Tamurapan, the solo project of female pop/rock singer-songwriter
Ayumi Tamura, played her last one-man live of 2008 on December 15 at the Shibuya O-WEST in Tokyo. The O-WEST venue has a capacity of around 600 people and even though the concert wasn’t sold out completely, the live house was packed with people and especially nearer to the stage, it was very crammed. The audience was varied, different sorts of looks and fashion were seen on the concert go-ers, and they seemed to be of different age categories as well. The majority of the fans, and especially the ones in front of the stage, were male.
The show started exactly on time, the lights went out and big searchlights moved over the closed curtain. Some rather old fashioned music was playing at the background, invoking images of a theatre or a circus. While the curtain was still sliding open,
Tamurapan and her band already started to play the upbeat, rocky song
Chirigiwa no aji.
Tamurapan was dressed in a way that seemed typically
Tamurapan: a little eccentric with a white top which had a fur collar, grey, striped shorts over tight, blue trousers and pink sneakers. She also wore a big, pink flower in her copper-colored hair. Her band consisted of four men who were all quite casually dressed in jeans and shirts. The bassist stood on her left side at the front of the stage, the guitarist at her right side and the drummer and electric piano player were both at the back of the stage.
After
Omae buta dana ~okuranu tegami~, another upbeat, merry sounding song, she introduced herself and thanked everyone, and they launched into the next song:
Nobody knows.
Tamurapan began the song by herself, singing a cappella and her youthful voice sounded amazing as it filled the concert hall, hitting the highest notes with ease. It was one of the slower songs, and she swayed along to the moderately-paced beat. The fans followed her example, or were just nodding their heads to the music and a few fans were even quietly singing along.
The tempo picked up again with
Heyyomeiyo, one of her first singles.
Tamurapan sang passionately, the song building up from the rather laid back verses to a faster chorus in which also the guitarist started to dance along to the pounding beat, showing that he was having a good time as well. During
Hollywood, the fans clapped along rhythmically to the groovy rock’n’roll beat, and even lifting their hands up into the air to give one sudden clap at
Tamurapan’s instruction. She laughed cheerfully as the fans followed her, almost surprised that they responded to her so easily. During the bridge, the pianist and guitarist played some solos and almost created a small battle as they alternated their solos.
This merry mood continued with
Semenai Day, which was played a tad faster and rockier than the original version. The choruses sounded cheerful, and at some point, a few male members in the audience started to carry out some movements with their arms, almost like the furitsuke that is seen at visual kei concerts.
Then, all the band members, including
Tamurapan herself, left the stage. She was back within a few seconds, pushing a cart with a hard disc recorder on it to the front of the stage. She chatted merrily with the audience while she plugged it in, the fans looking at her amusedly. With a 'start!' she pressed a button on the hard disc recorder and sounds of a train were heard, and then the song
Sonna kotonara Kawasaki ni iko started. The song was also very cute and cheerful sounding, at some points even a little childish but no one seemed to mind that and enjoyed being part of
Tamurapan’s merry little world which she presented with so much enthusiasm. During the song, she called out to the audience and had them respond to her. The response she received was big, everyone eagerly calling out and waving their hands along to the beat.
She continued her MC as the song had ended, and two stagehands brought an electric piano on stage which they installed.
Tamurapan took out two hand puppets, introducing one of them as "Keith" and the other as "Momo", which made it clear that the song
Keith to Momo would be next. She laid the dolls on her piano carefully as started the hard disc recorder again, which started playing a gentle, electronic beat and she soon joined it on piano. Unlike the previous songs,
Keith to Momo sounded small and sad, and the audience was mostly silent as they listened to the beautiful, tender piece. The instrumental bridge of the song was held gentle as well, none of
Tamurapan’s brilliant piano-skills were shown but yet it matched the mellow, sorrowful mood perfectly.
Her excellent piano playing was shown with the next song though,
Kaitenmokuba. Featuring only piano and
Tamurapan’s vocals, it was a beautiful, breathtaking song. During the chorus, the atmosphere of the song built up and the combination of the simple arrangement and her pure, high-pitched vocals was enough to have shivers run down one’s spine. While singing, the played the piano excellently, finally displaying her piano skills to the audience who listened silently, enthralled by the music.
During the next MC, the band members returned on stage and they continued with the catchy songs
A Million, Buttabasu zo, Heaven and
Flow hello, all of them having this feel-good vibe that can be found in many of
Tamurapan’s songs. Both the band and the audience were moving along to the beat and
Tamurapan’s happy, smiling, face clearly showed that she was definitely enjoying the show as well. After the groovy and optimistic
Flow hello,
Tamurapan and her band thanked the audience, and left the stage.
Within no time, they were back again, ready to play three more songs.
Tamurapan held another MC and then they launched into
Halation, one of her newest singles. Before the following song,
Charinko (meaning "bicycle"), she first explained the background story of the song: how she had cycled past her old school and thought about her old friends and how she wanted to meet them again, but didn’t feel quite ready for it. The song started with her vocals accompanied by piano only, and then the rest of the band kicked in.
She announced then that the next song
Zero would really be the last song of the concert. She told the fans that even though it was her newest single that came out recently, she had already written it a long time ago. Starting with a quirky, characteristic intro on piano, she started the song with a pretty mellow verse which then built up to a merry chorus. Again, all the fans were enthusiastically waving their arms along, even some of them waving some plushies around. Then, the song really came to an end, and while the band was still jamming some, drawing out the last part, she quickly introduced the four band members. The audience applauded and cheered loudly, and she thanked everyone before leaving the stage once again.
The concert had been wonderful, and somewhat dazed the people made their way to the exit, and went from
Tamurapan’s chipper, cozy little world back into the chilly Tokyo evening. At the merchandise, the fans were presented with a poster of
Tamurapan, as a souvenir from a fantastic concert.
If you are interested in finding out more about
Tamurapan and her music, please check out her
MySpace profile.
Set list:
01 Chirigiwa no aji
02 Omae buta dana ~okuranu tegami~
03 Dondake matsunoyo
04 Nobody knows
05 Heyyomeiyo
06 Hollywood
07 Semenai Day
08 Sonna kotonara Kawasaki ni iko
09 Keith to Momo
10 Kaitenmokuba
11 A million
12 Buttobasu zo
13 Heaven
14 Flow hello
----EN-----
15 Halation
16 Charinko
17 ZERO
JaME would like to thank Tamurapan, her management and Nozomi Daikuhara.
