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Old 2015.03.23, 06:26 AM   #331
deadgrandma
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Unfortunately, I'm not over her, if I was I'd be much happier regarding her right now.

Would someone who was 'over' Ringo keep going on about her? How does one get over her big albums? They're still masterpieces. To throw out everything over a couple duds would be the very definition of horseshit.

And tbh, I've only really had any major issues with her lately. Not really for the whole showy aesthetic- but more because SHES ALREADY DONE IT TWICE BEFORE. WE EVEN HAVE THE 2 DVDS OF IT.

I can't claim its better or worse than either Expo 08 or Bon Voyage, because it's too damn similar. And that's just getting... tedious. If I hadn't already seen those 2 I would eat this up. But there isn't a rendition of an old song on here that I find any better than any other version. Usually there's something truly standout and this time, it's just 'yep another Ringo show'. It also makes me truly wonder WHY people would like this more than Expo 08? Seriously, it's incomprehensible and utterly confusing to me. Is this really what Ringo fans want now? Have people finally accepted this broadway style? Why is this person who used to defend it with his heart now feeling torn up by it? BECAUSE ITS TREADING WATER, a possible sign that Ringo has truly come to her creative end.

It's like if she's not reissuing something, she's just giving us more of the same. I do have hope she'll do something a little different in the future. Or scrap this inane need to be 'big'. Toutakai was gorgeous. More of that please.

HOWEVER: I am glad that people are finding joy out of it, but cannot comprehend anyone finding it better than what we already have.
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Old 2015.03.23, 06:49 AM   #332
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Originally Posted by deadgrandma View Post
Looking at the opening of this, Bon Voyage and Expo I get to thinking:

Remember when Ringo needed a mere spotlight to shine on her like the start of Zazen to send everyone fucking crazy?

Yeah neither do I.


That's still all it would take, but now she has the money to give us more.

I'm loving this show based on my first view/listen. Like geko said, it beats the first Ringo Expo, although they're not exactly in the same category since the first one was more career-focused rather than showcasing her most recent albums.

I always felt like the performances in Expo-1 were over the top because she knew it was her best material and she wanted to go all-out with it. Unfortunately, by that point, the songs had lost most of their magic. I was getting tired of hearing them and it seemed like she was tired of singing them. It didn't help that she was standing in front of a jumbo orchestra pit and surrounded by lifeless bandmates. Ringo never seemed older than she did during that concert.

She's clearly having more fun with the music in Expo-2 (even with Yattsuke Shigoto, which was a great surprise), and it shows. There's so much more energy, and her voice is on point the whole time. She did the only enjoyable performance of Nippon ever. She's surrounded by familiar faces who, aside from accordion dude, also seem to be enjoying themselves up there (Uki also seemed a little off when he was dancing around the stage instead of holding a guitar/cowbell, but that's often been the case... he's still my favorite bandmate for Ringo).

I enjoyed these dancers more than the OSCAs, but I'm not exactly sure why. I think it has to do with their facial expressions and overall creepiness. Either way, I think I'd rather see a stage absent of dancers, but I don't think they actually detracted from anything. Very much unlike the dancers in Bon Voyage, which had me cringing often.
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Old 2015.03.23, 09:00 AM   #333
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Actually to be pedantic, wasnt the opening of Bon Voyage just a spotlight on her as well? She just happened to be wearing an entire garden. Lol.

I think it boils down to different expectations. It's like how Inseu mentioned before that music just needs to sound good to him, whereas many other people on this forum seemed to expect the holy rapture and a kidney every time a new SR album drops. This isn't to say that I think the new album or Expo14 is 'inferior', it's just that I can find it in me to always enjoy well written, well produced music, well directed, well orchestrated shows, and don't expect everything to be an avantgarde experiment (not saying this is LITERALLY what people want, but you get my drift).

At any rate, even if you dislike her current aesthetic (which honestly, no substantive reason, unless you dislike good music...), I am still hard pressed to wonder how any of this undoes the (presumably) good work (or -better- work from your POV) that she has done before.

KSK still exists. Electric Mole still exists. She clearly wants to do something else now though.

I don't think Expo14 stems from an inane need to be big. She has been rotating between festival appearances, Toutaikai type shows, and big colour fests like Expo for the past 2 years. And guess what? Toutaikai isn't going to go anywhere just because she happens to have done Expo a year or 2 later!

Not that I think big = inane to begin with, because the 'big-ness' of Expo was clearly orchestrated for a very specific purpose. She had the money, and she wanted to coast on to the stage on a fucking mechanical boat because she can.

It is very very hard to pull off a show of that scale. You need a vision, the clout to command a budget to support it, and above all else, your songs mustn't suck, and you must have the presence to own that stage, otherwise it'd just be a waste (see: literally every artist who's taken to the Budokan less than 2 years into their career).

