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take my message to your brother and tell him twice
APOLOGIES FRIENDS FOR THIS IS A ~*~FANGIRL ENTRY~*~
(I also apologize for the terrible writing in it. Unfortunately I really want to get this posted before I go home for Christmas and as such I don't have time to make it coherent! >xD )
So for the past two months I have basically been nine years old again, in that I suspect there are artists other than Michael Jackson on my iPod but I sure haven't heard them in a while. I totally blame being in Japan, where for the bulk of October you could go see Captain EO, the MJ costumes exhibit and the show Thriller Live all in one day. (Also, four fifths of the original Jackson 5 were here last week - and also felt the longest earthquake we've had since I got here - but for some reason both concerts they held were in the middle of the work week?? Someone tell me whether or not I'm bummed that I had to miss them, I can't decide.)
ANYWAY since I keep missing things when they are first announced I didn't see Thriller Live until the end of November. I had absolutely no idea what to expect but in the end I saw it twice because it was TOTALLY AMAZING. Click the cut for super awesome ramblings~~~
Soooo I don't actually know how to categorize Thriller Live? I think it calls itself a musical but it doesn't have a plot. I think it started before MJ's death so I'm not sure that "tribute show" fits properly (even though I'm totally gonna say it in this entry) and "concert" seems somehow off too ... ?? Well anyway it's a show with a live band and five singers and a bunch of dancers and two hours of Michael Jackson music, occasionally supplemented with a bit of background info narration like "btw these next songs are from Off the Wall." I actually was glad to discover that for the most part, this show isn't about impersonating Michael. I mean they definitely borrow his moves and are inspired by his outfits but there's a lot of originality in here too. Only for four of the most iconic songs ("Billie Jean," "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal" and "Dangerous") do they go the impersonation route. And I mean, with those ones yeah, you kinda have to. xD So I think they found a balance that worked really well.
Three things I didn't like before we get into all the things that I did:
· Even though I said above that the show was mostly not about impersonating MJ, there was one singer (I think he might have been an understudy, he was only there the second time I saw the show) who tried to sing like MJ in every song and man I'm sorry but it did not work. Well first off I'm not sure why they put this guy in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" when he could only hold his falsetto for like two words at a time, but I only really got irritated when he sang the beginning of "Man in the Mirror" and a) hiccupped in all the wrong places, and b) pronounced "message" like he usually would.
DUDE IF YOU CAN'T IMPERSONATE MJ PROPERLY JUST USE YOUR OWN VOICE SRSLY
· This show features eleven Jackson 5/Jacksons songs, five songs from Off the Wall, five from Thriller, six from Bad, three from Dangerous, one from HIStory, none from Blood on the Dance Floor and none from Invincible. Whyyyyy is a super awesome celebratory tribute show reinforcing the idea that post-Dangerous MJ isn't worth listening to??? I get that if you only have two hours and by the end of the first hour you've only covered up to Off the Wall, then most of the second hour pretty much has to be taken up by Thriller and Bad, but seriously if they had found a way to at least sneak in "You Rock My World" I wouldn't even be complaining right now. Although why even when I am surrounded by MJ fans do I feel the need to argue in favour of HIStory's awesomeness
HIStory is seriously flawless you guys
Seriously "Tabloid Junkie" is MY JAM
· The show started with a spoken "Those who use a recording device must stand and face the hounds of hell" hahaha awesome. Then the big screen at the back of the stage showed a bunch of pictures of MJ in reverse chronological order, to segue into the Jackson 5 songs. It was perfectly fine except that at one point the audio was a newscaster talking about MJ being rushed to the hospital. Since it was played over pictures from the Thriller era I assume it had to do with the Pepsi commercial accident, but whyyyyy are we starting a super awesome celebratory tribute show with "HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME HE GOT HORRIFICALLY BURNED." God forbid we should ever have a 100% positive Michael Jackson tribute. >:/
ANYWAY, THE SONGS!!
ABC / The Love You Save / I Want You Back
This medley started with a "Ladies and gentlemen ... the Jackson 5!" sort of exciting announcement before the performers playing them came onstage. A young boy played young!MJ and he was surprisingly good!! And colourful '60s sort of cartoon images of the Jackson 5 were shown on the screens around the stage. To be honest I'm not the hugest fan of the Jackson 5, but I do adore "I Want You Back" so it was awesome to see that performed, dance moves and all! It's just a shame there was no giant purple cowboy hat involved. xD
I'll Be There
Oh my god you guys there is a grammatical error in this song that drives me up the wall every time I hear it:
If you should ever find someone new
I know he better be good to you
'Cause if he doesn't
I'll be there
Surely that should be "'cause if he isn't." Surely someone just wasn't paying attention. Or maybe they thought "doesn't" would sound better than "isn't" there? Usually I find grammatical weirdness in songs to be kind of endearing but ugh this one bothers me.
This song was performed by the kid and one of the male vocalists. It was also the first appearance of the female vocalist! Who was totally amazing but that amazingness didn't show itself quite yet.
Show You the Way to Go / This Place Hotel
lololol I suspect it totally shows you how little I know about the Jacksons' discography that this was my first time hearing "Show You the Way to Go." But I like it now!!! And the way the ~brothers~ came back onstage was really cool - striking poses in front of the screen at the back of the stage so they all appeared in silhouette.
