So this is a second Japanese artiste concert that I attended after AAA last year. But this is definitely the first one of that a solo artiste and more importantly, it fulfills my dream of attending a sitting down concert. Haha..
The concert was held at The Star Theatre, Star Visa, which is the same place as FF Distant Worlds so I am sort of familiar with the location. Unlike Distant Worlds, only the first level is used. I bought the ticket in January and it was not so popular (but the concert turned out to be quite full yesterday). I was considering about getting a box seat but because I kept hesitating and was not familiar with the system, I ended up with a seat on a second row. The box seat was actually not sold but was 'reserved' when I was playing around. It was not time out yet so by the time I wanted to buy, that box seat was unavailable. Sianz.. Anyway it turned out to be not a bad thing because it felt like sitting in the first row because there is no other seat in front of me. The front most row is shorter than my row. So yeah, that is a really good VIP experience. There were moments that I think she was looking and waving at me. Haha..
The concert was 1 hour and 30 minutes including the encore and it started 15 minutes later than the stated start time 8pm. I was worried that a solo singer concert would be boring but this concert proved me wrong. Despite the modest stage backdrop (few cloth drapes from ceilings being shone with lights of different colour), musical accompaniment of only 1 piano and 1 gu-zheng (though Rimi will occasionally play her guitar-like instrument that I don't know the name), the concert experience was mindblowing. That shows how amazing Rimi's singing prowess is. Her voice sounds exactly the same as her recordings or videos that I watch on youtube and her long notes were stable without going off tune.
Nothing was unexpected for the song choices with basically the songs which are familiar for the audience. It is nice that she sang a few Mandarin and English songs too. For the last two songs, audience were asked to stand up, clap a long, and do the Okinawan dance hand movements dubbed as: sliding the window to the left, sliding the window to the right, lifting a shutter up, and pulling a shutter down. Lol.
Initially I felt a bit out of place/era as the audience was mostly uncle and aunties. The good thing with the audience was they were very appreciative although I think it was too much as they were clapping at every pause in the middle of the song. There was not any inappropriate shouting, screaming, and cheering. On the flip side, they were sort of not responsive when asked to stand and do the Okinawan dance hand movements.
I bought the $168 VIP ticket and that entitled me to Meet & Greet session at the end of the concert. I was quite disappointed that there was no photo taking session or any souvenir :( However, we were not rushed when we shook hands and interacted with Rimi so that was pretty nice. My Japanese is still poor so I could not say things in Japanese. I only said in English that I hope next year she will hold a concert again in Singapore.
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