CONCERT REVIEW: namie amuro 5大ドーム TOUR 2012 ～20th Anniversary Best～

Diving right into it! This is the first time she did not put her all into a concert. Maybe it had something to do with her retirement plans being fucked up or that she really fucking hated the set list who knows, but it was a cute tour regardless. I think she treated this tour like an Omatsuri (the Japanese word for a festival or holiday), rather than a concert tour honestly. To me this was more like an Uncontrolled Tour rather than a 20th Anniversary Tour since 12 out of the 13 songs from Uncontrolled were in fact on the set list lmao.

The first song on this tour was Body Feels EXIT. What a way to open the concert. I love the energy she put into this song. She obviously did not dance the way she did back in 2003-2006 holy shit, but it had a very updated feel to it. More toned down in the sense. The choreography has always been the same since 1995, but this time it had a clean and organized feel to the performance compared to past performances where she put her entire pussy into the choreo. Komuro's back track vocals added a nice touch to it too. Kinda weird but it sounded good for some reason.

The next song was How to be a Girl. I loved the new choreo for this song. Especially during the last chorus when Namie and her 16 dancers were dancing side by side taking up the entire stage. It felt powerful and iconic.

The next songs were Hot Girls, NAKED, and Sit! Stay! Wait! Down!. The three songs were honestly kind of boring performances so we're moving on.

The first song of the 2nd block was Get Myself Back. Now she comes out from backstage all cute and pretty but we all know Namie and her crew were screaming and crying during the quick change trying to get her hair out. This was a nice relaxing performance from her.

The next two songs were GIRL TALK and NEW LOOK, which were both non-stop short versions with a dancers introduction in the middle. Go girl give us nothing! She looks like she does not want to be singing those songs. The song after that was Go Round, cute, but was she really putting on a performance or rehearsing? Three songs in a row where she's practically giving us nothing.

The next song was In The Spotlight (TOKYO), which was the best song out of the 2nd block. She's finally giving us something at last. There isn't anything extraordinary to comment on regarding the performance but this was a good one.

The next song was Fight Together. No cause how are you gonna ask THEE Namie Amuro to be the opening theme song for ONE PIECE and then not let her use the animation in her concert?? We got like 800 audience shots cause of some copyright shit. She sounded so good though.

Now that the 2nd block is over (at last), we had an interlude movie, which was SAUR GOOD HELP GJSDAKJFDC. But her including mvs of SOMETHING 'BOUT THE KISS, LOVE 2000, PLEASE SMILE AGAIN etc. really made me think we were gonna get a performance of those like miss ma'am why would you trick us!

The third block was her TK era block, the block everyone was waiting for. She opened up the block with You're my sunshine and she's finally putting some energy into this concert. I just wish the camera work for the dance breaks were better but everything else about the song was great!

The song after You're my sunshine is Don't wanna cry (Eighteen's Summer Mix) ... just why?? I don't understand why she had to use this version of the song honestly. She sounds awesome as usual but the original version of the track would have been a lot better in my opinion.

The song after that was RESPECT the POWER OF LOVE, which was my most favourite out of the 3rd block. This is only my assumption but I think Namie used to associate this song with her mother's death and didn't like singing this song. This was the first time I saw Namie performing this song with so much joy and happiness. At least to me, I think she was able to move on from her past and was able to sing this song with a great Egao (Japanese word for "happy face" (It's better expressed in Japanese)), and it's an incredibly special performance of RESPECT the POWER OF LOVE to me. Her vocals were also spectacular, especially in the chorus when she sings "Dareka ni tsutaetai", her vocals at the "ni" part is really cool. I obviously know it's because of the audio mastering since the WOWOW version's audio mastering is different from the official release, but I'm kind of obsessed with that part. Also this new 20th Anniversary Best mix is so good and I desperately need a studio version of this. I will hack into avex's database one day and leak it!

The next song was NEVER END. One of my most favourite Namie songs ever. She looked like she was having so much fun on this song as well. I loved the Sanshin (an Okinawan and Amami Islands musical instrument) that was incorporated into the song. Most of the time when she sings this song, the Sanshin is in the song but for whatever reason, she did not use it for the Finally Tour (which was the best performance of this song by the way), so I just felt the need to point it out.

The next song was a walk in the park. Now she was so creative with this performance. Who would have thought to put a video of yourself from like 15 years ago on the screen and imitate every hair adjustment you made? Only Namie!

The next song was SWEET 19 BLUES. Nothing much to say honestly. She sounded great. After that was Love Story, and she got 100% on the assignment and got extra credits. The giant dress she wore was so iconic and her vocals were so on point.

The next song and 4th block was Damage, followed by Break It, YEAH-OH, Chase the Chance, and Let's Go. She devoured all 5 songs, which makes up for the mess that happened in the 2nd block. And I have never criticized Namie ever, so me saying that something she did was a mess means it was not her best lmao. The fire balls in Damage, the little movie inclusion before the bridge of her singing inside the laser box ...  the landlord was BANGING on the door!! I honestly just shed a tear listening to the live audio of Damage while writing this right now. The gin-tape (idk what it's called in English) in Break It and when we see the new set on the main stage light up with the "20" sign and shit, wow ... That's when I knew shit was getting SERIOUS!!! Now if I was in that crowd in Kyocera Dome Osaka and I hear the intro of YEAH-OH right after that, the ambulance is out the venue.

