Piece de resistance

'Road of Resistance' is the song I've been most anticipating and dreading at the same time. Placed 12th on the KL setlist, this song packs such an inspirational quality. From the instrumentals, to the vocals, to the choreo, to the set, the lighting, the pyrotechnics, to the audience participation, these 8 plus minutes takes theatricality to another level! First of all, I doubt any theatre company has ever played to a 'live' audience of 20000 in one sitting. Second, the entire crowd is completely in sync with the performance, and right on cue with their parts in the the singing and movement. What it must have been like to be in the crowd during this production!

It begins with a riff that will stick in the head for a while. The girls are absolutely still, faces serious, two adjectives we would hardly use to describe this band. Each bearing a flag across their shoulders, they march with great resolve to centrestage and halt. Without saying a word, SU authoritatively parts the crowd with a simple but firm gesture, creating a giant mosh pit. What an epic build up of anticipation as we count the seconds to the imminent wall of death.

1234! and all heck breaks loose. The girls mount their steeds and charge full tilt across the landscape, kicking off yet another electrifyingly energetic piece of choreography. At this point we can pick out a subtle difference between YUI and MOA's approaches. YUI is fully immersed in her performance. At 1:56 YUI's expression looks like she's really giving her heart away and she keeps this attitude throughout. At 2:15 MOA is having the time of her life doing what she most loves to do: sing, dance, entertain her audience. It's nice to see that despite their different personalities, they still sync so well together.

One thing that sticks out for me is how freely they use the word, "forever". To sing of forever at this young age shows a lot of youthful idealism and naivete. It makes me sad because YUI will eventually leave the band, and one of the guitarists will lose his life in an accident within the next few years. After these events, the band is no longer so casual with their use of "forever".

Anyway, just before they get to the audience participation bit, there's an instrumental bridge. The guitar and drums set a blistering pace, then impossibly accelerate even further before dropping back down. But the crowd has already been so excited that they gladly fill in the void when SU invites them to sing the "woah-oh-oh-oh" response, and we get this 20000-strong choir valiantly struggling to keep up with SU's higher notes. She lets them go acapella for a few bars before graciously taking back control and ending the song with a literal bang!

And the moment I've been dreading arrives. With a chorus of "see you" the show comes to a close. At least, it does in the video. Not in KL. Here, without a word, the girls exit stage right, and we're left in darkness and silence. We're not sure what's happening, but since there was no "thank you" or "see you" signal of dismissal, perhaps we're not done yet...?

Gimme BABYMETAL

I've responded once already to 'Gimme Chocolate', the song and video that launched BABYMETAL onto the world stage. So instead of featuring the official MV again, here's another fancam shot on location at Zepp, KL on their 2023 world tour.

'Gimme Chocolate' was indeed my very first encounter with the band. It was years ago, but in all places, a shopping mall in Bangkok, while I was on vacation. A song with a beat much heavier than all the other songs playing on the PA system made me perk up and pay attention. Then children's voices piped up -- in Japanese, and I was in Thailand -- and they kept repeating one English word that I could recognize: 'chocolet-to'. I remember thinking it could have been some weird commercial for chocolate, but the music went on longer than any commercial should have. Intrigued, I was determined to research this band and find out more about this weirdness once I got back home. But the Internet being what it was back then, and me possessing the attention span of a goldfish, I completely forgot about it.

The second time I encountered BABYMETAL was when they took their first tour to the USA, and they appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to publicize their new album. That's when my memory clicked back, and I could now connect this distant memory of a song with its performers. So I looked them up on YouTube, curious to find out what they were like back in Japan. I saw the Gimme Choco video, and I dimly remember watching 'Headbanger' as well. My brain instantly shut down due to sensory overload. Also, the girls were too young to be making this kind of music. It felt so wrong. Somebody behind the scenes had to be exploiting these poor kids for profit, and I really didn't want to give them any more of my attention.

I guess it was the third time, encountering them on The First Take that I realized how talented SU and MOA were. If it had been just a quick cash grab like I thought back then, they wouldn't have continued making music this long, and they wouldn't have evolved their music to grow up along with them. And so began my delving into the Foxhole, perhaps hoping that their art could help inspire something of my own.

