I saw the Legend MM shows at Yokohama Arena. Not my favorite BM concerts but noteworthy for the respect Momoko got, befitting her full metal status. Not only is Momoko's father a noted manzai-style comedian, her father’s maternal great-grandmother was a performer of Hakata Niwaka (niwaka being a folk song-and-dance form). Momo gets her big eyes from her father and her face and song-and-dance talent from his maternal side. The band Asterism performing with Metalverse at Fox_Fest (which I'll see), I'm hoping (as I have for a few years) that they'll eventually be included in the Kami Band (like BM, they’re with the Amuse agency). Together with guitarist Saki, who recently departed the band Nemophila and who is a big BM fan, Asterism would be awesome Kamis. (Nothing against the Western Kamis, but there’s so much music talent in Japan, BM are Japanese, why not have a Japanese backing band? And enough of the anonymizing of the Kami Band!) Very incidentally, speaking of Yokohama Arena and Saki, I saw and spoke to her at the Arena in 2019 at a BM show (being a long-time fan of hers). Speaking of Hakata, aka Fukuoka, Asterism were based there before moving to Tokyo, and guitarist Hal-ca is from that area.

Thanks you gentlemen from Japan 有難う💛。 And I appreciate your shout-out mentioning my name. I just did it to repay you for your friendship and the knowledge acquired in your videos. Legend-MM were fabulous shows. As you guys mentioned, the less theatricality was excellent. It worked paradoxically dramatic in a good way as we felt something like the audience joined in a big home party to celebrate the youngest niece's birthday. The niece amused the attendants with the help of her older sisters and masked brothers. 😄 And your conversation about Kagerou made me happy, because I also love that song very much.

Wow, Kevin doesn't just have the voice now, but the camera setup as well! BM podcast becoming a filmed show when?

Thanks professor and Kevin for this conversation. Both Legend MM shows are probably my favorite concert experiences. But yeah, visiting Japan for the first time and meeting in person several amazing fellow kitsunes (you know who you are) also helps! 😉 🤘🦊

Thank you both! I was able to picture myself inside Yokohama Arena, which used to be a 10-minute drive from my home 3 decades ago! Orange to pink/ East to West/ and reference to the black hair. Yes, definitely "Mates" need to take more notice of your messages! MOMO's growl was expected, but never imagined it would be that raw! They are indeed, as MOA says, "Strongest BABYMETAL ever."

I don't know about the Japanese original, but I'm not mistaken, the translation of the part with the disheveled black hair pretty much matches the lyrics 1:1. I made the connection right away, and I seem to remember that the crowd in the venue made it as well and replied with appreciative gasps and applause. I think that was the moment when everyone realized that we'd indeed get to hear Headbanger.

Great wrap up. I was of the same opinion as Kevin. "Nijuu issai" would be pretty difficult to swap in for "ichigo" in 'Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!'. So I didn't think they would repeat the song on the second night. And of course 20 is the significant age in Japan, not 21. AJ, thanks for showing my Momometal postcard. And thanks to Flugelhorn for sending it to you. He was my very gracious tour guide in Japan. : )

Really enjoyed this conversation with Kevin. And how lucky he is to have been able to acquire the tickets and make the trip to see Babymetal live at this special concert in Yokohama. Seeing them perform live in their native land where everyone in the audience is so into every moment in every song (i.e. knowing just what to sing or what movement to make as a fan and proper audience member should know) must have been the experience of a lifetime. Thanks to Kevin for his detailed description of some of the special moments (e.g. Headbangeeerrr!!) during the concert. From what I've seen and heard so far, Momoko was definitely the right choice to replace Yui. The girl can sing! We already knew she was a good dancer. Also, it was interesting to hear AJ and Kevin speculate what might be next for BM. Saw them live for the first time last summer in Houston and I would definitely like to see them again. Thanks for posting this.

