Plastic Tree in Paris, France. July 9th, 2006

Plastic Tree's first concert in Paris took place on Sunday night at La Locomotive, which is located right next to the famous Moulin Rouge. During the day, various fans had already queued up in front of the live house. Unfortunately for them, they had to wait slightly longer that evening, because the starting time of the live had been pushed back a little, due to the soccer worldcup. France was in the finals, and this was why the French organizers had decided to start the concert after the soccer match.

Around eight o'clock, the doors of the venue opened and some time later the people got in. The crowd was excited, yelling 'Plastic Tree' and the band member's names as the time slowly crept closer to 21:30, the time when they would start. Even though at this time the soccer match wasn't finished yet, they started playing at exactly 21:30.

The crowd went totally crazy as the background music stopped. The lights went off and four dark shapes appeared on the stage of La Locomotive. After a while, the band started playing and the lights were turned on, revealing the members.

Ryutaro was in the middle of course, wearing a black shirt with spider brooches, black shorts with some sort of skirt over it and black boots. He was wearing some make-up and had dark eyes and lips. He moved stiffly, like a marionette and he talked like that as well when he introduced the band. Akira, the guitarist, was on the right side of the stage, wearing a dark outfit and his make-up consisted of a big horizontal 'line' forming a mask. Hiroshi was behind his drum kit at the back of the stage, also wearing a black outfit and his hair was braided up on one side. Tadashi, the leader and bassist of the band, was standing on the left side of the stage, also wearing shorts and a black t-shirt and he was playing a green bass.

The song they started with was Crack Pot and the crowd jumped on the beat, some of them hardly being able to believe that they were looking at Plastic Tree live, a thing some of them had been waiting for for more than five years. The hall was full and not only French people were there, but there were also people from Sweden, England and even some very dedicated Japanese fans.

After Cell they played Sanbika. Their sound was so great that it was very close to the recording on the cd and the audience absolutely loved it, jumping up and down, head banging and singing along with the chorus.

It seemed to be a bit suprising that they played many songs of their album Cell instead of their newest, Chandelier. They also played some older songs, amongst them the songs Sink, Planetarium and Monophobia. The later was especially received well by the audience.

Together with Ryutaro, the crowd jumped up and down while the band played enthusiastically. Tadashi was playing his bass, creating a very strong, pounding bass line. Once in a while he would move closer to the audience, making the people scream. Akira was strumming on his guitar and played some great solos, often looking down in concentration.

Hiroshi seemed to go crazy behind the drums, pounding away and the band often made the songs a bit longer as to have an instrumental piece on the end, and Hiroshi really seemed to enjoy these. The drummer is mostly in the back and doesn't get that much attention, and that was a pity because he was doing a great job!

Ryutaro was singing in the front of the stage, and in the beginning he had been acting kind of stiff, but later he was jumping and dancing around energetically. Once in a while he was playing guitar as well.

The song Harusaki Sentimental was played too, a very gentle and sensitive song. So, when Ryutaro started the song, only accompanied by the piano, his gentle voice so pure and sensitive, it seemed a lot of people got emotional with the touching song, had a hard time not to start crying. When the guitars started and the chorus began, everybody who could sing along did so, swaying along with the beat.

In between the songs, Ryutaro did some MC. He introduced the band although it didn't seem it was necessary: the fans were already screaming their names. After Ryutaro, it was Tadashi's turn to say something and he spoke to them in Japanese, thanking them. When he was done, the crowd started to yell "Akira, Akira", wanting him to MC too. And he did so, after the crowd had silenced a bit to hear him speak. Then a loud "Hiroshi, Hiroshi" erupted from the crowd, and yes, then Hiroshi climbed from behind his drum kit to move to the front of the stage to MC too.

At some point, Ryutaro took a note out of his pocket, and then he started to say some words in French. It was very cute and endearing to see him do his best to speak French. He did a very good job, his French was understandable. "Bonsoir" (good evening), "Je suis Ryutaro" (I am Ryutaro) and "Merci beauc", where he forgot the end of the word "beaucoup"; thank you very much. Each time the crowd awarded his efforts with loud yelling and applauding.

While they were playing, a balloon was flying over the crowd and then it floated to the stage to Ryutaro, who threw or kicked it back to the crowd. It became a little game between Ryutaro and the crowd and Tadashi joined, too.

After playing for about an hour and a half, they said their goodbyes and left the stage. Of course, the audience started yelling for them to come back. The screaming was deafening and the crowd was stomping on the floor, almost making the building tremble.

Then, Akira, Buchi and Tadashi came back, wearing different outfits and they started a really great instrumental piece. After a while of playing, Ryutaro also appeared on stage, this time wearing a reddish yukata and he was on bare feet. They played three songs, a cover song from The Cure, hate.red dip.it from the newest album and Yume no Shima. Then they left the stage again, pretending the concert was over, but the audience simply refused to believe it.

After yelling for another encore for a while, they returned again, once again with different outfits. Ryutaro was wearing a t-shirt of a bunny speared to what looked the Tokyo tower, and the text 'Tokyo' underneath. Then he turned around to take something from the small stage of the drums and a (airport) sticker with Tokyo in kanji and romaji was revealed, stuck to his backside and everybody laughed. It was very funny and later when he MC-ed he talked about Tokyo.

They also played three songs with this encore. After Honjitsu wa seiten nari they started Namida Drop, their newest single. Ryutaro was jumping around almost maniacally, jumping backwards from the small drum stage and dancing around in circles, still bare footed.

They played a very old song then, Psycho garden which was released on their first mini album. After they jammed some more, which they and the crowd really seemed to enjoy, the song ended and unfortunately it was also the end of the concert for real now. The members moved to the front of the audience, shaking hands and throwing picks and drumsticks to the audience before they left for real.

As the audience made their way to the exit, many dazed faces were to be seen, the fans still overwhelmed by the concert. Many of them hadn't even thought they would get the opportunity to see Plastic Tree live and tonight's performance was like a dream coming true for a lot of them.

We hope that Plastic Tree had an enjoyable experience in Europe too, so we wish to see them back some day!


Set list:

Crack Pot
Cell
Sanabika
Melancholic
Sink
Harusaki Sentimental
Uwa no Sora
Comic Youth
Planetarium
Monophobia
National Kid
Kaibutsu kun
Puppet talk
Dance Macabre
Ghost

Encore I
Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me (The Cure Cover)
hate.red dip.it
Yume no Shima

Encore II
Honjitsu wa Seiten Nari
Namida Drop
Psycho garden