T&T Special Live 2011 // Saturday, April 2, 2011 6:00PM @ Yokohama Arena
This past weekend I went to the T&T Special Live concert at Yokohama Arena!
T&T Special Live 2011 // Saturday, April 2, 2011 @ Yokohama Arena 6:00PM
After the earthquake, with the radiation scare and rolling blackouts in Tokyo, I honestly considered not going to this concert. Our seats weren't very good anyway (3rd floor, last row of the front section) and the only good they sold was the face towel (laame!). There was also the "saving electricity" factor in which they cut the energy usage to 1/5th of a normal concert, adding to potential lame-ness. But this actually turned out to be the best concert I've been to so far!!
The arena was set up very simply. There wasn't even a main stage; just the side walkways, one going through the middle, and a round, small center stage. There were 4 big screens around the top of the arena and two TACKEY & TSUBASA signs, and the middle round screen that showed lyrics and some graphics. Other than that, no frills.
Before the concert started, the screens showed messages of encouragement from Tackey and Tsubasa, like "Believe in the power of Japan! We want to see your smiles soon!" etc.
Then, Tackey & Tsubasa came out from the side stages, and the concert began!
1. Sora no Screen
2. One day,One dream
3. Ai wa Takaramono
They performed Ai wa Takaramono on the center round stage, which rotated so that they could face all areas of the arena. Their last pose was only facing one way though, so they kept their poses and shuffled all the way around so we could all see xDD
[MC]
Tackey and Tsubasa had the audience do their T&T calls (see previous Takitsuba report)! When Tackey picked a guy out from the front row, he was blown back when the guy yelled "TSUBASA!" instead of Tackey XDD Poor thing!
Some Jrs also came to see the concert. MAD was there and yelled out "ZACHOU!!" (Chairman!!) for Tackey xD
T&T then started their MC and talked about the earthquake, how Osaka unfortunately got canceled and how they considered canceling the Yokohama shows too. But because their fans really wanted to see them in concert, T&T pleaded with Johnny-san to let them do the concert.
Tsubasa informed us that they normally use 1300kw of power (at first he messed up and said 300kw, lol), but today they'd use only 255kw. However, to make up for the lack of frills, they would definitely get close to the 3rd floor (!!!) and that today's concert was all about "connection with the fans" ♥ ?!?!!
4. Michi
I haven't heard this song in so long, it was gorgeous live!
During the bridge, they started to thank us for coming and said some words about the earthquake. It sounded like the parting words they normally do at the end of the concert, so Tsubasa reassured us afterward that this was not the end of the concert ^^;
They exited the stage then there was a video of the Marching J event.
5. Love Spiral
When T&T reappeared, tehy were on tall carts that reached the 3rd floor and drove around the arena!!! So when they got to our section, we got to see them up close (10? rows away)!! They drove to opposite sides of the arena, so we saw Tsubasa first. Then they switched and broke into...
6. Jikan ryokou
Then Tackey started to come our way! As he came our way, he picked something up... and before we knew it AN AUTOGRAPHED BALL WAS FLYING RIGHT AT MY FRIEND XDDD
She caught it perfectly!! Kya!! It was so awesome and unbelievable!! xD Luckily 1. it was a perfect straight shot to her and 2. T&T fans are well-behaved so there was no fighting *phew* Another ball that he threw accidentally went under some stands, but there was no crazy riot of fangirls. I ♥ that T&T fangirls are really mostly polite housewives xD
7. Sha la la ~ BACKBORN Medley
For this medley they moved INTO the 2nd floor A-block stands!! They walked up and down the aisles and even through some rows of the A-block.
8.Luv the Shangri-la
This song was also done in the A-block. Although it was disappointing they never left the A-block, it was shocking how close they got to the fans!! This really was a concert about "connection with the fans"!
9. Yamanote-sen sotomawari
I ♥ this song so much xD They went back to the round walkway and performed this song while running around the whole walkway. Too cute! The PV played on the screens.
[MC]
The audience sat for the MC.
