I attended back number’s concert in Yokohama

Hello friends. A few weeks ago I posted about going to Japan for back number's concert in Yokohama, and that I purchased a ticket through a friend in Japan for it.

That post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/jpop/comments/1fjpngr/wish_me_luck/?ref=share&ref_source=link

There were a few complications, but I can now proudly say I have seen Yuuri, Back Number and LiSA live.

A few notes, since this can now serve as a bit of an information post for people who look to attend concerts from now on.

Firstly, LiSA's concert had an international sale, so it was quite easy to get tickets for that. I got that through general sale a day or so after it was released, so pretty good outcome there really.

On the other hand, back number's concert did not have an international sale. The closest it had was general sale, but man, lemme tell you, that was literally impossible to get. I had the ticket sale page open on my phone with a VPN active (you have to be in Japan to log into to Lawson's ticket sale) from about 9am until 1pm, when the sale opened up. At 1pm, I spent 3 minutes rolling around between getting kicked out of the queue, to getting back into it and then getting kicked out again. When that cycle finally stopped, the concert was sold out.

In other words, general sale is impossible.

Thankfully, I had already secured a ticket. One reason I was looking to get another ticket was so that I could have a ticket under my own name. If I had secured a ticket through general sale, my friend would have joined me for the concert (this is basically what we did for the LiSA concert). The other reason I wanted to get my own ticket was because the ticket was under my friend's name, as he had to sign up for back number's fan club to get into the lottery for the ticket we got. We were worried that if they checked my ID in some way, I would be denied entry.

All that being said, a very important point: they do not check ID. There are far too many people at these concert for them to check ID.

Therefore, a very important point: if you go my route of having a contact in Japan secure a ticket for you, just borrow their phone for the duration of the concert. DO NOT SWITCH SIM CARDS. The app that Lawson uses, Lawson Ticket, will delete your ticket if you switch sim cards.

Yes, they literally delete the ticket. We had to contact support FIFTEEN MINUTES before closing time to get it back. It's a lot of unnecessary anxiety. Just borrow their phone.

So, as you can see from the title of the post, I attended the concert. It was AMAZING Yuuri started things off, and he was hot right off the bat with Peter Pan. He was so full of energy the entire time, just having so much fun. And when he switched moods and sang Leo, I actually started crying. That's my favourite song by him and he sounded so nice singing it. He was calling out during the concert, "I know you guys are here to see back number. But I'm here right now. Look at me. I'm not losing to back number. I'm gonna win this match against back number!" It was all in jest and fun but his passion was so clear.

And then after an hour, he finished. And during a fifteen minute break, there was a video of a laptop, on which music videos from other artists back number had collaborated with on tour were playing. Towards the end of the fifteen minutes, someone (Iyori Shimizu) walked around the laptop and turned it off. Lights out.

Back number took the stage and started off with Takane no Hanako-san. SO GOOD. I was fanboying so hard right there because man, this is the song we sing every single time I go karaoke. I genuinely feel like I'm no longer allowed to sing it because it would be an insult to how good the live performance was. Several times throughout the concert they would go quiet and allow the audience to sing parts for them, like during Aoi Haru and Superstar ni nattara, and I was just going crazy, word for word. So much fun. And when they sang Loneliness, the entire audience joining in on the Ohhh-Ahhh part was so cool to be a part of.

AND THAT WAS JUST DAY 1.

On Day 2, I got to see LiSA!!!

LiSA's concert was, as I mentioned earlier, a lot easier to get tickets for. My friend secured one early, but when international sale opened up, me and my mate's girlfriend got tickets as well and we all went together. LiSA was simply amazing. So much audience interaction. Her fans are crazy man. I knew like 50-60% of the songs but pretty much everyone else there knew every single song, and knew exactly when they needed to join in for a little pump up. Obviously everyone knows the kinds of songs LiSA sings. They aren't easy to sing. But she was at full volume, full energy, the entire 2.5-3 hours. Just blasting off song after song, with everyone getting equally excited for every song as it came. She never let the energy go down, not for one second. And then at the end, her last two songs; Shirushi and Gurenge. She genuinely started crying on stage in the middle of Shirushi. The version released on Spotify just isn't good enough anymore, because that live performance was so moving. Then when she was about to start Gurenge, she said it was the song she sang 6 years ago at her first performance at Yokohama Arena, so everyone had to join in for this time around. And yeah I joined in. I lost my voice for the next two days with just that one song. And it was so worth it.

Oh yeah, little story about LiSA's concert. I started chatting to a guy who was waiting in the queue to enter. He told me he'd gone to Osaka for both (Sweet and Sour) days of her concert. Then he'd come here, to Yokohama, for both days. And then he was going to go to Tokyo for both days as well. Like I said, her fans are insane (IN A GOOD WAY).

So yeah, that's my story. Went to Japan, saw Yuuri, back number and LiSA, and now my life has been changed.