MORRIE performs under a full moon in New York City on August 26th.
Many things have happened since MORRIE's SOLITUDE show in New York City earlier this year in January — the loss of dear guitarist Yutaka Aoki (he played the guitar for most of the songs on MORRIE's latest solo album HARD CORE REVERIE) in March and hiatus of Creature Creature in July.
Now here in NYC, MORRIE plays his first show since those events occurred. Again under the full moon, did the audience imagine he would open the show with two new songs, Falling and Mirror?
MORRIE then goes back to a more familiar tune played at every NYC show: Perfect Sky from his solo album Romantic, All Too Romantic released in 1992. The next song is Unchained from HARD CORE REVERIE, released in 2014. The 22-year gap between these two songs prove MORRIE's timeless approach to his creations.
Bud of Panic follows. It’s the first time this song is played at SOLITUDE in NYC. Originally a coupling song from MORRIE’s first solo VHS single Dilemma of a Romanticist, released in 1991, this song can also be heard on his self selected best album ECTOPLASM, released in 2005. Fans can find the music video by typing "Panic no me" in Japanese or romaji.
With complexity in mellow and shocking lyrics translated to English as “massacre in April”, Somewhere But Here, another song from MORRIE’s first solo album ignorance released in 1990, demonstrates duality. This approach by MORRIE is followed by many artists in the visual kei genre to date.
The beautiful chords of the acoustic guitar echo in the theater. Disquieting Muse from HARD CORE REVERIE shows playful lyrics in Japanese. Next up is Seeing You, a pop tune from 1995 album Shadow.
After explaining his recent discovery of Yoshiko Sai and his insight on the meaning of her song Haru/Spring as a "get high and die kind of song", he covered it. Lyrically relevant to the previous song, Sleep in the Sky, from DEAD END’s album ZERO released in 1991, is played next.
Another melodic tune is Sign that leads the show towards the end. The Man Who Destroys from Shadow embraces the audience with mellow Japanese lyrics, almost like a folklore tale or perhaps MORRIE's version of a bed time song.
The Man Who Sold the World is a David Bowie song covered by many artists. Instead, MORRIE plays Space Oddity. The crowd makes a happy noise for this surprise, but most relevant cover by the originator of the visual kei genre. Bowie's influence on the genre is a well known fact that does not need to be explained here. Rather, his legacy is glorified tonight.
God Monkey, a post reunion DEAD END song, is played afterwards. This is another fan favorite song for MORRIE’s SOLITUDE show in NYC. Next song Andromeda from Creature Creature's third album PHANTOMS, released in 2012, is a gift. This is particularly nice for fans overseas who could not travel to Japan for Creature Creature's final show in July.
MORRIE ended the set with Heaven from DEAD END's third album shámbara, released three decades ago in 1988. MORRIE's chorus and guitar echo in the theater, creating a small cosmos. Leaving his guitar and its sound behind, MORRIE goes off the stage.
The fans are not done for the night; their calls for an encore never ends. MORRIE comes back after a few minutes and says "I know what you want." He then plays the guitar intro of that legendary song which fans are dying to listen to: Serafine. The fans start clapping their hands for one more encore song for this very special night of the full moon. Luna Madness brings both MORRIE and the audience to a happier state.
A total of 18 songs are played for this third SOLITUDE show in NYC. The fans’ anticipation to see MORRIE singing with a band seems to be at its highest. Witnesses of the show tonight know they are living in the moment that will move forward to the future with positive possibilities.
Set list
01. Falling
02. Mirror
03. Perfect Sky
04. Unchained
05. Bud of Panic
06. Somewhere But Here
07. Disquieting Muse
08. Seeing You
09. Haru/Spring
10. Sleep in the Sky
11. Sign
12. The Man Who Destroys
13. Space Oddity
14. God Monkey
15. Andromeda
16. Heaven
Encore
17. Serafine
18. Luna Madness
