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Now usually, I'm not a fan of the average Japanese female pop star because they tend to be pretty high pitch and some of them sound quite thin to me. But some of the garage rock girl bands aren't too bad even if some of them can be a little too high pitch for me too. I had a particular fondness for Stereopony but they broke up. :( I used to be fonder of Scandal in their earlier days too because I felt they sounded edgier then, now they sound too J-Pop and a little higher pitch then I like.
Then I chanced upon Ieiri Leo. Now, interestingly enough, Ieiri's usual range is not that low too which means it's a voice that I usually won't take to that quickly or easily. It is, however, fuller and more powerful than the average J-pop female artist and seems to have a nice clarity about it. Aside from that, I also really like her music. For some reason, it really resonated with me. The songs didn't sound that generic and sounded more demanding than the average J-pop, K-pop song which interested me instantly. The way she sings is really captivating too. She's not just a very capable singer and a cut above the average J-pop singer, she also sings with so much energy and, for some reason for me, she seems to have a very endearing earnestness too which really comes across strongly in some of her MVs and a lot of the clips of her at her lives. This is why I particularly like it when the bonus material that comes with her releases are live tracks or live clips. The best part about Ieiri to me, was that she seems to be really good live performer and I was really keen to watch her live.
For some time now, even though I was quite keen to watch Ieiri live, I could never make it work with my schedule. Her lives just never coincided with a Kajiura Yuki or Kalafina live and I do prioritise Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina lives in Japan. It costs me way more than just a price of a concert ticket to go to Japan to attend the lives, so unfortunately, I do not have the luxury of choice. And as a result, although I have always wanted to go to an Ieiri Leo live and an angela live too, I didn't have much choice but to always prioritise my favourites first which meant that Kajiura Yuki, FictionJunction and Kalafina always come first.
The closest I got to going to an Ieiri live was when she was on tour last year and Kajiura Yuki threw her epic series of six lives in five days in Tokyo in June. :) Unfortunately, because of my travelling schedule after the awesome Yuki Kajiura vol.12 lives and my obligations to my travelling companions, I could not find a way to fit in an Ieiri Leo live. :'(
And then Jan / Feb 2016 happened!! The gods of Japanese music must surely have been smiling on me because I was already scheduled to go to Kalafina's "far on the water" Special Final lives in Tokyo when Ieiri Leo announced "Live at Zepp 2016 ~ two colors ~". And the best part about this was that the Tokyo live was on 2nd Feb, just two days after Kalafina's final Tokyo live on the 31st of Jan. OH!!!! JOY JOY JOY!!!! I couldn't be happier. And I was made even happier when I won the tickets to Kalafina's 8th Anniversary lives too... but I'm digressing here. :P
So yes...... I was extremely excited about the Ieiri Leo live at Zepp DiverCity. I dare say that I was as excited about this live as I was about the Kalafina lives. I was equally excited for every one of the five lives. :D
And seriously, Ieiri Leo did not disappoint. The live was really awesome. I had already come off four VERY awesome Kalafina lives and Ieiri's very awesome live was the icing on the cake. It was the perfect end to what had already been a perfect trip. :)
Ieiri's live was at Zepp DiverCity which is on Odaiba. I've been to Odaiba on two previous occasions. Both times was to see the live size Gundam with two different groups of friends. I didn't know, however, that there were live halls on Odaiba. Apparently, there are at least two and Zepp DiverCity is one of them.
Zepp DiverCity, like its name suggests, is at DiverCity. It's at the end of the building past the food court, near where Gundam is. It isn't very hard to find, once you know where the food court and Gundam is. I found it quite easily and there was already a queue waiting to buy goods. At first I was a little confused because I wasn't sure if it was a goods queue or it was the queue to get into the all-standing area of the live house. But it turned out to be a goods queue which I quickly joined because I wanted to get a T-shirt.
Actually, they were also offering a hoodie which looked super nice.
"家入レオ LIVE at Zepp 2016 ～two colours～"@Zepp Nagoya公演まであと３時間ほど。— 家入レオSTAFF ＜公式＞ (@leoieiri_staff) February 4, 2016
レオは気合十分です！みなさんも気合い入れて会場にお越しください！！ pic.twitter.com/xTDFvGE1nK
Super nice, right? :)
But I already bought a Kalafina "far on the water" hoodie and was carrying a ton of stuff, both mine and my friends' stuff, home too. This meant that my luggage was getting kinda full. ALSO, more importantly, I had over spent on Kalafina goods so I was actually quite low on yen. And as one of my friends had also texted me to ask me to buy an Ieiri concert T for him, I couldn't really afford a hoodie if I wanted to eat and pay for the train ticket to Narita the next day. *sweat
So in the end, I bought two Ieiri Leo live T-shirts. One for him and one for me and I gave up on that hoodie. :(
That's quite a nice concert T, in my opinion. :) I rather like it. :)
After that, I kind of wandered around inside DiverCity for a while because it was actually kind of cold outside. Meanwhile, a large crowded had already started building outside. They had set up sections where people with numbers in a certain ranges could go there to wait.
