The post-lowdown on Perfume's World tour 3rd gig in London

Perfume's stage performances are no joke. I've seen many a performance on YouTube and attended World tour 2nd to attest to this. But still, nothing quite prepared me for what Perfume would bring to the table and do to my life with World tour 3rd. Perfume get called out for miming, not being artists and having no input of their music. Whilst its difficult to argue against these points outright (I wouldn't even go there), the one thing which is undeniable is that the showmanship that A-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi display each time they perform is A+. These girls have nothing to prove. But they hit the stage for World tour 3rd as though they had to anyway.

World tour 2nd was new territory for everybody. It was Perfume's first time performing in London and for the majority of those in attendance, it was their first time seeing Perfume live. The entire experience felt like it wasn't quite happening. World tour 3rd felt much more tangible. It had only been little over a year since they were last in London and everything Perfume had done from that point on was done in an effort to include their international fans. The launch of their YouTube channel. The international release of their albums. References to their performances outside of Japan in their tour intermissions. Perfume no longer seemed so distant and World tour 3rd embraced that completely.

World tour 2nd was stellar, but with the exception of "Spending all my time" which incorporated the projection mapping from their original performance at Cannes, it was a very basic affair. World tour 3rd upped the ante considerably and was much more in line with the bigger productions we've been seeing the girls deliver in Japan. The lighting was better. They had an actual set. They had a hi-def screen. They had UV lights. They had a stage which could break apart. Perfume's team were not fucking around.

The set list was solid and spanned Perfume's discography from Game right up to Cling Cling, with a couple of B-sides thrown in for good measure. I might have missed a song or two in the setlist below or gotten some of the orders muddled.

Enter the sphere
Spring of life
Cling Cling
One room disco
MC segment
Hold your hand
~Intermission~ Spending all my time (DV&LM remix)
Game
Seventh heaven
PTA
Party maker
Glitter
Chocolate disco
Polyrhythm
Handy man
Encore: My colour

The biggest surprise in the setlist was the intermission which featured the DV&LM remix of "Spending all my time". But the surprise didn't end there. The intermission seemed like it would be a normal affair of the song being played in full before the girls re-enter the stage to perform another. Except 2 minutes in the lights hit the stage to reveal the girls who start performing it. The mix of the song switched back and forth between the original and the remix. It was brilliantly done. It's great to see "Spending all my time" continue to evolve and go such a long distance, especially given how lukewarm the reception to the song was when it first touched down. It would be great if some of Perfume's other songs got given similar revisions and treatments.

Whilst the reception to Perfume's Cling Cling release has been mixed to say the absolute least, they have been performing the crap out of it and as expected, they performed 2 songs from it: "Cling Cling" and "Hold your hand". Neither of these songs are high in my list of favourite Perfume songs, but they both have solid routines and I find myself having a higher tolerance for them when I watch Perfume perform them live. Unfortunately the girls did not perform "Display", the one song on the Cling Cling maxi which was generally well received. Given how hyped the crowd were throughout the duration of the gig and the wholly euphoric club affair that the entire concert became, "Display" would have gone down nicely.

When Perfume debuted their epic and iconic performance of "Party maker" on their LEVEL3 tour, it ruled out any chance of them ever performing it again unless they were in a dome or an arena due to the stage setup which would be difficult to replicate in smaller venues. But their simplified performance of the song on their Gurun Gurun tour opened up the possibility of them performing it for World tour 3rd and they did. At no point did I think 'Oh, I wish they were performing it on the lifts' because the performance was so electric. The girls exuded a great deal more energy here than they did on their LEVEL3 tour performance, which is probably due to them not having to be so conscious of being on moving platforms which went 50 feet up into the air. Perfume lit up when they performed this song, and the crowd repaid them in full by going absolutely ape shit for the entire performance.

Perfume's outfits have been really questionable this era, with some of their wardrobe choices being plain horrendous. Their outfits for World tour 3rd were all re-hashes of outfits they had worn before and were nothing special. But one of their outfit throwbacks in particular deserves an honourable mention, as it was a resurrection of their "Laser beam" dresses. This look was the stand out, as it made the girls look like superhero boss bitches. Perfume have become masters of wearing two layers of outfits to initiate quick changes between songs. But World tour 3rd featured one of the slickest dress changes I've witnessed in my life. The girls finished a performance of "Spring of life", the lights went down. 3 seconds later "Cling Cling" starts, the lights come on and the girls are in new dresses. You could not see the dress change or where the girls put the dresses for shit. I looked my friend in the face like "WHAT FUCKING WITCHCRAFT DID THESE GIRLS PULL!?" Their second dress change in comparison was the complete opposite, with them tearing off their dresses in plain view and getting buck wild during the intro of "Party maker", before they proceeded to snatch every wig, weave, clump of hair they could get within reach.

The girls seem almost inhuman when the music starts and they effortlessly breeze their way through their meticulous routines, but when the house lights come on and they feel like having a conversation, they reveal themselves to be completely normal. Kashiyuka started talking about how much she loves coffee and that she'd fallen in love with Pret-a-manger (a UK chain of coffee shops). a-chan mentioned that she really wants to go to a pub and then asked the crowd for suggestions on places to eat food in London, which resulted in a hilarious moment where a member of the crowd shouted Nando's which Nocchi then repeated, resulting in a huge laugh from the crowd. I never thought hearing Nocchi say 'Nando's' could be so magical, but it was. It is now my phone message alert tone. Nocchi also did the majority of the talking, giving an overview of their tour and asking the crowd questions. She also seemed the most comfortable speaking in English. Even when the girls were having conversations on stage where a-chan and Kashiyuka would be speaking in Japanese, Nocchi would interject and answer in English and she genuinely seemed to find it fun. She is absolutely taking secret English lessons. I would not be surprised if by this time next year for World tour 4th, she is leading the MC's entirely in English. The PTA segment was as random as ever, with the girls teaching the crowd some of their dance routines, re-enacting scenes from Disney's Frozen, singing along to "Let it go" and also singing a song about brushing your teeth.None of it made any sense to me, but I relished in every second at the sheer craziness at how these girls can transition between laser precise performances with the highest production values, to then standing on a stage and being completely slap-dash and random.

Something which was amazing to witness was the unification of the crowd. Everybody laughed at the same jokes a-chan made, chuckled at Nocchi's adorable expressions when she tried to recall how to say something in English, chanted at all the right times in the songs and seemed to be in awe and excitement at the same things. Kashiyuka's hair flick during "Spring of life" saw the entire crowd erupt which made her chuckle. When the switch occurred at the end of "Nee" everybody clapped to the kick drums in unison. During "Dream fighter" everybody chanted 'Saki made'. It was almost like everybody was on the same mental cue. As a fan of J-Pop, you often feel as though offline you are in complete isolation when it comes to your musical tastes. But during this gig, everybody was one and the same and it was a beautiful thing to see and be a part of. What was even crazier for me personally, was that I ended up seeing 3 of my colleagues from work who I had no idea liked Perfume and that I was a row behind one of my Twitter followers. This gig truly did bring everybody together.

a-chan made a short speech about despite there being language barriers, every Perfume fan shares the same heart and the same music, which is absolutely true. The auditorium was filled full of people of different races, ages, backgrounds, from all walks of life. But in that one moment, we were all one and the same. She also asked that we keep loving Perfume, and as long as they continue to visit London once a year and keep doing what they're doing, I think I can commit to that.