16 November 2018, Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands. Most of the people are shopping, or eating in the city centre. Almost nobody who knows what is about to happen that night at the Melkweg, but that becomes clear soon: BAND-MAID debuts, after having finished up various European tours, in The Netherlands!
Rather quick from the beginning, there is a long line of people waiting for the venue, the Melkweg. Fans from the JPOP and J-Rock scene gather early before the start of the event, with a long waiting line as a result 2 hours long before the concert starts. However many people being satisfied with a normal ticket, the amount of VIP-tickets were selling fast with a SOLD-OUT as result. A little 45 minutes before the concert starts, awaits the whole venue eagerly for BAND-MAID. The merchandise makes overtime in the meantime.
The lights go out, the intro plays, and there they finally come onto the stage, with big applause and cheers from the crowd on the instant, and immediately they start with the song Domination, from their latest album, World Domination, the reason as of why they tour through Europe this time. The atmosphere is caught on an instant, at the moment the first chords are being played. From this moment it’s already clear that it will be a successful night. One song after another flies around your ears, everyone sings the lyrics along, or at least try to. There are people who dance, people who headbang, even a mosh-pit had formed.
fter having played a few songs, the band leaves the stage, leaving only the rhythm guitarist and also founder of the band, Miku Kobato, on the stage. After she said just 1 greeting the crowd became enthusiastic. Not everything what she had said had been clear, seeing her English is still hard to understand and most of what she said had been in Japanese. What had been very clear was that she is happy to be performing in the Netherlands, the country of Miffy, which she couldn’t stop talking about.
The band returns on the stage after the speech from Miku and immediately blasts off with Don’t you tell me. The fans go wild here as well, it seems to be the favourite from most of the fans. A new tour wouldn’t be anything without announcing a new song, which this time would be Start over. Even though the song is somewhat different from the usual music from BAND-MAID, the ladies know how to get the crowd to join, and receive praise in the right way for doing so.
The moment has come again for the band to separate, but this time only vocalist Saiki Itsumi leaves the stage. Time for the others of the band to show what they got, during a 5 minute long instrumental, which is known in the fan-base as Onset. This quickly seems to be a highlight of the night, due to the fact of people constantly cheering, which isn’t very surprising. Met name drummer Akane Hirose and lead guitarist Kanami Tono know how to surpass themselves.
The concert quickly continues with Carry on living, and other songs as Clang!, Spirit and Alone follow quickly. This time there isn’t just 1 new song, but 2 being played, named Glory and You. Also with these songs the crowd goes wild, and everyone seems to be able to sing along.
After having played 3 more songs, ending with Choose me, has the ending of the night arrived, but if you ask BAND-MAID, they would love to come again. For the last time they received a enormouse encore, which makes the band leave the stage satisfied. For as well the band as the fans, this had been a successful night, and would like to meet BAND-MAID once again.
The world dominance is still far away, but if asked to the fans, the domination of Amsterdam had succeeded.
Band lineup:
Zangeres: Saiki Itsumi
Ritme gitarist: Miku Kobato
Slag gitarist: Kanami Tono
Bass gitarist: Misa
Drummer: Akane Hirose
Setlist:
01. Domination
02. Play
03. The non-fiction days
04. Moratorium
05. Cross
06. Don’t you tell me
07. Secret my lips
08. Dice
09. Start over
10. Onset (Instrumental)
11. Carry on living
12. Clang!
13. Spirit!
14. Alone
15. Glory
16. You
17. Freedom
18. Real Existence
19. Choose me