They talked about Takizawa's kabuki coming up and how Tsubasa is learning Spanish for his TV program. T&T shouted out some "Gracias!"-s to the audience.
They also talked about how they will be doing a Fall concert tour! The dates and places haven't been decided yet... so they decided to come up with the start date with the audience! Someone shouted 9/11, because that's their debut date. They asked what day that is, apparently it is a Sunday, so T&T decided it was perfect! So according to T&T, their fall tour will start on September 11, 2011! xDD
Then, Tsubasa started talking about Tackey's birthday (March 29). Tsubasa teased that Tackey's turning 35 this year! To which Tackey scolded him not to say since people will believe it xD Tackey actually turned 29 this year, making him the same age as Tsubasa (at least until October). As Tackey did something extraordinary for Tsubasa's birthday (see previous T&T concert report), Tsubasa wanted to do something extraordinary for him too. However, because of the earthquake circumstances, the timing was bad and he never got to... so he said we'd do it today!!
Tsubasa asked the audience to sing "Happy Birthday" to Tackey. For the "dear..." part, he said let's sing "dear Tackey" the first time, then "dear Kabuki" the second time xDD Then the background music for "Happy Birthday" came on and we sang to Tackey/Kabuki xD Tsubasa kept messing up the timing of the last "Happy Birthday" line, which was hilarious (it was hard to tell when the HA would come in).
Tsubasa then went on to tell us about his quest for the right present for Tackey. After a lot of thought, he decided that the best gift for Tackey.. is Tsubasa's good health and hard work!! Tackey laughed and said he sure has a strange friend, but is still happy to get a present like that! But no, besides that, Tsubasa ensured that he was preparing an actual gift for Tackey, but he wouldn't tell us what it is. The hints were that it's something to do with being exhausted, so the audience guessed a furou (Japanese bath)?! Tsubasa said something like that, so Tackey guessed "Takizawa ONSEN?!!" (hot springs). They joked a bit more, but didn't actually tell us what the gift is.
Then T&T said the real appeal of T&T are the songs you dance along to, so they'd be singing a set of dance songs! The audience slowly started to stand up, and T&T thanked us for that and said it made them happy. But also that it's ok if we sit too! Haha, sitting fans make them happy too!
10. Yume Monogatari
When you think of T&T songs to dance to, it's gotta be Yume Monogatari ne!!
They shot out streamers for this song which reached everywhere but the 3rd floor T_T Luckily we found some nice girls after the concert who had a bunch and gave us one streamer each :D
11. HO! Summer
12. x ~dame~
13. Venus
14. REAL DX
15. Ai wa Takaramono
I think T&T consider this song to be their song of encouragement for Japan, so they asked us to please let them sing it again.
They said some short parting words, which was surprising as only an hour and a half had passed, then left the stage until we called them out for the...
[Encore]
T&T came out pretty quickly as they didn't change at all for this concert. Tsubasa said "wow, this was pretty short wasn't it?" but teased that they had the recording for SMAP's show next so had to go already!! The audience called for one more song anyway, so T&T said they would do an encore since they haven't done "THAT" song yet, right?
T&T did the motions for Crazy Rainbow and asked "this song right?" To which the audience applauded, but then they asked "Is it ok that we don't sing your FAVORITE song... KAMEN??!" xDD They said it's ok, they'll do Kamen during the Fall tour to make up for it... and create many versions of it! Like a rock version, ballad version, KABUKI version... haha.
Then T&T gave it their all and sang:
16. Crazy Rainbow
17. Mirai koukai
♥
[Final MC]
Tackey & Tsubasa thanked us again for making it out to the concert, and as a special thank you said that they'd say goodbye to all of us individually!!! (?!!!) The exited the arena on carts through the arena exits (not backstage) and said they'd be waiting for us at the exit! (?!!!)
Then one of the staff members came out and started telling us things about what happened during the planning of this concert. Apparently Takitsuba planned out the arena staging (I think) and this was their first time doing it. Because of the earthquake, they were originally told by the jimusho (Johnny's company) that they should cancel the concert in Yokohama, but T&T insisted that they have it anyway - even if they had to cut back on the electricity. They told the jimusho that the fans would still come, and would definitely understand the circumstances.
