Hello!Project Winter 2010 Concert Review

Saturday, 9th January 2010 22:11

Matt_D and Lampshade living the life of Maid Cafe's and H!P concerts for the past few weeks (and just generally being in Tokyo, you pair of buggers!), when Liz emailed a few weeks ago saying that she was going to pop along to a concert and that she "dared" me to come along, well who wouldn't be tempted?
The plan was simple, find a cheap flight, fly over for the weekend, not worrying about a hotel and just crashing somewhere. Yes, as ever my planning sucked, but where would the fun be if I plan these things properly, both LA and France were poorly planned by myself and through shear luck more than anything else (well, I have to thank jyuro for planning LA otherwise I'd of spent the trip with a blanket and the same clothes on like that random guy I met whilst out drinking one night) have turned out to be amazingly fun trips.
Popping out to Japan for what would have essentially been a concert isn't something new for me, well at least the attempting to isn't, the actual getting out there has always been my problem. My previous attempt was quickly halted by my girlfriend at the time, who managed to convince me that the idea was just plain silly... looking back on it what did she know?

This time around with no one to stop me (although Chris did attempt to talk some sense in to me) I hunted for flights and actually managed to find an indirect flight with the worlds most obscure airline for £200 minus taxes, but after talking to the travel agent about it I couldn't get in touch with them again through out the Christmas break or even to the run up to New Year, so that was that and I spent New Years getting drunk in Shoreditch with a nice pirate hat on!!
But, that didn't stop Matt, Lampshade and Liz all meeting up at the concert and having a good time, Liz says "damn you Matt and Lampshade" I say "damn you Lizzie, Matt and Lampshade!" ;P
Liz kindly said she'd write up her thoughts of the concert, and here it is. Thanks Liz!! --


The last time I went to an HP concert was in summer of 2008, when I bought a ticket on a whim and was totally put off. I returned to my dorm afterwards, did some research, became a fan, which brings me to my review of the Hello! Project Concert Winter 2010 Mobekimasu concert.

I bought my ticket for the 3:00pm show at the Harajuku store that sells tickets to idol concerts. I got mine for 5000 yen, right in the middle of the theater and a bit to the right. I got to the theater around 1pm since I didn't want to wait on line for the merchandise booth. I got my MO red concert t-shirt and 2 green glow sticks for gakki pride. I met up with Matt and Lampshade at 1:30pm, and became jealous of their awesome seats. (T^T) We entered at 2pm, and I was dumb enough to say I had a camera so it was confiscated... whatever. I changed into my concert shirt, and it began.

1. Bonkyu Bonkyu BOMB GIRL / All
The curtain went up with the girls posing on the stairs. I was immediately struck with how damn sparkly their costumes were! The gold and red were great. Gaki-san has indeed cut her hair in a bob, and she looked so amazing. She has got just terrific stage presence, so I've never understood why Tsunku doesn't favor her more. She got a few solo lines in this song, which was nice.

2. Jingisukan / All
One tiny little egg stood out for me in this song. She's by far the littlest one, so someone help me with her name (--;;;;). The eggs were wearing pink t-shirts and dark blue skirts. One was wearing glasses, I guess she's the token megane-chan lol. The crowd really got into this number. They turned the lights on in the audience for the "WA HA HA HA" parts.

Intro
The intro sucked, it was like a little kid drew it. MM got the loudest cheers with BK in second. S/mileage got a decent sized cheer too, which surprised me since they are brand new. It must be so exciting for them to FINALLY not be eggs any more!

MC
They did a role call of the audience. The second floor was just scattered yelling. Then they asked how the female members of the audience were, and I screamed as loud as I could! There weren't many of us though lol, maybe 20 or so?

3. Sukichan / S/mileage
The costumes were boring black and white, and very short skirts (O__o;;). This group is ADORABLE, every member is cute as a button! Kanon is my favorite, but only because she looks like Kago Ai. Despite this group's super super cuteness, it's srsly like listening to chipmunks singing, painful. I look forward to when their voices drop an octave or two, but until then, I just can't, I can't do it.

4. LOVE&PEACE = Paradise / Mano Erina
She wore a big feathery dress. The guys on either side of me were clearly Mano fans because they went crazy, which meant every time they bumped into me my elbows were covered in sweat. So gross.... S/mileage did her backup dancing, and they were honestly more fun to watch than Mano. I like the song though, and Mano sang live so that was nice.

