As the crowd were welcomed by a voice-over in English,
DaizyStripper slipped onstage in the darkness. The lights flared to heavy music, the members half obscured by the glare and a light fog. However,
Nao and
Mayu soon parted the mist as their heads whipped from side to side to the heavy start of
Dictator.
Yu-giri’s voice permeated the whole venue, but eyes scanned the stage in vain until he was spotted on a rise behind
Kazami, clinging to a mic stand and glittering against the black backdrop.
Screaming Husky brought the vocalist down front and centre as the white-out ended and the band became wholly visible at last. Musically, the band were pressing the crowd hard, keeping up the heavy style. “I missed you Yokohama BLITZ! Toss your head, ya’ll!” screamed
Yu-giri. In hip-hop style, he kept the crowd in the air with a rap of “jumpin’ jump jump jump jump!”
Zero Crysis broke the sound barrier,
Yu-giri screaming and shrieking when he wasn’t bent over shaking his head about. Behind it all was
Kazami, punishing the drums at top speed. The highlight of the number came with sweet vocals sung over high-pitched, pacey piano arpeggios before
Yu-giri ground into the final chorus.
“Welcome to
5 STARZ ATTACK at Yokohama BLITZ! I missed you! Today is our first oneman live for the year and we’re happy to see so many of you,” greeted
Yu-giri. “There’s a lot of heavy songs coming up so I have two requests. First, if you feel unwell, please go rest out in the lobby or the bathroom. Secondly, at that time you may need the people beside you so go ahead and make friends right now! ‘Hi, what’s your favorite color? ‘Pink.’ ‘Oh, I like pink, too!’ Just like that. By the way, I’m feeling great today! So great I think I could do about another two songs. Try hard? I am trying!”
If that opening MC wasn’t enough to bring the crowd home,
AWAKE ME! did a fine job.
Yu-giri pushed his voice deeper and while his singing of “dai kirai dai kirai” sounded cute when recorded, he filled in the spaces with a deeper tone. Throughout a heavy riff, he pulled out his repertoire of unearthly screeches, growls, and barks. The four front-men ended in various dramatic poses, hands raised as they received the crowd’s approval. Ever appreciative,
Yu-giri spent most of
Become A Beast flipping the crowd off with his most badass, punky attitude.
PSYCHEDELIC HEAVEN sent the crowd careening around the first floor before dissolving into a roiling sea of hair.
Rei came up close to get a good look at the mayhem and the whole band joined the fans, leaning into the heavily rhythmic beats.
Mayu, singing along passionately, pointed out people in the crowd as they moshed like mad. The atmosphere turned gentle for a moment with the soft opening chords of
Tsuki ni jyuusei but then it took off quite speedily, crowd shouting and fist-pumping during a cool guitar solo from
Mayu.
Sajou no roukaku slowed things down a touch at last, though not quite a ballad. It provided a nice segue into the following treat.
Twilight featured
Kazami alone onstage, seated now not behind his drum kit, but at a grand piano. As he leaned in and out of the fantastical medieval melody, the full sound of the grand was enhanced by a light, amplified echo that tickled the senses. The note-perfect solo ended in a deep clash of bass notes. Random sounds of running water, trickles of guitar and largely unidentifiable echoes accompanied the band’s re-entrance, the strange disposition leading into the steady drums, extremely light, moody guitar and smooth vocals of
Yasoukyoku. While
Mayu sat with an acoustic guitar,
Nao contrasted his simple style drastically, making huge dramatic strums, even his head bobbing right back and forward again with slow, exaggerated arm movements. Despite the gentle tune,
Yu-giri sang in full-voice.
Kazami and
Rei’s moment came in the instrumental when bass and drums came to the foreground over light, jazz piano and sparse guitar.
Yu-giri wrapped it up with a whisper of thanks.
The atmosphere of the venue was so still you could hear a pin drop. “Are you keeping quiet for me?”
Yu-giri whispered out of the darkness. A moment later, the crowd found their voices. Breaking the ice once more,
Yu-giri thanked the crowd for making
DaizyStripper’s three album and three single releases of 2011 possible. “You probably all have dreams, right?” he then asked. “We do. I really want to send this song we released last year to you. Put your dreams into it and shout.”
Zetsubou no Freesia was all about dreams, and
Yu-giri’s voice floated ever so dreamily on the melody in a beautiful tone.
Continuing the cheerful mood,
Sunday Driver was great fun, the guitar line encouraging the crowd to jump with little effort. Treating the vocal line loosely,
Yu-giri seemed to enjoy the number as much as the crowd, praising them with an “Ii ne, ii ne.” (Good, that’s good.) He then made fun of hip-hop artists everywhere “Jumpjumpjump aw aw aw!” while
Nao rocked out an awesomely retro solo and
Mayu punctuated the cheerful melody with some out-of-place headbanging.
