New generation future soul band luv's first overseas live performance in Taipei was a great success!

luv, a five-member band of active university students, held its first overseas concert "let in Taipei" at PIPE Live Music in Taipei on January 4, 2012, its first overseas concert in just one and a half years since its formation.

This event was held in response to the fact that "Fuwa Fuwa," the major label debut song released last July, reached the top 3 on the Spotify viral chart in Taiwan and was introduced by many media outlets as the number of listeners increased rapidly.
Even though the event was announced about a month in advance, tickets for the event were sold out immediately.
The day of the event was greeted with an unusually strong response for a band that had only just formed and debuted.

Since luv has only been active for a short period of time, they have never held a solo live concert in Japan, and this was their first solo live concert in Taipei, which was an extraordinary event.

The floor in front of the live house was packed even before the show started, and fans were waiting for the show to start with overflowing excitement. The members were nervous from the rehearsal due to the pressure of their first overseas concert and first one-man show, but when the members appeared on stage in order, they were greeted by the audience's enthusiastic cheers and Hiyn (Vo/Gt) started to play "Are you Taipei" and the performance began.

The first song was from the latest single "Softener DOPE". The audience was impressive as they swayed their bodies to the psychedelic and energetic dance tune. Next came "Motrr," a standard uplifting song for luv bands, to loud cheers, followed by each member's solo performance to introduce the members, and the voltage went up dramatically.

The members themselves swayed on stage and sang luv's groove with the neo-soul atmosphere that is typical of luv. The band members themselves swayed on stage to the neo-soul vibe that is typical of luv, followed by "Kojin Kiko," a song for which the music video was shot in Taipei. It was impressive to see the fans swaying their bodies happily while singing the lyrics together.

During the next MC, Hiyn said, "I'm doing my first solo live in Taipei, which I haven't done in Japan yet! Hiyn enjoyed communicating with the fans so warmly that he even said, "I think I'm going to live here now.

The middle part of the show started with a new unreleased song that has not been performed in Japan yet, a cool ACID JAZZ-like dance number that reminded the audience of luv's roots and the evolution of the band, with Rosa's (Key) superb solo playing. Following "R.Wiseman" and "OnonO," the band performed a cover of "Hajimete no Chu" arranged to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke. The warm soulful music and cute atmosphere of this cover arrangement was typical of this band.

The last half of the show featured another cover song, following "Jamlady" and "Stevlay. When the intro to the city pop classic "Plastic Love" began, the audience cheered in surprise, and it was a moment when the audience realized that this song, which has spread across oceans, is connecting Japanese artists with young listeners overseas.

As the song seamlessly flowed into the first chorus of "Fuwa Fuwa," the song that led to this concert, the audience cheered the loudest of the day, demonstrating the popularity of the song.

The final song, "Lee Un Vile," from "luv's Funk," which has become a staple of luv's live performances, showed the playability of each member, and the band's live show ended with the band's main performance, which intensely enlivened the audience.

For the encore, the band performed a new unreleased song for the first time. It was a warm new song with a retro soul atmosphere, and the choice of this song as the last song of the memorial live symbolized the band's name "luv" in a great circle.

It was impressive that the venue was mostly filled with local fans of the younger generation, and the live performance gave a strong sense that luv's music is reaching listeners of the same generation beyond the sea.

Photo: Masato Yokoyama