NOTE: If you haven’t seen TBSch’s broadcast of Legend of Rainism - Japan and you don’t want to be spoiled, please click on that square button that has a horizontal line on the right hand corner of this entry to skip reading it. The same is also applied if you’re an ultra-sensitive Rain fan who hates it when people criticize his works.

My random thoughts on Legend of Rainism - Japan:

1. The band version of Touch Ya is LOVE. It’s the one thing that has convinced me to watch this concert, never mind that I will be dead broke on Christmas.

2. By the time Rain sang his third song, my inner Rain fangirl which has been hiding since… I dunno, before J Tune was created? suddenly came back to life. I was reminded of why I became his fan. Rain really thrives on live performances. He didn’t disappoint.

3. Legend of Rainism proves my earlier point that an elaborate stage set-up and special effects are not entirely necessary to mount a good show. See my early reviews of Rain World Tour if you really want to prove that I said that in the past (and because it’s late and I’m cranky today, I’m not going to provide the links like I usually do). Which reminds me, I think I also mentioned on this blog that Rain should consider doing a Rain: Unplugged show.

4. Hmm… this band set-up thing is really a good idea. I LOVE IT. It helps that the members are awesome musicians. However, I think it would be nice if their outfits are styled a lil’ bit. Only the bass player and the keyboardist made the effort to dress themselves up. Since each of them have solo spots, they should at least look presentable instead of wearing just t-shirt and shorts as if they’re just going to rehearsals (yes, Mr. Guitarist, I’m talking to you). Yes, I know that wearing fashionable clothes is not essential to becoming a good musician, but this is a performance in front of thousands of people. At least wear a coat and pants.

On another note: the male back-up singers have really cool voices. The females? Er…let me just put it this way: After they sang their solo parts on the jazz interlude, some parts of my eardrums got shattered and I’m still picking up the pieces as I’m writing this.

5. Every time the female dancers appear onstage becomes a major WTF moment for me. This is what happens when we are so used to seeing Rain with a crew of excellent dancers. In fairness to these girls, though, they are a vast improvement over those awfully wooden and uncoordinated female dancers that were with him at year-end awards shows last year (if they were the same dancers, then good job on improving… -ish). But they are still so far far far far far away from the snappy and sassy Kim Hwa Young, and I don’t need to mention the formidable trio of Menina, Nicole and Destini. Wait, I just did. One dancer can only be best described by this Tagalog phrase: parang bulateng binudburan ng asin. (In English… salted earthworm? ) The rest are just ‘meh’. Sorry to say this, but our own CloudPH dancers could kick their golden hoochie-shorts-wearing asses on a dance showdown. More practice, girls!

6. Everybody sing with me…

“I want nobody, nobody but choo… (clap clap)”

Sorry, I love this number, but I just couldn’t help but be reminded of Nobody with those mics.

Incidentally, the choreography for Because of You looks familiar. I think I’ve seen it before… on a group named god.

7. Halfway through the show, my inner Rain fangirl went back into hiding when the band stopped playing to give way to Rain World Tour: Reduced, Reused and Recycled. Ho-hum. Side-note: I suddenly got horrified at the realization that there was a time when Friends was my most favorite song on the Rain’s World album. Ew.

8. Seriously. I know all of you adore Nan especially when Rain takes his clothes off, but please. It’s been three concert tours. Stop.it.already.

9. For this particular show, Rain’s best number, vocally, was Handshake. Seeing the clear version of this only cemented my belief that he was emotional when he performed this song on both nights of the Seoul concert. I know a lot of fans chose to deny this and insist that it’s just sweat and not tears, but the proof is right there with this concert. In Japan, it was all a performance. In Seoul, he was conveying his feelings through the song. The fact that he sang perfectly in Japan was the one that made the big difference. But don’t take my word for it. Watch and compare.

10. I felt like crying when Rain’s voice cracked like a bomb when he hit the sustained high note on the bridge of Love Story. I felt so sorry for him.

11. I think Rain’s age is starting to take its toll on him. Not through his moves, but through his singing. I ceased counting the number of times he hit bum notes or lost his breath or sang the wrong lyrics (even if it’s Korean and my Hangeul comprehension is near zero, I can still tell that he’s mumbling the wrong words). Really, he should consider doing Rain: Unplugged. It will work, Ji Hoon. Watch Ricky Martin’s MTV Unplugged for your reference.

12. Despite saying all that, I’m still going to splurge my year-end bonus and the little savings that I have and watch both Hong Kong shows next month. Call me crazy, but we should let the inner fangirl win sometimes.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.