MUCC "Aku-The brightness world"

2020 was a tough year in many ways, but unlike other bands, MUCC was very active on social media since last February, with live streamed no-audience concerts, talk shows and more. After playing without crowds for almost a year, the live event Aku-The brightness world, held at a half-capacity Nippon Budokan on December 27th, let MUCC shine like they hadn't shone in almost a year.

As a measure to combat the spread of COVID-19, there were empty seats placed between the concertgoers, some of whom were even sitting behind the stage. Many attendees had luminous LED tambourines they had purchased in their hands. Although the show's set list didn't feature quite so many old songs as September's "Aku-THE BROKEN RESUSCITATION", its length - it was almost three-and-a-half hours long - and some rather extensive MCs from MUCC made up for it.

At the stroke of 5:30pm, the Budokan went pitch black and the audience lit their tambourines, playing them as they waited for MUCC to take the stage. A mixture of applause and jangling tambourines could be heard as the stage was showered in red light when SATOchi appeared and walked towards his drum kit. He was followed by YUKKE, Miya, Tooru Yoshida, and finally Tatsuro. A big smile danced on the singer's lips: the first hint of how important this moment was to everyone.

In the renewed darkness, the first notes came from Miya's guitar, kicking off the evening. As in their previous shows, Aku was the first song of the set list. Tatsuro's voice started deep, and as it gained in strength, the stage filled with light and the kanji for Aku (惡) rose to the ceiling.

Aku is an aggressive song that fluctuates between instrumental explosions and sudden low tones. Upon reaching the choir, Miya raised his fist to the sky and the entire audience joined in the gesture.

SATOchi led into CRACK with a loud drum roll, accompanied by a shout from Tatsuro. There was a play of laser lights that added movement to the song, as if the madness didn't just come from Miya's guttural growls, but from everything that happened on the stage.

OVER DRIVE lifted some of the darkness away and added some speedy rock. Tatsuro ran all over the stage, as if he wanted to be in front of all of the fans at the same time. Miya jumped and spun around without stopping as YUKKE began to interact with the audience next to him. "Oh my gosh, calm down," said an agitated Tatsuro, "I have to calm down, this is too much fun. YUKKE, calm down too."

The stage turned blue when a deep, throaty growl from Tatsuro marked the beginning of ENDER ENDER, backed by synths. This was the first song that had the audience jump together, as if all the fans in attendance were a single living entity. The backing vocals featured the voices of the entire band, including Tooru, the guest keyboardist for all Aku shows so far. ENDER ENDER brought with it the first headbanging of the night and a lively solo by YUKKE, making the bassist the sole owner of the stage for a moment.

G.G. not only offered a powerful and steady drum beat but increased the insanity, too. The crowd jumped, Tatsuro danced and he even threw himself to the ground to sing, seemingly thrilled about finally having an audience to express himself to in a much more dramatic way. YUKKE and Miya each went their own way around the stage, running back to their spots just in time to join in the chorus. Both laughing, they ended the moment with a martial salute.

The atmosphere softened with the arrival of Kurage, which boasted Tatsuro's most harmonious vocals and the first reprieve from Aku's unbridled onslaught. Towards the end, Tatsuro threw himself to the ground again, as if hurt by the moment, and was followed by the last dying notes from the keyboard.

Iris was the most psychedelic of the evening's offerings. Green lasers like lightning bolts circled non-stop over the band throughout the song, Tatsuro rolled on the stage, singing in agony, while Miya kept up his guttural chorusing. It was a point of ecstasy that marked the first break of the show. When finished, the lights went out and only a few red kanji characters were visible onstage.

Tatsuro's first MC was brief and led into PSYCHO. During this song, Miya and YUKKE went to the back of the stage to sing, where many attendees were waiting for them. At this point, Tatsuro seemed to flirt with those in front, smiling and gesturing with his hands. SATOchi hit the pedal hard as the audience shook their fists in the air yelling "PSYCHO! PSYCHO!" It was as if the band expected a constant reaction from the public, and they weren't disappointed.