Great discussion about a fantastic show. Like quite a few of the commenters here, I was at Legend MM too. On 20 Night, I was in the regular moshpit somewhere behind where Kevin was, because I was between the stage extension and the AV desk, so I had a pretty great view of Momobanger. On 21 Night, I was in ChoMosh on the left side of the stage. It was my first time in Cho, so that was a fun experience. Kevin was right about the fiasco that was the Will Call. I stood in the merch queue for over an hour, then got sent back to Will Call, waited another 2 hours, then got back in the merch queue for another hour to get my stuff. In the end, I had to go back on the second day to get get a couple of things I missed out on on day 1. The merch queue was pretty fast once you got inside, though. The Will Call situation was a massive pain though, as they wanted to see everyone's passports, so if you were picking up two tickets, both people had to be there. That was different to how it's been done in the past, so it caused lots of delays and made the queue take ages. The setlist was very surprising. It was quite an eclectic playlist with a lot of a pretty rarely played songs. I was absolutely stoked because they played the two songs I most wanted to see live: Yava! and Syncopation. It definitely felt like it very consciously called back to Metal Galaxy, and that's consistent with Babymetal's fondness for narratives in their performances. You made a great point about the show having a different feel and energy to a lot of the past headline shows. As you said, it had the informal energy of a tour show, and the girls seemed to be much more relaxed and playful than they usually are at these big event shows. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Babymetal is a really strong place right now; the lineup is finally settled after five years of tumult, they have just come off their longest and most successful tour in the group's history, and the buzz and energy around the group is all positive for the first time in a long time. I think that 2023 will go down as one of the most important years in Babymetal's history because it righted the ship and got Babymetal back on track, and I think the girls' confidence is now sky high and that confidence is reflected in their performances. I head that some of the Japanese fans were quite blown away by how much they interacted with fans, since it doesn't normally happen at the event shows. Bold take by Kevin to put Momobanger ahead of Moabanger. I think Moa's version is still my favourite, but Momo's was very creative and a lot of fun. I also saw the contraption up in on the roof and speculated about it's purpose. The intro video was fantastic and very clever, even if the English was kind of stilted. It would be nice if they would hire an English language writer/editor to smooth out the scripting. Regarding the story of Momoko's journey to date, it was a great touch. One thing to keep in mind is that Momo always wanted to be in Babymetal. When she joined SG, Mori-sensei asked her which club she wanted to join and she nominated the heavy music club, so it was something that she dreamed of. Becoming Momometal was the culmination of the dream from years ago. It's great the way the fans have embraced Momometal, I think for a lot of us, her joining healed something that most of us kind of knew was broken in Babymetal for the prior five years. For a long time, it felt like Su and Moa were doing their best to keep it together, but there was a vital piece missing, and Babymetal couldn't be whole again until what was missing was repaired. Momo repaired what was broken and infused Babymetal with new energy, and the fans appreciate that tremendously. I don't know if Koba is a genius or he's just lucky, but the whole situation of Momoko serving as an Avenger for four years becoming like an apprenticeship and allowing her to pay her dues and be accepted by the fans ended being perfect, because I'm not sure if she would have been so readily accepted had she not done the hard yards as Avenger. If it wasn't planned, everything really just fell into place. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that Momo's Headbanger vocals were prerecorded on a backing track, because on a couple of occasions, she took the mike away from her mouth before the vocal ended, and the audio was also more clear sounding than what Su sounded like during the rest of the show. I imagine it had a lot to do with the fact that they knew they were only going to get one take of the performance, so they wanted it to be as perfect as possible. I don't really mind that much, because it was clearly her voice doing the vocal, even if it was prerecorded, and it was such a pleasantly surprising interpretation. Also, now Momo really is "*Scream* and dance". The thing about FOX_FEST being the last shows in Japan for 2024 was announced at Legend 43. As of now, it seems like there is nothing booked for the second half of 2024, as their last festival dates in Europe are at the end of June, though they are committed to the appearance at SummerSonic Bangkok to do LIAB, in August. That basically leaves the whole second half of the year free, so I'm guessing that they will be recording the new album then in preparation for another big touring year in 2025. Electric Callboy were recently asked about a collaboration with Babymetal on a livestream not that long ago, and they kind of avoided the question and looked awkward, so it suggests that something is in the works. You're not wrong about the dangers of the Foxhole. Making trips to Japan to see Babymetal is an expensive addiction.