"This Place Hotel" is perhaps my favourite Jacksons song, and it was awesome as always although I loled when the guy singing lead introduced it with a "Ladies and gentlemen, this song is called 'This Place Hotel.'" NOT "HEARTBREAK HOTEL" SO DON'T YOU DARE CALL IT THAT apparently? x)
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
So before this song started there was a moment where the guys onstage were all, "Genki, my brother?" "Yeah, my brother, genki!" and I DIED. This and a moment near the end where one of the other singers shouted "Minna tanoshinderu? Motto ookina koe de!!" was the only Japanese in the show, although on both sides of the stage there was a screen that scrolled subtitles for all the narration bits. The lack of Japanese meant that it was kind of a mess when the performers tried to split the audience into groups for this song's big finish, but it was a cheerful mess! haha. Basically when they sang "Let's dance" they wanted one half of the audience to jump and when they sang "Let's shout" they wanted the other half to shout and when they sang "Shake your body down to the ground" they were like "Move your hips like this!" and I was like omg that is not happening BUT I DID JUMP TO THE BEST OF MY JUMPING ABILITIES.
Basically this concert was the most enthusiastically I have ever participated in any concert ever. The next day my shoulders were kiiiiiiiiiiilling me from clapping for two hours straight.
Worth it.
Blame it on the Boogie
The female singer performed this song with a group of dancers that were inexplicably dressed like very colourful nerd stereotypes? Like some of them had huge hot pink glasses and some of them had bright green suspenders, it was confusing. But this song is always fun.
She's Out of My Life
Not a huge fan of this song. I'm not usually a fan of slower songs in general. :/ One of the male vocalists performed this by himself and I mean his performance was perfectly fine but meh.
Off the Wall / Get on the Floor / Rock With You
Off the Wall medley yeahhhhhh. It started with everyone dressed up in work clothes (eg. nurse, police officer, businessperson, hot dog vendor??) but then they all learned to ~live life off the wall~ and changed into super sparkly outfits. I was stoked that this show featured non-music video Off the Wall songs, because I adore that album but tbh the songs that got music videos aren't my favourites. I think of these three songs, my favourite performance was "Get on the Floor." The choreography was simple but looked really neat. They even included the most awesomest part of the song! Well I have no idea how to describe it but I mean the part that starts at 3:05.
Sad to say though that "Workin' Day and Night," my most favourite song from Off the Wall, was only included in this show via a brief snippet of its instrumental. :(
Never Can Say Goodbye
Sung by the female vocalist while standing onstage between two dancers who acted like they were putting on make-up. Not sure what that has to do with the song but ah well, I like seeing songs performed in different ways.
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Feel free to make fun of me for being surprised when the choreography here was kinda sexual. SARAH WHAT DID YOU THINK THIS SONG WAS ABOUT
btw my favourite misheard lyrics ever:
Get on at the bus stop
Don't stop 'til you're getting off
SOUND ADVICE
Can You Feel It
Aaaaaugh you guys how is this song so epic. I loved this performance so much. The dancers all came on with sunglasses and black and gold military jackets over their sparkly Off the Wall outfits, and some of them were waving big red flags. Even the singers had a cool little dance. And at the end they shot silver confetti from both sides of the stage. It was perfect. <3
Intermission
I shall take this moment to talk about my fellow audience members!
· The first time I went was on a Thursday night, and a lot of people looked like they had come straight from work. I was a little bummed because I'd been hoping to see some people dressed up! I shouldn't have worried because once the show started, people pulled sparkly gloves out of their pockets and took their jackets off to reveal appropriate shirts. Mine was the only hot pink one though I must say. >xD Also in this audience was a guy who had a seat somewhere in the back, but kept running up to the front and dancing his heart out. So that was awesome. :D For whatever reason this audience was more into standing up and dancing than the second time I went. Maybe everyone was eager to de-stress from work???
· The second time I went was on a Saturday afternoon, and there was a bigger age range. Sitting in my row was a little boy who was dressed in the complete "Billie Jean" outfit. Awesome. At one point during the show the guy who played MJ in the iconic numbers caught a glimpse of this kid and immediately got a huge smile on his face. It was great. :D
· Both times I went, I was not the only foreigner.
This ... this seriously never happens you guys.
Also, the guy working the merchandise counter was super nice to me!! Well I mean it was just the usual "omg your Japanese is so good" but usually when I go to musicals in Tokyo I feel like I make the employees a little nervous so it was a nice change of pace.
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' / Dancing Machine / P.Y.T.
The second half of the show started with the screens showing a video of someone playing basketball, so I thought the first song was going to be "Jam," but ... no? All right then. Anyway, these three songs were performed as a medley that ended with the "na na na na"s from "P.Y.T." alternating with the chant from "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." It was cool! Although unfortunately "Pretty young things, repeat after me" wasn't quite clear enough to get the audience to actually sing along. x) I was stoked that they did the robot dance from "Dancing Machine" (lol they kind of had to I guess!) but I was even more stoked when the female singer got to lead "P.Y.T.," complete with spoken introduction. You guys, you guys, she was seriously so awesome. Besides having an amazingggg voice, she also did a lot of little MJ moves and she did them really well. Eg. there was much furious hand waving and many twirling index fingers. lol I AM AMAZING AT DESCRIBING DANCE MOVES.
Beat It
Ahhhhhh it made me so so so happy every time the opening second of a song would be enough to get the audience cheering and applauding. <3 This song of course included plenty of fake fighting, but more interesting than that was how the dancers performed it with a new choreography, doing the actual choreography only at the very end. I really liked that! Also, the band spend most of the show hidden behind the big screen (though a couple times during longer instrumental parts it opened to reveal them), but for this song's guitar solo the guitarist got to come out and walk around.
