MMT DVD Review

Warning
I am terrible at writing reviews of anything, so please don’t expect anything grand. I am an extremely opinionated and moody person, and I tend to go in ramble-format, topic-hop, or sometimes, I’ll outright stop if I feel like stopping. ^^; This tendency has generally plagued my private life, but we’ll save that topic for another day (or another site, anyway). All opinions herein are mine & are not meant to offend. Also, I am still in the midst of appreciating the release, so my impressions are transitionary at best.

Overview
First, I feel as if I should answer a question I received as to whether this was an a cappella concert. Of course, as MMT was not an a cappella CD, it was not an a cappella concert. ^^; Moreover, the only “a cappella” concert was really the Budoukan one. So yes, in the line of Okurimono, Hall Rally, etc., we have instrumentalists in this one as well. Of course, having instrumental backing is a huge plus – the singing quality remains good & constant throughout the concert, and no one is worn out. You know what I mean. ^^ However, there are of course several songs or segments of songs which are performed a cappella. The setlist is nice and full, but we are noticeably missing lengthy MC segments, which is a bummer. Audio commentary, bonus features, etc. are always nice, but I prefer to see the MC parts. Those were either truncated or simply omitted from this recording ~ sigh! Can’t have everything, I guess. ;)

Member-Specific Preliminary Comments
Yosuke (Leader) - VAST improvement in singing technique. Wow! The quiver in his voice (frequently mistaken as evidence of true skill - EH?) appeared to be gone. Much more powerful, louder & steadier singing. High notes / falsetto all delivered masterfully throughout the show. Lots more energy in his voice in general. Same stage personality. A little sniffly that we didn’t get a touching MC from Yosuke, thus he felt a little more distant — only in that sense. Also, I don’t know if it’s Leader’s hairstyle in the last few years, but he’s looked so much thinner. He already was so slim to begin with, but with the shorter hair, he looks so petite! Either way, adorable!

Reo - First DVD for Reo without sunglasses = MUCH BETTER. WOW! Overall, the trend in recent years of more sweeter/tender singing continues here. He didn’t over-strain his voice that much so the quality of his singing was in top-form all the way through the encore. And that’s the way I like it~! lol That or it’s the technology that’s improving, and the audio was just better? Nah, he’s in better control! Granted he didn’t have to sing stuff like Hanjuku Rhapsody (which totally ROCKS SOCKS but appears to be a song he can use to total his voice), I think there’s some clear improvement in stamina & energy distribution. Overall, he was the usual “awesome Reo” and performed well & was amusing as always.

Kanou-san - What an image change in comparison to past live DVDs. First of all ~ NO HAT! lol Nice & neat short haircut. Looked really elegant. And I must say, Kanou-san was very much “into” it in this concert, as in others, but it stood out more due to the different image. A huge plus also was that you REALLY got to see him singing lead parts here and there, so it was phenomenal. I love his lead singing~ lol It’s like totally not that low! Anyway, the DVD was really exciting because Kanou-san’s energy was ever-present on stage. He was literally bouncing all over stage, seriously. lol He also looked as if he dropped some weight or something? Very slim & looked slick in the outfits this time around. His bass parts were totally on form too, and thanks to the audio quality of the DVD, everything was balanced so that Kanou-san’s bass was a distinct & discernable “FACTOR,” not drained out as usual!

Kenichi - As high-energy and adorable/lovable as ever. I would’ve liked to have seen more involvement from Kenichi in this concert, especially in light of the fact that in the past concerts, he proved to be instrumental in getting the crowd really into things. I mean how bad ass is he?!?!?! :D But yeah, he had his sweet moments in this show as well, and more importantly, you could always HEAR him throughout the concert, so it was good. They’re doing a MUCH better job of making sure the accompaniment doesn’t destroy the harmony. However, it is for certain that the exciting action of Dream Maker in Okurimono and Hall Rally were not quite there! Hope to see Kenichi have another massive number in the next DVD. ;D

Katou-kun - My god, has he improved yet again? His singing was something along the lines of PERFECTION in this concert, and boy, did it stand out or what! And by “stand out,” I mean his singing was at a level above and beyond all the others (sorry guys!)this time around. I mean, it’s always great to listen to his solo parts, but he was really in a class of his own in this show. Any time he opened his mouth, his singing almost mismatched everything and everyone else cuz it was just too damned good. I mean, I love everyone, but there was a blatant difference. @_@; Wow, Katou-kun, keep up the good work. You are amazing!

