Many thanks to Roo Garden for sharing this with us!

The Okayama show was held at a small live house with low ceilings. A much more intimate and rustic venue with the audience on round stools as compared to the theatre hall in Shounan.

The pre-show BGM were the same with a mix of western songs (eg. Nickelback’s Photograph and Far away) and ended with Rossini’s William Tell Overture (full version). Apparently the old variety show, Hyokinzoku, which the tour title refers to used that Overture as its opening. 

Granrodeo entered the stage with a country folk tune featuring harmonica and the show began with Two of Us. Compared to the 8.11 show, the sound had more echo and throughout the show, both seemed more relaxed. The harmony for the first song sounded better than the previous show and the duo was tighter. Beautiful tone and vibrato from both. Zuka san’s vocal was more confident too and it was wonderful hearing them ad lib over each other in 日常ホライズン. Kiiyan was dancing so much in サマーGT09, I wished he could have just got up and performed the song standing. He was having fun and added extra shouts to the song.

Given that many watched the 8.11 broadcast, Zuka san explained the looper very quickly. He did an adorable round using カエルの合唱 (Japanese version of Froschgesang), looping 3 instrument parts and 4 vocal parts. Kiiyan called him Zuka Looper because he was cute like a wooper looper (ie. axolotl). 

A lot was happening in Urban Sweet with Zuka san first needed to record like 5 segments including bass guitar part with the looper. His singing stumbled a bit during the instrumental solo because his tempo for the song was too fast. Funnily enough, Kiiyan said to mind the tempo before the song. 

e: You know it’s normal to have a racing heart when you encounter someone attractive, right? There are so many beautiful people in front of me, it’s no wonder my heart is racing and sped up the tempo. 

Well, with the help of advanced technology (karaoke), Delight Song was laid back but with Kiiyan resonating the high notes as usual. 追憶の輪郭 was the No.1 voted song for the show. Kiiyan said he’s nervous about it because it’s not one they do often and they only rehearsed it once. It was a plain acoustic version with both giving a strong and intense performance. Super sexy with falsetto and moody atmosphere. Afterwards, they commented that it was faster than they planned. Again, Zuka tried to sweet talk his way out of the tempo issue. 

They surprised us with two covers both chosen by Kiiyan. They were going for the summer theme and picked iconic summer songs by old artists. Kiiyan likes あー　夏休み (TUBE) so much that they actually did an impromptu of it during Fab Love tour in Niigata (https://twitter.com/RooGarden/status/1168174758539624452?s=19). Kiiyan was loving those covers and gave a lot of flair as if they were his own. 

K: Can people tell I am more tanned? I have gotten tanned over the summer. Not as much as Namikawa san though. A few years ago, I became really tanned but when I got back to doing the live stream with Namikawa, he was black. Damn him for stealing my thunder. 

They didn’t talk much during the show but when they did, they were lighthearted and cheerful even though they had to postpone the Hiroshima show due to hazardous weather. They hope to work out a reschedule soon. 

K: Due to the corona virus, we generally stayed in our rooms. But yesterday, I saw e-ZUKA san wasted like I had never seen before. In a good way, of course. We met in the morning to travel to Okayama and he was drunk and going, ‘Yay! It’s great that we have a transport day.’ I could see he was in high spirits and enjoyed himself. But after we got to Okayama, we were supposed to meet for dinner. He didn’t show up. The staff and I figured that he needed to rest. What did you end up eating for dinner?

e: Curry from Family Mart (convenience store). For the record, I don’t usually drink during the day. It was out of character. 

K: The weather has been terrible. I was planning to rent a bicycle and ride around the city. (Rental cycles are common and Okayama City is a great place to bike around.) Ended up staying in the hotel.  

Kiiyan made fun of his Infinite Love lyrics and joked that eternal love is non-existent. But then made fans cry with his voice. The climax of that song was so passionate, it was very touching. Almost as if to make the crying fans laugh, Zuka san made up new names for the song by merging it with others. Infinite Love of Summer, Infinite Love of Tears, Dear Ellie’s Infinite Love. 

K: Do we have songs that include someone’s name in the title? We don’t, right? (Guess Vanessa doesn’t count.)

e: We should make one. 

K: Get people to apply for their name to be featured.

e: Sumiko! (Name of Kiiyan’s Mum)

K: *speechless from laughing

They then moved onto MSC. The tempo had become a running joke by then and Zuka san accidentally recorded their bantering and had to reset the looper a few times until he got them right. 

Continuing with the summer theme, we had エンドレスサマー with vibrant stage lighting. The atmosphere was awesome. Unfortunately, we reached the end of the show. Kiiyan talked about how 今より先を includes a message about letting things end/go for better things in the future. He mentioned G15 and G16, pointing out how silly it is that they are scheduled on the 14th and 15th. ‘Why couldn’t the dates match!?’ 

After a quick t-shirt change, the pair came back for an encore – バラライ with kazoos bought by Zuka san at 250 yen each. They were more comfortable with the kazoos. Playing off each other with ad libs and extra elaborations. The show ended on a high note and that concluded the very short first half of the acoustic tour. Granrodeo will have three acoustic shows in September.