I think it was after this song that two of the singers had an argument about whether or not Bad is as good as Thriller. The singer arguing in favour of Bad was all, "It has a moonwalking gangster, a full-length feature film and nine of its eleven songs became worldwide hits!" lololol oh man I will always and forever prefer Bad over Thriller but I would never use Moonwalker as an argument! xD Anyway they didn't reach an agreement but since this show included more songs from Bad than from Thriller I guess we know who won~~~~ >xD
The Way You Make Me Feel
CONFESSION TIME. Musically, I love this song. It's really fun and catchy with lots of awesome sound effects and when I get it stuck in my head it doesn't leave for weeks. When performed with the slowed down beginning it's especially good. Equally, the video has some fun moments and a lot of awesome dancing and I actually kind of love it until I inevitably remember that if you take out the music, it's basically six minutes of a woman being shouted at, followed, and sexually harassed on a sketchy looking street by a group of guys she doesn't seem to know. Meanwhile, the lyrics totally fit into ideas of women needing to watch how they behave and how they dress because men can't control themselves. "The way you make me feel"? Dude, all she did was walk past you. She didn't make you do anything.
I mention all of this because Thriller Live gave this song to its female singer.
AND IT WAS AWESOME
Is it weird to say that now the song has been redeemed for me somewhat? I mean, clearly just taking problematic songs and giving them to singers of the opposite sex isn't a solution to anything, it doesn't change the fact that they're problematic songs. But instead of this being a performance where a single woman is harassed by a group of guys, it was turned into a performance where the woman is in control. Instead of being expected to watch the guys dance, she was the one leading the dance. And OH MAN did I love seeing a woman do the more aggressive moves associated with this song. I dunno you guys, it was just fantastic to see a woman pelvic thrusting and doing all those other sexual moves from this song's video and having it not be a big deal at all.
I mean like I said, it's still not perfect. But just the thought that at some point someone involved in the making of this musical could have been like, "You know, this song is a little rape culture-y. Let's not have a guy sing it" MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY.
(... too far? :P )
Also, the male dancers came out one by one as the song progressed, and all of them were wearing the outfit that MJ wears in the video. xD hahaha I had too much fun imagining going to this show with someone who had never seen a Michael Jackson video before. They'd be all, "Why's everyone cheering?" and I'd be all "BECAUSE HE'S WEARING A BLUE SHIRT!!!" and they'd be all "..."
I Just Can't Stop Loving You
This is another song I think is just okay. But it was awesome that they included the spoken intro.
Smooth Criminal
HEY SARAH
WHY IS IT THAT THE OBJECTIFICATION IN "THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL" BOTHERS YOU TO THE POINT THAT IT AFFECTS YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE SONG
WHILE MEANWHILE "SMOOTH CRIMINAL" IS ABOUT A WOMAN BEING ATTACKED IN HER OWN HOME
AND WE NEVER FIND OUT WHETHER OR NOT SHE'S OKAY
AND IT'S ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS AND MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME
Well hush because I really don't have an answer for that. :/
Anyway. This song was definitely one of the absolute highlights of this show. This was one of the impersonation songs, and although they had limited space and time, they did their best to recreate the video. And it was so, so amazing to see. I mean, they didn't do things like the crushing of the pool ball or the shooting the guy into the wall, but they did the part where he dances with a woman and then the ladies are all like "mmmmm" (I AM AWESOME AT DESCRIBING THINGS) and they even did the part where the music stops and everyone wanders around asking about Annie until it builds up and the music starts again. I was actually really surprised to see that included!!! It was seriously awesome, although (thankfully) it was rather shortened. And mysteriously they played the opening chord from "Dirty Diana" at the beginning of it.
AND THEN THEY DID THE LEAN
You guys. You guys. I am not kidding when I say that alone was worth the price of admission. It's such a simple move but it seems so difficult to pull off and these guys really did it well. And the audience exploded when they did it. I can't even. It was amazing.
I should mention that in this song, the guy who played MJ only did the dancing. I think he sang in his other songs, but here the singers stood to the side and provided the vocals. I really liked that, because it was like they were separate from the scene but commenting on it. (Although the lyrics and what was happening onstage pretty much had nothing to do with each other.) It also kind of highlights how crazy it is that when MJ was touring, he was ONE GUY doing all of that singing and all of that dancing for two hours straight. I recently read a review of the Bad 25 documentary (which I can't wait to see omg) that used the phrase "Jacksonian level of effort." Well that is a Jacksonian level of effort right there!!
Dirty Diana
HEY SARAH
WHY IS IT THAT THE OBJECTIFICATION IN "THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL" BOTHERS YOU TO THE POINT THAT IT AFFECTS YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE SONG
WHILE MEANWHILE "DIRTY DIANA" FEATURES TWO WOMEN
ONE WHO APPARENTLY HAS NO GOOD QUALITIES
AND ONE WHO ONLY EXISTS TO PROVIDE THE SONG WITH A LAYER OF GUILT
AND IT'S ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS AND MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME
Because seriously, have you seen the video?
I'm pretty sure the move he does at 4:03 renders your entire argument invalid.
Unfortunately this performance was not my favourite. Two of the female dancers came out dressed in black and danced all predatory around the stage but it was kind of meh. And I had no problems with this singer anywhere else in the show, but he just didn't have the power this song needs, or he was trying to imitate MJ too much without actually being able to, or something. Also, at the end he sang "Cry, baby won't you--" where I've always heard "Hey baby, won't you--" Surely it's the latter? One of the characters telling another to "cry" doesn't make sense to me in the context of this song. Especially when in the original the overlapping voice is shouting "Come on!"
Ah well. The guitarist got to come out onstage again. That was cool.
brb watching the video approximately forty times before moving on to the next song.
Dangerous
lolol why would you put "Dangerous" right after "Dirty Diana"
they have exactly the same plot xD
This was the second impersonation song, complete with spoken intro! The back-up dancers included a couple of the female dancers, and I don't think we were really supposed to notice that, but once again I was stoked to see them doing exactly the same moves as the guys. As you can see I am all about gender equality when it comes to synchronized crotch grabbing.
