Dammit. Came here to watch a video and just realized I can't because I haven't listened to this yet and wanted to do a reaction as well. Hahaha. I'LL BE BACK!

Miku went from holding a guitar as a prop to being to play like this within about 5 years. Incredible growth and dedication. She's been an absolute joy to watch as she grows and progresses as a band member and musician

In my 65 years of listening to music of all kinds and some legendary concerts I have never heard a band to equal Band Maid. 5 absolute master musicians led by a genius lead guitarist/ composer. Wonderfully complex songs played with absolute precision whilst having fun on stage. Never equalled.

My problem is I want everyone to love this band as much as I do

I love so much when Saiki's messing with Akane and you actually hear her laugh through her lyrics. Brings a smile to my face knowing these guys can have so much fun together and still be awesome.

This is one of my favorite songs by them because its just pure energy. Super upbeat, catchy, fast. I love that the bass is lead on this song and I'm so glad you pointed out the double kick because almost nobody ive seen react to this has brought it up and its one of my favorite parts of the song. They really never disappoint

First time listening to them and I'm speechless, they're really good!

I did love watching Akane making Saiki laugh while she was singing. They were having a lot of fun during that performance.

"We are not a pop or idol band. Judge us by our sound." That's a direct quote from small pigeon. Enjoy the show Sunday.

When they first burst onto the scene 7 years ago, they were already a great rock band. They have continued to get better with every album, every concert, every video. Saiki is really on top of the world in this performance, Miku rips a give-and-take with Misa, Akane is insanely good, Kanami just shreds...it seems there is no limit.

MISA standing, playing her bass, bathed in red light.

With this rythm section you can get what you want, World Domination included. I can figure the face of the best progressive rock composers amazed by the catchiness and the fun you can get being extremely tight and complex in the composition. A Band to rule all bands. Thank you Mr. Chase, you are a great educational communicator.

Another great live concert by BAND-MAID. The interesting things that you get when you see their live concert is if you are observant, you'll see some unique moments on stage, like in the second verse of the song, when Akane (the drummer) make funny gestures to Saiki (the vocalist) and Saiki laugh at her. How can they joke at concerts while play quite difficult music without any mistake? And feel how the atmosphere there is just amazing. They really enjoy every moment when playing live and stay interactive with the crowd. Things that are rarely found in other live concerts. And nice reaction, man. Keep enjoying BAND-MAID! 👌

After the first couple listens to the 2018 Zepp Tokyo live of 'Play', I was mostly impressed by Mincho shredding all the way through choruses, which I was able to hear more clearly than on the album track. But there is so much more to this song :)

Band Maid have played 5 times in the UK, well London. They may have played again this year, but due to current events, I can see why they haven't been over. So yes you'll get your chance.

Our Little Pigeon, Miku (Po! 🕊️), has come so far! ❤️🙂 ...and when Miku (Po! 🕊️) says SING, we SING! 😎🤘

If i remember correctly, Play was originally written as an instrumental but the record label said no so Miku added some lyrics and here we are. the song itself only starts at the 1min mark, before that is a long instrumental. Interestingly its very different to the one from the Zepp Tokyo video that used to be up for this song. Love it either way! This song also used to be the go to entry track for new reactors as it shows off so many elements

I highly recommend doing a double reaction to "secret my lips " followed by "secret MAIKO lips", where they add classical japenese instruments. On another note.. please react to While She Sleeps - Fakers Plague. It's so frickin good.

YES!! Akane finally gets her own back at the funny face game. In verse 2 when saiki is facing her, Akane pulls a face & Saiki's vocal breaks into a laugh. Gorilla 1 v 0 Ice queen.

love it when the girls do something crazy good and Chase's jaw just drops.....

I ordered the Blu-ray of this concert. It's amazing.

