fields of maiZe and berryZ

Aya’s concert Spring Concert was released this week on DVD in Japan, and holy geez, is it ever smoking!! Watching this concert has revived my love for Aya! Not that I stopped loving her, but my fascination for the H!P Kids kept me so occupied that I didn’t take the time to go check out most of Aya’s newer releases (though I do love Kizuna). After watching this, I will make a definite effort to listen through Double Rainbow more closely… I’m also itching to watch som old school Aya concerts now.

Seriously, this concert was fantastic (though, I’m a die hard Aya fan, so take that as you will). Live band + Aya’s awesomeness is a forumla for WIN!!

So with that introduction, on with the review! I reviewed this in a funny order. Some comments are from my first watch through, others are from subsequent watch throughs… Ans some have a mix of first watch plus later observations. I hope it all makes sense. XD

01. From That Sky ~Kaedama wa Katamen de~
Okay… Seriously, what a way to open the concert! That trench coat gives Aya so much attitude, and the live band… OMG! I’m dying already and it’s two seconds into the concert… XD This is just an awesome song, and a very hot Aya… What more is there to say?

02. Zettai Tokeru Mondai X = ♥
This is a nice follow-up to ‘From that Sky’ This is a higher energy song at a faster tempo with a lot of opporunity for crowd involvement. This is the first song from Aya’s first album to play, and just browsing through this setlist, I am ridiculously happy with how many songs are on here from First Kiss, seeing as that’s my favourite Aya album! Ahh… You just can’t go wrong with classic Ayaya. <3

When that guitar first came out for Aya, I though "OMG!! NO FREAKING WAY!!" ... And then... No. >_< Not cool. I mean, it wasn't entirely out there for me to think that Aya might actually play something or other on the guitar... Buono! did it at their FC concert recently, from what I can gather from the pics I've seen and the fan audio recording that I've listened to. But, seriously, I was unimpressed when she started air guitaring. But when the lead guitarist came up and tapped her on the shoulder with a little "Are you kidding me?! XD" look on his face, I just had to say "AWWWW... So Cute. XD" So it made up for it and brought my mood back up. Funny how I can go to from such enjoyment, to extreme excitment followed by a quick drop to thoroughly disappointed and back into "Aya's so cute and awesome" moods in less than a minute. XD

03. MC 1

04. Soulmate
Hmm… I’m assuming this is on Double Rainbow… I need to listen to that album more. It’s a very pretty sounding song with a slower tempo… But hey, it’s from Double Rainbow. Most of them are slower tempos. I just love Aya’s voice. And she is just so good live. But… Her dress looks funny. The skirt part looks stationary or something because it’s not moving with the rest of her… o_O

05. Oshare!
And… there we go… XD It IS stationary. I literally LOL-ed when she stepped out of the skirt. XD Here’s the second song from Aya’s first album, and this is making me want to go back and watch some old school Aya concerts… Though really, this live band is so awesome. Hello! Project really needs to get some live music going at their concerts. It just makes everything that much more alive and exciting.

06. Onna Day by Day
And here’s another Double Rainbow song that I don’t know well. I knew I’d heard it before, but I didn’t know which album it was on off the top of my head… Thus, it had to be on either Double Rainbow or Naked Songs. But I don’t think anything in this setlist is from Naked Songs. This song is a nice uplifting song with cute movements/poses… I wouldn’t quite call it a dance.

07. Hitori
I love this song. Like, REALLY REALLY LOVE this song. I have nothing against Aya and her slower stuff. I really like ‘Kizuna’ as well, I just hate the image she has in the PV. But I think I’d have to say I like the cw to ‘Kizuna’ better than ‘Kizuna’ itself. Something about the melody just gets me every time.

08. Dokki Doki! LOVE Mail
Wow… 8th song and no costume change… That’s impressive. XD Well, unless you want to call taking off the jacket and standing in that immobile skirt costume changes. But I don’t want to call those things costume changes. Aya has matured so much from the adorable girl that came out to sing ‘Dokki Doki! LOVE Mail’ at Morning Musume’s 2001 Live Revolution 21 Spring concert, it’s amazing. She was a joy to watch back then, and she’s only improved over the years. Seeing as a lot of Hello! Project members have gotten boring for me recently, I must say what Aya’s been able to do for me is quite a feat.

