Utada Hikaru in Concert
Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. Planning season has lasted a lot longer than I anticipated, and I’ve been pulling mad hours at the office (12+ hour days several times throughout a week). When I get home, I’m typically too drained to write a review or do anything beyond eat dinner and pass out. But enough of the negative, let’s focus on the positive: UTADA HIKARU – IN THE FLESH!
“But wait, who is Utada Hikaru,” some of you may be asking. No worries, I got this a lot at work when I told them that I was skipping the premiere of LOST to go see this woman in concert at the House of Blues – one of several of her nationwide sold-out shows.
I first became familiar with Utada Hikaru back in college when my Malaysian friends introduced me to a song called “First Love.” Having listened to several mixes (her regular version, a solo piano version, and a dance remix version) I decided to try to find more of her music. I ended up downloading several albums worth of her Japanese songs, and a few years later she came out with an American release album, having gained some traction in the states with her theme song to the popular video game Kingdom Hearts.
I’m personally a fan of the Japanese version of her Kingdom Hearts themes (“Simple and Clean” for the first game, and “Passion” and “Sanctuary” for the sequel). Her songs have also appeared in a lot of animes, including the critically acclaimed “Evangelion :01” that I reviewed a few months ago.
So suffice it to say, she’s a bi-lingual singer known mostly for her pop music, but she has an amazing ability to transfer great emotion into her voice for her songs.
And her concert was SOLD OUT.
So the ticket said that doors opened at 7pm and it was a warmer (28 degree) evening than we have been experiencing, so my goal was to run from the office to the doors of the House of Blues, which is only a block away. Boy, did that not work in my favor. The line extended from the entrance to the bridge over the river (approximately a block and a half). I stood out in the cold without my coat (why pay for coat check when the office is only a block away, right?), chatting and making friends with much warmer / smarter people in line who were bundled up.
We eventually made it inside the building, a very unique-looking structure with a three-tiered balcony system and bars on all the walls. I was on the ground floor up against a bar, crammed in by people (who eventually became obnoxious) but with easy access to the adult nectar.
We found out that Utada wasn’t supposed to take the stage until 9pm, so there was an hour of a guy from New York spinning the same 7 songs over and over again. It was certainly better than silence, but the crowd was not as forgiving as I was. They wanted Utada. I made friends with a group of people by the bar, and we joked that her delayed stage presence was probably related to the Tivo in the hotel not working so she could record the premiere of LOST.
Whatever the reason, Utada took the stage to a thunderous applause promptly at 9pm – and she was GORGEOUS. After two songs, she took a moment to address the audience, exclaiming that the space was so small (which I took to mean that we were all really close to the stage). My fear had been that she was only going to sing her American songs, since her second American album had just been released, but thankfully like any good performer, she knew her audience wanted more. She did a pretty even split between her American and Japanese songs, as well as her old and new stuff.
After every few songs she would take a moment to talk to the audience about her tour, her music, or her life. She explained that she was having a low self-esteem day, that she felt like she had dressed like a witch (in her black see-through shall and white top, and poofy 80s dress with her hair full of mouse and spray. She then started talking about how this was her first time in Chicago and how during her day off the previous day she had gone to the Art Museum to see the Picasso paintings. At this point, the less mature audience members stopped caring and started shouting out song requests (thus reaffirming my hatred for attending events in public). But her words made me think: how much does one tend to have in common with a celebrity like her? If I had been at the museum at the same time, would I have noticed her in a crowd? Had we struck up a conversation, would we have become friends?
Utada performed for a full hour and forty minutes before exiting the stage very abruptly. The crowd, however, continued to cheer for an encore. After about 10 minutes of cheering at an empty stage, Utada and the band reappeared and performed for another 40 minutes.
Utada was the first concert experience that I’ve had at the House of Blues, and certainly the first from an international performer. And I was not disappointed. Her performance was insightful, moving, and tons of fun. She makes singing seem effortless, and her voice is like a welcome summer breeze on a hot day. I’d skip LOST any day of the week to see her perform again.
