In 2005, Kiroro suspended their further activity and finalized their
tour, which was performed when they were in the later stages of
pregnancy. They were going to devote themselves to the care of their
infants. Many fans missed them, waiting for a revival of their
activity. In 2007, Kiroro attended the Song Festival in Okinawa, and
performed five songs. But Chiharu, the vocalist of Kiroro, was again in
the later stages of pregnancy and she just came from and went right
back to hospital. The situation meant that they were going to have
another suspension of their activity. After that the fans had still
been waiting for their activity and they finally came back to stages
and into the spotlight this spring.
The first two performances were held in March in Tokyo, and the
last was held in April in Okinawa, in their home village. Everybody
celebrated their 10th anniversary in the mainstream scene, and the
long-awaited comeback. I attended all three gigs. And I am going to
review the last one held in Yomitan-son their home village.
The hall is located next to the village office, where there used
to be runways and a huge cage-shaped antenna of the US army. This place
always stirs strong emotions within me and I often feel goose bumps due
to the contrast of war and peace. It feels like the place is somehow
close to heaven, whenever I visit there. Entering the the waiting room
of the hall, I found that they posted many photos, published articles
and posters across their entire history from indi to mainstream. The
performance started with the song, “Nagai Aida”, which means long time.
The song was originally composed for a couple getting married, but now
they have come to sing it as an apology to the fans for waiting so
long. The ordinary style of their performance is that Chiharu sings and
Ayano plays the piano and they harmonize during the chorus parts. But
they adopted a special style in this tour for the few songs mainly from
their high-school numbers, to perform the first chorus in conventional
style and the second chorus by letting Ayano sing the main melody.
In the next part of the concert, some extra band members, a
guitarist, a bassist and a percussionist joined the two before the
encore time. The guitarist in particular was excellent, changing
guitars song by song. Kiroro is thought to be an acoustic group but
they really have a taste for rock I think. Of course, old fans didn’t
forget to wave their hands rhythmically for the song “Last Kiss”.
As well as singing songs, Kiroro acted as MCs and entertained the
audience by telling funny stories. Chiharu’s Okinawan dialect was
definitely appealing and as healing as ever. The audience enjoyed and
laughed a lot at the stories and lost all track of time.
In the middle of the live, according to the custom, Ayano-Corner
was held by her piano and vocal solo, singing a couple of songs she
composed. The songs are normally sung by Chiharu on the CD, but the
composer expressed her own deep feelings for the lyrics.
After the corner, Chiharu came back to the stage, singing
increasingly powerful songs. Everybody in the audience felt that Kiroro
was really back in the light of the music scene. Moreover, being
mothers seemed to strengthen their ability as artists. The final song
before the encore was “Kaeru Basho”, the meaning of which is the place
to come back. In the last chorus, Chiharu directed her own mike towards
the audience, prompting them to sing the scat “Lalala” with them. In
the big wave of the chorus, It was really a place to come back for all
the audience, resident or not of the village.
In the encore time, they performed Best Friend first, to thank
each other and the audience and residents, who brought them up. Then,
they had some special guests in Okinawa, elementary school classmates
of the village. They sung “Tinsagunu-Hana”, one of the most famous
Okinawan folk songs, that teaches children to respect their parents.
Chiharu also prompted all the audience to sing with the children. The
final song of encore performance was a new song named “Siawase no
Tane”, “the Seed of Happiness”. I have heard that the new song has been
used in a measle prevention campaign. I felt that the new song was
excellent in the melody and the rhyme with enlarged scale and heart. I
also felt that it was worth the very long wait to hear this song.