09. Date Biyori
My brother came in during this song (he loves this song… even made a step chart for it back in the day). He was impressed and liking the live band (because live bands are friggin’ awesome!!). I just had to laugh when he said “Aya’s not an idol anymore… She’s a STAR!” I can definitely agree with him on that one!

Awesome!!! Even though the piano playing wasn’t anything impressive, SHE PLAYED THE KEYBOARD!! No “let’s pretend I’m gonna play the keyboard” here… She actually hit the keys! Yes, she hit the wrong ones for a bit, which I actually found funny, seeing as she was only hitting one note for each finger… XD But, meh. She played the keyboard!

10. Hajimete Kuchibiru wo Kasaneta Yoru
I LOVE this song. The amount of love I have for this song is ridiculous. I love ballads. No joke. This is my favourite album song on Aya’s first album, First Kiss. This song has consistently been on my playlist since I first heard it back in late 2001 or early 2002, before the days of iTunes, when I listened to everything on WinAmp (and made my own custom skins XD).

The mood for this song is just lovely and the stage effects are wonderful. I love the moving water effect in the background. Aya has some funny facial expressions at points in this song, but you can feel the emotion coming off her in this performance. So moving… <3

It truly pains me when I talk to people and mention this song, and they only know it through Sugaya Risako's performance on Hello Pro Hour... That's just not right...

11. Yuugure
Theppn is down as I write this reivew, and I coldn’t remember off the top of my head which single this was a CW for. XD Amy of Merry Go Round kindly supplied the answer for me, but not before confusing the heck out of me by saying it was the CW for ‘Ki ga tsukeba anata’. XD

Anyway, this is the CW for Aya’s 2nd single ‘Tropical Koishiteru’ and I love how even back in the days of hyper happy Ayay, she was already singing slower, emotional songs… Not just non-stop “I’m hyper and on crack” songs… Not that ‘Dokki Doki! Love Mail’ or ‘Tropical Koishiteru’ are like that, but she showed right away that she wasn’t a one trick pony with “I’m cute, I sing cute songs. The end.” I mean, The cw for ‘Dokki Doki! Love Mail’ - ‘Machiawase’ already showcased this. She delivers ‘Yuugure’ beautifully in this concert, just as she has everything leading up to it.

12. MC 2
.. And the reason for the concert title suddenly makes sense. XD And woohoo!! Costume change #1! XD I’m liking this outfit… Could it be the hat? Have I mentioned that I LOVE hats? LOL…

13. Kizuna
A lot of people want Aya to go back to her old style. The fun, poppy, hyper Ayaya - the idol Ayaya, and I have to go back to what my brother said when he walked in on ‘Date Biyori’. Aya is no longer your typical idol. There was that interview she did for the music magazine Hot Express where she talks about her idol days and how she is looking to move forward… I like her current releases, even though they’re more mature and subdued, and Kizuna is a prime example of that. This is another beautiful song by Aya… Just ignore the PV.

14. Double Rainbow
Another beautiful ballad. watching this makes me realize I really need to give Double Rainbow (the album) a good listen. The emotion she puts into the ballads get me every time and this one is no exception. It’s a beautiful song to listen to and a beautiful song to watch Aya perform.

15. MC 3

16. Koishite Gomen ne
This is the first song in this concert coming from Aya’s X3 album. This is one of Aya’s edgier songs, and you can hear it as she has moments of raspy voiced Aya… Which is sooo hot. XD What is it about raspy voices for me? Taylor Hanson has the sexiest raspy voice. I could listen to him forever. And when Aya employs a raspy voice… Wowzers.

Why was watching Aya tie that tie so awesome? I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on this blog before, but in addition to my hat fetish, I also have a tie fetish. I love ties, and I really wish I had some sort of outfit that I could wear a tie with… Alas, I do not… But Aya with a the hat and the tie… that’s just so much awesome.