I wasn't very sure about the procedure at Zepp DiverCity at all. At Tsutaya O-East, where I was for Kalafina's "8th Anniversary Live", it was an all standing live. So we just hung around till our number or range of numbers were called.
But because this was my first Ieiri Leo live and also when I bought this ticket, I haven't yet been to a live house live in Japan yet nor have I been to a standing live in Japan, so I had decided to apply for one of the reserved seats on the 2nd floor because it just felt safer. :P
So now, I was a little confused. If I had a reserved seat, shouldn't it mean that I didn't have to wait for my number to be called? I thought that I could go up immediately once doors opened. But there were no signs or instructions. And I just kept getting more and more confused. I wanted to ask one of the guys taking care of the queue but he seemed really busy. So I thought I would wait and try and figure it out by myself.
But finally, I just gave up. I found a really pleasant Japanese couple who told me that they usually would let the people on the all standing floor in before they let the folks on the 2nd floor reserved seats enter. I asked if they would let me hang out with them and follow them in too since they were also on the 2nd floor and they very kindly agreed and helped me through the entire procedure. Since this was a live house like Kalafina's live at Tsutaya O-East, I had to prepare 500 yen to pay for a drink token which I could exchange for a drink.
Now, at Tsutaya O-East, they pretty much handed out bottles of water to most people walking buy. I'm not sure if they had other options available. I wasn't there for the drink so I was just happy to grab that bottle of water and make my way onto the floor. Zepp DiverCity was different. You actually had to stand in line and I think beer was definitely one of the options because I saw people drinking beer after the live. The lines were long and so the couple suggested that we skip the drink exchange and just exchange it after the live. I would have done that too even if they hadn't suggested it because, like at Tsutaya O-East, I wasn't in Zepp DiverCity for a drink. So I skipped it and they helped me find my seat and then we parted ways. THANKS SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! It made my very confused evening so much easier. I was actually kinda tired that day too so I was quite happy to find my seat and take off the various layers of warm clothing and wait for the live to start.
I must say that the music that they were playing before the live started was a little weird to me. While we were waiting, they were playing old school rock and roll, like Elvis Presley type music. It was a little strange to me. I guess I'm use to no music at a lot of lives I have been to in Singapore or music from the band / vocal unit / etc like in Kalafina's and Yuki Kajiura's lives in Japan. And.....seriously... old school rock and roll?!?! A strange choice, in my opinion.
That said, that's not really a big deal. When the live began in earnest, it was really rocking fun!! It began with a bang and three acoustic guitars jamming at the same time. Ieiri Leo was playing one of them. It was pretty awesome.
After which it was lots of high energy stuff. Even when she sang the slower songs, I could feel the energy at this live. Highlights for me was when she sang my favourites of course. :) Shine, Bless You, Kibou No Hoshi and Junjou. Fun stuff. The crowd loved it too. It made me quite envious of those in the mosh pit below. She ended with a super rocking version of Sabrina which had everyone jumping. Maybe if I ever have the chance to go for another Ieiri Leo live in the future and if it's at a live house location, I may try for a standing ticket. :)
Ieiri's been singing some English songs at her lives and this time she sang Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time and Trine Rein's Just Missed the Train. I really love Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, it's one of my favourite Lauper songs, aside from the very famous Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and the less famous Sally's Pigeons. I don't know the Trine Rein song at all. Ieiri sang both songs very well and put her unique stamp on it. For me though, it would be hard to beat Lauper's rendition of Time After Time, so it was good that Ieiri wasn't trying to sing it like Lauper. That's probably why it worked for me too because Time After Time is one of Lauper's most popular songs and certainly one of my favourites, a straight cover wouldn't have worked because most people would feel it can't measure up.
