On Friday, June 19th, I went to Atelier Fontaine, a theater located near Roppongi, to see a "one-man" show of Maezono Naoki Group who were about to release their first album a few days later, on vinyl only. Tickets for the event were reserved by email, as it's often done, but I was surprised to actually receive a specially designed actual ticket by mail. The ticket was paid for on the event day at the entrance, and there was no shipping fee at all. Also upon arriving, everyone received a special edition of the Group's self-produced 'zine. All those unusual practices are part of the Group's great attention for detail.
Located three floors underground, we arrived in the modest sized room of 10 rows by 12 seats. The very high ceiling made it about cubic in size. Sitting at the 9th row, the stage felt at the same time far and close. Waiting for the start, I looked at the yet unreleased record that I had just bought at the entrance, noticing more fascinating details, like the 7-inch like design of the center label.
The show featured most songs from the album, some other regulars that they often play live, but a lot of the set actually consisted of newly rehearsed songs that they played live for the first time.
Maezono Group 1st set: hoshi ga itta yo / Tokyo no machi ni yuki ga furu hi, futari no koi wa owatta. / koibitotachi no jikan / asa / aozora o dakishimeyou / kuroi hanabira / Alicante/yoru no Paris
The show also featured two special guests, the first one was Smooth Ace, a chorus group whose lead members include a guy of the Gospellers. Smooth Ace were produced by Konishi-san recently on the "uta to Guitar. Piano. kotoba." compilation, with a Nomoto Karia cover, but also on a single in 2004. They sang both of these songs accompanied by the group. They were amazing!
With Smooth Ace: dōshite konnani anata ga suki nano darō. / korekara ai ni iku yo.
The 2nd guest was Lemon (blog and photo), an indies female singer with a great voice who also appeared on "uta to Guitar." She showed up in a sexy décolté black dress and her signature big hair. She recounted the recording where she kept stepping too close to the mic, and Konishi-san ended up putting a pencil on the floor and telling her not to step further. Now when she listens to the song she remembers how she was worried about the pencil on the floor as she sang. :) That was her first work with Konishi-san, but she couldn't leave after just one song. She started the next with a monologue about how there aren't any kind and cute and rich men lately. The next song was of course a cover of P5, the first track from "Playboy Playgirl"! (see lyrics)
With Lemon: utahime / fukeiki (La dépression)
Then things became a little bit quiet again, continuing with the group alone. Konishi pointed out that at this show the band gets eaten by the guests. :) The highlight here was again a P5 cover, "kodomotachi no kodomotachi no kodomotachi e", that had everyone clapping along.
Maezono Group 2nd set: kanashii sake / kyō wa sora ga ame de dekiteru / kodomotachi no kodomotachi no kodomotachi e / suki nandakara / yoake no uta
The band went off-stage, but came back quickly for an encore. I was glad that they hadn't forgotten to play my favorite, Sugar Babe's "Show"! I find it too bad that it didn't make it to the album.
Encore: Show / mado ni akari ga tomoru toki
The show contained a total of 18 songs, and lasted a whole 2 hours. To make it all perfect, when heading out everyone was handed a set list sheet.
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