It's really great to see the little Pigeon playing in the opening solo like that. Watching her grow from the start where she basically was just carrying that guitar around to actually playing it incredibly well is inspiring. She is a hard worker, as are they all. I also like greatly at 7:45 where you can hear Saiki start to lose it laughing where her and Akane are messing with each other. Don't forget they have a live streaming concert August 16th. Get your tickets today!

I don't know how you do it, being analytical and enjoying so much. I love that. You do the greatest reaction on Band-Maid.

Oh, it's CRISP, and SNARLY and SMASHING! The bass and drums are SLYLY chuckling back and forth to each other....gleeful innuendo! They are kicking boxes of china down the stairs, and laughing at the mess! COMPLETELY badass!

It's insane that their stage presence has gotten even better and the way they get the crowd to participate.

Hi, Chase. 11:19 - "Play" was originally an instrumental song. But after some time working on the arrangement, Saiki felt that the structure offered a lot of room for interesting vocals and so Miku came up with some of her lyrical omajinai and the rest is MAID history. -po

👍BAND-MAID....! Have a damn good day! They rocked the UK, in their day and will tour there and the USA, but Im going to Japan!😎

Don't forget their 2nd online concert guys..... 16/8/2020..

This is a special instrumental intro. FYI, Miku only started playing guitar around 2014/15 and is now starting to truly shine. There is an earlier excellent Version of this in which it’s Akane, Miss, and Kanami Playing the intro. The story is that this song was to be an instrumental only, but Miku and Saiki really liked the music. Miku then quickly penned the lyrics and “Play” was born. Akane’s pedal work is amazing.Good review as always.

The album version length is 3:23, the Zepp Tokyo 2018 live is 3:53, this one is 4:31. They like to mix it up. They were in London last June. They'll be back but with Covid-19 probably not for awhile. :-(

Just a heads up for those who might be interested, BAND-MAID is doing another live-stream concert this coming Sunday, August 16, 2020, at 4pm JST. Last one was really good, bbt odd without an audience, the sound was great, though, and of course, so was BAND-MAID! bandmaid.tokyo/contents/334081 EDIT: oops, forgot the link

finally got over my food poisoning and replaced my keyboard, to be able to properly say thanks for getting to this one. Play (live Zepp Tokyo... still recommend hunting it down for your own enjoyment. Doesn't have this intro, but Misa's bass tone was THUNDEROUS that show) was my first exposed to Band Maid back in December. I'd always dismissed them as a gimmick because of the name and image and this came up on autoplay while I was working. Best accident ever. Benn full on hooked since.

Another great performance and a great reaction. Around 2/3 of the way through, when you said 'No,no,no,no,no!' I thought you'd heard a mistake and held my breath waiting to find out what it was. Silly me, you just wanted to hear it again cos it was brilliant. Band-Maid don't make mistakes!

For their live shows Band-Maid has a habit of adding extended intros to some of their songs. Play, Choose me, and one other I can't remember right now typically have an extended intro. They have about 3 different versions of these extended intros at this point. Typically used as time for an instrument change for Miku and Kanami as well as a short break for Saiki from the previous song.

As soon as Japan opens back up, I'm going to Japan. Not waiting for these ladies to come over to the US, I'm going to them.

I love how you and The Champ of Medium just dissect the fine points of Band-Maid songwriting.

I love this band! I hope they come to Canada one day 🇨🇦

This reaction didn't disappoint and I had high expectations. I always love to see both the "happy effect" of Band-Maid as well as people who appreciate all the musicianship in the group. You showed both to a great degree. I somehow manage to appreciate Band-Maid even more after your reactions despite them already being my favorite band.

Compare the closing shot from this clip to the opening shot of Domination. Yes, they went straight from Play to Domination without even a pause for anyone (audience included) to catch their breath.

Another thing I love about this video is how Kanami is just in her zone playing during the intro. Completely Zen and in her element feeling the music and effortlessly showing some serious skill.

I wanted to add a second comment. Band Maid has another live stream concert coming on Sunday, August 16th at 4pm JST (3am EST USA). If you get a ticket and can't get up, the performance is archived .