Just like at the Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura lives and all the other lives I sometimes write about on the blog, I won't and don't want to write a detailed review of the live. I no longer do that because I really feel trying to be a reporter really gets in the way of the moment. It feels like I'm on a job when I'm really there to enjoy the music. So it's pretty much just a general impression post for me to commemorate my very first Ieiri Leo live!! :)
This was a really fun live. Ieiri is a seriously good live performer. She's very energetic, her guitar playing skills are pretty rocking, her MCs are sincere and her live singing is passionate (to me at least) with a slight edgy rawness which I quite like. Her band was pretty rocking too and when they each got their turn in the sun it was like no holds barred. I was particularly fond of her violinist who reminded me of the passionate Mine Ryutaro character from Nodame Cantabile.
This is the full setlist I got from some where. I think it's off facebook. I can't remember where, sorry.
1. サブリナ
2. lost in the dream
3. a boy
4. Time after Time
5. Shine
6. Lay it down
7. miss you
8. Still
9. Time After Time (Cindy Lauper)
10. Bless You
11. Lady Mary
12. オバケのなみだ
13. チョコレート
14. Last Stage
15. Silly
16. Just Missed The Train (Trine Rein)
17. 君がくれた夏
18. 希望の地球
19. 純情
20. サブリナ アンコール
Encore
21. Hello To The World
What's also cool was that I also saw her perform her new songs obake no namida which is the NHK Minna no Uta song and another song called Hello to the World. They have already released a short version PV of this song. I'll link it below for those who haven't seen it. I really liked both songs. And if I'm not wrong and if I understood Ieiri correctly. This is her first live for the year which also means that it's the first time both these songs were performed publicly live. :) So that was a special treat for everyone and for me too since I haven't yet heard obake no namida nor have I heard a full version of Hello to the World. :)
It's not one of my favourite Ieiri songs yet but I'm pleased that it's a fast rock song and it may grow more and more on me because of that. I tend to prefer Ieiri's faster rock songs. Like Junjou for example. When I first heard it, I didn't exactly love it. But eventually I grew to really like it. And after the live, I like it even more. I think Hello to the World may end up the same way.... we'll see. The full live version did sound a lot nicer to me than the version in the short MV above.
The single of Hello to the World will be released on the 17th February. I've had it on pre-order for a while but to save money, I chose Registered SAL so it will take a little while to get to me, unfortunately. :( When it gets here, I will attempt to do my usual unboxing posts. I've missed a few of Ieiri's previous releases already :( and I don't know if I will every get around to doing them even though I have actually shot photos of them. But the moment has kind of past. :( We'll see....
Anyway, for those who might want to pick up this release. Here are the CDJapan links for you.
Hello To The World [Regular Edition]
Hello To The World [Limited Edition / Type A]
Hello To The World [Limited Edition / Type B]
Both LE Type A and Type B come with a DVD. But they contain different video clips. One contains the MV and the making-of and the other contain two live video clips. I ordered the RE and the Type B Limited Edition because I wanted the live video clips. I kind of regret getting the RE Edition instead of the LE Type A edition. When I first pre-ordered it, the tracklist weren't out yet so I wasn't sure what the differences were. Subsequently, I forgot to check because I got really busy, then then there was the trip etc etc. Well, there is an extra track on the RE edition that the other editions don't have. It's the TV version of obake no namida which makes it something that the other versions don't have, but then, I kind of would like the MV for Hello to the World too. LOL. First world problems. :P
Both DVDs don't contain the video of the obake no namida song. If it's for NHK's Minna no Uta, there should be an animated video that comes with it, I think. That will air on NHK so I'm not sure if internationals will be able to see it easily. I know that it's pretty hard to find the MV of the NHK Minna no Uta version of Kalafina's Moonfesta online. Well I own all three versions of Moonfesta so I have in my possession the clip on both DVD and BD. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the MV of the Minna no Uta version of Ieiri's obake no namida is included in any of the LE version DVDs. Which means, I'm not sure if we'll be able to view it easily outside of Japan. Pity.
Oh.... and finally... before I return to doing my Japanese homework.... in the end I didn't exchange that token for that drink. Those lines were really long even after the live and I'm someone who doesn't like being in a crowd usually. I only tolerate them at lives and exhibitions etc. So the sooner I can get out of a large crowd of people, the better. So I decided to forget that drink and made my way out into the crisp cold air on the man made island of Odaiba, still feeling very high and very warm from a very good rocking concert. :)
Yup!! It was a good live. I still have very good memories of it. If I get the chance again, I will definitely want to go to another Ieiri Leo live. Here's hoping that one day, hopefully, Ieiri Leo will come to Singapore for a one-man live too. Now that would be pretty awesome. :)
Time to go... cheers!! :)
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