KinKi Kids Concert Promise Place 2023-2024

It’s been more than 6 months since I last updated this blog. I attended the first show out of the 4 shows planned for KinKi Kids Concert Promise Place 2023-2024 with much anticipation. It was supposed to be the first time after the relaxed conditions of “no-cheering” rules during their last concert tour in 2022. What this means is that we are allowed to clap and cheer again! I am glad Koichi also wrote in this blog that he was excited that he didn’t sleep the night before, and waiting for us to have a blast together!

KinKi Kids Concert Promise Place 2023-2024 Setlist

シュレーディンガー
secret code
99%LIBERTY
MC
X-Day
Before Dawn
Through the night
BANANA
アン/ペア
MC
もう君以外愛せない
Solitude～真実のサヨナラ～
銀色暗号
硝子の少年
Kissからはじまるミステリー
シンデレラ・クリスマス
MC
SNOW TEARS
MC
雨音のボレロ（カラオケコーナー）
MC
世界中をI LOVE YOU
愛のかたまり
スワンソング
やめないで、PURE
愛されるより愛したい
全部抱きしめて
フラワー

ENCORE
シュレーディンガー（振りあり）
無重力みたいな愛
Amazing Love

Highlights of the 12/16 show

KinKi Kids did a super gorgeous opening performance with their upcoming single Schrödinger with 6 American vintage cars, each with an estimated worth of 5 million JPY! The car number plates were stating KinKi Kids 51 and KinKi Kids 244 respectively for the cars that Koichi and Tsuyoshi were riding on. I’m very surprised that they came on stage driving these cars by themselves. So thrilling!

I’m also very happy that they sang 99%LIBERTY. I recall that it used to be a regular song they put in the setlist in the past, but somehow they switched to other early numbers after their 20th-anniversary concert.

The MC was fun as usual with Koichi jokingly asking Tsuyoshi to buy those vintage cars. When Tsuyoshi did the same to Koichi, Koichi mentioned that he’s not really into American vintage cars.

It was interesting that they mentioned that they heard that many fans were not able to buy the penlight, so Tsuyoshi advised those who didn’t have a penlight to light up by themselves. It was such funny advice, that he repeated this at the end of the concert too – for those who can light up, please lead the way back home for the rest as it’s dark outside. Like what? LOL!

Penlight – Only concert merchandise

Yes, the only concert merchandise they released this time was a very expensive penlight. LOL! The penlight market rate is usually around 1800 JPY, but for KinKi Kids this time, it was 3500 JPY. OMG! I joined the queue at 13:30 and waited for close to an hour before I could get mine. It was strictly 1 penlight per person, so no one can buy extra. You can still get it online from their official store if you only want to own it because the shipping delivery won’t make it in time for the actual concerts.

Cheering and uchiwa

Koichi made a comment saying we are all very high today. But well I think it’s because he wrote in the blog that we should be cheering and high?! He seems really pleased with our high tension, and also said he noticed very few fans have uchiwas with them. In fact he always has this question of why would you show the face of your favourite idol on the uchiwa? He finds it weird to look at his own face, and also he knows he’s Koichi for those who made uchiwa with his name. Tsuyoshi then kindly explained to him it was for fans to appeal to their favourite member of the group. It was a really hilarous moment when everyone agreed with Tsuyoshi but left out Koichi.

More highlights

They sang a couple of new songs from their latest P album, and I like BANANA a lot. It was the song that caught my eye when we first saw the album list. Thank goodness it’s a really cool song! Kudos to Kohei Dojima as always! It’s a pity he can’t join the concert with the boys this time as he was having his own tour as well.

Before Dawn has this super 80’s vibe in its melody and I think they made a nice choice of performing Through the night as well. Especially when the latter was composed by Yuhki Shirai and Mika Arata, which are very familiar names if you follow Koichi Domoto solo songs as well.

Oh yes, I felt so mushy seeing Koichi in a blue costume while Tsuyoshi in a red costume. They exchanged their main member colours! It looks kind of awkward but also emotional. I think I’m too used to them in their own colours.

Smartphone talk

This is not new to us but we know how Koichi likes to refer to his smartphone as “mobile phone” (keitai) and not smartphone. Because of this, he always gets dissed by Tsuyoshi who refers to his phone as smartphone. Both then continued to talk about how they usually input the Japanese characters on their phone. Tsuyoshi uses the Japanese flick keyboard while Koichi uses the qwerty input. It was funny when there was this big question mark look on Tsuyoshi’s face when he learned how Koichi input on his phone and tried to mimic typing with both hands on a very small phone screen.

Karaoke corner

I think the top highlight this time must be the spontenous karaoke corner which KinKi Kids only knows the song on the spot and had to sing it. Initially, everyone thought that it would be a karaoke version played and the boys will sing with the lyrics paper shared with them. But who knows that the staff got the live band to prepare for a live performance! Hats off to the most talented live band members!

They did this previously during the 25th anniversary mini YouTube live, where Tsuyoshi was challenged to sing random KinKi Kids with only the lyrics given to them, and no prior practice. The song they selected for this show was 雨音のボレロ (Amaoto no Bolero), included in N album. The outcome was almost close to a disaster but Koichi managed to match some parts and got wows and cheers from the fans. We were even cheering for the encore after this.

I read that on the 12/17 show, they were given さよならのエトランゼ (Sayonara no Etranger). I love this song from K album but somehow my memories failed as well, and I could only remember 1 phrase. Time for everyone to revise all the album and coupling songs!

Ai no Katamari

Before they sang the song Ai no Katamari, the big screen was showing all the songs that were composed by both of them. It was such an amazing list of songs. I’m a little sad that they didn’t sing 恋涙 (Renrui) which is actually my next favourite, along with 銀色暗号 (Giniro angou).

More singing and cheering

Because we can now cheer during the concert, during Zenbu Dakishimete, the fans were chanting Kochan and Tsuyoshi at their parts. This was such a nostalgic feeling because we used to chant, and had to stop during COVID times. Also during Flower, Koichi pointed his microphone to the fans, and we sang the Nanana~ part together. It was really loud and halfway I felt like crying because I recalled we used to sing together like this in the Tokyo Dome with 55,000 fans!

Not to forget that they invited the high school marching band who performed with the boys during COVID for Flower, and this time they performed Cinderella Christmas together!

Interesting findings

There were some glaring differences I spotted during this concert. There was no mention of Johnny-san and unfortunately during such sensitive times, they cannot mention his name or presence. It’s kind of sad but the boys were trying so hard to make it a fun time for the fans. Also, Koichi who is well-known for not giving any fan service actually waved his hands a lot this time when he was going around the Tokyo Dome.

Final greetings

Koichi gave his final words hinting to us that the fact that both of them are on stage together signals that they will stay together, and also Tsuyoshi confirmed that they are thinking hard about continuing this journey together with the fans. I think their words made many fans cry on the point because we know there are many uncertainties at this point. I mean we observed many of the artists leaving the group or the agency recently, so it won’t be a surprise if both of them decided to do the same.

Thank you to the boys and staff!

I also got the feeling that the concert tour this time was confirmed at the very last minute because they didn’t even release the “Promise Place” sub-concert title until the very end. It is such a pretty concert logo that I thought maybe the penlight or some merchandise would have it, but then nope, it was not on anything, even the concert streamers!

I want to send hugs and thanks to both of them and the staff for making this concert happen! SUPER BIG THANK YOU for the wonderful 2-hour and 49-minute show! Fingers crossed we get a DVD/Blu-ray for this concert tour! I need to see all the 4 versions of the karaoke corner!