The atmosphere grew fragile with Sekisou. The lights went out, the song began with languid piano, but instead of Tooru, it was Miya who played it. Tatsuro arrived on stage with a lit lantern and, in those seconds, it was the only light source in the hall.

It was just the singer and Miya for the start of this ballad. The stage lit up with more lanterns scattered everywhere while Tatsuro's soft voice was accompanied by Miya's sweet tone, and a violin joined in the chorus. YUKKE was playing an electric double bass. While Tooru returned with the synth for the second part of the song, it was Miya's piano, the violin, and Tatsuro's warm voice that dominated this wistful moment.

COBALT left the awe behind and brought about calm. Alpha was the last song before the next MC. The lights seemed to present a starry sky before sunrise.

"Hey, this is hell, isn't it?" Tatsuro began, "While this is half a step, it is a step after all. We left those no-audience concerts where I only saw your faces on a screen. Now you are here and, despite the masks, you look cute. YUKKE has a luminous tambourine, look."

"It sounds very nice," Miya said, "Let's see, do this," he added, hitting his microphone at a certain pace, which the audience copied on their tambourines.

"It's like Christmas," Tatsuro laughed. Then, they took a moment to comment on how it felt to finally be back performing live again and how excited they were.

As if calling back to the September Aku-THE BROKEN RESUSCITATION show, the time came for Tatsuro to invite lynch. vocalist Hazuki on stage. The guest vocalist stepped out waving and Tatsuro imitated him, demonstrating the rapport they share.

Memai started and the lynch. frontman's connection with the audience was immediately apparent. He and Tatsuro went to different ends of the stage and to the stands, until Tatsuro went back to teasing him and, between hugs and shoves, the two sang together. For the strings solo, Miya and YUKKE rushed to stand at either side of Hazuki, laughing alongside him as the audience raised their fists with each singer's cry.

TONIGHT is a fast rock song that cannot be missed live. Red lights rose and rose with the guitar and Tatsuro's voice until the stage was engulfed in flames. The audience headbanged like in no other song, following along with Tatsuro, who shook his head from side to side seemingly without end.

This gave way to a joint guitar and bass solo by YUKKE and Miya, which further stoked the fiery atmosphere. Suddenly, Tooru's piano broke in, with all other instruments falling silent. Unable to keep from smiling, YUKKE invited the audience to clap along with him.

The first encore came after twenty songs and brought with it the second MC of the night. Tatsuro sat in front of the drums and commented that they had had to deal with a ton of laughs, inviting YUKKE to speak about it. The bright-eyed bassist spoke of how he heard the sound of the tambourines from the dressing room and had found it very pretty.

"And leader, what do you say?" asked Tatsuro, turning to Miya. The guitarist spoke about how agitated he was about playing with an audience again. Then Tatsuro turned to SATOchi, "And you, are you going to talk?"

The drummer talked about how rare it was to have part of the audience behind his back and joked about it. Tatsuro then turned to Tooru and started teasing him for a change. "Tooru! You're not used to MCs, right? Because you are… support!"

"Well yes," said the keyboardist, agreeing how rare it was to be seen from all sides at the same time.

From there, the concert spanned a further seven songs. My WORLD was waited for with arms raised. During their no-audience lives, it was the track where fans' faces filled the back of the stage. My WORLD is a song of hope; however, after months without live concerts, it was one of the songs that carried the most melancholy. It dragged with it the remoteness of the pandemic, the time that had passed and that memory engraved on the skin of when to jump into a song, when to clap, resonating with the music.

Namonaki Yume, for its part, seemed to be SATOchi's farewell. They gave him a moment alone with the audience and, finally, Miya asked everyone to smile like never before at the drummer. "Time to jump as high as you ever have this year," he yelled, "Let's fly!"

While this show was the band's first with an in-person audience after months of lockdown, it was also SATOchi's last show at Budokan before he retires from the music industry. Despite this, Aku-The brightness world felt more like a reunion than a farewell.

Set List