Ling tosite sigure, Midori and 9mm Parabellum Bullet at Shinkiba Crisis

Ling tosite sigure


By 7pm, Shinkiba Studio Coast was packed with people, waiting impatiently for the event to start. When the first band of the evening, Ling tosite sigure came out on stage, they were greeted with almost deafening cheers. They started their first song, JPOP Xfile, immediately, and the song showed off the typical fast pace and almost unreal sound of the band. Guitarist/vocalist TK alternates his singing with unbelievably high-pitched falsetto passages, and is only surpassed by female bassist/vocalist 345, whose falsetto screams reach even higher. For telecastic fake show, the lights followed the rhythm in the song, blue for the slower parts and passionate red for the faster chorus, creating a strong impression for the watching audience.

After a short break they started again at a slightly slower pace, but the audience seemed just as active. Though the real action started with the song DISCO FLIGHT, where the heavy, infectious beat got the whole crowd jumping. Both TK and 345 pushed their voices to the extreme with their falsetto screaming, and sometimes it was near impossible to hear which of them was actually singing. After a solemn finish where only 345's voice and drums could be heard, the band took yet another short break.

The slow-paced Illusion is mine with its odd duet was probably the most impressive song on the setlist. It started with 345 singing by herself, with a reverb effect on her voice that gave the song an ethereal feeling. A little way into the song TK joined, singing in a lower pitch, but by the time the song ended they had switched parts, so that TK was singing the higher-pitch parts and 345 the lower-pitch parts.

After this the drummer and spokesman of the band Pierre Nakano stood up and talked to the audience, his clever jokes putting the crowd in a good mood. He also managed to steal himself a short drum solo before the next song. Nakano kill you had a much stronger rock feeling, and the people in the audience were jumping, dancing and crowd surfing like crazy. The last song, Kankaku UFO followed directly, starting slowly and quietly, gaining more and more speed until it eventually finished with an insanely fast guitar riff. Ling tosite sigure then left the stage without a word, and a resounding applause followed them.


Midori


During the long soundcheck between the bands, Ling tosite sigure fans went to the back and left the front rows for the fans of Midori. At last, a march-like music started playing, and the audience erupted in cheers. Although the cheeky Osaka band had chosen to enter the stage to the anthem of Osakan baseball team, the Han-Shin Tigers, the Tokyoites in Shinkiba Studio Coast happily clapped their hands to the beat. Singer Mariko, barefoot and dressed in school uniform, greeted the audience with an angry scream in the microphone before the first song, Anta wa dareya started.

The four band members of Midori were placed in quite a different way to the usual rock band, with the drummer and keyboardist facing each other at the front of the stage with the vocalist between them, and the bassist (playing an upright bass) behind the vocalist. This gave the feeling of a jazz quartet, which actually fits Midori quite well, since if anyone would venture to describe their style, it would likely be something like "jazz punk". The first songs had a truly infectious rhythm, and while Mariko did not sing beautifully, there was a true punk attitude in her voice. As she was singing she ran around on stage, jumped onto the drumset and looked positively crazy. For Uwasa no anoko, Mariko played the guitar as well, but that did not seem to stop her from jumping around.

Yukikosan showed a less jazzy, more pure rock side of the band, and here also keyboardist Hajime got to sing a part. After a short break Mariko chatted a little, and although she was both ironic and rude, the audience clearly loved her and she received a loud applause. She introduced the next song Speedbeat as their fastest song, but of course the song turned out to be a slow ballad. When singing, Mariko somehow manages to get her voice to sound exactly like a sulky child, and her behaviour and clothes brought this impression to perfection.

After a few faster paced, catchy and jazzy tunes, the singer threw herself out in the crowd, to their obvious delight. After crawling back up on stage again, she started singing what would be the last song of the set, POP, a very different song that seemed almost like a nursery rhyme, although with much more serious lyrics. When the song was over, Mariko shouted "thank you" in to the microphone with mock anger and stomped out, followed by the rest of the band and a resounding applause from the crowd.



9mm Parabellum Bullet


At ten past nine, the dark stage was illuminated with a red light and 9mm Parabellum Bullet entered the stage to a heavy rock background soundtrack. "Kyuu-miri", as they are called by their fans, were obviously eagerly awaited, since the whole crowd started jumping from the start of the first song, the fast-paced Psychopolis. As soon as the first tones of the second song, Caucasus, were heard, the audience started clapping their hands to the beat. The atmosphere was quite different from the previous bands, 9mm Parabellum Bullet having a more straight-forward rock style, with fast beats and clear melodious vocals together with heavy and somewhat noisy instrumental parts.

The fourth song, Elevator ni notte, was especially catchy, making it almost hard to stay still, and the people in the crowd were certainly dancing along happily. Vocalist/guitarist Sugawara Takuro then greeted the audience and asked everybody to join him on a train ride, thus introducing Tsugi no eki made ("To the next station"), that turned out to be a little slower, funkier song with a nice groove. Bassist Nakamura Kazuhiko changed to an upright bass, which gave an almost jazzy feeling to the next song. The crowd clearly enjoyed the catchy rhythm, and some happily moshed around while others tried crowdsurfing.

Sugawara Takuro tried to talk a little more in the break, but guitarist Taki Yoshimitsu disturbed him with a private little jam session that caused everyone to laugh. He did however manage to say that the idea for this event was born on a pub night when he and the keyboardist of Midori had been drinking together. The next song, Termination, was a lot heavier, and in some parts where there was an echo effect on the vocals; the audience sang the echo part, creating a nice interaction between the vocalist and the crowd.

The following two songs were both fast-paced and noisy, with an almost punk-rock feeling to them, with marvelous having a particularly melodious vocal line. The crowd jumped around and danced, and on stage, Taki Yoshimitsu left his guitar behind for a short moment to run along the front edge of the stage in a silly stunt, spurring the audience on even more. The hard beat and screaming vocals of the last song, sector was a perfect finish that drove the crowd completely crazy. As the set came to an end, 9mm Parabellum Bullet thanked their fans, bowed and left the stage, and with that Shinkiba Crisis came to a close.



Setlist:
Ling tosite sigure
01. JPOP Xfile
02. Telecastic fake show
03. I was music
04. Souzou no Security
05. DISCO FLIGHT
06. illusion is mine
07. nakano kill you
08. Kankaku UFO

Midori
01. Anta wa dareya
02. Uwasa no ano ko
03. Yukikosan
04. Speedbeat
05. Sayonara, Perfect World.
06. Ezoshika Dance!!
07. Donzoko
08. POP

9mm Parabellum Bullet
1. Psychopolis
2. Caucasus
3. Discommunication
4. Elevator ni notte
5. Tsugi no eki made
6. Candle no hi o
7. Termination
8. Black Market Blues
9. marvelous
10. sector