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Their first concert where it was allowed to scream and shout again! The difference was significant and gave us a small taste of how concerts used to be.
ACME completed their most recent tour, “Live Tour 2022 IN JAPAN”, with an impressive finale at Shibuya CYCLONE on January 14th, 2023. The finale, which was extra special because fans were allowed to scream and shout for the first time since the start of the pandemic, involved wonderful announcements as well. ACME was formed in 2017, and has been very active both in Japan and overseas. Most recently they finished a North America Tour, which included several cities in the US and one show in Toronto, Canada in the summer of 2022.
As the screen hiding the stage lifted slowly, the stage was painted in colorful lights and the members started appearing on the stage one by one: HAL (drums), RIKITO (bass) and SHOGO (guitar). All three members approached the edge of the stage, greeting the excitedly clapping fans, demanding even more applause and screams, which fans gladly delivered. Finally, CHISA (vocals) appeared and greeted the fans, opening his arms to both sides. As the fans broke into another huge applause, he turned his back and everything went completely dark and silent. The finale started with RESISTED TEMPTATION, their latest released song, which also gave their new album its title. As CHISA was singing the dramatic entrance of the song, the entire focus was on him, and all of the other members were hidden behind white bright stage lights. As soon as the song got intense, and CHISA started showing off his amazing screams, the stage lit up with red colors, then the lights turned into green, yellow and red as both the fans and the members started jumping and headbanging. As soon as the song ended, fans started screaming and calling out the members’ names, and the band members encouraged fans to scream even louder.
The first half of the concert was full of hardcore songs, including ROTTEN ORANGE, a classic ACME song that is perfect for live performances thanks to its heavy beats and CHISA’s awesome growls. As soon as the first beats echoed, the stage was dipped in orange lights- which was very in keep with the song. Fans immediately started to jump and headbang to the point that all you could see was flying hair. CHISA was also headbanging and jumping on the stage while showing off his vocal skills. RIKITO and SHOGO were turning to HAL from time to time and the trio were playing their instruments while interacting with one another. CHISA was focusing on the fans and putting his hand over his eyes to let those in the last row know he could see them, and demanding them to go even crazier by yelling “C’mon!!” and “Let’s go, Shibuya!!”. After ROTTEN ORANGE, the band gave the first MC break of the evening with CHISA screaming “Shibuya!! Are you having fun? We are ACME!” The whole crowd started screaming out the members’ names. After talking about how wonderful it was to be able to hear everyone’s voices again, CHISA jokingly complained that the “SHOGO” voices were the loudest, and, laughing, he asked the fans to scream out other members’ names, too. ACME also introduced the title of their brand-new song SENNOU (洗脳) (Translator’s note: Brainwash), which will be released on February 14th. Fans started clapping and screaming excitedly. CHISA continued his words by saying “I want you to fully experience what “brainwash” means. Actually, you all have been brainwashed already. You are just not aware of it yet. So are you prepared?” With those words, the stage lit up with pink and blue lights, and the band started playing their new song for the very first time. It was an upbeat song that made fans start jumping, clapping and headbanging already even though it was the first time they were hearing the song. The fans were running from side to side while dancing, and everybody was clearly enjoying the song!
The concert continued without showing any signs of slowing down with RISING SUN– another high energy song, full of screams that is perfect for letting loose. It was clear how much fun the band members were having: RIKITO was jumping high while playing his bass, SHOGO was singing along to the lyrics, and HAL was raising his sticks up in the air, while CHISA was maintaining eye contact with the fans, especially during the lyrics “As long as you’re with me, we rise and fall, but we’ll live through it, push through it all”, he was looking into the eyes of the people in the audience with a smile to show that he really meant those lyrics. Fans were also reciprocating his feelings through jumping, headbanging and clapping. Right before the next MC break, when the whole venue went dark, fans were once again screaming the names of the members, and, perhaps remembering CHISA’s request to call different names, too, in the darkness, one extremely loud voice from a male fan raised: “CHISA!!!!”, which made everybody laugh. As he kept screaming more and more, RIKITO’S voice in the darkness echoed: “THANK YOU!!”, and once again everybody started laughing. When the stage was lit up again, CHISA started asking the members to talk about their feelings, starting with HAL, who said “I want to say that it’s been very difficult with everything going on, but it’s actually been great thanks to everybody’s support. We were able to do many amazing concerts. That’s all (laughs), I forgot what I wanted to say next (laughs). What I really want to say is thank you!”. Next, CHISA turned to RIKITO, who said he was feeling overwhelmed by how amazing the audience was. He also added, “I forgot how fun concerts were with screaming”, and quickly added that the concerts where shouting was prohibited were also fun, and thanked the fans. Next, SHOGO talked about how he feels that today the live house feels even louder than it tended to be even before the restrictions. He thanked the fans for supporting the band by making some noise.
