Megamasso Live Report

On August 29, 2008 Megamasso closed their most recent tour, STARZ m6 with a fantastic show at the SHIBUYA-AX here in Tokyo, Japan. The name, STARZ m6 refers to a m6 star, which is very faint from the viewpoint of earth. Whether the star is really a massive star infinitely bigger than our own or not can not be confirmed by mere eyes; a fitting allegory to Megamasso. Filmed and broadcast live on M-ON TV, the both visually and sonically appealing Megamasso, charged through 23 of the heavy-pop songs that comprise their extensive catalog. With an energetic flair, the polished set included spectacular lighting, excellent sound quality, a pair of hip-hop inspired dancers, playful audience interaction and a memorable and moving piano ballad.

The set opened with the song “Minazuki, Missou” at full energy, and as the stage was lit up, the audience took note of what clothing this “Visual-Kei” band was wearing. Admittedly, we felt slightly disappointment that Ryohei, the guitarist and main songwriter of Megamasso, was not dressed as flamboyantly as we had come to expect. No bunny ears? No dress? Nope, and Nope. Although his hair was done up in a decidedly effeminate way, he was simply sporting… normal clothing to the tune of Turquoise pants, leather boots, and a red vest. Although definitely cool, I guess one could say his clothing was disappointingly masculine. As one of the greatest fears of a fan of Visual-Kei is, of course, that a Visual-Kei band will give up their visual aspect in an effort to become more mainstream, we had a right to be worried. But thankfully this is not the case with Megamasso. We checked and double-checked in our discussion with Ryohei after the show, as well as with their Management, who laughed at the suggestion that Ryohei’s bunny ears would not rise again. So fear not, children, Ryohei has not tired of the outfits that have made him famous. Rather it was a special favor to the designers at h.NAOTO. Megamasso was simply sporting the new Autumn lineup for h.NAOTO.

Gou wore the trendy clothes we are so used to seeing men here in Tokyo sporting—white boots over tight black pants, a white shiny jacket over a sparkling purple shirt. Lead singer INZARGI, on the other hand, was showing off his HIP-HOP/R&B roots with baggy jeans adorned with stars of red, yellow, and green, and an over-sized hoodie. Quite a bit of variety among the three, as you can imagine.

INZARGI’s HIP-HOP roots showed in more ways than just his choice of outfit. Two dancers (apparently friends of INZARGI from his “dancing days”) joined him on stage during the song “Ame Gakkitai”, and the three of them busted out a synchronized dance right along with the music. The dancing continued into the song “Hoshi Furi Machi nite” and a disco ball was utilized in full force! The cosplayed, furried, and gothic-clad audience waved their hands back and forth along with the music (although I didn’t notice anyone break out in spontaneous dancing—though I am sure, like me, they were tempted.

The grand piano which dominated the right side of the stage was finally utilized for the ballad entitled “Shizuka na Hoshi Shizuka na Hitobito”. This song was performed as a duo, with Ryohei stroking the keys and INZARGI handling the vocals. He told the audience the song was “arranged specially for them” and this set the tone for a true audience pleaser. The crowd was listening intently in dead-silence, and seemed to be soaking up all the emotion that INZARGI was pouring into the song’s simple melody.

The trance was broken as the band returned and broke into a fan-favorite, the song “Modern Amplifier”, then directly into the song “Pinkey Jelly”. With INZARGI as leader, the audience was sent into a flurry, performing the choreographed hand motions that Japanese fans have become famous for. Circling, swishing, and swatting, all perfectly in unison, and perfectly in time. The audience participation continued with the song “Yoreru Monooki” which had the predominantly long-haired female audience head banging like crazy while Ryohei screamed his heart out into the mic.

The song Menou came next with its powerful descending synthesizer lines. Ryohei kicked into full gear and moved around so much on stage that the M-ON camera guys seemed to have trouble keeping the camera on him!

The band then took a break from playing and chatted with the audience.  INZARGI decided to tell a tour story that went something like this:

While on tour, the band was leaving a convenience store when it started to drizzle. Then, suddenly it started to POUR! Gou yelled “YABAI” and they started running as fast as they could to cover. Poor Ryohei slipped and fell into a huge puddle and got soaked all the way to his underwear. This wouldn’t have been too big of a deal, but his pants were WHITE and therefore became completely see-through, and his underwear was BRIGHT GREEN and therefore became completely visible [this is where all the girls in the audience yelled out “KAWAII”]! Throughout the ordeal, only one thing stayed dry… a brand new hat that Gou had just bought that day. He protected it with his life and tucked it into under his hoodie while they ran back to safety. But after all, his over-protectedness ended up bending the hat under his sweater, ruining it and he was really bummed.

After story time, the newly re-energized band launched right back into their set with two B-sides from “Beautiful Girl”. The dancers returned to bust a move and the atmosphere was festive. They also performed the song “Beautiful Girl”, which sounded just like the version we offer here on HearJapan! After that there was a 2 song encore which debuted their new single “White White” (which will available on HearJapan on the 24th of September!!!) A fantastic song along the same lines as “Beautiful Girl” that is sure to be another great single! After a series of thank you’s and comments from INZARGI about how the audience was doing a great job keeping the band’s spirits up even though the band was exhausted from their grueling tour, Megamasso left the stage. But the enthusiastic crowd chanted and clapped until the band returned for another encore! INZARGI asked the audience “Haven’t had enough, have ya? You want to mosh, huh?!”, and then they broke into a heavy jam (that included audience “Oi!”’s and more head-banging that seemed to build and build. They went from there straight into the song “Viper” which showed INZARGI, even after having poured his heart into singing more than 20 songs, impressively continuing to sing at full force all the way through. The set ended with a beautiful version of the song “Paradisa Halo”. The last two minutes of the song, the mic was turned on the audience, and as the band stopped playing, the audience carried the chorus melody on their own over and over and over. A moving and impressive end to a great concert.

Did somebody say Megamasso coming to ????? next year?