HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo wrote:About HARU I guess it must feel unnatural for her to not have the guitar and just be a singer walking around. Must be hard and she doesn't have a lot of songs to practice it in live conditions. I guess she will feel more comfortable one day

I missed that there was another page already when I first posted my last reply

Anyway I think this is just a matter of perspective/seating position/different shows on different days. She was 100% natural doing this when I saw her do it. She's a dancer and that's what she was doing and my goodness she was sexy.

But it may have looked different to people further away, or above like it sounds like TanyaLilac was. When I saw them at Budokan, I was in a spot like that and I thought the dance they did for Scandal Nanka Buttobase was kind of dumb, but when I saw it on disc, it looked cool. That's just because the camera was right there, whereas I was watching it from like 500 feet away. This time I was right up front and she was literally 10 feet away from me and I thought she was going to give me a heart attack. I think dancing like that during a rock show might just not translate as well the further away you are.

It could have just been an off day for her during that song too, like how it seemed like Tomo and Haru were fighting at my show. Different things happen on different days, so it's interesting to see reports from more than one show.

TanyaLilac wrote: I'd say the definite highlight for me this time was MAMI stepping up onto the side of RINA's drumming platform during the song, smiling and watching her for a bit, then hitting the high hat with her hand (at the appropriate moment, during the second verse). If I had been up close, there's a high chance I might have died. ^^;;

Reading and imagining that happening puts a big dumb grin on my face lol

I absolutely love it when the girls interact with one another on stage during lives .love.

another thing i would likr to ask from spacecadet, how was weather report?in one of their interviews mami said the highlight of that song are the high notes during the bridge part wherein haru is filled with emotion during that part and that what makes it one of  mami's most favorite song in their album.

meow-chan wrote:another thing i would likr to ask from spacecadet, how was weather report?

Well, like I said in my early posts about the show, it was a little disappointing for me. She sang it technically well (she sang everything well), but it felt slower than on the album and I didn't feel the emotion that I feel on the album. There's definitely emotion on the album but she just looked and sounded a bit blank at the show, like she had nothing in her mind. Also they did an extended intro for it with just Mami and she messed it up a bit. Not that it ruined the song or anything, but it's like when you're watching a guy juggling and he drops a ball, you just go "awwwww, man".

I'm curious how it was at the show TanyaLilac went to.

Sorry! Haven't logged in for a bit. ^^;

For me, Weather Report was what made me buy STANDARD - when I heard the intro for it at the live, I had chills (like the first time I heard the track). MAMI played the extended intro without incident, but RINA stole the song for me, since I find it hard to focus on drums until I hear them played live. I don't know, maybe since it was RINA's hometown, she kept the tension up? As for the emotion of the song, maybe it's also a matter of perspective on this one as well? Up close, you can tell how the band is feeling, and the general dynamic of the band; it affects how you interpret the song. Songs like Hachigatsu and Weather Report really resonated with me at the live, but spacecadet had a different experience.

I think a lot of it is seating position with the songs too... the slower songs might actually work better further away. I kind of felt that way at Budokan as well. I loved "Burn" and "Haruka" at that show because they filled the whole place and you could really physically feel the instruments and vocals from all around.

Anyway if anyone's interested, I wrote a long blog post (with some pics) about the Tokyo show: http://www.alphabetcityblog.com/2013/11/scandal-at-tokyo-nhk-hall-11072013-live.html

Some of it is just stuff I've already said here, but some is new.

Wow thanks for your blog spacecadet!! Really looked like you had an awesome time! It must also have cost you a lot of money with the trip and everything you bought .sweat.  gonna try to read your other entries later

Is your wife also a fan like you or did she just came along? I hope she didn't see you drooling when HARU did her sexy dance... seems you liked it a lot =P

Could comment on many things but let's keep it short, just a quick question about the HARUpedia lol. Does she really have a book about that she likes to read? Or was it just a book found for the show to have something to talk about? Did she said it was the HARUpedia? I find it very funny ^_^

To finish and about the previous messages, I think it's about seating position and personal preferences. Two people can be huge fan of SCANDAL but that doesn't mean they will feel exactly the same way at one of their concerts Something can be awkward or awesome, in the end of the day it still seems that the show is great and SCANDAL is awesome :D

HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo wrote:Is your wife also a fan like you or did she just came along?

She is a fan of Haruna

She is not as big a fan of the whole band as I am. She just likes Haruna. She talks about her more than I do.

Could comment on many things but let's keep it short, just a quick question about the HARUpedia lol. Does she really have a book about that she likes to read? Or was it just a book found for the show to have something to talk about? Did she said it was the HARUpedia?

I think they probably just look for topics they can talk about during the MC's and then Haruna prints out some pages from Wikipedia that she can put in this binder and read from. I'm sure it's hard to find new things to talk about for 20 minutes every night, so they just print stuff off the internet that they can turn into a vote. It seems like all the shows on this tour have had MC's that end in a vote.

