This is a thread for sharing experiences at the 30th anniversary concert at Yokohama Arena! Please feel free to share your report. If we can get enough accounts of the concert here, maybe we can compile a cool "30th anniversary live report" page for the main IM site or somethin'.
I'll kick things off with my report:
[b]-The Mafu Account-[/b]
Things have changed quite a bit for me since attending the previous big anniversary show, five years ago at Tokyo Dome City Hall. Five years ago I was visiting Tokyo for the first time. Trains in Japan were still a new experience for me, etc. Nowadays, after several years of living in Japan, I was much more prepared.
I would venture out from my home in the Chiba countryside the morning of the 17th, around 9:30AM. Yokohama is a decent distance from me; it would take over two hours to arrive using a combination of bus and train.
I arrived at Shin-Yokohama Station just around noon, came to the venue shortly after and just walked around to check things out. Near the back of the venue was the area to enter for purchasing goods, and the line was already pretty big. Near the front of the line, I met up with Brye, his cousin, and MikeD. It was my first time seeing Brye since the 25th anniversary show five years prior. It was so great to see him again! His cousin and MikeD were also friendly and super nice.
My brother Tafu was on his way to the arena, so I left the merch line to go find him. Eventually, we met up right in front of Yokohama Arena. He was with yaro, who was gracious enough to offer Tafu her spare ticket. Thank you, yaro!
Leading up to the 30th anniversary performance day, yaro had been creating a new “zine”. Several of us contributed to it, and she had a bunch of them printed out to give away. She gave me one, which I was super happy about!
[img]https://i.imgur.com/H6G1LBFl.jpg[/img]
(The front of Yokohama Arena, before it got crowded.)
We went back to meet up with Brye and co. again, and by this time the merch line had grown quite a bit larger. Brye offered to get merch for us, and we took him up on the offer. Heart of gold, that boy! They would start selling goods at 2PM, and Tafu and I went to try and meet up with some other busters.
We saw overamped, and directed him to the merch line. I think the next one who found us was Bebop, and soon after him, Tomo. Another foreigner approached us, and with my awful eyesight I thought it was another person from IM or discord, but it was actually a random fan from Russia asking for help in purchasing a ticket. The box office would open around 5PM with 2F standing tickets still available, so if anyone came to the venue on the day-of, there would still be hope!
Not long after, a familiar face came around the corner. It was GR! We all briefly met before he joined the merch line.
When I saw Tomo take his ticket and voucher out of his bag, it hit me… I completely forgot about getting that danged “30th anniversary ticket holder”. When you purchased the latest single, “Happy Go Ducky!”, it would come with a voucher that you were supposed to bring to the venue. If you showed them the voucher and your ticket, they would stamp your ticket and give you a special ticket holder with a “LOSTMAN GO TO YOKOHAMA” design. Tomo asked event staff if the line for merch was the same line that we needed to be in to get the ticket holder, and he confirmed that it was. Damn! The line had gotten super long by this time and was nearing the front of the venue. Tafu and I debated whether we wanted to get in the giant queue or just blow off getting the ticket holders, but once they started selling goods, the line actually moved pretty quickly. We decided to go for it, and waited in line.
While in line, we took the time to read some of yaro’s zine, which we were cracking up over.
After a while of being in line, an event staff member walked past shouting something like “for ticket holders, CDs, DVDs… follow me to the back door!”. It turned out that they would let people in from the merch area “exit” door if you just wanted to get a ticket holder and such. So, we actually didn’t have to wait around so long.
A lot of other IM/Discord members had planned a meetup at the nearby Ramen Museum at 4:30PM, but since the venue would prepare the lines and blocks at 5PM, I decided to stay around the arena area. It had started lightly raining by this time, and we met up with a few more community members. A lady wearing a kimono was going around and having people write messages for the pillows. We all contributed to it. After the show, she sent it to the pillows!
[img]https://i.imgur.com/NvlutYKm.jpg[/img]
(yaro's zine!)
[img]https://i.imgur.com/CVH7LGfm.jpg[/img]
(The bar across the street from Yokohama Arena was playing pillows DVDs!)
Now, getting a ticket to the 30th anniversary show was something that I had contemplated for a long time. The Japanese concert ticket system is usually set-up in a way that you have to first enter a “lottery” before you get the opportunity to actually purchase a ticket. The earliest lotteries would allow you to get the closest tickets to the stage, and the very first lottery would be exclusively for members of the “What’s Pillows” fan club. I had become a member about a couple years in advance, a good deal of which was for the sake of this one show.
As luck would have it, my entry in the fan club lottery was successful, and I was able to score “center standing A block” tickets.
“A block” was the closest area to the stage, and the first that they started gathering together outside the arena. I got in the waiting area, and messaged overamped to come and join me (I got his ticket for him, so our ticket numbers were sequential; both in A300s).
[img]https://i.imgur.com/71PxT6Dm.jpg[/img]
(The ticket holder and fan club memorial ticket.
After a while, they let us into the front of the venue. Here was another waiting area in front of all the flower arrangements that other bands, etc., had sent to the pillows. Among them were several famous bands such as BUMP OF CHICKEN, GLAY, Mr.Children, etc. It was a great opportunity to snap a few pictures.
There was another big number board set up where they slowly started calling everyone’s ticket numbers. At first, they started with ticket A001. Everyone clapped and cheered for the lucky recipient of the number one spot!
