Hekiru Shiina Concert

			17 February 1998 at the Nakano Sunplaza —by Ivevei Upatkoon It's strange how things just work out sometimes. Here I was, Sunday February 15th, sitting in my room moping that I had not bought a ticket to one of Shiina Hekiru's "Baby Blue Eyes" concerts way back in January before they had sold out. To cheer myself up I decided to head out to my local LD store and pour my sorrows out to the owner, a nice man who also happens to be an anime and voice actress fan. When I walked in, he was talking to another young man. I said hi and mentioned that I wished I could go to Hekiru's concert. At which point, the person he was talking to turned around and said, "If you like, I'll sell you a ticket, " which was how I found myself with a tenth row ticket to a Shiina Hekiru concert on the 17th at Nakano Sunplaza. Wow! Shiina Hekiru is a voice actress/idol singer whom you could say has sold based more on her looks rather than her actual singing. [Editor's note: This is typical of the idol "industry" in Japan.] She has been very successful. Beginning in spring of 1995, she has conducted two concert tours a year that have grown explosively in size; in 1997, she performed two consecutive nights at Nippon Budoukan, the largest concert hall in Tokyo with a capacity of 9000. All her concerts sell out almost instantaneously, and her audience makeup is starting to include people other than college-aged males who are voice actress fans. The conclusion of her "Baby Blue Eyes" tour marks her ninety-ninth high-powered live performance. Tuesday the 17th was an extremely cold day. I arrived before 5pm and was greeted with a mass of young people waiting outside the concert hall. Since this would be my very first concert, Hekiru or otherwise, I took it all in with more than a little wonder and awe. There were groups of young men dressed in nothing more than jeans, blue yukata (light cotton robes), and headbands, all inscribed with Hekiru's name or the numbers 417 (which stand for "shi", "i", and "na"), raising a fair ruckus in a corner. Almost everyone was wearing 417 paraphernalia. Inside the lobby, the 417 goods stand was running a brisk trade. The atmosphere was electrifying even as the wind whipped us mercilessly.
			After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, we were let in. I was quite nervous because I had heard that Hekiru fans tended to be rowdy. I had an excellent seat not more than twenty-five feet from the stage, and next to me was the person who had sold me the ticket. People settled in slowly and then finally the concert began. The stage was set up with a raised platform towards the back, and a large video screen above. The band members were positioned to the left and right of that, leaving a large wide open area at the front. The lights dimmed and a rapid stream of English words played across the video screen, culminating in "Let's sing and come together!" and "Baby blue eyes". Then Hekiru rose slowly out of the platform as the crowd went wild. Dressed in a long black plastic coat with a short black skirt and black pants under it and looking far more imposing than her actual 5 foot height, she opened with a powerful rendition of "Dare no sei de mo nai" ("It's not anyone's fault") that had the audience shouting and punching the air with the beat. Without pause, she launched straight into a nigh-perfect "DISTANCE" and "Jun" ("Pure") as everyone gamely yelled the trademark "He! He! He! He!" while waving their hands in cue with Hekiru's dance or pointing at the stage at the appropriate intervals in the chorus. The sound level was turned up all the way and the bass could be felt through the floor - not one person was sitting - but the cheering did its best to drown it out. Hekiru paused for breath and an introduction before continuing on to "Sore tte ii ne" ("That's good isn't it?") and "Todoketai omoi" ("Thoughts I want to send you") before the lights blacked off for a costume change. While it was difficult to judge the quality of the singing at that volume, she was definitely singing with a great deal of power whilst maintaining tight control of her voice. When the stage lights lit up again, the band had rearranged itself in a little circle on the front of the stage. Hekiru reappeared in another coat replacing the one she had worn before. She talked about how she had spent the last eight months striving to define herself in her new album, and about how she was starting anew. It was obvious that she felt extremely strongly about the hardships she had gone through and what she had finally achieved in remaking herself. Then she explained that she wanted to try something new in this concert series - an "acoustic corner," where she would sing unplugged versions of her first single "Setsunai egao" ("Heartrending smile"), "Best Partner", and "Watashi no mirai" ("My future"). As her band struck the first soft strains of the song, she sat down in a folding chair, creating a very mellow, charming image. Except for one part in "Setsunai egao" where she missed her beat, she performed these songs very well. It was clear that the improvement in her singing was not simply a product of technical scrubbing, but her actual skill. After the first song, she talked a little about the chimes that her drummer was using. She said, "The sound was created not by hands, but with the head, like this," and demonstrated by running her head across the chimes, much to the delight and amusement of the audience. Then, in typical Hekiru fashion, she laughed and told everyone to try it since this method made it sound as if the chimes came from inside one's head, and she hoped that everyone would help make it the next big trend.