Man what is happening right now. I have had this LJ for eleven years and this is the least Sarah entry I have ever written.
Anyway this performance was awesome. I love the part where he pretends to step on the guy lol lol lol
Man in the Mirror / They Don't Care About Us / Heal the World
This string of songs was prefaced by a short narration about how MJ was a humanitarian as well as a pop star. So it is like the ~message song medley~ I guess!
All I remember about the performance of "Man in the Mirror" is the aforementioned incorrect hiccupping and the photos of famous humanitarians that were shown on the big screen. I guess it was all right otherwise? But "They Don't Care About Us," I am glad to report, was FANTASTIC. There was a really strong guitar part throughout the whole song, instead of just during the bridge, and it added a lot of atmosphere to it. The vocalists alternated lines and the female vocalist sang her lines in like this really hoarse voice that fit them well. The dancers all wore white and gold military-style jackets and a couple of them carried drums that they played as they marched around the stage. It was a little strange seeing a routine that didn't involve the usual arm movements, but man it was still so good. Words like "racism" and "violence" flashed really quickly across the screens until the end of the song, when the word "war" appeared and was soon shattered by the appearance of the word "peace." NOT EXACTLY SUBTLE but imo it worked. After the song finished, everyone onstage held their pose for a couple minutes. lol how very Jacksonian x)
Serious aside: It's really interesting to me to see this song performed in different countries, because while it's a song about racism - a global issue - it seems to me to be a very (North?) American perspective on racism, and I always wonder what people in other countries think about it. One of my Japanese friends here once told me that she read an article about a racial issue in the United States, and even though she understood all the English in it she found it difficult to really get a grip on what it was about, because she didn't have the cultural knowledge for it. Interesting! To be honest, I suspect I have the same problem without even realizing it. I recently read an article about this song that left me thinking, "Wow ... I didn't catch any of that." Add a language barrier on top of that and I really do wonder what people in other countries make of this song. I mean, the very first word in it is "skinhead" - a rather charged word in English but one that is casually used in Japanese simply to refer to someone who is bald. (Something I learned with much surprise during a conversation with a few of my junior high school teachers.)
Man do you like how completely not eloquent my writing is right now. I DON'T.
Anyway. The kid who played young!MJ came back onstage to do the opening and ending lines for "Heal the World." Another spoken intro included, yesssss. I'm not the biggest fan of "Heal the World," but I am kinda happy to be able to say that I have now sung along to it with people from at least four different countries. I mean I kinda think that's the entire point of its existence. Also, the first time I saw this show, near the end of the song a few people in the audience (surprisingly, not including me) were crying.
I'M NOT JOKING.
Billie Jean
Another of the impersonation numbers, and another time when I had way too much fun imagining going to this show with someone who had no idea what any of it was about.
Them: "Why is everyone cheering??"
Me: "BECAUSE THE STAIRS ARE LIGHTING UP WHEN HE STEPS ON THEM DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHINGGGGGGGGG"
Anyway it was awesome, although slightly shortened. And I'm a little disappointed he threw his hat to the side instead of out into the audience at the end.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T WANT TO REPLACE TWO HATS A DAY
THAT'S HOW THE SONG IS DONE
DO IT RIGHT
Thriller
Another impersonation number, although perhaps the loosest one. I think it was mostly based on the video, but without any of the werewolf scenes from the beginning. I didn't really realize it before but man the guy playing MJ must have changed outfits quickly!! This performance was pretty cute, the big screen showed appropriate backdrops (eg. movie theatre, cemetery) and they even had one of the dancers do Ola Ray's part. And of course they had monsters running through the theatre before the iconic dance. I think my favourite bit came the first time I saw the show, when everyone in the audience was standing up (the second audience was more in favour of sitting) and so not only did the monsters run down the aisles, they ran across the seats as well!! Even though I (and everyone else around me who kept looking towards the back of the theatre) could guess that they were coming, I still jumped a little when one landed on the seat right in front of me! xD
Seeing the "Thriller" dance performed live for the first time was not as exciting as I'd hoped it would be, but ah well. It was still cool. x)
Bad
After "Thriller," the youngest singer came back onstage and acted like he was sending text messages, with the (Japanese) texts appearing on the screen: "Do you want to hear more?" and "I can't hear you!" hahaha. Then he went to the screen and spray painted "BAD" onto it in red (or he mimed it and it appeared, lol). WHICH WAS AWESOME. Unfortunately that was kind of the highlight of this song for me ... why does no one ever do the dance from the video?? ;_;
WAIT I LIED the highlight came at the end when they did the call and answer bit ("You're doin' wrong!" "You're doin' wrong!" etc.) from the long version of the video. WHICH WAS AWESOME. I was totally not expecting it!! I love that this show acknowledges the longer versions of a lot of its songs. :D
Black or White
I honestly don't remember anything specific from this D: I think everyone did their bows here? CLEARLY I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED THIS SHOW A THIRD TIME. I think it's interesting though that they went the MJ route of ending the show with a message song, but they chose an energetic one. This is all around a pretty upbeat and energetic show, so it fits!
Smooth Criminal (Reprise) / Thriller (Reprise)
Just short bits from the choruses of each song to send you home feeling good! xD During "Thriller," the audience was instructed to "jump! jump! jump! jump!" so that was fun hahaha. It always cracks me up when I go to shows like this by myself though. It's like as soon as the show is over and the lights come back on you have to pretend like you're all serious and calm and you weren't just jumping along to the music. xD
I don't have much to say in the way of a conclusion, just that while I do have a few little problems with this show, overall I loved it and I am stoked that such an enthusiastic celebration of Michael Jackson's message and music exists. I am even more stoked that this weekend's shows in Osaka have been sold out for ages. xD
I shall now end this post with an awesome video made by 1,000 awesome Japanese fans!
