LOST ASH Oneman Show “MY STORY” 15/05/31 at Hatsudai DOORS

LOST ASH are one of those more underground jewels of Japanese Visual-kei, formed in December 2009 and hence, with a band history of more than five years already. While touring Japan during numerous events throughout last year and making their debut in Singapore at AFA in December 2014, the band will venture overseas again this your to perform at HYPER JAPAN Festival in London this July.

All the while the four of them are producing new songs, while continuously being on stage and LOST ASH’s performance at Hatsudai DOORS on May 31st, marked yet another important step in their activities. The underground livehouse in the midst of towering skyscrapers had invited the crowd to experience yet another unique show, that started off with the presentation of their new artist visuals to their opening SE. Daiki (Vo.), Show (Gu.), Sai (Ba.) and Dye (Dr. & Piano) had their new artist photos displayed on screen in the back of the stage as they strode onto



While at the beginning LOST ASH’s songs had a darker and heavier tone to it, the band has come to adopt a lighter and more energetic style when playing, as their first track “MESSAGE” proved very well. However, even in this song there are parts where it is very well appropriate to headbang along. It is also not to say that LOST ASH forget their older songs, as they followed quickly with their 2011 digital single “CLOSE TO YOU”, which all but starts with fist-pumps to heavy drum beats.

“Just right about a year ago, we have released our -latest- single and we have really made you wait,” vocalist Daiki greeted the audience, before making the point that their actual latest track “BACKxFORWARD” was available for purchased download on the day at the venue only. “The song describes how we, as a band, take a step forward and often another one back again. Yet, even if we repeat this numerous times, we are still chasing after our dreams.”



Of course the new track, that had previously only been available as a preview on the band’s fan club site, was part of the set list and added yet another very powerful piece to LOST ASH’s collections of songs. While tracks like “KEEP ON” and “LOVEDIVER”, from their second studio album “THE REAL”, again had a more upbeat approach to them, the second half of the concert was packed with aggressive rock songs like “Gimme a break” and “avalanche”. As the audience jumped across the hall and people threw themselves against the barriers near the stage’s edge, the hall shook violently. The guests and the band powered each other on with the 4 minutes and 44 second-song “Deadly444”, until the last song of the main set and name-giver of gig “MY STORY” took on a much more emotional and personal touch.

“Let’s say, if we weren’t making music, each of us might just be employed at a company, or like our classmates we might even be parents by now. We probably wouldn’t have to worry about money either, yet, the four of us love music and we don’t want to give up what we are doing.” Daiki confessed as Dye softly played the piano in the back. “We only have this one life and I want to make it shine the brightest.”



As LOST ASH performed the song, a slideshow of photos through their history was shown in the back, giving the song even more meaning after such a powerful speech. The audience was visibly emotional as well, as they moved to the tunes, waving their arms right and left. At last, they joined in to sing along the final chorus of the songs, before the lights went out and the band members disappeared from stage.

For LOST ASH fans it is tradition to call for an encore by shouting “One more song!” and that is what the crowd did, the moment the band had completely vanished.

It didn’t take the band members too long to reappear and they started the last part of their set with one of the crowd-favorites “overHORIZON”, which had been their third single release. However, it seemed that the coupling track from said single “starlight” was welcomed with even more surprise as cheers erupted the moment the first notes of the track could be heard. The song had been written by guitarist Show and has ever since been one of the band’s most beloved songs with it’s lighter melody and bitter-sweet story told in the lyrics.



Yet, LOST ASH had another surprise for the day, as they had decided to cover the BLACK BISCUITS song “Timing”, which not only had Show and bassist Sai sing their individual parts, but also demanded some extensive choreography from Daiki. Drummer Dye, on his part, held it all together from the back.

Their first album’s title track “REALIZE” then eventually marked the end of the show, but it also promised more to come as an exciting night drew to a close.

LOST ASH announced a FAN CLUB ONLY event, more solo shows across Japan and finally the long anticipated release of a new record for the summer. It seems certain that they still have a lot in store and more exciting things to come!

Set List:
01 MESSAGE
02 CLOSE TO YOU
-MC-
03 ROYAL ORDER
04 SUMMER
05 BACKxFORWARD
06 KEEP ON
07 LOVEDIVER
08 EGOIST
-MC-
09 Gimme a break!
10 avalanche
11 Deadly444
12 MY STORY

-ENCORE-

EN1 overHORIZON
EN2 starlight
-MC-
EN3 Timing (Cover)
EN4 REALIZE

TEXT: Joana

Official Website http://www.lostash.jp/
Twitter https://twitter.com/LOST_ASH
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/LOST-ASH/469311136416302

LOST ASH