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Got mine, watched it all the way through. My thoughts:
Having intentionally watched only part of the TV broadcast of this show (knowing a disc version would be coming), the concert itself was better than I initially expected. I think we're all used to their arena shows being big, splashy affairs at this point, and this one clearly isn't that right from the beginning. In fact, in some ways it's actually less flashy than the regular hall tour show I saw them at on the Standard tour.
But the set list turns out to be really interesting and many of the songs I don't particularly care for on the studio albums actually sound really good live. "Kill the Virgin" is probably the best example of that, and "Sisters" is another one that I already knew about. "Suki Suki" also sounds the way I think it always should have here; it's got too much going on on the album. (Tomomi's also awesome during that song - she goes nuts on that bass in a couple parts!) Some songs that I do like on the recordings but that I thought might sound awkward live don't - they sound great. "Life is a Journey" is one such song.
I do think the band themselves occasionally look a little bored and don't move around as much as I'm used to seeing, and there's a little bit of a lack of "specialness" to the overall atmosphere. But in some ways that's a return to the style of their older live DVD's, which were just supposed to show them as you'd see them at any regular show.
The disc is really long too, and it's always seemed to me that they hold back a little bit and also have some obvious "break" songs to make it through these long shows. So occasionally things do drag a little, but then they pick up again when they get to a really energetic song. It's almost like they have certain songs marked that they know they have to play with maximum energy to pick the crowd back up again. It's not only all the fast songs - some fast songs like "Image" and "Onegai Navigation" I feel drag a bit too, and are a little slower than they should be.
But songs like "Your Song", "Shoujo S", of course "Scandal Baby", "Doll" and "Taiyou Scandalous" just make people nuts and you can feel that at home just watching the disc.
Sound-wise I think Haruna's guitar is mixed too low, and there's also some muddiness to the vocals, but it definitely sounds better than the TV version. There's also some auto-tune but it's not anywhere near the clumsiness of "Wonderful Tonight" - I actually had to go back and compare the disc to the TV footage this time to verify it was really there. (I suspected it was, but there's no T-Pain style robo-vocals where there aren't supposed to be, and they even let Haruna stay au-naturel and slightly off-key a few times.) So it probably won't bother too many people here. It sounds more like the "Scandal vs. Budokan" disc, which I'm guessing has some auto-tune as well (and I know it has some lip-syncing) but without a live TV broadcast to compare it to, you can't really tell.
Anyway, as I said before I buy all their live discs because they are really a live band, and seeing them live is one of the great pleasures in life. I'm pretty happy with this disc; happier than I expected to be.
Guess I'll have to wait.
