Full Live Concert Report of Yorushika’s 2021 Tour “Plagiarism”!

I went to Yorushika’s live concert from their 2021 Plagiarism Tour on their first night in Tokyo! This time, I would like to write a concert report in detail also as a memo for my memory. I will write the details as far as I can remember, but I’m sorry that there are many ambiguous parts.

This is my 3rd time watching their concert after Moonlight Tour in 2019 and a live streaming of their concert “Previous Life” in 2020. I headed for the venue with excitement and high expectations for the new production and setlist. The seated venue was in Hall A of the Tokyo International Forum.

The doors opened at 6 p.m. Now, it’s time to enter. My seat was in the 36th row, which was slightly in the back of the center in the audience. I hope to get a seat with a single-digit number in the dead center once in my lifetime… On the screen in the center of the stage, there was a white anemone swaying in the wind and a relaxing instrumental tune was playing and it almost made me fall asleep.

⇨ “A Yorushika Fan Speaks of the Band’s Many Charms”

As I introduced in my previous blog post, Yorushika often write in a style where they pass the story through an album, and their live performance is produced in the same way with a concept. This tour was based on the themes of their album “Plagiarism” released on July 29, 2020 and EP “Creation” released on January 27, 2021.

Finally it’s show time. The performance kicked off with piano and poetry told by the composer n-buna. The poetry was a story about a boy and a girl who are childhood friends going to a neighboring town for a summer festival, and was told from the boy’s perspective. My heart naturally beats faster as the passionate lines are being told. The story then flows into the first song, “Prostitution”.

“Prostitution” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Every time I watch Yorushika’s live performance, I’m always impressed by the quality that is much higher than the CD! I was overwhelmed by suis’s exceptional singing. I remember that the lighting production for this song was also so cool.

“Thought Crime” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

The second song is “Thought Crime”. The vocals in the climax of the song were so powerful that I got goosebumps. The third song is “Robber and Bouquet”, then the show moves on to the poetry section again.

- Got off the bus and the girl said to the boy, “I have talked to a ghost before. The ghost seemed to be waiting for someone. Do you believe in past lives?” When he looked up, the crape myrtle was vividly blooming overhead. -

In the intro of the fourth song “Burglar”, n-buna made a slight mistake in his guitar riff (he’s still cool!). This kind of mistake is unique to the nerves in live performances. The fifth and sixth songs reproduce the flow to “Flower and Badger Game” from “Replicant”, which is my favorite part from the album. I could see n-buna’s calculating personality in the video on the screen where he’s alluding to a man and a woman falling in love, and it made me grin. The show goes back to n-buna reciting poetry again.

- The train the boy and the girl were planning to take was suspended due to an accident, so they decided to walk for an hour along the mountain road to the neighboring town. The boy picked up a white anemone blooming in the meadow and secretly put it in her hair. - (this is the same anemone on the screen we the audience saw before the show started!)

“Escape” (PROMOTIONAL VIDEO of Manga Call of the Night)

The seventh song is “Escape”. Looking at the lyrics, it fits perfectly with the concept of this live concert. Did the boy and the girl keep walking feeling like they were escaping from reality? In the album, n-buna’s harmony in the chorus is impressive, but in this live performance, I think it was only suis’s vocals! (it may change for each performance) This song was followed by gentle and a little painful songs including “Eat the Wind” for the eighth song on the setlist, the ninth “Night Journey”, and the tenth “Liar”, I felt the show was almost at its highlight. The two finally arrived at the festival.

- As a huge flower blooms in the night sky, you happily look back at me. The anemone is still on your hair. When will you notice it? Maybe never... Suddenly, I thought it was funny and I laughed. -

“Plagiarism” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

The eleventh song they played was “Plagiarism”, which is also a tour title. In the center of the stage, a monument of “destruction” that is impressive in the music video has appeared. For this live performance, I noticed that the melody of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky’s was mixed in the piano part. Maybe they’ve stolen some other pieces of music (I didn’t find anything else). Combined with the impact of the twelfth song “Bomber”, I felt the high emotions and the peak point of this live performance.

“Spring Thief” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

The thirteenth song is “Spring Thief”. It’s a song that compares human life to cherry blossoms. I guess many people have heard this song because it was used in a TV commercial. The cherry blossoms in full bloom on the screen were impressively beautiful until the end of the song.

The last song is “Ghost in a Flower”. I didn’t even know what the setlist was going to be like, but I had a feeling that the show was probably going to end with this song, which made me a little sad. Unlike the strong vocals in “Plagiaris

- Unexpectedly, my past memories came back to life. Yes, I’m sure that I met you in my previous life. The ghost you saw in your childhood was my previous life. Since that day, I started to believe in reincarnation. - - The End -

That’s all for my live concert report of Yorushika’s 2021 Tour “Plagiarism”. It was a live performance without any MC or encore, which is typical of Yorushika, but it ended with a sense of satisfaction and an afterglow as if I watched a movie. I was so excited that I couldn’t move for a while. I’m looking forward to Yorushika’s next work!

Yorushika Official Website:https://yorushika.com/
YouTubeYorushika n-buna Official
Twitter@ nbuna_staff
Instagram@yorushika_official_

Before ending this concert report, I would like to introduce the equipment that n-buna is said to have used at the show.

Walrus Audio / Slö

The Slö is a reverb pedal that creates ambient soundscapes. You can control it however you like from deep and sleepy modulation reverb to majestic shimmer effects.

ORANGE / KONGPRESSOR

The KONGPRESSOR is a high quality analog compressor that cannot be imagined from its eccentric design.

KORG / minilogue xd Analog and Digital Hybrid Synthesizer

The minilogue xd is a synthesizer with real analog sound and a digital multi-engine. It is equipped with many other functions including effects, sequencer, and micro tuning.