HummingBomber?!?!?!?!

[Tochiro]

Oh boy, finally! An event that some other MWers also got to go to! Makes my job a lot easier!

Since both Gubaba and Renato have got some thoughts up, we’ve agreed to get them all together in this thread, making it a group review for a change. The reports from this thread will be updated with pics and setlist corrections as they come in.

What is it exactly that we went to? Well, I like to call it ‘Humming Bomber Weekend.’ ;-)

Back in Dec-Jan during his previous tour (which I have a review of sorts on the way), Fukuyama revealed that he would be having a 20th Anniversary concert in May. The concert would be spread over two nights on May 21-22, and would feature the reunion of his original band ‘Hummingbird.’ In principle, no song would be performed twice, no-matter how popular. A 20th Anniversary best of compilation album would be released in the leadup to the concert. Titled ‘’20 Flight Rock’, this album would feature a massive 3CDs and 1 DVD, at an equally massive price.

Then in February, just after her ‘Mylene Night’ concert with Toko Sakurai, Chie Kajiura announced that her next gig ‘Laboratory #05’ would be held on May 21.

Wait….. surely she wasn’t going to hold it at the exact same time as the first night of Fukuyama’s gig, right?

.......

….......she was.

To make things even more complicated, soon afterwards the Macross F fanclub announced that a special screening of ‘The Wings of Farewell’, with special guests from the cast in attendance, would be held….on the evening of May 21.

Obviously a bit of a lack of communication here, no? I spoke with some Japanese fans and found that most had chosen the same combination of events that I had: Chie on the 21st and Fukuyama on the 22nd.

____________________________________________

Chie’s concert was held at the Star Lounge in Shibuya - a relatively new location having only opened in September 2010. Apparently the owner was an acquaintance of Chie’s. It was the sort of small live house that I liked - pokey, hand-decorated and with a max capacity of 250 ppl (standing) you could get a clear view of the stage from anywhere in the room. It was intimate. A small counter out front sold beers and a few last-minute tickets. All tickets were made and autographed by Chie herself.

Save and I arrived at around 17:40. Doors were due to open at 18:00 and the concert would begin at 19:00. We had started preparing for the performance earlier in the day with a bottle of red wine and an old copy of Venus Wars on DVD. This choice was of no particular significance and probably had more to do with the wine than anything else.

The doors opened a little late so we grabbed some beers while we waited. The usual suspects from the Japanese fanclub all turned up, save for one who had chosen to go to the movie screening, and Gubaba soon joined us.

Since the last major concert Chie had given in February was 100% Macross, I was not expecting there to be a heap of Macross songs performed. Chie had all but confirmed my suspiscions a few days earlier when she posted a blog about how she has changed the setlist to better reflect her feelings about the March 11 earthquake. She wanted to do stuff that was soothing and would heal. These are not words I normally use to describe Mylene songs.

Save and I got through the door before Gubaba (entry was based on ticket numbering) and immediately got as close to the stage as we could. We were in the third row from the front. This was the closest I’d ever been to the front at a Chie concert and really added to the overall sense of intimacy that the venue itself had already created.

With a good 30mins or so to wait, Save grabbed us a couple more beers and I had a chat to Japanese fan I knew about Mari Iijima’s upcoming concert in July (there was some drama regarding the recent article in the LA Weekly) and before too long the concert began.

Damn, Chie was...close! She was sporting her usual all-black style (I’m SUCH a fan - so very 90’s) and long Sadako ‘I’m gonna crawl out of your tv and kill you but I’ll sing at you first’ hair. The podium she had her music on included a build in smoke machine of some sort - it constantly looked like her music was on fire.

(photo ©Chie Kajiura via her blog)

As I had predicted we didnt get too much in the way of Macross songs. The set list (and this is still a work in progress) was as follows:

(1) Opening

(2) Breathe

(3) love letter

(4) かたまり (Katamari)

(5) Feel it (Kate Bush cover)

(6) →シロとクロ← (Shiro to Kuro)

(7) Pillow Dream

( セッション (Session)

(9) 2moon

(10) ピアニカ (Pianika)

(11) 睡眠HEAVEN (Suimin HEAVEN)

MC

(12) 僕は？ (Boku wa?)

