KOTOKO – Kuchuu Puzzle Tour 2014 at AiiA Theater, Shibuya

Let’s break it down before IM@S breaks me down.

1. My-Les
2. WING OF ZERO-the ring-
3. 黙れよ、ピーター
4. フシ-ギナ-アナ
5. サ・ヨ・ナ…ラ
6. frozen fir tree
7. 冬の雫
8. snow angel
9. 原罪のレクイエム
10. agony
11. 海豚
12. 雪華の神話
13. Largo
14. サクラノアメモエギノヨ
15. ささくれ
16. Re-sublimity
17. Loop-the-Loop
18. Rock☆DE フルーツバスケット♪
19. Flower!
20. Light My Fire
21. Pâ—‡liGâ–³n
22. 空中パズル

Encore 1

1. Presto
2. 開け！ソラノオト
3. →unfinished→-Album ver.-

Encore 2

1. SHOOT!-KOTOKO.ver-

Check Kotoko’s blog for pics of her outfits. And all the stuff I was gonna say until I read it www.

So let me keep it personal and point out the big things. First, there were two costume changes in the main set. Encore has the usual t-shirt + skirt combo and she puts on No. 11 jersey for Shoot! She also tried to score a couple handicapped freethrows, and makes the last one of three.

The “Winter” set is in her snow-fairy-peter-pan inspired getup. I really like how it gave her an excuse to sing all these old snow-theme songs. The stage had this fake snow setup where it’ll spew out mysterious snow-like substance that floats down much slower than actual snow. It would be neat except I’m kind of sick of snow at the time given how it interrupted travels so much.

The first costume change happened during a really long instrumental solo if I recall correctly. The second outfit I remember liking more, because it’s got this weird white theme going on and is a little bit like a wedding dress except the huge ribbon-like thing on her shoulder. I could be wrong.

I was too busy rocking out to have an opinion of the third one.

KOTOKO isn’t so much what I call “a sight for sore eyes” both visually or musically, but the strongest immediate reaction was that I really missed her, and I didn’t even know it. Her music in the live context just gets me.

The crowd was another point of observation. I’ve never seen her live over in Japan so it’s not clear to me how the fans move. So it turns out they move the same way as they do in the States, basically. There aren’t too many songs with calls, and those that do tend to be just anime or game songs that go by the usual pattern and/or hooks into some other franchise, like Shoot, which has the full cheer-ppph-thundersnake thing built in. Just rock and thrash as usual guys!

Can’t wait for her Raleigh stage!