I’ve seen them twice now in London and they were amazing both times. Pretty certain they’ll come back again once it’s safe to.

Loved seeing Miku getting a rhythm guitar call and response moment or three with Misa and her bass. Still THE best Rock band this side of Pluto. Another brilliant analysis.

finally))) gave you a little nudge for that song))) the first couple of minutes they were throwing some fastballs to each other, setting up the stage. I fell in love with Misa the moment I heard that song...that was the very first song I heard from them and she destroys that bass like a lead guitar!!! "barefoot assassin", indeed!! awesome reaction as always extremely proficient and quite educational...bless your heart. not sure if you are aware, but they were here in the UK, just last year - they had a huge gig in Islington...how far away are you from Finsbury Park?)) I believe they deserved a bigger venue...Wembley Arena?!? What do you reckon...🤟😉🤟

I’m waiting Your BAND-MAID reaction.Your commentary is always special. It makes me notice new things.ARIGATOありがとう🙏😉

I love watching your videos. You provide such great analysis/breakdowns of the songs. Also thanks for getting the new BAND-MAID upload ASAP! Great song. Amazing performance! Great video! Thanks again!

And then they played Domination, no pauses.

Awesome reaction, thank you for your insight! I will just share a tidbit that I know. My understanding is that "Play" was originally an instrumental (would explains why it has that sound) and then they ended upwith Miku putting lyrics to it. I have that same issue too when one of their songs ends of wanting to listen to a another song. Thank you chase. And just a suggestion for a future reaction: Rinne aka Reincarnation (MV)

Band-Maid are doing another online concert this sunday. Just saying. 😉✌️

if you consider that in their earliest videos Miku couldn't play the guitar at all and just held one for show (there's a particular live radio recording where this is painfully obvious) , it's amazing how far she has come.

Think of the power Saiki must feel to not have to sing the chorus, the crowd is doing it for her, and she controls them like a master.

One of my favorite parts of this is around 3:09 of the original video, Misa plays her part and looks back to Kanami, almost like, here, top this. Also, as someone else mentioned, when Akane makes Saiki laugh. They are always just so fun to watch.

Band-Maid 👐 Always bringing smiles to peoples faces!

The last time I saw a band get this much audiance participation was 15 years ago at a Scorpians Show!

hey.. do yourself a favor and please don't miss out on the 2nd online show set for this Sunday, August 16, 4PM JST (i think that's 8AM your time in the UK). if you can't catch it live, the stream archive will be available til the 19th. this goes for anyone that reads this. here's the link: l-tike.zaiko.io/e/bandmaid0816 show details and links for other purchase options: bandmaid.tokyo/contents/334081 i honestly didn't notice that double pedal work going on during the bass-guitar-bass section before.. always focused on the strings at that section.

2 days to go for their online concert, ticket is still open,

The older Live version of Play didn't have the rhythm guitar part at the beginning so you can see how confident Miku is as a guitar player that she can improvise like that. When Band-Maid started in 2013 Miku just started playing guitar to add to the sound of the band.

Don't miss the chance to react to more Lovebites! They've upload some live videos from their last DVD/Blu-ray

Band Maid is genuinely incredible. They're up there with Maximum The Hormone and Dir en Grey with being one of my favourite bands that are also from the same country interestingly enough. Something I've been dying to see you react to is a song called Sons of Winter and Stars (Live Rehearsal At Sonic Pump Studios) by the band Wintersun. Their current drummer is Kai Hahto who is also drumming for Wintersun nowadays and the lead vocalist and songwriter is called Jari Määenpää. It's one of those bands that's an entire experience unlike any else in their respective genres and has a lot of interesting musical choices. You're my favourite reactor, seeing you geek out and get all excited and giddy during certain songs while also being able to break it down and analyze it is a joy to watch. Never change you magnificent person.

note the very ending chord is where they go into Domination. Can u imagine being there and hear that . As u said .....Hit machines.

