Uchusentai NOIZ at Shibuya O-East

While there are many attributes in the running, the most incredible thing about Uchusentai NOIZ is the near mind control they seem to have over their fans. At a moment’s notice they can have hundreds of people fulfilling their every whim: falling over in droves, executing Mexican waves from front to back… or my personal favourite, hopping wormlike across the room in daisy chains. This uncanny control was evident from the very beginning of their elaborately titled JAPAN TOY’S PANIC TOUR KING OF ONEMAN & EVENT SHOW 2011 ‘GENOM EMOTION’ FINAL ATTACK' tour final.

One moment the crowd were lounging about, spread haphazardly across the floor of Shibuya O-East. Some were checking emails and blog posts on their phones, others were chatting with friends. Almost all were sitting. Then all of a sudden, with no obvious cues either visual or audio, they were all on their feet, ready to begin as if hundreds of little antennas had received a simultaneous signal from outer space saying “The show’s going to start!”

The house music stopped, inciting applause and even greater sounds of appreciation when the space-aged roller-coaster of a set was revealed. Smoke jets and dramatic overture heralded the arrival of the heroes, each posing in true sentai (ranger: think power rangers) fashion before the voiceover announced them one by one. In green, the drummer was the first to make his mark, sections of the crowd copying his every move. “Machinegun Beat Grappler, YAMATO.” Decked out in purple with a bright orange star on his chest came the bassist. “Super Vibrator, KYO.” Primarily orange with hints of green and a sleek black top hat, the guitarist seemed to hail from Halloween Town. “Hyper Sonic Guitar, MASATO.” Outfitted simply in sky blue with some black and white for trimming, the remaining guitarist played it up as ‘the cute one.’ “Neo Eccentric Guitar, KOTARO.” With hair even pinker than his fur and sequin-lined outfit, the vocalist was last to take his rightful place. “Angel Voice Messenger, ANGEL-TAKA.”

With a huge burst of sound and another dose of smoke jets for good measure, the set kicked off with Andromeda Parade. The crowd was just one big mosh party throughout the whole catchy song, ANGEL-TAKA heading the assault as a sparkly bundle of energy. SHINE then took a heavy turn but the guitar still maintained a bright twang even as MASATO roared up a storm. However, the chorus was rather sunny, with sunshine yellow lighting consolidating the mood. That didn’t last for long, though, as every other element of the song brought back the mean, heavy sound. MASATO danced about, passing his guitar about his body whilst KOTARO broke it down in a guitar solo and ANGEL-TAKA played the bad-boy, stretching his tongue out as far as it could go. If any first-timers had expected rainbows and cheer from start to finish, this second number certainly made it clear that NOIZ have a heavy side – and one that sounds great, at that! With a sound reminiscent of Linkin Park to the guitar, rap, and melodic line, BAD MUSIC FREAKS kept the crowd going from start to finish.

“From the corners of outer space, landing in Shibuya O-East, Uchuu. Sentai. NO-I-ZU!” The announcement had the crowd cheering, but only half as loud as the response to ANGEL-TAKA’s next statement. “We missed you, Tokyo-baby!” Even a simple emcee about the four month tour was in no way a simple affair. KYO teased the vocalist at every turn, there was counting on fingers, Mexican waves, and even most heinous suspicions that the crowd were cheating on their band! “Your very excitement is suspicious,” ANGEL-TAKA claimed, making eyes at the crowd. “Either way… Let’s love each other till the very end!”

SPACE PIRATES#2 re-ignited the crowd, and then a big fluffy pink mic stand was brought out for ANGEL-TAKA in Mr.ADVENTURE so he could dance along with them. KOTARO took over the pink monstrosity for a short while before he was picked up and carried about on MASATO’s shoulders where he played out his solo. When the high-jinks of the number were over, ANGEL-TAKA started flirting with the crowd again, to their utter delight. “Hey, let’s feel the love. You wanna be killed by me tonight?” As one, the whole right side of the crowd toppled over as the vocalist blew a kiss with the sound effect “bakkyuu~.” Well practiced, the left side executed the drill with equal precision. Then a Mexican wave swam across the room from right to left. After allowing some more fooling around, KYO cut in, fulfilling his straight man role. “When you get started, you never stop. I always wonder when it’ll end.” “I hate endings,” ANGEL-TAKA whined.