As it was reported in various articles, T&T also donated a lot of clothes and items for the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami victims and helped load the truck themselves. They even dressed with the intention of personally delivering the items to the area, saying "some of our fans live there!" but the jimusho stopped them from going.
As she was announcing this, she kept saying how the jimusho would probably be pissed that she was telling us this information. But it was all in the purpose of letting us know just how much T&T cherish their fans. For that reason, she asked us to please respect that and keep it in mind as we all left the arena to say goodbye to T&T.
Then three other staff members came out to explain how the exiting would go. They called us out by sections and we were led by an escort to the exit. Luckily we got called pretty early so didn't have to wait too long.
The exit was set up basically like Marching J. There were 3? tables of donation boxes that each line went through. MAD were manning the boxes so we got really near them (I'd probably be extremely excited if I knew who they were =x). Then you proceed past the stage that T&T were standing at, saying bye to all the fans. Me and my friend decided to play up the foreigner card by yelling "THANK YOU!!!" in English to them x3 Tackey was surprised and his eyes got really big then he smiled at us, then Tsubasa did the same xD Sooo cute! ♥♥♥
And thus ended what was probably the shortest, but also the best concert ever xD Only 17 songs in comparison to the 29? in my last report. The actual concert ended in about 1 hr 45 minutes, but I assume getting everyone out took a long time and the fact that we all got to see them up close was definitely worth it.
Arigatou, TakiTsuba!!! ♥ Here's hoping they come to Nagano for their fall tour!!!
---
Overall it was a decadent weekend! Yokohama is so booming with awesomeness. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe, California Pizza Kitchen (!!), and I was able to buy some dried green mango~ Next time I need to schedule in some Anna Millers ;9 Too much good food in one place!
Wish I had the patience to go down to Yoyogi for Marching J (NEEEEWSSSS ;_;), but at least I got a little taste of it at this concert :)
*Pictures of the streamer and towel to come later
T&T Special Live 2011 // Saturday, April 2, 2011 @ Yokohama Arena 6:00PM
After the earthquake, with the radiation scare and rolling blackouts in Tokyo, I honestly considered not going to this concert. Our seats weren't very good anyway (3rd floor, last row of the front section) and the only good they sold was the face towel (laame!). There was also the "saving electricity" factor in which they cut the energy usage to 1/5th of a normal concert, adding to potential lame-ness. But this actually turned out to be the best concert I've been to so far!!
The arena was set up very simply. There wasn't even a main stage; just the side walkways, one going through the middle, and a round, small center stage. There were 4 big screens around the top of the arena and two TACKEY & TSUBASA signs, and the middle round screen that showed lyrics and some graphics. Other than that, no frills.
Before the concert started, the screens showed messages of encouragement from Tackey and Tsubasa, like "Believe in the power of Japan! We want to see your smiles soon!" etc.
Then, Tackey & Tsubasa came out from the side stages, and the concert began!
1. Sora no Screen
2. One day,One dream
3. Ai wa Takaramono
They performed Ai wa Takaramono on the center round stage, which rotated so that they could face all areas of the arena. Their last pose was only facing one way though, so they kept their poses and shuffled all the way around so we could all see xDD
[MC]
Tackey and Tsubasa had the audience do their T&T calls (see previous Takitsuba report)! When Tackey picked a guy out from the front row, he was blown back when the guy yelled "TSUBASA!" instead of Tackey XDD Poor thing!
Some Jrs also came to see the concert. MAD was there and yelled out "ZACHOU!!" (Chairman!!) for Tackey xD
T&T then started their MC and talked about the earthquake, how Osaka unfortunately got canceled and how they considered canceling the Yokohama shows too. But because their fans really wanted to see them in concert, T&T pleaded with Johnny-san to let them do the concert.