Okkun - No RF concert is complete without Okkun having some sort of segment. Okkun got his own “DJ segment” where it was just him acting cute with sound/mixing equipment. And then everyone joined in and ran through truncated versions of many songs with DJ Okkun leading the way. He was acting SO damned adorable in the concert — I don’t know if it was the haircut or the outfits, but he looked like he was about 8 years old! lol!! He even “sang” a few bits here and there. ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
–

The Setlist
Introduction - a pre-recorded animated sequence that played on a small screen, with an animated Reo telling the audience members “all aboard” (lol). Very cute! My only complaint is wtf is up with the animated face of Ken-chan? Poor guy was drawn like a gorilla. @_@;; I’ve included a screencap in the post below, so check it out. Also, there is a pic of the venue –one of those ultra stacked venues – mostly women, of course. And even saw a Caucasian face in the frontish row? :D

Magical Music Train – Following the cute pre-recorded animated intro, everyone came bouncing out wearing light-beige/white silky suits and different-colored conductor hats. They used the same backing track as the CD – obviously due to the brass bits. Great singing! The performance sounded similar to the CD. Perfect intro song. Everyone looked so adorable, and there is really little to say besides this.

Dance Tengoku – Always great fun ~ and a nice song in the #2 spot on the setlist. It’s like rekindling the spirit of RF immediately following the nice new album intro song. It was a totally a cappella performance, of course. Lots of cool interactive highlights among members~ lol I especially am a huge fan of the Reo & Kenichi pair up early in the song. Leader was adding in lots of cool effects in his singing. And of course, IMO the real star of this song performance has always been and always will be Katou-kun. OMG he is freaking unbelievable! Those high bits. Anyway, this was one of the nicer performances I’ve seen of this song, even considering they usually do really well with this. Afterall, they’ve been performing it since pre-debut. I think we can say that they’ve got this one down. ;) But god, Katou-kun’s parts were especially amazing in this version, and for me, that’s what ranks this one high among the performances I’ve seen.

Seikatsu LIFE – Quick piano lead in, but piano drops off fast (thankfully). What is WITH that piano player? There was some hairy guy who had like NO EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE whatsoever throughout the entire concert. Anyway, gotta admit though– this song is MUCH more tolerable LIVE! Lol It’s was VERY harmoniously performed. Not only do the harmonies come to the surface, the volume is much better balanced in this live version, unlike the CD version which is clearly a lot of editing. You can even hear Kanou-san very clearly! Kenichi’s singing was PHENOMENAL. Please give him more solo/lead parts!!!! His voice really projects so well. And his singing has improved so much from that raspy churchy singing from the old days. More good stuff for Ken-chan please! But yeah, Reo’s singing was great as always ~ gotta love his random little “Wowwwwoowwowow”s. He does them much less though (maybe he’s growing up?). Haha! OMG Katou-kun’s solo bit is also WAY better live than it was on the CD recording – I mean WAY COOLER – very much stylized. And by the way, his marching motion is SO CUTE?!?!?!?!?? Hahahaha! Any time they have furi bits, I always find Katou-kun’s so sincerely done. Lol ~~~

Quick few-second type of MC.

Kokoro Yohou – Yosuke opens his mouth as if he’s gonna talk and suddenly singing. lol WHOO~ Again, Leader sang this so well~! A typical Yosuke feeling song, of course, and even better when Leader sounds like he’s in top form. Other than that, not much to say. Sounded nice in the concert.

Asa Sanpo – Highly skillful singing from Reo (very expressive, sometimes gentle, while sometimes kinda combative sounding), but the instrumental backing was loud, so you could barely hear the other guys until they get to their little solo lines. Ugh. And again, I must note here – Yosuke’s awesome singing (in the high range). Something must have happened yo~! Either the DVD audio has been seriously improved since the last DVDs or Yosuke’s changed something (maybe he quit smoking?). Not that his singing was bad before, but I just sense this amazing amount of improvement. Either way, Yosuke, you sound great!! Anyway, I’m okay with this song. Meh~ lol Next!

Let’s Harmony – Seriously, I recognize that this a nice song [in theory] and that it’s sung beautifully and all that, but I just don’t like the song that much. T_________T It’s not for the usual reason that the lyrics are “too cheesy” cuz they’re not bad at all, save for the Engrishy title. LOL I feel bad admitting it… but hearing the song gives me lots of goosebumps. I don’t like the way Reo sang it here – way too ginger. Lol Seriously, he’s really good at taking you to a point where you’re thinking “yeah, that’s beautiful singing… but god, that gives me the chills.” It’s much more personally delivered tho without the sunglasses; that’s for sure. I associated it with one of the first post-sunglass age songs, so it’s a good thing, I guess.

