Fairies LIVE TOUR 2014

Fairies LIVE TOUR 2014 – Summer Party –   
@ AiiA Theater Tokyo
August 9, 2014

I haven’t been a Fairies fan for a long time, so I guess I don’t really know much about the group. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself though. After all I do know that they are travel themed, each member is assigned a gem with magical powers, their average age is 21, and they cosplay as boys.

And there are 48 members.

Outside of that though, I’m pretty clueless.

When the group announced their first tour back in May, I extended my TIF trip to include their Tokyo concert. Although I purchased my ticket more than a month in advance, I was pretty sure my seat would be horrible. I messed up because I waited a week after general release tickets became available before buying mine. I gambled that there would be resale tickets available, but after several weeks of searching for tickets at the usual locations, there simply weren’t many available. Evidently most of the fan club members who purchased tickets actually wanted to go to the concert. What a bunch of jerks!

Considering this was also Fairies first tour (and I believe only their second or third full concert – which is pretty weird if you think about how long the group has been around), I had no idea what to expect. Would they perform only two songs total and then run off stage? Without an encore? Would they perform while wearing bikinis (for those who like that kind of thing… not me!) Would I get singled out for being the only person who didn’t buy any concert goods? (This is my secret fear at every concert since I never buy anything.)

Although their concert tour was called “Summer Party,” that Saturday (and several days prior) a hurricane was supposedly on a crash course with Japan. Fortunately, the “hurricane” never materialized, even though every time I left my hotel a staff member would say “Be careful of the hurricane!”

Fairies would be performing two shows that day. I chose the night concert because I know that the Fairies fanbase includes a lot of little kid and girl fans, and I figured the night crowd would have less of both. Not a big deal, but the type of audience can impact concerts in different ways. The audience for the night show was ~60:40 guys to girls, which is really unique for a girl pop group. I arrived 40 minutes before the concert began and the staff had set up two general areas for fans to wait, based on ticket numbers A100-300 and A301-600. That pretty much confirmed my suspicion that my B110 ticket sucked. AiiA has a capacity of ~830, so B110 probably meant I had ticket 710. It would be a while until my number was called, so I checked out their merchandise booth which was inside the venue. They had already sold out of a few products like the pink “Tokyo edition” of their t-shirt and both types of towels. I considered buying their official glowstick, but because of its unique triangle-shape, I didn’t think it would be something I could ever use again – even if I go to another Fairies concert in the future.

When my ticket number was called, I entered the theater, and chose what I considered to be the best available seat – an aisle seat in the middle column of row… 17. There were actually two empty seats in row 16, but I considered the aisle seat better than simply moving up one row, since you can slide into the aisle for a completely unobstructed view of the stage. Considering how high my ticket number was, I was totally relieved. I didn’t want the front row anyway! Everyone knows you can’t truly appreciate their awesomeness from that close.
The concert began with Fairies newest single BLING BLING MY LOVE, which I think is easily one of their best singles. The complete version with Miki’s solo is far superior to the radio edit. I love the direction Fairies is going with their music and I wish GEM would try to emulate them. A lot of groups have issues with pacing while attempting to fill a 90+ minute set, but they did a great job avoiding dead moments. I noticed at least five cameras filming the concert, so hopefully they release a dvd. The setlist was pretty much perfect and the occasional break didn’t detract too much. The main MC segment was pretty creative with Rikako and Sora doing a skit called FTV (“Fairies TV,” stylized like MTV). Rikako was DJ Pyon’s and Sora was DJ Sky and they covered recent Fairies “news,” including info about their single, going to America/Los Angeles to film the music video, and the staff getting lost and not understanding anything while they were there – kinda like me when I go to Japan. The biggest surprises (at least for me) was the solo performance by Momoka and and unit performance by M Three (Miria, Miki, and Mahiro), which I hadn’t considered they would include. I really like M Three’s song in particular, and randomly heard it several times on the radio while wandering aimlessly around Tokyo.

The only negative about the concert were some of the outfits. They weren’t the typical “cool” outfits Fairies are known for. Rikako and Sora had to wear these baggy 3/4 length “things” for the first half of the concert (see below).
But everyone knows I’m still a huge Fairies fan!

Set List
1. BLING BLING MY LOVE
2. SILLY BOY
3. Sparkle
MC – member intro
4. Love Me, Love You More
5. Hikari no Hate ni
6. No More Distance
7. One Love
MC – “FTV” corner (Rikako and Sora)
8. Poker Face (Momoka)
9. Your Love (M Three)
[Dance routine]
10. Super Hero
11. HERO
12. Hot Stuff（cover of an American song from the 70s – I think）
13. Beat Generation
MC – concert goods
14. White Angel
15. More kiss
16. Run With U

Encore
17. BLING BLING MY LOVE
18. Song for you

The encore was a little strange because the chant started immediately after the group left the stage. Literally after the last member disappeared a few girls had already started. I’ve been to concerts where the chant started after ten seconds, but never instantaneously like this. I would think most fans would want to give the group some time to change their outfits and rest for a minute or two. I guess not though. Fans can be crazy. 

Which makes me think one day there will be a concert and the chant will start before the concert has ended. Like when they announce the “last spot,” signifying the last block of songs, the chant can start. And I want to be at that concert! I will yell “encor-uuu” louder and more annoying than ever before!

Concert footage

I also wanted to mention that while waiting outside for the concert to start, predia’s promo truck drove by the theater *vroom vroom honk honk kerplunk* This was the second time I saw their truck (the first was in Odaiba during TIF). These are exciting times for predia fans. Exciting and sexy times! We have suffered ever so long…

I was too mesmerized to take a photo, but this is what it looked like:

This weeks edition of “Is it okay for a guy to save this?”™
Item: concert streamer
Absolutely not. Please retire from the internet!

…is what I would normally say. Fortunately, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll allow it… but just this once.

(Didn’t you also save SUPER☆GiRLS streamers from their tour last year?)
Yeah, but those just happened to land in my bag without me doing anything. Taking them out would have required work. And I um… had to fight a little girl for the Fairies streamer.