(13) ????

(14) Rubberband Girl (Kate Bush cover)

(15) PLASTICS

(16) Ready Go　

ENCORE

(17) Feel it

(18) 君に届け (Kimi ni todoke)

MC

モーツァルトの子守唄 (Mozart’s Lullaby)

The standouts for me were Pillow Dream, Love Letter, Plastics and, of course, Kimi ni todoke, which is always good live. Personally I was a little disappointed that we didnt get Free and Flowers or Dakedo Baby, but it’s not like I hadnt heard these done live before anyway.

What really caught me by surprise was the inclusion of not one, but TWO English songs in the form of Kate Bush covers, ‘Feel It’ and ‘Rubberband Girl.’ Chie has tried ‘Feel It’ at a previous gig, although she seemed much more confident with the lyrics this time. ‘Rubberband Girl’ was a new one for her and she was obviously enjoying it - in fact, Chie smiled more during these two songs than I have ever seen her smile, period. I think I was worried she was going to crack her face open like an eggshell at one point - so different did she look from the scowling, goth-looking Chie that I’m used to.

Hmm... would she be considered a grumpy hippy or a mild-tempered goth? I think I’ll have to give some thought to that one....

Anyway, Gubaba was pretty impressed by her performance as well:

The Chie Kajiura concert tonight was pretty damn good. It's clear she was in a mellow, moody kind of vibe...the only peppy show-stoppers she did were "Ready GO" and "PLASTICS." Apart from that, it was mostly a mix of Chie solo songs (old and new), with a relatively small number of Macross songs (apart from the previously mentioned duo, she did "Pillow Dream" and "Kimi ni Todoke," which give a good sense of the overall pace of the show.

She also did not one, but TWO Kate Bush covers: "Feel It" (which she did the last time I saw her) and "Rubberband Girl" (which I thought was an exceedingly odd choice, but Chie and her band nailed it).

After the show was over, they announced that Chie would be manning the merchandise table, and collecting money for the Tohoku Quake victims. As such, I bought some buttons, and then got to shake her hand (which, yes, means I've finally met both Mylenes...'bout time, considering my Macross World name...)...I also told her I'd love to her her do a Kate Bush cover album. She said she'd love to, but that her English is no good (not true).

But BEFORE she helmed the store, she and the guitarist came out and stood next to the bar, and did a beautiful, quiet performance of "Friends ~Jikuu o Koete~." It was really damn awesome.

I got to snap some photos before the guy next to me tapped me on the arm and gestured for me to stop...as soon as I can get them on my computer, I'll put them up.

But yeah...again, damn good show. And Chie did enough new songs that I certainly hope an album is in the works.

(photo ©Chie Kajiura via her blog)

After the concert I kinda slipped up. As Gubaba mentioned, Chie manned the merchandise table personally to sell stuff to the fans. I already had most of the merch on sale and the venue staff were clearing anyone who wasnt buying out of the room. Save and I decided to wait out front. 10 mins passed. Then 20. No-one was coming out. What the hell was taking them so long?

There was no way for us to know that those who remained in line had been treated to an accoustic rendition of ‘Friends-Jikuu o Koete.’ About 30mins had gone by before Gubaba stumbled out of the hall with a huge grin on his face. If only I had known!!!!

____________________________________________

This brings us to Sunday, May 22nd - and three and a half hours of rocking out to Yoshiki Fukuyama!