A little classical music and pale pink lights and the mood was easily reset once more. Starting off with a sweet vocal solo,
KISS YOU had a very relaxed atmosphere,
Yu-giri watching the crowd through the opening instrumental. When the crowd got their chance to sing, they did the band proud, and
Yu-giri followed them up beautifully, rising gorgeously into the key-change. On the lyrics “Sekai ichi ai wo komete,” the crowd all shaped hearts with their hands, and a grinning
Yu-giri finished up with “Kissin’ you! Whoo!”
Following the touching number, some strange, childish music began to play, and just as everyone was wondering what on earth it was,
Yu-giri posed the question on everyone’s minds… “What the hell is this music?” No one seemed to know except for
Nao who whispered to
Yu-giri, who then launched into introducing the members without another word about it. “Our huge drummer, KAZAMIIIIIII! Kazu-san Kazu-san KAAAAAAAAAAAAZAMIIIII!!!!!” he screamed.
Still puffing from the previous number,
Kazami flashed the crowd a brilliant grin. “I was just remembering the gigantic choir from AX. Have you all seen that video? The fact that we could do that was all thanks to you, and today, too,” he said, referring to the live KISS Mix footage of the
KISS YOU music video. “And me?”
Yu-giri asked plaintively. “Yeah, probably you, too but
DaizyStripper’s fans are truly wonderful fans,” finished the drummer.
Next up was “REEEEIII!” Jumping up on the centre platform, the bassist hushed the crowd. “I’m very happy to see in our 5th year like this, and after releasing three albums and three singles in 2011, too.” In the background,
Yu-giri was playing around. “I’m the new bassist!” he cried. “Shut up,”
Rei snapped, continuing on. “I think there are many people who caught colds and couldn’t come today so you guys have to tell them everything. But you can’t tell them how fun it was unless you put your asses into it. Got it? You’ve gotta go all out.”
“On guitar, N.A.O. NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwhoo!” continued the introductions.
Nao hushed the crowd before launching into his special self introduction plan, which was to collect questions from
DaizyStripper’s staff and friends. Without seeing them before the show, he had them compiled and handed to
Yu-giri who read them out for him to answer. “Oh! So that’s what this music was for. The staff were too early,” said
Yu-giri as the weird theme music struck up again. The questions ranged from simple things like “When is your birthday?” to “What’s 'same' in English?” (“SHARK!”) and “Why do people’s bellies get empty?” (“How should I know?!”) A crowd favorite was “What do you think we could do with losing from this world?” (“There's a lot of reasons I'm sure, but definitely live house drink fees!”) However, the tear jerker was, “If you dropped 50,000 yen on the ground and could choose between picking it up and saving
Kazami’s life, what would it be?” (“Uh… Um… …
Kazami!”) No matter what the question, it was yelled with unfailing vigor and certainly told the crowd a lot about
DaizyStripper’s
Nao.
“You probably don’t know this but he’s our … Leader! Guitar, Mayu!”
Mao had a very long speech prepared which he rattled off at high speed. “This is our fifth anniversary this year so thank you all for supporting us.
5 stars attack is the title of the live. After all, there’s five of us so we’re going to become stars and shine down. At this time, students have exams etc. and there’s lots going on but we get messages like ‘We were able to come to DS and enjoy ourselves, thank you!’ We get messages like that. Thank you. We also get strength from you, standing up here and looking down at your smiles. Even if it’s cloudy and raining, if everyone comes into this place and shines like a sea of stars, it’s like a beautiful night sky and-” “Guitar, Mayu!” cried
Yu-giri once more, putting an end to the unending monologue.
Yu-giri had a song prepared for the crowd, la’ing at the top of his voice and belting out the final lyric. The commercial take-off had the crowd laughing. “Um, please don’t write about that on your blogs,” said the vocalist. “So, this is the kind of five people who make up
DaizyStripper. This emcee got a little long thanks to… someone… But today, we’ll shine, and you’ll be shined upon. Got it? Ready, Yokohama?”
5xSTARZ got hot fast, all five of the band head-banging and
Yu-giri infusing his vocals with a lazy emphasis while variously colored lazers flashed about. The dark-flavored chorus was sung at full vocal strength after a rap during which
Nao and
Mayu cut in with barks. Then
BLACK DROPPer swung right in, drums and guitar punching in with
Yu-giri’s fearsome death voice sending hair flying. Cutting off the lyrics, the vocalist simply shrieked instead. As the members rotated through the centre platform, the crowd bent down headbanging hard. “You think you're yelling? You think so?”
