Sel'm Tour Final at Harajuku Astrohall

After having been joined by a fifth member on November 10th, Sel’m have gone on the Enter upon a new phase tour with stops in prefectures all over Japan. The tour final took place in Harajuku Astrohall on January 25th. The live house was full of excited fans and the tension was high, so when, with a minor delay, the lights dimmed and disturbance started playing, the public started clapping straight away.

The members one by one entered the stage, causing some stirring amongst the fans discussing MANJ" and Tora’s changed hairstyles, and they encouraged the crowd to make some more noise. Surprisingly the set kicked off with the bands recently released creature and in contrast to how it was received by the audiences at the beginning of the tour, the visitors in Astrohall shook their fists as one with enthusiasm and the atmosphere in the hall warmed within a few moments. Akatsuki continued the high pace and all of the members urged the audience to move more by raising their arms and leaving only MANJ" drumming away. The audience readily responded with screaming and head banging, following the example of Takuma and Nagi on stage. Tora screamed “Let’s go mad together!” and the unreleased, but familiar to most of the audience due to it's memorable melody, dusty doll followed. As the song finished, MANJ", gleaming with energy, greeted the audience and encouraged their screams. Then, Tora welcomed the crowd to the tour final, asking them to enjoy it with all their might, and the live continued racing with another heavy song: barefaced eye. This is one of the songs that sounds especially different with the new guitar arrangement and, as it took a quieter turn, Tora’s voice sounded especially clean, strong and captivating. To the powerful machinegun drumming of Spiral world the masses clapped their hands and jumped in unison, continuing to enjoy themselves more freely during the lighter, catchy mushi ga naku basho. As the heavier upbeat kumo nochi ame started, Tora hovered over the front rows, playing with the microphone wire and attentively watching the masses go into crazy head banging, and accompanied by rhythmic screams, Nagi and Tsubaki went into a dialogue with their guitar lines.

Following a pause, in which only background music could be heard as the band tuned their instruments, a quieter part of the live started with the recently released ballad saezuri, which allowed the listeners to appreciate the benefits of two guitarists in the new line-up. As Tsubaki performed a lengthy solo, he gave out a real “rockstar” aura. The following song was another quiet one: Tsuioku. It started with a piercing cry from Tora and with a slightly disturbed look he continued singing the song very emotionally, quietly, sometimes almost whispering, but with a certain persevering tension in his voice, leaving behind a strong impression. As if awakening with the quiet introduction leading to heavier, intense guitar riffs, the band went on to Erase the cast and, with fresh enthusiasm, the audience went on to shake their fists and head bang. As MANJ" stood up behind his drum set, firing on the crowd’s screaming with his eccentric facial expressions and gestures, the audience was warmed up to go into one of the band’s oldest songs, the rather slow paced but heavy LAMENT. The new arrangement of which sounded dangerously saturated, not allowing room for any variation without sounding messy. As Tora screamed for the audience to become one with the band, the set continued with the upbeat and fresh roido, in which Takuma’s bass lines sounded almost tangibly intense and moving. Head banging and shaking fists continued for the heavy and dynamic Parasitic root, in which more movement could be seen among the wound up members, who switched places, played facing each other, came forward to interact with the crowd, clapping their hands and smiling at each other, looking like they were having a lot of fun. The final song was the fast-paced and hard Road of judgment, which sent waves of headbanging until the very back of the hall, as the members bounced around the stage energetically, and Nagi called for the audience to scream and shake their fists, no traces of his past shyness left to see. Ending on this positive note and looking satisfied, the band expressed their gratitude and, to loud screams, left the stage, followed by a unison of applause.

Soon they were called back out by loud screams for an encore and as the energetic MANJ" came out, he made the hall clap once again, while other members entered the stage quite calmly. In a rather long talk, Tora thanked the audience for the encore calls and said that after four days of recording, the atmosphere in Astrohall struck him as powerful and enjoyable, and added that he is happy that he is alive, standing on stage as a part of this five-member band and watching the crowd. Leading up to kyoukasuigetsu, he introduced it as a song which allowed him to speak of his worries through singing, which made him feel more alive. The song itself had a captivating, paralyzing atmosphere and left a strong impression on the silent masses, who watched in awe. Following was a new song, which the audience quickly caught the mood of and started head banging, shaking their fists and screaming. Since the heavy tune had a typical Sel’m sound to it, they reacted to it as they would to a song they knew and as MANJ" clapped his drumsticks in the air the crowd readily followed his lead. Clapping continued in shingigan and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as they could. Calling out to the crowd once again before the final song of the encore, Tora went bouncing from one side of the stage to another as the band started playing the upbeat megalomania and made the audience sing along. Finishing the encore the band and the fans united in crazy headbanging. They then thanked the fans, as they stretched their arms towards the stage in an attempt to catch MANJ"’s drumheads, and Sel’m once again left the stage.

First quietly, then more persistently Astrohall called for another encore, and the members came out on stage wearing their band T-shirts. Tora, with a shining face, announced that next they would play a song they weren’t going to play and the positive and bright tenohira no niji started the second encore. It was impressive in it’s perfect balance of instrumental intensity. Following was another round of headbanging with N∞℃. The audience were fired on by all of the members moving around the stage, raising their arms and screaming, as Tora thoughtfully chewed on his microphone wire. The final song of the night DEVASTATION, the first song the band released, and was probably also the most enjoyable song of the live – with choreography that was unusual for Sel'm, jumping, moshing from one side of the hall to the other, and as the masses screamed their voices out, the smiling members interacted with each other and with the audience, seeming to be having lots of fun. Before leaving the stage, the members sat down and each one of them was given a chance to say something to the audience. Nagi, encouraged by loud cheering, thanked the fans for their warmth, Takuma bashfully said that he had a lot of fun, Tsubaki first started playing his guitar, but was quickly “forced” to talk by the drummer, and went on to say how happy he was to have been able to do this oneman and that next time they stand on stage they will be even better. MANJ" jokingly scolded the audience for their cheering too loudly, then said that, while the next live is more than a month away, Sel’m will not rest and instead work in the studio – a new release should come out in spring. Continuing on and on, occasionally teased by Takuma, MANJ", who seemed ready to talk for ever, confessed that he enjoys talking onstage, then thanked the audience, getting ready to leave and, having forgotten that Tora has not had his turn yet, caused an uproar of laughter. Tora finished by telling the audience that when he sees their smiling faces he forgets about all his worries and, once again, the band thanked the crowd. Slowly throwing their picks, drumsticks, drumheads into the crowd the members left the stage, before which MANJ" shouted another “See you” into the microphone, and surprisingly Takuma followed his example shyly.

The tour final at Astrohall showed the tremendous improvement that has happened to the band since the first oneman of the tour, both musically and performance wise. And, if there were any doubts about their change to a five-man band not working in their favour, all of them were blown away by the power the new Sel’m was able to show. The new line-up did not just cause the band to become stronger as a whole, but seems to have influenced each member individually, who did their best and seemed to have moved onto a whole new level. Having successfully entered a new phase, Sel’m are bound to impress us further on with their great shows.


Setlist:

01. Creature
02. akatsuki
03. dusty doll
-MC-
04. barefaced eye
05. Spiral world
06. mushi ga naku basho
07. kumo nochi ame
-BGM-
08. saezuri
09. tsuioku
10. Erase the cast
-MC-
11. lament
12. roido
13. Parasitic root
14. Road of judgment

Encore:
01. kyoukasuigetsu
02. new song
03. shingigan
04. Megalomania

Encore 2:
01. tenohira no niji
02. N∞℃
03. DEVASTATION