My first post, S/mile Factory

For my first post, I would like to talk about an event I attended today, S/mileage Limited Live 2011 "Smile Factory".  The original date was March 20th but due to the earthquake this event was one of the ones postponed far into the future.  So it was hard to imagine that the day to use our 3/20 tickets would ever come, but it did.  And it felt incredibly strange looking at the ticket and reminding myself that no we did not miss the concert, it just never happened.

Boyfriend and I arrived about an hour before the show so we stopped at Subway for a light lunch.  Since it was called a Limited Live and all blogs by the members mentioned practicing about 10 songs, we weren't expecting it to go more than an hour.  Apparently the management had other ideas.  Wandered among the wota, got a  purple glowstick and headed inside when our numbers were called.  And lo and be hold two of my old wota group from Nagoya were in the same area as us (it was standing and we decided to hang back because neither of us was feeling gung-ho about being in the center of the charge pit today) so I got to chat with them a bit.  Turns out one of them is going on the Hawaii tour too (will make a post about that later, but yes I am going on the Musume Hawaii Tour because I was able to get the loan)

The live itself was great, they stared out with Shortcut in flower frilly outfits and even from the back of the performance hall we had a pretty good view, especially when they stepped out onto the extended part of the stage.  I don't remember all of the songs, and haven't been able to locate a setlist online at the moment but here are some of the highlights:

• Melon Kinenbi's "This is Unmei" always a song to get the audience pumped up but boy is that one a draining one.  Not to mention that it was in a line-up of four or five other high energy songs, including "Yume Miru 15" and "Suki-chan"
• Miki Fujimoto's "Romantic Ukare Mode" which I half-wotagei'd to.  The four of them performed it really well.
• Both Tanpopo songs that they have had on their singles and albums, for some reason Tanpopo just matches them so well.
• I am not entirely sure but I believed they performed the W song "I&U&I" or something of that nature.  Was definitely an unexpected choice.
• Uchouten Love.  This is a great song and the perfect choice for the last single to only feature four members.  It's upbeat, it has para para, and it is easy to follow along with.  It is in fact so much fun that I accidentally hit my glasses and sent them flying in front of my friend's feet, but luckily they weren't stepped on and my boyfriend was able to grab them since I am blind as a bat without them. Definitely give this one a listen when concert rips are up.

Other corners of the live/promotion for the TV show included an extension of the rap battle they worked on on last month's show, with the audience writing down which team they thought did better at the end, and a VTR while the members were changing of them drawing random numbers (well I guess not random if it is pre-recorded) from a bag that you could win signed goods.  We were one number off on one of our tickets x_x

It was overall a great live, though there were loud "Eee" noises from the crowd every time one of the members announced that this would be their last solo live with only four members, last single, etc.  But that didn't deter anyone from having a great time.  Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon though I am now completely exhausted and glad I go in later on Monday's.

So I will leave you with a picture of my S/mileage 押し　Fukuda Kanon.