How is tears not from LOVE PiECE era? It was a B side of Yumekui which was a single from LOVE PiECE.

yeah, well you could say even Renai Shashin is from the LOVE PiECE era as well. i guess what i was referring to would be better defined as "a song that has been out for a while and has been avaliable to be performed at previous concert(s) but hadnt been so far"

another random observation: the most make-up on her face i can recall.

Why do you want backing vocallists so much? Personally I think playback is fine, I can't imagine Mirai Taxi any other way without compromising its awesomeness. And for some of her ballads, I think her guitarists do a good job because their low voices are just what is needed to complements Ai's high voice.

The next segment was my least favourite. Yumekui was great, but HEART/Hoshi no Tango/Momo no Hanabira was the lowest point of the concert! Rather boring in my opinion, and she chose to sing Momo no Hanabira in that try hard delicate soft voice and it turns out bad in my opinion :S

The next segment was my least favourite. Yumekui was great, but HEART/Hoshi no Tango/Momo no Hanabira was the lowest point of the concert! Rather boring in my opinion, and she chose to sing Momo no Hanabira in that try hard delicate soft voice and it turns out bad in my opinion :S
...Planetarium was not that great, acoustic guitars has been done before, and it doesn't suit the song that well.

there is little justification i can see for doing the same with vocals. your point about the guitarists doing the backing is a good one. with Frienger for example, they do an awesome job. but if the song is a ballad and it needs a female vocal for harmonies... i cannot help but think, was this additional vocal track added days/weeks later in the studio as part of the editing and mastering process? who can say? all you can say for sure is what you are hearing is not live. not fully. there is an implied lack of spontenaiety going on here. can you imagine a jazz or classical musician doing this? i cannot. and those same reasons are the ones that apply to any type of music.
see??? ...

Sakuranbo was hilarious, for a song that she has sung about 340 million times, she finds a way to present it uniquely with the shinkansen-esque beats per minute. ....The costumes and visuals all very cool, I just wish I could have seen them in 3D!

dont get me started! it comes down to the immediacy of the music (or lack of). i think when some artists are starting out they think they need to reproduce the CD sound on stage. and it may be that some sounds are only possible pre-recorded. the pre-recorded intro of Cherish live is an example. maybe all those sounds are difficult/impossible to reproduce on stage. but it doesnt need to be that way. it is perfectly valid to have a "live version" that is only similar to the original. but however you debate the merits or otherwise of pre-recorded music, there is little justification i can see for doing the same with vocals. your point about the guitarists doing the backing is a good one. with Frienger for example, they do an awesome job. but if the song is a ballad and it needs a female vocal for harmonies... i cannot help but think, was this additional vocal track added days/weeks later in the studio as part of the editing and mastering process? who can say? all you can say for sure is what you are hearing is not live. not fully. there is an implied lack of spontenaiety going on here. can you imagine a jazz or classical musician doing this? i cannot. and those same reasons are the ones that apply to any type of music.


see??? you got me started!!!

And Pon pon why didn't you miss Akinori?

^1. i didnt have a problem with the sound of it either. what struck me was it looked like a case of "product placement", with their name displayed so prominently. at least we didnt get "this concert brought to you by Roland" scrolling across the bottom of the screen. but i bet they sell a few as a result. you would have to say it is a smart move by Roland.

2. thats just the way it is. the alternative would have been to drag the session musician who played it on the single around with them on tour. hardly worth it for one song.