ヘヴィメタル・ハードロック・プログレッシブロックのウェブマガジン「ROCKS ON THE ROAD」に８月１３日、１４日の赤坂ブリッツでのコンサートレビューが掲載されました。
This is a translation of a concert review written by an editor of Japanese online magazine "ROCKS ON THE ROAD". He writes a review for 13th and 14th of August concerts of TOSHI with T-EARTH and TOSHI&WANKU at Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo.
"When I was in trouble being bashed by the people, true friends always supported me. Thank you. I feel so grateful for them."
The songs that TOSHI sang were so simple and filled with truly pure and straight-forward messages. He said that he came to love such poems and songs because of doubts that he had as a rock icon, and he wanted them more just because of a certain accident.
TOSHI gave live performances on 13th and 14th of August at Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo. Those were the debut live of the new TOSHI with T-EARTH with the members of RIKU (Age: 12), RYO(Age: 18) and KAIN (Age: 24) on 13th, and also graceful duet performances with WANKU along with only violin and keyboard players on 14th. TOSHI gave us different impressions with these 2 concerts of different concepts.
The powerful performance of TOSHI with T-EARTH; a band with a theme of "eco hard rock", instantly brought the entire audiences a storm of excitement. As TOSHI himself felt such tremendous responses at the debut live, he said, "The show was really something! What I felt most was the songs themselves were so cool, so powerful, rock sounds and arrangement are also very cool, and of course the lyrics are truly ecological, environmental and essential. And I shouted with all my might rooted at my 30-year experiences of a vocalist.
It was like an everlasting cosmos, border-less, to be together with the responding audience." said TOSHI in excitement.
And on 14th, entirely different power enveloped the hall that day. There was a totally different profile of TOSHI, from that of X JAPAN's Heavy Rock/Heavy Metal style, and also from that of T-EARTH's rock style. It was a profile of a human who gives sincere thoughts to ecological living in order to protect "their own place" as a habitant on the earth. He may be the one who realizes an ecological way of living with what he can do, as we often hear these days about a guidance of starting an ecological life.
His pure voice which appealed environmental issues sounded like screams of Nature and moved the hearts of the audience. The truly straight-forward lyrics like "Give us back the beautiful sky, give us back the beautiful oceans." were like deep sorrows of Nature. It seemed like he sang on behalf of grieving Nature.
TOSHI called WANKU, his wife and a heroin of that day to the stage and made the audience laugh, saying "My heart is beating so fast to see WANKU wear a mini skirt today!" Such moments of TOSHI's carefree conversation as a MC may have entertained his fans.
During such conversations, however, there were some moments when I was startled to hear his words about the previous disturbances of the media.
"12 years ago, I left the band feeling disgusted with myself confused among a mob of the people, and I was bashed by the people for entirely false reasons, with some religious or brainwashing gossips.
and later I found out there was some evil force behind the scene to get me back to the band, and that was plotted by my "family" which wanted rights and interests around me." said TOSHI.
What he felt in those days has become a source of art for TOSHI and his songs, and his wounded heart made him start "Utatabi (Journey of Poetry)" according to him.
In such adversity covered with misunderstandings and prejudices, he traveled all over Japan with a song, to pursue what he wanted to do.
That was the last song performed that day, "Ai no uta wo utaitai (Beautiful love song)". He sang the song in tears, with all his heart, for the true friends who supported him during those years. His screams of the heart to sing "I want to sing a song to heal everything." made the audiences of all ages cry and enclosed the whole place so gently. In such heartfelt ambience, the 2nd show came to an end.
The totally straight-forward lyrics and TOSHI's pure and empathizing voice may sometimes make people misunderstand him due to influences by the noisy media in the past. However, the songs by TOSHI, who overcame all those hardships and carry though his convictions, are filled with special power which we cannot find in the existing music scene in Japan.
The power to move the people's hearts is something only music can succeed.
X JAPAN has led me to the music of heavy metal and hard rock. And now, his voice will lead us to the environmental problems. Having a faith in its power, TOSHI will keep on singing for ever.
We are scheduled to release DVDs of the Akasaka Blitz concerts.
We will inform you of the release date later.
Also, we're creating a new English website of TOSHI with T-EARTH for international fans at the moment.
And one more thing! iTunes overseas started distributing the new CDs of TOSHI/TOSHI with T-EARTH just recently. Please check them out!
Healing World