While I didn’t buy 20th Flight Rock prior to Fukuyama’s 20th anniversary gig (opting to pick up his latest album ‘Synapse’ instead…well actually I was brainwashed into doing so by Renato. He is a very very good salesman) the track list was interesting in that it featured no Firebomber songs. It had songs from Hummingbird that had been repurposed for Macross 7, but no Actual Firebomber songs. This probably should have tipped me off, but after the way Fukuyama had featured so much Macross 7 at his other recent concerts, and since this WAS a 20th Anniversary gig (and the huge influence of Macross 7 on his career being a point that I don’t think anyone can really contest) I was fairly confident going in that we would get at least a smattering of Basra’s greatest tunes.

I was wrong.

This isn’t to say it was a bad concert. Far, far from it. But it was first and foremost a celebration of Fukuyama’s solo stuff. It was also quite possibly the greatest Hummingbird performance in the last decade.

…….well okay, it was the ONLY Hummingbird performance in the last decade. You got me.

This being the case, we should start this review off with the opinions of the biggest Hummingbird fan I know.

Renato, would you mind?

[Renato]

Copying and pasting my comments onto this thread as ordered by General Tochiro of the Gaijin Brigade....

FOR THE TOO LONG / DIDN’T READ CROWD: IT WAS A F***ING AWESOME CONCERT!!!!!! Thank you, you may move on.

OK, let's see if I can do one of these. Not to be outdone by Tochiro and Gubaba, I shall try my hand at doing a concert write-up.

Firstly, sorry for resurrecting this thread. The main reason I felt this was the best thread to post in to do this write-up is because I had already introduced the band Hummingbird in my first post here, and that's quite relevant here.

Yesterday (Sunday) was the second day of Yoshiki Fukuyama's 20th Anniversary concerts. On Saturday, there was also a Chie Kajiura concert, for some reason scheduled on the same day. You can read Gubaba's excellent write-up of that one here:

http://www.macrosswo...ndpost&p=911067

I bought my ticket back in February, if I remember correctly. To be honest, even though it is the 20th anniversary of an excellent performer, I had this feeling that going to this concert felt more of a chore than anything else. I have seen Fukuyama live many, many times over the past ten years, and I know his basic routine. And he often misses notes and screws up lyrics, or mess up some riffs (though this one is quite rare). The last time I saw him was in Osaka over a year ago, and to be honest, it was the worst performance I'd seen, I was quite disappointed. I went to that one because it was the Revival of Fire Bomber gig, which would be the first time I saw Chie Kajiura and Fukuyama together. It was OK, music-wise, not bad, but he just looked beat from the day before in Tokyo, which I heard was pretty good. We got a shorter song list, a few mistakes, and the lack of coordination between Chie and Fukuyama showed quite a bit. And I’d seen most of the songs done live already anyway. There were only a couple of songs from the new album and I was expecting more. I decided to go anyway since I heard that Toshiyuki Furuya, the stray ex-Hummingbird bassist (and leader, technically) was going to be a guest performer.

Well, after all that, I am happy to say yesterday’s performance was much, much better. Fukuyama looks, sounds and plays better, healthier, more confident. He used to cough a hell of a lot between songs, even between lyrics, during a performance, but not anymore. He didn’t do that once. He used to sound quite worn out, unable to hit high notes towards the end of the concert, but no more. He sounds as fresh and SHARP on the last lyric of the last song, as the first shout of the first bar of the first song. And he even noted this himself. A number of times, he said he was surprised at his own performance, where he used to struggle he now makes it look effortless. You can even see it in the Long Long Live DVD: halfway through he is collapsing over himself, barely able to stand, really having a hard time playing and singing, his voice almost a whisper at times. This… was something else. Fukuyama re-born.

So OK, who went to this concert. From MW, Tochiro, Save and myself. Save came fashionably late. There were also the usual suspects of Japanese Macross fans. I got there early and spoke to them for a while. Apparently one of them won a backstage pass, one of two that was mixed in with the prizes in the Gachapon machine. Not bad for 500 yen, huh?

Yamato had their shiny new VF-19kai toy on sale in the lobby, amongst the CDs and T-shirts. They also had a life-size, real Basara guitar on display, which hopefully will be a proper product soon.