The second half of the concert was a mixture of upbeat songs and slow ones. During CALL MY NAME, the lights were switching between different shades of blue, making the stage even more dramatic. While CHISA was singing with passion, the fans were silently watching the band as if they were under a spell. RIKITO once again screamed “THANK YOU” at the end of the song. They gave another short MC break, and CHISA announced that from now on, at all one-man shows of ACME screaming would be allowed, which really excited fans even more, and everyone started clapping and cheering. SHOGO interrupted, and jokingly asked the staff members to lower the volume of RIKITO’s microphone, which made everybody laugh. CHISA said, despite screaming a lot today, RIKITO’s throat seemed unusually okay, to which RIKITO replied “It’s thanks to the support of the fans.” CHISA said “Let’s play a song during which RIKITO can scream a lot!”, and with that, another iconic ACME song, 絶唱謳歌(ZESSHOU OUKA) started. The audience immediately started jumping and waving their fans or towels, and clearly were having so much fun. The band members, too, were jumping around and singing along to the lyrics and interacting with one another and with the fans. RIKITO was jumping around himself while playing bass, SHOGO was approaching the edge of the stage, encouraging fans to sing along in some parts, and HAL was smiling and swinging his head while playing the drums. The last song was KAGARIBI, a captivating song combined with some amazing death vocals. Fans were once again jumping and raising their arms. While the last notes of the song were playing, all members turned their faces to HAL and the stage went dark as the song ended. The crowd was once again screaming the names of the members who left the stage to thundering applause.
As soon as ACME left the stage, fans immediately started calling for an encore. Shortly after, the members returned. The band told the audience that they actually had not planned to do an encore, but because the fans really wanted one, they said they would do one song only. Then CHISA said that if the fans can really give their all, they might consider doing more songs, and he announced the first song of the encore: “I want you to be very loud. Are you ready?? SENKOU!!” Fans clearly wanted more songs for the encore as they were non-stop headbanging, jumping, yelling and running around. The band must have been satisfied with the passion of the audience because they started playing the second encore song: MAGURO KAITAI CHAINSAW (マグロ解体チェーンソー), another up-beat song that demanded everything from the crowd. Both the band members and the fans were showing no signs of even slowing down as they kept jumping and headbanging with all their might. The third, and last encore song was TEBANASHI RIDER (テバナシライダー). During this song, fans created a mosh pit, and CHISA sat on the edge of the stage to interact and high-five with the moshing fans. As this song concluded the night, the members spent more time on the stage thanking the audience, and interacting with them as long as they could before they finally left the stage for the last time.
The concert was a huge success! Both the members and the audience were clearly enjoying themselves very well, and they were connected very well, too. After the band left the stage, the screen came back down, and a couple of very exciting announcements appeared: first, they showed their new promotional artist photo- which had a very retro feeling into it, and it excited the fans even more. It was followed by an announcement for their 6th Anniversary Tour. Personally, I really enjoyed the evening. Whenever I attend an ACME concert, I always know that they will put up an amazing show and will make sure everybody has a great time along with them. Of course they didn’t disappoint this time either. I cannot wait to see what they will put out in the future and I am looking forward to the release of their new song, SENNOU. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out their music and our previous interviews with them!
Report: Gamze
English Edit: Franzi
It would be great if you could support us with a small donation.
It might not be much for you, but it would help us providing more and better interviews in the future.
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