UVERworld at Namba Hatch Osaka

On October 12th, UVERworld came to Namba Hatch to perform their special 15&10 Anniversary Tour. Today’s show marks the celebration of their fifteen years together, and their debut as musicians for the past ten years. Being a celebration concert taking place in the birthplace of vocalist Takuya∞, the concert promises to be a good show for both the band and their devoted fans.

UVERworld quickly gained popularity by recording songs for various anime, such as D-Technolife from “Bleach” and Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi from “Mobile Suit Gundam 00”, that ended high up on the Oricon Charts. Fast forward to the present, and with eight studio albums and twenty-eight singles to their name, the band have a vast repertoire to pick from.

As the clock counts down towards the start time, the crowd gets excited and starts to count down together. When the clocks strikes 18:00, the venue goes pitch black and a sudden beat can be heard from the abyss. The crowd starts to clap along with the beat of The One when red and blue lights appear and focus on the drummer Shintarou. Bright lights illuminate the stage and the rest of the band can be seen standing beside taiko drums. An impressive lightshow commences and the crowd goes wild, jumping around and cheering loudly.

Collide follows and one of the first notes is that of a saxophone. SEIKA is the band’s saxophonist, and was also one of the original members when UVERworld was still known as Sound Goku Road. He officially rejoined in 2014 and is clearly enjoying his time on stage, judging by the way he’s jumping along with the beat and playing air guitar on his saxophone when not playing.

Being one of their newest songs, Collide really shows the new sound UVERworld has been trying out. A bit heavy on the techno side and a more prominent saxophone sound, it still sounds like UVERworld, what with the characteristic tempo variations between just Takuya∞’s vocals with piano accompaniment, and the all-out fast beat of all the instruments. There’s also the rapping in between and Takuya∞’s fondness for making use of the microphone’s morphing sounds.

After five songs, it’s time for a bit of a breather and Takuya∞ talks about how he’s happy to be back in Osaka, the place where he was born. The crowd responds by giving a loud cheer and this is a signal to the band to start Arubeki Katachi. While the song is being played, on the video screen behind them the lyrics, instead of the usual images, are shown to encourage the fans to sing along.

In the next MC, bright lights again shine on the stage and while the other bands members walk away, the drummer Shintarou stays behind to banter with the audience. He talks about the anniversary and how he wants to hear the boys and girls yell separately. This is met with much enthusiasm from the audience and a shouting contest ensues. Shintarou comments on the girls’ shouting that he likes it, and almost immediately apologizes. He gets all embarrassed and asks the band to quickly come back onstage so that he won’t embarrass himself even more.

The stage lights fades to black and silence befalls Namba Hatch, but as soon as Takuya∞ whistles the first few notes of 7th Trigger, the cheering of the crowd is deafening and they start to jump and clap along. When the singing begins, the crowd sings a long with every line as loudly as they possibly can. During the chorus, Takuya∞ even points the microphone towards the crowd and lets them take over.

All the audience’s jumping around, and the heavy use of lights really makes the temperature rise in an intimate setting like Namba Hatch. About halfway through the show, the staff have to start fishing out of the crowd people who’ve fainted in the smoldering heat of the pit. People don’t seem too bothered by this, as the now-empty places are instantly filled up again by eager fans.

Praying run opens with a quirky riff from rhythm guitarist Katsuya and with Takuya∞ panting into his microphone. The video screen shows a pair of feet jogging on a long, abandoned road. Halfway through the chorus, it becomes clear it’s the song's music video showing a man training for a boxing match. Takuya∞ at time moves exactly as he does in the video, and it makes the audience feel like they are a part of the video itself.

Massive is the time for all the instrumentalists to shine. Takuya∞ has left the stage for a while, and Shintarou begins the song with a bit of a drum solo. The crowd happily start to clap along. The bassist Nobuto joins the beat and really shows his impressive skills on his LED-lit bass. As the song progresses, every member performs a solo piece. Though the song doesn’t involve him, it seems as though Takuya∞ can’t resist joining in the fun as he can be seen jumping on and offstage near the end.

As the show comes to an end, Nanokame Ketsui begins with just Takuya∞ visible on the stage as he sings the first few lines acapella. Using his hands and facials expressions to express his emotions, he throws his whole soul into his performance, and the usually oh-so rowdy crowd seem mesmerized, even awestruck. As the band joins in, music fills the room and orange light engulfs the stage while on the video screen, a bright sunset can be seen.

Despite the lack of an encore, the setlist was still quite impressive as it was built around the highlights of their latest albums and even included their two latest singles along with their respective B-sides. All members gave an energetic performance and, with the excellent combined use of lights and video projections, UVERworld showed they know how to put on an entertaining show.


Set List

01. THE ONE
02. collide
03. Nano Second
04. Enough-1
05. Arubeki Katachi
06. Hissei Satsuki Prologue
07. 7th Trigger
08. Dare ga Itta
09. I LOVE THE WORLD
10. Don’t Think Feel
11. PRAYING RUN
12. Ø choir
13. Massive
14. CORE PRIDE
15. LIMITLESS
16. Rei HERE ~SE~
17. IMPACT
18. Boku no kotoba dewa nai kore wa bokutachi no kotoba
19. Nanokame no ketsui