Band-Maid have their great own style. Next time : LOVEBITES / Holy War [Live at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo 2020] ?

They actually added an intro to the start of the normal intro for the song - something they regularly do live, changing the intros completely every few months. One song last year gained a two-minute guitar solo as its intro. Kanami went fully from shy girl to superhero in that one. ps...funnily enough, the added intro here is exactly the same length as the entire song in the clip I tweeted to you last week!

You and The Champ of Medium are my two favorites due to your knowledge and insight in music. You both help me understand WHY I love this band!

Kanami: plays EFFORTLESS while shredding her instrument to bits.

They’ve been to the UK every year since 2016. You’d probably be getting ready to see them right now if it weren’t for COVID. Hopefully that all gets sorted by 2021, and they can get out on the road again!

I just love how Akane made Saiki laugh :) These ladies are having so much fun!

For sure... long time fan, and subscribed, because great anylsis. Bought this DVD, months ago, and never looked back 😎🕊️🇯🇵👍🇺🇲

I'm telling you, if Guns n Roses produced anything even half this good, the music industry would have a collective orgasm.

Thanks to you mr Carneson,i'll start listening band-maid from this reaction. Greatings from Republic of Moldova

Speaking of once in a lifetime shows, you should listen to Hyde, he’s the single most popular rockstar in japan, but he’s basically unknown in the West, he does English and Japanese songs. I’d personally recommend Mad Qualia, or who’s gonna save us. He doesn’t have much live videos up on his channel, but he is quite the character in live shows.

I watch a ton of reaction videos to stuff I personally like, it's my guilty pleasure. Yet, you're the first channel I actually subbed to, such insight, so detail, much wow! keep it up mate

I think dictionaries of all languages are now devoid of superlatives regarding the descriptions of MISA...oh my!

I'm gonna risk some hate here for being pedantic with someone as knowledgeable as Chase, but...a rimshot is actually where the drummer strikes both the rim *and* the drumhead at the same time with the same stick, usually on the snare. If the stick is allowed to rebound, this creates a ringing tone because the head in this case is generally being struck near the outer edge, and the rim also transmits the force directly into the drum shell (especially if it's a die-cast rim). A variation is to keep the stick pressed against the head for a heavy but "dead" sound - usually in this case the stick tip strikes the head closer to the center, meaning the beefier part of the stick is hitting the rim. So what Akane's doing here if I'm hearing it accurately is just playing on the rims for a clicky sound - although as Chase points out, she gets different tones from those clicks by using the rims of different drums. Also want to add that I loooove the short overhead shots from this show of them getting ready for the next song. They give me a strong feeling of motivated but calm professionalism, which is particularly cool when you think about how they will also, in fan videos of the smaller US and European venues, much more casually goof around between songs and have almost no separation between the band and audience, much like seeing a band of your friends play a party at someone's house. It really seems like they enjoy both environments.

Thank you for doing BAND-MAID! I still wish Kanami was higher in this mix. This is a new intro for this song. The original intro was focused on MISA and Kanami, but they included Miku in it now and it is FIRE. Chase, think about this. From the moment Kanami, standing next to Akane, rips that final chord in Play and starts walking and strumming back to her normal place on stage, the crowd has about 8 sconds to come down before Kanami hits the first riff for Domination. No time to breath, they just kept this crowd in a frenzy.

You have such a good understanding of music... Astounishing... This song was really an instrumental at first, but Miku wanted some lyrics in this song, so it ended up like this... DAMN GOOD reaction!

This song never has the same intro twice. I love it. The actual song is when they kick in double time and the lasers go off. All the other stuff was improv and so now they've added it in.

PLAY has been an evolutionary piece since its inception. This is just the latest iteration, but they're all fun. My personal favorite is the 2017 Studio Coast version, but like the others this has elements that make it one of a kind. May I suggest a double reaction? Band-Maid Secret My Lips, then Band-Maiko Secret Maiko Lips after. Both are on Band-Maids channel.

this live version has quite the extended instrumental intro. caught me by surprise the first time too

Saiki and Miku absolutely demand audience participation, and it's never enough, they always demand more.

