MTV LIVE DAM VMAJ in OSAKA Sing For Smile Tour REPORT

MTV LIVE DAM VMAJ in OSAKA Sing For Smile Tour

Aoyama Thelma 

While we were quite unfamiliar with this artist before the show, we must say her performance was very impressive. Although she joked about people not really being able to know the words of  her songs, she had fantastic crowd control and took the time to prep the crowd so everyone could join along. She did a good job of both making the crowd energetic with her upbeat numbers as well as showing off her singing skills in her ballads. That along with her very sweet personality completely won the audience over. She did a great job.

SHINee

Well, honestly we didn't and don't know too much about SHINee, but what we did learn was that SHINee fans are very, very, very, very, very, VERY passionate about SHINee. They received an incredibly warm welcome from their fans and their performance was perfect. They also spoke Japanese quite well. We'd love to give a more detailed report, but we don't know the members names, and only recognized Ring Ding Dong and Lucifer.

w-inds. 

After SHINee went off stage, the SHINee fans nicely let w-inds. fans go further up so they could see better. We got a very nice view from second or third row center. Here was the setlist:

• New World
• Some More
• Let's Get it On
• MC
• Kirei Da
• Can't Get Back
• Rain is Fallin' 

Almost everything w-inds. was saying to the crowd during their songs was in English. Ryuichi came out with an energetic "What's up Party People?!" which made us nostalgic for the 1990s, but they got people to clap their hands and make noise which was great in a mixed crowd of fans.

Ryohei was wearing a Yankees cap with a red and blue patterned hoodie and jeans, Keita was wearing a wearing a yellowish plaid jacket with a studded  T-shirt and jeans (and muscles), and Ryuichi was wearing a denim outfit with his new hair. Sorry, we aren't fashion experts.

New World - What can be said? New World is flawless and perfect and the only way they could make it better is if they wore the blue jackets every time.

Some More - We're so glad that they're making some more one of their staple live songs. We love that Ryuichi and Ryohei get to have their singing parts, and also this song just makes you want to dance along. All three of them were really getting into making the "gimme gimme" motion at the fans which wa sfun.

Let's Get it On - Who ever came up with the handle dance is a genius. It's simple and everyone can follow along. The dance break in this song looks really, really impressive, too. People get really fired up about the raps, too.

MC

In this MC they talked a little bit about Keita's muscles which he decided not to show despite for many pleas from the audience and they did promotion for their BEST albums to be released on 6/22. When they noticed the energy dropping in the crowd while they were talking, they jumped right into another song which was a good strategy.

Kirei Da - We were so happy to see this song with them doing actual choreography! Of course Keita sounds great live, but the backing vocals by Ryuichi and Ryohei were also really, really nice today.

Can't Get Back - Only thing we can remember, but a funny thing: Keita did not drop to the floor today during the "aitai" part, but fans still screamed like he did.

Rain is fallin' - one of the coolest things about this performance was that when Can't Get Back ends, they bring their hands in front of their chest, and today they used this as a flawless transition into Rain is Fallin'.  The English in Ryohei and Ryuichi's raps have gotten so amazingly good, they must have been working on their pronunciation. Also noted the change from "GD and you" to "w-inds. and you". Sounds much better!

They were filming the show so they were showing off to the cameras a lot. There's going to be some pretty cool shots of them. Look forward to it!

After the show we very quickly were able to say thank you to the artists as we left. One of the foreign fans we brought with us was so happy to have the chance to meet w-inds. face to face that she started crying when she got outside.

We say this every time, but we mean it; w-inds. gets better and better with each performance. While SHINee may have a ton of fans, w-inds. looked like superstars up there. Keep up the good work, guys!

Thanks to all the artists for a great show!

-Ash