I can understand if what she's doing now isn't to everybody's taste, but it's really kind of dismissive to argue that she's just 'lazily' retreading old ground.
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Old 2015.03.23, 01:39 PM   #334
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Are we dismissing Re:Import? That certainly wasn't retreading any old ground. She experimented a lot with that album. Granted it was a self covers album, but it felt fresh. I can't agree that she's lazy at this point in her career. Comfortable, perhaps? She's certainly been owning a lot of her live performances and seeming to enjoy herself in the process.
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Old 2015.03.23, 02:16 PM   #335
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Actually, it's not really the glitzy stuff that makes me worry about Ringo reaching a creative dead end. It's whenever she does these inoffensive pop-rock tracks like Companion to Freedom and the new single.
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Old 2015.03.23, 05:11 PM   #336
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^ Yes, that new single doesn't have a lot of replay value, does it?

I disagree on jiyuu e though. I really really love that song and am stoked that she megaphoned it. Lol.
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Old 2015.03.23, 05:11 PM   #337
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Well anyway...

What I had to say I've said.

Let's talk a little about the actual physical release here. Other than the gimmicky 'lenticular/3D' insert inside the cover, I gotta say, the size of the booklet itself is quite large, and features a page or 2 for each individual costume, shows her in the costume and also a sketch of the initial design.

Also gives feature pages for Aya/Bambi, her players and the orchestra- this is probably the most comprehensive booklet I've seen in ANY of her live shows.

It even includes a scan of the stage planner, which is kind of interesting. Overall the book is 36 pages (including covers). This is probably how they jacked up the price to near 7000 yen (RRP) for the blu ray. If you do like it though, it's definitely worth grabbing. Even though I don't love it, I'm still glad to own it on the packaging alone. She could probably blow the booklet up a little bigger, add an interview and sell it as a seperate product if she wanted.

I'm surprised noones talked about the packaging. For me, it's more impressive than the show. Anyway, I'll try and get some scans done but no promises.

Also: starting to realise how many of these songs are abridged/shorter versions...

I also kinda wish Ringo had performed/practiced the English SG songs more over the years because I can't pick up hardly any of the words this time/its pretty garbled- which is a shame because I think these SG songs are the best songs on this show. (Well apart from Souretsu but that kinda doesn't really fit with the rest of it).
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Old 2015.03.23, 07:40 PM   #338
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Originally Posted by deadgrandma View Post
How does one get over her big albums? They're still masterpieces. To throw out everything over a couple duds would be the very definition of horseshit.
I have a feeling she will become your next Tori Amos.

I don't know about others, but once a while I would "throw out" (backup on DVD-r and delete from hard drive) all my music, so I can move on to other adventures, I don't want my entire music journey in the next 40 years to revolve around measly 40 songs on MM, SS, KZK and SG.

Right now I can confidently say I am over Ringo cos I overplayed her albums in the car, and she is no longer a regular on my playlist. Other reasons that contribute to this include bad cover design, mediocre single, her boyfriend, overpriced Jap goods, depreciated Canadian dollar, import tax, crush on other girls etc etc. Might still buy her full length album but will depend on her good the tracks are. If all like this new single, then no way.

Also, I think she is kinda cute.
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Old 2015.03.23, 09:05 PM   #339
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The packaging is definitely the most sturdy feeling of the "book" type releases we've gotten over the last couple of years.

I watched it last night and had a blast. I loved how into it the crowd was throughout, especially the back-to-back-to-back of Chichin Puipui, Mittei Monogatari, and Koroshiya Kiki Ippatsu. There were some nice new mixes of old favorites like Yattsuke Shigoto, and there were performances that sounded strikingly close to the studio recordings (Koroshiya).

As people mentioned, it sure looks like they spent a lot of money on this. Tons of people must've worked on the production, and you can have both a lavish production and a great musical performance (it's not like Ringo is doing it all herself).

Anyone that's worried about too much Aya & Bambi (is anyone worried about that?), they're only in about a third of the songs, and they're in the background or off to the sides of the stage the entire time that they're there. They weren't nearly as prevalent in Ringo Expo as they were in those recent performances with Madonna.

Watching it did make me more interested in seeing the Academic version. There was a lot of interesting stuff on the big screens that I wanted to see more of, like the Ringo video during Kachuu no Otoko.

Definitely a better stage setup than Expo '08. That '08 stage was so for away from the crowd, and that little walkway she had to walk down was so narrow that I always think she's gonna fall off when I watch it.
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Old 2015.03.24, 06:24 AM   #340
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Chiming in quickly to say I watched the first 30 minutes of the show last night and WOW, what an amazing first half. Everything was on point. Loved a lot of renditions of old songs, especially "Kachū no Otoko" from Re:import. Though, I couldn't tell if they used a live recording for her voice since she wasn't anywhere on stage for this performance. Just some video clips. Shiina sounded better than ever on these performances and has a lot of charisma. Can't wait to watch the rest later.

I guess it breaks down to different strokes. I think this is an amazing DVD so far and I can't see how a Ringo fan could dislike it. She sounds amazing, the band is amazing. What's to dislike?
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