BEE-315 Live Report

The live house was located in a basement beside the shopping arcade of Shimokitazawa. A little after 6 PM, fans ran into the venue, filling up the tiers one after another. There were three TV monitors and they showed live images of bands such as Foo Fighters, SUM41 and more. At the DJ booth located on the back floor, the members of the band SHAME appeared and put their favorite songs on as background music. Special cocktails were prepared just for this wonderful party.

With this setting, the audience's expectations ran high, and you could really feel the excitement in the air.

Then, KAWASAKI appeared in the DJ booth. “Tonight is a party! What do you imagine this party to be like? It’s a jungle! For you guys, coming to such a jungle, I’ll present this song!” The audience cheered and laughed as Welcome to the jungle of GUNS N’ ROSES blasted from the speakers.

The live started with a mix session of both BEE-315 and SHAME. The lead vocal was ANIKI, who is the drummer of SHAME. He sang Namida no Kiss of SOUTHERN ALL STARS, which is ANIKI’s favorite song, very enthusiastically. KAWASAKI remarked after his efforts that ANIKI "seemed like a president of a company who sang karaoke in a bar," warming the venue with his humor and creating a unique mood. In the following Nagisa no Sinbad, RIU and KAWASAKI joined as part of the chorus and supported his "president’s karaoke" and the audience, though a little surprised, really enjoyed it.

BEE-315 appeared on stage next, playing the upbeat song MIX-UP. Cheerful fans wearing the band’s wrist bands jumped, raised their fists and yelled out “Oi! Oi! Oi!” The live heated up very quickly! KAWASAKI and RIU took turns singing while RIU played the bass and jumped all over the stage. Sharp speedy drum playing by KENTALOW drove the song powerfully. FREAKY STYLE started with RIU showing off his amazing talent on his bass, and then the melody changed into an upbeat, bright tune. Fans and members called out ”One! Two! Three! Four!” cheerfully and shouted “Oh Yeah!” together. KAWASAKI played a guitar solo in retro style and shouted, “Let’s heat up Shimokitazawa CLUB251 the best among all of the live houses tonight!” The audience yelled “Hey! Hey! Hey!” in response.

The poppy and happy song Message began with a fresh guitar tune. RIU played the bass easily, shook his golden hair and sang pleasantly. The two vocalists’ faces were shining with sweat. KENTALOW, who had cut his hair recently and looked a bit stern, stripped off his shirt and showed off his favorite tattoos on his torso to the audience. In the following Glorious Days, KAWASAKI closed his eyes and sang enthusiastically, with sweat beading and dropping from his face. Here, they introduced the new song Shunkashuutou. This ballad started quietly and felt a little bit sad. We all felt the pain of the main character in the song, who happened to run into an old love at a street crossing and could not come up with the words to tell her his feelings as his heart fluttered with thousands of memories he had of her.

Changing the mood, the band told the audience that their new album Where did they go? would be released on November 7th and they would do their live tour. The fans shouted with joy.

Then, the title song of the album Where did they go?, with its bitter lyrics written by RIU and KENTALOW as a critique of society, started. This upbeat driving song wasn't negative at all, and it was rather filled with positive energy. KENTALOW’s drums were hard and KAWASAKI’s guitar solo was very cool. An even faster upbeat song, Fallin’, revealed the aggressiveness of BEE-315 through sharp, cutting guitar play.

“Everyone! Let’s dance with this song representing the three of us whose blood type are all B!” With this, the band began a funky rock’n’roll monkey dance and fans raised their hands and jumped. When their performance stopped, a chant of their modest expression ”B type is very unpopular” was repeated over and over, with the fans clapping along. “STRIKE-E.P.!” started with a shout from RIU, and fans cheered and jumped rhythmically to the happy melody. The audience continued to sing the song even after it was over. KAWASAKI bent his body and played the guitar wildly and KENTALOW kept hitting the drums sharply. After the drums sounded, RIU started singing never quietly with KAWASAKI’s guitar. ”I never forget” was repeated again and again, then suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by an explosion of guitar and bass, dramatically heating up the ballad.

After their live, KAWASAKI appeared in the DJ booth with his guitar and did an acoustic mini live with SHAME’s vocalist, CUTT. He caught the audience’s heart with the eloquent words he is well known for, being an experienced DJ, and often evoked laughter from the audience, so the venue was wrapped in a happy, warm mood. SHAME did their encore, which progressed into Enter Sandman by METALLICA. The members of BEE-315 joined in with the session and then the live came to a close.

Being only a three piece band made up of guitar, bass, and drums, BEE-315 manages to sing, perform, and play with maximum power. To really enjoy their music, you should go to see their lives. KAWASAKI is a man of humanity, RIU has a gentle, warm heart and KENTALOW has a subtle, sharp wit. The pure, delicate hearts of these three members leave all of their audiences happy. I hope they continue to play the way they do, making people happy and giving people a breath of fresh air with their music.


Set list:

1. MIX-UP
2. FREAKY STYLE
3. Message
4. Glorious Days
5. Shunkashutou
-MC-
6. Where did they go?
7. Fallin'
8. B-SIDE
9. STRIKE-E.P.
10. never