I spoke to Tochiro and his friend Richard from the videogame podcast that they do (who has the worst concert luck ever, for reasons I will let Tochiro explain), for a while, mostly about bottled water, Jack Black’s 1999 scrapped TV pilot, derogatory surfboards and other shenanigans when I decided to go to the bathroom before the show started. I took a million wrong turns before I found it, but I’m not complaining, for if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have bumped into this guy, sitting on the ground against a wall.

This is Toshiyuki Furuya, Hummingbird’s bassist, today’s special guest – best known to Macross fans as the guy who wrote Dynamite Explosion. After more than a decade, at last I was able to meet and speak to the guy, and he was really happy to find his music had an audience overseas.

Right, on to the music itself. The concert was made up of three main sections, the first was typical Fukuyama numbers, made up mostly from his solo album material, which was great. It was a good mix, and many songs I’d not heard live before, in particular that “Fukugan” operatta, which we talked about earlier in this thread, Fukyama’s own “Bohemian Rhapsody”, was great. I didn’t know he had written that while recuperating after breaking his collar bone. After a short break, the four Fukuyama Band members became the three, Hummingbird members – which means the keyboardist (whose name escapes me right now, since they’ve changed him THREE times already) and the bassist (Tetsuro Maeda) left, and Furuya came on stage, to give a powerful rendition of “Towa no Tobira”, thus elevating this hitherto “pretty good” gig into an epic performance of godly proportions. I am serious, the raw energy unleashed would have been visible if only they had had their patented Dr. Chiba Song Energy convertors equipped. “1,000,000 Chiba song units!” Every Hummingbird song was absolutely fantastic, and it was then that I felt, man, this is what I’ve been waiting for.

When I lived in Japan for a year in 2001-2002, it was just after HB broke up. I have felt gutted ever since then, not to have seen what I thought was the greatest band in the world perform live (for which Furuya-san profoundly apologized when I spoke to him!). I had to make do with my albums, which I listened to each and every day, and to this day I am not bored of those first two albums. They are masterpieces in rock history. I love Queen, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who and I put Hummingbird right up there with them. But this really blew me away. Fukuyama’s band is great and all, but, man…. This was just testament to how incredible this band was and is.

And the in-between-song banter with the three of them was great, too. They were taking potshots at each other, reminiscing about their old gigs, old radio shows, laughing like they were at a class reunion.

Fukuyama: “Remember “Hoshi no Tegami” [beautiful song from the “Timeless” album]?? You hated recording that song! I’d look over and you’d be making that horrible face!”

Furuya: “Yeah, ‘cos those harmonies were a nightmare! I’m sitting down, one hand on the keyboard, another playing bass, and at the same time I’m supposed to do backing chorus?? Screw that!”

Or even, when Fukuyama is off on one of his infamous tangents, Furuya would just cut in and say, “Jeez, you talk a lot! Shut up and let’s play!” to which the audience went wild. It was really great to watch.

There was more great banter which I remembered up until a few minutes ago but I forgot now, oh well.

After the HB section, the concert was technically over but the 4-piece Fukuyama band came back to do a few powerful encore numbers, and finally bringing back Furuya on acoustic guitar to close the concert proper with a rendition of “Happy Birthday”, Hummingbird’s debut single.

On the way out there was a camera rolling which you had to give a short message to, and apparently will be on the DVD. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for embarrassment, and our MacrossWorld reps did not disappoint. All will be revealed in the inevitable DVD release.

After that Save, Tochiro and I had some drinks, where we discovered that Save can’t tell his left from his right.

All in all, this was a million times better than I expected just because of how incredible and solid Fukuyama’s performance was, and better than I expected by an incalculable power of ten due to Hummingbird’s one-night-only revival.

They honestly were a really, really great band.

But don’t take my word for it, AT LEAST check out their first album, right here:

http://forums.macros...topic.php?t=403

(It’s out of print, so this is your best bet)

Here I am with Furuya-san:

Yamato’s Basara Guitar:

Attached thumbnail(s)

[Renato]

Song list for the two days is up on Fukuyama's site. 57 songs in total!