And what do we have after the collapse?? ANOTHER COLLAPSE that is this new live remix of Chase the Chance. And the whole world knows how much Namie loves this song, literally. Some people say that she's probably tired of singing this song but she's expressed how much she loves performing this song, otherwise why would she do an 100 metre sprint across the stage in 15 seconds while wearing knee high pin heel boots? Her rap parts were a serve as usual and it's just so awesome. Collapse after collapse ... we got Let's Go!!! DAMN MA IS IT THAT SERIOUS!!???? This song gets me hyped up right from the intro. But we all know where the highlight of the song is ... that's right! Those fucking explosions holy shit. Every explosion she set off multiplied in quantity every fucking time it went off like she really did that. Not to mention the outfit of this block too that I never mentioned (yet), she looks SAUR GOOD.

The first encore song was TRY ME ～私を信じて～, one of the most voted songs for the tour. It was performed as a medley with her follow up single 太陽のSEASON. The medley was perhaps only two songs, but she performed a short version of 愛してマスカット right after that so I consider these three tracks as a part of the little TOSHIBA EMI era medley. I honestly don't know why she did a medley since these three songs were highly requested and she hasn't performed them for over a decade. But anyways, she sounded great in these songs and it was nice getting an updated version of the songs with her 2012 vocals.

She actually replaced 愛してマスカット with Big Boys Cry for the Asia leg of the tour which I thought she was sick for. No matter how much she fucking hates that song and desperate to perform her new flopped single, 愛してマスカット still ranked at 7th place in the votes... #JusticeForAishiteMuscat

The songs afterwards were Baby Don't Cry, and CAN YOU CELEBRATE?, which are both smash hits. I'm a little bummed out that she decided to use the Concentration 20 mix ... but she devoured vocal wise and this song is a classic that are already in history books.

The last two songs were ONLY YOU, and Say the word. Not much to say about these two songs other than her god-like vocals right at the end "Kono basho kara mirai eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeE".

Anywayzzz, other than the 2nd block, this concert was pretty good! I wish Namie put in a lot more energy into the performance, but she did put 200% on her tour in 2013! Also the 2nd block was a little yikes but the outfit was so cute!!

If any are interested, these were the results of the fan voting for the tour :)

1. Love Story (37,109 votes)
2. CAN YOU CELEBRATE? (31,594 votes)
3. Don't wanna cry (30,358 votes)
4. SWEET 19 BLUES (27,267 votes)
5. YEAH-OH (25,581 votes)
6. Baby Don't Cry (24,953 votes)
7. 愛してマスカット (24,693 votes)
8. Body Feels EXIT (24,164 votes)
9. TRY ME ～私を信じて～ (22,633 votes)
10. RESPECT the POWER OF LOVE (22,191 votes)
11. Say the word (21,325 votes)
12. Chase the Chance (21,137 votes)
13. You're my sunshine (19,921 votes)
14. Go Round (19,797 votes)
15. Sit! Stay! Wait! Down! (19,196 votes)
16. Fight Together (19,054 votes)
17. a walk in the park (18,640 votes)
18. Get Myself Back (17,636 votes)
19. NAKED (17,265 votes)
20. 太陽のSEASON (16,994 votes)
21. GIRL TALK (15,397 votes)
22. NEVER END (14,961 votes)
23. Break It (14,159 votes)
24. NEW LOOK (13,599 votes)
25. How to be a Girl (12,887 votes)
26. WHAT A FEELING (12,881 votes)
27. ミスターU.S.A. (12,838 votes)
28. I WILL (12,790 votes)
29. think of me (10,553 votes
30. PLEASE SMILE AGAIN (10,261 votes)
31. WANT ME, WANT ME (9,664 votes)
32. no more tears (9,222 votes)
33. PARADISE TRAIN (9,002 votes)
34. Come (8,913 votes)
35. toi et moi (8,671 votes)
36. Dr. (8,570 votes)
37. ROCK STEADY (8,251 votes)
38. WILD (8,197 votes)
39. Stop the music (7,895 votes)
40. Dreaming I was dreaming (7,853 votes)
41. Violet Sauce (7,789 votes)
42. ALL FOR YOU (7,740 votes)
43. White Light (7,659 votes)
44. I HAVE NEVER SEEN (7,532 votes)
45. SO CRAZY (7,203 votes)
46. CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK (7,052 votes)
47. ダンシング・ジャンク (6,988 votes)
48. ALARM (6,832 votes)
49. FUNKY TOWN (6,762 votes)
50. the SPEED STAR (6,505 votes)
51. Tempest (6,440 votes)
52. Wishing On The Same Star (6,308 votes)
53. Put 'Em Up (5,979 votes)
54. SOMETHING 'BOUT THE KISS (5,580 votes)
55. 恋のキュート・ビート (5,334 votes)
56. 人魚 (4,781 votes)
57. shine more (4,366 votes)
58. LOVE 2000 (4,358 votes)

CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS:

- Body Feels EXIT
- RESPECT the POWER OF LOVE
- Damage
- Break It
- YEAH-OH
- Chase the Chance
- Let's Go
- CAN YOU CELEBRATE?