Perfume Fans in Los Angeles Turn to Live Viewing for “Perfume WORLD TOUR 2nd” by Nergene Arquelada and Dennis A. Amith (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

Perfume

On July 7th, fans of the Japanese techno-pop girl group Perfume in Los Angeles had the opportunity to watch the trio’s a concert in the UK courtesy of a live viewing held at Regal Cinema.

For Perfume fans, these last seven years since being signed to a major label, have seen great things happening for Perfume, which consists of members Ayano Omoto, Yuka Kashino and Ayaka Nishiwaki.  All three are  from Hiroshima, Japan and debuted back in 2001 and are produced by Capsule and Meg producer Yasutaka Nakata.

From chart topping hit singles, three successful albums and their music being featured in Disney’s “Cars 2″ animated film, in early 2012, the trio announced they were leaving their label Tokuma Japan Communications and moving to Universal Music Japan in order to focus on performing internationally.

In July 2013, the group prepared for their first European tour with “Perfume WORLD TOUR 2nd” with concerts in Germany, UK and France.

Their July 5th UK show at Shepherds Bush Empire was broadcast in Los Angeles on July 7th in front of an enthusiastic crowd of nearly a hundred people who came out to sing and dance to the songs of Perfume.  The live viewing was shown at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 7th with a box office price of $25 a ticket.  The screening was not live but is a 2-day delay broadcast.

The set list for the concert were the following tracks and MC portions:

  1. SE~
  2. Spending all my time (Extended Mix)/Welcome to Perfume World~
  3. Magic of Love
  4. Laser Beam
  5. Polyrythm
  6. -MC-
  7. Spring of Life
  8. SEVENTH HEAVEN
  9. Spice
  10. Handy Man (instrumental)
  11. Daijyobanai
  12. Electro World (Intro Short)
  13. P.T.A. no Corner
  14. FAKE IT
  15. Dream Fighter
  16. Chocolate Disco (ASIA Ver.)
  17. S.MC
  18. MY COLOR
  19. ENCORE: GLITTER (Europe Ver.)

During my viewing of the concert, one thing you will notice is the fans treated it like a real concert.  Screaming to the performances of Perfume, singing a long with their songs and even the people sitting right next to me, dancing to each song and really getting into it.  But most impressive was to see people knowing Perfume’s dance moves.

The live viewing was my first opportunity to see Perfume perform live.  While there are examples on YouTube, it was exciting to not only see a J-Pop live viewing in Los Angeles, but to also see the crowd really into the concert.  And makes me wonder why Perfume has not performed in the United States yet?

The group performed a lot of their hit songs including my favorites such as “Chocolate Disco”, “Spending all my time”, “Polyrhythm”, “Spice” and “Laser Beam” but also to hear the encore of “GLITTER” (European version) was very awesome!

But it was also great to see a performance of their latest single “Magic of Love” for the live viewing.

The concert kicked off with one of my favorite songs from Perfume titled “Spending all my time”, a fantastic synth track and possibly next to “Glitter”, a track that I have listened to countless times.

With that being said, I admit this is their most accessible song probably for a western audience.  For one, it’s almost all in English and it’s one of their most repetitive songs (and I usually dislike repetitive lyrics).   Everything about the musical arrangement and vocals works perfectly with this track.  A little techno style with Nakata’s arrangement this time around.  The lyrics are pretty simple:

Spending all, spending,
Spending all my time
Loving you, so loving you forever
Spending all, spending,
Spending all my time
Loving you, so loving you forever

Spending all, spending,
Spending all my time
Loving you, so loving you forever
Spending all, spending,
Spending all my time
Loving you, so loving you I wanna do

The version performed was the extended mix which transitioned to “Welcome to Perfume World~”.  But what is interesting thing about “Spending all my time” is that it may have never come to be. Written by Yasutaka Nakata, the lyrics were all in English and uncomfortable because of it, they each begged Nakata to rewrite the lyrics and incorporate Japanese lyrics and if it was not accepted, to not make the song an A-side.  Personally, I’m glad that Nakata reconsidered because I don’t want to hear J-Pop performers forced to sing a whole song in English, if they can’t or feel uncomfortable of doing so.

The second song performed in the concert was their latest single “Magic of Love” and a fun and delightful pop track and was thrilled that their new song was featured in the concert.  But I did notice that their single prior to “Magic of Love”, “Mirai no Museum” was not performed but the coupling song “Daijobani” was.

The third song performed was “Laser Beam”.  A song with with cool synth and beats, catchy with that digital style, “Laser beam” is a song about a person who is excited of seeing a person you like gaze at you.  The gaze is like a “laser beam” that pierces through the person’s heart and it’s a love beam that is the color of a rainbow.

The group then performed several of their popular hits such as “Polyrhythm”, “Spring of Life”, “SEVENTH HEAVEN”.

The seventh song “Spice” featured a catchy, upbeat single that continues to feature the synth pop arrangements that Yasutaka Nakata is known for.  The single is about being excited about something unexpected and that the spice of curiosity that is within you.  The song is about being in the same room with a person you like but the excitement makes the person tremble.  But I loved how the fans reacted to the song.

While “Mirai no Museum” was not performed, it was cool to hear their quick upbeat coupling track “Daijyobani” performed.  But throughout the concert, Perfume really went all out with their hits such as “Electro World”, “FAKE IT”, “DREAM FIGHTER” and “Chocolate Disco”.

The final song (before the encore) was “MY COLOR”, a song with a permeating synth groove and a track about a person who has been waiting for a mail from the person she likes.  She wants to see the person badly and hopes that her color, which is the color of excitement, reaches the person that she likes.  Great audience participation for this track!

The encore  track was “GLITTER” (European Version) and is a catchy song featured in English that starts of at mid-tempo until it reaches the chorus.  Am upbeat dance track that may seem happy, but the lyrics are somewhat sad as the song is about how a person has a sparkling dream, both people made a promise.  But until that day comes, she won’t cry at all and will pray for the person and laugh with them.  But instead of waiting, she feels she may need to take the chance and just do it or things won’t change, but she needs “Glitter”.  It’s a bit hard to explain the lyrics but it is a song about hope and just taking the initiative.

As for the MC portions, because Perfume are not native English speakers, they kept the MC to a minimum and focused on the music.

Overall, having attended Japanese rock live viewings, it was great to see a J-Pop live viewing and I hope by the number of people that attended and their reaction to the concert, will lead Live Viewing Japan to bring more J-Pop concerts to the big screen to the U.S.A.

While I’m not sure if the East Coast will be able to see these concerts or they were exclusive to Los Angeles (it’s important to note that part of the success of the live viewings was partly because of Anime Expo 2013 which was held on the same weekend but also a few blocks away from Regal Cinema).

But the experience of attending Perfume’s “Perfume WORLD TOUR 2nd” was an amazing experience and I hope to see them perform live in the United States in the near future.

For more information on Perfume, please visit their official website here (In Japanese) or their Global Site (in English)