[OWV] Music Natalie 220218

https://natalie.mu/music/news/466159

OWV’s one man live at Nakano Sunplaza Hall, the place where it all began, was created with the fans

OWV held two performances of “OWV ONEMAN LIVE 2022 -and I- '' at the Nakano Sunplaza Hall in Tokyo on 12th February. This article will be a report of the evening performance.

The Nakano Sunplaza Hall is the place where OWV’s first fanmeeting after their debut OWV OFFICIAL FANMEETING～ROUTE I～ was held without an audience in December 2020. This time in order to celebrate the release of the 5th single “You” on 9th March, they unfolded their performance in front of QWV (as OWV’s fans are called) on a stage that they feel attached to.

After the member introduction movie played, the doors opened and from behind the four silhouettes of the members appeared against the dazzling light. With their eyes on the audience, they quietly moved forward. Then, when an explosive sound started along with Honda Kosuke’s shout “Let’s go, Tokyo-!”, the lights revealed the four members and the live started with “Here & Now”. The four colors of the penlights were waved beautifully from side to side in the audience as the four singers’ natural voice left an impression with this song which has a four-beat refreshing melody that immediately brought a pleasant atmosphere to the venue. “PARTY” , which is a popular song at lives, followed as the second song. The party tune in which the four members move around on stage with a relaxed expression, smile and joke with each other livened up the mood of the venue. After the performance of “My Flow” which goes from a powerful rap to a catchy chorus, the venue was suddenly filled with the sound of sirens. “Sound The Alarm” from the new single started off with a heavy bass sound. A song with a heated rap and a noticeable core was unleashed and in the chorus the urge to “Unleash your passion and make your own way” was sung with power.

In “Na Na Na” they completely charmed the audience with clean dancing and a singing that let you feel their sexiness. They ended this song with turning their backs to the audience and after a short pause when they turned around again in their eyes a spark was shining. After a perfectly coordinated dance of them together to a beat with a strong core, Honda, Nakagawa Katsunari, Urano Shuta and Sano Fumiya performed solo dances after another. They showed their individuality, high skills and their overflowing emotions in the dance, leading to the hip hop tine “Slam Dog”. With earth crawling raps, they release the message “No matter the situation, we will not yield, but survive”. Then, the performance of “CHASER”, the lead track of their first album, followed. Through the impactful sound, provocative lyrics and powerful dancing they once more majestically propagated OWV’s path of “We will become a one and only group that can’t be imitated and take the victory in this world”.

Then, the members left the stage and the screen calmly showed footage of the vast sea and forests. And, after one huge tree was shown, the stage of lit up again and the members appeared wearing white costumes. With the images of blooming flowers in the background the performance of the lead track of their new single “You” started. It is is the first time for OWV to a medium tempo ballad as their lead track and it’s a number that portrays of the begin of spring under the motive of “buds”. The 4 members showed a new side of OWV with their soft singing and subtle dancing and received a lot of applause from the audience. Afterwards, OWV’s wide range of potential exploded on stage with the R&B style emotional number “Question” and “Scattered” in which OWV’s delicate singing expresses the feelings of being confronted with a sad parting. In “Fifth Season” which depicted the 4 seasons with “you”, with a gentle gaze the four of them mellowly sang to the venue.

The “USa-unit” made of Urano and Sano who stayed on stage, started their own “clapping game”, listening to the various patterns of applause from QWV. When Sano asked QWV to “Please clap as if all 4 of us came on stage”, the venue was filled with a big applause. When Sano continued with “Please clap as if Urano Shuta-kun said something which wasn’t funny at all”, the applause was slightly more subdued which led Urano to ask them for help, “This is less than the applause when we appear on stage. You need to cover me up more!”. When in response to this Urano asked “An applause so that Fumiya grows taller”, the audience applauded loudly without hesitation. Receiving this applause, Sano mischievously played with his height by standing on his tiptoes as if he had grown taller. Changing positions with them, the “HoNa unit” made of Honda and Nakagawa introduced the merchandise. Honda innocently waved the members’ fan, while Nakagawa hung an acrylic photo prop on his belt, saying “It’s an example of how you can use the merchandise.”, showing an unusual way of using it.

Reaching the final part of the live, OWV raised up the gears with their killer tune “Roar”. The four expressed their determination and burning fighting spirit with their wild dance moves. The final song was their first single “UBA UBA”. They showed a performance that has evolved over and over in the one year and a half since their debut before leaving the stage.

The four members once more returned on stage in response to the clapping that asked for an encore and performed the EDM tune “What you waitin' for”. They casually sang and danced to the song, looking over OWV who happily waved their penlights. Honda mentioned “We performed this song for the first time during the encore (back then called “After Party”) of our first fanmeeting, but I’m really happy to be able to come back to this venue and perform it once more as an encore. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity”.Urano added with shining eyes “QWV are right in front of us! I’m so happy to perform at this venue again”.

From then on one member after another made their greetings to QWV. Nakagawa, who was among the three members who had gotten a covid infection in January, expressed his feelings about the show: “We have caused a lot of trouble and worry to you because we had gotten Covid, but we have been working hard to make sure to come back properly at this live and make you smile and forget about that” and told them “In this period, there are also a lot of people unable to come to the venue. Thus, I hope that the four of us as OWV will be able to walk through this period together with OWV and smiles on our faces until one day we meet. In 2022, in the next 10 months, let’s create a lot of fun memories and days of smiling! I love you!”. Urano spoke with certainty: “I think that even happy people like me have things they dislike or depressing times. But I thought again that I want to create a space where even those people will only think about OWV when they come to our live. For this I feel we have to give the very best performance and make the best possible OWV-like talk”.

Sano thought back to the time of the debut, saying “We did our first fan meeting “Route I” here without an audience when he only had 4 songs, and I often mentioned in magazine interviews that the fanmeeting was the most memorable stage for me, so for me it has a special place in my heart”. He expressed his happiness to meet QWV in this venue, mentioning “The days have passed and when talking to you like this, I can see the scenery of blue penlights and I wonder whether the four of us have become a little more mature since then? Has my height grown a bit since then? In such a period, I think there are a lot of days when you don’t feel good today, or you feel irritated for no particular reason, but I hope that we, as OWV, can be a source of comfort for you in such times, so that we can continue to push forward together”. When Honda said “I had a period of self-reflection over the last few weeks. When I was unable to go out, the time when I was with just myself stretched, but I really felt that it was thanks to QWV after all that I was able to get well as quickly as I did. That’s why we made “and I”, because I wanted to meet everyone after getting well quickly and give you a great concert so that you wouldn’t worry even the smallest bit. I hope we could reach everyone even a bit!”, a heartfelt applause from QWV came from the audience. Honda’s face beamed with happiness and he said: “I really felt that ‘and I’ is a live that was created together with you. I think it is a live show that was made by everyone no matter if you have come to the venue or watched it online“. He continued “We started the live with “Here & Now” which I feel is a perfect song for us who are chasing our dreams. OWV began the first live of 2022 with such a song. We will walk together with you in 2022 and beyond, so please don’t stray away from us”. As the final song they performed “TALK TALK TALK" from OWV’s new single. Backed by the memorable sound of acoustic guitars, the four delivered the song gently to QWV and left the stage with smiles and the vow to meet again.