Yes, it's been a long time in coming, but better take long and get off well than give up halfway and never get off at all (that's what she said!)
What am I talking about, friends?
What has finally come?
What has finally come?
Why, Schaft, of course!
By which I mean, a LIVE REPORT of Schaft's Tour Ultra -The Loud Engine- is now up over at This is NOT Greatest Site. Those of you who thought we couldn't get it up in time thought wrong! The DVD doesn't come out till next week, so this is your sneak preview! And if reading the report doesn't convince you to buy the DVD that's coming out next week, it should. The concert was fantastic and the DVD is sure to be, too.
Just a reminder, for those who are interested in the DVD and/or mini album:
Entitled Deeper and Down, the mini-album will cost 2700 yen and come with a bonus DVD with a live PV of the title track, "Deeper and Down." The ten tracks are as follows:
01. Deeper and Down (lyrics - Yow-Row/music - Imai Hisashi)
02. H.N.A. (lyrics & music - Imai Hisashi)
03. Deeper and Down (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
04. H.N.A. (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
05. Arbor Vitae (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
06. Thirsty Fly (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
07. Broken English (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
08. The Hero InSide (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
09. Slice (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
10. Cold Light (live 1/28 at EX Theater Roppongi)
The live DVD/BluRay of the show held on January 28th at EX Theater Roppongi will be titled Archives 2016 Tour Ultra ~The Loud Engine~. The BluRay version will cost 7540 yen, while the DVD version will cost 6459 yen. The first press edition will come in special packaging and include a special booklet. The tracklist for the video is as follows:
SE
01. The Loud Engine
02. Vice
03. drift
04. Anti-Hedonist
05. ReVive
06. Der Zauberlehrling
07. SAKASHIMA
08. Leidenschaft
09. Arbor Vitae
10. Thirsty Fly
11. Swan Dive
12. Adam's Rib
13. Mi
....and more
If you'd like to purchase this DVD through us, we are still accepting orders! Just send us an email. As usual, we will be purchasing copies at Tower Records in Shibuya, so if you order through us, we'll send you the Tower Records limited edition sticker (for the DVD) and postcard (for the mini-album) as a bonus. Remember - Amazon may be cheaper in some cases, but they abuse their employees (read about it here, here and here!) not to mention pushing a whole lot of small business out of the market. Tower Records, on the other hand, as I wrote about in this article, has been doing an excellent job lately of supporting and promoting local artists and keeping alive the spirit of the community record store. If you care about ethical shopping, the choice should be clear.
Of course, it should go without saying that all profits from This is NOT Greatest Shopping Service go to support NGS/Blog-Tick...and we never abuse our employees except when we stay up all night reading articles for y'all, which we didn't with this article, we wrote it while sitting outside in the park smelling the flowers, so you can feel nice and ethical. (We definitely did stay up all night writing the articles about The Mortal but masochism is the name of Mr. Sakurai's favorite game so it doesn't count as abuse.)
Anyhoo, as always, leave your comments on the live report on this post, as NGS doesn't allow commenting. If you enjoyed reading, please leave a comment! We promise we wont make fun of you too much.
As usual, a brilliant report.Thank you so much for giving me (and everybody else I guess) such a lovely and interesting description.I'm really glad you guys had fun along with the audience.Violence aside, Imai's fans sound cooler than Acchan-chan's.
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a detailed live report! Wish I was there but reading your live report will have to do for now.
ReplyDeleteI know its a case of cultural differences, but at the Roppongi date that I attended I actually felt like the crowd was hardly moving. Sure they were singing along and pointing their fingers at the stage (that's something I learned: Japanese fans don't pump their fists, they point) and were clearly into it, but barely anyone was moving. The area near the front of the stage where I was would have been going absolutely wild with movement if the concert was back home.
ReplyDeleteI mostly tried to dance conservatively so as to fit into the crowd, but during the last encore I just let go and started jumping and bouncing side to side and, very much to my surprise, the guys around me were into it and for a couple minutes we had a little mosh pit going. I mean, it was the tamest moshing the world has ever seen, but still... hehe, now that's a great concert memory.
Anyway it was a fantastic show and your write-up did it justice.
I wasn't actually standing very close to the front at Roppongi, but it surprises me to hear that the crowd where you were wasn't moving, because it definitely looked like they were from where I was standing. I went in the pit at Yokohama Bay Hall and Akasaka Blitz and things were certainly heated. It's true that sometimes Japanese crowds are not as physically demonstrative as crowds in the West, but I actually thought Schaft was an exception to that rule, for the most part - they hit the sweet spot between standing still and doing nothing, and insane violence. I don't think there's any need to hold back on dancing if you're into the music, though - my impression was that especially in the case of the male fans, they weren't dancing only because they felt a bit awkward about doing so, not for a lack of love for the music...so good on you for setting a good example :) Either way I'm glad you had a good time and you felt my report was accurate.
DeleteI've been buying all my stuff from amazon jp, wasn't aware of these shady business practices, damn, now I feel guilty lol
ReplyDeleteI will start buying from Tower Records from now on....
Amazing report, as always! I'm not too keen on YOW-ROW's performance in Ultra, but I may give the blu-ray a chance.
I'm sure none of the exposes into Amazon's worker abuses will make a dent in their customer base, but personally I don't want to support that kind of corporate conduct if I can possibly avoid it.
DeleteAs for Yow-Row, he's definitely not on the same level as Mr. Sakurai, and not really on the same level as Ray, either, in my opinion. But at the same time, there was something exciting about seeing Imai perform with a vocalist who was mainly just set dressing - he got to be the center of attention, without competition from Sakurai, and he took on a more macho persona because of it.
When Acchan is on stage, he definitely steals all the spotlight, there is no competition XD
DeleteSearching through Tower site right now and there is only the first press edition it seems. I will get it anyway, just curious if really there is no regular.
Thank you for the wonderful report, thoroughly enjoyed it, might see the tour in person if Imai decides to do this again :)
ReplyDeletedo they have PVs? i've never seen one. I heard the songs though
ReplyDeleteThe new Schaft just made one PV, for "Vice"...it's a cool video, but it will never top the PV for "Arbor Vitae," a.k.a. Ray performs in a snuff porno filmed by Imai on behalf of shady underground kingpin Maki. As far as the storylines of PVs in which Imai has been involved in go, it's absolutely the most fucked up, with the arguable exception of "Miu."
Deletethanks. I finally checked them. imai filming the whole scene was really fooked up but coolest.
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