Legend "1997"

Well, we left our last show on a bit of cliffhanger. A giant Virgin Mary appeared, the girls ascended to Heaven, and I hinted that, much like the resurrection of Christ, all four would be back.
This show is held at Makuhari Messe, which makes it BABYMETAL's first solo arena show! This is also a venue we'll be back to more than any other, so I'm pretty attached to it.
And finaly -- Happy birthday, Su-Metal! She turned 16 the day before this show. Her birthday is 20/12, so close to Christmas. This will be relevant in the funniest way possible later.

Thoughts During:

• Legend 1999 closed with Ave Maria, Legend 1997 opens with it
• The Virgin Mary is SO big. I cannot estimate size to save my life, but it's easily 20 ft tall

• The cloaked Babybones are back with their candles, this time being lead by Moa and Yui in lovely white robes and holding neck braces (the Babybones are in black robes, which is good, because they have unfortunately pointy hoods)
• Moa and Yui ascend the stairs to present the neck braces to Mary
• And down they go into the stage
• And up comes Su! Wearing a neck brace and very high up. We'll get into this more in the next two gigs, but I always get very nervous when the girls are high up
• And then we go straight into Headbanger Night of 15 Mix! I love this version, so it's very exciting to see this again
• The staging is also good -- you have the four Babybones dancers headbanging already, and then Moa and Yui pop up in the middle and start dancing once Su (still up high with Mary) starts singing
• Then Su rips off her neck brace, throws it away, and is lowered down to the top of the stairs, which means I don't have to worry about her falling off the platform anymore
• And there's the person in the Pikachu kigurumi! They're a common sight in the crowd shots of these early gigs
• I really love these costumes! They're still not quite the classic BABYMETAL style, but they're really leaning in to the armour look, which I love, and the tiered skirts on Moa and Yui are very cute. And I love the pauldrons!

• Su says "Seitansei" in the Iine audience call and response here -- she usually says the name of the venue. It's also very cute that when she does, both Moa and Yui do jazz hands in her direction
• I also like that when Yui goes behind Su, she does this big jump before they start the Iine train
• It's time for our only cover of the gig! It's Tamashii no Rufuran and I think it's their best one-off cover. If they released it I would buy it on vinyl and pay to have it shipped from Japan, that's how much I like it. I also desperately want a karaoke version of it
• Also I love Su's little dance for it
• The crowd are also really into it -- they're chanting along, there's crowdsurfers
• Lesser bands might have downplayed having a giant Mother of Christ as their sole set dressing -- I need you to know that BABYMETAL have lit her up like a disco ball
• The Disco Mary, as I've insisted on calling her, despite people begging me to stop

• Su is so cute in Uki Uki Midnight
• Lore has Su joining in with Moa and Yui's mischief and I want to make fun of the crowd for their audible outrage, but Friend-Metal and I did both gasp so I feel like I'm in a glass house here
• Speaking of, this is Gimme Chocolate debut! It's always surprising that this song comes out relatively late, compared to things like Doki Doki Morning or Iine, but of course this is the gig that the music video used footage for (yes, Disco Mary in full view), so this is also where they went viral in the west. And if they hadn't, I might never have heard of them, and I would never have gone to see them live, and I might not have gone insane in this specific way, and we might never have ended up here on this beautiful web 1.0 style webbed site. Try not to dwell on it, it's too horrific to imagine
• Circle pit!
• During the IDZ fight choreo, I thought "Jesus, they're fighting under the Virgin Mary" and inexplicably gained an Irish accent

• Onedari Daikusen with a live band for the first time!
• Now, I'm sure you thought the Disco Mary was the funniest thing they do this show, but then Moa and Yui pop out dressed like this

• Santa coats! They're wearing little Santa coats with black fur accents instead of white, and the Babybones dancers have matching Santa hats! I told you it being close to Christmas would be relevant later and you doubted me!
• They must have been boiling in those coats though
• Moa and Yui get to do a little crowd interaction to get the audience hyped up before Catch Me If You Can -- I think their first scripted interaction?
• I like it when Moa and Yui talk to us
• Headbanger fire extinguishers again! Once again, Moa is aiming directly for the audience and frankly good for her. I love it when Moa bullies the crowd and I think she should do it more

• They keep making pre-encore lore sound like they're breaking up
• Akatsuki (unfinished ver.)! This is a piano version, so her voice is front and centre and holy shit, what a voice
• More lore! We learn that this whole show has been depicting Su shedding her mortal form and becoming a goddess
• We also see some very cool symbols and learn of the prophesied DOOMSDAY -- apparently there's not much time left!
• And we're ending with BABYMETAL DEATH
• I love Mikio's face here! He looks so pleasantly bemused at the reaction they're getting
• Well, friends, you're never gonna believe this, but they're they're crucifying Su again
• This is the most elaborate crucifixation they've ever done. Su collapses, and the robed Babybones priests lift her back to her feet and lead her to the front of the stage, while the Babybones band walk forward carrying a Su sized cross, with neck brace attached
• They tie her limp corpse to the cross with actual rope, and Moa and Yui put the neck brace on her. Moa also sweeps Su's ponytail out of her face, which was sweet
• Now the Babybones lift the cross, Su and all and carry her to the top of the stairs and Moa and Yui start kowtowing, then the Babybones, and basically the entire audience

• Yes, there is an entire arena worshipping a crucified 16-year-old while chanting "Death! Death! Death!" This is a normal band with normal performances
• Then they behead the Virgin Mary!
• We're going to Budokan, baybeeeeee!

Thoughts After:

This was a really good crowd! They were really up for it the whole gig, but I particularly enjoyed the reactions to the ending announcements.
And what a set of announcements! BABYMETAL first album coming in two months! Given that they've existed for three years at this point, finally getting an album must have been really exciting. The crowd are certainly reacting that way!
But even more excitingly, we're going to Budokan for two shows! That'll be our next two write-ups, so I'll hold my thoughts
As usual, where the pre-ending lore was all "it's the end!', the actual post-show lore is all "it's the beginning!' This never stops being stressful and hilarious for me

Number of times I've said X

• She's/They're so talented! x12
• That fucking baseline x1
• Takayoshi my beloved x1
• Fire near the children! x3
• Why do they make announcements like this? x3

Setlist:

• Ave Maria
• Headbanger -- Night of 15 Mix
• Doki Doki Morning
• Iine
• Tamashii no Rufuran
• Uki Uki Midnight
• Gimme Chocolate!!
• Kimi to Anime Ga Mitai
• Megitsune
• Ijime, Dame, Zettai
• Onedari Daisakusen
• Catch Me If You Can
• Headbanger!!!!
• Akatsuki (Unfinished ver.)
• BABYMETAL DEATH

Kami Band lineup:

• Fujioka Mikio -- Guitar
• Leda Cygnus -- Guitar
• BOH -- Bass
• Aoyama Hideki -- Drums