On a festive day, MONORAL treated their fans to an exciting show in Shibuya.
On July 7th, fans enthusiastically gathered in front of Shibuya O-East for MONORAL's Tanabata Festival 2008 concert, named after the Tanabata Festival (Star Festival) that occurred on this day, and for this occasion a lot of fans were dressed up in yukata. At 18:30 the doors opened and the atmosphere amongst the fans was already pleasant even though the show had not yet started, something that would not change all night.
At a little past seven, the band came on stage and were immediately greeted with cheers from their fans. They opened the night with Like you, a strong upbeat rock song, which set the mood for the whole concert. The audience was enthusiastic right from the very beginning on and you cannot blame them. The band played well and vocalist Anis and bassist Ali teased and encouraged the fans.
The first thing that definitely catches your attention during a MONORAL show, but also in their music in general, is vocalist Anis' voice. His voice is strong and that, together with the all-English lyrics, leaves a feeling you usually only find with some American bands. All in all, it just sounds very impressive.
After the second song, POCKETFUL OF JOY, the audience applauded and Anis gave them a short 'thank you'. Then he introduced the band as MONORAL before they continued with Pompadour.
At the end of Oh no!, a song with an interesting and slightly mysterious sounding intro, Anis took out a megaphone, complete with little devil horns, to sing through.
During wash, a song with an acoustic guitar, the band let the audience sing a part of the song. The audience didn't hesistate at all and sang along enthusiastically, as well as clapping along as Anis was encouraging them. For the next song, Frozen Peak, they continued with the acoustic guitar. This song was a little more upbeat.
In an MC they told the audience about their new song, CASBAH, before they started playing it. Previously said, it has an Arabic feeling. The song was very well received by the fans. For weird kind of swings, Anis took out the megaphone again. During the live this worked very well in this song. At the "yeah"'s in the song the audience put their hands in the air and continued rocking out.
After Sparta, the band members were introduced before Anis let the audience make rhythmic "hey, hey, hey!" noises, an introduction to the next song: Tangled. The audience took out their towels and started waving them around as the band started the song. While Anis was singing, the audience continued cheering "hey, hey, hey!". Once again the megaphone was taken out and Anis made an alarm sound go off at the end of the song. As the band left the stage, the megaphone was left behind on the floor of the stage, the alarm still going until a roadie turned it off.
The audience cheered for an encore, and the cheers got louder when the band finally returned. But instead of returning to his drums, drummer Daigo changed places with Anis for a short MC. Although he seemed shy, he got the audience even more excited for the next song, Shenanigans.
Then, after Shenanigans, the band suddenly announced 'a good friend and special guest' and the audience was surprised to see ken of L’Arc~en~Ciel come onto the stage as guest guitarist for the next song: Helter Skelter, a cover of The Beatles. Ken played the guitar with a lot of passion and stole the spotlight during his solo part in this song. Anis asked the audience to 'make some noise' and they obeyed enthusiastically by screaming and cheering.
After the song, the band members left the stage and the lights went out. The audience, however, once again asked for more by cheering and calling for the band. With 19 already songs played the show lasted for a long time, enough to satisfy every fan with its balanced set list, but again the band returned for another encore and started playing the instrumental track, Turbulence.
The band ended the show with Session 9, a calmer song that was fitting to a 'goodbye'. After the song, they thanked their fans, promised to see them again soon and then they left the stage. But before really leaving, they returned to the stage once more to bow to their fans and thank them again.
Setlist
01. Like you
02. POCKETFUL OF JOY
03. Pompadour
04. Monkey Cage
05. Kiri
06. I am I am
07. I like it
08. ammonite
09. Oh no !
10. So long
11. wash
12. Frozen Peak
13. CASBAH
14. PERFECT GOLD
15. weird kind of swings
16. Sparta
17. Tangled
Encore
18. Shenanigans
19. Helter Skelter
20. Turbulence
21. Session 9
