I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 13, 2019] Babymetal

I first heard of BABYMETAL back in 2014 when they were a massive WTF in the music scene.

Here was a band that played heavy heavy music but the singers were teenage Japanese girls who were totally kawaii and who sang in a distinctly pop style.  The 17-year-old metal purist in me would have been infuriated by this abomination to metal.

But my adult self things this is an amazing amalgam of style and one that is designed to shake people out of their comfortable bubbles.   Even if you balk at the singing style (and the dancing), the music is really really heavy.  Like, impressively heavy.

But the juxtaposition doesn’t end there.  Between the heavy music comes occasional moments of synthy pop goodness.  It made my brain explode the first time I watched the video for “Gimme Chocolate.”  By the time I watched it a second time I was hooked and was determined to see them live.

Back in 2016, I somehow missed that they were playing the Electric Factory.  I was seeing Mastodon there two nights before their show but when I asked if there were any tickets left, they had sold out ages ago.  Boo!  [Looking at that setlist I see they played seven different songs last time!]

So, three and a half years later they finally came back into town and I bought a ticket right away.  Actually, I was supposed to be away for the weekend so I bought a ticket for Sunday in New York City.  This would have been so much work because I would have just come back from a camping trip, I would have had to drive into NYC to a place I’ve never been and it was a Sunday night.  So I was glad the trip was cancelled and I could go on Friday night after all!

I arrived and ran past the merch hoping to get a decent spot, but it was pretty packed.  I managed to get behind some short people and all was well for the opening band.  Then, when Avatar left, somehow 200 people pushed their way in front of all of us who felt like we were packed in pretty tight already.  I didn’t step back at all but somehow twice as many people were in front of me.  Woah.

The show opened with the nameless masked band coming out on stage.  They are known as the Kami band.  I kind of prefer the initial look of the band when they wore white robes with kabuki masks (they were a bit more energetic), but these new masks are really cool and The Kami Band is quite amazing.  Apparently their identities aren’t as unknown as I thought (they are on Wikipedia, after all)–I’ll reveal them at the bottom of the post, but I had never heard of any of them.

I was really impressed that they could play so well with those heavy-looking things on their heads.

Then the three singers/dancers came out.  I’m still not entirely sure who actually sings in the band.  I know the lead singer is Su-metal (usually in the middle).  Initially there were three singers, Su-metal, Moametal and Yuimetal.  Yuimetal left and there were just the two singers, now they have added a third dancer to complete the triangle look, but I’m not sure if Moametal sings (maybe they have headset mics, while Su-metal has a handheld one?).  The note on Setlist (and the people who update these things know everything, apparently, says: Performed by Triangle Formation adding one selected CHOSEN DANCER.  So there is that.

The crowd went berserk when they came out (we seemed to be waiting a pretty long time by then, people were entertaining themselves by screaming in delight and trying to catch pieces of confetti that were falling from the ceiling–you’d have thought they were made of gold, we were so bored).

The first song was the frenetic and fairly insane “Megitsune” a song that starts with heavy heavy guitars, throws in some Japanese traditional sounds and then takes off with a hyper synth sound along with pummeling drums.  The song is in Japanese but that didn’t stop everyone from singing along.  The middle of the song has an incredibly catchy part with furious double bass drums and a delightful pop melody.  I love that they all stopped on a dime for the spoken word middle part.  This is a well-rehearsed and well-choreographed metal machine.

Throughout the song the trio danced like crazy.  Their precision synchronization was amazing.

It crams so much into four minutes, and that’s just the first song.

These random (somewhat unfortunate) pictures show that they are also quite expressive as they move around.

They followed that with the new single “Elevator Girl.”  It’s more poppy at least in the verse, but the chorus adds some heaviness alongside the pop vocals.

The next song was a surprise to me, the newish track “Shanti Shanti Shanti” has a very Indian flavor to it.  So now we have Japanese girls (although I guess they are in their twenties now) singing what might be Indian lyrics, but might be Japanese (it’s hard to tell), over an Indian melody and instrumentation all with a very heavy guitar and drum sounds underneath.  Cross cultural explosion!

The visuals were terrific as the trio danced in front of very cool, trippy background.

Between songs the trio would leave and something else would happen.  During one break it was time for each member of the Kami Band to take a solo. I was really impressed by each individual member as he (or she) totally showed off their skills, including an impressive bass and drum solo.

“Starlight” was up next, an incredibly heavy pounding song with some great riffage.  It also featured some surprisingly un-heavy “na na na na nas” which the crowd all sang along to.