It wasn’t long until overamped and I entered when they got to the A300s.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/dpxtBp1l.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/iAn5vE4l.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/DldEhRXl.jpg[/img]
(Some of the many flower arrangements inside Yokohama Arena.)
Stepping inside the performance area was pretty impressive. The scale of the arena was unlike any other venue that I had ever watched the pillows perform before. The stage was covered with a massive red curtain and a gigantic, gold “the pillows” logo hanged above it. There were two large screens on either side of the stage, with the “LOSTMAN GO TO YOKOHAMA” design with the Busterkun in the car. There were a couple rows of busters up at the very front, but we still basically had our pick on where to stand. We decided to stand kinda center a bit between the Sawao and Manabe area. There was a pretty sizable gap between the stage and nearest crowd barricade. It was obvious that Sawao wouldn’t be caressing any busters’ face tonight.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/EoopQXsl.jpg[/img]
(My view of the stage.)
The background music playing on the speakers was The Stone Roses. Overamped and I were taking in the sight of the massive arena, and speculating on what song the pillows would open with. “Do you think the giant curtain is a hint?”, “there was a curtain in the PV for Terminal Heaven’s Rock and Pied Piper, right?”.
Gradually, Yokohama Arena would fill up more and more. All standing and seated tickets had sold out, and they had started selling second floor standing tickets to insure that anyone who wanted to go would be able to get in.
An announcement came on over the speakers, and the show would begin shortly after.
On the two large screens they played a (about 10 minute) documentary about each member, starting with Shinichiro, Manabe, then Sawao. The documentary contained a slideshow of photographs of the members as babies, children, teens, young adults, present day, etc., and was voiced-over by their mothers telling about what they were like as children. The documentary ended and everyone clapped and cheered. With curtains still closed, Sawao started singing the opening verse of “Kono yo no hate made”, accapella. “kikoetekuru no wa kimi no koe sore igai wa iranakunatteta…” The drums would hit, the curtain opened, and Konoyonohatemade would be the opener of LOSTMAN GO TO YOKOHAMA.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/4kei8k5l.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/QjhO0B1l.jpg[/img]
(The performance of Kono yo no hate made. Photos by 橋本塁＜SOUND SHOOTER＞、玉井信吾)
The setlist:
Kono yo no hate made
MY FOOT
BLUES DRIVE MONSTER
Another Morning
Scarecrow
Babylon tenshi no uta
I know you
Sullivan ni naritai
LAST DINOSAUR
Please Mr. Lostman
No surrender
Kim deal
Boku wa kakera
1989
Ningendomo
Ameagari ni mita maboroshi
Third Eye
Advice
Swanky Street
About a rock’n’roll band
LITTLE BUSTERS
Ready Steady Go
Encore:
Strange Chameleon
Hybrid Rainbow
(SE) Thank You My Twilight
Double encore:
Ride on shooting star
Funny Bunny
Triple encore:
Locomotion, more! more!
Some notes about the show:
Behind the pillows on the stage were a few giant LED screens that displayed graphics all throughout the concert.
-Konoyonohatemade had graphics as if moving through a forest of leafless trees.
-Third eye made possibly the best use of the LEDS. It had some cool graphics going on, with live feed of the members.
-Please Mr. Lostman opened with the intro that they played for the 15 anniversary show and had a graphic on the LED screen that looked similar to the album cover, with sparkly stars or something that would appear on the tree.
-Sullivan ni naritai was a particular stand-out, because Manabe performed a special, extended solo. It was super, super cool.
-Little Busters was also incredible. Near the end, Sawao ran to the left side of the stage and Manabe ran to the right. It had a special extended outtro.
-During Ready Steady Go, during the beginning when the guitars kick in during the second set of “lalala lala”, silver streamers were shot into the crowd with “Thank you my highlight, with busters” written on them. Not many of them came to my area, so I couldn’t grab any.
-When they started playing the intro of Swanky Street, it was clear that something was off. I think that Shinichiro came in on drums too early (it was it too late?), and they stopped playing. Everyone just laughed, and Sawao made a quip about something like “this isn’t like a band who plays Yokohama Arena!”. They started Swanky Street over, and it worked out this time.
-After the first encore, Thank you, my twilight started playing on the speakers and everyone sang along.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/2fZwF6Ol.jpg[/img]
(During Ningendomo... or 1989? I forget..., the LEDs displayed a city graphic. Photo by 橋本塁＜SOUND SHOOTER＞、玉井信吾)
[img]https://i.imgur.com/RRAJo45l.jpg[/img]
(So many busters. Photo by 橋本塁＜SOUND SHOOTER＞、玉井信吾)
After the concert, I noticed that it was nearing 10PM, and I was outta there like a hot breeze. Since I live pretty far from Yokohama, I barely had time to make it back home before the trains stop running. I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to meet everyone from this forum, discord, etc., but I made it back to Shin-Yokohama Station just in time to catch Shinkansen.
But dang... I couldn't sleep that night at all. My brain was still full of pillows and I couldn't close my eyes without being taken right back to Yokohama Arena. It was an amazing, surreal day that felt like being in a dream. I feel super fortunate for this community and the chance to meet several of you. Honestly, just roaming around before the show and seeing so many of you was as much as a highlight as the show itself, and I thank all of you.
Some people have speculated that this might be "the end" for the pillows, but I don't think so. Sawao himself has said "well, there's no reason to stop. We'll probably just slower our pace". So, I'd say that there is a good chance that many of us will be meeting again for the 35th!
(If I remember anything noteworthy, MC, etc., I'll edit it into my report.)
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