21日

01．Party　（横田EG）

02．俺は今日から宇宙人　（横田EG）

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03．Dawn

04．こだわりハリー

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05．昨日見た未来　（福山AG）

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06．雪の日に　（福山AG　てつろうAG）

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07．逃避行　（福山AG→EG）

08．透明人間

09．境界線

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10．混沌の中をさ迷って（福山ギターリン)

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11．Nightingale　（福山AG　てつろうAG）

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12．風と木と光の街で　（福山AG）

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13．星の手紙 （福山AG）

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14．Jungle Lady

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15．悲しみはどこから

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16．ワクガイ!!

17．獣になれ！

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18．マイ・ブラザー

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19．MAD MACHINE

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20．ガラパゴス　（福山AG　てつろうAG　横田B）　　

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21．祝福と涙　（福山AG）

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22．寓話

23．DREAM JACK

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24．DYNAMITE EXPLOSION　（福バサラギター）

25．STARLIGHT DREAM　（福バサラギター）

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26．MY SOUL FOR YOU

--アンコール--

27．ねここしゃん

　　～キミノミカタ （てつろうVo）

　　～ドラムソ\ロ

　　～いてくれてありがとう （横田Vo）

　　～キングゲイナー・オーバー！

　　～ねここしゃん

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28．この空の下に君がいるから

22日

01．始まりの日

02．RED DATA FRIENDS

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03. Oh Yeah！

04. 突き進め　MY LIFE

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05．MIRACLE SKY

06．水玉のカバ

07．しあわせの涙

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08．白い森 （福山AG）

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09．夜が来て 明日が始まる （福山AG）

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10．複眼

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11．BINBO BLIZZARD

12．真白にかわれ

13．ゼロになれ

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14．NA NA NA　（横田EG）

--ハミングバード--

15．永遠の扉

16．ロング・ロング・タイム

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17．PARADISE

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18．住宅用火災警報器戦隊 ジュウケーレンジャーの歌

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19．今を生きる人へ

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20．月のささやき　（古屋Key+synB)

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21．海をこえて

22．君は来ない

23．MAKE A MAP

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24．魚つりの歌

25．FLY AWAY　（古屋Key→B→Key+synB)

26．まだまにあうさ

--アンコール　福山バンド--

27．真赤な誓い

28．一週間

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29．ハッピー・バースデイ （古屋AG）

Edited May 26, 2011 by Renato

[Tochiro]

Damn you Renato! I spent my entire lunchbreak writing those up in a proper grid format to post because I didnt want to cut and paste em directly from Fukuyamas site! :-p

[Tochiro]

Thanks Renato! Great writeup!

Fukuyama’s concert started a little earlier than Chie’s - the doors opened at 15:30 and the gig itself started at 16:30. Unlike the previous day it was pissing down cats and dogs and my phone decided take a smoke break on the way to the venue and never returned. Despite communications issues, I arrived just as they were calling my numbers - perfect timing!

Going through the lobby I could already see more of the usual suspects from the Japanese fan club. But the doors were open and the hall was already half filled, so there was no time for idle chit-chat. I manage to squeeze my way as close to the front as possible - there were about 8 or 9 people between me and the stage I’d say. Save managed to turn up about 20 mins later.

The crowd was CHARGED - ost of the people in front of me were sporting Fukuyama t-shirts or, at the very least, JAM Project ones - and the hall was utterly PACKED. By the time the doors shut and Fukuyama came out I doubt they could have squeezed another person in. I squinted up to the cordoned-off guest section upstairs and thought I spied Chie up there for a moment but I could have been wrong.

Without too much in the way of ceremony, Fukuyama came out on-stage, along with regular consorts Tetsuro (bass) and Pon-chan (keyboard and sometimes guitar), collectively known as tha F-band, and the show began.

