Mix Speaker's,Inc. ~1st Travel [Departure]~ at Ebisu Liquidroom

With an upcoming European Tour in France, Germany and Finland, together with steady new releases, the title of Wonder Travelling seems rather apt for the Mix Speaker's,Inc. as they wander through fantastic imaginative concepts.

The sign at the door said it all. The approaching fans in a lively mixture of lolita and punk clothing were greeted to come 'Wonder Travelling' by the brightly colored sign with cute stars filling the spaces around it. Even the stewards were dressed for the event. Each one wore a black suit with special orange bands around their arms, making a nice change from the usual crew. Inside, meanwhile, the otherworldly theme continued with a darkened stage adorned with blue lights. It was really rather like the night sky and the soft techno music that accompanied the waiting time seemed to add to this space-age atmosphere.

As the stage went dark a small genie character shuffled on to introduce the band and then as a series of strange notes filled the room, Yuki and Miki arrived on stage together. To the accompaniment of Mach Stars Instrumental they led the audience in an energetic dance as the other members were introduced one by one. Aya was first. He stood on the podium for his short pre-recorded introduction and then hopped down to grab his instrument. He was followed by S, in full Robo-chef costume, then Keiji who aimed his toy gun at the audience and finally seek, hobbling on stilts in his dramatic Predator inspired outfit.

The crowd was already bouncing as You Ai Message began and it wasn't long before they were jumping from side to side of the livehouse. Meanwhile, Yuki and Miki chanted the chorus in perfect time, playing off each other's actions. The dual vocals gave that extra air of the dramatic to their performance. This continued with epilepsy inducing lights for Night Busters. Miki held up signs with cute illustrations telling the audience what to do as Yuki performed the actions. seek meanwhile was running all over the stage. He had taken off his mask although his completely blacked out face looked even more frightening. The song alternated between slow and fast to great effect live particularly in a short Spanish guitar interlude for which Aya assumed the podium to lead the clapping. As the fast guitars resumed Miki held up the final, hilarious sign: a cartoon seek was shown shouting while the audience was instructed to 'punch'.

"Are you enjoying it?" Yuki asked when the song came to a close. "It's our first one man tour of our second story and the next stop is... Hoshikuzu Station." With that the towels began whirling with semaphore-like furi to accompany the song. This was followed by a spooky melody as the stage was bathed in a green light. Ominous tones from Aya and Keiji's guitars combined with a synth sound that gave memories of the first monsters story. Yuki and Miki had fluffy fans now to dance with and it was astonishing to see how many in the audience had the exact fans to join in the dancing with. This soon changed into two hand puppets; Miki's the black bird, PaPa and Yuki's the white, DoDo. The pair of them ran around the stage attacking the guitars with their puppets while they sang. It was a fun performance although somewhat of a shame that Yuki's vocals seemed a bit off in the verses. Miki spoke a little to the audience as the band produced even more props, this time for Space Hunters they had small toy guns. seek had changed his bass to an electric double bass that added a deeply sonorous undercurrent to the rowdy guitars.

He continued to use the double bass in Sorairo Parasol. Miki introduced the song with a whisper, "Space is mysterious..." he murmured, "and so so big... it is a very sad place." A low cymbal sound and seek's bass began the slow bluesy tune, with the double bass beautifully resonant as a counterbalance to the sweeter vocals of Yuki and Miki. The rendition was wonderfully passionate with both vocals working perfectly in harmony. My Wish [Horror] X'mas that followed, while slightly more indie rock in tone, was another ballad. Miki and Yuki even sang a portion a capella, their clear vocals soaring over the silence that had descended over Liquidroom.

It created a neat break for the usual Mix Speaker's,Inc. skit that would follow. Miki and Yuki were left on stage to talk a little about their travels in space and to laugh at their ages. Aya, the MSI android or 'SF Purser' emerged from the doors to the right to interrupt their banter. He was carrying a tray with MSI goods to introduce them briefly before getting into a small 'fight' with Fickle Cat, Miki. They decided to play a short punishment game, with Yuki bringing them beer to drink on stage as a race. The crowd clapped and cheered as they did so. Aya lost the race and had to endure the punishment, which involved a giant plastic cleaver and a JAWS impression. Miki and Aya then suddenly fell 'drunk' from their beer, 'argued' a little more and wondered off stage pretending to be drunkards (although this was later revealed to have been real beer!) Meanwhile Yuki was left alone on stage. "Are we going to be ok, Wonder Travelling?" he pondered.

