Two powerful forces slammed into Tokyo last Monday. The first was tropical storm Krovanh, which brought a barrage of water and wind to the east coast of Japan. The second was GO!GO!7188’s final show of their nationwide ヘンテナツアー (Hentena Tour). Combined, they created a night to remember.

It’s either been a frustrating or relaxing few months for Yuu (guitar, vocals), Akko (bass, vocals) and Turkey (drums, vocals), whose 31-date Hentena tour, which began on the 6th of March this year, was originally slated to wrap up on the 31st of May. However, as they entered the home stretch, Akko fell victim to, of all things, complications arising from treatment for a detached retina, and the last four shows of the tour had to be postponed by three months to allow time for her to recover. That pushed the final show I was supposed to attend on the 31st of May back to last Monday, the 31st of August. Which, as further misfortune would have it, was also the day an aforementioned tropical storm decided to amble its way through the city.

As the rains fell and winds wheezed through the tight-knit cul-de-sac leading to my house, I stood with my raincoat (and stylin’ rainpants) at my front door and re-calculated the risks. I had ridden out on my bicycle to JCB Hall, the concert venue, many times before, and in fact much further past it, since I arrived in Tokyo late last year. Situated at one corner of Tokyo Dome City, the same grounds that house the monstrous and titular Tokyo Dome, and a short distance away from the cultural hotspots of Akihabara and Ueno, it was on a familiar and straightforward route and only about a 30 minute ride from where I was standing. I looked at the sky. It was getting dark. I looked at my watch. 5:15pm. Doors opened at 6pm. I looked at my trusty bicycle, and then at the sky again, and then at the rain, which truth be told, wasn’t nearly as strong or frightful as the sort I thought a tropical storm ought to bring. After a further moment’s contemplation, I made up my mind, relished the feeling of warm, comfortable dryness in my soon-to-be-soaked shoes by wriggling my toes a bit, and stepped out into the storm with the exhilarating feeling you can only get from doing something you know is (probably) stupid.

Thirty minutes and one uneventful bicycle ride later, I had arrived safely at JCB Hall, mostly dry save for my exposed shoes, hands and face, and in a queue of fans that stretched around the block. Young, eager faces – check. A sea of GO!GO!-branded tees and towels – check. The occasional middle-aged person you’d never otherwise think of as being into this kind of music – check. The foreign-looking foreigner – check. All the usual suspects.

I should probably get this following part out of the way early. It is with deep sadness that I write this live report without having one single photo of the band in action to accompany it. Yes, that’s right – not one, single, lousy photo. Not even a blurry, over-exposed one that I could pass off as an “arty” shot. There is no build up. There’s no big “reveal” like last time. The following incidental photos are IT. I’m sorry. But rest assured that save for their getups, the scene on stage was more or less identical to the photo I took during their PARABOLA NIGHT gig back in March.

With that said, and your expectations sufficiently lowered (is anyone still reading?), here’s what everything except the band looked like on the night.

As is customary, a giant, congratulatory floral bouquet to the band. This one’s from their record label.

JCB Hall is a modern, multi-purpose, multi-level performance hall that’s equipped with food counters and TV monitors – like the one above – on almost every floor. I walked past this particular monitor broadcasting the scene around the stage on the way in, and immediately regretted eating dinner in lieu of getting there earlier. In the words of a fellow passerby, “Eh, yabai…” (Oh, crap…). It looked packed.

But as they say, don’t believe everything you see on TV! With around half an hour to go before kick-off time at 7pm, the scene on the ground wasn’t nearly as bad as the cropped monitor image made it out to be. There wasn’t much hope of getting to the front rows anymore, but the back half of the arena floor was still very breezy. With regards to the stage configuration, the only thing that differed from the PARABOLA NIGHT setup was a collection of hanging light bulbs at varying depths and of differing sizes. If you squint really hard, and use a fair bit of your imagination, you can see them in the photo.

The hall itself isn’t large, especially when compared to the Tokyo Dome nearby (but then again, what is?), but it’s a very comfortable space with some nice futuristic touches in the lighting department. At this point, there were still many empty seats in the balconies but they would soon all be filled by the time the band came on stage.

After the show, those who hadn’t yet lightened their wallets at the merchandise stands did so with gusto (patiently, in an orderly queue, of course). Tees, posters, stickers, wristbands, CDs and DVDs flew off the table as fans rode high on the wave of euphoria after a great gig (yes, I’m getting to that bit).

And lastly, a photo of a photo of the band in action. From another concert. Yes, this really is the closest I got to a photo of them. Again, I apologise.

The reason I didn’t get any juicy shots this time was because I decided that, for once, I would throw myself right into the middle of the pit at the front of the stage. I’d only ever experienced a GO!GO! concert from somewhere near the back, where the crowds were so subdued you could enjoy an unhurried game of chess whilst watching the band and not have to worry about anyone knocking over the pieces. This time, I wanted to see what kind of crazy the crazy Japanese GO!GO! fans had in them.

As I soon found out, the answer was – a surprisingly energetic kind of crazy. After the initial rush and compression of people to the front as the lights went out and the band appeared, it felt like I was being tossed about in a giant washing machine. All the towels that people were twirling above their heads only added to the effect, as did the thorough soaking I got from other people’s sweat. More or less like any other moshpit in the world, then, I guess, though the core of the spin was largely radiating out from a small group of over-enthusiastic (annoying) people (jerks) who had thought it a good idea to form their own “mosh ring” within the pit, jumping around in circles and crashing into everyone around them. Not prime photo taking conditions.

