Teriyaki Boyz "Do You Like Japan?" Tour
Supeerrr overdue report on their show!!
The concert was good. Though since I watched concert videos, there weren’t many surprises, but a few more bells and whistles this time I think. My attempt to get front/center kind of failed, but I was on the side and almost at the front, a little closer and I would’ve been able to shake hands with the members when they reached out into the crowd.
Verbal and Ryo-Z were their amazingly charismatic selves. Verbal’s energy is awesome, and Ryo-Z is so the freaking character of the group, his facial expressions alone are hilarious. Wise and Illmari were moderately exciting, the former performed well, the latter’s only really great point is just being eye candy. He’s a bit more serious, the rest of the guys tend to be a bit more fun. Well, with the exception of DJ Nigo. He’s pretty serious.
They performed both Beef or Chicken and Serious Japanese songs. I think they started with Heartbreaker, which was pretty awesome. When they entered the stage, they actually rose out of giant milk cans with their names on them. As expected, there was a big theme revolving around cows and cow products, etc… hehe. The backdrop was a huge image of a cow.
Also near the start of the show was a performance of Tokyo Drift. One of the members was going to go into their rap part, but Wise accidentally started going into the hook, it was something like, “I WONDER IF YOU-----,” then looked over at one of them and says “… OH.” Poor guy, it was really funny though.
Some of the Beef or Chicken songs performed at the start were shorter, condensed versions. Sadly, of course, none of the international big names made appearances,
but I’d say the group did pretty well performing on their own, with the exception of a few weird moments, like I Still Love H.E.R. - during Kanye’s part in the hook “でも、I still love her, 本当いいrap,” there was nothing to fill in that part, and really felt lacking.
Mademoiselle Yulia and Takagi Kan made appearances. Yulia sang her part in After 5AM, so it wasn’t that interesting, haha. From looking from her myspace page, I sort of want to think of her as a Japanese M.I.A. (they’ve actually collabed together). She has crazy fashion, and the gold poofy dress she was wearing was no exception. I wasn’t familiar with Takagi Kan, apparently he’s a pioneer of Japanese hip hop.
Of course there was a lot of talking in between songs, and I couldn’t understand most of it. Except when they asked who bought the new album, and asked people not to illegally download it. lol.
During Serious Japanese, someone came out with a camera - one of the “clones” in the shark hoodies, as seen on the new album cover. They also came out in other times to act as assistants, such as putting jackets on the members before the next song, haha. You must be able to see through those things... for quite a while Nigo was wearing his - in the beginning, he actually came out wearing two. When he unzipped the second one and was showing his face, he was wearing a knit cap too. That must’ve been sooo hot.
Also in Serious Japanese, during the “time is money” part of his rap, Verbal threw out some TB fake dollar bills. For the finale, they did Kamikaze 108, and like in their last tour, a bunch more of the fake money was shot out into the audience. Some was falling so close to me but other hands grabbed them first. : ( They threw out other things but nothing came in my direction. Illmari had some shirt thing over his hoodie that was made to come apart into two pieces, thrown out into the crowd. There are promotional Burger King crowns decked out in Teriyaki Boyz promotional artwork that were distributed at Shibuya Burger King, where the whole store was pretty much an advertisement for Serious Japanese. The members wore these during their performance of Teriya-King and threw those out too.
Based on my impressions, Japanese people don’t go as crazy at shows as Americans do. For one, they’re not as loud and pushy. Japanese people don’t dance at shows, they all do arm waves. The basic one is just raising your arm in the air and doing an up and downwards motion, usually done simultaneously by everyone. It’s kind of lame to me, being someone who kind of lets herself go crazy at shows. Low Jack Three (which I didn’t know actually was three people) opened up with a short set of totally danceable music, I wanted to move to it, but the most motion you got of the crowd was that damn up/down armwave. I think my arms were up pretty much the entire Teriyaki Boyz show (and really sore the next day), since that sort of movement was the only culturally appropriate kind lol. Japanese people are really coordinated at concerts. There were a lot of different arm movements performed, some prompted by the Teriyaki Boyz, others not, but everyone would participate and be on sync. It’s so Japanese to me, haha.
I was hoping I’d get to have some interesting social interactions at the show, but the only thing that happened was a conversation with another (Japanese) girl who came alone. As far as I know, I was the only foreigner at the show, except a black guy I saw in the crowd.
So that meet and greet thing with the members was not quite what I thought. As I feared, there was some sort of requirement… I tried to ask someone about it, and I think she was trying to explain to me you had to buy this T-shirt/CD set costs about 110~120 USD. Sooo there were a lot of Bape-clad fans waiting outside the Bape store instead. I started talking with the girl more, who also came down from Iwate by herself to go to the show, and we both tried to see if the boyz would appear, like everyone else was. They discreetly drove off in taxi vans, lol, so it didn’t really work out. After that, we both went to check out the Mens’/Ladies Bape stores, and she suggested I try on a Bape hoodie. It was so comfyyyy…. I took a picture of me with the sales associate who was helping me. I guess I embarrassed him lol. We chatted with salespeople there for a while and it was fun trying to fend for myself using Japanese… but it was all pretty easy “where are you from” sort of stuff that I’ve had to talk a lot about anyway.
And the sales guy at the bape store gave me a promotional flyer thing that actually folds out into a POSTER!!!! I didn’t realize it until my new friend (Rinna) told me later. It’s a really really cheesy photo of them. I love it. Speaking of posters, Braden (UO friend I visited in Sendai) also got me a bunch of awesome kanji learning posters from one of the elementary schools he worked at. This was the weekend of awesome freebies.
And while in Sendai, for the first time I found exceptionally good DDR players (as in people who can play better than me). There were quite a few at the game center near the venue playing DDR X, one guy A’d LOM double no bar (though I don’t know how the new grading system works).
