Jully x heidi. Coupling Tour

The evening was opened by Ruvie. Despite a minor technical hitch near the start, courtesy of a skipping CD, Ruvie's performance was great. The smoother vocals and tighter melodies warmed up the crowd neatly for the show ahead. A short break led into a short set from 176BIZ giving the crowd the second fine performance of the evening. 176BIZ received an energetic response from the audience as they played through their heavy, happy songs.

Just before Jully, 12012 made an appearance - a rather pleasant surprise for the unsuspecting. They raised the standard of the evening yet further spurring the audience into frenzied dancing and provided a somewhat hard act to follow!

Finally it was time for the two headliners, each playing 45 minute long sets. Jully was first; as the SE introductory music played as they arrived on a stage lit with simple purple lights in their indie-kid cardigan based attire. The first song, Chittaaza, was greeted by a curiously inactive crowd it seemed, although blaring white lights during the chorus revealed headbanging girls flinging their dyed blonde hair around at the front. Komorebi followed, kicking off with a funky 60's style guitar riff. The band themselves became more active, particularly the guitarist Ryota who looked like he was having a lot of fun with this catchy number. Jully has a better sound live than on CD and it was clearly demonstrated in the ballad, Strobo. The acoustic effects to the guitar in the introduction were beautiful and Jully played it well with highly accomplished melodies and a neat solo from their very skilled guitarist.

Strobo was followed by an MC to wish a loud Happy New Year to the audience who responded with much cheering. The vocalist then proceeded to announce a new single in March for which everyone applauded. He next began a small round of getting the audience to yell 'hey' while punching the air began as the next song was introduced. A heavy bass line and funky drum beat introduction from Yujiro and Tsuyoshi built up into the super heavy Akainu. The stage was bathed in red lights as the band thundered through a melee of sounds including some interesting digitalized vocal effects that sounded great live. It was a fun song with many hands from the audience grabbing the air and then, to a yell of 'Atama!!!' the crowd began to fling their manes of hair forward and the live into a fresh burst of life.

Warau yami, which followed, was another heavy song with highly infectious drums. The crowd danced along energetically and again at the request of vocalist Shinichirou, there was much active head movement. With it's 50's jazzy sound, Kyousokyoku took the live into another direction and encouraged much enthusiastic furi dancing from the crowd. Shinichirou made hand movements from side to side, encouraging everyone to follow him so that all of Liquidroom was filled with bodies gently bobbing from side to side. He continued his interaction with the crowd during Bansan leading the crowd in clapping during the drawn out introduction featuring an irresistibly catchy bass line from Yujiro.

Too soon Jully's set came to an end and the final song, Shabondama, was announced. It was an excellent finale from Jully who played energetically although Shinichirou did seem a little amused at the reactions of some of the girls. Despite that, he dragged his bassist and guitarist near him for a bit of a group hug as their section came to a close.

Despite a somewhat muted start, Jully proved through their sheer abilities and catchy melodies that they are an act to be watched - catchy melodies that grabbed the crowd into much fun furitsuke dancing.

A break followed while the stage was set up for heidi.. Twenty minutes later, the lights went down for the final band of the evening. heidi. entered one by one to a thudding repeated SE of Kaso and cheers from the crowd. Like Jully, their first song, Parade, was a fairly muted affair and it wasn't until the jazz beat of Yuuyake to Kodomo began that the crowd started once again with enthusiastic hand movements along to the music. Yuuyake to kodomo was swiftly followed by Utakata accompanied by bright flashes of lights on the stage and some awesome guitar solos from Nao. As Yoshihiko shouted 'jump', the audience obliged happily, jumping around along with the band and joined in with the calls during the chorus lines.

The ensuing mid-tempo balladic Hoshi no koe brought a brief respite as the atmosphere became subdued with a stage lit softly in blue lights and an inactive crowd. It was a rather beautiful rendition of the song; Yoshihiko sang with much passion and the jazz melody with complex guitar riffs lent the song an almost Merry feel at points. The moment of calm passed quickly as the pop-rock styling of Hyururi animated the crowd once more. It was performed with all the panache deserved of a single and Yoshihiko's vocals were particularly beautiful.

An MC followed. Once again a joyful Happy New Year was wished along with the announcement of a new single and a one-man concert. It was only a very short MC and closed with the announcement that their next song would be the new single.
Rem was an interesting song including some quick rap/sung pieces. It showed off the vocal talents of Yoshihiko well and contained one particularly cool guitar solo from Nao at a high pitch. They continued straight into Sentimental. Yoshihiko yelled 'tobe!', asking the crowd to jump- a request so enthusiastically responded to that the crowd near the front became a turbulent sea of moving hair. heidi. played well to the energy in the room and at a few points asked the crowd to sing the chorus back at them.

Maria supplied the heaviest song of the evening although it still contained the unique funky beat that heidi. give to their music and this in particular was accompanied by a thick bass line solo from Kousuke in the middle. Then it was announced that Sinkro would be their final song. The lights momentarily failed during the song, not that it bothered anyone though as the re-illuminated stage revealed hundreds of hands dancing in the air. heidi., like Jully before them, played their finale song with passion and panache - the sign of two highly accomplished live bands.

heidi.'s departure was not accepted easily as calls for an encore rang out. Since Jully did not have one it was a wonder as to whether there would indeed be an encore. A few minutes later though heidi. re-emerged heeding the calls. They bowed out finally with Hakuchuumu, a song with a vibrant and catchy melody. The room danced along happily as one as the quartet continued to play with such accomplished style.

heidi. played exceptionally well, infecting everyone in attendance with their catchy musical style. Both heidi. and Jully provided an excellent evening of music at Liquidroom that night exceeding that high bar that 12012 had set before them proving both themselves to be two indies bands that are definitely worth catching.


Set list:

Jully

1.SE
2.Chittaaza
3.Komorebi
4.Strobo
5.MC
6.Akainu
7.Warau Yami
8.Kyosokyoku
9.Bansan
10.Shabondama

heidi.

1.SE (Kaso)
2.Yuuyake to Kodomo
3.Utakata
4.Hoshi no koe
5.Hyururi
6.MC
7.Rem
8.Sentimental
9.Maria
10.Sinkro

EN: Hakuchuumu