SCANDAL's first joint band tour; the curtain closes as they "firmly shake hands with BLUEN"

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The Osaka performance of SCANDAL's first joint band tour, 「SCANDAL's Joint Band Tour」, was held on 10/21 at Zepp Osaka Bayside.

「SCANDAL's Joint Band Tour」 is a tour hitting Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka that invites three bands that SCANDAL recognizes as "the strongest live bands." Following UNISON SQUARE GARDEN as their guest for opening day in Tokyo and 04 Limited Sazabys as the guest for the performance in Aichi, BLUE ENCOUNT was the guest for the tour's finale in Osaka.

DJ Kentarou Ochiai of FM802「ROCK KIDS 802 -OCHIKEN Goes ON!!-」, a friend of both bands, appeared on stage. After he warmed up the venue with a call-and-response as a "hype captain," BLUE ENCOUNT came out with his call. Shunichi Tanabe (vocals & guitar), bathed in a spotlight, resounded 「opening」 on his guitar and carefully sung and enchanted the audience; then, the quartet dropped 「MEMENT」. As Yoshihide Takamura's (drums) powerful drumming reverberated, Tanabe; Yuuya Eguchi (guitar); and Yuuta Tsujimura (bass) moved about the stage and excited the audience. After playing the popular live song 「Survivor」 and new song 「VS」, the opening theme of the anime 「Gintama Porori Arc」, Tanabe stopped the performance of 「LIVER」 as the floor was getting excited, saying, 「Just a minute; it feels great」, and requested the lighting staff to shine a light on the crowd. He said, 「How many people are seeing us for the first time? There are a lot......that's depressing......」 and had the crowd laughing as they were raising their hands. He loudly declared, 「Actually, we were kind of showing off at first. We wanted to seem cool to those seeing us for the first time. But it doesn't matter when playing a live. As always, we'll perform dripping with sweat!」 When the performance of 「LIVER」 resumed, towels were rapidly spun around, influenced by Tanabe, and the sight of a masterpiece spread out across the floor.

During an MC, Tanabe touched on when they ran into SCANDAL at an event last year and spoke about his impressions towards their live show: 「Although they might be a band that's perceived in different ways, they were perfect heroes to me」. When they revealed unknown information that Eguchi's younger brother is part of SCANDAL's fan club and Tsujimura had copied a SCANDAL song in a former band, Tsujimura gesturing towards an "invisible TOMO-chan [meaning 'invisible friend'; a play on words for the Japanese word for friend, 友達 (tomodachi)]" in a TOMOMI-like way had the venue laughing. From Tanabe's yell of 「Let's make this the best day they've had that's come around in their indie and major label days! Well......we want to make the best day they've ever had so far. We too want to be your heroes!」, the band gave enthusiastic performances of 「LAST HERO」 as well as popular songs 「NEVER ENDING STORY」 and 「DAY×DAY」.

Before their last song, Tanabe explained that BLUE ENCOUNT, formed while they were in high school, was celebrating their 14th year this year, and that they had worked their way up slowly. He also began talking about feelings of regret when he was around 20 and saw the younger SCANDAL's name on a notice for TV Asahi's 「MUSIC STATION」. Tanabe put his strength into saying, 「I thought, "What's different between us! We're playing rock too, you know!" and studied SCANDAL for that week. Then, when I watched 『MSta』, I realized that they were neither an "all-girl band" nor a "teenage band." They're a cool rock band who desperately practiced in order to apear on 『MSta』, and wanted their music to reach people from that point on」, and then raised his voice: 「This band is steadily moving forward and are successfully holding lives in large capacity venues. Since we're idiots, we didn't give up on our music......so, we got more people to believe in us and were able to play at Budokan! We were able to appear on 『MSta』! And the day where we could finally say this has come this year. We were able to play a joint live with SCANDAL!」 As a big round of applause came from the audience, they performed 「Motto Hikari wo」 and changed some of the lyrics: 「We'll keep holding SCANDAL tightly!」 The venue was enveloped as the audience sung the chorus loudly.

SCANDAL began delivering their live with an intense performance of 「LOVE SURVIVE」. HARUNA roared, 「Osakaー!!」, and the floor was soon caught up in an enthusiastic vortex. When they entered the oriental rock number 「Take Me Out」 from RINA's count, HARUNA; MAMI; and TOMOMI stepped in time while performing bathed in pink light. Following that was 「Onegai Navigation」, and the front three members' passionate voices resounded on top of RINA's fast drumming. HARUNA praised the audience for showing an explosive feeling of excitement from the start, saying, 「Wow, this enthusiasm that's been around since we hit the stage is awesome!」 She said, 「As we expected!」 and was appreciative of BLUEN's passionate performance. She noticed the guys on the floor calling out 「Tanabe!」 with no honorifics during BLUEN's set. When humorously she said, 「Isn't it a bit crass to call for only Tanabe-kun? I might as well call out for Tanabe as well」, Tanabe appeared on the side of the stage with a smile and nodded while raising his hand. Additionally, TOMOMI countered Tsujimura's "invisible TOMO-chan" with an "invisible Tsuji" and excited the floor.

When HARUNA stirred up the crowd with, 「There won't be an encore! So, let's get excited and get rid of the stress we've accumulated this week!」, one after another the quartet played the playful 「STANDARD」; 「Rising star」 with sharp guitar riffs from MAMI; 「FREEDOM FIGHTERS」 with RINA and TOMOMI's heavy sounds and HARUNA's majestic singing; and accelerated the enthusiasm of the venue with 「Taiyou Scandalous」. During the second half of their set RINA talked about her love for BLUEN with a smile on her face: 「BLUEN played a killer-tune festival the entire time today. Wasn't that flow from 『MEMENT』 to 『D.N.K』 awesome? I really like 『D.N.K』」. Tying to Tanabe's MC, they looked back on SCANDAL so far and revealed, 「Our indie days were short, and some might think that we suddently became famous after appearing on TV, but we had so many feelings of regret......When we appeared at festivals or events, we thought, 『We've made those wearing SCANDAL shirts be alone』」, and thanked the crowd: 「But we're so happy that it feels like we were able to firmly shake hands with BLUEN and the audience. Thank you so much for coming to see our live today」.

From HARUNA's words of, 「What "Tanabe" said earlier made us happy, but it would be awesome if today turns out to be the best day of your lives!」, the quartet dropped 「Koisuru Universe」, their new song written for their joint band tour, and fascinated the fans with a diverse development. After performing 「Image」 with HARUNA's lively singing filling the venue, and the killer-tune 「Shunkan Sentimental」, HARUNA announced 「SCANDAL BABY」 with, 「Last song! Please dance!」. The audience waved their hands left and right, jumped, and got excited in line with the danceable rhythm carved out by RINA. The cheerful scene of MAMI and TOMOMI getting close to HARUNA at point-blank range, putting their arms on her shoulders, and singing with the same microphone was inserted before the major chorus where the loud sing-along by the fans had the members smiling. After the end of their performance, HARUNA again thanked the audience, calling out, 「Our first joint band tour was so short! We hope we can do it again one day. We also hope that those who saw us for the first time come out to a non-joint band live of ours」.