Live Report of Billy in Nagoya

On the early evening of Saturday, October 18th, fans gathered outside Nagoya’s tiny live house ell.SIZE to see the visual kei band Billy. The crowd was a mixture of different people, from people dressed in a visual style to lolitas. Once inside the venue, it was clear that the venue had a capacity of about 100 people and that this was going to be a very intimate show. A black screen covered the front of the stage to hide what was going on behind it, and this was only removed a few moments before the band came onstage.

Needless to say, the small crowd of dedicated fans became very excited as the screen dropped and they were exposed to a show of electronic, almost industrial, noise coupled with sound effects and flashing lights. The audience clapped rhythmically as the band took to the stage one by one. First on the scene was drummer Hiroshi, who waved enthusiastically at the crowd before retreating behind his drums. He was quickly followed by Tsubuku (bass), Takuma (guitar), Mi-ne (guitar) and, finally, BAKU (vocals).

After the energetic introduction, the band kicked off the set with Rockin’ Princess, which definitely got a positive reaction from the crowd. Throughout the song, the band was almost flirting with the crowd by winking and sticking their tongues out. About halfway through the song, BAKU passed the tambourine he was using to a member of audience but, luckily, he managed to recover it before the end of the set.

For the start of Another Seisyun-Jidai, bassist Tsubuku took to the front of the stage and, standing on a box which would be used many times throughout the set, encouraged the crowd to clap. After that, each member took turns interacting with the crowd: Takuma choose to the blow a kiss and Mi-ne gave a cocky yet light-hearted strut. During the song’s solo, both guitarists crouched on the floor back-to-back while performing and somehow managed to do it without faltering. This song was clearly a crowd favourite, as their choreographed moves were livelier than ever.

Before the start of Casablanca, BAKU disappeared from the stage and reappeared a few moments later with a white flag which had the emblem from their most recent album Bright on it. This acted as a prop during the song, though BAKU swayed in time to the rest of the band slightly too enthusiastically, which resulted in him knocking the bassist with the flag.

The band played their new single, Rebecca, after an energetic performance of Lagrange Point and a short MC from the band. The song signaled a change of pace for the show, with Takuma playing acoustic guitar and BAKU giving the most emotional vocal performance of the set so far. Without stopping for breath, the band went from this emotional song to the light-hearted [bit;] Ame ni setsuzokusareta sekai. Throughout the song, BAKU encouraged the crowd to join in with some hand movements.

Oni-Azami kicked off with a tribal drum beat that was eventually joined by an ethereal vocal performance. The mysterious sound and calmness continued throughout. The band powered into the next song, Shiitageshi aoki kemono, which saw the vocalist standing on the box and leaning into the crowd to sing. The song has an almost speed metal-esque chorus when performed live and was accompanied by strobe lights, meaning all that could be seen was the united head banging of the crowd during the moments when there was light.

After performing Ayame, the band took the opportunity to perform a ballad in the form of Blame All. The band stood stationary for most of the song, allowing the powerful vocals to carry the performance. During their performance of [Waga Tousou] Show, the flag was brought back onto the stage and the band did their best to interact with the crowd; Mi-ne even took this opportunity to enter the crowd to play during parts of the song, and he was followed by Takuma, who remained at crowd level for just a few seconds.

As the main set came to a close, the band performed Mother Goose, which was immediately followed by Butterfly United. The song was accompanied by a mass of flashing lights, and both guitarists took to the back of the stage for the majority of the song, only coming forward to perform a solo and bring the song to a dramatic close.

It was followed by a live favourite: The Bluffer. The song was met with a good reaction from the crowd as they bounced from side to side with the band. The band then took the opportunity to thank the crowd one by one, though Tsubuku acted as a distraction by playing the "Super Mario" video game theme in the background. The main set ended with Rose Helicopter, during which the band encouraged the crowd to wave their band towels over their heads to the music. At the end of the song, the band came to the front of the stage once more to thank the Nagoya crowd before leaving the stage.

Before the band had even left the stage, the anxious crowd was already screaming for an encore, and Billy obliged. The band returned to the stage after a few minutes sporting tour shirts, and BAKU quickly got to work working the crowd up into a frenzy.

The first encore kicked off with Shounen [B] Out. BAKU leaned down to crowd level to sing the song whilst the guitarists swapped positions on the stage to interact with the audience as much as possible. During a slower section of the song, the guitarists gathered at the center of the stage and sat back to back to perform with BAKU standing over them.

The band then took the opportunity to show their lighter side by giving a short MC, where they joked with each other on stage and shared some tour anecdotes with the audience before continuing with the set.

Hikari no Gunman started with the vocalist performing alone before the song built up to a somewhat lively point. The band and the audience slid from side to side together energetically, and both the band and the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves. The first encore finished with a ballad; Takuma played the acoustic guitar and the audience clapped along with the other members of the band.

The band returned to the stage to perform one more song: Blossom. Before the last song, the band took turns to speak to the audience and thanked them once again for coming to see the show. During the song, the band encouraged the audience to sing the chorus (as well as giving one unsuspecting roadie a chance to sing!). To bring the set to a close, the band thanked the crowd again, encouraged everyone to hold hands and bent down at the front of the stage to take a picture with the audience behind them.


Set List

01. Rockin' Princess
02. Another Seisyun-Jidai
03. Casablanca
04. Lagrange Point
05. Rebecca
06. [bit;] Ame ni setsuzokusareta sekai
07. Oni-Azami
08. Shiitageshi aoki kemono
09. Ayame
10. Blame All
11. Tuesday ~ Kaibutsu wa koufuku ni michita~
12. [Waga Tousou] show
13. Mother Goose
14. Butterfly United
15. The Bluffer
16. Rose Helicopter

Encore 1
01. Shonen[B]Out
02. Hikari no Gunman
03. Ichigoichie

Encore 2
01. Blossom