Although the audience was small, DOPING PANDA still put on a great show.
DOPING PANDA’s European tour was full of surprises for the three member rock band. They started their tour in Paris at Japan Expo, which had about 15.000 visitors. Then they travelled to the Czech Republic, where they performed at ROCK FOR PEOPLE in front of 2000 people, taking the same stage as NO FX and Muse. Germany was next, where they held a small, yet unique concert on a boat that sailed through Hamburg during the show.
Compared to these concerts, the low number of attendees in Amsterdam on July 9th must have been a disappointment. There were twenty people in Winston at most, amongst them a number of Japanese fans that had followed the band through Europe. Perhaps the low attendance was due to the hot weather or lack of promotion, or perhaps it was just that the Dutch visual kei minded fans preferred to see visual bands live.
Whatever the reason, the small gathering around the stage still welcomed the band as they appeared on stage. After jamming shortly on their instruments, they started with a short intro of We Won’t Stop. The upbeat Anthem from their newest mini-album followed. While their recordings focus more on electronic elements, live on stage, DOPING PANDA emphasized their instruments and the rock sound of the band, which was also the case with their live version of Anthem.
The band took a short break from playing then, during which vocalist Yutaka Furukawa briefly spoke to the audience and thanked the fans. They continued quickly with the full version of the ska-like We Won’t Stop, and Furukawa moved to the front of the stage to play his guitar. During Thunder, he also moved to the beat of the song, but the other band members didn’t seem to feel up to making the show visually interesting, which wasn’t really strange with so few people in the audience. Bassist Taro Houjou concentrated mostly on his bass while once in a while looking around the small venue, and drummer Hayato at the back of the stage barely had any space to begin with.
The Dutch fans also started to move along with the upbeat songs, such as I’ll be there, and the Japanese fans used the back of the venue as their dance floor. Still, it was far from comparable to their shows in Japan, where they fill the venues with a few thousand dancing, jumping people.
In between songs, Furukawa took the opportunity to tell the audience that they were going to release an album in Europe, an international version of decadence. Officially the album will be released in August, but it was possible to buy the CD at the concert as well.
During their hit song Miracle, the band received an enthusiastic reaction from the audience as they quickly recognized the song. While Furukawa sang “I love you,” he added in an “I love Amsterdam.” After this song, they left the stage while the audience applauded loudly. It only took a minute before the band came back. They first started with the first lines of It’s my life, but while playing the intro, the song suddenly changed into Crazy. The Japanese fans cheered loudly when they recognized the song and danced along enthusiastically.
After the encore, the band left the stage again, and the fans soon realized that they weren’t going to come back for another encore. Technically, DOPING PANDA had given a great show, and because of that it was a real pity the atmosphere of the venue couldn't match their performance due to the lack of attendees.
Set list:
01. Intro (We won’t stop)
02. anthem
03. We won’t stop
04. thunder
05. because of the love
06. Song for my harmonies
07. I’ll be there
08. C.O.M.T
09. beat addiction
10. Miracle (new ver.)
EN. Crazy
