高橋直純 Naozumi Takahashi – A\’LIVE 2003 \”A to Z\” [2003.05.28] [2DVD ISO 7.66GB]

Footage of the final performance of seiyuu and singer Naozumi Takahashi\’s first tour, held at Akasaka BLITZ on February 2, 2003. It was released in two editions: a limited edition (which included all songs and MCs in an uninterrupted flow, as well as some rehearsal footage and an interview taken a month after the tour\’s conclusion, where Naozumi shares his thoughts on touring), and a standard edition (which cut out several songs entirely — see below — and edited all MCs out of the main part of the show, bundling them together as a separate feature selectable through the menu) on May 28, 2003. The release reached #10 on Oricon\’s Music DVD chart.

As for the show itself, it\’s interesting to see where he started out compared to now. There\’s some obvious talent shining through here (his performance of \”Refrain\” here is both the best on the disk and one of my all-time favorites of his), but it\’s also by and large clearly unpolished at this early stage.
Notably, he hadn\’t trained much physically at this point, so his vocals here are often a lot less stable on the upbeat, active songs than they would be later on. In addition, he still has a few less-than-healthy vocal habits on display here (even to an untrained ear, the way he shouts to the crowd is clearly unnecessarily rough on his vocal cords, for example).

As a result, the high points of this particular concert are mostly the ballads, and I wouldn\’t necessarily suggest this as the first concert for a newbie who\’s curious about Naozumi to check out (I\’d recommend \”OKism\” or his Hibiya fanclub-live for that), but there are still some gems worth hearing in here — in particular, the aformentioned performance of \”Refrain\” and his splendid self-accompanied rendition of \”Niji-iro . Kaina\” aren\’t to be missed!

Recommendations marked below. italic underlines denote songs at least three out of the five people I watched this with agreed were a highlight of the show, bold italic underlines denotes unanimous agreement that a song was a major highlight. Which disc footage is on has been marked by bolded white text — [D1] for Disc 1 and [D2] for Disc 2.

A\’LIVE 2003 \”A to Z\” tour Final @ Akasaka BLITZ
2003/02/02 (February 2, 2003)
——-
[D1]　01.) A to Z
02.) COME ON!
03.) Trouble Maker (トラブルメーカー)
04.) Skylight no Sora (スカイライトの空)
05.) Refrain (リフレイン)　[Limited ed. only]
06.) siempre
07.) stay
08.) Taiyou no Senaka (太陽の背中)
09.) Runabout na Yoru Dakara (Runaboutな夜だから) [Limited ed. only]
10.) Rainy day
11.) ~kiss you~
12.) Go! Go! Over Drive
13.) ALIVE
[D2]　14.) Boku wa Hero (僕はヒーロー)
15.) Arashi ni Nare, Hikari ni Nare (嵐になれ、光になれ)
16.) Niji-iro . Kaina -Hikigatari rendition- (虹色・腕 -弾き語り-) [Limited ed. only]
17.) Kimi ni Aete Yokatta (君に会えてよかった)

Performers:
——-
Vo. Naozumi Takahashi
Gtr./Cho. Goro Ohtake and U-Ken!
Bass./Gtr. Shiro Maruyama
Dr. Kaoru Suzuki
Key. SHINGO
Perc. K-ta
VS Manip. Kaname Yano (TOWERS)

[D2, Limited ed. only]　Other content (特典映像):
– Interview (インタビュー)
– Off-stage video collection (オフステージ映像集)
_________________________________________________________

On a miscellaneous note, \”Kimi ni Aete Yokatta\” had yet to be released as a single at the time this concert was held, and it seems like it was still \’under construction\’ here, so to speak. A few verses of the lyrics are almost entirely different here from what they would come to be in the final recording (and all other live performances), so it\’s pretty novel to hear it this way instead.

A few songs from the first date of the tour (at Osaka IMP Hall) can be found here.