Having released their latest album “THE END” earlier this year, BLUE ENCOUNT headed on a nationwide tour around Japan entitled “BLUE ENCOUNT TOUR 2017 break ‘THE END,’” which concluded at the Fukuoka Convention Center.

The final show began with the title song “THE END.” Tanabe began with the opening lyrics, “owarasete hajimete ugokidasu kodou ga aru / tachiagare sono subete ni hajimari wo tsugero.” The words are a little negative, but are in fact filled with feelings of facing forward in a positive manner. The feelings of the fans whose excitement buried the room, and the feelings of each band member grew to elate quietly but surely.

 The second song was “HEART.” The performance stayed true to and surged into the tracklist of the album, bringing together both the fans and the band into a thrilled frenzy. While that frenzy played out, Tanabe sang “jibun no koudo wo kiku no sae tsurainda.” These lyrics are much different to the previous song “THE END” and give us a peek into the hurt in Tanabe’s heart, which struck a chord in the hearts of those in the crowd. It tells us that all human emotions, which are filled with contradictions, chaos and more, are true feelings. Again, this is a theme linked to the diverse album that is “THE END.”

It’s also something that displayed itself throughout this tour – and during the course of this final live performance. BLUE ENCOUNTER went on to perform rebellious beat punk tunes such as “TA.WA.KE” and “School Clap” which stirred up the crowd, as well as the tear-inducing love song “Namida” and rap song “city.” These were seamlessly connected together with their power pop tune “LOVE” which is sung entirely in English. The opening and ending of the show were extremely well-received by all, but what really sold it was how well the performance was strung together, with absolutely no pauses even in the middle, displaying the true charm of “THE END” as an album and the strength of BLUE ENCOUNTER’s concerts today.

What made it that much better was that this final show was a kind of homecoming as the band performed in their hometown. Vocalist Tanabe said at the start of the performance, “This is the quickest I’ve felt the love on this tour. Thank you. The love is strong with our hometown... And I can finally say, we’re back!” The tour also included their birthplace of Kumamoto, the place where they performed their first big, packed-out solo concert. Although they felt nervous performing their first one man live in their hometown, they performed strong and wholeheartedly with the freedom to have a good time.

Each of the members’ characters were much more prominent during this tour. Tsujimura plays his bass with such energy that the fans’ excitement continues to grow, showing just how entertaining he really is. Eguchi is a tall rock guitarist that has a real coolness about him, and you can catch him smiling while playing his guitar, giving us that real intimate vibe he has with the crowd. And Takamura’s performance is filled with liveliness when he drums. Their characters are sincere, it would be crazy not to love everything about them.

But the one that sums up the tour and what this band’s about is Tanabe. His singing will make you dance, cry, go crazy, and his words will pierce through you when he talks. At the end of the performance, he said, “This concert is sold out. This gorgeous scene in front of me taught me that selling tickets isn’t everything. But I still really wanted to do this with a full house.” Since there’s currently no Zepp Fukuoka venue, this might be called a reckless challenge of a concert, yet they still decided to perform at the Fukuoka Convention Center. The capacity of the convention center way outnumbers that of a Zepp venue, but Tanabe said he would definitely like to try it again in the future.

The tour also included a performance at Makuhari Messe. But with that, BLUE ENCOUNT’s biggest tour has finally come to a close. It was a huge success, but this tour showed that the band has only just begun.

The band will be supporting MAXIMUM THE HORMONE on their tour at two performances – one in Fukuoka and one in Kumamoto. It’s also been announced that they will be participating “NUMBER SHOT,” a festival in Fukuoka. Tanabe said, “I can’t say exactly what just now, but we have a number of things in mind. Please look forward to it.” They really are just beginning. He also stated, “We’ve always wanted to continue ‘Owari wo Kowasu Tabi.’” We can continue to look forward that trip too.

Photo：Kazushi Hamano

■Information

BLUE ENCOUNT

TOUR 2017 break “THE END”

May 7^th, 2017 @ Fukuoka Convention Center

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