Once Yuki had left, Keiji appeared with his gun. The 'Mecha Police' member had to answer a phonecall. "Yes, this is Jack Bauer." he announced before laughing and apologizing. The message gave him his mission; there was a bomb on board and it was Keiji's job to find it.

The scene changed to S, the Robo Cook, cleaning his kitchen. He cleaned undisturbed for a few minutes until ET Bomb monster, seek, interrupted. "Why have you come here?" asked S naively. seek informed S that he was there to blow him up but could he perhaps have lots of green food first. S fell over while delivering the food, dropping his diary in the process. In a brief moment of unscripted hilarity, S's high pitched voice momentarily fell while reading the diary causing the audience to collapse into laughter. seek sat by the drums while he listened to S's tales, only for the drunks, Aya and Miki to disrupt them. Cheesy music played over the system as they arrived, falling over themselves and berating S for more drink, calling him a 'fat cook' in the process.

Yuki and Keiji then turned up, Keiji discovering seek's plot to blow up the ship. As they were talking a bomb ticking sound could be heard. The characters froze in fear, only for seek to say "moshi moshi... oh sorry that is my cellphone ringtone." It was all rather stupidly hilarious and ended with the gang talking in more philosophical terms that they were indeed far from earth with a long way to go. As Yuki continued to muse on this, the rest of the Mix Speaker's,Inc. grabbed fake bongos and trumpets to resume playing with the fun Robohoho. It was like a party both on stage and in the audience as many girls danced along with little tambourines. Little Star though wound the party down a little with a sweet ballad number.

After a short MC from Yuki and Miki teasing the other members a little, the loud sound of Blue MONS-CAR and then Crash Clover shifted the feeling back to the heavier monsters story rather than the poppier space story. Miki used the giant silver clock around his neck as a driving wheel as he sang and the main growling portions were repeated several times as the audience hurled themselves forwards into one another.

The final song was all too soon called though with the announcement of Junk Story. The dancing seemed extra energetic as seek moved to the centre of the stage to play the prominent basslines of the song. The penlights came out again for the slower moments of monster-style jazz, and then in a flash of hot white and neon light, the headbanging began again throwing the crowd and band into a powerful finish. S had a huge grin on his face throughout the song and as the band said their goodbyes they took rather a long time to leave.

The first encore was not too long in coming. Before Monstime, Miki and Yuki divided the audience into two teams - Yuki team and Team Neko - for 13's JUMP taiketu (JUMP battle). The crowd were then told to follow what their team leader did. This consisted of either Miki or Yuki trying to get their crowd to be as energetic as possible, while the other team gave an exaggerated thumbs down. This was all to the accompaniment of seek roaring "Hey girl, hey boy!" into the mic over and over. Miki disappeared for a moment to retrieve some coloured plastic balls, which he and Yuki threw out to the waiting arms of the audience, with a series of fake throws to frustrate their attempts at catching further. Finally the crowd were exhorted to jump as red and green lights pounded the stage for the introduction to Monstime. Yuki and Miki played small toy guitars that hung around their necks and as they sang, they stole the mic stand from each other before wandering off to bother the other members. Miki in particular walking rings around seek, while the latter played his bass in such a way that it generated a whirring saw sound. Eventually however, seek decided to put down his instrument to simply dance along, almost stage diving in the process.

Mix Speaker's,Inc. finished the night with a repeat of You Ai Message. The announcement a moment earlier that they were going to all see each other again at AX resulted in much joyous shouting from the crowd who seemed to dance with even more spirit during this repeat song. The band on stage reflected this enthusiasm, turning in a performance with one final burst of energy as the guitars followed Yuki and Miki in rushing across the stage. As the live finally drew to a close with the usual instrumental countdown to the jumping off the podium, Aya decided to play a few notes of the nursery rhyme, 'Baa baa black sheep' while the others gradually made their ways off stage.

The first Wonder Travelling had drawn to a close, a rather magical night that showed the class and slick professionalism of a Mix Speaker's,Inc. performance. With the European tour due to kick-off in mid January in addition to the release of the new album in the same month in both Germany and Japan, Shibuya AX certainly won't be the last stop on these new travels.

Set List:

1.Mach Stars Instrumental
2.You Ai Message
3.Pandora
4.Nightbusters

MC

5.Hoshikuzu Station
6.We are Ha-Cha-Me-Cha'z
7.Space Hunters

MC

8.Sorairo Parasol
9.My Wish [Horror] X'mas

Skit

10.Robohohho
11.little star

MC

12.Blue MONS-CAR
13.Crash Clover
14.Junk Story

EN1
15. 13's JUMP taiketu (JUMP battle)
16. Monstime
17. You Ai Message