way more songs. They were even more epic than Yuis. Oh, and I forgot to say... her Character songs had a live band performing for her (well it was 5 ppl, but its still a band). That upped the epicness of the song by another 3 times. Another thing I noted is how much cuter/moe her voice sounds when she speaks normally, I was like "WTF this is way too cool". She also did a costume change in the middle of the performance, which bought the audience to another high.

At last, she finished. However, we asked for an encore REALLY LOUDLY, and she responded also. She also changed into the Concert T-shirt (as with Yui in her encore), and sang two more songs. She ended off with again, the Nagato Character song. This time, the whole audience was singing along, bringing the night to its full climax. Then they both came out, took their bows, and the show finished. Those lucky enough to get a autographed ticket stayed behind, while the rest of us left.

We then had a quick snack (stinky tofu ftw) then went back, took a shower and slept. There was also some Itashas when I came out... but my sister left the camera at the friends where we were staying, so I couldn't get any photos. She fails D=

Part 3 (day 2) will come tomorrow, need to sleep now.

Photos (very little because photograhpy and recording were banned in the concert, and I was too high on glowsticks to care).

The venue!
Posters. I wanted to take one down but since I sat at the front I came out too late D:

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