I just got back from attending May’n's first ever solo concert in Singapore, and I had the time of my life!
They were giving away 50 autographed posters to those seating in the VIP seats, and I went with Coffeebear thinking that, meh, with two of us, we’d probably stand a higher chance of walking away with one of those. Collected the tickets, and saw one of the organizers sitting there with the pack of those autographed posters. She didn’t give any to me when I collected the tickets, so I walked away and sadfaced that we didn’t even manage to get one, and we went off to grab dinner.
Coming back, we saw everybody was going in to sit already, so we joined the line and made our way inside. Just before we did, we saw on the TV screen, winners of the posters, and VIOLA. Not just one of our seats, but BOTH made it to that list! I was laughing so hard at how awesome our luck could be. :3
On another note, they were giving away 40 invites to her movie premier in Singapore, and we didn’t get one of those, but heck, we saw May’n really close up for two whole hours already! >>>>>W<<<<<
Anyway, on to the concert actual. I won’t go through the order of the songs and everything, just a rough flow.
The opening act was a group of four non-Japanese singers, 3 from Singapore and 1 from Malaysia, if I recall correctly, and they were actually not too shabby! You could hear when they got tired and all (With all that jumping and dancing, no surprise), and some parts were a bit off, but for a live, it was actually pretty darn good! Especially considering, even if they HAVE been performing at all the tour’s other stops, they are relatively new and inexperienced. Performing on a stage is massively different from singing in your bathroom, to the unacquainted who like to think they can do better.
(Seriously, bathroom acoustics do wonders for the most average of voices.) I really look forward to see how much improvement we can see from them in the future. I really think that if they work hard, they’ll turn out to be amazing! I hope they become really successful in Japan!
After that opening act, the emcee came out and said that now was the moment we’d all been waiting for, and all that usual stuff. The crowd started cheering for May’n, and then one of the stage crew came out and I was laughing to Coffeebear that “THAT ISN’T MAY’N!”
Dancers came and danced, as per usual concert opening. And then May’n ran out and that was when the night really got started!
My initial reaction was that, with her new haircut, she really looked a lot younger and cuter. Her new haircut and how she carries it off is seriously <3.
Anyway. >.>
As usual, her singing was amazing! The first few songs, the music was a bit too loud and her singing got covered at some parts, but they either adjusted her mic volume or downed the background track (still too loud for my poor ears to tell), and it got a lot better later on! She sang a few songs I didn’t know, and many I knew. Universal bunny was one of them, and like it was with the BIG WAAAAVE concert DVD, I was amazed by how she could manipulate her voice to sound so…different from the normal. It must have been incredibly straining, not easy in the least!
She also sang a song from her new album, it was a bit less high energy than what we’ve gotten used to hearing, and very much closer to Diamond Crevasse (coincidentally, it still remains one of my favourites by her, quieter songs like this really bring out the best in her vocal range), and I LOVED IT TO BITS. XD
She also sang Lion at one point, that really really showed off her lung power man. It’s a freaking difficult song to sing Live. But she performed super well as per normal, nearly studio recording quality (I only don’t give it a perfect because of the volume spikes punctuating some parts. Considering the amount of control needed to Lion, I really should go ahead and give it a perfect anyway.)
Fast forward to end of concert, everybody shouting for an Encore. She comes back on stage wearing a sleeveless version of the tour shirt, and of course, started with Diamond Crevasse (She has become soooo good with this song, it really is a flawless performance.), moved on to Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare from Shangri-La, and then she invited her dancers back out on stage with her.
THEY CAME WITH CAKE! It was what the Emcee had told us about before the start of the performance, a surprise cake for May’n to celebrate her 6th anniversary. Her reaction was so funny and cute! >W<
Anyway, after that, either cos she was too touched or whatever, she forgot her lines, and it was so funny! Can’t really blame her there, she was talking to us in English which must be majorly tough for her! I know that if I were given a speech in Japanese, I’d forget it halfway through (and that isn’t even counting 2 hours of singing and dancing like mad before). Anyway, she came back in and talked about how she was going to sing the song she wrote for Phonic Nation, hoping that everybody could be brought together by music, and told us that we’re always under the same sky. She was tearing a little, but the show went out, and she sang the song without any shift in her voice to give away her teary eyes, even when some decided they’d go ahead and roll down her face.
After the concert, she ran to the sides of the stage and said thank you while telling everybody to look her in the eye, face to face. I really like how she is so awesome to her fans.
At the end of the day, I am as big a fan as I was when I walked in, if not an even bigger one. Because she never fails to amaze me as to how well she can sing live, which proves how little editing is really needed for her mp3s. You’re not paying for pro editing, you’re paying for the real thing.