Tsubasa informed us that they normally use 1300kw of power (at first he messed up and said 300kw, lol), but today they'd use only 255kw. However, to make up for the lack of frills, they would definitely get close to the 3rd floor (!!!) and that today's concert was all about "connection with the fans" ♥ ?!?!!
4. Michi
I haven't heard this song in so long, it was gorgeous live!
During the bridge, they started to thank us for coming and said some words about the earthquake. It sounded like the parting words they normally do at the end of the concert, so Tsubasa reassured us afterward that this was not the end of the concert ^^;
They exited the stage then there was a video of the Marching J event.
5. Love Spiral
When T&T reappeared, tehy were on tall carts that reached the 3rd floor and drove around the arena!!! So when they got to our section, we got to see them up close (10? rows away)!! They drove to opposite sides of the arena, so we saw Tsubasa first. Then they switched and broke into...
6. Jikan ryokou
Then Tackey started to come our way! As he came our way, he picked something up... and before we knew it AN AUTOGRAPHED BALL WAS FLYING RIGHT AT MY FRIEND XDDD
She caught it perfectly!! Kya!! It was so awesome and unbelievable!! xD Luckily 1. it was a perfect straight shot to her and 2. T&T fans are well-behaved so there was no fighting *phew* Another ball that he threw accidentally went under some stands, but there was no crazy riot of fangirls. I ♥ that T&T fangirls are really mostly polite housewives xD
7. Sha la la ~ BACKBORN Medley
For this medley they moved INTO the 2nd floor A-block stands!! They walked up and down the aisles and even through some rows of the A-block.
8.Luv the Shangri-la
This song was also done in the A-block. Although it was disappointing they never left the A-block, it was shocking how close they got to the fans!! This really was a concert about "connection with the fans"!
9. Yamanote-sen sotomawari
I ♥ this song so much xD They went back to the round walkway and performed this song while running around the whole walkway. Too cute! The PV played on the screens.
[MC]
The audience sat for the MC.
They talked about Takizawa's kabuki coming up and how Tsubasa is learning Spanish for his TV program. T&T shouted out some "Gracias!"-s to the audience.
They also talked about how they will be doing a Fall concert tour! The dates and places haven't been decided yet... so they decided to come up with the start date with the audience! Someone shouted 9/11, because that's their debut date. They asked what day that is, apparently it is a Sunday, so T&T decided it was perfect! So according to T&T, their fall tour will start on September 11, 2011! xDD
Then, Tsubasa started talking about Tackey's birthday (March 29). Tsubasa teased that Tackey's turning 35 this year! To which Tackey scolded him not to say since people will believe it xD Tackey actually turned 29 this year, making him the same age as Tsubasa (at least until October). As Tackey did something extraordinary for Tsubasa's birthday (see previous T&T concert report), Tsubasa wanted to do something extraordinary for him too. However, because of the earthquake circumstances, the timing was bad and he never got to... so he said we'd do it today!!
Tsubasa asked the audience to sing "Happy Birthday" to Tackey. For the "dear..." part, he said let's sing "dear Tackey" the first time, then "dear Kabuki" the second time xDD Then the background music for "Happy Birthday" came on and we sang to Tackey/Kabuki xD Tsubasa kept messing up the timing of the last "Happy Birthday" line, which was hilarious (it was hard to tell when the HA would come in).
Tsubasa then went on to tell us about his quest for the right present for Tackey. After a lot of thought, he decided that the best gift for Tackey.. is Tsubasa's good health and hard work!! Tackey laughed and said he sure has a strange friend, but is still happy to get a present like that! But no, besides that, Tsubasa ensured that he was preparing an actual gift for Tackey, but he wouldn't tell us what it is. The hints were that it's something to do with being exhausted, so the audience guessed a furou (Japanese bath)?! Tsubasa said something like that, so Tackey guessed "Takizawa ONSEN?!!" (hot springs). They joked a bit more, but didn't actually tell us what the gift is.
Then T&T said the real appeal of T&T are the songs you dance along to, so they'd be singing a set of dance songs! The audience slowly started to stand up, and T&T thanked us for that and said it made them happy. But also that it's ok if we sit too! Haha, sitting fans make them happy too!
