A 'LEVEL3 4th tour in dome' post. A haven for team Prfm to discuss, dissect, throw shade, etc.

A 'LEVEL3 4th tour in dome' post | Random J Pop

Perfume have finished up their 4th dome tour, officially drawing a line under their LEVEL3 era and what has also been an amazing year for the group and one of their most career defining with the move to a new record label, a world tour and international releases of two of their albums. A sellout dome tour is the most perfect way to cap off such an amazing year. It's just a shame footage of this gig seems non-existant.

Videos of Perfume shutting down Osaka and Tokyo won't drop for some time. So let's use this post to discuss and post from what was undoubtedly a visual fuckfest of wigs being fried in projection mapping, fibre optics and lasers.

The merch
I'm not big on tour merch. And when it comes to Japanese tour merch it's always the same shit. A towel. A USB key. Some phone charm shit. More phone charm shit. A figurine. Just over priced crap. But the tour booklet for Perfume's LEVEL3 gig has Perfume selling high fashion and sex. Kashiyuka is giving bohemian drug whore realness, Nocchi is selling the sex with with her hair all up in her face and A-chan is sending out telegrams to peep her shoe game. The next album Perufme do, they need to be putting shots like these in the inlay. Makiko needs to teach A-chan how to dance in those heels, because I want to see those giving a 1, 2 step to Perfume's next single on Music bank in 2014.
- LEVEL3 booklet scans courtesy of PRFM tumblr

Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop
Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop Perfume - LEVEL3 4th tour in dome | Random J Pop

Yep. EVERYTHING!

The fans
Search 'Perfume' on YouTube and you'll probably find the search results for dance covers to Perfume songs ranking higher than official Perfume videos. Perfume's fans are fiercely dedicated and loyal. Perfume have set themselves up for a unique fandom through their outfits and routines, which are so distinct that you can tell which outfit and routine is from which song in just a snapshot - which gives fans a lot to work with. As fans were waiting outside of the Osaka dome for the LEVEL3 gig to kick off, they all danced together. Utter strangers, unified through their mutual love of all things Perfume. Whoever is filming the footage for the tour DVD, I really hope they capture this sort of stuff. It's part of what makes Perfume special and shows the effect of what they and their team do.
- Video courtesy of Perfume city



The set
Perfume do no play when it comes to their dome tours. Their 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and JPN tours featured cutting edge lighting, screens and visual props, but it always done is a minimalist way. Their sets don't look complex to the eye, but so many details of their performances are so amazingly intricate - only revealing themselves during the performances. From the triangle screens from the JPN tour, to the UV lights and glow in the dark dresses on the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 tour. There is always a big spectacle on each of Perfume's dome tours, but it's the little things which help create an overall visual aesthetic which is just mind blowing. It shouldn't still shock us at this point, but it always does because Perfume's creative team always out-do themselves. The focal point of the LEVEL3 4th tour in dome is...a giant dome on stage which acts as a screen and opens up to reveal a stage within itself. Ever since the debut of the Perfume global website (which featured a piece of music which we know now as "Enter the sphere"), a visual which has constantly remained since then has been that of a sphere, which has numerous connotations to the group alongside that of triangles. There being a large dome / sphere type object on stage is something fans had speculated for sometime and it is exactly as they called it.

The setlist
Fans are in a tizzy over the setlist and if you are a rational member of team #Prfm you can see why. It's very LEVEL3 heavy, which is to be expected given that...you know...these performances are in support of the album. But the lack of some earlier classics is a bit disappointing.

  • Enter the sphere
  • Spring of life (Album mix)
  • Magic of love (Album mix)
  • 1mm
  • Clockwork
  • Point
  • Furikaeru to iru yo
  • Sleeping beauty
  • Party maker
  • Spending all my time (Album mix)
  • Computer city
  • Electro world
  • One room disco
  • Mirai no museum
  • Daijobanai
  • Polyrhythm
  • Chocolate disco (2012 mix)
  • My color
  • Encore: Dream land

No "Dream fighter". No "Night flight". No "Laser beam". No "Glitter". No "Spice". No "Hurly burly". Not even a "Sweet reflane". I get this tour is all about LEVEL3. And given that LEVEL3 is Perfume's first release via Universal, they of course have an obligation to push this album to the maximum. But it is a shame the setlist wasn't littered with just a few more retrospective cuts. It even would have tied in with the whole spherical concept of LEVEL3 and the tour itself - with the girls finally coming full circle with their musical transition into adulthood, having a record label created just for them, finally achieving their dream of performing overseas and having their album be released internationally. But Game, Triangle and JPN did not need to get shitted on this badly. No "Dream fighter". REALLY THO'!?

Music aside, this will probably all dissipate once we see the tour itself, which will be a visual splendour and make most other artists' tours look like a basic MTV unplugged set performance. I'm fully prepared to see these girls roll out to "Spring of life" in the light up dresses and for the coloured panels to come up out of the floor for "1mm". So I will hold off any maximum level shade at the setlist until I see the tour in full. Although I will stay mad they pretty much dissed the Game and the JPN singles.


WOWOW will be airing Perfume's LEVEL3 4th tour in dome on February 1st. I find it crazy how not one piece of ghetto fan cam footage of the tour has surfaced yet. Either every phone was confiscated upon dome entry or Daito Manabe programmed an EM dampener to go off for the duration of the performance which shut down every single mobile phone in the arena. When Perfume did their World tour 2nd in London, videos of that gig were up on YouTube before my arse got home from the gig itself. I do not understand.

I need to see those "Clockwork" and "Party maker" routines now. Word on the wire is that the "Party maker" performance is magic.

Album / single reviews: Game | JPN | Spring of life | Spending all my time | LEVEL 3

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