Buono! Kessei Shuunen Kinen FC Special Live ~ Rock ‘n Buono! ~

Track Listing

1. Nakimushi Shounen
2. Kokoro no Tamago
3. Bucket no Mizu
4. Internet Cupid
5. Last Forever
6. Garakuta no Yume
7. Gachinko de Ikou!
8. Hoshi no Hitsujitachi
9. Minna Daisuki
10. Cafe Buono
11. Lady Panther
12. Honto no Jibun
13. Rock no Kamisama
14. Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!
15. Jyankya Mottainai
16. Renai Rider
17. Kimi ga Ireba

Review

I love Buono!  They are my second favorite group within H!P (Morning Musume comes first).  I had heard that this concert was quite good and well liked by many people.  But, I refused to read any in-depth reviews to keep my concert viewing experience as untainted as possible.

The show started off with something I found surprising, the group came out with instruments in hand.

Momo – Drums

Airi – Guitar

Miyabi – Bass

Just the image of them looking like a band was cool enough, but the thought that they might actually play an entire song?  Well, that bubble got burst real fast when they stopped playing after the intro to Nakimushi Shounen & went to the backing track.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  After that the rest of the performances up to the intermission were also done to a backing track.

Not that I’m complaining, at least they were singing live which was a good enough trade-off for me.  The track that stood out for me during this part of the show was Internet Cupid since that song has the same vocoder effects as pretty much every Perfume song.  Having seen how that was implemented in their concert I was curious as to how it would work in Buono’s.  Unlike Perfume, I could clearly hear the live vocals when blended with the effects (no obvious lip syncing), which was nice.

After the intermission video was when things got really interesting.  There was an actual live backing band like I’ve seen in so many other J-Pop concerts & they were the same band from the Gachinko de Ikou video.  Bonus points for continuity.  As nice as it was watching the girls perform in front of an empty drum set, I think it was much better seeing them performing and interacting with a band.

I think the show picked up a lot once the live music element was introduced.  It brought a whole different kind of energy.  Even better was that the group was still singing live instead of copping out & lip syncing.  Anyway, this half of the show seemed rather loaded with songs that took advantage of the band like Lady Panther, Rock no Kamisama, Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! & Renai Rider.  My personal favorite being Renai Rider.  That song kicks so much ass.  Although Kiss! Kiss! Kiss wasn’t bad either, maybe because of the shot below.

In the end this was a great show.  Buono! continues to impress me more & more.

Just a closing (somewhat unrelated) thought.  With the Elder Club leaving soon maybe there would be room in the budget for future shows like this with actual musicians doing the backing music.  Wouldn’t it  be nice to see one of those large scale H!P shows with a real band playing their immense catalog of music?

Although it’s probably too much to ask for more artists playing the instruments themselves (Like Mano Erina) isn’t it?  One dream though right?