Now I have to admit, while I am a Hummingbird fan, I’m more of a fan of Fukuyama’s Macross stuff. And, given that the bulk of Macross fans would be attending on the night I was there, I was expecting some Macross stuff. At the very least I was looking forward to hearding the first 2 songs from his new album ‘SYNAPSE’ and maybe ‘Dreamjack’ (does anyone else remember that? The old City Hunter song?). As luck would have it, these two songs were played the night before, as was ‘Dreamjack’, so I didnt get any of the songs I’d hoped for. But that didnt make the gig any less rockin.

(A two-day setlist I put together, along with romanisation of song titles in case anyone wants to look them up)

It had been a while since I’d listened to much Hummingbird, to be honest. A still have their album ‘1.2.3’ lying around and keep in in regular playlist rotation, but my copy of their best-hits album was, unfortunately, swallowed by a friends CD player that obviously had rather discerning taste. I showed it just how discerning by taking to it with a hammer and chisel, but alas the CD was long gone. So was the aforementioned friend.

But a lot of those songs would coming rushing back to me over the course of the night.

The first of the concerts three parts dealt mainly with Fukuyama’s solo stuff and was a surprisingly good selection.

He opened strongly with ‘Hajimari no hi’, although my favourite songs from this set had to be ‘Tsukisusume My Life’, ‘Fukugan’ and ‘Zero ni nare’. Tsukisusume my life totally went OFF, and had the crowd jumping up and down. Similarly, Zero ni nare got some serious fist pumping action.

Fukuyama has always been one to talk quite a bit while on stage. I enjoy this - it brings character to the concert and he often says some pretty funny stuff - but I soon noticed he was talking even more than usual. At one point we were averaging one MC segment between every song! Meh, it was HIS 20th anniversary so I figured he intended to make the most of it.

Towards the end of ‘NA NA NA’, the band started making jokes - ‘you’re all obviously waiting for SOMEONE......you want us to just leave now, right?’ But leave they did, clearing space for Toshiyuki Furuya to take the stage, greeted by deafening cheers - Hummingbird was back!

(photo © Yoshiki Fukuyama via his blog)

Thus began the second part of the concert, the Hummingbird Set, and the tension did not drop one iota from start to finish. My picks were ‘Mada ma ni au sa’ (the original version of ‘Power to the Dream’) which I don’t think I’d ever had the chance to hear perfored live before, along with ‘FLY AWAY.’ I’d heard ‘FLY AWAY’ performed back at Fukuyama’s Christmas concert but man that song never gets old. I always see the old PS1 game opening movie in my head whenever I hear it. Remember how good that CG SEEMED back in the day?

(photo © Yoshiki Fukuyama via his blog)

One thing I noticed was the difference in sound that Furuya brought to the Hummingbird songs. Since he often sang, the result was a more refined sound, whereas Fukuyama tends to go for an all out rawer kind of approach - I’ve seen him perform with five electric guitarists in the one song...thats right, FIVE. Couldnt hear the lyrics (or anything else for that matter) but damn it was fun.

In contrast Furuya is more about duet melodies and keeps the vocals at a higher pitch (which he probably does to keep Fukuyama under control ^^; ).

The rawest song in the Hummingbird set was probably the Juukee Ranger song. The crowd got pretty loud for this one. But the loudest song of the night happened after Furuya left the stage after 12 songs and the F-band reclaimed their rightful place in the third section - and immediately went into “Makkana Chikai.’ I thought this song was loud with 12000people when Fukuyama did it at Animelo, yet the smaller venue and excitement this time made it seem even louder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UjgahRsh9w

The concert was finished with Furuya joining F-band for a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ - again, a song I never thought I’d get to hear done live.

By the end, Fukuyama had been singing for just under 3.5 hours straight. The night before he was only 10 mins short of hitting the 4hr mark. The fact that he pulled off two huge gigs like this back to back was testament to the spirit that had kept him going over the past 20 years - the spirit of rock.

