The “One Concert To Rule Them All” Gets the Deluxe Treatment! Chisato Moritaka Live Rock Alive: Complete Box!

 As most of you already know, I am a HUGE fan of 90’s idol Chisato Moritaka and consider her works to be among the BEST that J-pop has to offer! As well, her Live Concert performances are top-notch and her laserdsic releases are also some of the all-time GREATEST ! And of them all, Chistato’s 1992 Live Concert LIVE ROCK ALIVE has GOT to be my HANDS DOWN favorite!

I gushed ALL about it here:

In 2015, Warner’s gave Chisato’s 1991 “Kokon Tozai” concert the Deluxe Treatment, remastered sound and picture on a blu-ray disc, extras and bonus tracks, etc, and I was beside myself with excitement! I consider Kokon Tozai to be another one of her great Live Concerts, and was blown away not only by the remastering, but with the deference and love with which it was made! 

 Now, with such a wonderful treatment going to Kokon Tozai, I was wondering and HOPING that someday Live Rock Alive would get the SAME treatment!

I waited. And I waited. And I waited! Warners Music continued to release new DVD collections (mostly from early 90's) , but never that fateful one! And as this short post in 2017 shows, I was giving up hope that they’d ever get around to giving Rock Alive that remastered touch! 

After years, I began to worry if they were ever going to get around to releasing a Deluxe Rock Alive and when I recently complained to Saburo,  he felt that Chisato was now focused on touring and concentrating on new recordings, and doubted there would be any more Remastered Blu Ray releases...So imagine my utter, UTTER surprise when, not ONE WEEK later, seeing THIS announcement on the Chisato facebook page:

WHAAAT! I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how spazzing out I was seeing that! I read the details once, then I read it again. And then, wasting no more time, RAN to CD Japan to see if they has it available for pre-order! Scrolling thru her items, I crossed my fingers and sure enough, THERE it WAS!!! It came in three options:

Of course I HAD to pick the Complete 3 UHQCDs and 2 Blu-ray Box Set- it if was anywhere NEAR as beautiful as the Kokon Tozai release, I knew I was gonna be in for a treat, and made my payment right then and there!!

Gotta say it was an ANXIOUS few weeks waiting for the release date and for my package to get shipped, but JUST today it FINALLY made it, and WOWWW, it was more BEAUTIFUL and DAZZLING than I hoped it could be!

Housed in a gorgeous glossy slipcase box with  awesome artwork on both back and front, the box was just LOADED with goodies: The original ROCK ALIVE CD, now remastered and released as a “UHQCD” and the original LIVE ROCK ALIVE concert on Blu-ray...

The COMPLETE Live Rock Alive concert on BLU-RAY, as well as the remastered concert on two CDs!

Flyers, Pamphlets and Stickers- For this celebration, They announced different bonus goods for the different dealers, we buyers at CD Japan got this postcard

Also included was a Replica Live Rock Alive Tour Program,a TREASURE TROVE of pics, interviews, and info!

And then there was the CONCERT ITSELF! This was ALREADY my favorite Chisato concert (and up for fave J-Pop concert of all time, TBH), but this was a SPECIAL treat- with clear, colorful video and bright, crisp audio, it was like seeing the concert for the first time all over again!

Already had tears in my eyes when Chisato went into her wonderful song “Fight”, and I was covered in goosebumps when she hit “Watashi Ga Obasan Ni Nattemo”! Tracks like “Mitsuketa Saifu”, “Wakarimashita” and “Yacchimaina” were as thunderous and SONOROUS as could be, and I had that volume all UP!

The box set boasted two tracks that were cut from the original Live Rock Alive release, “Benkyo No Uta” and “Sono Go No Watashi” and MAN, I cannot fathom why they would cut these songs out, they are great and Chisato is practically ON FIRE performing them!

My only guess is that they sounded like other songs in the set list: “Benkyo” sounding a bit like “Wakarimashita” and “Sono Go Watashi” like “Konomachi” and since the former had both been performed on the Kokona tozai Concert, maybe they had to make a choice. SO grateful to be able to enjoy it NOW!

I’ve also said that Chisato’s version of both “17sai” and “Ame” in this concert will always be the ‘true” versions, they are the ‘takes” that I love the most, the version that all others must compare. Just wonderful! Well, you could say that about the WHOLE CONCERT!

Once the concert was over, I immediately went back and rewatched my fave performances , (including those newly-added songs, they are so great!) and probably gonna watch some more before I pack the box up and carefully wrap it back into its cases!

With such wonderful care and details put into making this awesome release happen, one can only wonder what they have in store for LUCKY SEVEN!

NOTES:

-One thing about the audio remixing that I’ve noticed and thought it worth mentioning here is that it seems (to MY ears, anyway) that they’ve toned down the volume of the audience’s cheering and clapping, makes for a cleaner sound, but I REALLY noticed their absence in “Wakarimashita” and “Get Smile”, two songs where the cheering REALLY adds to the overall performance!

-Just realized that the picture of Chisato on the Live Rock Alive laserdisc (the one of her holding her cupped hand to her ear) looks like it is from a performance of “Benkyo No Uta”, one of those songs that wasn’t even on the original release! Now that’s some irony!

