Live report! the pillows "RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT! Vol.4" at Duo MUSIC EXCHANGE in Shibuya (Oct.8th 2022)
October 8th was the beginning of the pillows' latest tour; the next in their series revisiting past albums, performing them in their entirety, "Return to third movement! Vol 4". Vol.4 features the albums Penalty Life and Good Dreams, which are both nearing 20 years old.
About 20 years ago, I pre-ordered both of these albums and going to the tours was only a dream. I'm thrilled to have been able to attend the reproduction tour.
duo MUSIC EXCHANGE is among a cluster of live venues in Shibuya.
Before the show started, the music playing in the venue was from the album "America Give Up" by Howler. The original Penalty Life tour had special BGM of covers made by each member of the pillows. I wished they had played these again for the reproduction tour, but I knew it was unlikely.
Those were, by the way:
Mister Popcorn by Glay (covered by Sawao Yamanaka)
Road Movie by Mr.Children (covered by Sawao Yamanaka)
Oyasuminasai by Aiko (covered by Sawao Yamanaka)
Not Satisfied by Anarchy (covered by Shinichiro Sato)
Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara by Makiko Hirohashi (covered by Yoshiaki Manabe)
Holy and Bright by Godiego (covered by Jun Suzuki)
Omae ni check-in by Kenji Sawada (covered by Jun Suzuki)
The concert started with the tracks from Penalty Life, and opened with the song Dead Stock Paradise.
Shinichiro was off during the intro, and he made another mistake later during the song Walkin' on the spiral, which caused Sawao to stop singing momentarily. I don't think anyone really cared, though.
"Terminal Heaven's Rock" was the sole single from the Penalty Life album.
The songs "Super Trampoline School Kid" and "Bad Dreams" were stand outs. Both songs are instrumental and feature several sound effects on the studio versions, so hearing them performed live without them was a difference experience. Sawao, Manabe, and Arie all came up to the front of the stage during the heavier part of Bad Dreams.
Hearing "New Year's Eve" without having to attend one of the Countdown Bump shows was also a rare chance.
Sawao commented, "Penalty Life has a lot of strange songs, doesn't it?", and jokingly played the main riff of the song Phantom Pain.
The tour poster features Mari Uchida (ex.Fukurouzu) and Shiori Sekine (BaseBallBear, stico).
Sawao had some custom shirts made for him by Indian Motorcycle Tokyo. This evening, he wore a fashionable black and white, long-sleeved, button-up shirt.
When the band came back on stage for the encore, Sawao was talking about how his fashion goes through different "movements" like the music. He said the cardigan era ended a while back and now he's into the Indian Motorcycle long-sleeved button shirts.
He recalled how when he started wearing cardigans it was about practicality, and for when days are too hot for heavier clothes but when night is too cool for short sleeves.
When he got his first cardigan, he got a black one. He didn't really know how to hold onto it in the day time because it was too warm, and thought carrying it around draped on your arm looks dorky. So he wrapped it around his waist, but he forgot it was there. As he was walking down the road in the evening, it fell off and having completely forgotten about it, he didn't know what it was. But he stepped on it as he was walking. He let out a scream and was horrified, thinking he had just stamped a black cat. He recreated his reaction and said "oh my god!!" in English.
Like Penalty Life, the album Good Dreams also only had one single, "Sono mirai wa ima".
"Sick Vibration" is one of my personal favorite b-sides from this era, so I was happy that they performed it for the encore. "Boon Boon Rock" is one of their more recent tracks (off their most recent album at the time of this writing, "Rebroadcast"). It has a callback to the song "Lo-fi boy, fighter girl" (a track off Good Dreams) during the chorus, so it was a cool choice.
"Sick Vibration" was a b-side on the Terminal Heaven's Rock single.
Encore 2 was "Boku wa kakera", an early pillows' track that was self-covered as a hidden track for the Penalty Life album.
And encore 3... well, it's one of my favorite pillows' tracks and a song that I will never get tired of hearing, "Konoyo no hate made" ("All the way to the edge of this world").
By the way, the pillows' King Records discography was recently made available worldwide on such streaming services as Spotify. Check out all the albums.
"RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT! Vol.4"2022.10.08 @ duo MUSIC EXCHANGE (Shibuya, Tokyo)01. Dead Stock Paradise02. Freebee Honey03. Terminal Heaven's Rock04. Phantom Pain05. Mole town Prisoner06. Super Trampoline School Kid07. Lonesome Diamond08. 昇らない太陽09. Moon Marguerite10. I know you11. 傷跡の囁き 誰もいないパラダイス12. xavier13. Walkin' on the spiral14. Frontiers15. Lo-fi boy, fighter girl16. New Year's Eve17. 天使みたいにキミは立ってた18. Orange Film Garden19. Bad Dreams20. その未来は今21. Good Dreams22. Rosy HeadEncore:23. Sick Vibration24. Boon boon rockEncore 2:25. 僕はかけらEncore 3:26. この世の果てまで
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