Hey! Back with my thoughts on BEST FICTION TOUR!

Hello everyone! I'm back at home a few hours ago.





As you know, I went to 'BEST FICTION TOUR 2008-2009' on April 28 at Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo. It was a sunny yet cold and windy day (weird huh?!) and I was there at around 4.15pm (we are only allow to enter at 5.30pm). As usual, I saw the pink circus tent and knew at once that I was at the correct venue. What caught my attention was instead a smaller booth further down at one corner. It has posters hanging on top and a TV showing the CM of "WILD/Dr.". As I went closer, what shocked me was that they also selling older singles of Namie! I was looking for those all over Tokyo's HMV and other music stores but with no luck. They were selling singles at dated as 'Say the word', so I immediately took 'ALARM', 'ALL FOR YOU' and 'GIRL TALK/the SPEED STAR' CD+DVD! And they even let you choose one out of four 60s70s80s/BEST FICTION posters as a gift! COOL! Finally I bought all the stuffs I wanted to buy and waited outside the entrance of a hour, and it's damn cold! >_<

I was seated at North side, Floor 1, Section A, Row 7, Seat 18. No idea whether it was at the nearest section to the stage or the furthest but it was the furthest to my disappointment. However to my surprise, the Yoyogi stadium doesn't seems as big as I remembered from the DVDs. I could see the stage very clearly even I'm sitting far away (but luckily not on the second floor). Planning to take some photos but due to the poor function of my lousy camera, I couldn't take good photos without flash so as not to alert the security people. So I wait yet another hour for the audience to start filling up the stadium.

After much waiting, the lights finally dims off and 'BEST FICTION' logo appeared on the red curtain. The side screens showed a short segments of Alice from "Do Me More" PV entering the BEST FICTION TOUR book. The opening circus music of 'Do Me More' started, veins started to grow out the logo and a couple of female dancers dancing with lace appeared randomly on the stage. Finally the curtain moved aside and Namie was there, sitting on the throne-like chair. The first thing that came to my mind when I was watching the side-screen was 'Gosh... Why is Namie looking so tanned?! Or maybe she never loses her tan all these years?' LOL! Since this was the first time I actually went to large scale concert like this, I absolutely have no idea to look at the whole stage or at Namie or at the side-screens. I ended up being so confused and distracted that I felt lost! Maybe because most of the first half of the show consist of new choreography, I can't related to the performance at all! And some more I was very far away from the stage so I couldn't really felt the intensity and energy from the stage. I only knew that the band is damn loud and Namie sounded the same as what we heard from the DVD except LOUDER! :P Next is 'Violet Sauce' and they uses the same choreography as previously but it's rather boring because the stage had minimum lighting effects and looked really empty. It was just Namie and her dancers moving around the stage. It was cool to look from the side-screens as they are close-ups but from far, the whole performance looked uninteresting. 'ALARM' started off with a more rockish opening and I think they are planning to change the song from a R&B/Hip-Hop to a rock song lol! Can't remember the new choreography at all because they are weak and random in my opinion. Once again I ended up watching the side-screens more than looking at Namie or the stage itself. Next song started and I had no idea what song it was from listening to the starting segment and even the first line Namie sang. Then I realized it was the new arrangement for 'SO CRAZY'. It sounded pretty cool but still no impression of the choreography.

After 'SO CRAZY' ended, a short interlude segment of 'Alice' looking for some shoe thingy was played and 'NEW LOOK' started with the revealing of the huge shoe stage prop on the right side of the stage. Japanese women all around me YELLED like they never yelled before! "KAWAII!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!" Horrible... Next is 'Hello'. Again new choreography that I couldn't remember or relate to. Couldn't remember what I saw during 'GIRL TALK' or 'shine more' at all *sigh* I like said before, I couldn't concentrate on the show at all during the first half. 'Full moon' was cool because she uses the choreography from 'PLAY tour' and added some cool movements across the stage. Only remembered the cool LED screen effects during 'Luvotomy' and again random choreography of 'Put Em Up'. By this point of time, I had no idea why I started yawning felt restless... Finally the stage became dark and stars showing on the large LED screen. I took the chance to sit down, relax, and thinking why I'm not enjoying that I saw for the past 30 minutes or so...

The words 'Wishing on the same star' appeared on the LED screen and Namie appeared on the left side of the stage, sitting on the moon prop. I was looking at the side-screen and noted quite a few interesting expressions Namie gave during the performance! LOL! Sometimes she smiled very awkwardly, gave a blow of air, sigh of relieve, touched her forehead as if checking her temperature (she's sick for your info) and totally gave up on hitting the falsetto/high notes.

Another interlude was played and Alice ended up finding some golden globes and 'ROCK STEADY' was next. I think this is the time that I started to feel myself getting more into the concert and enjoying myself. 'FUNKY TOWN' and 'No' were great also because I can sing and move along with the old choreography. 'Say the word' and 'White light' sounded good too.

Next are the new added on performances of 'Dr.' and 'WILD'. Both sounded very very good when performed live. Especially 'WILD' because of the electro/techno arrangements. You will feel the beats as if it's your heartbeat! A bit disappointed with 'Dr.' though. Expecting some cool looking choreography from what we saw on the short preview clip, but it turned out to be random choreography similar to the rest of the concert...

The best part of the concert started with 'Hide & Seek'. New choreography also but I started to find myself staring at Namie constantly, forgetting to clap, move along the music or how my legs sore after hours of waiting and sitting... 'Queen of Hip-Pop' has new choreography that I can't remember. Really cool to watch 'Sexy Girl' live especially the dance interlude. But too bad there's only 4 dancers plus Namie during the whole performance, making the whole performance/stage looked rather empty at times. Can't remember 'WANT ME, WANT ME' except they used the same choreography as PLAY tour. 'Top Secret' is very cool too because of the horizontal bar dance, which looked much cooler live than on the DVD. Lastly, 'BLACK DIAMOND' and 'WHAT A FEELING' were very high energy songs to perform. They overwhelmed me quite a bit. Finally ,the curtain draws up during the last few seconds of 'WHAT A FEELING' even when they are still dancing. So there's no proper bye-bye or Arigato this time round.

As usual, all the shouting for an encore started and we waited like 10~15 minutes appears ago and sang 'WoWa'. This time, the new choreography looks pretty cool maybe because the old one looks too plain. Can't remember 'CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK' well but it was really a fun song to perform live. Finally the concert ended with 'Baby Don't Cry' and introduction of the band while they walked up to do the final bow. They introduced the dancers earlier on but I can't remember when. Tetsuharu was replaced by a guy named Mittan. The new female dancer was pretty cute too! ^o^

In the end, this was a once in a life time experience with a mixture of excitement, confusion, disappointment and surreal. Everything went pass so fast that it ended before I realized it started. Lots of new choreography that made me felt disconnected with the performance and sometimes, looking at the side-screen was more interesting than looking at the actual stage performance. But one thing I'm sure is that the DVD will be GREAT! AS you know, I totally forgotten to take any photos or videos because too many thoughts were on my mind through out the show. Sorry for that.

So that's my review and excuse me for any English grammar or sentence structure problems etc because I'm a bit lazy to go though and edit it again. Thanks!

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