《SAKANAQUARIUM ADAPT TOUR First Day Report》
Music, dance and other performing arts were once offerings to the gods. The word "theater" was born when ordinary people would sit on the grass and watch them from afar.
I'm not trying to get into any kind of religious talk here. What I want to say here is that music and theater have this kind of energy that draws people in. And the most important thing to create a real live performance is for many people to gather in one place and share the same time and space.
It has been about a year and ten months since the national tour was interrupted midway through and then canceled in March 2020. The five members of SAKANACTION stood on the stage at Aichi Sky Expo in Aichi Prefecture. However, perhaps what was more important than that was that, even though a large number of fishermen gathered and could not cheer, they conveyed their heartfelt voices through applause and sang their heartfelt songs together with clapping.
The "SAKANAQUARIUM ADAPT TOUR" is an unprecedented nationwide tour. First, prior to the tour, they performed an online live show, "SAKANAQUARIUM ADAPT ONLINE". The overall direction was handled by video director YUSUKE TANAKA, and the show was set in the so-called "ADAPT Tower", combining a performance with a live show, live-streaming a video work that stimulates the imagination of the audience. Moreover, the framework for the show was formed by new, unreleased songs that had just been completed.
This nationwide tour sees the band updating the video concept and performance of the new songs that they attempted here, which were possible only online, to the form of a live performance in a real venue.
You might be wondering, "So, are they going to do the same thing live as they did online?" However, from what I saw on the first day, the impression they gave was actually quite different.
Furthermore, the performance had been reworked for the actual live show, and while there were scenes incorporating new performance elements unique to a live performance, I was surprised to see expressions that I thought were only possible on video unfold before my eyes, and I was able to fully enjoy the differences.
In other words, rather than focusing on which is better, real life or online, I was once again impressed by the fact that the content was created in such a way that both could be enjoyed.
This may be a bit off topic, but the impact of watching a spectacular landscape on video is completely different from the impact of actually seeing it in person. On the other hand, the movement of clouds seen in a time-lapse video or the microscopic world seen through an electron microscope are impressive in ways that cannot be experienced in real life.
Because this is a major project brought to you by Team SAKANACTION, or in other words a "group of musical freaks," who are well aware of the difference between real-life and online expression, experiencing the real-life live show allowed me to once again feel the tension and meticulous attention to detail that goes into an online live show, and having watched the online live show, I was repeatedly impressed by the extraordinary performance and stunning spatial design of the real-life show.
Another thing we mustn't forget is the sound system. For the first time on this tour, SAKANACTION introduced their unique system, "SPEAKER +," which reduces acoustic blind spots. The sound, to put it simply, was like listening to the finest live recording (of course, live performance) on ultra-high-fidelity, high-end audio.
To be more specific, even though it was an arena, each phrase was clearly audible, and even Yamaguchi's breathing was clearly audible. And yet, there was a powerful low-frequency sensation that was transmitted as vibrations from the feet, something that you can never experience with earphones. I couldn't help but think, "Ah, that's right, this is SAKANACTION!" and was intoxicated by the sensation I hadn't felt in a long time.
More than the professionalism of the people putting on this live performance, what impressed me most on the first day of the tour was the expression of the audience, namely the fishermen, through their applause.
An incident occurred during the encore. At the beginning of one song, Yamaguchi was slightly off-key for a moment, which was unusual for him. And when the A-melody started, the song was not heard. Yamaguchi could not sing. It was the moment when his heart, which had been fighting for about a year and 10 months, was finally freed in front of the fishermen.
At this point, spontaneous applause broke out. The applause continued and gradually grew louder, eventually leading to thunderous hand clapping, something that has almost never happened at a live performance of this song.
The applause was not "Go for it!" but more like "We're going to sing!". Yes, everyone was singing in their hearts for Yamaguchi. After the show, Yamaguchi revealed how she felt at the time, saying, "I really felt like I could hear everyone singing."
A live performance is not something that can be done by musicians alone. It is created by musicians, a large number of staff members, and above all, the audience who gather at the venue.
This long-awaited live tour has just begun.
Music technical writer Yuichiro ICHIRO
@MRYF1968
