I just got home from the Saitama Super Arena.
I saw both concerts today - the 3.30pm afternoon show and the 7.00pm night show.
It was raining and a little cool in Saitama. The staff searched my bag for cameras and recording equipment on my way in. The audience was about 80% male / 20% female, all different kinds of people.
There was a full film crew there recording both concerts. Lots of camera's everywhere.
The setlist for both concerts was the same except for in the afternoon concert Reina did her solo song from the 7.5 christmas CD and at the night concert Takahashi did her solo track from the 7.5 christmas CD.
Also, during the 'intermission' before "Kanashimi Twilight" a different video was played. At the afternoon show it was Gaki doing a radio interview with Kamei, but at the nighttime concert it was Gaki doing a radio interview with Yoshizawa.
At the nighttime concert streamers were fired over the crowd in the final song, but there were no streamers at the afternoon show. The nighttime show seemed a little louder to me also, but maybe that's because I was sitting in a different location.
Takahashi could stand and did a little dancing, but she couldn't jump around or do any of the more energetic dances. She spent most of the show standing in front of the musical note props on the left and right sides of the stage.
Yoshizawa introduced the new Chinese members today (at both concerts). Yoshizawa spoke some Chinese during their introduction! Both the Chinese girls were wearing school uniforms and they spoke only in Japanese, they didn't speak any Chinese. JunJun said she wanted to sing Morning Musume songs and that she likes curry rice. LinLin said she has been listening to "Sexy 8 Beat" a lot and that she wanted Yoshizawa to explain the meaning of some of the songs to her. They both repeated the same introduction, word for word, at the nighttime concert too. LinLin's Japanese is much better than JunJun's Japanese. Both the Chinese girls were really cute and the crowd responded very positively! I didn't hear or see any negative reactions to them.
Yoshizawa said that both the Chinese girls will be featured on the next Morning Musume single.
The Chinese girls didn't sing anything at todays show, they just did their introductions and then walked offstage.
Miki had a big microphone problem in the afternoon show during her solo song - there was a huge burst of white noise and her voice disappeared. A member of the stage crew had to run onto the stage and give her a new microphone.
Miki also had a microphone problem during "Love Revolution 21" during the nighttime concert - her voice disappeared noticably for a few lines (not sure if this was a microphone problem or maybe a mixing problem - such as the sound engineer forgetting to unmute a channel on the mixing desk).
Aika's voice was noticably out of tune in a few places, most noticably on her duet with Kamei. But it wasn't a big problem. The crowd really seemed to like her. Sometimes it looked like Aika was lip-synching on other tracks, and Koharu also seemed to be lip-synching occasionally.
Sayumi was giving it 110%! Her dancing was full of energy. Unfortunately she never seems to be featured much on the concert DVDs (maybe because she doesn't sing so often) but at the concert she was great to watch.
Koharu enjoyed herself during her solo song. She was very confident and held the whole crowd's attention single-handedly.
Before the night concert all the members of the audience were given white glowsticks free of charge by staff at the arena (maybe H!P fanclub staff).
During Yoshizawa's graduation performance all the audience waved the white glowsticks like crazy.
During the graduation speeches I didn't see Miki cry at all. The girls that cried the most were Kamei, Koharu and Takahashi. Yoshizawa did not cry at all at any point of the show. Actually she made a lot of funny jokes to try to lighten the mood.
Yoshizawa wished Miki luck leading the new "10 member Morning Musume" which I guess means the chinese girls are seriously being intergrated into the group.
I had a really great time at both the concerts, I recommend anyone that hasn't been yet should go to a concert sometime! It was well worth the money. The main problem for me was that with so many girls on stage sometimes I couldn't watch them all at the same time! The dancing was really great.
Topic: [Tour] Morning Musume 2007 Haru - Sexy 8 Beat (Read 57383 times)