LM.C went on a Japan tour to promote their new album, “PERFECT FANTASY”. They played a show on Friday, February 7 called ＜LIVE TOUR2014-PERFECT FANTSY-Release Party＞.
The concert opened to the album’s opening track, “Neo Fantasia” playing over the speakers. As the red velvet curtains opened to the sound of screaming fans, LM.C started with the rock tune, “DOUBLE DRAGON”. Maya was dressed in all white, and Aiji in all black, just like in their promo photos.
“We’ve prepared a lot of new songs! Are you ready to go wild!?”
Maya taunted the crowd as they played their new songs just as comfortably as their more seasoned songs. This was still the beginning of their two-month long tour, so I will refrain from describing the set list in detail. However this tour is where we can see the new-and-improved LM.C. This was the first time that LM.C played new songs before their releases and the first time that Maya explained lyrics before she sang them.
Maya told the crowd, “Next is a song that I dug deep within myself to sing”, as they went into “KINJIRARETA UCHU”. The live band version of the song was quite different from the CD version and brought a certain rawness to it. Blue penlights waved amongst the crowd. “88” became a crowd sing along as they went into their second new song. It was a much different scene for LM.C.
“I wrote this song while wondering what I would be doing if LM.C did not exist in the future.”
LM.C spoke to the crowd under a mirror ball and went into the painful melodies and lyrics to the mid-tempo ballad, “Mono-logue”.
“I literally wrote the feelings and landscapes I saw in a dream one day.” The nostalgic and sweet and sour feelings of “DREAMscape” reflected these words. The crowd carefully listened to the new song as to not miss a single lyric. Their galaxy-like sound has not changed, but the LM.C world has more depth with their more tangible songs of loneliness.
Showing their innovation, LM.C turned Akasaka BLITZ into a dance floor for the last half of the show. They also made a very special announcement.
“These songs developed because you all listened to them. There is no greater happiness than this, so we want to live the next two months with this happiness. Oh, and there is no more Tokyo is there? Who thinks we should do Tokyo?!”
The crowd screamed, and LM.C made an announcement that they will play Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in September. This will be LM.C’s third open-air concert. Their first open-air concert in 2009 was called, ＜YAON de FEVER＞. Their second one was called ＜YAON de FEVER FEVER!!＞. So this third one will top the other two and be called ＜YAON de FEVER MAX!!＞. They then announced, “We’ll hand out flyers with the date when you are leaving.” to keep the tension up.
LM.C then took the concert into an upbeat zone of their hits. There were moments where Aiji played guitar solos up front. Maya said during an interlude, “This song will definitely become a very important song for us!” They then played the last song on their new album, the super poppy “DIVE TO FANTASY”.
“We’ve finished our set list. Today is a party, so we will play another song.” This is unusual for LM.C, so the crowd was surprised as they played “OH MY JULIET”.
After the performance, LM.C said, “This was a great first show of the tour. We will play the best shows at open-air, and for the rest of this century.” Aiji was so excited that he accidentally announced the September 7 date of the open-air show. Maya laughed, “what a waste” to the ruining of the post-show surprise. “Let’s continue this on tour!”, Maya shouted.
LM.C’s new history is picking up speed, even after eight years. They are a perfect fantasy that exists within the real world. I thought their live show embodied that.
Interview & text: Hiroko Yamamoto
source: http://www.en.barks.jp/news/?id=1000004309
