LM.C ended another leg of their year-long “Go to the 10th Anniversary” Tour with a fun-filled final at Tokyo Kinema Club on April 30th. This time around, the tour was focused on their sophomore album GIMMICAL IMPACT!!
The live began when the whimsical sounds of “Rainbow Magic Orchestra” had the crowd clapping to the beat. The support members all took the stage and as the music grew more and more frenzied, Aiji and Maya emerged from behind curtains, soaking up the cheers and screams.
They immediately began at a hard pace with “Z-MAN”. The song had a much heavier feeling live compared to its album rendition. Aiji’s distorted guitar riffs had the entire audience headbanging, chanting and pumping their while Maya directed them with hand gestures like a conductor. They followed with the catchy beats of “CHEMICAL KING-TWOON” which lit up the venue with energy.
After a quick pause for breath, Maya officially welcomed everyone to the live. He told everyone to raise their hands and start clapping. Without any extra prompting, the fans immediately caught on to the beat and the rest of the instrumentals jumped in for the intro “Bell the CAT”. The jazzy bassline of the song made it impossible not to want to dance. Maya led the way, shaking his hips as he sang.
“JOKER” followed by “TABOO” were slower in pace but no less energetic. Maya made use of a tambourine during “TABOO” and then the spotlight fixed on Aiji who delivered an intense wailing guitar solo. This time they had another break for an MC and Maya refused to let the crowd settle. He got them energized with a call and response asking them, “Can you keep going all night?!”
With the audience hyped, LM.C kicked up the pace with “OH MY JULIET”. The crowd went wild and Maya sprayed them with water swigged from his bottle. Everyone joined in to sing the verses and waved their hands during the chorus.
Aiji moved around and stood on the edge of the stage to get closer to fans. Maya ventured into the crowd who all surged forward to meet him with their arms outstretched. There was no stopping them then, and they continued with the instrumental, frantic “CRAZY A GO GO”. The venue became a mass of flying hair and violent riffs. Maya was dousing the fired up audience with bottle after bottle of cool water while Aiji and the support bassist faced each other for a headbanging jam session. They performed “Galileo” after that, then did another round of “CRAZY A GO GO”.
In a moment of impulsiveness, Maya climbed up onto one of the stage props and grabbed a spotlight. With his new weapon in tow, he swept the light over the crowd, encouraging them to go even wilder. Aiji jumped down from the stage and was playing right next to the fans. Maya joined him and the two of them had the fans going to their limit.
Standing back to back on the stage, they finished the set with “MOGURA” then stopped to chat with the fans again. The fans started the next song by singing the opening to “88” at the top of their voices. Everyone was holding a silvery-blue penlight that illuminated the dark venue like a multitude of stars.
LM.C continued to show off their softer, more melodic side with “cosmology”. There was not much movement on stage as the band poured their effort into their performance. The stage went dark and still during the instrumental break then turned the spotlight to Aiji who delivered a rich solo that seemed to resonate more in the dark.
“Sentimental PIGgy Romance” brought the pace back up as the crowd began clapping along to the cute intro. Maya had the tambourine again but surprised the crowd when he didn’t start singing. The crowd looked confused as the rest of the band stopped playing to see what was wrong. Maya looked at the audience for a moment then said,
“Let’s do it death metal style!”.
The crowd cheered their approval for “Death Metal PIGgy Romance” and the song started again. Only this time, the poppy intro was overlaid with heavy distorted guitar riffs and flashing red lights. The crowd pumped their fists during the chorus, clearly happy with this turn of events.
They stopped again after that for another MC. Maya talked about their upcoming 10th anniversary in October then he said he wanted to try a new style for the next song, “my girl”.
At the live the day before, they had done (what Maya described as) a slightly sleazy version of “my girl” that was like riding the last train with a guy who was whispering sweet nothings in your ear. This time he wanted to do a kyabajo (hostess) version. No-one was quite sure what he meant but they agreed anyway. After starting and stopping (because Maya thought they weren’t being sleazy enough), the band performed “my girl” with Maya dancing and strutting across the stage.
Since everyone was in a dancing mood they followed up with their latest single “MONROEwalk”. The staff members stood to the side shaking huge pompoms and the whole room was jumping and dancing. Everyone joined in to sing “JOHN” and when it was over the crowd cheered and screamed their approval.
This next MC took a more heartfelt turn. Maya talked about how there are so many people from different countries and different towns as well as so many kinds of visual kei bands. Despite all of this, their goal as LM.C is simple.
“We want people to be happy. That’s why we’ve been doing this for 10 years. No matter what kind of battles you have to fight, don’t give up.” He added that although the words may sound a bit cheesy, this was how they really felt.
One of LM.C’s strongest points as a band is the connection with their fans and with these strong feelings running through the crowd, they began “We are LM.C”. The LM.C logo flag was proudly displayed and the fans all grabbed their towels, waving them in the air.
“LET ME CRAZY!!” gave everyone the chance to go wild again. Maya and Aiji were moving around the stage jumping and headbanging. Maya called the crowd to him and stepped down off the stage to sing with them. The lights faded to black and then a spotlight lit up with Maya in the center. He thanked the crowd again for their amazing participation.
“It’s always lonely when you have to end a live. Even if you’ve been doing it for 10 years it’s still sad.”
He pointed to the spotlight and said that whenever he stands under it like this, it always feels sad so he doesn’t like it. He announced their upcoming single “Rainmaker” and reminded them of his birthday live on July 30th. Then he looked at the crowd and told them that he’d been thinking about cockroaches a lot lately.
“I’ve thinking about why everyone hates them so much and it’s because they’re always where they’re not wanted.” Then he looked at the crowd, “You guys are like cockroaches.”
At this, the entire room started cracking up but he was determined to get his thoughts across.
“No no let me get to the point! What I mean is that even if you’re hated out there cause you don’t belong, you guys will always belong here with us.”
Despite his odd choice of words, the crowd understood his sentiments and everyone was all smiles. Maya and Aiji stood on the stage while the crowd screamed their names over and over until they were all out of breath.
Then as one, the whole room sang the first verse to “JUST LIKE THIS!!” along with the gentle piano melody. When the main beat came in, everyone went wild dancing along. They followed with “Chameleon Dance” and “SUPER DUPER GALAXY”. Everyone seemed even more upbeat than before and it was impossible not to get sucked in by the energy of the performances.
In the heat of the performance, Maya pulled off his jacket to keep cool and grabbed a chouchou offered by one of the fans to tie his hair back (which he kindly returned later).
At the end he screamed, “You guys are the best!!”
Then the final song of the night was “LIAR LIAR”. Everyone put a final burst of energy into the performance and the crowd couldn’t stop cheering when it was over. Maya, Aiji and all the support members crowded together and thanked the crowd. Each member got their own round of individual applause and support from the appreciative crowd. Then they all hugged and congratulated each other for another live well done before exiting the stage and leaving the crowd still buzzing with excitement.
Setlist:
SE Rainbow Magic Orchestra
- Z-MAN
- CHEMICAL KING-TWOON
- Bell the CAT
- JOKER
- TABOO
- OH MY JULIET.
- CRAZY A GO GO
- Galileo
- MOGURA
- 88
- cosmology
- Sentimental Piggy Romance
- my girl
- MONROEwalk
- JOHN
- We are LM.C
- LET’ ME CRAZY!!
- JUST LIKE THIS!!
- Chameleon Dance
- SUPER DUPER GALAXY
- LIAR LIAR
Photos provided by LM.C management.
Thank you to LM.C and the staff at Spiral Rainbow Entertainment for this opportunity!
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