MaitoreiA at Meguro Rockmaykan: BIRTH OF LEGEND

The long-awaited new project MaitoreiA debuted with an ambitious two-day oneman act at Meguro Rockmaykan. On February 13th the band stood before their audience for their first live, introducing themselves to the audience, while at times playing some of their songs twice, since they wanted the crowd to remember the music and the furitsuke choreography better. The second show took place the next day, on February 14th, and once again the live house was filled with a crowd full of anticipation.

Slightly in advance an announcer came out telling the crowd to wait some more before the "birth of the legend", and promptly the electronic march-like SE started playing, and one by one the members entered the stage – the drummer SHO-TA, the bassist ZEN, the guitarist DAISHI and the vocalist RETSU, greeting the audience by bowing or saluting, to which applause came as response. Starting the live was subaru, a rather calm song with an electronic intro and an ethnic touch to it’s sound, with an accent on the guitar lines, as it finished DAISHI organically continued onto an impressive mesmerizing guitar solo. Next came ikusen no shinwa, and as the song exploded with more upbeat melodies and a slightly Spanish touch, glittery confetti shot out into the audience. Immediately the hall was filled with light and a positive atmosphere, and as the charismatic RETSU urged the crowd "Let’s go!" Both the band and the audience proceeded to jump, clap their hands to the beats and point their hands in different directions as taught to do during the first live’s choreography tutorial. The warmed up crowd screamed and applauded, as RETSU went onto an amusing MC, joking with the ever-smiling DAISHI, saying how his anxiety went away because of the fan’s warm response and thanking the crowd.

The live continued with a dynamic, more heavy sounding akane, with atmospheric distortion effects on RETSU’s deep voice in the verses, and as the band moved forward, the audience shook their fists and stirred. A more slow-paced but still rather hard SABOTAGE~seisen~ followed, with heavy accents on the intense sound of ZEN’s bass lines, and as DAISHI sank his guitar and joined RETSU in firing up the audience, they fiercely shook their fists in response. Next song was another heavy fast-paced song aru ai no katachi...., in which DAISHI and ZEN’s virtuosic solos interchanged. As the members moved around the stage RETSU put his arm around DAISHI’s shoulder, the guitarist proceeded to cunningly peck the surprised vocalist on the cheek.

The band once again thanked the audience and proceeded to go onto a lengthy talk corner, a group MC, for which all four members sat down on chairs while the announcer once came out once again. He first introduced each member, loudly cheered on by the fans, continuously teasing ZEN and causing uproars of laughter. They then proceeded to ask the band questions the audience submitted before the show’s start, such as for example what kind of food they like or how they want their fans to act. The audience found out such things as how stage make-up usually takes the members 30-40 minutes to do, and that if you date one of the members they all come with individual privileges - DAISHI would treat you as a princess, SHO-TA would cook for you, RETSU would drive you home, and ZEN would cause you a lot of stress. It turned out that DAISHI likes girls with nice hands, where as SHO-TA pays more attention to the eyes, the white of the eyes in particular, and while RETSU likes tidy girls, ZEN prefers ones that are tough and nasty on the outside, but kind and soft on the inside. More interesting facts could also be heard, such as how the cool vocalist calls his mother “mama”, SHO-TA has never done visual kei before, ZEN can speak in very amusing English and that DAISHI wants to continue MaitoreiA for as long as he lives. Concluding the talk corner each member said a final message.

The live continued with kibou no shirube with a hard start, intertwining softer bits, but always melodious and with another great solo from DAISHI. Sougen jouka~kamigami no rakuen~ started with almost pastoral light flute melodies and had a somewhat medieval European sound to it. The members and the crowd jumped, encouraged by RETSU’s screams. Otome no inori had a slightly jazzy touch to it, especially in the elaborate saturated bass lines, and lead by the lively vocalist, fans danced to the upbeat tune. In the MC RETSU asked the audience to once again show the band their strength, and announced the first organized event that MaitoreiA is to hold in Yokohama SUNPHONIX HALL on April 29. The band continued to surprise everyone with the variety of their sound repertoire while still sounding consistent, the following honnou catastrophe seemed to have an almost reggae type of catchy rhythm, while still heavy, at times with the more mellow tunes the audience stepped from side to side holding hands, as they were taught to do the first day. The last song of the set was the rougher heavy myoujou, again with heavy sound effects on RETSU’s intense and captivating vocals, to which headbanging and fist-shaking could be seen, as the members moved around the stage and switched places energetically, and even the rather bashful SHO-TA seemed to let go and enjoy the final song fully.

Thanking the audience, all four members came to the front and bowed, only ZEN saluted the crowd as his signature gesture, and left the stage. Soon the audience called the band out for an encore, and the smiling four came out once again, wearing band t-shirts. The members thanked the crowd and said that they felt like they have already found a new family. The band once again played ikusen no shinwa, looking rather more relaxed and enjoying improvising and interacting with each other and the audience. RETSU told the audience that he feels very grateful for what he saw that day, since he had not done lives for a whole year and the last live with his previous band also took place in Rockmaykan. DAISHI concluded that he would like the fans to become a sanctuary to which the band could turn to when they needed to, and promised that MaitoreiA would become a sanctuary for the fans in return. On this satisfying note, the band proceeded to play the last song of the evening, aru ai no katachi...., and both the smiling members and the enthusiastic crowd seemed to be having a lot of fun. The members bowed, thanked the audience for the courage they had been given and left the stage. Only ZEN trailed behind to salute the fans as the curtain suddenly closed in front of his face, triggering another wave of laughter.

MaitoreiA could not have debuted in a more impressive way, demonstrating their potential as a unit perfectly. They are definitely an entertaining and original band with fun lives, as well as incredibly skillful musicians, which are bound to attain big success. One should definitely keep an eye out for their future activities.


Set list:

01. subaru
~Gt.solo~
02. ikusen no shinwa
~MC~
03. akane
04. SABOTAGE~seisen~
05. aru ai no katachi....
~Talk corner~
06. kibou no shirube
07. sougen jouka~kamigami no rakuen~
08. otome no inori
~MC~
09. honnou catastrophe
10. myoujou

Encore:
01. ikusen no shinwa
02. aru ai no katachi....