MTV81 FEATURE: RE:IDOL PARADE Was All About the Vibes
By: Patrick Macias
If you aren’t already someone possessed of a mind flexible enough to process Japanese idol performers, idol music and their fans, then the recent spectacle known as RE:IDOL PARADE (held Sat/13 at Daikanyama LOOP as part of THE BIG PARADE) might not have offered any big breakthroughs.
After all, when faced with the stark reality of a room full of male fans singing and dancing along with nine different groupsof young female performers on stage, it is easy to make a lot of hasty (and many times incorrect) assumptions about what they think is going on.
Maybe that’s why, as someone who regularly finds himself at idol events in Tokyo (either for fun or on assignment), I try and navigate the headspace from the perspective of a visitor from another planet – another dimension even – where moral judgments do not, and cannot, apply. Taken from this angle, an event like RE:IDOL PARADE is all about energy, specifically energy transference. The performers hype up the audience, who then broadcast the vibe back to the stage. A circuit is formed, and a heightened state of being results. No, really. Trust me on this.
If the only way you’ve experienced idol culture is through music videos or still images, that’s not the whole story. It’s only in the act of live performance – singing and dancing – that the full power is revealed via song and dance.
Do you really need someone to explain song and dance to you? Because that’s what idol events like RE:IDOL PARADE really come down to, regardless of age or gender. The big variable is the angle of attack. Will the next act to hit the stage be an EDM idol? A three girl rumba? A solo act? An entire troupe of intrepid performers in double digits? The three-and-a half -hour presentation that was RE:IDOL PARADE hedged bets by offering a bit of all of the above…
[Left] DaisukI / [Right] Negaigoto
First up on the official bill was DaisukI, three girls who struck the stage at what seemed like 200 miles per hour, and then sustained that level of engagement for three songs. They went wild; the audience went wild in return, and on and on it went.
Up next were four girls in black dresses known as Negaigoto.Looking back on my notes later, I didn’t register much about them except for the word, “wild dancing,” which may not say much for their singing chops or musical prowess, but things could have been a lot worse (i.e. imagine a world without “wild dancing”).
[Left] Ultragirl / [Right] POWER SPOT
On the cavalcade after were a group called Ultragirl: five members in trendy tartan check who dealt in the wild hyper Akihabara-ready idol pop music that seems to be stock in trade these days.
Then came POWER SPOT, decked out in dance-kei fashion and matching shirts with the word “Curiosity” written on them. Their songs were less like simple pop tunes and more like epic idol symphonies accompanied with much bass slapping and a real drummer sound on the pre-recorded track.
[Left] Narumi Takiguchi / [Right] dela
The only idol on the bill I had seen before libe, Narumi Takiguchi, arrived on stage next. Said to be one of the hard working idols in the biz. Backed up by two twin vogue dancers, Takiguchi effortlessly did her thing like a pro. What’s most striking about Takiguchi is the quality of her music: solid EDM tracks that would not sound out of place in a “real” club setting, some of it written and produced by the minds behind neo-cyberpunk group VALKILLY.
Next up was dela, an idol group from Nagoya of epic proportions offering 9 girls in all onstage at once, decked out in historically-inspired “show biz ninja” attire. The girls sang in unison, and seem to have mastered the “one hand on hip, one hand on mic” style of performance. It was a pretty slick package that seemed like it could have come from the 1980s, 1990s, or the 2000s, making them the most classic, fundamentalist, idol act featured at RE:IDOL PARADE.
CANDY GO! GO!
Finally, the headliners arrived on stage… I’d never heard of Candy Go! Go! before, but the audience clearly had, as many of the guys showed their support via identical orange t-shirts with the group’s logo emblazoned on them. Imagine eight girls in black tops, daisy dukes, and knee high leather boots, getting sweaty and crazy to a big stadium rock sound.
And thus did the afternoon session of RE:IDOL PARADE end in a hail of fist pumping and chants of “HEY HEY HEY HEY” from performers and audience alike. For me, it was time to stumble out into the afternoon sun, but for the idols there was time only for a quick break before doing it all over again for the evening show. It was enough to make you wonder, “Where do they get the energy”?
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