We imagine that Momoko had a significant influence in the choice of the 20 night setlist: I love to think that, even if she were the birthday girl, she wanted a song in which Moa had a solo part, that she wanted her "sister" to also be center stage and sing her verse to DA DA DANCE!

I've watched the first night, and what struck me was how much fun they were having, particularly during Metali, where they were overflowing with joy.

I was at both of these shows.. Freaking fabulous. Gave one of my bracelets away to someone I knew wouldn’t try to sell it.

Thank you both for this! I loved it! 🙏😊

Do you think MOMO's part was lip-sync ? A couple of times her mic was away from her Ummm

I was lucky enough to attend both nights, first night “seated” (nobody was sitting lol) and second night cho-mosh pit at the front-left side of the main stage. And yes, I also bought two tickets, to hand it to a fellow kitsune that wasn’t lucky enough to get a ticket for Saturdays show. I agree with a lot of what Kevin said, but after watching the wowow recording, I am of the opinion that Momo’s headbanger part was prerecorded and not performed live (sadly!). But tbf it felt live during the show. One thing that stuck out to me was the passion and effort of the crowd, which was pretty mixed between Japanese and foreign fans. The energy and enthusiasm was off the charts during both nights, with minute long chants, a circle pit in every “pen”/section and just the overall feeling. That was pretty nuts! Overall it was a fantastic experience seeing them for the first time in Japan and I don’t regret making the trip. 🤘🦊🔥

That was great, I really enjoyed it. Thanks to both of you🦊

Hey Andrew! Just watched your AJ talks legend mm. Good video thanks. I have a feeling that Momo was lip syncing her part on headbanger at that show as she moved the mic away from her mouth a couple of times and it was still sound coming through the speakers! However not uncommon these days. Anyway I want to see baby metal in Wallingford Connecticut on September 9th. The venue was small about 4000 seats. Although I didn't expect it to be like the Tokyo dome it was very watered down from there big arenas. I would have preferred to pay more money to see them in a bigger place and for them to play more songs as they only played one hour which is ridiculous. You got the rolling Stones and Smokey Robinson out there and and their eighties playing two and a half hour shows LOL . The other big disappointment was the terrible opening act death clock. I'm spelling it wrong on purpose LOL. *Totally inappropriate act for Babymetal* they constantly used video screens and back of them and you couldn't see the band at all as they were doubting fake flames of fire throughout the whole show the videos they showed where totally inappropriate for little kids has a lot of videos where sexually suggestive to say the least. But the last thing I was disappointed in was that the terrible choosing of the lights throughout the whole night. It was too much Overkill with a fake fire lighting and the strobe like lights sucked. I don't know how to get away with it at this show. All in all I really did love the show because it was Babymetal but those three things left something to be desired too short of a show terrible opening act in too much fake fire and strobe lights which ruin the whole show. I wonder if you felt like this when you saw them.

Great discussion. Thanks for posting!

While I do love primary harsh vocals with a lot of bands I agree that they should utilize Momoko's skill sparingly. She does sound amazing when she has done the growls and the contrast with her clean vocals is incredible but doing it all the time would be quite off brand for Babymetal to say the least. Great deep dive with Kevin, I enjoyed hearing about the intricacies of the performances.

Great chat. Thanks guys. 100% agree on Kagerou.

Thanks for the talk and the video from Germany!

