“Energetic! Emotional! If you are a fan of Attack All Around, this ‘1st Anniversary Live’ concert on DVD is probably my favorite live DVD featuring the group!”
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ARTIST: AAA (Attack All Around)
TITLE: AAA – 1st Anniversary Live -3rd ATTACK 060913-
DURATION: Disc 1: Approx. 134 Minutes, Disc 2: Approx 13 minutes x 8 shots
DVD INFORMATION: 16:9 LB for concert, 4:3 for disc 2, Linear PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Ch, Region 2
Released on January 1, 2007
COMPANY: avex trax
CONTENTS:
1. BLOOD on FIRE
2. Friday Party
3. [ACT CORNER]
4. “Qâ€
5. Bomb a HEAD!
6. CRAZY GONNA CRAZY
7. Yume no kakera
8. Kireina Sora [Acoustic version]
9. Deai no Chikara
10. Soul Edge Boy
11. DRAGON FIRE
12. VIRGIN F
13. Kimono Jet Girl
14. Let it Beat!
15. Hurricane Lilly, Boston Mary
(Original Long version)
-ENCORE-
16. Hallelujah
17. Champagne Gold
18. Welcome to This World
19. Bokura no Te
DVD 2:
Duration: 13 min. x 8 shots
4:3, Region 2
Note: Multi-angle shots which you can select one of the members and just watch them perform the following songs:
1. Friday Party
2. Q
3. DRAGON FIRE
Directed by Ippei Morita (Saloon)
Director of Photography: Terukuni Ajisaka
Produced by Noriko Kuwabara (COULORFIELD, Inc.)
Starring:
Takahiro Nishijima
Naoya Urata
Misako Uno
Mitsuhiro Hidaka
Shinjiro Atae
Yukari Goto
Shuta Sueyoshi
Chiaki Ito
Missile Invasion: Ryo Owatari (Guitar), Yoshiyasu Hayashi (Bass), Hisayoshi Hayashi (Drums)
Originally featured on a PDF review on J!-ENT back in 2007, Reposted for the Blog:
I have to admit that AAA (Attack All Around) has become my top pop group in Japan.
One of the original draws to their music had nothing to do with the members because to tell you the truth, all I knew about the group back in 2006 was that one of the members (Uno Misako) would be appearing in the US version of the film “The Grudge 2â€. Also, that they had done a cover of two songs that I pretty much enjoyed and grew up with which were TRF’s “Crazy gonna Crazy†and m.c.AT’s “Bomb a HEAD!â€.
But what really peaked my curiosity of the group was three things: The first being that all their CD singles are budget-priced and are either Y1,000 (CD+DVD) or Y500 Y(CD). Their music is easily one of the cheapest CD singles to find in Japan.
The second, Avex Group President Max Matsuura’s passion with the group and his continued support of a group that really hadn’t broken into the top 10 at all. (Note: As of spring 2007, AAA has broken the top 10 and also the top 5 on the Oricon charts)
And last after watching AAA’s “1st Anniversary Live ~3rd ATTACK 060913~ at Nihon Budokanâ€, I saw a potential of this eight member group.
A hybrid pop group that would bring together a boy band and a girl band together, it was definitely a fresh and unique direction that avex trax was going with this Attack All Around (AAA).
Each member of the group has had an interesting life before they became members of AAA. May it be performing as a dancer for pop artists such as Ami Suzuki or Ayumi Hamasaki, acting and even modeling but in one year’s time after multiple CD single releases, the group had their first major concert. Their first anniversary which took place at Budokan on September 13, 2006.
The group performed a total of 19 songs starting off with their debut CD single “BLOOD on FIRE†(theme song for the live film “Initial Dâ€) and followed with a Togashi Akio (m.c.AT) written song “Friday Partyâ€. So, many awesome performances which include favorites such as “Hurrican Lilly, Boston Mari”, “Q” and many others.
I was blown away immediately because the men and women can both sing and dance. There is a lot of energy and excitement in their performance and they really fed off the audience. They are not the typical group that are pieced together because of their looks, these eight young men and women have talent.
Also, another interesting thing that I saw was that the group performed with a live band and one of the guitarists for AAA (for this concert) was Ryo Owatari (member/guitarist of Do As Infinity) and his band Missle Invasion playing the music for AAA. So, for a dance group, rarely do you see live bands performing but in this case, a live band performed throughout the concert. Pretty awesome!
I was quite familiar with some of the members involvement in theater and film, so included is a 15-minute or so play featuring all members. What was very cool is when they asked the audience to take out their cell phones and via speaker phone everyone played the “Friday Party†ring tone. I have never seen that done in a concert before.
The group then came out with their covers of “Bomb a HEAD!†and “CRAZY GONNA CRAZY†which got the crowd dancing. Another highlight from the concert was when each member sat down and sung an acoustic version of “Kireina Soraâ€.
For the performance of “Soul Edge Boyâ€, you can definitely see the male members vocal range and to give credit, Nishijima “Nishi†Takahiro can definitely sing!
Uno Misako and the others can definitely sing as well. But both Nishi and Misako do a great job being the most audible of the eight. One of the things that I also enjoyed about the AAA concert is although the stage setup is not super elaborate compared to a Hamasaki Ayumi or Amuro concert, the group doesn’t rely on lighting effects or stage props to put on an exciting concert.
The group successfully makes it all up with small things integrated into their performance that makes it more exciting to watch. For example, for “DRAGON FIREâ€, the three women came out doing a Chinese inspired dance before the performance of the song. Another example is during the performance of “Kimono Jet Girlâ€. While the girls were performing, the guys went towards the audience and interacted with them.
This is a perfect example of how a concert can be well produced without having an uber expensive budget for stage production and how success can be accomplished by well-done performances and a continuous, persistent interaction with the audience.
AAA does this extremely well.
As for the DVD, there are two versions. A version with only the concert on a single disc and the other that comes with a second DVD which gives fans a chance to focus on a single member of AAA during their performance of “Friday Partyâ€, “Q†and “DRAGON FIREâ€.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
The video is featured in 16:9 LB. Video quality was pretty good with this concert and what I enjoy the most was the interaction with the audience. You get a good number of cuts from different areas of the venue fortunately. Audio is presented in Linear PCM Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1ch. For the special multi-angle shots, video is featured in 4:3 in Dolby Digital Stereo.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD does not include any special features per se but it does include the second disc which is the “Multi-Angle -8 Shots- Disc”.
The insert features photos of each individual member and shots from the concert, production credits, etc.
All in all, I really enjoyed this concert.
The whole vibe of the concert was full of energy between the group and the audience that the whole atmosphere and experience made it exciting and worthwhile to watch. It definitely was a special moment in the group’s lives and it was quite emotional as well. (Note: For more on how emotional concert this was, please check out the “Channel a x AAA” DVD.
Want to experience AAA and their music performed live? I highly recommend checking out their “1st Anniversary Live ~3RD ATTACK 060913~ at Nihon Budokan†DVD.
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