[Maou]

OK, so I was going to review every song on the DVD, but when writing it, I realized there really wasn't much to say about some songs. So instead I just did some expanded thoughts on some of the songs that stood out to me. If it's not here, I probably enjoyed it (yes FOUL, no Boutomin). I'm sorry for the length of this post.

OSCA – Let me start off by saying that I’ve always hated this song. It has a weak melody, poor vocals, and is too sugar pop in the verses. However, there were other things in this particular performance that made it memorable for me. First is the new bass solo. Kameda Sage got to perform a new solo before the tempo change/breakdown. It was a throwback to the old Shiina solo days as it sounded very similar to the old intro he would give to Tsumiki Asobi. Ace. The second memorable moment was by Ukigumo. During the band introduction segment, Uki played the riff from motherfuckin’ Walk This Way by Aerosmith. Lastly was Ringo. I’m normally able to ignore the charms of the female body and focus on the music itself. However, I’ll be damned if the visual aspect isn’t an important part of a concert. In this song, Shiina does this incredibly sexy slow sway while singing. God damn.

Rating: 7/10 – Still not a fan of the song.

Ariamaru Tomi – Ah, the single leading Shiina’s solo comeback. This represents a couple of the problems with this band: they can’t perform most of Shiina’s solo catalog with decent quality and Shiina can’t tell her keyboardist when to take a break. All through the night we’ve see Shiina use the guitar mainly as prop to look like she still had the rock persona in her. This song was her chance to show she still cared by performing her song herself. Instead, she pawns the acoustic guitar off to the keyboards and Uki doesn’t play the original guitar riffs. The result is that we get another song penned by Ringo run through the Phase 2 cheese grater. Boring overproduced sounding.

It really pisses me off that the guitar solos were cut in favor of hearing Ukizawa sing some lousy “oooohhh”s. I’ve heard your terrible backing vocals enough already. I don’t need you to interject them into places they don’t belong.

Rating: 4/10 – Much better when performed live by solo Shiina with Nagoshi Yukio.

Ikiru – I have very similar feelings about this song as I do for Yukiguni. The beginning of this song is very strong when it’s just Ringo singing over the backing piano. This part alone makes it superior to the studio version as there are no annoying male voices taking away from Ringo’s performance. That’s a real blessing because Ringo was on during this performance. Her strong vocal performance was most noticeable during this song. I thought she would definitely blow this song live, but she proved me wrong.

Unfortunately, I can’t get over the terrible implementation of the band in the second half of the song. My first thought when hearing the album version was that they sounded like My Chemical Romance again. Not so much in the live. Still, it sounds like the band and Shiina are playing two different songs. The long, drawn out singing doesn't mesh well with the quicker music.

Rating: 6/10 – It’s better live, but still not a strong song.

Sounan – If you are familiar with my opinions, you probably know by now that I’m highly resistant to change. Change had better be damn good and for a reason. I see no reason to change Sounan. The album version of Sounan was a song that Shiina Ringo described in pre-Kyouiku interviews as having the “pure Tokyo Jihen sound” to it. Easily one of their best songs. When you see Shiina Ringo perform the song, you don’t see her typical disconnected look associated with her live performances. Instead, she looks completely gutted to be performing this song like this when she looks back at Hata Toshiki.

So why the change? The song has been absent in its original form since the Dynamite days so they can’t say it sounded tired. The original song itself fits in sonically with other songs the band performed that same night such as Noudouteki Sanpunkan and Shuraba. Hell, the original version of Sounan even had a guitar intro that was suggested (not written) by Ukigumo to Shiina Ringo. “We just didn’t want to play Phase 1’s song” is not good reasoning if that’s their excuse. Especially when the song in question is Sounan.

OK, so what about the song itself. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good. Phase 1 Ringo no Uta was a ‘70s action flick song, this is an ‘80s action flick song. The tempo has been picked up a little and it sounds a little rushed. The vocal melody is the only thing that suffers with the slightly quicker tempo. Sadly, the vocals and the few chords Ringo played are the only parts of the original that remain. The guitar intro is gone. The mood setting keyboard has been replaced with a highly annoying organ/air raid siren. The bass has been over-simplified and no longer plays around the guitar. The drums are likewise simplified. Not even the mood of the song survives the transformation.

Overall, though, the song remains decent. It would take much worse to completely ruin the song since it was so well written (structure, chord progression) in the first place. However, there is a very glaring problem with the Phase 2 re-do: it sounds even more like Blackout than ever before. Many on the EMForums have noticed the similarity between the two songs before, but it should be even more evident with this performance.

What should have been the highlight of the night and a throwback to all the fans that have been here since the beginning has just split the fanbase again. Only you can do it like this, Phase 2.

Rating: 5.5/10 – Phase 2 Bossa version was better.

Shuraba – I was really glad to hear the single version of the song performed here instead of the Adult version. Much better. I was kind of disappointed to see Uki play an electric-acoustic instead of a classical nylon string guitar, but I understand the change. Probably wouldn’t have been worth all the extra effort for the slightly different sound. There were a few missing pieces in the music, but it was still a great performance overall.

Rating: 9/10

Uten Kekkou – This is the type of song I absolutely hate. It’s a fluffy pop song so sugary sweet that it almost makes me gag. There is no substance to this song at all. It’s just an empty soundscape devoid of any emotion. A Phase 2 trademark.

Rating: 2/10 – stop making these hollow songs!

Sweet Spot – There was a song playing? Oh, barely noticed with all the boob shots. One of the worst songs on the Sports album. The only saving grace is the nice guitar solo. The live does nothing to save the song. Not even the boobs can save it.

Rating: 3/10 song. 10/10 boobs.

Marunouchi Sadistic – Please, Ringo, just hang it up. Put in on the shelf and don’t even think of dusting it off until your 20th anniversary shows. It’s that tired and played out no matter how much you try to change it up. All you keep doing is stripping it of sounds. The song used to be fun because of the popping drums and the bass solo. Now that character is gone and all that’s left is a boring, pretentious shell of a song. I know it’s the staple song performed at every concert, but why bother if this is the best you can do with it? Fans won’t riot if you don’t perform it (we didn’t at the Ringo Expo). They’d probably be relieved if they didn’t have to hear another hack job of the song.

Rating: 1/10 – stop the bleeding already.

Kimaru – I was so happy to see they went with blue lighting for this song. I don’t usually see songs as colors, but the first thing to pop into my mind when hearing this song on Sports was the color blue. I can’t really say more than I already have about the song. This performance was nearly perfection. There was only one very, very slight mistake in the song that I can remember and you probably won’t even notice it unless I tell you what it was.

Rating: 10/10


Overall concert rating: 7.5/10. I recommend it over any of the other Phase 2 DVDs. I liked it even though there were quite a few disappointing moments. In fact, I didn’t even order the Blu-ray until after I saw the performance so that should tell you a little about the quality.