MONORAL Live in Fortaleza, Brazil

By 4 p.m on December 6th, MONORAL were already rehearsing and soundchecking ready for their first performance in Brazil. Initially scheduled to start at 6 p.m, the band would be also performing the first concert ever by a Japanese band in Fortaleza in the state of Ceará. The concert took place during the "Anime Master" convention and was the main event of the Saturday night. The anxiously waiting fans were already at the doors of the gym, either enjoying the other events of the con or talking and screaming loudly with hopes that any of the band members were listening to them.

Surprisingly the doors were only opened at 5:40 p.m., and the fans started lining up and filling the gym of the College Marista do Ceará. Without a previous announcement, the band got up on the stage five minutes later to start the concert where they were received with screams and excited applause from the fans. Like you was the first song of the evening and it started with lots of energy; Ali and Anis smiled and clapped their hands, teasing the fans to do the same.

Via was next on the set list, but before it started, Anis told the audience that this was going to be the first time ever they would perform the song live. The vocalist tried to make everybody sing the chorus of the song, and was immediately answered with a lot of people screaming and, of course, trying to sing. Ali smiled a lot for the audience, and they in reply continuously tried to put their hands on his feet and on his bass. It was only the beginning of the night, but the band was already sweating a lot as the weather was extremely hot. Costa Rica followed which gave the concert a lighter and nice ambient atmosphere for a while.

When the first notes of Visions in my head played, everyone from the audience started raising their hands and went crazy. Immediately the concert turned much more wilder and energetic; Anis was leaning onto the front amp and Ali was playing with much passion and teasing everyone in the audience with his facial expressions and gestures. After this song, the audience started continuously cheering for the band to play the song Sparta, which surprised the band a lot. However, the next song, Safira was probably one of the best of the night, and proved to be another one of the fan's favorite songs. Anis pointed his mic time after time towards the crowd during the song, and many of them could actually sing the chorus of the song perfectly which added even more energy and excitement to the concert.

With the lights dimmed a little to create the right mood, Anis announced that he was sure that the next song they would perform was going to be a special one for all the fans in the convention; and then the ergo proxy opening, Kiri started. The compelling melody of the song seemed to have transported the fans to another dimension and some put their hands on the air, while others were just paying attention to the performance and just slowly moved their bodies according to the rhythm. When the song was finished and the lights turned on, there started a translation session with one of the JaME Brazilian members passing on Anis's message to the audience. The vocalist told the audience that they were all very excited making the Japanese band debut in Fortaleza, and that they will probably be back next year for more. Anis's last message was: "Are you ready for more?". And everybody answered with loud shouts and screams. He asked one more time if they were ready for more, before the translation ended and the song "Perfect Gold" started.

This was probably the biggest surprise of the evening, as MONORAL came up with a very powerful, strong performance. The guitarist Akira was kicking and hitting the stage with his feet and shaking his head wildly, surprising everyone that immediately the crowd started cheering for the guitarist. Anis and Ali were also shaking their heads together and then at a certain moment in the song the other guitarist, Hirama Mikio started playing his guitar on his back which made everybody shout and cheer too.

The delirium continued when the band started another fan favourite Pocketful of joy. Following the amazing energy that was coming from the crowd, Anis started shouting the lyrics now and then. He was showing all his devotion to the concert at those moments and he showed he was clearly amused by the excitement of the audience which gave even more intensity to the show.

Everybody in the audience was clapping, shouting, completely drowned by MONORAL's performance, making the vocalist so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. After this song, the crowd's requests for SPARTA were even stronger, and Anis turned to the other members for a few seconds and talked with them a bit. The fans anxiety built up even more before Anis got his megaphone and the band started playing the song Weird kind of swings which was practically unknown by the audience. With its intriguing rhythm Weird kind of swings was able to make everyone excited and it turned out to be one of the best songs of the night; Anis's performance was also memorable during this song, whilst lying on the ground, screaming into the megaphone he took the concert to its peak.

The heavy chords of Casbah followed next, making the crowd jump along with its rhythm. Anis showed his vocal technique to be flawless and the band even more so, as they played the song identically to the CD recording.

Next nearing the end of the concert, You followed. This song was also played for the first time live, and the band performed it wonderfully (even though they were clearly sweating much more than usual) and with much energy the performance didn't let anyone stop. While Anis shouted "Make it alright", Mikio was teasing the audience with his skills and Ali leaned into the audience so everybody could try to reach and touch his bass.

Finally, the most awaited song of the evening started. From the first drums beats of SPARTA everyone was building up into a mad state and people immediately started going wild to enjoy the performance as much as possible. Looking to the audience, Anis sang the lyrics with lots of passion and the fans answered him by shouting back the lyrics and putting their hands in the air, jumping along to the song's rhythm and singing together with the band that once again was drowned by the audience's reaction.

At the end of the concert, the stage lights were turned off and the band left the stage. There were a number of fans shouting for an encore and after some gestures of deception at the end of the concert, the band decided to come back a few minutes later for one last song: Helter Skelter, a Beatles cover. Once again an awesome performance, another one of the best songs of the night. The band seemed to enjoy every second of the music as well as their last few minutes on stage; the band were amusingly playing the cover song as if it was their own composition. The audience, happy for having a couple more minutes of concert, made everything to create the best mood possible, and the band seemed altogether very satisfied with the concert. Then, at the end of the song, the drummer Daigo slammed his drum repeatedly and the guitarists remained playing their guitars until everything stopped and the concert ended. The band thanked everyone, smiling and left the stage a few seconds after.

With this concert in Fortaleza, MONORAL proved to be an extremely professional band easily capable of putting on an amazing and remarkable show. Playing a lot of fan favorites, the band left their mark on the city as well as great memories in the mind of every person that went to the concert; with their flawless performance and members' enormous charisma MONORAL definitely conquered the hearts of everyone that night.


Set list:

1. Like you
2. Via
3. Costa Rica
4. Visions in my head
5. Safira
6. Kiri
7. Perfect Gold
8. Pocketful of joy
9. Weird kind of swings
10. Casbah
11. You
12. Sparta

ENCORE:

1. Helter Skelter