Baby Metal live at The SSE Arena Wembley on April 2nd, 2016

if there is room in the Heavy Metal genre for the likes of Alestorm, Steel Panther, Tenacious D etc then I think that there must be room for Baby...
credit (C) Amuse Inc.

Words by: Robert Sutton

Picture credits : (C) Amuse Inc.

Picture credits : photo by Taku Fujii

 

Baby Metal played the first date of their new world tour on the 2nd April at The SSE Arena Wembley London. It was very nearly a sold out show with only a few seated tickets still unsold and the only UK date of the tour. There was no live act as support but instead there was a DJ set hosted by Daniel P Carter from BBC Radio 1.

Baby Metal: A three piece all female group from Japan who were first formed in 2010 were supported, as usual, by their backing band, Kami Band.

Baby Metal have two studio albums, a self titled one, released in 2014 and ‘Metal Resistance’ which was released on the 1st April, just one day before the show…

The arena was divided into two at the front due to quite a long catwalk that had a revolving and lowering circular section to it at the end, (Where the girls first appeared from at the start of the show).

credit?(C) Amuse Inc.

credit (C) Amuse Inc.

They opened their set with ‘Babymetal Death’ from their debut album and followed this with ‘Awadama Fever’ from the new album. They played eight songs from the new album.

The three girls gave an extremely well coordinated and well choreographed performance throughout the night as well as giving a good vocal performance. The crowd were certainly behind them from the off with plenty of singing along and raised arms (more with a pointed finger at the end rather than the customary heavy metal horns though…).

However, there were several Mosh pits in the arena during their performance making it the more usual heavy metal experience.

One thing that did strike me was how heavy sounding the band were playing live and I have to say they got my head nodding on more than one occasion. The stage show was super with lots of pyrotechnics throughout the evening and two side screens which they used to, not only show themselves playing but also to show a slide show to go with a voice over between tracks to detail the journey of Baby Metal and to give a bit of a theme to the proceedings. There was also a central screen behind the band and about half way through the performance showed us a live video feed from Japan where the London show was also being live streamed to a Japanese audience.

credit?(C) Amuse Inc.

credit (C) Amuse Inc.

They finished off their standard set with ‘The One’ which was sung in English after which the band and girls left the stage. They soon returned and gave an encore of ‘Road to Resistance’ from their new album ‘Metal Resistance’

 

 

 

In conclusion, for me, if there is room in the Heavy Metal genre for the likes of Alestorm, Steel Panther, Tenacious D etc then I think that there must be room for Baby Metal…They are not to everyone’s taste but do have a large enough following to have to be taken seriously.

So I have to say, what do you really want from a Heavy Metal show??.. Good stage show? Pyrotechnics ? Mosh Pits? Wall of Death? Crowd Chanting? Band playing some heavy sounds? If that’s what you want then a Baby Metal gig IS for you.. It was a great fun night of total entertainment..(Hardcore Heavy Metal?…no, it’s probably not that!! …)

Baby Metal’s new album ‘Metal Resistance’ is available to buy now.

 

 

Setlist:

1: Babymetal Death / 2: Awadama Fever / 3: Line! / 4: Yava!

5: Akatsuki / 6: GJ! / 7: Catch Me if you Can / 8: Doki Doki * Morning

9: Meta Taro / 10: 4 no Uta (Song 4) / 11: Amore

12: Megitsune / 13: Karate / 14: Ljime ,Dame , Zettai

15: Gimme Chocolate!! / 16: The One (English)

Encore:

17: Road To Resistance

http://www.babymetal.jp/

credit?photo by Taku Fujii

credit photo by Taku Fujii

credit?photo by Taku Fujii

credit photo by Taku Fujii

About Author

 
Categories
Live GigNewsPhotos
EXTREME’S UNMATCHED MUSICAL MASTERY AND ELECTRIFYING STAGE PRESENCE: A DEFINING FORCE IN ROCK HISTORY LIVE AT MARS MUSIC HALL, HUNTSVILLE, AL
EXTREME’S UNMATCHED MUSICAL MASTERY AND ELECTRIFYING STAGE PRESENCE: A DEFINING FORCE IN ROCK HISTORY LIVE AT MARS MUSIC HALL, HUNTSVILLE, AL

EXTREME’S UNMATCHED MUSICAL MASTERY AND ELECTRIFYING STAGE PRESENCE: A DEFINING FORCE IN ROCK HISTORY LIVE AT MARS MUSIC HALL, HUNTSVILLE, AL

Photo Credit: Myglobalmind

Imminence - The Black

Chattanooga Chronicles: An Evening of Rock Majesty with Geoff Tate – Live at the Barrelhouse Ballroom

Erik Gronwall Departs Skid Row for Health Recovery; Lzzy Hale from Halestorm to Temporarily Fill In as Lead Singer

The Golden Grass – Life Is Much Stranger Review

Jordan Rudess Teams Up with InsideOutMusic for Solo Album, Releases ‘Embers’ as First Single

RELATED BY

G-TQ58R0YWZE