SPACE SHOWER RETSUDEN ASIA TOUR 2017 powered by MCIP came to Singapore with 4 awesome, cool Japanese bands. Taking place at  MILLIAN SINGAPORE, the gig presented Kyuso Nekokami, 04 Limited Sazabys, THE ORAL CIGARETTES and Frederic to about 400-strong crowd in 4 hours of almost non-stop dancing and screaming to the music.

The show started at 7pm sharp with Kyuso Nekokami taking the stage. The band wouldn’t give us an easy opening and went full throttle from the start, which the audience enthusiastically welcomed. The lighting production was incredible, with a very powerful yet balanced sound system. Seiya, the vocalist was really energetic, and the band’s stage act was also very coordinated. They looked to truly enjoy their performance, sometimes throwing in jokes during the songs. The band gave a surprise with a stunning way of exiting the stage: Seiya standing on a board, carried by his band mates. Now that’s cool!

After a few minutes of break and stage set-up, 04 Limited Sazabys took their turn. I was standing on the side of HIROKAZ, the guitarist, and he seemed to really want to melt the heart of every girl standing near me. Oh, my own heart almost melted, but… his red hair was too bright for me. No, I was just kidding about this—but I was serious about how breath-taking he was! To be frank, the band seemed to be a bit strained in keeping their songs right: Gen the vocalist several times found it hard to catch up with the speed and the high notes. But it wasn’t really a source of complaints, because their cheerful pop-punk music still managed to keep us jumping vehemently.

Apparently, the most awaited band that night was THE ORAL CIGARETTES, who was the next one to take to stage – judging from the many attendees wearing the band’s T-shirt, just like the one worn by Akira the bassist.  It’s totally expected, because the audience would have been familiar with THE ORAL CIGARETTES from their previous visit to Singapore. The band just had so much power and they poured out their overflowing energy, infecting the audience. They really knew how to control the stage and get the audience into the mood with tracks like highly anticipated 5150. Unavoidably, people just started to sing along as a massive choir!

Frederic was the last band to get on stage. Their performance felt a bit of anti-climax for the whole concert, because the band’s song list is mostly composed of bright, medium-beat songs. They were great songs, but with the pace that’s been built by the previous band, it would have been better if they had performed earlier. Nevertheless, I still danced to their tracks such as oddloop, which triggered the audience to do moves like the MV.

For the encore, Frederic played one more song from their repertoire. In Japanese and English, they thanked the warm welcome from Singaporean music enthusiasts, promising to return next time. We totally wouldn’t mind more enjoyable concerts like this one—and we bet many people agree with us!

Read our interviews with Kyuso Nekokami, 04 Limited Sazabys, THE ORAL CIGARETTES, and Frederic!

Pictures by Viola Kam (V’z Twinkle)