Thanks a lot for sharing this wide ranging and free flowing conversation! You touched many points, so I'll just chip in on some very few: Their behaviour on stage has definitley changed from what we can see on slightly older footage. Last year, the European tour and especially the last three concerts in Milan, Barcelona and Madrid stood out in that respect. Su giggling into a fancam in Milan, Momo delighting the Barcelona crowd with her latin dance qualities and sweet smile and Moa commandeering the stagecam in Madrid for an impromptu selfie session - if that's the new way to engage with the audience, I'm all in. It's a relief to hear other people speculating about an Electric Callboy collab as well. I started to wonder if I was seeing things, just because I am heavily biased as these guys are from my town. Especially with the new vocal capabilities brought in by Momo, these two bands might be a great combination. And yes, they are playing the two venue festival Rock am Ring/Rock im Park in Germany this summer. There might be other gigs over here in Europe that I am not aware of. I looked for other shows in Germany some weeks ago, but couldn't find any at the time. As always, professor, thank you for all the good work you are doing here.

👍👍Nice chat. Thanks. 🦊🦊🦊 🖖❤

Wow, 49 minutes just flew by. That amount of time talking about a band without any cuts to music would normally put me to sleep. However, in the hands of two engaging and charismatic presenters this was a painless and extremely interesting discussion. I am going to have to hunt down Kevin's Babymetal podcast. I agree fully, we are in for a couple more collaborations. I can't imagine Polyphia being at Fox Fest by accident, so I think a pro-shot video of Brand New Day is almost a certainty. Further, it is already advertised that Babymetal and Bodyslam will guest with F.Hero at Summersonic in Thailand, so we will get a live video from that show, surely. However, I can't see Babymetal popping over to Thailand for a one-off show. My gut feeling says that there will be a Southeast Asian Babymetal tour while they are in the neighbourhood. And, then while they are so close, I would love Babymetal to slide down to Australia for a couple of bigger shows in Sydney. Last time they were here they performed one show in each of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. All the shows were sold out, so I would love to see two nights in Sydney at a bigger venue. They would be sure of pulling two 10,000+ crowds and lower their cost of travel, which might allow them to add a little more of a light show here. Anyway, that's just my wishlist.

I did a quick google on meteor showers for 2003 and there were two events that relate to that year although not matching her birthdate one is a meteor shower occurred twice that year when typically it only occurs once and the other was a shower in August that is believed to have come from an asteroid that has 2003 in it’s name but other than that I don’t know at this point, I may look into it further when I am not meant to be working lol

Yes, that's exactly my impression. When they said new Babymetal they meant it. You get the feeling that while they have learned not to put too many surprises into a show otherwise you might surprise parts of your own staff that didn't get the memo. But otherwise they are pretty much free to decide on your own. And I wouldn't be too shocked if Kobametal more or less wrote himself out of the script. And I would guess onevof the new problems that they have to face is the point of new song production while they won't have to make the songs themselves they probably have to take a bit more control. They know their behaviour on stage and they know how to react and improvise. I don't think that Koba would have allowed that Su simply takes her cell phone out own stage to make some pictures in monochrome, only to be toped a short time later by Moa who simply remembered we have an official cameramen on stage, if I ask I can take this camera and when we are back in Japan I have access to these pictures. And if I look around, yes Kingslayervwas a surprise, but Leave it all behind tops it on many levels. First their were many Reactions I know only Babymetal and I might have heard from F. Hero but now we are seeing more and more reactions from people who never heard of Babymetal or saw it 10 years ago but didn't go down into the Foxhole and now realize I think I missed something. Abd I think in the professional World this effect is their either. Babymetal looks more and more interesting. So either a Collaboration or a simple contract to write a new song for them iscquite attractive, even if they never thaught about such things before. Two absolute legends in Thailand solved this ridle. What could I do with it. And I get the feeling that we might see a switch. Previously everything was produced and optimized for their live concerts but I think they will switch. Reduce their live shows and invest more into media that might be watched or listened to at a later time. The live shows live from moments that are unique. We see this in BMC where in the live show Su simply puts parts of her performance into a Acapella show and simply demonstrates this is hervand her talent and no Studio Wizardry. And if you concentrate on these smaller and cheaper elements in thevshows you might get more out of it simply that the people find them firstvand then want to see anothervside of them too. They have simply arrived on physical limits with their liv shows at home. The more people you have in the venue the more in the back their audience is located.

If you're going to talk about the video, SHOW the video. At least LINK IT. #Lazy