Speaking of the crowd, it was an amazing mix of people.  From bald dudes with long beards to young college students dressed up for a night out (the guy in front of me had an Oxford shirt on with a tie tied around his head.  There were young (and old) African-American guys and young Japanese girls.  A foursome of teenagers was wearing black facemasks with cute images on them (teeth, a bear face), and many many people were dressed kawaii.  There were also a couple older Japanese businessmen.  And of course, there were big time metal heads.  It was great.

After “Starlight,” there was a video to break the set in half.  It was called Future Metal and it was just a wild 2 and a half minutes of crazy visuals set to the opening track off the new (as yet unreleased) album.  Presumably it gave everyone a breather.

When the video ended, a voice said “GIVE ME CHOCOLATE!” and the crowd went insane for “Gimme Chocolate.”  This was BABYMETAL ‘S first single that broke the band in the U.S.  This is also the song that broke my brain when I first saw the video.  It sounded fantastic live (Su-metal can really sing!) and it was very fun watching the trio do the adorably choreographed dance like in the video.

It was followed by their newest single, the infectious “PA PA YA!I” I actually hadn’t heard it before but I was singing along after the first verse.   Mid song a rapper came on the video screen to add his part.  I wasn’t sure who he was but I see that he is a Thai rapper named F.Hero.

It was followed by “Distortion” a pummeling song that had a lot of synths.  I’m honestly not sure if anyone was playing synths or if they synth sounds came from the guitars or if they were prerecorded.

The crowd also went crazy for “Karate” and the choreography for this was a lot of fun with the trio knocking down invisible bad guys.  I really like the way this song is fast and heavy and yet the verses are sung slowly –a nice contrast before the wonderfully catchy chorus. Su-metal also proved her chops with a serious high scream.

When the bells and synths rang out signalling the start of “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!!!” the pit was suitably frenzied.

The band left and then some piano music started and Su-metal came out to sing the raised-lighter anthem “The One.”  Su-metal has a great voice and this was the first time it was on full display without a lot of heavy guitars around it.  Although at something like 7 minutes it was a bit long.

The trio left and then came back out with flags which they propped up on stage to signify the start of “Road of Resistance.”  For if “The One” was an anthem for the masses, “Road of Resistance,” is the unifying theme to the world of BABYMETAL .

The song started out slowly with ominous chords as the trio slowly marched their BABYMETAL flags from the wings. When the trio was ready, the song absolutely blasted full bore while they danced.  And damn if that chorus isn’t the catchiest thing around.

I finally decided to record a bit of the mosh pit because it was so energetic.  Those who weren’t in the pit put up devil horns and the fox gesture.

And that was the end.  They were only on for an hour, but an hour felt like a full show with all of the theatrics and dancing.  It was the right amount of performance for us (and it let me get home rather early, too!).

There really is nothing like BABYMETAL .  (Actually that is not true, because a new band which is basically BABYMETAL 2.0 has just launched.  They are called IRONBUNNY and they up the BABYMETAL ante because their guitarist is a CYBORG!).   And since every band must have a backstory, this is the IRONBUNNY story (translated from Wikipedia).

In order to protect rock music, which has been declining due to the rise of digital music, from the danger of extinction, a super cyborg guitar hero Ediee Ironbunny , who came in a time slip since 2300 AD, formed a unit with three female vocals. Music project by PH METHODS. Trihexa Recordings is a joint production.  In November 2018, Ediee Ironbunny started activities. In March 2019, three female vocals selected by the audition were announced and started full-scale.

But this post is about BABYMETAL, and so the last words will be about them: before you mock, check them out, it’s a good time.

SETLIST

1. Megitsune β
2. Elevator Girl Ø
3. Shanti Shanti Shanti Ø
4. Kagerou Ø (Trio performance, not SU- METAL only. with Kami Band intro.)
5. Starlight Ø
6. FUTURE METAL
7. Gimme Chocolate!! β
8. PA PA YA!! Ø
9. Distortion Ø
10. KARATE ⊗
11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!!! β
12. THE ONE ⊗
13. Road of Resistance ⊗

β Babymetal (2014)
⊗ Metal Resistance (2016)
Ø Metal Galaxy (2019)

Who are those masked players?

As of early 2018, the line-up has been relatively stable, consisting of guitarists Takayoshi Ohmura, Leda, and Isao, bassist Boh, and drummers Hideki Aoyama and Yuya Maeta with members occasionally substituting for one another if needed.