I wanted to do this report
after I went to sleep. But since I'm still up and finally feeling better after a hot shower and a decent meal, I guess I'll try to recollect what happened when I went.
I got to Irving Plaza at around 1:18 pm and the line just barely went around the corner of Irving Place and 16th St. For the next 6 painful hours I stood in line in the freezing cold as various people passed by, staring at us and being totally confused. While my hands and feet were feeling numb I passed the time listening to my Utada playlist on my Ipod nano. It contains all the albums she released, including
Precious which I was lucky enough to find at BookOff many months ago. About 3 hours before the doors opened a cameraman came out and started recording everyone on the line outside. If there is a DVD coming out for this concert I'm the short filipino with glasses wearing a black fedora hat and unethusiatically waving to the camera.
At about 5 pm I spotted 3 scalpers trying to sell "extra tickets" to people in the line.
If they only knew that
everyone on line already had tickets to the sold out concert.
Once the doors opened at 7 I immediately when straight to the bathroom because I was
too dumb enough to actually hold it in for 6 hours.
After I checked in my jacket and messenger bag I went up the stairs leading to where I concert is taking place. Had I not gone to the bathroom and checked in my stuff I probably would have been able to get a spot in front of the stage. Instead I ended up near the speakers by the right side of the room. If that wasn't bad enough, there were plenty of tall people in front of me. (Damn you genetics!)
As the room was filling up DJ Mike Rizzo was up on stage, already playing some tracks. I gotta admit that DJ Mike was decent at the Fillmore. Unlike the other shows from what I've heard the NYC crowd was actually enjoying what he played. Nice mixing, including Lady Gaga's
Paparazzi, and at the end of his set, Dirty Desire. After he left the techies were still doing some final adjustments (for about 5 to 10 minutes) before the band finally came on stage. The crowd was getting really wild.
Opening (from Exodus) was played, and then Hikki finally appeared, first singing
On and On. She looked absolutely amazing in a glittery black top and frilly leopard print skirt. Her messy brown hair looked good as well. I don't know how it was with the other shows because the crowd went crazy! And extremely loud too.
In her later MCs she admitted that compared to the Las Vegas crowd, the NYC crowd was the loudest. The crowd responded by cheering louder than ever that night, so loud that Hikki was squatting down and covering her ears.
Of course they cheered really loud whenever New York was mentioned, like in
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence - FYI. BTW I cheered with them. Gotta show my pride as a New Yorker.
Hikki was happy to know that her New York fans loved her very much. She felt good "performing in her hometown." She also mention that some of her high school friends showed up. Even one of her cousins came. (Don't ask me. I don't know who they are.)
Like the rest of her tour the setlist was pretty much the same, except without an audience request. In
Poppin' she got all the girls screaming. You know which parts of the song I'm talking about.
The
Passion/Sanctuary got everyone riled up when she suddenly switched from japanese to english midway. Her japanese songs got a lot of fans screaming. Probably since a good number of the crowd were japanese. They were also singing along with her, myself included.
I did have a hard time seeing her play the keyboard when she was singing
Sakura Drops and
Stay Gold. I only managed to see her head. Good thing there were cameramen around the stage and I had a good glimpse at their screens while she played.
When
First Love started playing I teared up. Like many others like me it was the very first song that got me hooked on Hikki, and also introduced me to japanese music. Similar to Sai's Boston report,
First Love played a big role in my life. About 12 years my family & I were invited to one of my cousin's Debut in Canada. I was already depressed for 2 years and being at this party made it much worse. I was surrounded by complete strangers and I didn't get along with the rest of my relatives. In short, I was alone, miserable, and I wanted to get the fuck out of there.
And then
First Love is played. At that time I didn't know the name of the song or even who sang it. I didn't even know what the lyrics were about. Once I heard it, I felt calm, relaxed, filled with hope. For a brief moment in time I was happy. When I came back home my sister had already found out the name of the song and who sang it since she also liked that song. We listened to that song for weeks. I listened to it for years, whenever I felt miserable. I guess in some way going to this concert was my way of saying thanks to Utada Hikaru for brightening up my life. BTW I was one of those fans who were singing along to the very end.
Getting back to the setlist, I liked hearing
Devil Inside and
Kremin Dusk, 2 of my favorite tracks on
Exodus other than
Exodus '04. Oooh...I just remembered at the end of
You Make Me Want to Be a Man, the part with the percussion, Hikki decides to walk back towards the drums, picks up a pair of drumsticks, and just beats on to those drumheads like there's no tomorrow.
Like the rest of the crowd I wasn't feeling it when she sang
The Bitter End. She rocked it anyway since she's Hikki.
When
Automatic played the crowd would yell out whenever "It's Automatic!" came up. I was singing whenever the chorus came up.
The crowd pretty sad when she said that she was gonna sing the final song of the concert. *
coughliarcough* I knew there was gonna be an encore. When
Dirty Desire finally started the crowd went out of control. She looked hot when she was headbanging.
I think she did some headbanging during
Poppin' and maybe in one of her
Exodus songs. I'm not quite sure. She threw the devil sign somewhere during one of these songs as well but I can't quite remember which song.
During her MCs, Hikki was pretty much her shy and dorky self. She blushed when we all told her we loved her. Even her canadian fans decided to show their love. When she asked if there were any of her japanese fans out there a good amount of us said yes. She knew right away that some of us were lying. After that she spoke in japanese. She had trouble talking about NYC since she basically knew everything about the city and lived there while growing up. However she did say that the crowd that night was the typical NYC crowd she's used to because of it's diversity. She stated that in the other cities she went to on her tour that the crowds out there felt like she was looking at the UN. She felt sorry that all of us waited outside in the freezing cold weather. She even called the fans that decided to wait since 2 am crazy.
But the next thing she said sounded very kinky. Hikki said that once we were inside we would slowly warm up and by the end of the night we would be all hot and sweaty.
She was right about what would happen in the end, especially after singing
Dirty Desire.
There was this one funny moment during the concert. Hikki was trying to talk, but then some idiot was talking at the same time, disrupting her MC. Hikki straight up told him to be quiet.
That is the awesomeness that is Utada Hikaru.
I actually wanted her to jump down from the stage and deck the guy.
There was a long time gap betwen the last song and the encore. The crowd seemed pretty tired from all the screaming, and arm waving, and the head rocking, and all that jumping. These didn't stop them from calling out for an encore. They tried saying "En-core!", "U-ta-da!", clapping, even stomping on the floor until the band and her reappeared one final time. Needless to say the crowd went wild shen she sang
Simple and Clean, the Kingdom Hearts fans were probably happy. I actually wanted to hear
Hikari, but who cares. Hikki sings whatever she wants to sing.
After singing
Me Muero she threw out those autographed Kuma balls (eww...that sounded totally wrong
). I wanted to catch one of them with my hat, but she threw one about 2-3 feet ahead of me.
That didn't bother me one bit. Why? Because....
I
HAD
THE
BEST
MOST
FUCKING
AWESOME
NIGHT
OF
MY
LIFE!!!(So far)
Those 6 painful hours were worth it. The tiny inconveniences during the concert, I can deal with. Being deaf from the speakers, if Hikki was the reason I can't hear anymore, I would be happy knowing that I the last thing I heard before losing my hearing is Hikki's wonderful singing voice.
I hope all of you enjoyed this report as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I know Hikki will. She told us she would be happy if we posted good things about her and the concert at the Fillmore.
*Sigh* I just realized that I amount of time I used in writing this could've been spent sleeping.
Good night...er....Good morning.
Topic: (Artist) Utada Hikaru (Read 221030 times)