MAN WITH A MISSION at Zepp Tokyo

After releasing the album Tales of Purefly on March 12th, wolf-men MAN WITH A MISSION are starting their Tales of Purefly Tour 2014 off in a packed Zepp Tokyo. The supporting act is coldrain, who fill about an hour with a total of eight songs and get the crowd warmed up for the headliner.

MAN WITH A MISSION’s performance starts at 8 pm with a “MISSION MOVIE”. It looks like a comedy game show, featuring members of the band trying to win a plane ticket to New York. The band gets everyone in a good mood by using humor before the first song off their newest album Tales of Purefly begins. They walk onstage, accompanied by a support guitarist, and continue with evils fall, another song from the new album. DJ Santa Monica is quick to start stage-diving and is carried by the crowd for a while before he returns to his place. Jean-Ken Johnny switches from playing guitar to singing and rapping, having the support guitarist take over his parts for a bit. Vocalist Tokyo Tanaka joins Jean-Ken Johnny and the combination of their vocals adds to the catchy feel of the music.

The members show a lot of energy, interacting with the audience and getting them to shout along with the music when necessary. When Tokyo Tanaka isn’t singing, he dances along to the music and walks from one side of the stage to the other, gesturing to the audience. He definitely knows how to keep the show interesting. Santa Monica has his hands up in the air during Wake Myself Again along with the drummer, who holds one of his drumsticks up, and the audience starts clapping along with the music.

The songs are mostly upbeat and catchy, getting the crowd moving along with the music. The band plays a variety of songs from their newest album, but also some popular older tracks. Get Off of My Way gets the crowd going immediately, and they clap along with the beat. Tokyo Tanaka and bassist Kamikaze Boy jump onto the pedestal as the audience cheers and continues clapping along with the music. The two vocalists divide most of the songs, sometimes coming together. In a few cases Kamikaze Boy joins them in the chorus, like he does in Get Off of My Way. Santa Monica does a somersault as the song reaches its end, finishing the track with extra flair. After the song they play the second and last “MISSION MOVIE”, which features Sid from Slipknot and DJ IZOH and once again gets the audience to laugh.

Two members remain on the stage, and the acoustic akatsuki begins with Spear Rib on djembe and Jean-Ken Johnny on guitar. The song is quiet and immediately shows a different side of the usually energetic band. The other members join the two and start another slow song, whatever you had said was everything, before they switch back to uptempo tunes again.

HASTA LA VISTA is announced after the DJ solo ends. The song is from their first album, which was released back in 2011. The energy is back in the air, and it continues to flow with Take What U Want, off their Emotion single. Short clips of people snowboarding are displayed on the background, matching the original PV for the song, which contains similar material. The audience jumps up and down along with the music while the vocalist dances. The guitar solo is loud and strong, as Jean-Ken Johnny and the support guitarist play it together.

The last song of the set is database, a collaboration with TAKUMA of 10-FEET that was released as a single before. People in the audience start crowdsurfing and Santa Monica does another somersault before jumping into the audience and letting them carry him around for a bit. Kamikaze Boy pretends to bite at the neck of his bass as the song ends. The audience is thanked and the band members wave as they walk off.

Two more songs are played in the encore, and MAN WITH A MISSION end their set with the popular song FLY AGAIN. The audience jumps up and down at the beginning and shout “Hey!” along with the music. Everybody has their arms in the air, performing the movements that match the chorus, with the vocalist and DJ joining in too. “We are MAN WITH A MISSION!” Jean-Ken Johnny shouts right before he leaves the stage.

The wolf-men gave an amazing first show in Zepp Tokyo, and they will be touring till mid-June with opening acts like NOISEMAKER, RIP SLYME and STRAIGHTENER in tow. Their last concert will be a one-man held in Okinawa on June 13th.


Set List:

-MISSION MOVIE1-
1. tales of purefly
2. evils fall
3. Wake Myself Again

4. Feel And Think
5. distance
6. When My Devil Rises

7. higher
8. Get Off of My Way
-MISSION MOVIE2-
9. akatsuki (acoustic ver.)
10. whatever you had said was everything
11. Emotions

12. HASTA LA VISTA
13. Take What U Want

14. babylon
15. database

Encore
16. your way
17. FLY AGAIN