(I also apologize for the terrible writing in it. Unfortunately I really want to get this posted before I go home for Christmas and as such I don't have time to make it coherent! >xD )
So for the past two months I have basically been nine years old again, in that I suspect there are artists other than Michael Jackson on my iPod but I sure haven't heard them in a while. I totally blame being in Japan, where for the bulk of October you could go see Captain EO, the MJ costumes exhibit and the show Thriller Live all in one day. (Also, four fifths of the original Jackson 5 were here last week - and also felt the longest earthquake we've had since I got here - but for some reason both concerts they held were in the middle of the work week?? Someone tell me whether or not I'm bummed that I had to miss them, I can't decide.)
ANYWAY since I keep missing things when they are first announced I didn't see Thriller Live until the end of November. I had absolutely no idea what to expect but in the end I saw it twice because it was TOTALLY AMAZING. Click the cut for super awesome ramblings~~~
Soooo I don't actually know how to categorize Thriller Live? I think it calls itself a musical but it doesn't have a plot. I think it started before MJ's death so I'm not sure that "tribute show" fits properly (even though I'm totally gonna say it in this entry) and "concert" seems somehow off too ... ?? Well anyway it's a show with a live band and five singers and a bunch of dancers and two hours of Michael Jackson music, occasionally supplemented with a bit of background info narration like "btw these next songs are from Off the Wall." I actually was glad to discover that for the most part, this show isn't about impersonating Michael. I mean they definitely borrow his moves and are inspired by his outfits but there's a lot of originality in here too. Only for four of the most iconic songs ("Billie Jean," "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal" and "Dangerous") do they go the impersonation route. And I mean, with those ones yeah, you kinda have to. xD So I think they found a balance that worked really well.
Three things I didn't like before we get into all the things that I did:
· Even though I said above that the show was mostly not about impersonating MJ, there was one singer (I think he might have been an understudy, he was only there the second time I saw the show) who tried to sing like MJ in every song and man I'm sorry but it did not work. Well first off I'm not sure why they put this guy in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" when he could only hold his falsetto for like two words at a time, but I only really got irritated when he sang the beginning of "Man in the Mirror" and a) hiccupped in all the wrong places, and b) pronounced "message" like he usually would.
DUDE IF YOU CAN'T IMPERSONATE MJ PROPERLY JUST USE YOUR OWN VOICE SRSLY
· This show features eleven Jackson 5/Jacksons songs, five songs from Off the Wall, five from Thriller, six from Bad, three from Dangerous, one from HIStory, none from Blood on the Dance Floor and none from Invincible. Whyyyyy is a super awesome celebratory tribute show reinforcing the idea that post-Dangerous MJ isn't worth listening to??? I get that if you only have two hours and by the end of the first hour you've only covered up to Off the Wall, then most of the second hour pretty much has to be taken up by Thriller and Bad, but seriously if they had found a way to at least sneak in "You Rock My World" I wouldn't even be complaining right now. Although why even when I am surrounded by MJ fans do I feel the need to argue in favour of HIStory's awesomeness
HIStory is seriously flawless you guys
Seriously "Tabloid Junkie" is MY JAM
· The show started with a spoken "Those who use a recording device must stand and face the hounds of hell" hahaha awesome. Then the big screen at the back of the stage showed a bunch of pictures of MJ in reverse chronological order, to segue into the Jackson 5 songs. It was perfectly fine except that at one point the audio was a newscaster talking about MJ being rushed to the hospital. Since it was played over pictures from the Thriller era I assume it had to do with the Pepsi commercial accident, but whyyyyy are we starting a super awesome celebratory tribute show with "HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME HE GOT HORRIFICALLY BURNED." God forbid we should ever have a 100% positive Michael Jackson tribute. >:/
ANYWAY, THE SONGS!!
ABC / The Love You Save / I Want You Back
This medley started with a "Ladies and gentlemen ... the Jackson 5!" sort of exciting announcement before the performers playing them came onstage. A young boy played young!MJ and he was surprisingly good!! And colourful '60s sort of cartoon images of the Jackson 5 were shown on the screens around the stage. To be honest I'm not the hugest fan of the Jackson 5, but I do adore "I Want You Back" so it was awesome to see that performed, dance moves and all! It's just a shame there was no giant purple cowboy hat involved. xD
I'll Be There
Oh my god you guys there is a grammatical error in this song that drives me up the wall every time I hear it:
If you should ever find someone new
I know he better be good to you
'Cause if he doesn't
I'll be there
Surely that should be "'cause if he isn't." Surely someone just wasn't paying attention. Or maybe they thought "doesn't" would sound better than "isn't" there? Usually I find grammatical weirdness in songs to be kind of endearing but ugh this one bothers me.
This song was performed by the kid and one of the male vocalists. It was also the first appearance of the female vocalist! Who was totally amazing but that amazingness didn't show itself quite yet.
Show You the Way to Go / This Place Hotel
lololol I suspect it totally shows you how little I know about the Jacksons' discography that this was my first time hearing "Show You the Way to Go." But I like it now!!! And the way the ~brothers~ came back onstage was really cool - striking poses in front of the screen at the back of the stage so they all appeared in silhouette.
