May 21st at Akasaka Blitz.
Miyavi, the man, the legend, the guitar. It's been 15 years since he said farewell to Dué le Quartz and started his solo career; and what a journey it's been! From extreme Visual Kei to a mellow version, back to crazy visual and now, a full blown hippie, happily married, father of 2 girls and pursuer of world peace.
The concert started with special guests, THE ORAL CIGARETTES. Teaching us to never judge a band by its name, these poorly named boys gave a great show! About 30-40% of the audience came to see them specifically and were given a great (albeit short) performance. The singer was all smiles and charm as he sang their greatest hits. They even snuck in a new song! After a 30min jam packed set, I have to say, I wouldn't mind seeing a one-man show by them!
They left the stage and the crowd switched. Miyavi fans at the front, ORAL fans at the back.
While the staff was setting up the stage, an announcement reminded everyone to download a special app. You'll be able to enhance your experience of the show! They claimed. Unfortunately the app was pretty heavy (65mb to download without WiFi?) And the reception in the venue was terrible, so many people weren't able to use it.
Instead of a big opening video, the “Miyavi through the years!” video was shown through the app and ended with a message from Miyavi. He then went on stage and immediately started rocking out.
At first it felt like the 4 separate microphones on stage will be used exclusively for Miyavi to scream “TOKYO!!!!” in them rather than actually singing, but about 4 songs in, he started using them for their intended purpose. The first song with actual lyrics was Afraid to Be Cool although he didn't really sing many of them. The newest addition to Miyavi’s band, Johnny the DJ makes it so that every song has a serious dance beat to it, which is good for concerts, less so for albums.
There was no clear M.C section as Miyavi spoke sporadically throughout, occasionally shedding more light on a certain song choice or personal life event (such as his eldest daughter declaring she was a boy inside and chopping off her hair). Miyavi’s reason for being is love and acceptance, so it seemed important to him to share that story.
He then performed a new song, written by Melody, his wife. It was quite beautiful, seeing him pour his heart out playing the song while Melody’s voice played in the background.
After that, it was time to get everyone crazy with Fire Bird. He then spoke again, reminding everyone that we are all the same and played THE OTHERS. He quickly followed that with Cry Like This. A beautiful song that's both depressing and inspiring.
From there he moved on and played Day 1 and Horizon back to back which hot everyone jumping and singing along. Truly great concert songs.
To the surprise of everyone, Miyavi then let everyone know that the next song would be the last. He mentioned he wrote this song during one of his UNHCR trips to Lebanon. The song was the stunning Long Nights. Everyone sang along, Miyavi gave his all to it and left the stage.
Not even 3 minutes passed and Miyavi was back on stage. He showed off his new guitar (which you can buy for the lovely sum of 670,000yen) and played the theme from Mission Impossible he covered for the latest Mission Impossible movie. He then sang, 素晴らしいかな，この世界ーwhat a wonderful worldー, the oldest song on the set list, from his Kavki Boys days.
Finally, he invited The Oral Cigarettes back on stage and they sang What's My Name? Together. Miyavi and Shigenobu Suzuki, The Oral Cigarettes’ lead guitar, had a guitar-off which was cool but then Takuya Yamanaka, The Oral Cigarettes’ vocalist, felt left out so he went to sing and hang out with DJ Johnny.
The song ended, everyone bowed and thanked everyone else and left the stage.
Miyavi is special. He doesn’t like to do what other artists do, so even though this is a 15th anniversary tour, he had to make it different. 15 concerts in Tokyo alone, each one with a special guest (or two). Instead of a set list made up of big hits through his career, he stuck to the new material (the oldest song was from 2007). Even his newest compilation album (Day 2) has nothing but New!Miyavi songs (unless you buy the 2CD version in which case you get some old songs. But that second CD isn’t available on Spotify).
As a fan of Miyavi since his Girls Be Ambitious days, it’s bittersweet. I want to hear the old songs, but I understand why he won’t sing them. He’s in a completely different place in his life. Those songs don’t mean anything to him anymore, and when Miyavi performs a song, he PERFORMS it to death. He puts his all into it. That’s harder to do when you no longer feel those past songs.
The Oral Cigarettes Set List:
- Mist…
- Shala la
- 5150
- エンドロール
- ONE’S AGAIN (new song)
- カンタンナコト
- CATCH ME
- 狂乱 Hey Kids!!
Miyavi Set List:
- Raise Me Up
- GANRYU
- Dim it
- Afraid to Be Cool
- Live to Die Another Day
- Where Home is (new song)
- Fire Bird
- THE OTHERS
- Cry Like This
- Day 1
- Horizon
- Long Nights
EN2 素晴らしいかな、この世界 -WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD-
EN3 WHAT’S MY NAME (Day 2 Mix)
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