I apologize everyone for not making the gig report yet tho I promised so. I've been ill for a week now so it's not that I haven't had time to do it but somehow I find it very difficult to write about, dunno why.

Anyway, here's a little review I found from the magazine JapanPop (issue 07-2009) if someone's interested. I translated it the best I could but once again I had to put some of the sentences totally upside down before I could make them into english so I'm sorry if there are some spots that don't sound very fluent. If there are big mistakes or misunderstandings please let me know, k?




Neo Tokyo Samurai Black World Tour
Miyavi in Tampere 22.9.2009

A long line of fans waited for Miyavi's gig in Tampere for hours in a rainy weather. The artist rewarded all the waiting with an elegant show, where you mostly got to hear new arrangements of his old songs. Miyavi and the others had simple and black clothing and the whole show as well was visually plain compared to last year's This Is The Japanese Kabuki Rock -tour.

Making the world a better place and music at the same
The gig's setlist contained old songs as well as newer songs - thought almost every song had a new arrangement. Some of the songs were modified so much that it made it very difficult to recognize the song because of its new arrangement. I even had to listen to my favourite song, Ame ni Utaeba, for quite sometime before I recognized its melody.

The arrangements had a strong jazz-feeling in them and at times when watching the hypnotically swaying misty blue humansea, the atmosphere was exactly the same as in a gloomy jazz-club. The setlist contained among other things Miyavi's new song SuperHero and the old favourite Are you ready to ROCK? My own favourite was the redition for Please, Please, Please.

When the night passed on, Miyavi had notable long speeches during the gig. Sometimes when the man was speaking of his efforts towards his own goals and how life is brittle and precious and how humans are just creatures among others it started to feel like you were listening a maxim seminar seasoned with music. Let's allow the fresh dad to have reformer speeches like these for now but people came here for music after all.

Guitar skilling and enthusiastic fans
Once again I got to witness that Miyavi is at his best when holding a guitar. We didn't get to see guitar skilling as much as in Tavastia last year but that man sure managed to impress with his skills once again. Miyavi for example lifted his guitar behind his head and played it from there.

The crowd was enthusiastic and was actively present during the whole gig. All the products were sold out till the samples. One thing in the audience's behaviour did give something to complain about though. Regardless of the prohibition, the gig was diligently filmed with cellphones. When does the finnish audience learn to respect the artists so that they will obey the photographing prohibition? People come to gigs to experience the music in live, don't they? Not to record a low quality video to the detriment of focusing on living in the moment.

Anyway the gig did leave a positive feeling in heart, Miyavi ended the gig in make-the-world-better-place atmosphere and asked everyone to hold the hand of the person next to you during We Love You ~sekai wa kimi wo aishiteru~.

***


In my opinion they're making the cellphone filming thing a bit too big deal. I mean yeah it is disrespectful and I too was full of rage when I saw some people were filming, I don't deny it but I saw only about 5 cellphones and this article gives the picture that everyone was filming there.

Thanks for sharing this and for taking the time to translate it ^^ Nau I wanna read your personal opinion! *flying monkey attack* XD

Don´t take the camera "scolding" to heart, I bet all the gigs were more or less the same.
In Budapest there were lots of people filming with their phones. I didn´t notice so many in Barcelona this year (even though, I heard one or two people were throw out because of this issue, maybe it´s just a gossip), but last year it was a camera-festival ^^;
Personally, I just think that, if the artist himself asks you:"Pliz, don´t do it" you should respect his request. Of course, in legal terms, you hypothetically has the right to film the event as a "personal copy" for your very own use (wich means, not distribute and stuff, so the economical rights of the artist/company won´t be damaged... sadly, everything revolves around money), but since the rules you have to acept when buying your ticket don´t allow you to enter to the concert place carrying cameras, you risk yourself to be kicked out if you do (or if they catch u recording with your phone).
Mmm... dunno, I watched some fanvideos in youtube and usually the quality sucks, so I can´t say that take the plunge and annoy the artist it´s worth of it :/ but of course people will keep on doing it if they feel like it, coz concert halls can´t ban phones inside the venues.

Thanks so much Katskuu, and now worries about not posting, doing everything at our own pace is our style right?
The translation is very good by the way! It sounded like it was already in English, very good choice of words as well!

( I'll post it on our Myspace too, it's ok right?)


However I really have to say this, I don't know who wrote the review but I really didn't like his/ her attitude much. The descrpition of the atmosphere is pretty shallow at most, with no details about the songs, and tho it was Jazzy at time, heck, half of the songs in the second part had people banging their heads like crazy.

As for guitar skills, the most impressive thing he does is not just playing his guitar behind his back ( tho, it is visually impresive)


Mostly I have to admit though, the line about "let the new dad have his reformance speeches but we're here to listen to music after all" really really pissed me off. Now whoever wrote that is a good example of person who didn't get anything about what Miyavi is all about.

Sorry, had to vent *yawn*

Ah Bu-san, doing everything at my own pace sure is my style of doing things, how did you know? XD All the teachers are sick of this style of mine tho coz I also use the same style when coming to school meaning I'm always late from classes.. I know it's a rly bad bad habbit and I should get rid of it. >O<

I didn't like the article either, I was rly dissapointed when I read it since I rly liked their review and interview last year but this was just.. I dunno, so negative and mean. The magazine tends to make some things, audience's behaviour for example, a lot bigger deal than it actually might have been and write sarcastic comments about it which sometimes is needed coz for example at Dio's gig the gig almost got canceled because of the very disrespectful and rude behaviour of the fans touching Mikaru's intimate places. I remember the magazine wrote something like "What should these almost middle-aged men think when 12-year old girls touch their intimate places?" which I think was a good comment and hopefully made someone use their brains but picking and making mean comments of the artist himself is also rude even if it was said by a journalist.

No worries, post away just preaze remember to mention the magazine and the issue and the fact that I'm not a professional translater XD
Aww thank you for your sweet sweet comments Lu & Bu, they will work as my motivation when writing the gig report ♥

I think you did really well translating.
It sounds good to me. ^^
*almost had an English fail xP* D'oh...

(There's a point to this somewhere)

And it was nice that he didn't just play the songs straight as they were recorded - it's brilliant that he does that. It makes it so much more unique. And enjoyable!
I just have to add in though, [mini rant] HOW did the person writing this not recognise Ame ni Utaeba? xDD [/mini rant]

Bleh, I don't think a magazine should write about how much they didn't like the audience.. they're writing a review on the show. It sounded a lot like a bitter fan report to me, I've read a lot of better reports from fans XD

But thanks for translating <3 not all of it is bad XD <33

And I agree with Afaenia, how the hell didn't they recognize it? T.T I recognized the song on the first note T.T It's not that hard.. I had more trouble recognizing my name is o-re-sa-ma.com xD


There's an interview in a German magazine as well, I'm translating it rigth now, but it's quite horrible. And Miyavi's obviously not taking it seriously from his answers XD Which is really funny :')
They used pictures from the 2005 oresama wa daare da? tour with the caption "2007 neo visualizm style" T.T