catsoupery

On Saturday I was one of the lucky ones to be able to go to see Ado on her first world tour! It was probably one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences I've had in a long, long while.
I've always been an Ado fan since she first released Usseewa way back in 2020 or so? So when she announced the tour and I saw one date in my country, I immediately had to snag tickets for myself and some buddies. I thought it would be a fun romp, seeing a great artist live and meeting friends while doing that. But man, I wasn't ready for how insane the concert was going to be.

So first off, my travels were cursed as they always are. No matter where I go, things go wrong with the transportation. In december that lead to a 16 hour journey extending to a 25 hour one, it leads to trains striking whenever I want to go out of town or busses breaking down before they reach their destination. This time I figured everything would be fine, because I was going with the train of a private company. But nope. An hour before departure I got the message that the train was cancelled and to please reschedule. I had booked a train a day before the concert so me and my friends would get some time to hang out the day before. Sadly that didn't come to pass, and I had to take a train the following day. Luckily, besides the train being entirely filled with a bachelors party full of drunk people, everything went fine.

Friends and I got to see a little bit of Düsseldorf's "Little Japan", a small district in which japanese restaurants and stores gather. We got to check out some nice food, mostly ramen though. This was also the first time I got takoyaki and it was super delicious! A bit too sweet for me at the time, but overall an enjoyable experience. I've always wanted to try it, but was a bit worried about the squid part. But I am happy to declare that the squid was no problem.

I also got to try Matcha Lime lemonade! It was ok.

We also visited this japanese book import store. Initially I wanted to grab a book to read in japanese, but as always.... my heart was captured by an overpriced artbook. One of the Twelve Kingdoms artbook, to be exact! Price way too high but art so gorgeous. I've only read two volumes of the Twelve Kingdoms series, but I've fallen thoroughly in love with them in that short amount of time. I seriously have to reread them and get back into the series. I miss Youko. She's a great protagonist.

Entry into the concert hall was at 7pm, so we decided to be there by 5pm. Turns out it didn't matter, because the lines were INSANE and judging by how long they were, they were insane well before 5. One of my friends eventually found a place much earlier in the line we could squeeze in, so we did that and man. I'm grateful. I know, it's not the polite way to do it, but I'd say everything's fair game in love and war. And my love for Ado is true. Thanks to him, we also managed to get some pretty nice spots in the concert hall. We didn't even try the merch line, because that one looked very impenetrable, so with broken hearts for no merch we anticipated Ado's appearance

And boy, was it an appearance! Before she appeared, one of the lead promoters, Jörg Michael, appeared on stage to ask the crowd once again to please not take any photographs as per the artists request. He was charming and very sweet and somehow managed to get me even more hyped. Shortly after the lights went out, and Ado started off the show with a bone chilling screech. The exact type of perfomance I was so excited to hear

Ado's voice is IMPRESSIVE, to say the least. Her skill is something out of this world, I don't think I've ever heard anything similar before. But once you hear her live, it changes everything. That insane range she has is real, and she's happy to prove it over and over and over again. I was enthralled the second she picked up the mic, and I wasn't the only one. She had the entire concert hall in her palm, no problem.
Ado's performance made it easy to immediately move along to the beat. The entire evening I was just moving, screaming, jumping and most important of all: singing. And everyone around me was exactly the same. The crowd never went quiet, and no point. When Ado took a quick breather, everyone would immediately start chanting her name so long until she appeared again. There was not a single moment when the crowd went mild. Being part of it was magical. I can't describe it any other way. Thousands of people gathered to cheer on one person and it was very exciting to be part of it.

The stage show was also very cool. Like Ado had requested, she was completely clad in darkness, so all we could see was her silhouette performing in a steel cage. My view was a bit obstructed, but I still got to see her twirl around, pose and give it her all. It was very charming. It also helped a lot that the projected visuals were very well done too. They added a lot to the performance.

Video taken from youtube. The stage in Düsseldorf was much smaller and Ado was entirely confined to her box, but it gets the idea across

I heard a lot of songs I loved dearly, a lot of songs who's love I rediscovered that evening, and even songs I haven't heard before. That one being Ado's version of Senbonzakura. Man!! I'm a bit sad I didn't know the song beforehand, because her performance of that song was so magical. Thhe cherry blossom visuals, her voice... Incredible. It quickly became a new big favourite for me. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that there was no アタシは問題作, as it is one of my big favourites of hers, but it didn't sour the evening for me. Maybe next time!

By the end of the concert I was thoroughly exhausted. I had been standing around for like, 6 hours at that point, screaming my heart out. But it was probably one of the best instances of feeling utterly exhausted in my entire life. I felt so cleansed and full of vigour despite not being able to stand any longer. The buzz of the concert gave me enough energy to attempt the merch line again, and I was successful! Despite all expectations! Almost everything was sold out by the end, but to my surprise the t-shirts were still very well stocked. I did NOT expect that. When we were at the Nier concert last month, things were sold out in a matter of an hour. But here? There was plenty. I managed to snag multiple shirts that I was able to pass on to my friends (no one had any doubles, everyone got just 1 shirt. We're not greedy!). I was convinced I wouldn't get any merch, so when we all gathered and held up our respective shirts that symbolized one of the funnest evenings I've had in a long while.... that felt good. I'm really, really happy.

So cute!!

Overall... I sent it plenty of times, but I'll reiterate again: This was one of the best evenings I've had in forever. I cannot put it into writing, so I just wanted to summarize it. I love Ado, I love my friends, I love what we had. I'm very happy right now. Now more than ever I'm excited to support Ado and grab some more merch of hers, and I'm grateful to her for coming here to give us this opportunity. Next time I want to be there again. Maybe even grab the VIP tickets this time. Thank you, Ado.