Akane is an absolutely mean double bass drummer!! I play drums and have been working on double bass and it's not easy! She is so so good at it! I envy her skills! 😎👍👍👍

Those fingerdrums at 9:29 tho 😆 Hope you have a damn good day, friend.

The way Akane often follows the singers melody reminds me very much of Kieth Moon and his punchy accompaniment to Daltrey. He didn’t do it all the time but when he did it drove - hard. Akane and Moon both put a big shit eating grin on my face. Same with Luo White another very happy stick lady.

Haha your face at 10:32 says it all.

7:58 Nice catch. I didn't hear those rimshots until you mentioned them. 9:47 Yeah, the masters and princesses at their Dallas okyuji last year kind of broke Miku a bit. (She was getting the crowd going with a call-and-response MC, saying "USA, say!", and the masters and princesses would repeat the whole thing, including the "...say!" bit.) And, speaking of rimshots, check out the live video of Tool's Pneuma from Danny Carey's kit. He makes use of rimshots just fill a bit of a hole.

As soon as this dropped all I wanted was to see your reaction. Did not disappoint!

Maybe one of the most impressive things in this version of "Play" is that Miku starts to learn to play the guitar at the beginning of the band. She was teached by Kanami. She starts to learn to play a guitar only 7 years ago and of course in the first years she plays "proper" but look at her now, doing solos in a middle of one song in a live performance

It's nice they drew out the intro a bit from other live versions I've seen. This one is more polished and balanced, I think. However, the bass in a previous live version I saw was a bit more prominent in the mix.

Always happy to hear you reacting to Band Maid. They are truly amazing musicians! As for recommendations, I'll recommend Doll$Boxx with "Take My Chance", the music video version.

Haha. Thanks for this. I just learned of this band yesterday AM as I posted elsewhere. Im commenting here as you really get it, or at least why I personally am blown away and with that in mind, and even though Im rather adverse to "validation", Its preventing me from feeling maybe, Im losing my mind on these ladies.

My throat would be so soar at this point, there is no way to not yell along.

Remember the older live version of Play with MISA shredding in the intro? Comparing to this it was somewhat serious and angry. In this one the Maids are having just fun fun fun on stage.

Their online Okyu-ji while great and fun and so happy they not letting their fans down.... it really prove that they are a live band that records albums. The crowd and them are so very connected during their concerts that live performance without the audience there is diminished

One thing I love about Band Maid is that they sound both familiar and quirky at the same. My fave from the Japanese scene to date.

Man, you're sayin' what I'm thinking but I don't know how to say it like you do!! Thanks.

I just can't believe you haven't seen the Play version of Studio Coast at Shinkiba 2017 yet, that performance is iconic, mind blowing a gold standard.

I love band maid there's a lot of good jrock bands as well Polkadot Stingray, Fern Planet, Trident and Scandal This August 16th Band Maid will have a show online bandmaid.tokyo/contents/334081

Chase there is nothing I can say about you're reviews except thank you for the knowledge you seem to happily share with those like myself who lack . Keep doing what you do. Very educational in the most enjoyable way. Band Maid freaking Rocks !!! Have my tickets for the stream...yay

Great reaction and again, you manage to point out things that I had missed and I've listened to this quite a bit. Their live performances are so good. But I will have to say that the mix on this concert (at least on the BD) sometimes loses Kanami's guitar in the mix when compared to their older concert videos.

That entire intro or what you should call it sounds like some kind of heavy funk-jazz fusion...it's interesting music all the time, you never get bored and want to skip forward. They are bloody amazing!

Kanami Tono: -Prog Rock/Metal/Jazz talent and skill, -Blues players heart, -and a Pop writer's sensibilities. aka, the perfect package.