The band started with an instrumental jam, which initially sounded like a cover of The Beatles’ Come Together, but which quickly descended into an all-out rock-out as Yuu wailed on her guitar and reminded me of precisely the kind of GO!GO! I wished they would one day return to.

The main setlist was a modified version of what was played at the PARABOLA NIGHT with one of the weakest tracks omitted (Kataomoi FIGHTER) and bolstered by a number of very welcome additions from the band’s early (and some might say “glory”) days. Among them were classics like THUNDER GIRL, Nukarumi and Tokage 3gou, the latter of which is a personal favourite and one that I’ve been keen to hear live for a long time.

During the handful of breaks the band took to address the audience, the trio sincerely apologised for the show’s postponement, and thanked everyone for sticking with the rescheduled date and coming out despite the presence of a darned typhoon (though long-time fans should be used to this by now, if recordings of previous concerts are anything to go by). Akko delved into the details of her medical drama, which elicited much ehh-ing from the captive crowd which hung on her every word. Unfortunately, my sub-kindergartener level of Japanese meant that most of what she said went completely over my head. Other bits of banter centred around their upcoming shows later in the year and the obligatory pimping of official merchandise.

Getting back into the music, Akko’s retinal woes served as inspiration for a modified version of Me Mimi Hana Kuchi (Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth) which was lyrically reworked into the obvious Me Me Me Me Me Me Me (Eyes Eyes Eyes Eyes Eyes Eyes Eyes). Anyone familiar with the song can imagine that this resulted in a rather amusing chorus. Manten no Hoshi Haru no Niwa saw the stage transformed into a dream-like starry night, as the suspended light bulbs glowed and diffused through a cloud of fog onto a temporarily subdued audience entranced by the ballad inspired by the band’s hometown of Kagoshima.

They ended the set with Ame no Hi Dake no Koi, written, perhaps, for the express purpose of ending sets, what with all three members chiming in on vocal duties and its irresistibly upbeat la-la-la sing-along conclusion.

Not long after they left the stage did the audience, naturally, demand an encore. Five minutes or so later, the band acquiesced to the chants from the crowd and delivered a knockout two song encore. The first song, I believe, is a new one. Whether or not it was the first time they’d played it live, however, is something I’m not sure of. There was a bit of chat as they introduced it, but again, my poor Japanese. The tone of the song does little, if anything, to stray from their current direction – it’s cheery, it’s poppy, heck, it’s even got another la-la-la bit in it. Razor-sharp it ain’t, but hearing a new song debut live is always exciting. The second song, however, was definitely not new, but still retains an edge that cuts like nothing else they’ve done so far. The first reverb-heavy strums that heralded the start of Ukifune set the crowd into a frenzy, as friends locked hands and looked at each other with wide-eyed excitement (I’m not kidding) as the band unfolded one of their most popular and well-known tunes to date. It was a treat to watch, and I’m now one step closer to dying a happy man.

After the last rai-rai-rai had faded to raucous applause, the band left the stage for what seemed like the last time. Many made a beeline for the exits, convinced that an encore consisting of an all new song and Ukifune couldn’t possibly be followed, but the joke was on them as the band ran back out to deliver their classic closer, Bungu. It’s fast on record, but it’s even faster live, and every time I hear it at the end of one of their concerts, I’m awed that they still have the energy to perform it in such a way without suffering a collective heart attack.

And with that one song second encore, they were done.

Outside, the storm had subsided. People were either lined up at the merchandise stand, or busily scribbling pictures and filling out a short questionnaire on photocopied, hand-drawn forms, the purpose of which escaped me, but whose doodles I’m sure will turn up on a website or DVD sometime in the future.

As for me, I hopped on my bike, made a leisurely trip back home through the cool, fresh, typhoon-cleaned air, all the while replaying their blistering performances of ANTENNA and Ukifune and everything else and wondered, not for the first time, just how awesome it would be to rock out like that for a living.

Setlist
GO!GO!7188
ヘンテナツアー (HENTENA TOUR)
Live @ JCB Hall, 31/08/09

00. Intro
01. 地球最後の日 (Chikyuu Saigo no Hi · The Earth’s Last Day)
02. ちんとんしゃん (Chintonshan)
03. 脳内トラベラー (Nounai TRAVELLER · Intracerebral Traveller)
04. 食わずギライ (KuwazuGIRAI · Food Aversion)
05. 飛び跳ねマーチ (Tobihane MARCH · Hopping March)
06. サンダーガール (THUNDER GIRL)
07. YOMEとして2008 (YOME toshite 2008· As a Daughter-in-Law 2008)
08. on the まゆ毛 ～切りすぎて～ (on the Mayuge ~Kirisugite~ · on the Eyebrows ~Overcut Hair~)
09. あしのけ (Ashi no Ke · Leg Hair)
10. ぬかるみ (Nukarumi · Mud)
11. めみみはなくち (Me Mimi Hana Kuchi · Eyes Ears Nose Mouth)
12. ハモリエヴリデイ (HARMONY EVERYDAY)
13. 満天の星　春の庭 (Manten no Hoshi Haru no Niwa · The Whole Sky’s Stars, Spring’s Garden)
14. ふたしかたしか (Futashika Tashika · Uncertain Certain)
15. ばりぶり (Bariburi)
16. コミュニケーションギャップ (COMMUNICATION GAP)
17. とかげ3号 (Tokage 3gou · Lizard #3)
18. アンテナ (ANTENNA)
19. 雨の日だけの恋 (Ame no Hi Dake no Koi · Rainy Day Only Love)

Encore 1

20. New Song
21. 浮舟 (Ukifune · Floating Boat)

Encore 2

22. 文具 (Bungu· Stationery)

GO!GO!7188 – HENTENA TOUR 09 Information Page