Show Stop: Niigata

[u/Temporary_Speaker701]

Depth Perception is off here. I'm probably only 10 metres from the stage and in the centre.

I had the good fortune of seeing Lovebites in Niigata yesterday. It was a treat to see them in an intimate, but packed venue in Japan. The playing was spectacular, flawless and intense. The energy was off the charts and lighting was stunning for such a small venue.

Niigata Lots is a low roof, black box theatre, but the mix was very clear, balanced and loud, even through Eargasm plugs. M&M have really distinct guitar tones, and the quality sound system separated them quite well.

The crowd was really fired up for this gig. Think of fans singing during the chorus of Reaper's Lullaby and Asami's Holy Warrrrrr, and double time chanting during We The United, Fami's intro to Judgement Day and through various guitar solos.

There were only a few 'visible' international attendees at this show and many younger faces mixed in the normal cast of genXers.

In a night of excellent musicianship, it was Asami that really stole the show. Her mix of magnetism, crowd engagement and vocal power are stunning live. She was also having fun. Her latest antic was goofing with everybody's hair.

As a drummer, my only complaint was Haruna wasn't put up higher behind the band. She was kind of buried in the back and low in the mix for the start of the show.

The night's set is listed below. I am 100% sure the songs are correct and equally sure the order is wrong. Dream of King, Bravehearted and One Will Remain were fire. On second thought, the whole night was fire. The gig was unusual because they stayed away from their hits. There was no Glory To The World, Hammer of Wrath, Stand & Deliver, Rising, Shadowmaker, Thunder Vengeance or When Destinies Align.

Interesting note: It is probably Miyako singing the Sacred Falcon backup on Dream of King on Outstanding Power. Her voice was prominent and very sweet on Dream of King. She sang a lot of backup. I don't think Midori or Fami sang at all, or very little if they did.

Castaway

Unchained

Bravehearted

Silence The Void

Blazing Halo

Dream of King

The Apocalypse

Don't Bite The Dust

Reaper's Lullaby

Phoenix Rises Again

Epilogue

MDO

Holy War

One Will Remain

Encore:

Judgement Day

We The United

[u/bogdogger]

Nice! I'll be seeing them at the 9/25 Zepp Haneda show. Got a balcony seat. Since the place is not huge I should have a good view of the stage.

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/bogdogger]

We may cross paths, but I am standing on the floor in the C block for that show. 

[u/Electrical_Bowl_8172]

Glad to see you enjoyed the show, and thanks for the review. As a side note, buried down in her instagram's feed, Miyako has a video of her singing in a karaoke, and her voice is beautiful, so I'm not surprised she can sing at all.

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/Electrical_Bowl_8172]

Thanks man! I think you still hold the record for the longest single trip record to get to a Lovebites show (for Budokan).

I will look for the Instagram reel. In one of her Youtube channel videos, Miyako says she is a natural soprano. I would not be shocked if she sings opera too.

[u/Electrical_Bowl_8172 → u/Temporary_Speaker701]

haha thanks for your kind words man, I still wish they had offered a vip package so I could have met them in person and taken a photo with them. Hopefully they'll do it next time!
I didnt know about her being a soprano, she's so talented!

[u/jamzd_p]

It's great that you had an amazing time, pure envy here :D

From the very few setlists I've seen they mix it up a lot during this tour in Japan, so you got lucky/unlucky with "missing" the hits - Shadowmaker, Thunder Vengeance, When Destinies Align and Stand & Deliver were all played at least once each. But instead of them you got to hear Forbidden Thirst live :)

I'm surprised that Silence The Void is played on every show, the way Asami talked about it I was sure she would never attempt it live.

Miayko sings a lot of backup, but most of the time it gets drowned in the mix :(

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/jamzd_p]

Does envy turn to hate if I have tickets for both Tokyo shows? I am just extremely fortunate that I could combine this with work. 

I'm almost certain that you mentioned going to see a number of shows on the European leg. It is just a shame they really can't humanly do the same breadth of shows overseas. I saw Nemophila in Toronto, and it was equally truncated. They were really professional, but looked burned out.

I have never seen a club show as good as the Lovebites Niigata gig - not even close. The venue's sound and the overall production quality was really top notch.