That said, the vocalist put on a semi-serious face to announce NOIZ’s next endeavour, ten songs released for free online and a tour to compliment them. “One thing we can’t forget about is the earthquake that happened during this tour. There are still aftershocks and people are scared but it’s our duty to cheer people up. That’s what I think. So we pushed ourselves to put the new album on pre-sale today for the sake of charity. There are other charity goods, too, so please take a look. Let’s all protect the peace of the Earth together! From the new album: THE PARADOX IN IDEOLOGY.”

Beginning with piano and MASATO’s signature heavy rap, the new number showcased all the best of Uchusentai NOIZ, harsh and hard in places and cheerful in others. Then the crowd had their towels out and churning for 3DAYS BOAT. The next song, Eternal Radio, was a personal highlight of the set. Starting out with an R&B feel, soon augmented by digital noise, the vocal entry could easily have been from an anime. With a catchy melody and strong guitar line occasionally dissolving into digital-space-age sounds with a robotic rap, the number really showed off NOIZ’s compositional skill and the lack of boundaries that make their ideas fascinating. Meanwhile, the guitar duet at centre stage also allowed ANGEL-TAKA and KYO to showcase their dancing skills. Then PEAK came in and for one uncanny moment it seemed as if DMC had taken over the venue. Before long, things were as they should be: Bright, cheerful, and happy. Meanwhile, MASATO continued to rock out to the underlying edge in the guitar line.

After basking in the shouts of their names throughout the blackout, ANGEL-TAKA finally announced to the crowd the advent of his third orgasm. Even KYO made a double-take at that one. However, the bassist finally dropped his straight man routine, developing his own greedy little character when discussing the topic of money. Then came the most unforgettable event of the evening. KYO had everyone turn to their left and place their hands on the shoulders of those in front of them and start jumping forward. The two smallest sectioned off areas were instructed instead to form and circle and rotate clockwise. As the drums beat on, the crown continued to circle and hop, complete putty in the hands of the band as they completed what is now known as Formation Z. “Can you see?” ANGEL-TAKA asked the back of the crowd as he continued instructing the formation. “What the hell are you looking at!?” he then snapped, inspiring raucous laughter. “Now remember,” he warned. “There are songs that just don’t fit. You can’t go doing that in a love song, okay?” KYO then set a cue based on the vocalist’s movements, making the crowd promise not to miss it. However, the poppy strains of the following MAGICAL DIVE and Happy Tied were apparently not the right timing for Formation Z. KOTARO’s guitar solo in the latter was impressive, though, for more than the big facial expressions as his fingers scaled the frets ringing pure notes clear as day.

Next up was YAMATO’s Music Challenge. 20’s style detective music introduced the scene and a plastic ‘customer’ was trundled out. “Bartender YAMATO is looking for the legendary bartender TAKA,” announced a disembodied voice. As the customer placed his order, YAMATO shot him down. “Sorry, we only have plum wine.” And so the customer conceded to plum wine. However, “Man, this place is hot,” he murmured. “Oh no!” YAMATO addressed the audience with his dilemma. “The customer is hot! But we have to save electricity!” Before long, he had the answer. Tearing off the customer’s clothes, YAMATO saved the day. “Oh, this is much cooler!” The voice over announced YAMATO’s successful completion of the challenge. Then it was time for the band and the crowd to do the YAMATO dance, YMCA style. Next, ANGEl-TAKA had a trick of his own to share. A table of pyramid-stacked wine glasses before him, the vocalist pulled the pink table-cloth clean out from under the delicate structure. He then proceeded to pour champaign from the top down. Reaching for the full, top glass to take a sip, ANGEl-TAKA revealed his deception as the whole pyramid lifted along with it. Naturally, the crowd cheered the deception even louder than the supposedly successful trick.

RISE was a welcome return to the realm of music, KOTARO dancing vigorously as though he couldn’t wait to be back on stage. Once again, the crowd moshed unrestrainedly across the floor. All of a sudden, a bed was rolled onstage, ANGEL-TAKA crawling in and pulling up the covers. Waking up to sing, he had the guitars laying flat on the ground before him to continue the song. SPARK!!!!! then had everyone dancing around cheerfully, MASATO and ANGEL-TAKA producing towels from nowhere as the guitarist abandoned his instrument for the mic, rapping in tandem with the vocalist. At last came the cue from ANGEL-TAKA and the crowd began their awkward worm-like hopping across the room during an unimaginably heavy riff. The sight was at such odds with the music that laughter was a delayed reaction. The twin rap continued into igni+ion until ANGEL-TAKA yelled his gratitude.