Note: The piano dude needs to go, seriously. If I haven’t mentioned it earlier – it’s his appearance, more than anything else. He’s like this fro’ed blob sitting there with no expression. On a positive note, I have to admit that I find his piano playing the LEAST “interfering” to date (while Mitsuda Kenichi’s was excellent but too distracting -SORRY Mitsuda-san!).

DJ Okkun time (LOL) - So happy they added this segment although much less hype than you’d expect from the crowd the second you see Mr. Okkun up there – at first sight, you’d think there’d be all sorts of fangirl squeals and such. Haha. Anyway, he goofs around with the equipment. Records himself making sounds and then starts playing them back on repeat & creating cute mixes and things. By the way, I can’t believe he is freaking over 30. He looks like he’s about 10 while he’s up there. Could have something to do with the haircut. Either way, the young look is really nice. He also raises both arms in the air and waves them in a cute scouty way. Honestly, I think he looks even younger than back during debut era.

Anyway, his little “solo” DJ time doesn’t last long (thank god – lol no offense, but it’s cute for a little while… ^^)

Hallelujah, better known as “Hareruya” (haha!) - I think I have mentioned this numerous times in the past but this song is rarely performed at a level where one is not wincing. I think you’re supposed to free/empty your mind and just set your mind to auto-enjoy mode. Reo, why on earth did you write it this way? LOL The high voice-straining part when Reo joins the chorus — how can anyone not wince? X_X; Either way, I love the song but it’s always a little unsettling watching the way it’s performed because it’s written in a way in which skillful performance is out of the question. However, it’s still fun whenever it’s performed, that’s for sure. Fun. I’ve come to accept it as fun and love the song nonetheless over the years. Although I remember during TV promo era - I think the song didn’t help them out in the long run! LOL~ Anyway, it’s the ultra short version of the song, as will be several of the songs to follow – it’s all part of the DJ Okkun lineup.

Happy Lucky Beauty – BEAUTIFUL lead in by Katou-kun. GOD his singing is freaking phenomenal in this song. By the way, this is one of my favorite songs to sing along to in the car! I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of folks. Katou-kun’s singing really comes to life, and he does an exceptional job (why shouldn’t he?) here as always. Beautiful smooth-as-silk singing – that’s Katou-kun! XD Next to that smoothness, Reo’s singing sounds kinda nutty almost~ lol XD. I’m always more in favor of Yosuke & Reo combos (they blend nicely when singing together, esp higher) but I’m totally all for operation freestyle for Katou. By the way, DJ Okkun does “wuh-oh-oh… part” SO CUTE!!! He so can’t sing but he gets away with parts like these, right? XD By the way, did his voice get a little deeper? O_O; Sometimes. it sounds like it.

My Sharona: DJ Okkun intro’ed Ken-chan as the “atsui otoko”~ lol, of course! I just love how Ken-chan has come to have that characterization. Of course, that’s not limited to just his zealous singing style, but his impatient personality as well! They only sang 1 verse of the song – very quick & awesome. XD And of course, like the others, Ken-chan sings as close to the CD, if not better, so it sounded fantastic. Seriously, no RF concert is complete nowadays without a SUPER high-energy Kenichi rock-out session. This is Kenichi’s Dream Maker for this tour~ lol Not as thrashing, but I bet it’s specatcular to listen to him head-on. What energy!

Kenichi does the seating/arena call~ Kenichi is so perfect for executing this function.

Knock!Knock!: Truthfully, this is one of my favourite Zboned songs, but I didn’t really like RF’s cover of it. I didn’t see what the point of covering it was – it was essentially Reo singing in a similar style and RF’s background vocals replacing Junko’s and Sugata’s, which… meh. It sounds too remixy on the CD. Overall, I found the track superfluous on MMT and it was a downgrade of the original. The performance on the DVD was fine though, lol ~ nicer to see it live than criticize the recorded version. I think that’s the only track I literally just skip right over on the CD.

Fall in Love: I didn’t like this remix – I don’t know why, but Reo’s singing sounded a little weak, and the backing track was too remixy & sometimes video-gamish. And the chorus was totally FLUSHED out in the background by instrumentals. Everyone’s favorite interactive part of the song with Yosuke x Katou x Kenichi was again dominated by the accompaniment… -_-; But whatever, I love the song, so I forgive it!

