JPLEX Vol. 1: Super Anisong Live! – FLOW

I was very excited when JPLEX announced that they were bring in FLOW to have a concert in Singapore, not just because I was a fan of the band but also because I can finally afford to go to a concert since I am working full-time. And boy, was it an AWESOME experience…

FLOW is a five-member Japanese rock band signed under Sony Music Japan’s Ki/oon Records, which also has artists like L’arc-en-Ciel, Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Home Made Kazoku in their stable. FLOW consists of two vocalists, Keigo Hayashi and Koshi Asakawa, guitarist Takeshi Asakawa, bassists Yasutaro Goto and drummer Hiroshi Iwasaki. They came to Singapore together with J-pop band Angela as part of JPLEX – Japan Entertainment Platform organised by SOZO at Republic Polytechnic (RP).

Getting a seat in the front row of a rock concert is usually awesome (albeit at RP’s Republic Cultural Centre) but as Edward can testify, it is also an “eardrum-shattering” experience. Before the first song had even ended, I was likely already half-deaf. That said, FLOW definitely knew how to work up the crowd. Starting with the Naruto opening song, Re:member (well, either that or Sign, can’t really remember for some reason), FLOW went through their repertoire of anime songs, including my personal favourite, Days (first OP theme for Eureka Seven) and Colors (first OP theme for Code Geass). Other songs they performed include on of their latest singles, Tabidachi Grafitti and Code Geass R2′s second opening theme, World End.

One of the reasons I really enjoyed the concert (as did the most of the rest of the audience I am sure) was FLOW’s ability to energise the crowd. I think most of us in the front row were “encouraged” to stand due to those in the back rows but after that, it was FLOW’s energetic and enthusiastic performance which kept us standing and jumping. Songs like World End and their cover of the Siam Shade song, Junjou no Kanjou , kept the crown on their feet. And they also went out on a high, with their first anisong, Naruto’s fourth opening theme, Go!!!, before coming back on stage for their final song, Around the World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epRj_FmH888

If you’re wondering, we Singaporean fans also waved in unison with Keigo and Koshi when they performed the song…

If there really had to be one negative thing to say about their concert in Singapore was that there were no surprises. Willis, a friend who came to the concert with me, said that they performed as was expected of them and unfortunately, nothing more. Considering that its not everyday that a well-known Japanese rock band will pop into Singapore to perform, I guess Willis does have a point. While I am sure most, if not all of us left the concert satisfied, perhaps there was nothing particularly unique or special about that performance to say: “Wow, that was something we’ll never usually see at a concert” (a recent anisong example mentioned by Willis was the May’n / Yoshiki Fukuyama unplugged duet of Diamond Crevasse at AFA 09 – which was, of course, totally awesome).

That said, I can probably safely say that most of us left the concert hall on an awesome, for lack of a better word, high. Standard tier (the high-end S$98 tickets) concert-goers also got something to remember the concert by, a JPLEX-FLOW poster autographed by all five members of the band.

Totally cool, eh?

Really hope that FLOW will come back to Singapore soon (with more awesome anisongs, of course). While I wouldn’t say that it was the best-ever anisong concert in Singapore (can’t really judge since I missed a couple of anisong concerts, like AFAX for example), its definitely not going to be easy for any anisong artist to top their performance at Republic Poly.

Tags: anisong, Concert, FLOW, JPLEX