Spicy Asian fruit salad

The papaya is just a humble, common Asian fruit. To most of us, it's a sweet dessert fruit, cut to bite-sized portions and served chilled. But in Thailand, the pre-ripened fruit is mercilessly shredded and served with cut chillies as a sour-sweet, spicy appetizer that explodes in the mouth with an overwhelming mix of flavours. That's how it is with 'Pa Pa Ya!!', where even the song title is shredded!!

The dance beat hits right from the get-go. Everyone is jumping and amplifying the rhythmic pa pa ya vocalizations provided by guest collaborator, F. Hero, a Thai rapper of some renown. The verse comes in, catchy as heck. The pre-chorus builds anticipation, then whack! The chorus smashes in with even more energy, and we all go nuts. Very simple lyrics and a predictable composition makes it easy for the crowd to know when to respond with a "hey!" a "yo!" a "pa pa... ya!" and a towel (or official merch bandana) twirl.

Just when things get too predictable, F Hero shows up, spittin' a hard hitting rap in Thai-English, though on their world tour concerts it's a recording. His harsh, staccato flow contrasts against SU's melodic lines. Each brings their own distinctive flavour to the table, but both complement each other so well in this one delectable, exciting, and fun dish of a song.

The choreography borrows from traditional Thai dance, though not as heavily as it does from traditional Indian dance in 'Shanti Shanti Shanti'. There's a more contemporary feel to these movements as the traditional ones are blended in with F. Hero's Molam sub-culture.

BABYMETAL's positive vibe continues through this song, but they politely let F. Hero deliver the main lines:

Knock, knock, knock, struggling

Pound our lives with some happiness and sadness

Papaya needs to be pound[ed] hard

So it can be yummy, crispy and delicious

Translated lyrics from here.

I appreciate SU making the effort to roll her 'R's every time she sings "brrring it on, brrring it" in the pre-chorus. The 'R' sound is absent in most long-established Asian languages, so it has to be learned and practiced consciously to be pronounced. Props to her for striving to respect the languages she uses to engage her internationally diverse audience.

It's hard to believe we're all jumping, sweating, and yelling ourselves hoarse in a cardio workout of roughly 4 minutes to a song about fruit salad. Thanks, ladies!

The fourth member of the band

Although there is an official MV for 'Distortion', the ninth song in the KL setlist, I've chosen to feature footage from another fancam on site. Again, I hope they don't mind.

What we see is a view from the audience's perspective of what it's like being in the crowd at a BABYMETAL concert. This song, in particular, seems to invite the audience to join in with simple repetitive English phrases, and a catchy 'Wo-o-o-o-o-o-oh!', while we respectfully leave the Japanese words to SU.

It doesn't matter how badly we mangle our parts in the song, we're all creating this shared experience together, and it's part of the fun. It's especially awesome that these performers encourage the crowd to sing along, yet they still deliver a bangin' show without getting distracted or thrown off by our awful accompaniment.

It's this feeling like they treat us collectively as the fourth member of the band that makes their 'live' performances so special. It's possibly the reason that despite my miscreant tendencies, I had to buy a ticket to the show without hesitation. I wasn't going to be there just to coldly audit the show, I was going to be a part of it.

This monochrome firework

I started this BABYMETAL journey with 'Monochrome' on The First Take. I'm just a whatever's-on-the-radio's-fine-with-me mainstream guy, so I have no alignment to any musical preferences at all. While I did listen to Linkin Park (which is sort of metal) for a while back in the day, I was no fan of the genre as a whole. But when I stumbled on BABYMETAL performing on piano, I was intrigued. What would a metal song sound like without the metal? The performance SU and MOA presented was beautifully melodic, passionately, and sincerely delivered with love and tenderness -- so uncharacteristic of my stereotypical conception of metal that I got drawn in right away. If this is what metal can be, I want more!

Immediately, I searched for and found the official lyric video. Certainly, the instrumentation was heavy, as I'd expected, but the guitar produced yet another beautiful melody of its own, leading in to SU's main vocals and MOA's supporting vocals that hit like hammer on anvil, respectively, with the drummer putting out rhythms at a speed I'd never heard before. I didn't see any choreography since it was a lyric video, but when I discovered more of their music, the dance was yet another layer on a package that was both thoughtfully composed, and movingly heartfelt. And I'm a sucker for theatrical performances with high production values. And poetic lyrics that make you think. This band ticks all the right boxes for me, so I'll be stuck in this foxhole for quite a while yet.