She also brought the Harupedia back out for the last MC to list off the various announcements they had, so she keeps all that info in there too.

spacecadet (Blog post) wrote:I still think something might have been going on between Haruna and Tomomi - Haruna barely ever even looked at Tomomi during either the MC's or while playing, and Tomomi seemed almost scared of Haruna, rarely venturing out of her spot and mostly staying out of the MC conversations. There was one particularly awkward moment that really made me feel bad for Tomomi when she walked over to Haruna, literally stood there looking at her for about 10 seconds, and then walked back without even being acknowledged. It was weird.

Yeah, I noticed it too...

Since OJH, there is a strange feeling-tension when they interact with each other...
It's alarming because, these can be reason for disbanding (in the worst case...) I hope they are mature enough to overcome this... tension.

hope everythings ok between the 2

Now now guys, easy on the speculation.

Spacecadet is just making an observation based on what he saw in *one* show. He is no way implying that there is a serious issue between band members. Also, there is no way to know for sure, it is just an impression he got, nothing more. Please try not to over-think it. Besides this observation, there is nothing else that indicates any problem, if you read recent blog entries by the band, you will notice that Tomo & Haru spend time together going to places. If there really was a problem between them, why would they do that?

Please refrain from making unsubstantiated allegations and rumours about the band. It may be fun to speculate but rumours do not help the band at all and might even cause real problems, should mass media pick it up. We never know who is reading, so please be careful with what we post.

Apologies for going off-topic. For any further speculative discussions, I recommend opening a new topic somewhere else.

macdyne73 wrote:Now now guys, easy on the speculation.

Spacecadet is just making an observation based on what he saw in *one* show. He is no way implying that there is a serious issue between band members. Also, there is no way to know for sure, it is just an impression he got, nothing more. Please try not to over-think it. Besides this observation, there is nothing else that indicates any problem, if you read recent blog entries by the band, you will notice that Tomo & Haru spend time together going to places. If there really was a problem between them, why would they do that?

Please refrain from making unsubstantiated allegations and rumours about the band. It may be fun to speculate but rumours do not help the band at all and might even cause real problems, should mass media pick it up. We never know who is reading, so please be careful with what we post.

Apologies for going off-topic. For any further speculative discussions, I recommend opening a new topic somewhere else.

Great review

Rumors can be good, but can also be bad. It depends on the person who is receiving the information.

By the way, great review SpaceCadet

macdyne73 wrote:Spacecadet is just making an observation based on what he saw in *one* show. He is no way implying that there is a serious issue between band members.

Yeah, I have no way of knowing anything other than what I saw that one night, which was very different in this one respect - not something you'd see and say "oh, they're always like that". So it was definitely something to mention as unique about that show, but I didn't take it to necessarily mean anything deeper or lasting. People aren't always going to get along every single day on a long tour.

Although I noticed Tomomi was sort of quiet during the first half at Nagoya everything was well and jolly during the second half. 

And when I was at Yokkaichi I didn't see any hint of tension at all. They were even playing around during the encore part and Tomomi occasionally making Haru laugh( using a cartoon Mami draw and Tomo sticking it to her face like a mask. lol)

Sooooo yeah I don't think there is anything to worry about here. .uhuh.

GorillaZ wrote:Although I noticed Tomomi was sort of quiet during the first half at Nagoya everything was well and jolly during the second half. 

She is usually quiet at MC... just sayin'

macdyne73 wrote:Spacecadet is just making an observation based on what he saw in *one* show. He is no way implying that there is a serious issue between band members.

I just supported what he said, from what I watched on another show, but I never said that it was a serious issue D:

All right, guys, let's just drop this HARU/TOMO subject in this topic altogether, okay?

------------------------------------------------------

Set lists for the 13th (11/14 @ Kobe International House International Hall), 14th (11/16 @ Korani Cultural Hall), 15th (11/19 @ Denryoku Hall) shows, all the same as the previous one:

01. STANDARD
02. Brand new wave
03. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH
04. Orange Juice
05. Houkago 1H
06. Uchiagehanabi
07. Hachigatsu
08. Koe
09. Metronome
10. Koi no Gestalt Houkai
11. Kagen no Tsuki
12. Weather report
13. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
14. Kimi to Mirai to Kanzen Douki
15. OVER DRIVE
16. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
17. Namida yo Hikare~STANDARD

Encore:
18. Space Ranger
19. SCANDAL BABY
20. DOLL

What did you guys think about Brand New Wave live?

Looks like their OVERDRIVE live sounds even better than on the single, what about BNW? Does it sound much different?

Asking because i'm listening to it currently :D

HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo wrote:What did you guys think about Brand New Wave live?

Looks like their OVERDRIVE live sounds even better than on the single, what about BNW? Does it sound much different?

