Colorful Rock Party: Ayabie at Shibuya AX

From the playful whistles that made up the opening SE, one could tell that the final of Ayabie's Colorful Rock Party tour would be a lot of fun. High from a fantastic performance the day before at V ROCK FESTIVAL, the band was in high spirits, as evidenced by Aoi's flying jump as he ran on stage and straight into the bouncy first song, Summer Time. The cheeky melody set the tone for the evening, bringing summertime memories to a cold autumn evening.

Aoi's energy was truly unstoppable as he play-fought Yumehito in Cubic[L/R]ock before showcasing some impressive speedy vocals in Action, taken from the movie of the same name in which Ayabie had guest-starred. "Last year we made our major debut, it's been a year and we made many new songs. Thank you for supporting us" Aoi said, welcoming the fans in the first MC of the evening, before introducing the ever-stunning Kanaria. The interplay between Intetsu's strong bass line and delicate tremulous notes from Yumehito with Takehito's underlying, soft Spanish guitar lines was beautiful live. Compared, the single release, Aitakute seemed a tad contrived.

Seeming to keep this part of the set soft, the following was Secret Room from the Natsu Monogatari single release. Suddenly it felt as if the 80s had come back, with a smooth lounge-like jazz style set to a piano accompaniment that seemed more suited to a clientele with slicked back hair and white chinos, than the punky crowd of AX. The performance was confident with a particularly lovely acoustic guitar solo from Takehito, even if the sound was a touch on the cheesy side.

The high energy songs soon returned with the bright and cheery, Yubisaki. As the trio of Yumehito, Intetsu and Takehito swung their guitars around on stage to the beat, the audience danced along delicately, making heart signs in time with Kenzo's drumming. Yumehito seemed to be having much fun with the song, experimenting with almost U2 styled effect in his playing. It coupled well with the Kenzo-penned, bleepy, masterpiece, before a breezy Beach Boys opener led to another drop of sunshine in the form of Natsu Monogatari.

"We played V ROCK yesterday but a one-man is better" Aoi told the crowd, "We can see more smiles here". These smiles became broader when Aoi, continuing his MC decided to regale the audience with tales from the tour, particularly how his T-shirts had shrunk from continuous washing! "Today we can go for three or four hours" he said smiling as a way of introducing masquerade. "We can't go home in the typhoon!".

For some reason the audience responded very well to this, and the bundle of popular Ayabie songs that followed. Intetsu and Yumehito joined the crowd in head banging while Aoi screamed "jump!" continuously. All lights were blaring as masquerade gave way for the furious towel waving of Izayoi Kaze. This aggressive pop rock seemed to reinvigorate the crowd who punched along energetically while Aoi screamed at them "Can you still go on?" At times, the furitsuke did indeed look rather tiring, particularly that of Browny, which resembled an aerobic workout more than a dance, and Shine, with its perfectly timed Mexican wave of outstretched arms as the members turned right and left in accordance with the beat. The band themselves seemed to particularly enjoy Browny, with their cute synchronized pin-wheel dance led by a Yumehito who grinned cheekily as he messed around with the pattern.

The ensuing MC was a welcome break as Aoi introduced their new song, Sayonara. "It is not about saying "goodbye" though!" he said before the première performance. Sayonara recalled the energy of an older Ayabie, after two calmer singles. It was aggressive in the verses but still retained a sense of fun in the poppy chorus. Despite an unnecessary pitch change, Sayonara was a good sign of Ayabie's direction and led neatly into the final two, Yubikiri and TheMe. Having TheMe last was an interesting choice, in that it had recently been the opening song at events. However as it had the energy to kick off a gig, it also proved a fitting close. Yumehito's guitar solo was tight as ever, and Aoi had fun directing the movements of the audience until the end.

A few loud encore chants later and Yumehito came bounding onto the stage for his usual long MC and merchandise introduction. It was typical Yumehito chirpiness and his way of reintroducing the band was novel. He divided the room into five sections, shimote (left side) shimoote (left at the back), centre, kamite (right side) and kamiite (right at the back) and then in turn got each quarter to chant a different syllable of the member name, which left Takehito's name being chanted as 'Ta Ke Hi To Yeaahh'. Eventually, Aoi was reintroduced and he recounted some fun memories of the tour and how Intetsu's mother had asked Aoi to teach her the dance to Shine.

The music began again with Koto no hanoru and a bit of the heavier side of Ayabie. Intetsu went all out with his head banging while the other members ran ceaselessly about the stage. It proved that, despite the lighter nature of recent singles, Ayabie could still rock. The mass of head banging and violently moving hair continued with Sanbyou. The crowd were going crazy as Aoi screamed '3.2.1 JUMP' at them. The evening finally concluded with Digital Neverland. The silver streamers that once again turned AX into a sparkling wonderland somehow managed to reach the second floor, startling a few guests. It was a sweet end, as the cute electronica drew the colorful rock party to a close.

Ayabie had finished their first major tour and with the promise of Sayonara, their colorful rock keeps on partying.


Set list

-SE-
1. Summer Time
2. Cubic'「L／R」ock
3. action
4. Orion
5. Kanariya
6. Aitakute
7. secret room
8. Kirisame
9. Yubisaki
10. master piece
11. Natsu monogatari
12. masquarade
13. Izayoi kaze
14. Tsukuyomi
15. Browny
16. shine
17. Sayonara
18. Yubikiri
19. The Me

En
1. Koto no hanoru
2. Sanbyou
3. Ai no uta
4. Digital Neverland