The french site Horns Up did a very extensive report about the second BABYMETAL show in France. BABYMETAL played at La Laiterie in Strasbourg on June 1st for the BABYMETAL World Tour 2015. This live report makes focus on several songs of the show including the highlight of the night, the girl flashing during the Kami Band instrumental. Read the review translated below.
Live Report - BABYMETAL at La Laiterie in Strasbourg, France
A little less than a year after their very first european tour, BABYMETAL come back in France for a venue at La Laiterie, in Strasbourg. So, obviously we won't miss it, let's go for a trip in Alsace ! BABYMETAL, some love it, others hate it and a lot of people think we troll, but the facts are here: The last year venue at La Cigale was an ultimate killing that I don't hesitate to put on my personal top 5 gig, ever. And God knows that I do a lot of them.
So here I am in Strasbourg to see if the japanese phenomenon confirm their high quality live show. As usual, a high quantity of fans are in front of the venue way before the opening, some since the morning.. and when we see the shitty weather, we can only congratulate them for their self-abnegation! The doors open, that gives me the opportunity to discover La Laiterie, and the room is quite small, giving a bigger promiscuity with BABYMETAL than at the Paris show.
For those who read the Paris report (there should be one or two, since it was the 2nd live report read on U-Zine), I said that the gig was brilliant thanks to the ambience, the presence of friends, the furious moshpit, of the fact that I danced like a crazy retard.. well, the atmosphere played a lot. So, for this venue, I decided to get closer to the scene, to focus more on what happen on it and the music, just to see if BABYMETAL is actually good during the live or if it's just the whole idea that gives it strenght (What a reporter work here!).. So I'll give it to you fast, even in this condition, BABYMETAL rocks hard! Haters will get thin but in both ways, we have one of the craziest, funniest, most pleasing and efficient thing to see on a stage!
Just like last year, it starts with an intro video, always Star Wars like, with Metal Gods presented as Kerry King, Rob Halford, Eddy or even Dio. After giving us a photo of the girls in a Darth Vader vibe with light sabers, the narrator explains us that BABYMETAL destroyed the borders to unify people from different horizons and generations to make the world Heavy Metal thingy. And when we look at the venue, there is some of that! The audience is quite cosmopolitan, even if tonight there is mostly metalheads, which promises quite a crazy mosh pit ! Something that is confirmed when Babymetal Death starts and I see behind me the first circle pit being formed while around people jump everywhere screaming "DEATH DEATH DEATH". The set list is nearly the same as their first european tour, so it continues with Iine! and its magical chenille (not too sure how to translate that correctly) and then Uki Uki Midnight, just to move, electro-like, with this beginning and totally turn La Laiterie upside down.
By the way, when we spent the last months watching the band during the Live At Budokan, looking at the band on this venue denote a bit because of the simplicity. Indeed, we're far from the crazy lights, pyrotechnics and hidding places Rammstein-like that BABYMETAL is used to in Japanese venues. A little bit disappointing to think that we'll never see a concert with all this stuff, unless you pay yourself a trip to Japan. But that allows us to focus on the essential: the music, of course, AND THE F*CKING CHOREOGRAPHY! The girls are at their top, using their energy to dance while inviting the audience already hot to participate.
Special mention to Moa who illuminated the scene with her performance ! Not that her two friends are unworthy, far from that, but Moa outclassed them! You can clearly see that she's happy to be here, she gives us 3 times more, giving everything while playing with her facial expressions. Everything is here, grins, big eyes and of course a smile from ear to ear, she is so expressive that we have the feeling that she has twice more facial muscles than us mortal, and all that being natural, of course.
First passage for the Kami Band, with each members comes closer to the scene and will auto-introduce themselves with their own solo all while posing, like the guitarist that have fun doing some wide-eyed (for a Japanese, we can applause the effort). Then comes the turn of Boh who saw his performance going into posterity thanks to a fan that went topless, showing the blaze of the 6 strings bald-headed painted over a pair of breasts. And when it comes from THE beauty of the audience, he can only wave at her to thank her, imitating the other guitarists who weren't immune to the thing. The guy even gave it a hint on Twitter, and he can be happy, a session musician that has a dediboobs, it's not that often.
Su-Metal comes back on the stage to perform Akumu no Rondo always full of emotions, then follows Yui and Moa for Onedari Daisakusen with a rain of money at the BABYMETAL effigy, printed by the fans and given away before the gig. Well, it was a bit too "Mexicans did it, so do we" but we have to admit it was pretty cool !
Return of the Kami Band for a solo, and they seem to have a lot of fun on stage - One of the guitarist even played a smooth passage of the Marseillaise (French hymn) - to introduce Catch Me If You Can that always storm on live with its borrowed riff from Slipknot (Sic). Anyway, I won't do the whole setlist, you'll understand it, BABYMETAL gives us a high quality show in front of a conquered audience. We'll only regret the sound that wasn't always perfect with some basses a bit too loud and the voices a bit too low, but nothing dramatic, at least with protections. The moshpit was a happy mess with its circle pit and slams as the ossan with glasses right next to me can certify, who had his face a bit in blood because of a cut at the cheek. Well yeah, here it moves a bit, we have other things to do than moving glowsticks like dorks !
After Ijime, Dame, Zettai and its traditionnal Wall Of Death, BABYMETAL leaves the stage for the first time before coming back for Headbanger!!. As a final track we find their new song: Road Of Resistance, that I can finally discover live and that will bury La Laiterie under an avalanche of epicness with flag lifting reinforcement, heroic choir and dragon dance! Too bad that after asking us to sing with them, Su didn't let us do our hoohooohooo a cappella. But experiencing this live definitly makes me think that if the band keeps going on this road, future will rock!
Just before their usual "See you", BABYMETAL try out the Molière language, with some "Je me suis beaucoup amusé", "J'aime la France" and "Content de vous voir, merci" that, even approximate (on few, we hear that phonetics were memorized), adding to these the "Bonjour" and "Comment ça va" during Gimme Choco, we arrive to a great effort on french that is always pleasing to hear. Ok we're not on the Corey Taylor level who says that he's ugly and he smells but he will kick our asses, but we can still underline the attention.
With this concert, BABYMETAL shows once again that it is more than a "wtf phenomenon", but is really the most interresting thing of the last years, the band probably won't last forever and will stop in a few years but during this time, they destroy everything and in particular 90% of metal bands and their weak live performances. You're gonna have to get use to it, man.
Thank you to VeryShow for the accreditation, Lorelei for supporting me, those I met in the line and those I talked to in the train. If you come by here, thanks to you, the 4h that seemed boring went just fine!
Translation by: David Bodineau
