At their first-ever one-man live, An Cafe’s miku and the rest of Lc5 shook Shibuya BOXX to its core.
Cold Sundays are cold. It might sound like a refrain from a tired Internet meme, yet the weather on December 19 made little effort to dispute the notion. By 3:30pm, an hour before the doors of Shibuya BOXX were set to open, dozens of fans had assembled immediately outside the venue. The vast majority of these fans were in fierce combat with the cold, equipped with dark jackets, vests and anything else that made logical sense. Yet there was a notable group of fans – young, female – who fought the incoming winter air in a different way: plush costumes.
Against the coin lockers parallel to the nearby tent vendor street, these fans stuffed their jackets and warm pants in favor of Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Stitch and anything else that was colorful and cute. Throwing back to the days of An Cafe, where the amount of color on you determined your level of fan-love, these brave fans showed no hint of regret, let alone any acknowledgement of the weather. Most of the remaining fans in line wore darker clothing, perhaps to fit the notably monochromatic theme for vocalist miku’s new venture.
By the time the audience lined up and entered the venue, the lack of color grew more apparent. The comparably narrow walkways leading past the goods corner and bottled drink table were black, almost barren, save for the T-shirts and CD singles on display. The standing room of BOXX did nothing to compromise the darkness, instead complementing the halls and the non-costumed fans in one of the “darkest” lives in recent memory.
It should be noted that the evening’s live was Lc5’s first one-man live ever, after only six months since the band’s formation. Despite this, the live was completely sold out. It showed; by the time the crowd had filled the standing room, it had become difficult for people to find a clear path to the restroom. The fans in Stitch and Doraemon took to the front of the crowd; much to the relief of those in back, the front was without a doubt the densest area, as a proper live should be.
The live started on time, with what little lighting the ceiling provided fading to the crescendo of the crowd’s roar. Drummer Aki appeared, his blond hair brighter than the décor suggests yet ultimately complementing it. Bassist Sato and guitarist yumeji followed to ascending applause. Reo, the immensely tall guitarist, appeared with a wave and an approving cheer from the crowd. Walking up to front-center was miku, whose powerful calls to the crowd would defy his otherwise diminutive stature for the rest of the evening.
DIRTY STAR opened the evening and from the first few guitar riffs, it became apparent that Lc5 was nowhere near a “new An Cafe.” As the color had vanished from the venues and the band’s wardrobe – all the members wore all-black outfits, ranging from Reo’s loose, casual wear to yumeji’s more formal suit – so, too, had the pop-heavy color drained from miku’s previous band. Gone was the saccharine catchiness of songs like Smile Ichiban Ii Onna, replaced instead by memorable piano melodies such as STORY, guitar solos and impressive uses of synthesizers, the latter to referring to LOVELESS, their first single, released in September.
Bands that can sell out its first one-man live in such a short time usually have at least three things: impressive MCs, at least a few singles to their credit and hopefully pre-established star power. Lc5 came with all of the above. Amazingly, as of this live, Lc5 had only released two singles thus far, with a third slated for March. More than half of their songs at BOXX were new, as-of-yet untitled tracks.
The aforementioned costumers definitely support the third prerequisite, but this isn’t to say miku made the band. No, “Lc4” — sans miku — had their own impressive moments, performing an instrumental for upwards of ten minutes with at least one timely nod to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Aki, in particular, was ecstatic during the performance, if only due to his shiny new drum set.
This brings us to their MCs, the second of which stunned the audience. miku held a contest between the members to see who could give the best “I love you” to the crowd. As the band progressed, they began to ask for enhanced lighting and microphone echoes. By the time the microphone came to Reo, the guitarist uttered something so crowd-happily suggestive their manager refused him the chance to say it again. The audience approved nonetheless.
The band’s main set concluded with their second single, STORY. Calls for their encore were answered in mere minutes, with the band returning in casual wear. Announcing the next dates of their one-man tour, the band kept the crowd active through to their final song of the evening. With spoken and unspoken promises of more to come, the band wished their fans farewell. Their next lives, in Nagoya and Osaka, will be followed by a nationwide tour this spring.
Set List:
01. DIRTY STAR
02. New Song 1 (Untitled)
03. New Song 2 (Untitled)
-MC-
04. Loveless
05. New Song 3 (Untitled)
06. New Song 4 (Untitled)
-LC4 Session-
07. New Song 5 (Untitled)
08. New Song 6 (Untitled)
-MC-
09. Lc5 ~love&crash~
10. TELL ME!!
11. Deeper Than Fate
12. STORY
Encore:
13. New Song 7 (Untitled)
