SHO-SENSEI!! held a solo concert at Umeda CLUB QUATTRO in Osaka today, Wednesday, September 25th.
The show was sold out and the band was ready to go. SHO-SENSEI!! appeared on stage playing the popular song “Years & Years” released last winter, in front of the eyes of the royal fans of Osaka who were eagerly waiting for SHO-SENSEI!! even before the show started. The guitar arrangement for the live performance was strummed to the beat, and many of the audience members held up their cameras in fascination as he delivered every word clearly. After that, he sang a series of photos related songs (maybe by coincidence) such as “That’s why I stole only one photo” and “shutter”. The majority of the audience today were in their teens and twenties, and the songs that really fit their lifestyles invited them to sing along right from the start.
After a brief self-introduction, he sang “Satellite,” a smash hit that roared in and out of the scene in 2022, and the audience’s excitement and singalong continued to rise. He then performed three songs that exploded with SHO-SENSEI!!’s hip-hop qualities: “Oil,” “Electric,” and “Metropolitan 20.905.” After dropping a hit song on Lowkey, he dropped a series of introspective stories about a man living as an artist. The audience, engrossed by the rap music-like quality, began to whisper “this is crazy” one after another.
The next song, “Microwave,” had a pleasant refrain in a light key, creating a peaceful atmosphere. Then, they performed “Telescope,” which they said was “my favorite even before it was released.” After SHO-SENSEI!! had revealed his love for the song, the impressive line before the hook, “We’re different, but we’re similar,” moved the young people to a chorus that touched their hearts.
The next songs were “Orion” and “Thunder.” The song was about thinking about the endless sky while looking at the relationships at our feet, and the emotional atmosphere on the floor reached a climax.
Then, he muttered a few words to incite the excited audience, and the mega-hit song “National Highway” began. It is said that many people became fans of this song after watching the live video on TikTok. The audience, excited by the overwhelming chorus, exploded with excitement and singing along to the following songs “Diamond” and “Road Construction”. Each song is a banger with a live video that has been played over a million times, so the audience could not stop jumping and singing along for several minutes.
@sho_sensei If the world ends, I’ll blame it on you#National Highway #SHOSENSEI #Original song ♬ Original song – SHO-SENSEI!!
@sho_sensei I left the apartment key you gave me at your front door. #SHOSENSEI #Roadworks #LiveTour ♬ Original Music – 10pm
And finally the concert reached its climax. “I’ve brought a song for everyone in Osaka for today’s one-man show.” Hearing this, the excited audience began to listen to the unreleased new song “Ghost Town,” which had been posted on social media before the concert.
The audience raised their fists in response to SHO-SENSEI!!’s new sound, which combines a guitar rock-style melody with a snappy beat, even though it was their first time. Then, when they reached the hook, which was only released on TikTok and Instagram, the floor was shaking with fans bouncing and singing along loudly. Although it was an unreleased new song, it was an amazing performance that was so exciting that it could be called the highlight of the live, and they also performed “Thousand Lights,” released at the beginning of this year, for the first time in a live performance. The performance of this long-awaited song, lit up by the lights of smartphones, was tear-jerking just like the song.
@sho_sensei I wrote a new song, Ghost Town. #SHOSENSEI #Ghost Town ♬ Original song – SHO-SENSEI!!
@sho_sensei It’s like it’s all over. #SHOSENSEI #Ghost Town #NewMusic ♬ Original song – SHO-SENSEI!!
The next part was “Seishin” and then “Southern”. While carrying the atmosphere of love songs, their unique live performance, permeated with the vibe of hip-hop, exploded once again. The youth on the floor responded with a sense of unity that showed no signs of fatigue from the excitement of “Ghost Town”.
In this flow, he started with a nihilistic preface to the audience, saying “When I made this song I thought no one would listen to it”, and performed “LEGO”, a popular song from the early part of his career, followed by “where u at” and “Map”.
These three intense yet cool songs are packed with the essence of the trap genre, which has earned SHO-SENSEI!!’s strong support, both in their live performances and in their songs. SHO-SENSEI!! conveys the rhythm of the songs physically with a different body movement from the first half of the song, Hosokawa Chihiro responds with live drums to the thick programmed bass, and producer 10pm adds arrangements one after another, proving the strength and originality of SHO-SENSEI!! as rap music.
Next up was the debut of the popular new summer staple “Natsu ni Hatareru.” It was a song that was perfect for the Osaka night when the lingering heat of summer was finally coming to an end, and the whole floor was immersed in seasonal sentimentality.
As the concert drew to a close, the crowd sang along to popular classics such as “Hanareba” and “Hundred Thousand.” In the final MC, the band announced a one-man tour that fans across the country have been waiting for.
The tour will be held in five cities, the largest scale yet, with Osaka at BIG CAT and Tokyo at Spotify O-EAST. It will be even bigger than the successful solo concert, so we are looking forward to the January concert. In addition, in a casual manner typical of SHO-SENSEI!!, it was announced that a new album is in the works.
After declaring that there would be no encore, they ended the show with the simple rock numbers “First Train” and “Last Train,” bringing the show to a sad yet satisfying close.
The Osaka one-man performance featured a total of 26 songs, more voluminous than ever, including unreleased songs and songs that were performed for the first time. It was a night that reaffirmed the charm of SHO-SENSEI!!, which can capture the hearts of the audience in any style, from the life-sized chorus that seemed to spill out of empathy with the songs to the passionate chorus of young people who could not hide their excitement at the crossover next-generation music.
[Event Information]
“SHO-SENSEI!! THE GHOST TOUR”
January 5, 2025 (Sun) at Darwin, Sendai, Miyagi
January 11, 2025 (Sat) at DRUM Be-1, Fukuoka
Friday, January 17, 2025 at BIG CAT, Shinsaibashi, Osaka
January 18, 2025 (Saturday) at ElectricLadyLand, Nagoya, Aichi
Saturday, January 25, 2025 at Shibuya, Tokyo Spotify O-EAST
■SHO-SENSEI!!:X (Twitter) / Instagram