-Oh, and I'm GLAD to say that the Live Rock Alive Complete Box is sized in the same dimensions as the aforementioned KOKON TOZAI Set- makes it look SO much prettier when placed together on my shelf!!!!!

Princess Princess Still The Greatest Rock n Roll Act Around!!!

Just caught the Reunion Concert Princess Princess performed a few weeks back and MAN! I was simply BLOWN AWAY by how fierce and ROCKING these now 50+ years old ladies still are!!!

Princess Princess formed in 1983 and held their final concert some 13 years later in 1996, but after the Tohoku Earthquake disaster in 2011, the girls (along with other celebrated acts like Kome Kome Club) reunited for a benefit relief concert, and they’ve been working together and playing on-and off ever since!

In recognition of the 5 year anniversary of the disaster Princess Princess held this concert telecast on the WOWOW channel, and it’s just incredible that they’re sounding as good as ever, Kaori still rocking that incredible voice and Oh My GOSH, KYOKO still able to attack those drums as hard and frenetic as she used to!! You know, Drums were the most “physical” of instruments to play and Puri Puri ALWAYS had the most COMPLICATED drum parts with many, many changes throughout the songs, and to see her still pounding away at it was truly amazing to watch!

Kaori

Kanako

Atsuko

Tomoko

Kyoko

Now, my friend had been trying to get me a copy of this concert for a couple of weeks now, but since I’d already seen the reunion concert from 2012 and expected it to be similar, I told him there was no rush. Eventually I downloaded a copy of the concert myself, and sat back expecting a night of fine tunes and reminiscing… what I got was one of the finest Princess Princess concerts ever!!

First off, the girls were in absolute top-form, back in 2012 they were still a little bit rusty after not playing for 16 years, but you could tell in this concert that they had put months and months of work into regaining their incredible onstage chops, and secondly, the SONGS they chose to play were simply INSPIRED!!!!! Oh My GOD, they performed songs that I’d heretofore only seen done in “Medley” or “snippet” form, and they even did a couple of songs I’ve NEVER seen them do live before!!!

They began the concert with their anthem “19 Growing Up” then right into “Oh Yeah” and “Sekai De ichiban Atsui Natsu”, and by the time they began “Julian” I thought I was right in believing they were going to do pretty much their same set that they’ve been doing since the 1996 concert….and then I heard the rocking riffs of the awesome song “Shake It Off”, a song I’d NEVER seen them do live before, and they were so goddamn awesome I just stood there with my MOUTH hanging OPEN!

But that was just the beginning! Without missing a beat, they went right into another song from their LOVERS album, “Koi Ni Ochitara” one of my favorite songs that I’d only seen a clip of them doing on The Platinum Days video! I pulled my chair right up to the TV screen and said “NOW I know I’m in for a SHOW!” What were they gonna do NEXT?

Next came KISS, one of the very first songs I knew and loved from them (I even wrote about it here) and it was soooo soooo sentimental and sweet, I began to get misty-eyed listening to it, and by the time it wrapped up tis beautiful harmonic conclusion I was fighting back the tears, I was breaking gout in goosebumps that I was seeing these songs LIVE!

Then they went into “You are My Starship”, another BIG fave of mine that I’d only seen a clip performed once, and even then it was a special “taiko drum” version, for the first time I got to see the song done with Kaori performing the proper “dance moves” to it, sashaying and hip swinging along to this joyful tune, and I was so overwhelmed with nostalgia and gratitude that before I knew it, I was CRYING as I watched it!!!

They then had a little chat session which gave me time to regain my composure and it’s a good thing they did because when they came back they went right into the awesome, powerful smoker “Omoide No Sukima~ Sad Memories” off of the TELEPORTATION album, I was beside myself seeing this performed for the first time and MAN, when they built up to the conclusion where all the music stops and Kaori belts out “ANATA NIIIII….LONELY NIGHT!” I was singing RIGHT ALONG, I swear I couldn’t have been more excited if I was AT THE CONCERT itself!

They broke out the acoustic guitars for a smooth version of “She” before going into a song I NEVER thought I’d EVER see them do, the coupling song off of their very last single Natsu No Owari, the Intensely Beatlesey “Seishun Daydream” and DAMN, the vocals and guitar…just INCREDIBLE…never knew the verses were sung by Kanako and Tomoko with Kaori handling the choruses, aw man, they sounded so Damn SWEET!

From there they finished of the concert with the classics I’d come to expect, but even then, these sounded so organic and raw, hits like “Highway Star” and “Pilot Ni Naritakutte” sounded like I was listening to a seasoned Blues rock band in a smoky Saloon belting out rock n roll classics, so RAW!

And ANOTHER thing was how freaking TIGHT these gals were- there were times when I was listening to it and realizing that I wasn’t listening to a record album- the music I was hearing was being played by those 5 girls onstage! What an amazing WALL OF SOUND!

They wrapped up the concert with a blistering version of Seven years After before re-emerging for encores of M and of course the fan favorite “Diamonds”, which featured a very bass-heavy mix showcasing how solid Atsuko is and closing what ended up being one of the best concerts I’ve seen in YEARS!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com