“Have you ever seen a bed in a concert before?” KYO asked the fans. “So… Who the heck were those guys who brought it out, anyway?” ANGEL-TAKA had an answer. “They were the servants of my dreams,” he responded. “To think the last time here at O-East it was ping-pong,” KYO tsked. What followed was a soppy speech about smiles and babies, and yet it was full of the usual gags and laughter. Seemingly following no logical pattern from one topic to the next, ANGEL-TAKA then brought up discussing his occupation. “‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘I protect the peace of the planet,’” he mimicked. After another set of Mexican waves, he then drilled the crowd in the correct response to his personal abbreviations:

DJB = Daijoubu
OK = Good K
“DJB?” Response: “Good K!”

Once he had the crowd issuing the correct vocal response, he urged them to “Put your asses into it!” and warned that he wouldn’t stop until he saw them moving. Of course, KYO pointed out that they couldn’t properly see the crowd’s asses unless they turned around. Were the crowd shy about sticking out their butts in the band’s face? Probably. Did that stop them? Not a one. A jamming session kicked up, ANGEL-TAKA improvising lyrics and encouraging the crowd to pop their hips and butts in the air as they yelled “Good K!” In short, sexual harassment is A OK if you’re a crazy sentai VK band with mind control powers. In fact, it’s welcome! (Although that could be a result of the mind control.)

Between FLASHBACK FLAG, QUEST and BRAND NEW WORLD, the crowd were kept on the tips of their toes either jumping or moshing around barriers like an obstacle course. The set came to an end in no time at all, leaving the puffing crowd with expressions of pure joy. Executing their final poses along with the crowd, Uchusentai NOIZ blasted off, with fans saluting their departure.

However, the crowd were insistent on a second helping, quite literally calling for “okawari” (seconds). Well, KYO was quite willing to play this up for all it was worth, getting the crowd to worm-hop their “Seconds!” call until ANGEL-TAKA made his way out with a camera to film the ridiculous phenomenon, possibly for blackmail purposes.

“I’ve really started to remember during this tour that music really can save the world. In the past, we collected toothbrushes for children in the Philippines. To this day we still receive toothbrushes as presents which we then send on. This time, we sent two hundred to Earthquake affected areas. It’s you guys that make us heroes,” ANGEL-TAKA explained solemnly. A voice from the back shouted, “That’s obvious!” Looking shocked for a moment, the vocalist then started laughing uncontrollably, unable to stop himself. Finally, he calmed himself down. “So let’s all continue to protect the peace of the world!”

The encore began with the very appropriate Thank you for the MUSIC, which had the crowd moshing like crazy once more, the whole floor churning with bodies as ‘ownership’ of spaces became a non-issue. MASATO jumped down off the stage, leg up on the front barrier as he played. Meanwhile, ANGEL-TAKA took a massive flying leap, knees to his chest, the extended airtime outdone only by his perfect landing. The catchy pop melody of BACK BONE wound up the evening with a smoke screen, the band playing it up until the very last moments. Even when the song was over, the hijinks continued with piggy backs and jokes. “Love you baby!” cried ANGEL-TAKA before YAMATO dragged KOTARO forward, both band and crowd linking up for a final jump.

Whether the show made any progress in protecting the peace of the Earth remains unseen, but if protecting the joy and youth of their fans is a part of that goal then it was certainly a success. With a sound ranging from cheery pop to dark, dirty metal, Uchusentai NOIZ is one of the most eclectic, entertaining bands to come out of Japan. As far as their music goes, looks can be deceiving, but performance-wise, they offer everything promised by those stunningly silly bright outfits and crazy hair!


Set list

1. Andromeda Parade
2. SHINE
3. BAD MUSIC FREAKS
4. SPACE PIRATES#2
5. Mr.ADVENTURE
6. THE PARADOX IN IDEOLOGY
7. 3DAYS BOAT
8. Eternal Radio
9. PEAK
10. MAGICAL DIVE
11. Happy Tied
12. YAMATO Corner
13. RISE
14. SPARK!!!!!
15. igni+ion
16. FLASHBACK FLAG
17. QUEST
18. BRAND NEW WORLD
Encore
1. Thank you for the MUSIC
2. BACK BONE