Anyway, the featured video (above) is not the official lyric one, but a fan edit that was clearly painstakingly put together to integrate the official video with the band's 'live' performance, as I would have experienced in KL, although the size of the audience would have been a tiny fraction of what we see here. The girls here are dressed in their pre-world tour 2023 outfits, but if you go back to look at their current concert attire (which I saw them wear for the first time on The First Take singing 'The One -- Unfinished ver.'), they're still wearing all-black, but with plastic chromatic frills that reflect light in a spectrum of multi-colours. It's a clever way to brighten up an otherwise drab monochrome dress with a costume feature that creates dynamic rainbow colours with every movement. I believe this song is the very inspiration behind this unique design choice.

'Monochrome' appears on the KL tour setlist right in the middle of the repertoire, making it the feature song of the concert. For the special connection I have with this song, oddly enough in its non-metal form, it's definitely this fanboy's favourite.

BxMxC (the x's are silent)

We're now smack in the middle of the KL setlist, arguably where the most fun songs in the repertoire are. The energy skyrockets with fan-favourite 'BxMxC', a metal hip-hop rap battle. Pardon me if I leave my brain out of this one, and just jump with the beat, shouting along to the 'B! M! C!' chant, since there's no way I can match SU's spittin', even if I knew Japanese.

I imagine a scenario in which SU is having a heated debate with her Other, but she is monopolizing all the airtime, while the Other can't get a word in edgeways. Her upward inflections at the end of every line in the pre-chorus suggests that she ain't done talking yet, so just shut up and listen, yo! The choreo is aggressive, featuring lots of restrained kicks and sweeping punches. It's clear they've conquered and assimilated hip-hop, with SU throwin' down some acapella bars in the final verse for good measure.

The video I chose to feature above is their performance for TV broadcast on NHK. I feel that the official MV contains an unnecessary storytelling element, and that their 'live' shows are much better at showcasing their newer music. This video also features a short interview with SU and MOA, so I thought I'd let the ladies speak a bit, and introduce themselves for a change.

The psychological truth of 'Mirror Mirror'

We're now comfortably in the middle section of the KL set. Starting with 'Believing', the songs now come from their latest album, 'The Other One', which dropped in March this year. These new songs show a much more mature side to the band. Gone is the child-like playfulness of their earlier music and choreography. What remains is the commitment to hard-driving metal which is core to their identity, while the vocal line remains beautifully lyrical and melodic. The tunefulness of the vocals is catchy and tempting to sing, or at least hum along to, like as if we could keep up with SU-METAL.

'Mirror Mirror' is a weird combination of familiar references from Disney's version of 'Snow White' and Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. SU's line references the wicked queen as she indulges her vanity while looking into the mirror. MOA replies with the chant of the 'weird sisters' before they show Macbeth the illusory vision of his ascension to royalty, motivating his descent into serial murder just to maintain a brief, heirless, and ultimately pointless rule.

The point is that the mirror lies to us. Need I say that the mirror could also be social media that we allow to dictate our identity? Focused on our mirror image, we are stuck where we are, this illusory superlative sense of self, being either the 'fairest', or the 'worst'. Instead, stop focusing on yourself, and turn your back to the mirror. Then you'll see life, and navigate through life as it really is. Wow. That piece of wisdom alone has saved me 10 to 20 years' of therapy down the road!

Going back to the choreography, it's clear that the band is much more confident that their music does indeed transcend borders, regardless of language barriers. They are no longer bound to literal storytelling in their movements. They are not above doing it when performing their older songs, but it's not who they are any more. Their choreo has evolved to be more aesthetically appealing, hence the synchronicity and overall symmetry of movement, generally suggesting the constantly shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope, with every nuance of gesture deliberate and rehearsed to perfection.

Letting the music tell its own story, the dance has become an additional instrument in the band, providing notes and rhythms for the eye, enhancing what the ear already hears. The dance now contributes to the music instead of trying to talk over it, like it used to. While many of us miss the controlled chain explosions of tiny chaos that early BABYMETAL used to be about, they have allowed for the progression of maturity, and instead of fighting change, the band has evolved with natural grace. Taking their own advice, this band isn't stuck looking at itself in the mirror.