After their tour final at Tsutaya-O-West, METEOROID downsized to the Kichijoji Shuffle livehouse for their final live with guitarist Yutori. This time for his and fellow bandmate Machi’s birthday celebration live. While waiting for the live to begin, fans clustered around excitedly handing out bright green glowsticks and waiting for the live to begin. Being one of the smaller venues, the livehouse was filled to bursting by showtime.
As time is usually of the utmost importance, most lives tend to start on time. However, strangely enough, 6:00 p.m. rolled around but the curtains were yet to go up. Suddenly we could hear the members talking from behind the curtains and over the sound system. They apologized for the delay and explained that Tomoya, was a bit of an airhead that day and forgot his costume. It would take too long to go get it back so he would have to do without it.
For the rest of the live, they would jokingly call him the “support” member and tease him for his memory lapse.
Despite this delay, the show began a mere 10 minutes later. As soon as the lights went off, the dedicated fans began screaming the name of their favourite members. The birthday boys Yutori and Machi came out first, followed by Ral, then Tomoya and finally Genki. All taking their places as the screaming died down and the music began.
They opened the show with “Stargazer”, one of my personal favourites and one of their definite crowd-pleasing energetic songs. The intro of “wake up, wake up, wake up” echoed through the room before everyone jumped into action. The close contact meant you either got involved or got out. However, the amazing energy as well as the catchy rhythm of the song had everyone clapping and jumping along. Moreso with Genki constantly urging the crowd to jump more and more, even the stragglers in the back were drawn into the infectious energy.
There was an immediate transition to the second song “ice world” and Genki kept the crowd evergy high by egging them on to keep cheering. As a result, they went crazy with headbanging and during the guitar solo, the lights dimmed down and you could see the flashing green lights of the fans’ wristbands illuminating the room. Not stopping anytime soon, the third song “Little Boy” brought even more energy to the point where you could feel the breeze from hair flying every which way as the crown headbanged.
Making the most of the small stage, the band members kept pace with the fans energy as well, clearly enjoying themselves. Yutori made faces at the crowd while Machi elegantly played the guitar as always, smiling into the crowd. Genki’s voice stood out particularly during the bridge of the song. Once the music stopped, the resulting silence lasted only a few seconds before the fans resumed chanting and screaming for the band’s attention once more.
The first MC of the night started off with more apologizing for Tomoya’s lack of costume. As he sheepishly explained to the crowd, Yutori couldn’t miss the chance to tease him more for his low voice. All of this was in good nature and the other members as well as Tomoya laughed at his expense.
After the short break, they played “Dracula”, yet another crowd favourite which gave everyone the chance to wave their band towels and throw them up in the air with abandon. There was a pause before the next song “Ibarahime”. Genki whispered the title and then lit by a red light and accompanied only by a single guitar, he began the song. The crowd politely stayed calm until the song picked up pace, focussing more on beautiful tebana to match the graceful lyrics of the song.
When Genki’s voice faded out, the sound of the instruments lingered and then transitioned into “Ballerina.” “Ballerina” seemed to be the most fun performance of the night. During the chorus, the discoball lit up, throwing shards of light across the room as everyone spun in tandem with it. It would have potentially been a disaster with the venue being so crowded but the METEOROID fans were having too much fun to care about bumping into each other and even started a mosh-pit to amp up the excitement.
The members on stage joined the fun as well, switching positions on stage as the crowd jumped back and forth to the catchy music. The song ended with the audience holding their hand up, reaching toward the stage as the lights faded out. This time pausing for a longer MC, Genki asked the crowd for a show of hands if they were having fun. He thanked everyone for coming and that the reason for the live was because of Machi and Yutori’s birthday. At this point a staff member brought out cake and they began singing “Happy Birthday”. Yutori, ever the eager childlike one of the band, began sneaking tastes of the cake as soon as he got his hands on it.
Of course the fans would never let their beloved band member’s birthday go by without a present. So there was a quick shuffle in the crowd and then the fans presented another cake to Machi and Yutori, who immediately stated his preference, pointing at the cake from the fans: “This one’s better!”.
After that the band got the crowd warmed up again with an extended instrumental intro of “Doku-sow”, encouraging the audience to jump and clap along to the beat. Ral took charge of the crowd control, singing the first few lines of the song and egging the audience on more with yells and shouts.
With Genki calling out that the next song was the last of the night’s set, the audience threw themselves to abandon and went all out. The packed livehouse became a mass of flying hair and flailing arms while on stage Yutori, with his usual firecracker display of energy ran back and forth on stage, mirroring the fans who started a mosh pit at the front. In a true display of dexterity, he managed to avoid any collisions despite the small size of the stage and the other members also putting forth all their energy.
Of course no fan ever wants to see their favourite band leave the stage so not even ten seconds after the stage was emptied, the chants for “Encore” began with gusto. It got louder and louder until it became flat out screaming and frenetic noise.
In response to the chants, Yutori came out first and with uncharacteristic calm, thanked the fans for their support during his time in METEOROID. Instead of bringing out the other members just yet, he decided to lighten the somber mood that had accompanied his gratitude to the crowd. He surprised everyone by inviting a fan on stage - she was cheered on by the rest of the audience who pretty much shoved her forward - where a rather hilarious acappella version of “DIVER” was free-styled by the both of them (complete with dancing and rap hand motions).
Once the crowd was back in high spirits, the rest of the band came out and continued the party by playing “DIVER” once more with everyone singing along at top volume. During the last chorus, with Tomoya hammering out the drums at full strength, the members all crowded in the middle of the stage. They were all laughing and clearly enjoying themselves as they played out their first song together. Moving into the final song seemed to give everyone the motivation to go crazy. Ral jumped into the crowd and moshed along with the lucky fans while the other members took turns grabbing the outstretched hands of eager fans.
Machi and Yutori both shared the platform for a final guitar duet as both the band and the audience gave off the most energy of the night. Once the song was over, the members all talked for a while and Yutori thanked everyone from the bottom of his heart for all the great experiences that he had in the band. Genki teased him saying that the strange, skinny kid he first met became such an important person to all of them in the band. They all wished him the best and hoped that he would become a good rival for them in the future. A final photo with everyone and then the band moved backstage leaving the crowd buzzing with the high that comes from a good show.
SETLIST:
1. STARGAZER
2. ice world
3. Little Boy -MC-
4. Dracula
5. Ibarahime
6. BALLERINA -MC-
7. DOKU-SOW
8. Mr. famous
9. desperado
ENCORE:
1. DIVER
2. Kono Ai wo Tebanaseba Jiyuu Darou
Special thanks to Nesshin Music for making this report possible!
Photo album coming soon...
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