The Late Late Review with Martin Loeser: Japanese band SPYAIR brings the heat at the Casino de Paris

More than a month ago now, famous Japanese rock band SPYAIR concluded the western part of their first World Tour in France at the Casino de Paris on Wednesday, October 24th. Led by their singer Ikeda “Ike” Idefumi, they sang all of their major hits – from ‘Genjyou Destruction‘ to ‘I Wanna Be‘ – after being shown the way by their first-part band, ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D, with whom they were touring until that concert in Paris.

As often with Japanese bands, a lot of their popularity comes from singing anime (as in Japanese cartoons) openings. No exception with ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D, as they sang the second openings of popular animes Blue Exorcist and Durarara!!, as well as the first opening of cycling anime Yowamushi Pedal. Seeing them begin the first part with ‘In My World‘ (Blue Exorcist) and follow with ‘Complication‘ (Durarara) a little bit later hyped up not only the fans of those two shows but also people that were just discovering their rock/punk style.

SPYAIR ultimately arrived on stage around 9 p.m. After a little chat with the crowd, they started with ‘Genjyou Destruction’, song featured in the second movie of the anime ‘Gintama‘. The anime contributed greatly to SPYAIR’s success, their songs ‘Samurai Heart (Some Like It Hot)‘, ‘Sakuramitsutsuki‘ and more recently ‘I Wanna Be’ being chosen as endings (for the first one) or openings (for the others) in the anime. They also interpreted ‘I Wanna Be’ as what seemed to be their last song, before coming back for an encore with ‘Niji’. Most of their songs were part of their best-of album from 2014, simply titled ‘Best’, including ‘Imagination‘, used as the first opening of the anime series ‘Haikyuu‘, a hugely popular anime about volleyball. Some people at the concert wore shirts of the imaginary school Karasuno High, which the anime’s main characters attend. Along with ‘Imagination’, Haikyuu featured SPYAIR’s ‘I’m A Believer‘. Thanks to those multiple hits, ‘Ike’ and his crew maintained a constant rhythm during the concert.

As mentioned earlier ‘I Wanna Be’ and ‘Niji’ closed the concert, but not before SPYAIR pleased the ‘Gundam’ series’ fans with ‘Rage of Dust’, the fourth opening of ‘Iron-Blooded Orphans‘, from their latest album ‘Kingdom’. And, on this cold October evening, they warmed everyone up and were definitely wearing the crown.