Good Good Day: OMG TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! VAST improvement over any live TV performance or the CD recording! Reo starts by doing the furi, then puts his arms down and just STARES at the audience. He gives this sort of, “Come on, are we doing this or what?” look. And then he suddenly blurts out, “Let’s dance like 3x as much~~~~” lol And the audience loves it! Great performance of this song - you can actually hear all of their voices better in the chorus, especially Kenichi’s, when they’re singing “Day by Day, Good Good Day…” Less multiplication of voices in the chorus. Much more Kanou-san!! Reo sang the song really smoothly & articulated each word well, so this was a great performance. XD He also hit all his high notes without a problem. :D

Sora ga Kirei: A semi-nice dreamy synthesizer/keyboard intro ~ My favourite RF song of all time – Reo sang it beautifully! You can hear all their voices much more clearer than the Okurimono version, although that still has to be one of the best performances of the song EVER. I prefer the tone setting of the keyboard in this version better – it’s much less irritating/distracting. I liked Mitsuda Kenichi’s playing in Okurimono, but the pitch of the piano was too annoying… lol I think it was too high-pitched in trying to mimic that old vintage clangy/bar piano thing. Reo hit all his lower notes here. I generally prefer any live performance of Sora ga Kirei over the CD version just cuz it’s a raw voice vs. robotic voice comparison. :D I wish that Okurimono special DVD that came with the album had the full version of “Sora ga Kirei” (a cappella) they performed at the Planetarium. They included the full Furisouna… sigh. [Major Tangent] That’s another song I would’ve liked to see on here – Furisouna Ikuoku Hoshi no Yoru – another song I totally love to death, although I appear to be alone on that?? Lol Even Reo doesn’t seem to like it that much. ^^ But seriously, I am always turned off by performances of that because there is ALWAYS something freaking wrong with the audio track or accompaniment – just sounds BAD, even though the singing is good. I have NEVER been completely happy with any live performance of it because, all due to the accompaniment.

Kinenbi dareke no Calendar = AWESOME LIVE. Seriously, awesome a cappella singing. Leader sings it wonderfully! There is nothing else to be said. It rocked.

Kimi de nakereba: Admittedly not one of my favorite RF songs. I don’t mind the lyrics or main verses, but I just cannot stand the wailing “Kimi de nakereba…” over and over again. It sounds so whiney, and it’s Reo’s singing at its worst, IMO. Although, hilariously, it’s one of the songs people cite often as illustrating his best singing. Um. I agree only insofar as the main verses – but the chorus pisses me off. In this version, I think he sang the whole thing too tenderly, and it gave me the goosebumps. Lol Beautiful singing, really… but the singing was too high-pitched, almost like they were babying it, despite still sounding much smoother than previous versions. Maybe it was a bit too smooth? I liked it much less than the CIRCLE version, where that too was a bit too emo for my liking, but still not as high-pitched. Ugh! One of the highlights of the song is after the “….ikiru dake” climax, the subdued “Saishuu densha no naka de…” verse is VERY important – it sounded too sweet sounding, rather than the usual gutted depressed sounding. So that killed the song for me. The “kimi ni tottemo aitai” part was not right either – usually, it sounds much more painful/hopeless.

Flat-shichatte gomen nasai: My favorite song of the MMT album & also one of my favorite RF songs of all-time now! AND my favorite performance on the DVD! Now this is where the influence of all the musical participation kicks in BIG TIME! lol The ramen topping MC abruptly leads into a dramatic “uwaki” monologue (LOL) delivered by Leader. (Yes, it’s out there, isn’t it~ ahahaa.) Anyway, the song was performed very much in the fashion of a Johnny’s Jimusho gig – seriously, what was WITH that dancing?!?!??!?! It was freaking HILARIOUS while excellently performed. I mean, they were literally doing aerobics during the song!!!! All sorts of hilarious knee-up, swing, sweve, spin, plus HIP action. Aahahahahaha!~! Buying the DVD for this song alone = WORTH EVERY PENNY. I literally burst out laughing the first time I saw it. And I don’t mean that I was laughing by the end of the performance ~ I mean the second they broke out in the moves, I was on the floor. I’m convinced there must’ve been some nice audio amplification or something. No one can do moves like that (pure aerobics) and sing without affecting the singing quality. I know RF is not THAT fit. No one is! But god, Kenichi – what a mega pimp star. They do this hilariously cheesy turn and “bang!” point gesture type thing, and oh lord, it is so cheesy but cute! Kenichi almost slips while turning once and makes a cute face, sticking his tongue out! (Refer to the MMT Caps post below).