10. Yume Monogatari
When you think of T&T songs to dance to, it's gotta be Yume Monogatari ne!!
They shot out streamers for this song which reached everywhere but the 3rd floor T_T Luckily we found some nice girls after the concert who had a bunch and gave us one streamer each :D
11. HO! Summer
12. x ~dame~
13. Venus
14. REAL DX
15. Ai wa Takaramono
I think T&T consider this song to be their song of encouragement for Japan, so they asked us to please let them sing it again.
They said some short parting words, which was surprising as only an hour and a half had passed, then left the stage until we called them out for the...
[Encore]
T&T came out pretty quickly as they didn't change at all for this concert. Tsubasa said "wow, this was pretty short wasn't it?" but teased that they had the recording for SMAP's show next so had to go already!! The audience called for one more song anyway, so T&T said they would do an encore since they haven't done "THAT" song yet, right?
T&T did the motions for Crazy Rainbow and asked "this song right?" To which the audience applauded, but then they asked "Is it ok that we don't sing your FAVORITE song... KAMEN??!" xDD They said it's ok, they'll do Kamen during the Fall tour to make up for it... and create many versions of it! Like a rock version, ballad version, KABUKI version... haha.
Then T&T gave it their all and sang:
16. Crazy Rainbow
17. Mirai koukai
♥
[Final MC]
Tackey & Tsubasa thanked us again for making it out to the concert, and as a special thank you said that they'd say goodbye to all of us individually!!! (?!!!) The exited the arena on carts through the arena exits (not backstage) and said they'd be waiting for us at the exit! (?!!!)
Then one of the staff members came out and started telling us things about what happened during the planning of this concert. Apparently Takitsuba planned out the arena staging (I think) and this was their first time doing it. Because of the earthquake, they were originally told by the jimusho (Johnny's company) that they should cancel the concert in Yokohama, but T&T insisted that they have it anyway - even if they had to cut back on the electricity. They told the jimusho that the fans would still come, and would definitely understand the circumstances.
As it was reported in various articles, T&T also donated a lot of clothes and items for the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami victims and helped load the truck themselves. They even dressed with the intention of personally delivering the items to the area, saying "some of our fans live there!" but the jimusho stopped them from going.
As she was announcing this, she kept saying how the jimusho would probably be pissed that she was telling us this information. But it was all in the purpose of letting us know just how much T&T cherish their fans. For that reason, she asked us to please respect that and keep it in mind as we all left the arena to say goodbye to T&T.
Then three other staff members came out to explain how the exiting would go. They called us out by sections and we were led by an escort to the exit. Luckily we got called pretty early so didn't have to wait too long.
The exit was set up basically like Marching J. There were 3? tables of donation boxes that each line went through. MAD were manning the boxes so we got really near them (I'd probably be extremely excited if I knew who they were =x). Then you proceed past the stage that T&T were standing at, saying bye to all the fans. Me and my friend decided to play up the foreigner card by yelling "THANK YOU!!!" in English to them x3 Tackey was surprised and his eyes got really big then he smiled at us, then Tsubasa did the same xD Sooo cute! ♥♥♥
And thus ended what was probably the shortest, but also the best concert ever xD Only 17 songs in comparison to the 29? in my last report. The actual concert ended in about 1 hr 45 minutes, but I assume getting everyone out took a long time and the fact that we all got to see them up close was definitely worth it.
Arigatou, TakiTsuba!!! ♥ Here's hoping they come to Nagano for their fall tour!!!
---
Overall it was a decadent weekend! Yokohama is so booming with awesomeness. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe, California Pizza Kitchen (!!), and I was able to buy some dried green mango~ Next time I need to schedule in some Anna Millers ;9 Too much good food in one place!
Wish I had the patience to go down to Yoyogi for Marching J (NEEEEWSSSS ;_;), but at least I got a little taste of it at this concert :)
*Pictures of the streamer and towel to come later