On Sunday, September 22nd, EXILE TAKAHIRO held “EXILE TAKAHIRO Budokan LIVE 2024 “GLORY” ~Happiness~” at Nippon Budokan.
Nippon Budokan is the venue where the final battle of the EXILE new vocalist audition “VOCAL BATTLE AUDITION” took place on September 22, 2006, when TAKAHIRO joined EXILE, and this day will be a memorable solo live performance held at the same venue on the same day, 18 years after he joined EXILE. The theme of the first day was “Dream”, and the theme of this day was “Happiness”. Not only was the selection of songs filled with TAKAHIRO’s love of music, but the members of ACE OF SPADES, a rock band he formed with HISASHI from GLAY, made a surprise appearance during the encore, making the second night a special one.
The first song was “EVOLUTION”. TAKAHIRO appeared in silhouette, spread his arms, smiled for a moment, and started singing. As the title song of his first album “EXILE EVOLUTION” after joining EXILE, it was a stylish opening that reminded us of the origin of his career and its evolution. In “Irish Blue”, he looked out at the audience and said, “Let’s make the best memories!”, and in the second half of the song, he joined the 9,000 audience members. In “FULL THROTTLE”, which started with a heavy intro, the band members were smiling while playing at the front of the stage. The lyrics say “Enjoy yourself to the best of your life”, and TAKAHIRO’s liberated expression, who trusts his members and his fans and enjoys music more than anyone else, was impressive.
In the first MC, he expressed his gratitude, saying, “Yesterday, I went all out without pacing myself, but today I want to go all out again. Thanks to all of you, I was able to stand on this Budokan stage again, just like last year. And it’s full house for two days. It’s the best.” He also said that yesterday’s theme was “Dream,” and he poured his feelings and thoughts from chasing dreams into the song, and proudly stated, “Today is ‘Happiness.’ I want to deliver a divine setlist filled with the many happy days I’ve received from all of you, and the feelings I’ve had from them, even though it’s a bit embarrassing for me to say it myself (laughs)!”
The next zone, featuring “Happiness,” started with “Dream Catcher.” They performed a medley of the nostalgic “Giver,” the stunning a cappella “Each Other’s Way,” and “Yell,” which hadn’t been performed in quite a while.
In the next MC, TAKAHIRO expressed his joy and gratitude for being able to stand on the same stage for two years in a row. “I personally consider Nippon Budokan to be a sacred place, so I decided to approach it with the intention of being reborn, and for the first time in my adult life, I abstained from alcohol! For two weeks (lol)!” he said, drawing laughs. “For all of you, and for the delicious draft beer (lol), I’m going to give it my all today!” he said with a big smile.
The middle zone started with a gentle “A leaf ~Spiral Goodbye~”. This was the first time that this song was performed live on these two days, but it was followed by EXILE numbers such as “O’ver” and “Fallin'”, which TAKAHIRO himself has a deep attachment to. In the MC, he said, “There were so many songs I wanted to deliver that I couldn’t see the end of the concert when I was thinking about the set list. As an EXILE fan, I still hope to sing and immerse myself in the music, and continue to empathize with everyone.” Then, when “Eternal” was introduced, the venue was filled with emotional cheers.
In the second half of the live, he performed the first single “Everything” as EXILE’s second chapter, “Someday” as the third chapter, and “NEW HORIZON” as the fourth chapter, which were memorable numbers that started each chapter, followed by his solo song “Fly Away” where everyone enjoyed singing the chorus together. TAKAHIRO delivered “The Person of Destiny” that he himself treasures very much, with all his heart, and the tension in the venue reached its maximum with “Choo choo TRAIN”. He further excited the audience with “YOU are ROCK STAR” that carried that momentum, and then flew off with hard numbers such as “EXPLORE” and his latest song “DESTINY”. This new song was created when he sang “GLORIA” at the Budokan live last year, when the band members were asked to play an original prologue song, and he liked the chord progression of the song, and he had been planning to “finish it as a song someday”, and TAKAHIRO commented, “I’m very happy that the dots have become a line and I can deliver it to everyone.”
The last song of the main performance was “ON THE WAY ~Light of Love~”, and he said, “I hope in my heart that I can come back to this stage again and see you all again.” Looking around the venue, he said, “I will continue to try my best to deliver songs that reach the hearts of each and every person, without forgetting my original intentions.”
During the encore, ACE OF SPADES, a rock band formed in 2012 after the 2005 collaboration “GLAY x EXILE”, made a special surprise appearance. TAKAHIRO performed hard and heavy vocals with HISASHI (G) from GLAY, TOKIE (Ba) from AJICO/LOSALIOS, and MOTOKATSU MIYAGAMI (Dr) from THE MAD CAPSULE MARKETS/GASTANK. As this was his first live performance in five years, HISASHI smiled and said, “ACE OF SPADES is fun. It’s more like a collision sound than music though (laughs),” and he also talked about his enthusiasm for future live performances and tours with TAKAHIRO.
Following the video announcing the release of the new song “DESTINY”, he also announced that he will hold a Christmas live show “EXILE TAKAHIRO CHRISTMAS LIVE 2024 “Winter Song” ~Love~” at Tokyo Garden Theater on December 24th. Welcomed by cheers, TAKAHIRO delivered “Unconditional” singing “Don’t let go of my hand, connected by asexual love”, and ended the live show at his sacred ground, Nippon Budokan.
■Release Info
EXILE TAKAHIRO
DIGITAL SINGLE
“DESTINY”
▼ Track list
DESTINY
Fallin’
More Stronger (LIVE from Taro Hakase Music Festival 2024)
2024.09.23(Mon) Stream / Download
▼List of music distribution service links
https://avex.lnk.to/UKfRBj-20240923-Destiny
■ Performance Information
EXILE TAKAHIRO CHRISTMAS LIVE 2024 “Winter Song” ~Love~
12/24 (Tue) Doors open 17:30/Start 18:30
Venue: Tokyo Garden Theater
*For more information, click here
https://www.ldh-liveschedule.jp/sys/tour/31120/
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