			After the acoustic corner, the band members returned to their positions while Hekiru removed her coat to reveal a tight black bodice over a long-sleeved striped green top, an outfit that set off her figure well. She went into "246" as a fan beneath the stage blew her hair back and the video screen played a first person perspective of moving along a road at high speed. She continued on to "Kaze no yukue" ("The place the wind has gone"), and then to the ballad "Anata no namae" ("Your name") before leaving again via the hidden platform in the upper portion of the stage for a costume change. During this time, the video screen played a short clip of Hekiru dressed in white and holding a fan. She approached the camera with exaggerated poise while fluttering her fan around, and declared herself to be Kaguya Hime (a girl in a fairy tale who was actually from the moon). "Tonight is the full moon and I must return to the moon!" She finished with a wink at the camera and gave her regards to her fans, who reacted by cheering and clapping in obvious pleasure. Hekiru returned in a red outfit and launched into songs from her previous albums, including "Lucky Day", "Moon Light", "Koi no Race Queen" ("Race Queen of Love"), and "Shoujo Bakudan" ("Bomber Girl"). While she had been very composed during the first part of the concert, for this part she really let herself go. It was a great relief for her fans, who had been afraid that, in remaking her image, she would abandon the energetic performances that everyone loved. Hekiru was running all over the stage and practically screaming the lyrics to everything from "Koi no Race Queen" to "Me o samase, otoko nara!" When she told everyone to jump, I gave a quick prayer of thanks to the solid construction of the building. I was certainly impressed! It was also the crowd's turn to shine. It seems that every Hekiru song, these old ones in particular, have set patterns of cheering and audience participation in singing. I did my best to follow them, but most of the time I was simply lost as everyone around me alternated clapping, pointing, waving their arms, and screaming lyrics. It was truly a memorable experience. At some point, she introduced her new band members, whom she had had a hand in selecting after her painful decision to break up Hekibands, her band and support chorus of almost three years. This concert's topic was "specialties." She asked each band member his or her specialty. It was very amusing to see her at a lost for words for once after her guitarist's unexpected reply. While it was sad to see Hekibands go, it seemed a general consensus that this new band certainly shone. Hekiru had one final costume change before the end of the concert, into a nice blue dress and pants and a jacket over it. After the last song, she left the stage as the fans struck up the call "AN-KO-RE!" (encore). After what really seemed like an eternity, she returned and sang for us her signature "Graduater," and finally closed on a beautiful, heartfelt version of "Infinity." With the performance over, she stood on stage, sweat glistening off her face but looking extremely radiant and happy, and thanked all her fans for their support. Then, she told everyone to get ready to say "those words that you always say." Luckily, I had been hastily briefed by my friend on the correct procedure, and as she whispered, "Sei no..." ("all together"), the entire concert hall and I screamed at the top of our lungs, "WANT YOU!!" As we gathered up our belongings and collected the silver streamers that we had been showered with at the end, the strains of "Graduater" played over the speakers and everyone stopped to sing it in unison. Luckily, the Sunplaza staff were understanding enough (or was it, intimidated enough?) not to shoo us out before the song ended. While this performance was not nearly as impressive as the one at Budoukan, it was nonetheless extremely well orchestrated. Hekiru herself seemed to have recovered from her previous week's illness and put on a very lively act, especially towards the end. And of course, I cannot help but mention again that her singing was very good. I enjoyed it a great deal; however, I sincerely regret that during the time of the concert, I was not familiar with any of her earlier songs, and as such could not participate fully together with the rest of the audience. Now that I have thoroughly, ahem, studied her songs, I look forward to her summer tour with much anticipation.