HANA: Of course, this has to be a part of the program. I don’t like how Reo sang his part… he was being too playful with pronunciation of the words and liason-ing things he shouldn’t have. Otherwise, it was nice – much less drained out by instrumental accompaniment, so I was happy. :D It’s always a pleasant song to see performed; puts one in such a good mood! And it’s one that the audience always seems to love more than anything else. And again, Katou’s singing is unbelievable, as usual. I haven’t had a chance to talk to some Katou-fangirls yet, but I’m sure they really noticed just how substantially his voice stood out in this show.

Rabu Rabu na Couple Furi Furi de chuu: Finally, a non-stylized (e.g. non jazzed-up, etc.) version of this song?!?! Lol Amazing~ Katou-kun even started off the song with “shoobi-doobi… etc.” Seriously, how close to the OG could they get? LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right back to basics. There is a slight branch off where jazz piano comes in, and they intro each other (which they do in every show), but they get right back into the song. Seriously, this is one of the best performances of this song I’ve ever seen. For the most part, it’s untampered with from the original, and that made it particularly refreshing here.

Marry Me! - Intro’ed by a beautiful a cappella performance of the Bridal Chorus! Or whichever one! I can’t keep the wedding tunes straight. Anyway, WOWOWOWOWOW!!!! OMG great! The intro, I mean! It was gorgeous harmony~~~~~ O_O! And then Marry Me – with instrumental backing track. Reo started off the song like he had something stuck in his throat, but somehow, it sounded pretty good. Better than most of the performances on bangumis and things. I really love the song! I sometimes wonder how current the audience members are with RF’s releases when they attend the shows. I imagine many of them are generally fans or at least interested enough to check them out while they’re in town, but I’m sure plenty of them haven’t heard the latest album yet. The nice thing about this song is that even if you didn’t hear it previously, it’s catchy enough even on first listen. ;D

Chotto dake bye bye – This song actually grew on me a lot since the CD came out, although I first thought it was kinda meh. I liked the live performance of this a lot ~ You could kinda predict from hearing it on the CD that this was going to be the song the audience would chant prior to the encore. ;D Haha! Well it’s better to hear RF singing the “chotto dake bye bye” over and over rather than that weird crap (was it RF?) on the CD. Lovely song & performance.

Encore – Zenin ga Hero – a cappella performance ~ SOOOOOO GOOOD. But I am NEVER cool with the T-shirts they wear during their encores. Seriously, yellow again… @_@;; When did they wear yellow last time? I can’t keep the shows straight. I know it was during Rag F, and I vaguely recall hideous orange pants with that show. But this time…ick! Yellow should not be worn pre-summer! lol Not with pale arms! Oh but anyway, back on topic. Nice performance, lol. I’m so half-assed. ^^;

Yareho was okay… I wouldn’t have put it all the way at the end. Kinda Zzzz for a 2nd encore piece. I like the song okay, but I could also do without it, I think. They should’ve put something else at the end. Even if it was a song for closure, I would’ve picked something more familiar to a larger # of people. ;D
–

Comments
Everything from sound, camera angles, instrumental accompiment, singing quality, etc. had improved vastly. My only major technical complaint was that the stage felt dark usually, but they made up for that with nice closeups. I was sad that no large MC chunks were left in. Overall, everyone appears to have grown/improved. It was an awesome DVD~ definitely worth purchasing. I think Hall Rally & MMT DVD are two that should be purchased in pairs! That way, you’d cover an expansive list of their songs and have them in live format. MMT is like an extension of the Setlist for Hall Rally, if that makes sense. In other words, if you want to see Colors songs performed live + many older highlights from past releases, get Hall Rally. If you want to see MMT songs performed live + many older highlights from past releases, get MMT Tour DVD. If you get both, it’d be a pretty comprehensive collection. They did a good job of selecting different stuff from their older releases for each tour to have a definite variety and not too much overlap. Both are extremely high quality recordings!

Anyway, I’m tired, so that’s all. I’m terrible with these things. Basically, I could’ve summed up everything as, “It was good.” But occasionally, it’ s nice to record other little random thoughts that surely come up in the course of viewing. :D

March 14, 2010 | Filed Under ramblings

Protected: MMT Caps~

March 14, 2010 | Filed Under Media

MMT Tour DVD & Bonus Poster~

I totally forgot to post up a few pics of the items. Years ago, I used to do this with every single CD and book I purchased, and boy, did I get lazy over time or what? LOL~ I hardly take pics of goods nowadays! Anyway, here is the DVD & the cute little poster that came with the DVD. My only gripe with HMV is that I wish they would at least put a piece of cardboard against the poster so it doesn’t come even slightly dinged (lol…), but then again, who’d pay the extra shipping for that cardboard? Haha! I sure wouldn’t want to fork over a couple of dollars for it. ;D (Actually, I’m obsessed. You know I would.)