Live Report: SixTONES’ TAIGA KYOMOTO Anniversary Event「30 -THI”ART”Y-」

by Judit, posted in Report, Spotlight, STARTO

Dumpling Box had a chance to see the afternoon show of the Anniversary Event of SixTONES’ Taiga Kyomoto to celebrate his 30th birthday on December 3th, called 「30 -THI”ART”Y-」. The title of his anniversary event is a play on words from Thirty and ART-PUT, his creative project.

The event was held at Tokyo Garden Theater, which is a multi-purpose event hall such as for concert, musical, international conference, e-sports, party, exhibition etc, located in the site of Ariake Garden, one of the largest emporiums in the Tokyo region, with an approximate capacity of between 7000 and 8000 people.

The musical actor Yuta Furukawa also celebrated his birthday in this event hall in mid-2024. Yuta plays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in a double cast with Taiga, where you can read the report here. So it is a familiar place to celebrate this kind of events.

It is a small venue in relation to what SixTONES is used to, as they fill Domes with a capacity of 50,000 people. With a relatively small venue, Taiga intended is to create a warm atmosphere as if they were at home. Precisely for that reason, the setting was a layout like a home. There were two sofas, a fridge, and pictures framed from photos he uploaded on his Instagram, on Minarai Artist account.
When we were waiting to start the event, foreign songs were playing. Taiga told that in a normal concert, i.e. a concert of SixTONES, they play SixTONES songs before they start, so this time he wanted to create a different atmosphere and chose foreign songs that he often listens to.

Here is a list of most of the foreign songs that were played before the event started!

Vulfpeck – Back Pocket
Adam Levine – Lost Stars
Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
Vulfpeck – Birds of a Feather, We Rock Together
Queen – Under Pressure (feat. David Bowie)
ELO – Mr. Blue Sky
Elton John – Your Song
The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun

The event started with Taiga coming out on stage and started talking and having conversations with the fans. It was a moment that rarely happens, as he usually don’t interact with the fans that much. In the MC of the SixTONES concerts all 6 members speak, and in the musicals, the cast does not interact with the fans. So it was a very special moment to remember.

Taiga asked the fans to show him what outfits they wore to the event. He was describing the fans’ outfits for people who could not see them.

Following the theme of the house, the doorbell rang and Soushi Sakiyama appeared. Soushi Sakiyama is a singer-songwriter under Sony Music Records, and he released songs for numerous dramas and important animes like Boku no Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. The anniversary event was held in two performances: noon and afternoon. At noon the guest changed and SAEKI youthK appeared. SAEKI youthK is a singer-songwriter who composed various songs for SixTONES, like Neiro (音色), Kokkara (こっから), Kyomei (共鳴) and NEW WORLD.
Taiga and Soushi Sakiyama talked about various music-related topics. Taiga offered him tea and mandarins. It was a deep conversation while eating and drinking in a relaxed atmosphere. Moreover, they performed two songs in the session part: Samidare (五月雨), which is composed by Soushi Sakiyama himself, and a Strawberry Breakfast, which is a SixTONES‘ song.

Soushi Sakiyama uploaded on his X official account the accoustic version of Strawberry Breakfast.

He also uploaded a photo with Taiga!

After a while of talking, Taiga said goodbye to Soushi Sakiyama and moved on to the next corner.

Then Taiga showed three photos from the photobook he had released on the same day, where you can find more information here.
The first picture he showed was one he took on London. The fans reacted by saying Cute~ where Taiga replied that in this picture he didn’t pretend to be cute, but handsome, and laughed along with the fans. It was a really peaceful atmosphere.

The second picture was one he took on Enoshima. The picture was made with the intention of being cute so that time Taiga said he was cute there.

Finally, he showed a picture with his 13 year old dog, called Anzu. The fans shouted without hesitation “Cutee~”. They both looked really cute.

The next corner was to answer questions that had been asked through a hashtag that had been specially prepared for that purpose on ART-PUT‘s official X account. The first question was about job change advice, and asked if the person who had asked the question was in the event venue. To everyone’s surprise, this person was in the venue, so Taiga was able to answer the question directly to her.

Another question was about whether Taiga cannot grow a beard. Taiga replied the morning of the event the beard was thicker than usual, so he might grow a full beard. But fans didn’t want it so Taiga laughed a lot because when it comes to negative things then the fans shout more than positive things.

Then the mini live’s part started. Taiga started by singing WONDER LAND and then Prelude. After Prelude, Taiga sang a song I had never heard before. As I didn’t see the spoilers of the noon show I didn’t know if it was a new song or a cover. After he sang the song, he explained that it was a new song and that we should be surprised. But then he said that probably a lot of fans had gone to the noon show and many would have seen spoilers, so few people would be surprised. There were several people like me who didn’t see spoilers and were surprised! The song is called KOYOI, written by himself, and he promised fans that he would do everything he could to make sure we could hear the song outside the event. The song has a rap part and Taiga wrote the lyrics.

Next, he sang Blue night and another new song, which is called Owarasenu Sekai (終わらせぬ世界). The song was written by Taiga with the fans in mind. The tune was cheerful and the lyrics were very good.

To finish, he presented the last song he would sing in the mini live part. The song is new and composed by him, called Kogen (孤言). He explained the first phrase came to him when he was 26 years old, just before he went to bed, so he decided to stay up and then he wrote the lyrics of the song in about 20-30 minutes. It was a few months before the debut tour, TrackONE -IMPACT-, but he couldn’t perform the song there because that tour didn’t have a solo corner. So he decided to perform it in now that he’s 30 years old.
With the thought of showing this song to all the fans who could not attend the event for various reasons (it was a weekday and the small capacity of the venue), he asked the staff to record the live performance and put it on YouTube on the day of his birthday.

At the end, Taiga said goodbye to the fans with a few words that undoubtedly touched their hearts: “I’m free to do what I want because of SixTONES, and it’s thanks to SixTONES that I’ve come this far, because SixTONES’ Kyomoto Taiga is my day job, so I want to give back to SixTONES by playing with ART-PUT, sometimes in a serious way. Please look forward to seeing more of Taiga Kyomoto in ART-PUT, and of course more of Taiga Kyomoto in SixTONES, because my day job is in SixTONES.”

The show lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. There were many different corners so it was not boring at all. It was definitely a unique experience that Taiga‘s fans had not yet been able to experience. Taiga promised to do more events like this in the future.

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