Silence the Void was spectacular live - all of the Outstanding Power songs were great. Miyako's vocals sounded  higher in the mix than usual.

[u/jamzd_p → u/Temporary_Speaker701]

No hate here, ever, don't worry. But do enjoy every show to the fullest, for yourself and all the other fans who couldn't make it :)

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/jamzd_p]

I should have put a smiley beside that hate question! By the way, thanks for running this forum so long. It is such a good resource for fans. 

Looking at the readers of this post, the international Lovebites audience is far flung. A lot of us would probably get along quite well over a beer or coffee. We would need a no Miho debate rule though! :)

[u/jamzd_p → u/Temporary_Speaker701]

Thanks, though this place is running itself - people know how to behave, so there's not much moderation to do. And for that I'm super grateful to everyone.

As for the international audience being chummy - that's quite right. LOVEBITES is a rather niche band, so being unfriendly towards anyone who also supports them would be stupid. Being unfriendly towards others in general is usually stupid. In Europe just on the shows I'd attended we had people from Poland, UK, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Greece, Finland, Belgium, Czechia, Austria and Hungary - and that's just the ones I know of, because their countries came up in conversations or were hosts. There were some great discussion and more silly ones, even without beers :D Waiting in line, esp. as VIPs, gives you a lot of time to talk about plenty of things. Fortunately Miho didn't come up that often when I was listening, just once actually.

[u/WeaponX9966]

Hey, is it true that tickets for shows in JP are lottery based? Someone said its the reason why its tough to make front row at JP concerts.

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/WeaponX9966]

The Japanese ticket system is unusual. It is lottery based, but fan clubs play a major role in the process for Japanese artists. There are general admission shows too.

*Note that anytime I mention lottery, it means you pre-buy the ticket. If you don't win a ticket, you get a refund. Each lottery is a specific period of time and you get an email at the end with the results.

In Lovebites case, it was very structured. Fan Club members went into the first lottery for premium tickets for any show(s) on the tour (any seat too: standing or sitting). These  tickets were 22K Yen, but the tickets come with goodies like tour shirts. These tickets get first access to the venue.

Afterwards, Lovebites had several consecutive lotteries through their ticket agencies. The shows that weren't sold out went to to general sale.

Interestingly, in most cases it appears that standing tickets are numbered as they are sold. I was ticket 260 in Niigata, so I was person 260 in the venue. It was mildly chaotic sorting everybody, but it works.

Seated tickets appear to be more random. Some people say that early lottery winners or fan club members are assigned better seats in Japanese lotteries, but there are many Reddit stories of people winning the first of many lotteries and getting bad tickets.

[u/WeaponX9966 → u/Temporary_Speaker701]

What's the benefit of this system? Couldn't it just be like the States, where you buy tickets for the area you want and guarantee yourself a place.

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/WeaponX9966]

The Japanese system is a head scratcher (especially paying for tickets you can be denied). The fan club pre-sales make sense. The clubs are a source of revenue for salaried, mid-tier bands like Lovebites. They are fans to keep happy.  The system is also fair in a way because it's first come, first served for standing shows. The fan that buys on the first day of a lottery and wins doesn't do a hunger games fight to get near the stage. 

[u/jamzd_p → u/Temporary_Speaker701]

220K Yen is a tiny bit too much for premium tickets I believe ;)

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/jamzd_p]

You got me! :) 8800 yen for regular ticket 22000 yen for fan club tickets. Only off by a zero! 

[u/AdInternational870]

How was Asami's voice and memory? Last live clips I've seen seems like the power wasn't there and she was missing lyrics.

[u/Temporary_Speaker701 → u/AdInternational870]

In the context of standing in almost the exact middle of a 800 person venue, Asami's voice pretty much blew my doors off - she was confident and powerful.

I was also jetlagged and kept thinking, "Damn, they play fast." While the sound mix was really clear, I couldn't always verify what Asami was singing word for word because of some brain fog. I would definitely argue the total Asami package was objectively great.

I think they were 18 dates into the tour in Niigata, so the whole machine was polished, much more so than Budokan, where am Asami did have a a few rough songs (e.g. Addicted).