Merry Live Report

The evening of August 12th saw Merry once again at their favorite venue, the Hibiya yagai ongakudou.

The audience had just taken their seats in the outdoor venue, when, without any warning, the band members appeared on stage. Nero walked on to the stage holding a flag with the Merry logo on it. In the back of the stage, a brass band climbed on to a raised platform. Nero stood behind his drumset and pretended to do his hair with his drumsticks. After he was done, the band, still missing vocalist Gara, started to play an intro. Nero was smartly dressed in a black suit, Yu in red pants with a black shirt, and Tetsu was wearing the same type of outfit, but with white pants instead of red. kenichi was dressed all in black.

As Gara finally appeared, he took his place on top of the school desk, which was placed at the front of the stage. Fireworks started as the first song began. The enthusiastic fans immediately started to do furitsuke. Gara wore a grey suit with a long black shirt, which almost reached his knees. And as usual, he was barefoot.

Yasashisa kid started and Gara moved around on stage spastically. Fans waved and banged their heads during the louder parts. A lot of fans were wearing different types of Merry T-shirts. On each side and above the stage, there were huge red banners with the band name and a crowned-sheep on them. Also, there was a swing dangling on stage and Gara gently swung on it while he sang "lalala".

During renai kousaten, Gara took off his jacket and swung it around while he sang. Nero loudly counted down before tamerai shuffle started. The brass band had come back on stage again and they definitely added something extra to the song. Gara found himself a pink walking stick, which he played with as he sang. During the next song he even found a huge yellow ball to play around with and sit on. As the song ended the audience started to clap. Nero gave a loud scream, and began to play bara to katasumi no blues. Gara had picked up a watergun and was first using it on his fellow band members, then squirting the audience.

After nine songs the band members left the stage, and from the left of the podium came the sound of traditional Japanese drums; "Taiko". The audience screamed and enthusiastically clapped along. Suddenly Nero appeared with his flag again and he walked towards the drummers. He grabbed a pair of drumsticks and joined them. The audience clapped for him and he played for a while before running back to his own drumset. He started playing while the traditional drums could still be heard. Together they gave a drum solo which sounded amazing. After that Nero did a drum solo by himself and gave a short MC. The fans were jumping to the drumbeat, causing the floor to shake.

The other members came back to stage and joined Nero on their instruments. Gara appeared shirtless, but wearing a white shawl. When PEEP SHOW started, six long red balloon-like flags raised from the stage. The vibrations of the music made them move to the melody.

After 14 songs the stage became completely dark, except for the three red Merry banners. Traditional Japanese music sounded and Gara was put in the spotlight. He was doing his "MC": calligraphy. First he wrote that he was very happy today and he mentioned the Merry T-shirts. The calm calligraphy ended and Gara began to headbang wildly to yellow-fussy-corruption. Later he climbed up in to the light rigging. He even hung upside down, but kept singing flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly. He climbed down again and at the end of the song he sang a small part a capella, ending it with a powerful scream.

A drum intro marked the start of Oriental BL Circus. After a few seconds the band sounded and on top of the stage there were spinning fireworks. During this song there was a great lightshow. As the song came to an end, Gara threw his mic standard high up in the air. The band members left the stage, and the fans immediately screamed for an encore. After a while a spotlight went on and someone started to play keyboard. A bit later Gara entered the stage, dressed in a white shirt. He started to sing a beautiful ballad. At the end of the ballad, the other members entered the stage too, and they played three more songs before disappearing again.

At the start of the second encore, Nero happily ran on to the stage and jumped on the swing. Gara and kenichi were now wearing T-shirts and the vocalist was already enthusiastically jumping, even before they started to play again. After one song, Nero did an MC thanking everyone. He was trying to say more, but Gara had picked up his watergun again and was squirting him again. Nero finally managed to tell the audience that he loved them.

Charlie began, and Gara jumped high in to the air. Even though this was a pretty new song, the fans reacted enthusiastically and headbanged along. When the song was finished Gara screamed that it was hot today. Both him and the fans started headbanging at mousou rendez-vous. The audience sang the chorus instead of Gara, and he watched them, seemingly ammused. After these songs, the members threw different kinds of items into the crowd. Nero even "Frisbeed" the back of his basedrum into the audience. He yelled once again that he loved their fans, before he dissappeared too.

The lights still hadn't come up, so of course the fans screamed for another encore. Merry came back once more and they played the new song komorebi ga boku wo sagashiteru. They thanked everyone before leaving the stage.

Even though the lights had come back on, the fans still wanted more. After a while the band members came running back on stage to play just one more song (which isn't on the setlist). Everyone started jumping and the floor was shaking again. At the end Gara jumped off his school desk on to Nero's raised drumstage. Everyone clapped thankfully for the band. Gara entertained his fans once more time by rope-skipping with his microphone cable.

This time the members left the stage for good and background music started to play; the song telling everyone to go home quickly. Exhausted, hot fans headed home, happy to have seen Merry once again.

Setlist

Roppongi jazzy kissa
yasashisa kid
Atama ga zakuro
mado
renai kousaten
tamerai shuffle
Bluesy night
bara to katasumi no blues
nisemono tenkoku
Shambara
PEEP SHOW
kyoso carnaval
kimatteru taiyou
koso building no ue de last dance
yellow-fussy-corruption
binibon nichoume yachiyokan
Japanese modernist
Oriental BL circus
Sakashima endroll
Hi no demachi, Cinderella
Tokyo telephone
Tokyo ni furu ame
karappo na uta
Charlie
mousou rendez-vous
komorebi ga boku wo sagashiteru