MAKE MY DAY says goodbye with final show “The Farewell”

After 10 years of working together, the members of MAKE MY DAY announced on April 11, 2024, that they would be calling it a day with a final show titled “The Farewell”, to take place on May 31. Ten years is a pretty long time to be doing anything, and creating music together for that long is an achievement in and of itself.

We were lucky enough to attend their final show, supported by longtime scene mates Ohayo Gozaimasu and HONE YOUR SENSE.

Cyclone, the venue where MAKE MY DAY’s final show took place, is a venue I attend regularly enough on my own, but this is possibly the first time I have ever seen it packed wall to wall, front to back.

There was a sense of bittersweet excitement amongst the crowd, with fans and fellow musicians gathering to give the band a proper send-off.

Ohayo Gozaimasu

Ripping the bandaid off the proceedings, Ohayo Gozaimasu fired up the crowd with their signature danceable riffs with juicy breakdowns peppered throughout.

We were even treated to the first live performance of the song #money_anthem in over a year. This, setting off the whole venue on a side-to-side mosh in line with vocalist Saba’s arms, while bassist Utsu-P and drummer Kojiro do their thing.

Interjecting their high-energy performance with brief MCs, guitarist Nagi made sure to mention:

We don’t have a period in our name, but every time MAKE MY DAY puts us on one of their flyers, they include a ‘.’ [at the end of our name], we’re not “HANABIE.”, damn it!

HONE YOUR SENSE

After a brief pause between sets, HONE YOUR SENSE roared into action. Vocalist Bara let it be known that “We came here to put a stop to this band calling it quits!”, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Their crunchy, occasionally jazz-infused riffs courtesy of Kousuke, Hiro, and Satoshi, paired with Bara’s powerful vocals, and Takuya’s intense drums further amped up the crowd, mosh pits and crowd surfers abound. Crowd favorite song BUSTER had everyone screaming and fist-pumping along during the chorus as they chugged through.

MAKE MY DAY

Once the dust had settled, the floor was packed to bursting as the clock ticked down to MAKE MY DAY’s final performance. The murmur of the crowd broke when the lights dimmed and the projector screen blocking the stage rose.

Straight out of the gate, MAKE MY DAY tore into the anthemic and aggressive song, Mind Haven, showcasing both Isam’s brutal screams and Julian’s clean vocals. The crowd rolled with the same enthusiasm, hair flying and bodies moshing. As the song closed, Isam yelled “You’re all gonna do what we say today, alright?!”, to be met with raucous cheering.

The onslaught continued with Crowned Victim, Isam’s harsh growls leading into a frenzy of headbanging from both the crowd and the band on stage. This was also the point where we had our first, but certainly not last, crowd surfer.

We launched straight into Full Of Lies after, with bassist U-suke providing backup screams as the floor erupted into a circle pit. The upbeat chorus had everyone moving, kept chugging along by drummer Takaken’s steady rhythms for the fists pumping the sky to follow. No sooner had they finished, they ripped into Taste of Secrets, dishing out more high-speed riffage and drum beats liberally peppered with cymbal crashes. The aggressive pace of the song was met with equally aggressive moshing as stage divers continued to rise and fall.

The performance of I Hate Everything is slightly slower-paced, but that didn’t stop the grooving. As Julian began to rap, Isam called out to the bar counter for beer and was ferried away on top of the crowd to claim his beverage, screaming from atop the counter once he reached his destination.
After downing the beer and encouraging the audience to do the same, he returned the same way he came as his bandmates held down the fort, U-suke and Julian taking center stage with huge grins in his absence.

As the bouncy, funky bass intro for Urban Warfare began, the rhythm section huddled closer together as Isam and Julian commanded the crowd to crouch. The floor bloomed with folks jumping as high as their legs could take them, though none were jumping as high as Isam, Julian, and U-suke. The chorus brought out some hardcore moshers lurking in the crowd.

With U-suke and Isam motioning for the crowd to wave their arms as Julian sang, the view on stage took on a slightly playful tone as U-suke waved his bass and Isam matched his movements. Isam drew cheers from the crowd with some, “I can’t hear you”-motions, before taking his mic and demanding that the crowd form a circle pit.

As the opening synths broke for Distorted and the pit sped up, Isam roared, “What I wanna see most from you is all your rage, sadness, joy, and enjoyment—all that human nature. Show it to us!”. Though the proceedings had already been going on for almost half an hour, the crowd was still moshing up a storm.

During Wake Up, Saba from Ohayo Gozaimasu and Bara from HONE YOUR SENSE joined the band on stage. With all three powerful vocalists taking the center and showcasing highs, lows, and mids, the crowd went even more crazy.

Finally, Saba and Bara threw their arms over Isam’s shoulders from either side and closed out the frantic 30-minute set with huge grins and big love to all the members on stage.

After a brief interlude, Julian and U-suke returned to the stage for the final encore, followed by Isam and a surprise guest: former drummer HAL (currently drumming for CVLTE) who departed the band in 2022. For his final performance with them, he chose what he described as “the most important song to MAKE MY DAY”, which was What Are You Fighting For. HAL’s spirited drumming combined with U-suke’s rhythmic bass, Julian’s guitar and clean vocals, and Isam’s brutal screams, truly come to life in this track.

Once drummer Takaken had returned to the stage, the boys busted out the oldest song of the night, with The Ark Sailing Over Truth, a track from their days when they were still called “Ashley Scared The Sky”. Longtime fans, and even newer fans, lost their collective marbles hearing something they thought they may never experience again.

Following on from that blast from the past, each member took the time to address the audience with short messages, expressing their gratitude, and hoping the kind hearts gathered would support everyone no matter what they do in the future. Isam sat down, put his microphone down and addressed the crowd without the aid of the sound system in a particularly intimate MC:

What you have right now, that’s everything. A moment is truly fleeting. Put up a hand, put down your hand. That moment is gone. That hand is no longer there. That feeling is incredibly moving. That’s heartfelt. So let’s enjoy it as much as we can!

Isam gestured as he spoke to accentuate his points.

As they took things up yet another notch with Once, so did the crowd. For the chorus, the entire floor heeded Julian’s cry and began jumping as a unit from left to right, and then back again in time with the beat, as Isam and U-suke did the same on stage.

Without missing a beat, the band slammed into Reborn, the final song. Isam took to the crowd, sitting atop the folks that had gathered that night to scream some more. As the song drew to a close, Julian handed his guitar off to Isam, and U-suke handed his bass off to someone else, as Takaken emerged from behind his kit to crowd-surf for the last time together as MAKE MY DAY.

Once everyone had returned to the stage, Isam led the last-ever call of “We are MAKE MY DAY!” as horns were held high, voices shouted loud enough to be heard from the street outside, and screams of “Thank you!” rounded off the emotional evening.

We know one thing for a fact—and it’s that no matter what the lads of MAKE MY DAY choose to get up to—we’re looking forward to it. Cheers to the future!

“We are MAKE MY DAY!”Yuto Fukada

Setlist

1. Mind Haven
2. Crowned Victim
3. Full Of Lies
4. Taste of Secrets
5. I Hate Everything
6. Urban Warfare
7. Distorted
8. Wake Up

Encore

9. What Are You Fighting For
10. The Ark Sailing Over Truth (Ashley Scared The Sky)
11. Once
12. Reborn