"This Place Hotel" is perhaps my favourite Jacksons song, and it was awesome as always although I loled when the guy singing lead introduced it with a "Ladies and gentlemen, this song is called 'This Place Hotel.'" NOT "HEARTBREAK HOTEL" SO DON'T YOU DARE CALL IT THAT apparently? x)
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
So before this song started there was a moment where the guys onstage were all, "Genki, my brother?" "Yeah, my brother, genki!" and I DIED. This and a moment near the end where one of the other singers shouted "Minna tanoshinderu? Motto ookina koe de!!" was the only Japanese in the show, although on both sides of the stage there was a screen that scrolled subtitles for all the narration bits. The lack of Japanese meant that it was kind of a mess when the performers tried to split the audience into groups for this song's big finish, but it was a cheerful mess! haha. Basically when they sang "Let's dance" they wanted one half of the audience to jump and when they sang "Let's shout" they wanted the other half to shout and when they sang "Shake your body down to the ground" they were like "Move your hips like this!" and I was like omg that is not happening BUT I DID JUMP TO THE BEST OF MY JUMPING ABILITIES.
Basically this concert was the most enthusiastically I have ever participated in any concert ever. The next day my shoulders were kiiiiiiiiiiilling me from clapping for two hours straight.
Worth it.
Blame it on the Boogie
The female singer performed this song with a group of dancers that were inexplicably dressed like very colourful nerd stereotypes? Like some of them had huge hot pink glasses and some of them had bright green suspenders, it was confusing. But this song is always fun.
She's Out of My Life
Not a huge fan of this song. I'm not usually a fan of slower songs in general. :/ One of the male vocalists performed this by himself and I mean his performance was perfectly fine but meh.
Off the Wall / Get on the Floor / Rock With You
Off the Wall medley yeahhhhhh. It started with everyone dressed up in work clothes (eg. nurse, police officer, businessperson, hot dog vendor??) but then they all learned to ~live life off the wall~ and changed into super sparkly outfits. I was stoked that this show featured non-music video Off the Wall songs, because I adore that album but tbh the songs that got music videos aren't my favourites. I think of these three songs, my favourite performance was "Get on the Floor." The choreography was simple but looked really neat. They even included the most awesomest part of the song! Well I have no idea how to describe it but I mean the part that starts at 3:05.
Sad to say though that "Workin' Day and Night," my most favourite song from Off the Wall, was only included in this show via a brief snippet of its instrumental. :(
Never Can Say Goodbye
Sung by the female vocalist while standing onstage between two dancers who acted like they were putting on make-up. Not sure what that has to do with the song but ah well, I like seeing songs performed in different ways.
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Feel free to make fun of me for being surprised when the choreography here was kinda sexual. SARAH WHAT DID YOU THINK THIS SONG WAS ABOUT
btw my favourite misheard lyrics ever:
Get on at the bus stop
Don't stop 'til you're getting off
SOUND ADVICE
Can You Feel It
Aaaaaugh you guys how is this song so epic. I loved this performance so much. The dancers all came on with sunglasses and black and gold military jackets over their sparkly Off the Wall outfits, and some of them were waving big red flags. Even the singers had a cool little dance. And at the end they shot silver confetti from both sides of the stage. It was perfect. <3
Intermission
I shall take this moment to talk about my fellow audience members!
· The first time I went was on a Thursday night, and a lot of people looked like they had come straight from work. I was a little bummed because I'd been hoping to see some people dressed up! I shouldn't have worried because once the show started, people pulled sparkly gloves out of their pockets and took their jackets off to reveal appropriate shirts. Mine was the only hot pink one though I must say. >xD Also in this audience was a guy who had a seat somewhere in the back, but kept running up to the front and dancing his heart out. So that was awesome. :D For whatever reason this audience was more into standing up and dancing than the second time I went. Maybe everyone was eager to de-stress from work???
· The second time I went was on a Saturday afternoon, and there was a bigger age range. Sitting in my row was a little boy who was dressed in the complete "Billie Jean" outfit. Awesome. At one point during the show the guy who played MJ in the iconic numbers caught a glimpse of this kid and immediately got a huge smile on his face. It was great. :D
· Both times I went, I was not the only foreigner.
This ... this seriously never happens you guys.
Also, the guy working the merchandise counter was super nice to me!! Well I mean it was just the usual "omg your Japanese is so good" but usually when I go to musicals in Tokyo I feel like I make the employees a little nervous so it was a nice change of pace.
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' / Dancing Machine / P.Y.T.
The second half of the show started with the screens showing a video of someone playing basketball, so I thought the first song was going to be "Jam," but ... no? All right then. Anyway, these three songs were performed as a medley that ended with the "na na na na"s from "P.Y.T." alternating with the chant from "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." It was cool! Although unfortunately "Pretty young things, repeat after me" wasn't quite clear enough to get the audience to actually sing along. x) I was stoked that they did the robot dance from "Dancing Machine" (lol they kind of had to I guess!) but I was even more stoked when the female singer got to lead "P.Y.T.," complete with spoken introduction. You guys, you guys, she was seriously so awesome. Besides having an amazingggg voice, she also did a lot of little MJ moves and she did them really well. Eg. there was much furious hand waving and many twirling index fingers. lol I AM AMAZING AT DESCRIBING DANCE MOVES.
Beat It
Ahhhhhh it made me so so so happy every time the opening second of a song would be enough to get the audience cheering and applauding. <3 This song of course included plenty of fake fighting, but more interesting than that was how the dancers performed it with a new choreography, doing the actual choreography only at the very end. I really liked that! Also, the band spend most of the show hidden behind the big screen (though a couple times during longer instrumental parts it opened to reveal them), but for this song's guitar solo the guitarist got to come out and walk around.
