Follow-up on The Sakura Denbu's Debut 1st Live
The Sakura Denbu's first solo live--'Momojirizuki' Gathering-- which was scheduled for March 27, 2020 was canceled due to the worldwide global pandemic, COVID19. The cancelation of the event was released on March 10, 2020.
Team NJPW Members applied for tickets to the show via the NJPW Fan Club lottery. In addition to the admission ticket fee, fans would have the opportunity take an individual photo with SHO & YOH. Tickets costed 7,700 yen (roughly $70) plus a single drink purchase of 500 yen at the venue the evening of the show.
Event-related Merch
NJPW released three event-related items with the band logo for sale at their first live show:
Items were originally limited to Team NJPW members in pre-sale, and then later added to the NJPW Tokon Shop. Additionally, Pro Wrestling Tees' NJPW page made the t-shirt design available, with different shirt options including, tank tops, ladies' cut and long sleeves.
Live on ShinNichi Station
With the cancelation of their live event, YOH and SHO got creative. Prior to the pandemic, YOH and Hiroshi Tanahashi started a weekly Friday night InstaLive series called ShinNichi Station. With curfews and social distancing in effect and full Stay-at-Home on the horizon throughout Japan, Shinnichi Station had the worldwide, internet premiere of The Sakura Denbu! The video was a pre-recorded session of the band's studio performance, but in the spirit of DIY and Japanese music shows, handwritten lyrics were displayed in front of the smartphone screen.
Unfortunately, there was no archive kept for the broadcast, but it was great to watch live. On YOH's personal blog, he also posted behind the scenes photos from the livestream as well as the complete lyrics to both songs he wrote in English (that he mentioned in their Team NJPW interview):
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-QZJUKAOKT/?igshid=18ymezz657rn9
The great thing about ShinNichi Station is that it's a simple, DIY format variety program, but I would love it if they'd put it on YouTube. Although the pandemic has subsided in Japan, it is not complete finished, so ShinNichi Channel has not resumed it's regularly scheduled programming at AB Tokyo-to.
I was very moved by the creativity of the tabletop concert, and I actually cried during "Star-shaped Tambourine." Of the band's songs, it is my favorite. I hope that I get to one day see them perform live or if they'll upload footage from their practice sessions or live events online.
Notes: Thanks to a friend in Hokkaido, Japan, I was not only able to get one of the shirts released during the Fan Club pre-sale, but she also surprised me with the sticker set and the keychain. She and another friend gave me their copies of their NJPW Fan Club magazine, so I shared one with a dear friend here in the States who is a massive Roppongi 3K fan. My translation of their interview about The Sakura Denbu (pages 6-7 only) is available.