A BEAUTIFUL REEL B'z 7th Video | Release date: November 21, 2002 Review by --- Tenzan

The first of two Live-Gym concerts I watched was A BEAUTIFUL REEL - B'z LIVE GYM 2002 - GREEN ~ GO* FIGHT* WIN that was held at various stadiums and arenas throughout Japan, as part of their tour, with the Yokohama International Stadium being the main site for this event. Several months ago before the concert, Brazil and Germany went head to head in the finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Tournament and in the end, it was Brazil that scored the win and the coveted World Cup. A couple of nights before that, there was a special World Cup concert featuring both B'z and Aerosmith, two of the greatest rock bands alive. B'z performed their mini-Live-Gym, while Aerosmith later took the stage with their mini-concert. In one of the most memorable performances ever, both bands came together on stage to perform Train Kept A Rollin', much to the delight of the crowd on hand watching this historic event!

Fast forward months later and the Yokohama International Stadium lit up again, not because of a World Cup match or World Cup concert, but because B'z is there for another memorable and rocking Live-Gym concert! The concert started off interestingly enough, with the two giant screens merging at the beginning and as they did, both Koshi Inaba and Tak Matsumoto came out from the stage to a huge reaction from the crowd at hand! Pyros erupted and the band (along with Mr. Big bassist, Billy Sheehan, who just happens to be one of Gan's all-time favourite bassists, drummer Shane Gaalaas and longtime member, keyboardist Masuda Takanobu, performed the first song of the evening, Go* Fight* Win, which was a great song to kick it off.

After that, another great song was played, as the band performed Stay Green and after that, a short performance of ZERO. Love Me, I Love You then followed after that and then, WARP was performed. Surfin' 3000GTR was up next and during one cool moment, Koshi jumped onto a surfboard with a blue screen behind him, as the screen showed Koshi "surfing" with a computer-generated background of the sea! Blue Sunshine was then played after that performance and it was a lovely performance itself.

Tak then took centerstage, kissing his prized Gibson, as well as blowing kisses to the crowd. He then conveyed a speech, then proceeded to perform a beautiful oriental instrumental that he came up with called Koi Uta. It was just lovely with the use of percussions, Chinese instruments, a giant inflatable dragon in the background and what looked like a PV of the song, with Tak playing in it. It was just simply amazing and at one point, I felt that my eyes went watery due to the sheer magic and emotion put into this song. It's just something you have to see for yourself.

Later, Tak left the stage, then re-emerged, as he went to a smaller stage in the stadium, with a not-so suspicious security guard leading him. The "security guard" then took of his shades, jacket and cap to reveal Koshi! The two then performed acoustic versions of Koi-Gokoro and Hadashi No Megami, further showing off their talents in doing "Unplugged" performances. The two the headed back to the stage for the next performance, which was the English song, DEVIL, as fire erupted from the set and the stage, giving it that hellish feeling. Masuda then was given his own solo time, as he played another hellish number on his keyboards and showing off his awesome skills on it. A lovely ballad, Everlasting followed and it was also another lovely performance. Shane was next for his solo performance and it's good to see that he was enjoying himself as he banged his drums like no tomorrow and really hyping up the crowd! Next was Fireball, which surprisingly, didn't use any pyro in it. The familiar intro to Liar! Liar! then played, as the band performed the song to perfection! Samayoeru Aoi Dangan was next and it was such a killer performance, as pyro was used for this performance as well and the band did an awesome job with this performance! It turned out to be my favourite performance of the night cause of that! Finally, Billy showcased his wicked bass skills and totally impressed the crowd. Giri Giri Chop was then performed, which was pretty good, followed by Ultra Soul that kept the crowd alive, as they jumped during the ending part of the chorus!

1. Tak and Billy Sheehan, guitar and bass duel | 2. If it's B'z and if it's outdoor, you can count on amazing fireworks | 3. The craziness that was JUICE performance.

Koshi then conveyed a speech, mainly discussing about how they came up with the name for their album, Green and other stuff as well. Then, for the encore, he started singing Atsuki Kodou No Hate, then went up to the huge Live-Gym banner and pulled it down, revealing the lucky fans, who were picked to join the stage and they had a helluva time up there! The show ended with a kickass performance of JUICE, with the crowd really getting into it and the concert ended, with pyros exploding in true Live-Gym fashion. An explosive way to end what was indeed an awesome concert! In the middle of the concert, DVD owners were treated to stuff backstage, including Koshi trying to train Shane in his Japanese, Billy goofing around, Shane celebrating his birthday, the band practicing and some of the showcases that B'z had done en route to this concert! Simply amazing is all I can say, that's for sure!

- Tenzan -

Continues to Tenzan's review of Typhoon No. 15

Or read a full report of LiveGym 2002 - "GREEN"

May 11, 2005 | Tenzan | Pictures byTenzan | Gathered by Keen for this website ©