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ToshI Charity Concert and Dinner Show in Gifu - April 9, 2011
On a spring day when cherry blossoms are blooming, ToshI Charity Concert was held at Hashima City Culture Center, and ToshI Charity Dinner & Live was held at Gifu Grand Hotel.
In late March, ToshI announced that he would hold charity concerts and dinner shows at four places in areas that were not affected by the earthquake. He felt deeply distressed by the devastation in Northern Japan, and decided to hold charity concerts to support the victims, and then arranged all the venues, staff and promotion activities by himself.
The main hall of Hashima City Culture Center has a seating capacity of about 1,300. Before the concert, Various goods, such as T-shirts, posters, CDs and others were sold at the lobby, and they announced every purchase of 2,000 yen or more products would have a chance to shake hands with ToshI after the show.
The stage was set up with the minimal equipment, appropriate for the charity concert. The grand piano was placed in the center, and the five-piece string band took their position on the right on the stage.
ToshI in a black suit and white scarf calmly appeared, and sat at the piano. He sang “Airport” and “Aisuru Hito yo” playing the piano along with the string band. His pure and beautiful singing voice resonated throughout the hall, and also resonated deep in my mind.
ToshI talked about his friend who lived in the earthquake-affected area and lost everything because of the disaster. It seemed the person said that relief supplies have been delivered to those areas bit by bit, but also entertainments to encourage and cheer up people there are needed, so ToshI was motivated to support them by singing.
After singing “Haru no Ibuki” standing and facing the audience, he called SHINYA and HEATH, and they started playing “Samurai Japan”. ToshI said “You may stand up only for this song”, so the audience stood up and started clapping their hands to the music. I felt the audience was much calmer than usual for this song, but I still tried to shout in responding to ToshI’s shouts.
The next was a cover song “Stand By Me”. ToshI read aloud the lyrics translated into Japanese before singing it. I think it was his message to encourage broken-hearted people and to tell that they were not alone. I felt we all became one by singing this song together.
HEATH and SHINYA went back once, and then ToshI sang “Forever Love” playing the piano. Differently from when singing with YOSHIKI’s piano accompaniment, he was singing in his own groove, but it was also gentle and beautiful.
After that, he sang “Nagoriyuki Itsumademo” for the first time in public. It’s a song about the day when he reunited with his mother after a long period of time. The lyrics that ToshI emotionally sang were so deep and as realistic as I could see the scenes, so my soul was shaken and my eyes were filled with tears.
After ToshI sang “Amaoto”, HEATH and SHINYA appeared again, and ToshI went away. The emcee asked them some questions and they answered, but she didn’t seem to be used to being an emcee, so their conversations were a bit awkward and funny. HEATH was so cool as usual, and SHINYA was good at loosening up the atmosphere.
They also talked about their feelings about the tragic disaster. HEATH said “I came here to do one of things I can do”, and SHINYA said “I will keep doing what I can with honesty, feeling as if I’m in the affected area”.
ToshI came back to the stage, and they played “Endless Rain”. It was arranged differently from the original X version, so it sounded very new to me and I also liked it.
After HEATH and SHINYA left there, ToshI sang “Crystal Piano no Kimi”. I didn’t exactly remember how he performed it at the fan club meeting last year, but this simple performance different from the CD version reminded me of the feeling I had when I first listened to this song, and tears streamed down my face.
The last song before encore was “Hoshizora no Neptune”. As I listened to it at the dinner show in January, it was so beautiful and fantastic.
Just after ToshI walked away, the audience started calling for an encore, and the new song “Haru no Negai” that was made as an aid for the disaster victims was performed. I felt as if his gentle and strong singing voice was going to fly over long distances and reach the disaster-affected areas.
After the concert, a lot of people were standing in line for the shaking-hands session at the lobby. ToshI, HEATH and SHINYA were standing behind the partition, and the line of people moved forward more smoothly than I had expected. ToshI was smiling at the people all the time, and his hand was soft and warm as I had known.
Gifu Grand Hotel was about 40 minutes drive away from Hashima City Culture Center, and was located by Nagara River that is famous for cormorant fishing. The venue for the dinner show was the banquet hall on the basement floor of the hotel. There were many round dinner tables, each of which was for six, and it seemed there were about 200 people in total.
The show started while we were having dinner. At first, ToshI talked with YOSHIKI in Los Angels over the phone. Apparently, it was around 4 a.m. in L.A. at that time, so YOSHIKI sounded really sleepy. He talked unusually slowly, and the way he talked was so cute like a kid. The conversation between them was really warm and fun as usual, which made me so happy.
After that, ToshI called SUGIZO who had just come back from the devastated area to Tokyo. He talked about his experience in the devastated area where he worked as a volunteer for 9 days, which brought a sense of tension to us. He said that he decided to become a billboard to encourage people to participate in volunteer activities, and also to organize a volunteer group, because he found that much more volunteers are needed in such areas.
The next part of the show was music performance. ToshI sang “Crystal Piano no Kimi” and “Hoshizora no Neptune” playing the piano along with the string band. Even though it was the second performance in a single day, his singing voice was still so beautiful.
Then, HEATH and SHINYA joined, and they played “Say Anything”. The familiar tune played by acoustic guitar, bass guitar and conga was really simple, but really gentle and warm. ToshI’s singing was so powerful and touching.
After that, the charity auction started. ToshI’s guitar, YOSHIKI’s drum sticks, HEATH’s hat and SUGIZO’s guitar strap were sold at more than 200,000 yen each, and the highest value was 350,000 yen for a Raphael’s art book on which YOSHIKI and ToshI’s autographs were signed.
When introducing PATA’s T-shirt and guitar pick, ToshI talked about an email reply from PATA, impersonating his voice. It sounded very much alike, and made us laugh so much.
The profits on sale of tickets and the funds raised through auction will be donated to the Red Cross to help victims in the disaster-affected areas.
The last part was music performance again. They played a cover of John Lennon’s song “Imagine”. As “Stand By Me” performed in the daytime concert, I felt it was ToshI’s message that he had in mind and wanted to convey through the song.
The show ended with “Haru no Negai” in an encore.
Though only a handful of songs were played, I still enjoyed not only music but also everything else.
After the show, ToshI hold an autograph-signing session out of the banquet hall. He signed autographs and shook hands with people who bought goods, and also HEATH and SHINYA shook hands with them. When I said “I’m also going to Osaka”, ToshI replied “I’ll be waiting for you” in a calm voice. I was so tensed, but it was a great moment.
Throughout the concert and the dinner show, I felt ToshI’s sincere concern for the victims and his earnest desire to support them. He is hoping to hold concerts also in the disaster-affected areas in the future, so I hope the day his singing voice encourages them and heals their hearts will come soon.
Credit: Xplosion
http://www.xplosion-online.com/index.php/en/reports/41-solo-concert-reports/299-toshi-charity-concert-and-dinner-show-in-gifu-april-9-2011