We are Buono! Buono! Live Tour 2010

"We Are Buono Live Tour 2010" is Buono's second concert to be released on DVD (after last year's "Live 2009 Hybrid Punch"). For some reason, it just didn't click for me until the 47-minute mark when the live musicians come out and join them on stage. These are the same four female rockers who joined them at last year's concert (Junko Sugawara on lead guitar, Satomi Kikuchi on bass, Eji on keyboard, and Cheeta on drums). These musicians really pump up the Buono girls, who then perform a solid 71 minutes thereafter. Even so, something was missing. At least year's concert there were surprises and fun bits throughout, like Momo's "presidential" rally. They also had a stage with platforms that allowed them to run around the sides of the auditorium and enable more movement. Also, the costumes were much better last year. Here, there was only one costume change I liked. At the 78-minute mark, they pull off their silver plaid dresses (onstage) to reveal sexy tiger-print shorts and tank tops for the song, "Lady Panther." They've even got "tails" that they twirl around. They seem more "liberated" in the three songs they do in these outfits. In contrast, for their opening numbers they wear these heavy pink dresses with long bulky sleeves and petticoats and they really look weighed down. And for the encore, they come out in red plaid coveralls, which also weigh them down. My point here is not that I want to see more of the girls' skin, it's that I want them to be more COMFORTABLE. They perform better that way. At last year's concert, the costume changes were consistently beautiful and didn't burden the girls with a lot of extra fabric. Also, at this concert they don't perform either of my two favorite Buono songs, "My Boy" and "Co.no.mi.chi." Their omission is puzzling to me and contributes to the reduced star rating. At one point, there's a pre-recorded video segment showing the girls at "Buono Station," a radio broadcast booth where they talk among themselves and eat some kind of noodles dipped in tea or sauce. Well, the 2nd disc in this set offers 49 minutes of "Buono Station" segments, including the part shown during the concert. No subtitles, of course. This is followed by a paltry 8 minutes of backstage and rehearsal footage. Another Hello! Project group, S/mileage, is seen backstage with them at one point, but they never appear on the concert disc. I wonder why.