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It was an out of the blue resurrection drama. But I guess the members would object to the use of the word “resurrection drama”. Their then chief manager Nakamura Shin'ichi (age at death 49) passed away in April 2007. The members' desire to show their gratitude to him led them to this one night reunion. One day this message appeared on the members' homepages.....
On 2007.04.25, the man who raised and loved SIAM SHADE more than anyone, chief manager Nakamura Shin'ichi passed away (age at death 49).
We who are left behind felt, after seeing him fighting with his sickness, never giving up, that the thing for us to do is to inherit the unique “Shin'ichi ISM” and ROCK from the bottom of our hearts.
And so, to answer the love toward us and the passionate feelings toward rock of the deceased, we decided to reform SIAM SHADE for one night and perform at Nippon Budōkan, the place we challenged with him with all our hearts 5 years ago.
On 2007.11.18 (Sunday) we want to send him our greatest performance at Nippon Budōkan. This is how the 5 of us feel. Let's meet again, one more time, at Nippon Budōkan.
That's right, it's only for one night. However, I think that the fans wish for this reunion to not only be for one night, but to be a story that will continue for a long time. One mustn't keep hoping for it to continue after this. It is like going to see a dream. Accepting that situation, with so much anticipation that my body wouldn't stop shaking, on the day of the concert, I slowly walked the Kudan hill. The tickets were sold out right after they went on sale and they didn't sell tickets on the day. Despite that, even many fans who couldn't get a ticket were crowding the place. Around the stadium, the smiles and excited voices of those fans crossed in that tremendous situation and it seemed they were ready for war. And then, they enter the opened Budōkan. Is this déjà vu?! There was a scene I had seen sometime before. On the arena there was a stage with their logo drawn on it. The fans enter the stadium one after another and in no time at all, even the backside of the stage was filled. Looking around, everywhere around me there were people with tense expressions focusing on one point with bated breath. And when the clock passed 17:00, the BGM that was playing stopped and in the moment the stadium went dark! With a very bright light, there were the five.... The first song of their reunion after 5 years is “NO CONTROL”. How else could I describe it as than a magnificent spectacle suitable for the first song. During the intro, together with the ensemble of the guitars, bass and drums, gorgeous stage lightning and spotlights, cheers and everything intersected and the fans, instead of just moshing, were jumping so much that it felt like the whole Budōkan was shaking. The 3rd song was their debut single “RAIN” and the 5th song was “Why not?”. On that song's intro, the slap bass of NATIN is the highlight. And during the A melody there was the customary break dance by KAZUMA. KAZUMA's choruses have something uniquely genius that moves people. From the 6th song, “LOVESICK~You Don't Know~” you gradually started to see more fans singing together... And then came the song “Dear...”, during which Hideki shed tears at the last live at Budōkan in 2002. When the song moved from DAITA's solo to the chorus there were many fans that were moved to tears. In “Clear Weather After The Clouds” DAITA's solo started from volume swells and after the perfectly executed melodious tapping, the song came to its high point with a simple yet technical string bending/vibrato phrase and then started Hideki's chorus. And then, a piece that no other than SIAM SHADE could create! The grand opus that will go down in the history of guitar instrumentals, “Solomon's seal”!! DAITA and KAZUMA on the guitars, Junji on the drums and NATIN on the bass. It's because these specific members come together as SIAM SHADE that this song exists. It is the reason they became such a monstrous band and the reason they are now called a legendary band. After that they proved their masculine band spirit with an avalanche of 6 heavy rock numbers – this is what SIAM SHADE is all about, “GET OUT”, “NEVER END”, “Shout out”, “PRIDE”, “PRAYER” and “GET A LIFE”. And then came the last song of the main part, “Life”. You can say it was the theme of the day, the masterpiece that chief manager Nakamura Shin'ichi, who loved SIAM SHADE more than anyone, liked the most. Before the song started, Hideki talked about the regrets and feelings he had. It was like he was trying to say thanks to his father, frustratingly not being able to put his words skillfully... Junji straightened himself up and NATIN and KAZUMA were staring at one point as if they were meditating. They had an aura of faithful feelings and gratitude toward him. To perform this song, DAITA selected, in every sense of the word, the best guitar. It was a model called BlueLife from his guitar brand “G-Life”, which could be called the grand sum of his guitar career. It is a brand he produced for this day, using all his know-how and personally supervising everything, starting from the woods used. It was to inform Mr. Nakamura how much he had grown, but also an expression of the way of living he had learned from him – never compromise, never give up, carry out your convictions. If the Budōkan arena was the infinite universe, that bright blue form surely was the Earth. The liveliness of the sight of the edges and the grain in the body top, flashing every time a spotlight hit them, had something that made you feel the power of life. In the middle of the song started the emotional solo. After a calm, slow beginning followed soulful phrases that were indeed the guitar singing. They disappeared to the far reaches of the Budōkan... Undoubtedly they reached his soul.... The encore started with the song – which Hideki called “our projectile weapon” – “One Third of Pure-hearted Emotions”, that was followed by “Dreams”. The 2nd encore was the finale with “D.Z.I” and “Don't Tell Lies”. But the real finale happened after the concert had ended... The BGM “LOVE” started playing with a little louder volume and the members greeted every fan 360 degrees around them. That was the end of the miraculous reunion..... After the members had left the arena, “Dear...” started playing again... All of the fans stood up, some singing, some shouting, some crying. No fan even thought of leaving their seat before this song had ended. Indeed, in the end, it made known the fact that SIAM SHADE is a team of the five members and all the fans.... |
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DAITA's new item “G-Life” was revealed for the first time on the grand stage of Budōkan. This is a model for which DAITA personally went to the factory to choose the best materials from the carefully selected woods. He supervised every conceivable thing, beginning with shape, specs and design. It is fair to say that it is a model where every good point of all the guitars DAITA has ever used is squeezed in. It is full of professional/high-tech details that wouldn't have come together were it not for DAITA's career and know-how. The pick-ups are original and he says they were created after studying many world-famous models. In reality, he delivered that sound, the never before heard marvelous vibration, to the overflowing audience at the Budōkan. The concert that day truly had the meaning of mourning in it. That sound definitely reached the dear departed. This new item doesn't have the thing called a toggle switch. All of the pick-ups are selected with mini switches. The furthermost switch you see in the picture is the on-off switch for the piezo. The arpeggios at the beginning of “Life” use the sound of the middle pick-up. It's on when the 2nd switch from the right of the 4 switches is turned down. Changing the character of the sound with the A melody, chorus, guitar solo and outro from rear position→front position→rear position, the essence of the guitar is as if to emphasize the wonderfulness of the composition and the arrangement with the variations of the thick sound. |