The concert was good. Though since I watched concert videos, there weren’t many surprises, but a few more bells and whistles this time I think. My attempt to get front/center kind of failed, but I was on the side and almost at the front, a little closer and I would’ve been able to shake hands with the members when they reached out into the crowd.
Verbal and Ryo-Z were their amazingly charismatic selves. Verbal’s energy is awesome, and Ryo-Z is so the freaking character of the group, his facial expressions alone are hilarious. Wise and Illmari were moderately exciting, the former performed well, the latter’s only really great point is just being eye candy. He’s a bit more serious, the rest of the guys tend to be a bit more fun. Well, with the exception of DJ Nigo. He’s pretty serious.
They performed both Beef or Chicken and Serious Japanese songs. I think they started with Heartbreaker, which was pretty awesome. When they entered the stage, they actually rose out of giant milk cans with their names on them. As expected, there was a big theme revolving around cows and cow products, etc… hehe. The backdrop was a huge image of a cow.
Also near the start of the show was a performance of Tokyo Drift. One of the members was going to go into their rap part, but Wise accidentally started going into the hook, it was something like, “I WONDER IF YOU-----,” then looked over at one of them and says “… OH.” Poor guy, it was really funny though.
Some of the Beef or Chicken songs performed at the start were shorter, condensed versions. Sadly, of course, none of the international big names made appearances,
but I’d say the group did pretty well performing on their own, with the exception of a few weird moments, like I Still Love H.E.R. - during Kanye’s part in the hook “でも、I still love her, 本当いいrap,” there was nothing to fill in that part, and really felt lacking.
Mademoiselle Yulia and Takagi Kan made appearances. Yulia sang her part in After 5AM, so it wasn’t that interesting, haha. From looking from her myspace page, I sort of want to think of her as a Japanese M.I.A. (they’ve actually collabed together). She has crazy fashion, and the gold poofy dress she was wearing was no exception. I wasn’t familiar with Takagi Kan, apparently he’s a pioneer of Japanese hip hop.
Of course there was a lot of talking in between songs, and I couldn’t understand most of it. Except when they asked who bought the new album, and asked people not to illegally download it. lol.
During Serious Japanese, someone came out with a camera - one of the “clones” in the shark hoodies, as seen on the new album cover. They also came out in other times to act as assistants, such as putting jackets on the members before the next song, haha. You must be able to see through those things... for quite a while Nigo was wearing his - in the beginning, he actually came out wearing two. When he unzipped the second one and was showing his face, he was wearing a knit cap too. That must’ve been sooo hot.
Also in Serious Japanese, during the “time is money” part of his rap, Verbal threw out some TB fake dollar bills. For the finale, they did Kamikaze 108, and like in their last tour, a bunch more of the fake money was shot out into the audience. Some was falling so close to me but other hands grabbed them first. : ( They threw out other things but nothing came in my direction. Illmari had some shirt thing over his hoodie that was made to come apart into two pieces, thrown out into the crowd. There are promotional Burger King crowns decked out in Teriyaki Boyz promotional artwork that were distributed at Shibuya Burger King, where the whole store was pretty much an advertisement for Serious Japanese. The members wore these during their performance of Teriya-King and threw those out too.
Based on my impressions, Japanese people don’t go as crazy at shows as Americans do. For one, they’re not as loud and pushy. Japanese people don’t dance at shows, they all do arm waves. The basic one is just raising your arm in the air and doing an up and downwards motion, usually done simultaneously by everyone. It’s kind of lame to me, being someone who kind of lets herself go crazy at shows. Low Jack Three (which I didn’t know actually was three people) opened up with a short set of totally danceable music, I wanted to move to it, but the most motion you got of the crowd was that damn up/down armwave. I think my arms were up pretty much the entire Teriyaki Boyz show (and really sore the next day), since that sort of movement was the only culturally appropriate kind lol. Japanese people are really coordinated at concerts. There were a lot of different arm movements performed, some prompted by the Teriyaki Boyz, others not, but everyone would participate and be on sync. It’s so Japanese to me, haha.
I was hoping I’d get to have some interesting social interactions at the show, but the only thing that happened was a conversation with another (Japanese) girl who came alone. As far as I know, I was the only foreigner at the show, except a black guy I saw in the crowd.
So that meet and greet thing with the members was not quite what I thought. As I feared, there was some sort of requirement… I tried to ask someone about it, and I think she was trying to explain to me you had to buy this T-shirt/CD set costs about 110~120 USD. Sooo there were a lot of Bape-clad fans waiting outside the Bape store instead. I started talking with the girl more, who also came down from Iwate by herself to go to the show, and we both tried to see if the boyz would appear, like everyone else was. They discreetly drove off in taxi vans, lol, so it didn’t really work out. After that, we both went to check out the Mens’/Ladies Bape stores, and she suggested I try on a Bape hoodie. It was so comfyyyy…. I took a picture of me with the sales associate who was helping me. I guess I embarrassed him lol. We chatted with salespeople there for a while and it was fun trying to fend for myself using Japanese… but it was all pretty easy “where are you from” sort of stuff that I’ve had to talk a lot about anyway.
And the sales guy at the bape store gave me a promotional flyer thing that actually folds out into a POSTER!!!! I didn’t realize it until my new friend (Rinna) told me later. It’s a really really cheesy photo of them. I love it. Speaking of posters, Braden (UO friend I visited in Sendai) also got me a bunch of awesome kanji learning posters from one of the elementary schools he worked at. This was the weekend of awesome freebies.
And while in Sendai, for the first time I found exceptionally good DDR players (as in people who can play better than me). There were quite a few at the game center near the venue playing DDR X, one guy A’d LOM double no bar (though I don’t know how the new grading system works).