Yu-giri challenged. He then showed them all up with barks and shrieks no human voice should emit. For the final number,
Know Future,
Yu-giri had the crowd screaming along with him. He continued his earlier habit of flipping them off (lovingly, of course) and they responded by moshing happily through the chorus. One final, elongated screech, and it was all over. “Thank you Hama!” Tossing his towel at
Nao on the way off,
Yu-giri led the exodus.
What followed was an ultimately touching display of adoration as the crowd began singing the refrain of
KISS YOU as one, instead of shouting for an encore. On and on they sang until the band returned to thank them and they sang even louder.
“Wow,” said
Yu-giri. “
DaizyStripper fans really are a few flavors from the norm. Well, just for you guys, we’ve prepared a brand new song for you today. I’m a little nervous and might make a few mistakes, but please close your eyes and listen…”
What the crowd got, was not a new song at all, but rather a wonderful medley of older material beginning with the band’s original single,
Dandelion,
Hoshizora to kimi no te,
Juliet no Knife,
Lyrical Night,
TRIGGER,
Harumeku bokura,
Shikisai Vivid,
Dearest; the most memorable parts of each number were played for the crowd one by one, pauses between each keeping them on their toes, never knowing when it would end or what would come next.
Yu-giri’s gorgeously held high note at then end of
TRIGGER was a bit of a red herring. “Thank you! This was
DaizyStripper’s special medley!”
Yu-giri cried, finally letting the crowd know it was over. “Now, shall we do another nostalgic song?” The crowd were treated to the whole introduction of
Tsumi na batsu which stopped just shy of the vocal line. “Yeah, thank you!” The complaints rose up, and
Yu-giri made the crowd beg him to “do it do them” before he finally agreed to do
Tsumi na batsu for real.
“Thank you very much for doing it for me,” the vocalist prompted when it was over, and the crowd repeated dutifully. “Did it feel good? Heh, you guys are cute. Well, we’ve made five years and all bands tend to say at five years that they won’t change, but I think that changing is evolution. It’s not about becoming different but about evolving. We’re going to continue changing and moving on but to us, that’s not changing at all, so please continue with us. I want to send this song to you guys.”
Aquarium was a fitting gist, opening with a digitalized “Hello” immediately followed by sweet-voiced singing. The greeting continued throughout, giving the number a surreal yet cute aura as a lazer-field of cloudy blue sea drifted overhead. Then
36.5°C began with a gentle vocal/piano duet,
Yu-giri lit under a white spot and
Kazami haloed in pink. As the song progressed, yellow light came up on
Mayu and red on
Rei, and for the second chorus,
Nao was lit in blue, completing the five stars for a sweet touch. The band exited so subtly in the darkness that the crowd waited, and waited. Hesitantly, one or two voices raised the call, and eventually the whole crowd picked it up, realizing the band were indeed long gone.
The final two numbers were purely for fun,
DaizyStripper returning for
decade and
STAY GOLD. The crowd moshed back and forth, screaming as
Rei walked up and kissed the vocalist full on the mouth.
Yu-giri gave as good as he got, too, peppering
Kazami’s cheek with kisses as the drummer tried to duck away despite having nowhere to go. As he then slung an arm about
Mayu’s neck, the guitarist jokingly fell to his knees. While the two guitars took centre stage for their bright duet,
Yu-giri just couldn’t stand to hand over the crowd’s attention, and goofily pretended to play the piano. It was fun all around. “This is our fifth anniversary year! This year, and from now on, we’re counting on you!”
Mayu and
Nao wound up on the ground, and things were thrown all around,
Kazami once attempting to toss
Yu-giri to the fans. A final micless yell of thanks and huge jump, and it was all over. However,
DaizyStripper’s first venture to the renowned venue, Shibuya Koukaidou looms on the horizon in June, giving the fans more thrilling fifth anniversary celebrations to look forward to. The dates of their
DaizyStripper 5th Anniversary ONE-MAN Tour "DREAMER" tour can be viewed
here.
Set List
1. Dictator
2. Screaming Husky
3. Zero Crysis
4. AWAKE ME!
5. Become A Beast
6. PSYCHEDELIC HEAVEN
7. Tsuki ni jyusei
8. Sajou no roukaku
9. Twilight
10. Yasoukyoku
11. Zetsubou no Freesia
12. Sunday Driver
13. KISS YOU
14. 5xSTARZ
15. BLACK DROPPer
16. Know Future
Encore 1
1. Medley:
-Dandelion
-Hoshizora to kimi no te
-Juliet no Knife
-Lyrical Night
-Trigger
-Harumeku Bokura
-Shikisai Vivid
-Dearest
2. Tsumi na Batsu
3. Aquarium
4. 36.°5(degrees)C
Encore 2
1. Decade
2. STAY GOLD
