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Megamasso Tour Final Report

*Pictures will be added to this shortly

Megamasso Tandoku Kôen Over The Glitter! #2 _{Buchi One Man Tour Final} “Minazuki Daikanyama, Chirijiri yori Tsudô Hadairo”.

As always, a little bit about the venue first. To get to Daikanyama Unit, which doubles as a late-night electronica venue, find your way to either Daikanyama, Ebisu, or Nakameguro Stations. From Nakameguro, turn right at the exit, then left at the major intersection past Tsutaya. Walk up the incline until you hit Family Mart. “Za House” should be right across the way, and that’s where you’ll find Unit. The live section of the building is a few floors underground, the first basement floor serving as locker space and for selling goods. More steps down and you’ll hit the stage proper, fitting some 200-odd fans. A 200 person capacity club is rather small for a band as popular as Megamasso, but from the opening of the show, they said the purpose of the tour was to get up close to the fans. For those who are unable to see the stage, a TV above the bar to the left helps somewhat.

Coming into tonight’s Megamasso live, I had two burning questions. Firstly, why do so many Visual Kei events have such massively long titles? Secondly, what the heck is a “one man live,” anyway? Now that the first question probably doesn’t have an answer to begin with. A one man live, however, is apparently when a single artist books a venue for the entire evening. This lets them play a variety of tracks and styles, as opposed to only a handful of their better-known songs. It also means the band gets to take long breaks to tell funny stories or jokes. Tonight, for some two and a half hours, Megamasso did just that.

Formed by ex-Ayabie guitarist Ryôhei, it makes sense for Megamasso, like Ayabie, to flirt with different sounds within the Visual spectrum. Tonight’s set first demonstrated their “heavy” side, highlighting their individual strengths. For the first half hour of the live, this meant http://www.hearjapan.com/store/member_info/INZARGI’s ridiculously high voice balancing with Gou’s powerful bass. During the first six songs, the bass was probably the most prominent element of the band’s performance. This actually made some songs sound markedly different from their studio or PV versions, which if anything made tonight’s show particularly interesting.

Like other Visual bands, fans in the front rows tend to wave their arms during certain parts of the songs (opening, choruses, etc.). INZARGI, on one occasion, took this to a new level, signaling the fans to actually move to different sides of the room. Complemented by a strobe light, this gave the image of Megamasso being in full control of their fans. In a market all but defined by band loyalty and devotion, more than the music itself this may have been one of the most promising moments of the evening. Songs from the middle part of the set, in particular White, White and Bless showed their “softer” side in comparison. It’s through songs like these that Megamasso seems to shine, mixing in what feels like older visual kei, yet still sounding contemporary if not fresh outright. Junsui Baiyo, in particular, even appeared in a recent GuitarFreaks upgrade; for a band barely 2 and a half years old, this is certainly an achievement.

During some of the intermissions the band told some funny and unusual stories. For example, Gou was about to eat his bento (rice box) before he proclaimed that the rice was dead. To bring it back to life, he poured boiling water over the rice. They also spoke of the antics of their Osaka part of the tour. Before the show Ryohei overslept and practically missed rehearsal. He called in a deep husky voice (highly unusual for him) and said “I just woke up, I’ll be there soon.” Next thing the band new, Ryohei was at rehearsal in his hotel slippers. However, when it came time to play Gou had disappeared due to Ryohei’s absence. Turns out, he went to the public bath where a lot of old men were bathing. They all were looking at his naked body (at which point the girls in the audience shrieked).

The third part of the set seemed to return to the heavier side of things, but no one in the room seemed to mind. There was another interesting mix of sounds here, an almost Chinese-inspired guitar riff standing out among others. Paradisa Halo from mega-star’s prayer presents Megamasso Ninki, the final song of the night before the encores, was particularly surprising. The fans’ loyalty was shown at the start of the song, as after only a few measures’ prompt the fans sang the chorus lyrics several times over – including a few accompanied echoes.

A short wait and a humorous anecdote later, Megamasso went through a five-song encore, with arguably the most musically sound tracks of the evening. Gone was the borderline overbearing bass, instead replaced by a refreshing mix of tracks old and new. The final song, also the first song from one of their earliest releases (Namida Neko), elicited several happy “kita’s” (“at last!”) from the crowd. The encore, taking up the final half-hour of the show, all but summarized the band’s style, their fans’ devotion, and, as the band members slowly left the stage, greeting as many fans in the front as possible, only furthered the promises of a bright future ahead.