On the way out I managed to get a better look at the lobby. The new Fire Valkyrie was on sale, and a glass case held what would hopefully be the production model of Yamato’s new Basara guitar replica. It looked a heck of a lot better than the wood mock-up I’d seen at Yamato’s showroom 6 months earlier! Unfortunately there was no price on it ....yet. I hate to think what they will get away with pricing the damn thing at - I’d love to get one (if only to hang on my apartment wall) but I’m expecting the cost to be in the several thousand dollars range, so for now all I can do is look at the pics I took with envy.

The night ended on a bit of a downer for me personally. A camera near the exit had been set up for fans to record messages to Fukuyama on the way out. The line for the camera stretched back into the hall at one point. Overjoyed that I’d finally get a chance to leave some well-wishes behind for the big man and....totally flubbed my Japanese.

Maybe I was tired from two nights worth of concerts, maybe it was the excitement, I don’t know. I do know that I stuffed what I was hoping to say, but before I could go for a retake the line surged forward and the chance was lost. I coul’ve kicked myself. In fact I did, several times, as I left the hall. Along with the wall, a trashcan, and several lamp posts as I headed back into Shibuya to get a beer or three. Fortunately, by this point the rain had finally stopped. Fukuyama mentioned earlier during the concert that whenever he performed solo the weather was always fine, but back in the day it had rained almost everytime Hummingbird had performed. So apparently someone upstairs had taken notice of the band’s long-awaited reunion as well.

img-523123204.pdf img-523123226.pdf

Fortunately for everyone (but possibly unfortunately for me if they include the above ^^; ) the entire two night performance will be released on DVD later this year. Fukuyama has said that he doesnt intend to cut anything - not even some of the sillier banter in between songs - all 57 of them!

Edited May 26, 2011 by Tochiro

[Renato]

Without too much in the way of ceremony, Fukuyama came out on-stage, along with regular consorts Tetsuro (bass) and Pon-chan (keyboard and sometimes guitar), collectively known as tha F-band, and the show began.

Don't forget drummer Souichirou Asou!

At the very least I was looking forward to hearding the first 2 songs from his new album ‘SYNAPSE’ and maybe ‘Dreamjack’ (does anyone else remember that? The old City Hunter song?).

You might be thinking of "Ride on the Night", that was the City Hunter song. "Dreamjack" was used in Ergheiz. They both rock, though.

(A two-day setlist I put together, along with romanisation of song titles in case anyone wants to look them up)

Fantastic!!

Just two nitpick, there are a couple of romanization errors, though. Songs 12 and 15 on the second day should read:

12) Masshiro ni kaware

15) Towa no tobira

One thing I noticed was the difference in sound that Furuya brought to the Hummingbird songs. Since he often sang, the result was a more refined sound, whereas Fukuyama tends to go for an all out rawer kind of approach - I’ve seen him perform with five electric guitarists in the one song...thats right, FIVE. Couldnt hear the lyrics (or anything else for that matter) but damn it was fun.

In contrast Furuya is more about duet melodies and keeps the vocals at a higher pitch (which he probably does to keep Fukuyama under control ^^; ).

That is actually almost exactly how I read some Japanese comments on the net describing Hummingbird's performances a few years ago. They said that Furuya was the anchor that kept Fukuyama grounded and prevented him from just taking off uncontrollably. Since Fukuyama went solo, they argued, he has lost some of the balance that was the hallmark of the Hummingbird sound.

Fortunately for everyone (but possibly unfortunately for me if they include the above ^^; ) the entire two night performance will be released on DVD later this year. Fukuyama has said that he doesnt intend to cut anything - not even some of the sillier banter in between songs - all 57 of them!

I seriously cannot wait to buy that DVD. There'll be no hesitating on that one, I just hope they include both days of the performance so I can see what I missed on Saturday.

Re-reading that now... I can't believe it's already Thursday night. Where the hell did my life go?? Hummingbird broke up ten years ago already. I remember the exact moment I read the news that they disbanded... I still haven't recovered fully from that trauma, but last weekend was certainly good therapy to treat the wounds.