5. Lucky Aura / Mano Erina
Poor Mano kind of warbled a lot at the beginning, like straight up warbling. She laughed it off though, this is the risk you take by singing live.

MC
This MC was with MM. Makoto congratulated her on doing so well on the tarento shows, and she said she's made 2 or 3 enemies lol! Eri said something to offen Gaki, which was funny.

6. SHOCK / C-ute
This is just like Furusato except Airi is Nacchi and Furusato is actually a good song. I was so annoyed watching this. The costumes were the same as the PV, except more glittery.

7. EVERYDAY Zekkochou!! / C-ute
I can't remember anything about this performance, which is how I feel about the single lol so I'm sensing a trend. I would have LOVED to see them do Bye Bye Bye. The guy behind me kept screaming "BYE BYE BYE ERIKA" whenever it got quiet.

8. Tokaikko Junjou / C-ute
This song was SEXY! Our little girls are growing up (T^T) The wotagei for this song is self explanatory, so I got into it.

9. Otakebi Boy WAO! / Berryz Kobo
They were wearing these horrible pink camo costumes with ginormous head bows. Inexplicably, they also had silver bags in the shape of guns on their hips, I was like, wtf? But their energy was great, and I love me some BK! Everyone looked really great, especially Risa I've got to say. The "OH WA-O-WAAAAA-OOOO"s were fun.

10. HAPPY! Stand Up / Berryz Kobo
This song is so much fun! I loved this, it's one to look out for on the DVD.

11. Rival / Berryz Kobo
Meh rival. The air guitar playing was cute. The audience LOVED the "go go fight"s.

MC - Berryz Kobo
They did a photo attack, with Risa making a cutesy sad face and Chinami making a yakuza face lol.

12. Manopiano / Mano Erina
Omg, what a buzzkill this song was. She looked so pretty in her yellow dress, and it's always nice to see Piano-kun, but damn. It was, I hate to use this word, boring.

13. Otona ni Narutte Katashi / S/mileage (new single)
They changed into really cute black and purple costumes, these I actually liked a lot. Adorable as before, but too high pitched.

14. Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai / Morning Musume
The girls came out in giant white costumes with enormous white bows and hats. From where I was sitting, it looked like they had been splattered in blood (O__O) but it was strategically placed red flowers. Jun Jun looked really really pretty! Lin Lin's hair is darker now. Everyone else is the same I think.
The new single is... okay. I like parts of it, but the dance routine was so-so, everything was just so-so. Typical distribution of lines as far as I remember, since Reina and Ai had a lot of singing parts.

15. Subete wa Ai no Chikara / Morning Musume
I LOVED this. I had never heard the song before, but it's been on repeat for the past few hours on my computer lol. They put dark pink clouds racing past on the screens instead of video of the girls, which contributed to the cool vibe of the song. In the instrumental break, they did a staggered robot motion by lining up on the stairs. You could really hear the bass line in the theater too. It's not the most energetic song, but please look forward to watching this on the DVD, I can't stress enough how much I loved it.

16. Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii jan / Morning Musume
LOVE THIS SONG, the crowd was really into it. I wish they would do more old songs, there's nothing quite like the old discography. I went a bit crazy, this is one of my top MM songs! The energy of the girls was awesome!

17. Kimagure Princess / Morning Musume
I'm not really a fan of this song, but I had fun. That's all I remember. Side note, as I left the theater, a girl in a full Eri Kimagure Princess cosplay walked by, a PERFECT cosplay! Everyone turned their heads as she walked by and were like, "MAJI DE???" So I thought of the Happy 7 Utaban performance lol!

MC - Mano Erina, S/mileage
They talked about their joint tour in a few months, and went down the line to answers some questions. Kanon's got a lot of laughs, she's got Kago's funny side too XD

18. Medley / All
Everyone changed into different costumes. Everyone knew the wotagei for these songs, each got about 30 seconds. Aika stood out for me throughout in this, Risa too.

19. Seishun Song / C-ute
What a fun song! The audience sang along with them.

20. Ryuusei Boy / Berryz Kobo
I went a bit crazy for this song lol! I just love this song. The audience did the dance with them, if that counts as wotagei? Fun fun fun.

21. Souda! We're ALIVE / Morning Musume
I also went crazy for this, I adore this song, great call-response opportunities.

22. Aozora ga Itsumademo Tsuzuku You na Mirai de Are! / All
S/mileage was in lime green sparkly costumes, loved the color. C-ute was orangey, BK was silver, and MM was blue with light blue fabric accents. No encoru, but I left feeling satisfied.

