Tomomi  {I absolutely adore her stage outfit!!!}

It has been a while since I’ve shirked my responsibilities and run off to London to go and see a Japanese band play a gig. I did it many a time pre-uni, although ‘many’ suggests that it was a frequent occurrence and now I’m getting off track. Cliff Notes: I like a lot of Japanese rock bands, SCANDAL announced a ‘World Tour’ (which Included a London date!), a friend of a friend couldn’t go so I went instead. Boom. 

SCANDAL, by the way, is a Japanese pop rock 4 piece girl band: Haruna, vocals, Mami, lead guitar, Tomomi, bass, and Rina on drums. They’re all pretty damned adorable, even when they’re rocking out on stage. They also have a pretty extensive discography which I highly suggest you go and check out. For a taste of their sound, here’s their youtube.

Rina during  “Oyasumi”

Haruna 😀

As a casual fan, I went into the gig with no proper expectations, just that I hoped they put on a good show. (Which they did, a fabulous one at that.) I was really hoping that they’d play a few of their older tracks of which I am more familiar and can sing/scream all the lyrics to. Which they also did, in part, but it’s hard to fit everything into a one and a half hour set, and please everyone even with an encore. 

The set itself was a pretty energetic one, I’m never the best with setlists, but a highlight had to be Rina stepping away from the drums and picking up her guitar to lead ‘Oyasumi’ – these lot are a talented bunch, let me tell you – with sweet vocals and an equal amount of ridiculous adorableness. Tomomi, the bassist, was like the energizer bunny personified, jumping around the stage with her bass like it was weightless, having a whale of a time. I didn’t get to see a lot of Mami, since I am not the tallest of people and crowd settings with varying heights are not brill for those of us that are vertically challenged, but she was sounding pretty awesome. I had a great view of Haruna, who was so lovely in her MC sections, and fab vocally. 

SETLIST:

– love in action
– satisfaction
– DOLL
– shunkan sentimental
– scandal baby
– kagen no tsuki
– onegai navigation
– hon wo yomu
– canned beer
– oyasumi
– departure
– taiyou to kimi ga egaku STORY
– yoake no ryuseigun
– your song
– image

encore:
– awanai tsumori no, genki dene
– everybody say yeah!

Experience wise, going to see SCANDAL has invoked a serious nostalgia for the times I used to go to these gigs in the past. The making friends in the queue and that weird sense of community you get when everyone’s there for the same reason. Minus the fact that the queuing can be for hours, I didn’t realise I missed it quite as much as I did.

Anywho, time for me to get back to being a good little uni student and write some essays. Let me know if you’ve been to see any Japanese bands play before (not expecting (m)any of you have), if so – WHO? If not, what’s the favourite concert you’ve ever seen, or who would you most like to see!

♥

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