Wednesday, August 04, 2010

SCANDAL live in Hong Kong 2010 - The concert

I decided to include this on a different post after realising the amount of stuff I want to say about the concert. So here it is:

Day 3 - SCANDAL live in HK!

Finally, the day of the concert. Lazy to search for breakfast, so we had dim sum brunch in the hotel restaurant. Not too bad, the har gau, siew mai and egg tarts were excellent.

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And quite reasonably priced too, considering its a restaurant.

We then set off for the concert venue, Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre (HITEC) in Kowloon Bay. Upon reaching the place at about 1.30pm, we spotted a queue that had already formed in front of the auditorium doors D:

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We had no choice but to join the queue, or risk getting a lousy seat. So we sat there for 6 hours, fiddling with our mobile phones, trying to hook onto the elusive free Wi-Fi and spam Twitter updates, munching on snacks and hot dogs. Everything was getting stale when suddenly a small crowd walked past, and amongst them were 2 girls wearing distinctive checkered skirts. Haruna and Tomomi were right in front of our eyes! They were smiling at the crowd and Tomomi gave a wave, while I nudged Eugene and stared in stunned silence. In a flash they disappeared through a door, without allowing me time to dig for my camera.

Not long after the doors finally opened, and we rushed in to get good seats. We ended up somewhere in the middle, but not too far from the stage. It wasn't what I expected, the stage was pretty small for a rock concert, and reminded me of the auditoriums back in my JC and secondary school days. And of course, the concert finally started.

01. SCANDAL Theme
02. Shoujo S
03. S.L.Magic
-MC-
04. Anata ga Mawaru
05. DOLL
06. KOSHI-TANTAN
-MC-
07. Koi no Kajitsu
08. Switch
09. Namida no Regret
-MC-
10. Shunkan Sentimental
11. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
12. SCANDAL BABY
13. Space Ranger

Encore
14. Kagerou
15. EVERYBODY SAY YEAH

I've watched several of their performances on video so I kinda knew what to expect, but still, being part of the audience is a whole different experience. It was my 2nd live rock concert (after MUSE) but I was still taken aback by the loudness of the amplifiers.

Watching SCANDAL do their stuff on stage made me wonder why I hesitated to become a fan a few months back. Whatever doubt that I had of their talents evaporated instantly that night - if you could play as well as they did, dance around on stage like nobody's business AND get the crowd all hyper, then you definitely deserve to be called a star.

As a band they were very tight - all 4 of them knew what each other was playing, and there was this togetherness that they exuded on stage, you could tell from their faces and their eye contact. And most importantly, they looked and sounded as if they were having the time of their lives on stage, which of course infected the audience as well - everyone was waving their hands and singing along to the songs.

Haruna was the main culprit, constantly interacting with the crowd and getting everyone all hyped up with her fist pumping whenever she wasn't singing or playing her guitar. Tomomi was being her usual self, wide smile plastered on her face as she bounced around on stage, flinging her hair all over the place, all while playing her complicated basslines. Rina was stuck on the drums so I didn't really look at her (sorry Eugene :P), but from what I could see she really whacked those drums hard. Of the 4 of them though, Mami really deserves the accolades for that night - showmanship to the max. Every solo was greeted with loud cheers from the crowd, not surprisingly considering how she does them coupled with headbanging, jumping, epic-guitarist poses and of course the guitar-in-your-face move.

The MC parts were hilarious, mostly due to the translator Billy, who reminded me of a dog responding to its owner's calls every time Haruna called him out on stage. The crowd loved him for some reason, despite us not needing his services - most of the audience could understand what the members were saying in Japanese, I could pick out bits and pieces as well. Poor Billy. Oh, and Tomomi said she loved to eat "Yum Cha" when asked what she liked most about Hong Kong :P

Their setlist was quite predictable, most of the songs were crowd favourites like Shoujo S, Doll, Taikimi, Scandal Baby and Shunkan Sentimental, which for some reason (FMA, I believe) was the most popular song for the Hong Kong fans. I think they practically sang the whole song together, and Haruna actually left out one chorus for us to sing.

Surprisingly they also did a couple of B-sides, one of which was Natchi and Eugene's favourite, KOSHI-TANTAN. It was nice to hear some of their older songs like Koi no Kajitsu which I never heard previously, S.L Magic, Kagerou and my personal favourite Space Ranger. They also introduced their new song Everybody Say Yeah during the encore, and despite no one hearing it before, everyone managed to follow along and sing. It was a great song, perfect for lives.

After about 90mins of concert they finally ended with Everybody Say Yeah. It was too short in my opinion, I was expecting a couple more songs for the encore. After the concert ended everyone gathered in front of the stage to take a group photo, and I tried to force my way in by standing on the auditorium chairs. Don't think I could be seen though :(

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After SCANDAL went offstage I whipped out my camera to take photos of the place, while Eugene rushed off to queue for his handshake session, which only those who had pre-ordered their new album Temptation Box could join. I didn't pre-order as I had no way of collecting the album (so was Eugene, but he went ahead anyway - hardcore fan).

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For more pictures and a full account of the concert (in mandarin though) - http://www.anisong.org/?p=1159


After the handshake session Eugene looked like the happiest dude alive.

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Ears still ringing from the concert, we headed back to our hotel where we managed to find some supper. I had a bowl of beef tendon noodles, which tasted pretty good (the beef was very tender and the soup had this spice to it)

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Back at the hotel we blasted SCANDAL songs through the night and celebrated with beer. Our final haul of everything SCANDAL related.

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I bought a copy of their BEST SCANDAL album, while the autographed postcard was Eugene's reward for spending 30 bucks for his 5 seconds of contact with the girls :P

And so that concludes my short trip to Hong Kong.

Mission accomplished!

More pictures on my Facebook and my Photobucket asuna88

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SCANDAL's 2nd studio album, Temptation Box will be released in Japan on 11/8, in Hong Kong on 13/8.

I hope it'll be released here in Singapore, but I'm not too hopeful - its tough to even find BEST SCANDAL here.

2 comments:

  1. Eugene6:25 PM

    BEST SCANDAL was actually on sale for quite some time at the Ctiylink HMV,i check it out everytime i visit that area,though it's mostly the HK and Zai jian Yinghua versions lol.Think you'll have to wait a while for TempBox to be in stores here.

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  2. LOL @ zai jian yinghua

    everytime I go I cant find it, but then again I dont go HMV that often :P

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