A report of Billy's oneman live on May 10 at Shibuya O-West.
Billy’s oneman show was slightly delayed by about thirty minutes, and while the fans waited, the soundtrack of the movie Corpse Bride by Tim Burton played in the background.
On the stage there was a big screen showing a slide show with photos of the members, some pictures, roses and more. The leader of the band, Mine, was the creator and author of this animation, "this bouquet for dear blossoms, from Billy."
The live house was already crowded with fans dressed in lolita or punk-like visual style. They were yelling the band members’ names. On the screen, a video instruction of live manners appeared. The band’s mascot Bobbin, a very cool blue cat, started with the introduction, asking the people not to drink, smoke, take pictures or hit someone during the show. While the cat was requesting this, the members appeared on the screen, acting out exaggerated scenes of each situation, and the crowd was in tears from laughing.
Hiroshi was the first one to come out, followed by Takuma, Tsubuku, Mine and lastly Baku. The first song started under a rain of paper scraps, reminiscent of falling sakura. The audience, mostly women, jumped and leaned over the fence, turned around in circles and danced all the time, following the same choreography as the members.
In Casablanca, Baku got a white flag while the other members of the band did some army poses. The audience started headbanging, warming up the live house even more. During the majority of the show, the fans leaned far over the security bars and some even jumped over other fans, hitting and headbanging, going against the live manners shown at the beginning. The members of the band danced while playing their instruments, and Baku asked for the audience to go on and follow the band’s choreography, which they did quickly.
When MIKADUKI started, Takuma took out his acoustic guitar while the screen showed some animations done by Mine. Baku sang while holding a bell in hand and the audience, for the first time during the show, stayed quiet, focusing all their attention on Baku and the acoustic guitar.
In waga tousou show, a red light lit the stage and a buzzer sounded. The sound of someone giving a military style speech carried on in the background as the members took on military positions. The vocalist got a black flag and started shouting like crazy, as if he were having a convulsion. The audience got even more excited, headbanging even more and almost destroyed the security bar.
When the guitar started playing the first chords of the song rose helicopter, the audience went from the right to the left side, jumping, shouting and vibrating the live house. It was as if they knew all the choreography by heart. Baku appeared with a pink towel, saying this was going to be the last song, and when the fans complained, Baku said it didn’t matter if the show was long or not, the important thing was that they were all together and were feeling the same emotion. Mine got some pink towels and threw them into the audience. The fans got the towels and danced along to Baku with them. In the end, Billy thanked everyone for being there and left the stage.
After a lot of yelling and asking for an encore, the band reappeared on stage, all wearing t-shirts with the name "Billy-bu" (Team Billy) written on it. During the first song of the encore, William Henry Bobbin, Baku held their mascot Bobbin and did some gestures with the puppet, which made the audience shout and laugh a lot.
On to the second encore, Jin Hito no iki he started with Baku doing some acrobatics on the stage, driving the audience even crazier. Each one of the members took a turn introducing themselves to the audience. The bassist, Tsubuku, said he was from the Tochigi province, and thanked everybody for coming to the show. Then Mine suddenly said "Billy Xmas" out of the blue, and told the audience that Takuma’s pants were torn and he had to glue it with silver tape across his behind. He also revealed that Tsubuku was a virgin. Then he apologized, because his mother was there and predicted he would be told off later. He said then that what was shining under their eyes was glitter, not rheum.
Then, Baku said that among the visual kei bands, they were the ones with a higher sense of pride. And though there were differences between people who only wanted to hear the songs and those who just wanted to party, he promised to make Billy hotter in the future, and asked people for their support.
In the last encore, blossom, the audience sang a cappella together with the band members. Baku left the stage and went to the audience to sing the chorus of the song, "hana wa sakimashita yume wa sakimashita, kimi wa dou desu ka."
At the end of the show he thanked everybody for being there, and asked the audience if they liked Billy. Everybody shouted "I love!" in return. After finishing the show, the members left the stage, and the big screen announced their next live tours for the summer and fall as well as their next CD releases: Rocking princess on July 30th and Rebecca on September 24th.
Billy's show was surprising. Loud and full of life, the fans were dancing together with the band members. The sense of humor of the band during their presentation made them much more charismatic than they already were, and always had the fans smiling. Their live was really good for the soul.
Set list:
1. Brilliant Bouquet & Braveheart Boy
2. Butterfly United
3. Casablanca
4. Closet Love Story
5. Liar game
6. Brand-new Bird
7. Wakusei Venus
8. Lagrange point
9. MIKADUKI
10. Will smile
11. Tuesday ~kaibutsu wa koufuku ni michita~
12. [Waga tousou] show
13. be.LI[Eve]
14. Untouchable ~idai naru kanjou~
15. The Bluffer
16. Rose helicopter
Encore 1
1. William Henly Bobbin
2. Shounen [B] Out
3. Hito no iki he (It's Integral)
Encore 2
1. Blossom
