[Live Report] 魅世物小屋が暮れてから〜SHOW AFTER DARK〜
Pia
18 July 2021
Text = Okubo Yuka
Photos = Tanaka Seitaro, Watanabe Reina
This Depraved Dream World BUCK-TICK Invited Us Into
At 21:00 on July 17 was when BUCK-TICK began their streamed concert Misemono-goya ga Kurete Kara 〜SHOW AFTER DARK〜. This is its official report.
This show is BUCK-TICK’s first concert in 2021 and their second concert stream without an in-person audience. At last September’s ABRACADABRA LIVE ON THE NET, they performed the songs from their latest album ABRACADABRA according to the CD track order on the day of the album’s release. It was a straightforward livestream that delivered the band’s zeal but this time around, as the title suggests, a conceptual set that brought their audience into a salaciously beautiful world of mellifluous intoxication unfolded.
9 p.m. is usually the time we expect for a usual concert to end. In this day and age where we joke about “shady dealings” and the sort which comes alive after 8 p.m., there lies a tent that quietly puts on a light. It is time for BUCK-TICK’s streamed concert Misemono-goya ga Kurete Kara 〜SHOW AFTER DARK〜 to commence.
Enticed by an introduction that invokes a sense of guilty pleasure, we dive in deep, going through the curtains and continuing until a circular stage lit up by strings of electric lights appears before our eyes. Dressed in outfits oozing with personality, the band looked like a troupe belonging to this “Circus of Oddities”. Giving the audience no time to mentally prepare themselves, they immediately began their song. It was a familiar melody but with a completely different groove. This new sensation brings about the awareness that we have stepped into a whole other world.
Today’s show was split into two parts; the first being an acoustic set, and the second, the band set. In the first half, the acoustic set not only consisted of already existing acoustic songs, but also songs which have been specially given newly arranged acoustic versions just for this show.
Highlights among those are Uta which had transformed from garage rock to swing, and JUST ONE MORE KISS which had turned into a refreshing mid-tempo song. The simplicity of this ensemble elevated the songs, making them stand out even more and letting them convey each of their individual “fragrances” through the screen.
In addition, the cabaret box seats set up by the stage, the flames surrounding the stage, the lighting, the camerawork and all that were unlike what you would see in large productions on a big stage. All these minute staging details were what vividly reflected the storytelling of this particular stage.
The band set in the second part was their conventional concert setup, but even here, they’ve added songs with new arrangements that continue to surprise. They’ve said from the very beginning that the setlist for this show was specially selected to match the atmosphere of this stage which looks like a “Circus of Oddities”. And it feels especially so in this second half with a setlist steeped deeply in a world of depravity and fantasy.
In our daily lives where all kinds of exhausting news keep flying at us, this moment alone allows us to forget that reality. It’s like they’re granting us a dazzling, or perhaps a soothing dream to dream. I believe that this is precisely the true value of entertainment.
Their persistence with the concept of putting on a performance of mesmerising songs without speaking even once so as to not dispel this dream for the audience truly left an impression. Yet in spite of this, the message that the band wanted to convey through all of this was clearly told through the show.
Throughout both the first and second parts, Sakurai Atsushi (vocals) crossed his index and middle fingers time and again, displaying the hand sign for “Good Luck”. For those who will be enjoying the archive, do certainly pay attention and look out for this.
It had been showtime that will make us want to keep coming back for more even after the curtains have been drawn. The archive period for this stream will end on Friday, 23 July at 23:59. There is no doubt that you will most certainly get to meet a whole new BUCK-TICK in this show.
Yesterday, after the stream concluded, BUCK-TICK announced that they will be releasing a new single titled Go-Go B-T TRAIN on Wednesday, 22 September. They also announced that they will be going on a national tour starting Monday, 3 October along with the tour schedule.
I suppose the audience who have been immersed in the afterglow of this “Circus of Oddities” must have also been talking about the title of the single which appears to hold the destructive power to break down the image of BUCK-TICK that we’ve held thus far. Next year, in 2022, BUCK-TICK will be celebrating the 35th anniversary of their career since their major debut and yet they are still on the attack. It is truly admirable. Let our hearts swell with the anticipation of looking forward to what kind of new world will be the next one that BUCK-TICK shows us.
