Given that there isn’t a lot of news right now, I feel that the LEGEND M Live Viewings happening this weekend is a good excuse to post this old report I made of a Live Viewing in late 2017 since I know a lot of people wonder how these actually are.
Below is the original text posted to Reddit on October 16th, 2017.
You can also read the rest of that day (including the after-party) here. It also has links to the rest of my trip and other BABYMETAL trips, in case you are interested.
Ok, so since this was my first time at a Live Viewing, and it seems like a lot of people are interested to know what its like, so I’ll do a “short” report 🙂 (note: I can’t do short, sorry)
Well, first of all, we arrived at the venue around 4:15PM (almost 2 hours before the doors opened), and there was only a few people (maximum 20). I must also mention it was (and still hasn’t stopped since early Sunday) raining. The atmosphere was clearly different than the other 2 days, you could even see it in the amount of staff, you could count them by hand. We got our tickets that we had won in the lottery and headed to eat and rest close in Universal City.
We went back arriving when they opened, at 6PM. Fearing they would not have lockers, we left our stuff in the station locker. This was later seen as unnecessary since there were plenty of lockers in the venue, more on this later.
We went in and paid 500yen for our drinks (it was mandatory). They give you a token to exchange. Today, they did not ask for The One ID verification. In the entrance area, they had the “bar” to get drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), they had another area where they sold the “merch” (it was The One tee, or the Tri-Icon Tee (Live Viewing ver. The only difference is on the back it says “Live Viewing DEATH”). Also, an area with BM Deloreans, and one where they gave the seat ticket holders their “special gift”. It was the Trip-Icon Hand Towel, but this one is vertical rather than horizontal (does not mention Live Viewing, though).
We found several empty lockers inside and left few extra things. We went into the show area, they had these bars every few feet, so the area was even smaller than the pits for the Osaka shows (these polls were there in previous Live Viewings). Also, I saw a picture of the Tokyo LV where they had a female pit area in the front.
Talking to people there, most had never been to a Live Viewing before, and it seems lots of people came here because they couldn’t get tickets for the real shows. As for the amount of people, there weren’t a lot… at all. The back of the floor was completely empty, and honestly, all the people were on the polls (only 1 line of people per section). By the time the show started, the seats in the balcony were pretty much full, but the pit area was still very much empty other than the first 2 areas. So I can’t really see it being “Sold-Out”, as they said.
The Show:
The video started even before the lights went out, they had a 1-2 minute video of the whole arena. As the arena lights went out, so did ours.
So, people shouldn’t expect a show level atmosphere, of course. But I can say that it was more than I expected. It started pretty easy, some low voiced shouts and moving our arms, but as time went on, we started jumping and shouting louder. By the time IDZ came up, a group on one side in the front was like: “Wall of Death?” People didn’t know if we should do it, but in the end, we did. We moshed for lots of IDZ and RoR, and during Head banger we all got down on the floor. I guess it depends on the people around you, like the amount of mashing during a real show.
As for the video, lots of great shots: close-ups, wide-angle views, Kami, and more! I can see this becoming the favorite for many people. I do think, however, that there could be some improvement. They seem to have missed the Gimme Choco on-screen effects (unless I missed them myself), and I think a few more wide shots showing the amazing lighting during several parts of the show would do good (seriously, one of the best parts of the shows). Of course, they only had 24 hours (actually less) to edit it, so I’m sure they will work on it and it will be more than amazing.
As some wanted to know, the foreigner pit area appeared a couple of times (we were at the very back, on the right, just in front of the cameras). We were showed 2~ seconds during Haed banger when we were all on the floor.
Which song played as we left? From Dusk Till Dawn, of course…
Sadly, this is the end of the BABYMETAL portion of my trip, but I had so much fun, I will cherish these moments forever. Full show/trip report after I return. Good luck with your travels to those heading back.
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