News

We are counting the days until B’z fourth North American tour B’z LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free- kicks off on September 17th at the Warfield in San Francisco. For those in attendance, we have prepared an overview of the merchandise that will be available for purchase at every venue. In addition to the official merchandise, you will be able to purchase charity items where 100% of the proceeds will fund rebuilding homes in Japan that have been destroyed by last year’s earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Official tour merchandise is also said to be available at B’z The Store at a later date. Unfortunately, you will need a Japanese address to be able to order at B’z The Store. Prices are currently available in Japanese Yen only. We’ll let you know once prices are available in US Dollar.

Update(9/21): Prices now available in USD and CAD.

Official merchandise

Charity items

News

It has just been announced that the tour finale for B’z LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free- at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California will be streamed LIVE and at no charge for everyone, worldwide, on October 7th! This follows the precedent set by B’z last year in which the finale was also streamed and to much success. As was also the case last year, you’ll be watching on Ustream. In addition, the show can also be viewed via your smartphone, though it is recommended this is done through Wi-Fi for stability purposes.

The show will begin at 7:30 PM local Pacific time on the day of the event. If you would like to see how this time relates to you, click here.

Stay tuned and mark your calendars! We’ll keep you updated on all the details!

News

It’s already September 21st in Japan and that means it’s B’z 24th anniversary day! Happy birthday! And with that, the band has entered their 25th year as a band. While B’z continues to tour North America as part of their LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free- tour, preparations are being made in Japan to celebrate 25 years of B’z.

On that occasion, B’z Official Website has been updated to feature the B’z 25th anniversary logo (seen above). In addition to that, from 12 PM Japan Time, you’ll be able to buy 25th Anniversary merchandise at B’z The Store. As of now, it is unknown what kind of merchandise will be available. We’ll update you as soon as the site goes live!

Also, we are sure that this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more news!

News

B’z has kicked off their seven stop tour LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free- last night at the Warfield in San Francisco. During the show, they premiered songs found on their first English album「B’z」.  In addition to that, the band performed a lot of classics from their catalog. One could say, that the set list has a certain PLEASURE Tour touch to it.

The audience was mainly comprised of Asian fans. If you’re looking to catch one of Tak’s guitar picks, we suggest you queue up early enough to get a spot close to the stage. Japanese fans tend to be at the venue very early. Also, if you’re looking to buy merchandise, prepare to pay in cash just in case. Merchandise at the Warfield was cash-only.

Their next stop of the tour is tomorrow, September 19, at the Showbox SODO in Seattle. Followed by shows on September 20 in Vancouver, September 26 in Toronto, September 28 in Silver Spring, September 30 in New York with a final show on October 6 in Los Angeles at the Gibson Amphitheatre.

Site News

A couple of readers have been wondering what happened to B’z Net Party ‒ the forum for B’z fans. We’ve been monitoring the activity on B’z Net Party for several months and have come to the conclusion that the forum isn’t really being frequented anymore. Therefore, we decided to shut it off as maintaining it meant a lot of work. For the time being, if you would like to talk to fellow B’z fans, your best option is to participate in our community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/187620267966425/

We would like to express our gratitude to Keen, who has been running a formidable B’z fansite as well as the original B’z Net Party. Without her, the international B’z community wouldn’t be what it is today. And we believe that a lot of people wouldn’t even know that much about B’z without her site.

Feature

Last night, B’z returned to Osaka Namba Hatch where the 2006 Network Live took place that was later released on DVD and Blu-ray as B’z Live in Namba. This was the first of two limited events available to people who collected enough points gathered from specially-branded Pepsi items. Those who entered were eligible for a chance to receive double tickets good at either venue.

Fifteen songs were played at the show, including all of the songs from the recent English album. Although Juice, Into Free -Dangan, Splash, and Ultra Soul had been played lived in English before, this marked the first time Love Bomb has been performed on stage. In addition, the most recent single, GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-, also saw its live debut. A number of old favorites were revived for this setlist, including some not played in several years now.

The biggest surprise of the night was a B’z version of the song HEAT that Tak and Koshi recently wrote for Korean artist Kim Hyung Joong’s latest Japanese single. Japanese fans have been clamoring for a B’z version since it was announced that they would be contributing to the song, and now they have it–in live form, at least. Whether or not this opens up the possibility to a future studio version as a potential B-side remains to be seen.

Since the setlist of songs played in this show may reflect a portion of those played during the upcoming tour in North America, we won’t be posting the full listing here to avoid spoiling anything for those attending.

The second of the two premium live concerts is scheduled to take place in Tokyo on Saturday at STUDIO COAST.