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Hey I took this! I think someone got it off Twitter. I put it there and on Facebook only. Kind of a shock seeing it here, I've actually been lurking in the forum looking up info pre-tour but it's ok because now I registered!

Hope it's ok if I write a quick review.

Anyway, first off I'd like to say that Utada's show was AMAZING, I've seen a handful of shows, mostly mainstream US pop artists like Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake, NSync, ect, so I'm used to seeing large stadium tours. This was the smallest show I've ever been to for such a "superstar." Intimate was probably the right word to describe it, and I never knew someone could be so good on stage.

To me, Sakura Drops, First Love, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Kremlin Dusk & Simple and Clean were absolutely worth 5x the ticket cost. Those are my favorite songs by Utada and I'm so glad she preformed them! My favorite part was when she played the pinao for Sakura Drops. I was a little sad she changed the last 1/3rd of Simple and Clean a bit and didn't do my favorite part of the song, I'm not sure how to describe it really, but she didn't do that part where she kind of hums along to the music. All of these songs went by so fast, it was like a dream, I wish I could see her preform them over and over again. (Midway through the show, I said to my friend, "PLEASE let's go to Las Vegas so I can see her preform First Love again.!")

Utada talked to the crowd a little bit about visiting San Francisco, she said she walked around the pier a bit and enjoyed the rain. I wanted to ask her if she got recognized, but I felt that while she took out her headset during these interludes, she didn't really respond back to the questions/comments that were yelled at her, except for the part where she talked about getting a smoothie and someone yelled out "SMOOTHIE" and then she did a cheer for smoothies (is this an inside joke of some sort? I thought it was cute so let me know if there's more to this story).

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Utada follower compared to most people here (or my friend who asked me to go along with her to the tour, I'm so glad she asked me!), so I had to learn some of her songs for the first time once the setlist was released last week, but it was fun to see her preform everything, even the songs that weren't my favorite, she made better live. Utada has so much emotion on stage, and now whenever I listen to any of the songs she preformed I'll always remember her on stage. I felt that her voice was perfect, almost too-perfect all night, and CD-quality the entire time. (But no, she wasn't lip-syncing, as proved by the microphone coming unplugged incident, and also that she was ad-libbing. I did notice she was singing against a background track, but that's normal.)

About the cameras - we were told that the artist and management had requested a strict no-recording/camera policy, so they asked everyone at the door if you had a camera, and if you were honest apparently they confiscated your camera and you got it back at the end of the show. I'm sure that 95% of cameras still got snuck in but I did speak with a guy who gave up his camera at the door. When the show started, people started pulling out cameras all around me, lol. A few people got the light shined in them by security as a warning, but I didn't see any cameras get taken away, and I was probably about 5 rows back from the front. Most people put away their cameras really quickly but some people were still trying to take cell phone photos and recordings all around me.

I didn't want to get in trouble so I didn't try to take a picture the entire night. And after the encore, the last song, and the baseballs (love the message on the baseballs, GO UTADA!!), the lights came on in the building and Utada was saying goodbye for the last time, I realized that it was now or never, so I grabbed out my camera, was totally obvious about it, and snapped one picture that I can't believe actually came out! I figured by then it wouldn't matter if security yelled at me because the show was already over.

And what was really funny is that as soon as Utada left the stage, a hundred cameras came out of hiding and everyone took photos of their friends with the stage in the background, so obviously security didn't care anymore...

I wish that the Fillmore served food, or maybe they did an I didn't see it, I skipped dinner and was so hungry by the end! But I went to bed still humming Utada songs so it was all worth it.

PS. As a side note, if you can - get there early. I think people who were there at 2:30 were in the second row. People who were there from 4-4:30 were in the fifth-six row or so. By an hour before the doors opened, at 6, the line was already around the block, and if you came after 7 you'd be in the back, but even the back's not that bad.

I missed out on the poster too, oh well. Was in line for coat check, dashed out as soon as I heard about the posters, but missed them by at least 10 minutes, oh well. I wish they printed enough posters for everyone at the show, how hard would that have been?

Ooh this review got so long!

Anyway it's so much fun to read everyone else's experiences so keep them coming :)