Asking because i'm listening to it currently :D

Yeah, also I want know about Kagen no Tsuki, because I didn't like the Girls Factory 13 one...

HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo wrote:What did you guys think about Brand New Wave live?

A bit better than on the album mostly because it was loud. Still not my favorite song but the crowd seemed to get into it.

They didn't rockify it like I thought they might; they played it straight up, meaning a lot of it was pre-recorded and there wasn't a lot of guitar playing. But because it was so loud and you could feel every beat, it felt like it had more energy than the album.

I think they could have done some choreography or something to it since a lot of it was pre-recorded anyway; that would have made it even better.

As for Kagen no Tsuki, I don't remember it standing out one way or another after the extended intro. I think it sounded pretty much like the album too.

Edit: Just saw the Girls Factory performance mentioned above - yeah, it was basically like that, although when you're actually there everything seems better. But it's not one of their best live songs. I think on this tour the little "whooooooo" harmonies are pre-recorded because they sounded exactly like the album (I noticed it at the time), which they don't on the Girls Factory performance. I do think the Girls Factory performance in general feels like they're playing really stiff, which may be because they're being filmed and/or they didn't know the songs as well then. They played a lot looser when I saw them, including during Kagen no Tsuki.

Set list for the 16th show (11/21 @ Omiya Sonic City), with one change:

01. STANDARD
02. Brand new wave
03. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH
04. Orange Juice
05. Houkago 1H
06. Uchiagehanabi
07. Hachigatsu
08. Koe
09. Metronome
10. Koi no Gestalt Houkai
11. Kagen no Tsuki
12. Weather report
13. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
14. Kimi to Mirai to Kanzen Douki
15. OVER DRIVE
16. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
17. Namida yo Hikare~STANDARD

Encore:
18. Shunkan Sentimental
19. SCANDAL BABY
20. DOLL

Thx spacecadet.

A bit "disappointed" when you say a lot was pre-recorded but happy to hear that it still sounds good/better (for you). It's not my favorite song ever from SCANDAL but I like the album version, it's a nice change I think so I suppose i'm gonna love the live version too if it's louder but doesn't change much

HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo wrote:A bit "disappointed" when you say a lot was pre-recorded

It doesn't bother me much because they've actually always done that, going back to the first tour. A lot of their songs have keyboard parts but you don't see any keyboardists on stage. They have two guys offstage to the side with MacBook Pros. (They were doing all the same handwaving, fist-pumping and jumping that the crowd was supposed to do - it was funny to watch them.) I'd guess one was controlling the lights and the other was doing the backing music and probably feeding them the click track and stuff.

There is some guitar in "Brand New Wave" but it's like "Pin Heel Surfer" in that it's not the dominant instrument. So they were playing, but most of what I was actually hearing was pre-recorded. Their other songs are all at least mostly live but may have some pre-recorded elements.

Mishima Citizens Cultural Hall was a knockout show!

It's tough to know where to begin. :) The setlist was like the other stops on the tour, and the girls were on fire from the start to the end. All the new material from STANDARD sounded great live and the songs really have an extra kick in the pants that is tough to get with a studio recording.

The stage backdrop was a really nice, starting off as just a nice backdrop and then becoming more and more dynamic until by the end it was very flashy and music-video-like.

During the whole show Tomomi and Haruna rocked out together like Mami and Tomomi usually do in the older layout of positions. During the encore Tomomi was playfully messing with Haruna's hair while she sang which the whole band laughed about.

At one point during Scandal Baby Tomomi and Mami were playing to each-other across the front of the stage, and as Tomomi went to step back afterwards she stumbled a little and got a surprised expression on her face from feeling like she was going to fall over backwards. Mami burst out laughing and mimicked her, pretending to tip backwards and making a scared face. Tomomi then mimicked herself even more than Mami, pretending to wildly fall backwards with a terrified face. It was absolutely hilarious :)

The crowd at Scandal's shows always have a lot of energy but this show seemed even a bit more hyped up. The whole time everyone was jumping and cheering, only taking a break during the long middle MC where Haruna asks everyone to sit down. After the show all the fans were hanging out outside the venue for a while, taking pictures of those in cosplay and big group photos of everyone who was still there.

I'll try to post more details as I remember them.. I was fortunate enough to have front row seats and got a wave from Rina after the encore which just put the perfect ending on an amazing time!

@320x200 can i just say that i can't help smiling while reading your post.Thanks for your review =)

@spacecadet, @HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo, dont worry about that, it's just a matter of time until they can play it perfectly...
E.g. Scandal Baby took a lot of concerts for the girls make it how it is now... Also, Doll is diferent now (better) from the first one (the album one)... And for sure, Shoujo S it's more slow in the album, but in the OP it's different...

Give them some time, because a lot of this songs are going to be wonderful some day.

@320x200 sorry about my ignorance, but what is a "wave"?
btw thanks for your review!