I think it was after this song that two of the singers had an argument about whether or not Bad is as good as Thriller. The singer arguing in favour of Bad was all, "It has a moonwalking gangster, a full-length feature film and nine of its eleven songs became worldwide hits!" lololol oh man I will always and forever prefer Bad over Thriller but I would never use Moonwalker as an argument! xD Anyway they didn't reach an agreement but since this show included more songs from Bad than from Thriller I guess we know who won~~~~ >xD
The Way You Make Me Feel
CONFESSION TIME. Musically, I love this song. It's really fun and catchy with lots of awesome sound effects and when I get it stuck in my head it doesn't leave for weeks. When performed with the slowed down beginning it's especially good. Equally, the video has some fun moments and a lot of awesome dancing and I actually kind of love it until I inevitably remember that if you take out the music, it's basically six minutes of a woman being shouted at, followed, and sexually harassed on a sketchy looking street by a group of guys she doesn't seem to know. Meanwhile, the lyrics totally fit into ideas of women needing to watch how they behave and how they dress because men can't control themselves. "The way you make me feel"? Dude, all she did was walk past you. She didn't make you do anything.
I mention all of this because Thriller Live gave this song to its female singer.
AND IT WAS AWESOME
Is it weird to say that now the song has been redeemed for me somewhat? I mean, clearly just taking problematic songs and giving them to singers of the opposite sex isn't a solution to anything, it doesn't change the fact that they're problematic songs. But instead of this being a performance where a single woman is harassed by a group of guys, it was turned into a performance where the woman is in control. Instead of being expected to watch the guys dance, she was the one leading the dance. And OH MAN did I love seeing a woman do the more aggressive moves associated with this song. I dunno you guys, it was just fantastic to see a woman pelvic thrusting and doing all those other sexual moves from this song's video and having it not be a big deal at all.
I mean like I said, it's still not perfect. But just the thought that at some point someone involved in the making of this musical could have been like, "You know, this song is a little rape culture-y. Let's not have a guy sing it" MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY.
(... too far? :P )
Also, the male dancers came out one by one as the song progressed, and all of them were wearing the outfit that MJ wears in the video. xD hahaha I had too much fun imagining going to this show with someone who had never seen a Michael Jackson video before. They'd be all, "Why's everyone cheering?" and I'd be all "BECAUSE HE'S WEARING A BLUE SHIRT!!!" and they'd be all "..."
I Just Can't Stop Loving You
This is another song I think is just okay. But it was awesome that they included the spoken intro.
Smooth Criminal
HEY SARAH
WHY IS IT THAT THE OBJECTIFICATION IN "THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL" BOTHERS YOU TO THE POINT THAT IT AFFECTS YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE SONG
WHILE MEANWHILE "SMOOTH CRIMINAL" IS ABOUT A WOMAN BEING ATTACKED IN HER OWN HOME
AND WE NEVER FIND OUT WHETHER OR NOT SHE'S OKAY
AND IT'S ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS AND MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME
Well hush because I really don't have an answer for that. :/
Anyway. This song was definitely one of the absolute highlights of this show. This was one of the impersonation songs, and although they had limited space and time, they did their best to recreate the video. And it was so, so amazing to see. I mean, they didn't do things like the crushing of the pool ball or the shooting the guy into the wall, but they did the part where he dances with a woman and then the ladies are all like "mmmmm" (I AM AWESOME AT DESCRIBING THINGS) and they even did the part where the music stops and everyone wanders around asking about Annie until it builds up and the music starts again. I was actually really surprised to see that included!!! It was seriously awesome, although (thankfully) it was rather shortened. And mysteriously they played the opening chord from "Dirty Diana" at the beginning of it.
AND THEN THEY DID THE LEAN
You guys. You guys. I am not kidding when I say that alone was worth the price of admission. It's such a simple move but it seems so difficult to pull off and these guys really did it well. And the audience exploded when they did it. I can't even. It was amazing.
I should mention that in this song, the guy who played MJ only did the dancing. I think he sang in his other songs, but here the singers stood to the side and provided the vocals. I really liked that, because it was like they were separate from the scene but commenting on it. (Although the lyrics and what was happening onstage pretty much had nothing to do with each other.) It also kind of highlights how crazy it is that when MJ was touring, he was ONE GUY doing all of that singing and all of that dancing for two hours straight. I recently read a review of the Bad 25 documentary (which I can't wait to see omg) that used the phrase "Jacksonian level of effort." Well that is a Jacksonian level of effort right there!!
Dirty Diana
HEY SARAH
WHY IS IT THAT THE OBJECTIFICATION IN "THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL" BOTHERS YOU TO THE POINT THAT IT AFFECTS YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE SONG
WHILE MEANWHILE "DIRTY DIANA" FEATURES TWO WOMEN
ONE WHO APPARENTLY HAS NO GOOD QUALITIES
AND ONE WHO ONLY EXISTS TO PROVIDE THE SONG WITH A LAYER OF GUILT
AND IT'S ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS AND MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME
Because seriously, have you seen the video?
I'm pretty sure the move he does at 4:03 renders your entire argument invalid.
Unfortunately this performance was not my favourite. Two of the female dancers came out dressed in black and danced all predatory around the stage but it was kind of meh. And I had no problems with this singer anywhere else in the show, but he just didn't have the power this song needs, or he was trying to imitate MJ too much without actually being able to, or something. Also, at the end he sang "Cry, baby won't you--" where I've always heard "Hey baby, won't you--" Surely it's the latter? One of the characters telling another to "cry" doesn't make sense to me in the context of this song. Especially when in the original the overlapping voice is shouting "Come on!"
Ah well. The guitarist got to come out onstage again. That was cool.
brb watching the video approximately forty times before moving on to the next song.
Dangerous
lolol why would you put "Dangerous" right after "Dirty Diana"
they have exactly the same plot xD
This was the second impersonation song, complete with spoken intro! The back-up dancers included a couple of the female dancers, and I don't think we were really supposed to notice that, but once again I was stoked to see them doing exactly the same moves as the guys. As you can see I am all about gender equality when it comes to synchronized crotch grabbing.
Man what is happening right now. I have had this LJ for eleven years and this is the least Sarah entry I have ever written.
