Report of the secret street live here
24th September 2011
YUI performed live at Jiu-Guang, Shanghai
Because of the lack of preparation and my difficulty of speaking Chinese (as in, can’t speak a thing) I arrived at the venue only 1 hour before 4:00 pm.
(I’ll skip the ‘getting-there part. It was quite an adventure, but it was only about me. Tell me if anyone wants to hear it.)
The venue is very small, actually, it is only the area infront of the mall that was converted into a temporary stage. At my arrival, the venue is about 60% filled up already, so I was a bit more than half way away, but it was still quite close. I got 1 hour to push my way deeper inside before it started.
The backdrop for the stage is the blown up version of Green a.live… It was… OK I guess. As for the purpose of this live, my assumption is, this event was held to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the mall, I might be wrong though.
I logged on to chat room in YUI-Lover.com to see if anyone wants to know what I saw, but only Kikino was there, and he told me that she had performed a street live already. I was so disappointed, it was not in schedule T__T, or I might decide camp here overnight… But what’s over is over, I can’t do a thing about it.
After a while, I can only push myself toward about 6 rows in but at least I was right next to the tallest guy in the group that was blocking my view, and got clear view of the stage. I did saw Icchi behind me, checking the stage from the back. I really wanted to approached him, but there were already people packing behind me, and I might lose this spot, too bad…
At about 3:45, there was finally some activity on the stage. Chair and table were set up, and the fans are very excited at the sight of YUI’s acoustic guitar, brought here by Icchi himself.
Icchi starts sitting and tuning guitar like he owns the stage. I don’t know why, but he looks very happy. Maybe the amount of people exceeded his expectation, because by now, the venue is super packed, people start gathering even in place they almost couldn’t see the stage. He even test the mic in… musical (?)(citation needed) voice, the crowd was very excited.
4:00, nothing happens yet. I noticed many cameramen, we might get something out of this, but I won’t hope much. It’s Sony style to film events and keep them locked away forever.
4:10, still nothing.
4:20, nothing…, many staffs making phone calls, maybe YUI ran away! Meet a nice guy who didn’t know who she was! He took her around the city! and they fell in love with each other! OK… that didn’t happen.
4:30, a guy (Who I learn later, is a VJ) in a flamboyant outfit came up on stage and made some announcement in eccentric voice . I couldn’t understand him of course…
Someone in front of me pulled up a Holidays in the Sun CD, the crowd was excited to see an original CD. My thought was “Shouldn’t you all have one already?” Then I remembered it’s China…
And then, just like that YUI appeared from the left of the stage, I missed her appearance scene totally , because the crowd has gone mad. Remember when I said I have a clear view of the stage? Not anymore. People seemed to gain a foot in height, and the sky above me becomes a forest of arms and cameras!!! We were so excited!!!
After the initial excitement died down, I can get a glimpse of the stage. YUI came in blue jacket and jeans. She was really small, but georgeous… I must be dreaming, definitely dreaming.
She spoke some Chinese “Ni hao, wo shi YUI” (Hello, I am YUI.), and of course, the crowd has gone wild again!
After some minor adjustment on guitar and mic, YUI performed the first song, Green a.live. It was… amazing… I was blown away, her voice was perfect. I couldn’t hear the guitar clearly, but I’ll assume it’s also perfect. This performance is perfect. YUI is perfect. IT’S PERFECT. The crowd cheered happily. She even said Thank You in Chinese. Until she said, next is the last song for today… We are only going to have only 2 songs for our memory… :(
Next and last song is, of course, the most know song internationally, Good-bye days. YUI started playing a bit then stopped, something didn’t seem to be right with the guitar. But she fixed it and started playing again…
What can I say? What do you expect me to say? IT’S PERFECT!!!! Her voice is very soft and warm and very ‘YUI’… It’s full of emotion. The crowd sang along with the song loudly… About midway into the song, YUI said ‘arigatou’ in a shaky voice. It was awesome, I couldn’t explain it anymore, Just see the video. She even let the crowd sang lalala with her twice! The way she played with the crowd, it’s awesome… awesome… and awesome… My video recording was quite bad now, my arm was so tired from holding the camera, sorry…
After this she started to left the stage, of course the crowd wanted more… YUI looks to her left at somebody as if to ask for permission to continue. But no luck, she signaled ‘Sorry’ to the crowd and quickly left the stage… That guy came back, but we didn’t care! We wanted YUI! Not you!!! (That’s my voice at the end.)
YUI did came back onto stage again to received the trophy or something, (Looks 50 times worse than the one in HK) and took the picture with the crowd.
Then the unthinkable happens, the dude… grabbed YUI hand… pull her to his side… and took photo with her… HE EVEN TOUCHED HER WAIST!!!
Actually… no I’m not that angry, he must’ve thought it was funny and didn’t do enough research to under who he was going to work with. Which is bad but not that bad. So only spam his twitter, don’t hurt him…
The crowd quickly dispersed, I ran to escalator to see the back stage, but the team had already left also…
And just like that, it’s over… I have nothing more to say, I don’t regret coming here… We had only 2 songs, but they’re performed with heart, with everything. YUI gave us her best as always.
Now… if only I can go to budonkan……….
Thank You
KIM
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Please note this is a censored version. We do not mean to offend any one, especially those who are fans of this VJ male host. His actions during the photo with YUI at the performance would not be considered proper etiquette in the Japanese context-that is why some people are not happy with him.
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