When I went to pick up my camera, I walked through hallways of guys changing their t-shirts. The pale, paunchy skin nearly blinded me, DON'T DO THAT IN PUBLIC GUYS!! bmsvunainlafd....

I had a great time overall. The guys next to me were fine seat mates, although the one to my left spent more of his time reading the wotagei he had written down than actually doing it! I love my t-shirt too (:3) I think that if you go to an HP concert, it's worth investing in going to the front of the theater, because it must feel more "real" if that makes any sense. If I weren't an impoverished student, I would have done that, so damn you Matt and Lampshade, damn you!


TAGS [ Hello!Project Stuff ]
Posted Saturday, 9th January 2010 22:11 | 1367 Reads

Comments

Comment by InsaneLampshade on Sunday, 10th January 2010 03:20
My review (somewhat more condensed than the above, lol):

- New MM song kinda isn't very good.
- New Berryz song is fun (Risako looking hotter than ever).
- New C-ute song is... well... Airi + some backing dancers. Only the Airi fans in the crowd seem to get into it.
- New s/mileage song + chicken dance is also fun. (...also... whoever was adament about saying "It's not pronounced 'smile-idge' at AX... you're wrong :P)
- Mano sometimes fluffs her lines singing live, lol. But she's still great. Ganbatte!
- Medly is awesome.
- Linlin is impossible to get the attention of... even when right at the front.
- Wada Ayaka hates foreigners (she said so in the s/mileage MC yesterday).

Hmm, and that's about it. Without Koha there I settled on cheering for Kitahara Sayaka. Go Noel~

Oh, and the shuffle concert was pretty boring. Sayu really shouldn't be in Zoku Viyuden. :(


Comment by Tsuni on Sunday, 10th January 2010 09:53
Oh that seems like so much fun! Someday, I will attend a concert. Thanks for the post, I always enjoy reading concert reviews!


Comment by Tsuni on Sunday, 10th January 2010 10:07
Dawa actually meant that she's afraid of foreigners.


Comment by jyoru on Monday, 11th January 2010 05:17
Haha, I'm usually pretty laid back but I gotta call you out on this one... "jyuro"? Who the hell is "jyuro"? You did, at least, get my link right, so no hard feelings, Tmo..


Comment by paul.thomas on Monday, 11th January 2010 12:54
Lampshade, I've still here the new MM song, but the description you gave me over MSN has really got me curious about it, didn't you describe as a shoot em up style song? Hmm, well fingers crossed it'll be a song that I'm liking.
The new C-ute song is kinda a dissapointment, what's the point of a unit if you only have one memebr singing? Especially in a concert, really defeats the purpose of seeing them as a group :(
S/mileage... I still haven't got into althoguh everyone does keep telling me how good they are, although I am impressed with their most recent PV, makes you wonder why there's is so good? Big things planned for them?

Tsuni, fingers crossed you'll attend one soon :D Nothing quite like seeing it in person! Yea, what was the whole Dawa bit about? I need to have a little read up on that, maybe she saw Matt and Lampshade and that's what she meant :P

jyoru, hahaha ooops :S you know what my spellings like, I'll sort it :)


Comment by InsaneLampshade on Monday, 11th January 2010 16:35
Most of Dawa's answers to the questions in those MC's were really oddball answers compared to the other girls. My view is that she tried to come up with an oddball funny answer quickly... she's only young, she obviously didn't mean it. People are reading too much into it, lol.


Comment by Arche-JoIyO on Wednesday, 13th January 2010 00:56
Waah you watched Otakebi Boy WAO! live! I'm so jealous! :D I hope the outfits look better in the PV XD


Comment by Matt_D on Wednesday, 13th January 2010 16:22
not just live, but 8 times live.


Comment by jun on Friday, 15th January 2010 16:09
hmmm omg i so cant wait to see this concert iw ant to see it so bad


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Comment by Rad on Wednesday, 28th July 2010 03:31
Hmm. Unless H!P starts using Yokohama Arena again, I'm afraid my trips to Japan are over for now. The theatrical venue is just too small for the kind of power-packed numbers these girls are capable of (Bomb Girl and Ghengis Khan being two of those). And ... no real chance at ever getting on the DVD.

I guess the next best thing is to go over there the first week of January and go to multiple perfs of each concert — rotating between the straight set you attended, and the shuffle set (which was frankly annoying other than an astonishing version of "Honey Pie").

Bring back Yokohama Arena!

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