MAX Presents Live Contact 2009 "New Edition"

MAX presents Live Contact 2009 "New Edition" is Okinawan dance unit, MAX's sixth concert tour and their first in eight years. The show was organized to help commemorate the return of original member, Mina. The tour was originally a one night show performed on January 31, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan at Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall. During the initial concert, six additional tour dates were announced including a show set on May 10, the group's 14th anniversary. The second leg of the tour began on April 25 at Osaka Kousein Nenkin Kaikan Dai Hall in Osaka, Japan and will come to an end on May 30 in Kanagawa, Japan. A live recording of the concert will be released on DVD on August 5, 2009.

Tour dates

Set list

The set list for the tour has varied from show to show. The initial set list for the first concert of the tour consisted entirely of songs decided by a poll voted upon by members of MAX's fan club, J-MAX. All the shows have opened with "Give Me a Shake," followed by "Shinin'on-Shinin'love" and "Ginga no Chikai." A medley of Eurobeat songs from their debut album, Maximum (1996) was performed afterwards. The medley for the first concert included 5 songs: "Get My Love!, "Extasy," "Because I Need You," "Reality," and "Stranger in the Night." For the remainder of the tour, "Extasy" has been omitted and the order of the remaining songs has been slightly rearranged with "Stranger in the Night" following "Get My Love!." Songs performed only at the first concert included, "Love Impact" and "Powder Shadow." They were replaced with "Always Love" and "Magic."

At their show in Fukuoka, the group performed a new song titled, "The Power of Love." For their second show in Tokyo on May 10, the group performed their debut single, "Koi Suru Velfarre Dance ~Saturday night~ as a double encore. In a rare performance of the song, the group was joined by band members and their dancers as they performed the signature choreography of the song. At the tour finale on May 30 in Kanagawa, the group performed their new single, "Rough Cut Diamond" for the first time. They ended the concert with a double encore of "Natsu yo Saite." They performed the same song as a double encore in 2001 during their Bitter 4 Sweet tour.

Set lists

Concert recording and DVD release

The show at Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall on January 31, 2009 was filmed and photographed for print and television media. Footage of the concert including clips of the group performing, "Give me a Shake," "Get My Love!," "Are You Ready?", "Ride on time," and "Seventies" was televised on several major entertainment news shows on February 2, 2009. Their management company, Vision Factory also posted clips of the group performing, "Isshoni..." at the same concert on their official website.

At the show on April 25 in Osaka, the group announced that a DVD of the tour would be filmed for commercial release. Reina announced on her blog that the group would be filming the final concert in Kanagawa for the DVD release^[1]. A tour report by Barks Japan confirmed August 5, 2009 as the release date for the DVD^[2].

Personnel

• Producer: Kazuyuki Honda
• General Producer: Takashi Kasuga
• Stage producer: Akira Shimizu, Kunihiro Hattori
• Stage manager: Tomohiko Mitani, Hikaru Saotome
• Sound producer: Tetsuya Miyake
• Public relations: Yukio Takemura, Akira Kobayashi, Masahiro Tashiro, Toshiyuki Yamamoto, Makoto Kato, Michiharu Satou, Seiji Fukagawa, Hirokazu Satou, Shigeru Takagi, Kouji Yoshizawa
• Ad management: Masaru Kaneda
• Artist management: Shintaro Nishida

Band

• Guitar: Jun Yamazaki, Yasuo Kijima
• Bass: Yasushi Sasamoto
• Drums: Yutaka Watanabe
• Keyboards: Masafumi Hayashi
• Manipulator: Nobuhito "UNA" Tanahashi
• Dancers: Fuyuko, Non, Yoyo, Chino, Katsu

Crew

Staging

• Stage set designer: Atsushi Satou, Kazutoshi Iwamoto, Kenichi Noguchi, Tarou Takashi
• Mechanic: Michihiro Hirata
• Win-V: Jun Yokoyama, Chiemi Hosokawa
• Lighting designer: Tishiaki Moriyasu
• Lighting operator: Hiroaki Kawana
• Pin spot lighting: Emiko Ogawa
• Moving light operator: Chikara Abe, Tsuyoshi Yoshikawa
• Sound designer: Kouji Sonoda
• Monitor Operator: Masayuki Ohashi, Gaku Matsuyama
• Stage: Yusuke Kubo
• Illumination: Hideo Kawabe
• Instrumental technician: Yasushi Hatanaka, Ei Sawai
• Special Effects: Yoshimi Miyata

Costuming

• Wardrobe: Masumi Shibata
• Hair & make-up:Kyouichi Azuma, Yoshihiko Tabe
• Stylist: Akemi Mutoh

References