Anyway this performance was awesome. I love the part where he pretends to step on the guy lol lol lol
Man in the Mirror / They Don't Care About Us / Heal the World
This string of songs was prefaced by a short narration about how MJ was a humanitarian as well as a pop star. So it is like the ~message song medley~ I guess!
All I remember about the performance of "Man in the Mirror" is the aforementioned incorrect hiccupping and the photos of famous humanitarians that were shown on the big screen. I guess it was all right otherwise? But "They Don't Care About Us," I am glad to report, was FANTASTIC. There was a really strong guitar part throughout the whole song, instead of just during the bridge, and it added a lot of atmosphere to it. The vocalists alternated lines and the female vocalist sang her lines in like this really hoarse voice that fit them well. The dancers all wore white and gold military-style jackets and a couple of them carried drums that they played as they marched around the stage. It was a little strange seeing a routine that didn't involve the usual arm movements, but man it was still so good. Words like "racism" and "violence" flashed really quickly across the screens until the end of the song, when the word "war" appeared and was soon shattered by the appearance of the word "peace." NOT EXACTLY SUBTLE but imo it worked. After the song finished, everyone onstage held their pose for a couple minutes. lol how very Jacksonian x)
Serious aside: It's really interesting to me to see this song performed in different countries, because while it's a song about racism - a global issue - it seems to me to be a very (North?) American perspective on racism, and I always wonder what people in other countries think about it. One of my Japanese friends here once told me that she read an article about a racial issue in the United States, and even though she understood all the English in it she found it difficult to really get a grip on what it was about, because she didn't have the cultural knowledge for it. Interesting! To be honest, I suspect I have the same problem without even realizing it. I recently read an article about this song that left me thinking, "Wow ... I didn't catch any of that." Add a language barrier on top of that and I really do wonder what people in other countries make of this song. I mean, the very first word in it is "skinhead" - a rather charged word in English but one that is casually used in Japanese simply to refer to someone who is bald. (Something I learned with much surprise during a conversation with a few of my junior high school teachers.)
Man do you like how completely not eloquent my writing is right now. I DON'T.
Anyway. The kid who played young!MJ came back onstage to do the opening and ending lines for "Heal the World." Another spoken intro included, yesssss. I'm not the biggest fan of "Heal the World," but I am kinda happy to be able to say that I have now sung along to it with people from at least four different countries. I mean I kinda think that's the entire point of its existence. Also, the first time I saw this show, near the end of the song a few people in the audience (surprisingly, not including me) were crying.
I'M NOT JOKING.
Billie Jean
Another of the impersonation numbers, and another time when I had way too much fun imagining going to this show with someone who had no idea what any of it was about.
Them: "Why is everyone cheering??"
Me: "BECAUSE THE STAIRS ARE LIGHTING UP WHEN HE STEPS ON THEM DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHINGGGGGGGGG"
Anyway it was awesome, although slightly shortened. And I'm a little disappointed he threw his hat to the side instead of out into the audience at the end.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T WANT TO REPLACE TWO HATS A DAY
THAT'S HOW THE SONG IS DONE
DO IT RIGHT
Thriller
Another impersonation number, although perhaps the loosest one. I think it was mostly based on the video, but without any of the werewolf scenes from the beginning. I didn't really realize it before but man the guy playing MJ must have changed outfits quickly!! This performance was pretty cute, the big screen showed appropriate backdrops (eg. movie theatre, cemetery) and they even had one of the dancers do Ola Ray's part. And of course they had monsters running through the theatre before the iconic dance. I think my favourite bit came the first time I saw the show, when everyone in the audience was standing up (the second audience was more in favour of sitting) and so not only did the monsters run down the aisles, they ran across the seats as well!! Even though I (and everyone else around me who kept looking towards the back of the theatre) could guess that they were coming, I still jumped a little when one landed on the seat right in front of me! xD
Seeing the "Thriller" dance performed live for the first time was not as exciting as I'd hoped it would be, but ah well. It was still cool. x)
Bad
After "Thriller," the youngest singer came back onstage and acted like he was sending text messages, with the (Japanese) texts appearing on the screen: "Do you want to hear more?" and "I can't hear you!" hahaha. Then he went to the screen and spray painted "BAD" onto it in red (or he mimed it and it appeared, lol). WHICH WAS AWESOME. Unfortunately that was kind of the highlight of this song for me ... why does no one ever do the dance from the video?? ;_;
WAIT I LIED the highlight came at the end when they did the call and answer bit ("You're doin' wrong!" "You're doin' wrong!" etc.) from the long version of the video. WHICH WAS AWESOME. I was totally not expecting it!! I love that this show acknowledges the longer versions of a lot of its songs. :D
Black or White
I honestly don't remember anything specific from this D: I think everyone did their bows here? CLEARLY I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED THIS SHOW A THIRD TIME. I think it's interesting though that they went the MJ route of ending the show with a message song, but they chose an energetic one. This is all around a pretty upbeat and energetic show, so it fits!
Smooth Criminal (Reprise) / Thriller (Reprise)
Just short bits from the choruses of each song to send you home feeling good! xD During "Thriller," the audience was instructed to "jump! jump! jump! jump!" so that was fun hahaha. It always cracks me up when I go to shows like this by myself though. It's like as soon as the show is over and the lights come back on you have to pretend like you're all serious and calm and you weren't just jumping along to the music. xD
I don't have much to say in the way of a conclusion, just that while I do have a few little problems with this show, overall I loved it and I am stoked that such an enthusiastic celebration of Michael Jackson's message and music exists. I am even more stoked that this weekend's shows in Osaka have been sold out for ages. xD
I shall now end this post with an awesome video made by 1,000 awesome Japanese fans!