17. Kiseki no Kaori Dance
I need to ask… How in the world did the tie come off during the costume change? It was around her neck… And one piece. They couldn’t have untied it with the pull of the clothes.. or could they? o_O

Somehow, I did not recognize this song when it started to play. For a minute, I was like “WTF?! This setlist missed a song… o_O” How in the world did that happen? I know that I’m not very familiar with some of her newer stuff, basically the things that released between around Sept. 2005 to Nov. 2007, but forgetting her early stuff is unforgivable!! I have failed as an Aya fan… *bows head in shame… T__T*

Time to introduce the band! I love watching/listening to the solos the guys in the background get to do at this point. The bassist doing ‘Ne~e’ was pretty awesome.

18. The Bigaku
I love the dance for this song. Now, none of Aya’s dances are very intricate, but really she’s doing all the sings the entire concert. Too much dancing would tire her out, seeing as she doesn’t really get much of a breather anywhere, unlike a Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou or C-ute concert where you have so many members in the group that you can shuffle the girls around to work in costume changes and little breaks. But this dance is so cute. I particularly love the “ah ah ah ah” hip thrust parts… Oh Aya, why are you filled with so much win?

19. Yeah! Meccha Holiday
Aya’s vault is filled with so much awesome, it’s not even funny! This is her last song before the encore, and she’s still going strong! Though this concert, I’ve heard only one or two voice cracks. Though, at the start of the song where Aya is just waving her arm around, I was a bit disappointed, thinking she wasn’t going to dance the song out… But she eased my fears as she got right into the dancing during the first verse.

This song will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the one Japanese song that my friends let me sing when we went to karaoke for my 19th birthday. I was awesome. I did the dance and everything. Because of that experience, I always love seeing this song performed live…

ENCORE

20. LOVE Namida Iro
My second favourite Aya song of all-time. I was kinda hoping for one of her slow renditions of the song, but I guess there have been a lot of ballads in this concert already. That’s okay. I love the original arrangement of this song too.

21. MC 4

22. Kanousei no Michi
Okay… I seriously LOVE AYA!!!! SHE IS THE MOST AWESOME AND CUTEST MEMBER OF HELLO! PROJECT EVER!!! Her mess ups in concerts are such a joy to watch because she handles them so cutely. She just laughs at herself and enjoys the energy of the crowd. It is moments like this one, and her memorable mess up of ‘I Know’ back in 2003 that just make me love her more. CatchFiveBats of Obnoxious Wota informed me of another cute mistake Aya made during her Live in Shanghai concert, where she started singing ‘Momoiro Kataomoi’ when the band was playing ‘Kiseki no Kaori Dance’… Now I MUST watch that concert! (Like I said, I’m not familiar with most of Aya’s things between Sept. 2005 to NOv. 2007). You know, it’s hard to comment on Aya in concert.. ‘Cause she’s just non-stop awesome… There are only so many ways to say that… And… how am I just noticing this now? The lyrics are being projected onto the walls? XD I have to go see if this has happened all concert…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

23. Egao ni Namida ~THANK YOU! DEAR MY FRIENDS~
This is a great song to end with… Just take a look at the title. XD It’s energetic and a it’s a big old “Thanks for coming out to me concert!!”. Aya is able to keep the energy level high all the way until the end of the concert.

Umm…. What was up with that funny pose she made with her final “Matsuura Aya deshita!!”? XD It was… odd to say the least. But that’s okay. It’s Aya! She can be odd. I’ll still love her!

And so there’s my Aya concert review! I must now go and watch an old on to compare the progression she’s made over the years.. Though really, I think I’ll find it hard to compare pre-recorded background tracks too a live band on stage.

I am seriously in love with this concert, it actually quite ridiculous. It’s fighting it out with the Berryz Kamen vs. Cutie Ranger concert for my favourite of the year so far… We’ll have to see how Berryz Koubou’s fall tour concert goes… Can it compete with the greatness contained withint the two concerts previously mentioned? If it can, I think I may just explode from an awesome overload…

Oh, and I may do a write up or something on the extra bits on the DVD at a later date… ‘Cause it’s pretty funny.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 2:30 am and is filed under Concert, Elder Club, Hello! Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.