BAND-MAID ONLINE OKYU-JI (Feb. 11, 2021)

BAND-MAID ONLINE OKYU-JI (Feb. 11, 2021) is a live video release issued by Pony Canyon on 26 May 2021. It records ONLINE OKYU-JI, the show streamed without an audience on 11 February that year, and at roughly two hours thirty-four minutes and twenty-eight songs it is unusually long for a release of that period. 'Okyu-ji' is the band's own word for a show, and staging one online is itself a document of 2021. What the release turns on is how a performance is built in a room that sends nothing back. The selection is exceptionally wide. It starts up through 'Warning!', 'DICE' and 'Screaming', reaches back to the early albums for 'Thrill', 'REAL EXISTENCE' and "Don't let me down", takes in 'YOLO' and "Don't you tell ME", then settles into the Unseen World material with 'After Life', 'NO GOD', '輪廻' and 'without holding back'. By way of 'サヨナキドリ', 'about Us', 'Daydreaming', 'Mirage' and 'Bubble' it runs on through 'Manners', 'onset', 'Choose me', 'Blooming', 'Different' and 'Giovanni', and closes on 'DOMINATION'. A large share of the set comes from Unseen World, released that January, which places the stream squarely in that album's wake. The extras hold live performances of 'モラトリアム', 'the non-fiction days', 'glory' and 'Play', together with an acoustic version of 'Smile'.