Description:

2007 Live Concert.

Track List:

01. Haneuma Rider
02. Ore, Tenshi
03. Devil in Angel
04. BLUE SKY
05. Apollo
06. BLUE SNOW
07. Voice
08. Kyuujitsu

09. -INTERLUDE-

10. Winding Road
11. Saudade
12. Mr. Geronimo
13. m-FLOOD
14. PRISON MANSION
15. Yokohama Lily
16. DON'T CALL ME CRAZY
17. Century Lovers
18. NaNaNa Summer & Winter Girl
19. Mugen
20. Agehachou
21. Gravity
22. Wendei no Usui Moji
23. Line
24. Dilemma (Special imaging)
25. m-FLOOD DANCE
26. STAGE-ing

Tracklist translated by tsuriken

Review

This review contains spoilers.

This is another 2 DVD concert with a run time totalling 2 hours 30 minutes, however it’s not as epic as Catch the Haneuma, however it shares other similarities, it’s another straightforward sort of concert, it’s also another high energy big fun concert, in fact maybe even more energetic than catch the Haneuma!
There is also again plenty of banter from Akihito and Haruichi, the part during the encore being especially fun! Haruichi gets to have his say a lot more this time too!
Two extra members join the usual tour band for this concert, one of whom is ak. Homma himself on piano, it’s really great to put a face to the name!

The first disc contains the entire concert, the tracklist is a mix of old favorites and new songs from the M-Cabi album, they almost alternate between them.
I know some fans were rather disappointed by the M-Cabi album, but if you’re one of those fans, don’t let that put you off from seeing this concert, performed live the new songs take on a new energy and are all really enjoyable, it might even give you a new perspective on the album if you watch this concert!
The concert is split into sections, almost all are very high energy, but the middle section is a little gentler and the performance of Voice really stands out.

M-Flood is a real fun song, though the Floody character is bizarre looking, he’s rather lovable as is his cute dance.
Seeing Akihito wearing Floody ‘ears’ and doing the M-Flood dance is a highlight of the concert for me. The dance is all the funnier because Akihito performs it with such seriousness and focus!
The M-flood dance is almost as good as the Monkey Dance for amusement value!
This concert, perhaps encouraged by the M-Flood dance, has lots of Akihito’s funky dancing and the whole band is bouncing with energy again!
Century Lovers is particularly fun and silly this concert, helped along by the preceding incident with Akihito’s trouser fly!
I’m sure he’d rather forget the incident but I can’t help but mention it due to the way he dealt with the situation.
Any other artist, upon finding they had been performing with their fly unzipped would I’m sure, quietly cover up the fact, but Akihito points out his mistake to the crowd and makes a joke of it.
Like when he makes a mistake in a song, he’s very cute and funny in his handling of it!

The second disc contains the encore and 2 extra features.
The encore is particularly special, for the first song of the encore Akihito leaves the stage to Haruichi to perform Wendy no Usui Moji.
While Akihito is superb as usual throughout this concert, it’s Haruichi who steals the best highlight of the concert with this performance!
It’s really wonderful to see him sing, although he starts out seemingly a little nervously, he quickly builds in confidence spurred on by the crowd who sing along at the appropriate moments.
It’s a great song and a really great performance!

The first extra on the second disc is Floody doing the M-Flood dance, the animation just repeats a few times through so you can practice!
The second extra is a time-lapse film of the stage being set up and the concert all set to Haneuma Rider.
The set up takes 4 minutes of time-lapse time, the concert just 30 seconds!
It’s interesting to watch and makes you appreciate all the effort that goes into putting on even a single concert, not just from the band but from all the people behind the scenes too!

The presentation of this DVD is the best yet, the discs come in a cardboard DVD case with cardboard slip cover.
The slip cover design resembles the M-cabi album design making them a matching set, the interior cover design is different and features Akihito and Haruichi. It’s a cool design and very colourfull and fits the feel of the concert perfectly. Also it’s printed in a way that when it catches the light you can see lots of stars all over the cover, while this might seem like a minor touch, it makes the DVD even nicer!
There’s no lyric leaflet again, or even a credit leaflet this time, just a single sheet leaflet with the tour dates and tracklist on it.
There is also a sticker with Floody on it which is a nice inclusion! (Please note this might just have been included in the first press of the DVD)

The animated menus are also particularly nice on these discs, featuring a cool and appropriate animation of a juke box.
Also of note, during the concert effects shown on the big screens are also added as overlays for this DVD, for example in Blue Snow the big screen shows snow falling, but an overlaid effect makes it appear that snow is falling over the audience and stage as well.
This effect is used nicely a number of times during the concert.

All these little touches add up to make what seems on the surface a straightforward style concert into something even more exciting!
Reviewed by shiro

"Open Music Cabinet" Live in Saitama Super Arena 2007 -2007/10/31