Yusuke Chiba's last show: The Birthday at LIQUIDROOM, Tokyo, March 15, 2023

About the artist

Yusuke Chiba was born on July 10, 1968, in Kanagawa Prefecture^[1][2]. As the singer of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant he made his major-label debut in 1996 with the single "Sekai no Owari" ("the end of the world"); in 2001, two years before that band broke up, he also launched Rosso^[3]. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant's farewell show, on October 11, 2003, the last night of the Last Heaven Tour, drew 37,000 people to an all-standing Makuhari Messe^[4].

The Birthday was formed in September 2005 around Chiba (vocals, guitar), with Akinobu Imai (guitar), Kazuyuki Kuhara (drums) and Haruki Hirai (bass)^[5][6]. The single "stupid" came out in August 2006 and the first album, Rollers Romantics, that autumn. In January 2008 the band headlined the Nippon Budokan for the first time; that summer it played two stages on two days at Fuji Rock Festival and gave Rising Sun Rock Festival its first-ever two-hour set^[5].

Imai's last show with the band was at Rock in Japan Festival on August 6, 2010, and Kenji Fujii (guitar) joined at the end of that year^[5][6]. The Birthday returned to the Budokan in December 2012 and again in September 2015, its tenth anniversary year, when it also released its first best-of, GOLD TRASH. The 2017 NOMAD tour ran to 45 dates, the most in the band's history^[5].

Alongside the band, Chiba played in Midnight Bankrobbers and The Golden Wet Fingers^[1]. As YUSUKE CHIBA -SNAKE ON THE BEACH- he released a fourth album, SINGS, on August 10, 2022: as the title says, a record focused on singing, made almost entirely by himself, with Kuhara and Imai on some tracks^[7].

On November 4, 2022, The Birthday was named as the performer of the opening theme for The First Slam Dunk, the animated film written and directed by Takehiko Inoue, with 10-FEET's "Dai Zero Kan" as the closing theme^[8]. The film opened on December 3, and the opening theme, "LOVE ROCKETS," went out on streaming services with a music video. On December 7 it appeared on the four-song Getsuya no Zankyō ep. ("echoes of a moonlit night")^[9].

Why this was thought to be the end

On November 1, 2022, The Birthday set out on a twelve-city tour of Japan, GO WEST.YOUNGMAN, which the band's official site now calls Yusuke Chiba's last tour^[6][10]. At Nakano Sunplaza in Tokyo on December 8, the band played "LOVE ROCKETS" live for the first time since the film's release, along with new songs from the EP issued the day before^[10][11].

The calendar for 2023 stayed full. The band announced its first Quattro×Quattro Tour in five years, a run through four Club Quattro venues around Japan, with summer festivals and an autumn national tour to follow^[12][13]. It was booked for Fuji Rock Festival '23 on July 28^[14]. Between shows the four were writing, doing pre-production and recording, with a plan for two mini-albums: September, due that September, and April, due in April 2024^[13][12].

On March 15 The Birthday played the LIQUIDROOM event (see "About the day"). According to Pia, recording continued into April, right up to the point when Chiba stopped to concentrate on treatment^[15]; the three songs later released on April were recorded that month^[13].

On April 24 it was announced that Chiba would take time off, for the time being, to focus on treatment for esophageal cancer^[12][13]. The same day, Fuji Rock Festival announced that The Birthday had canceled its appearance because of Chiba's illness, and wished him a quick recovery^[14]. The autumn tour never took place with him^[12]. THE FIRST TIMES calls the March stage Chiba's last live performance, and Pia describes it the same way^[12][13].

According to a statement issued on December 5 by his management company, Base Inc., Universal Music and the three other members, Chiba had continued treatment for the esophageal cancer he disclosed in April, and died on November 26, at 55^[1][3]. The statement added that a private funeral had already been held with relatives and the band, and that a farewell event was being planned^[1].

With Chiba gone, the four-piece Birthday would never play again. But Kuhara, Hirai and Fujii did not end the band. According to the official profile, in summer 2024 they revived WEEKEND LOVERS, the live circuit Chiba and Tatsuya Nakamura had started in 2002, as "WEEKEND LOVERS 2024 'with You'" at Fuji Rock Festival '24 and Rising Sun Rock Festival 2024 in Ezo, and resumed live work under the name The Birthday (Kazuyuki Kuhara, Haruki Hirai, Kenji Fujii)^[6]. In September 2025 they toured for the band's twentieth anniversary, and in 2026 they are still appearing under the same name (see "Legacy")^[16][17].

For that reason, Shuenroku files this night under "Not the end after all" for The Birthday, with the death of a member as the reason. It was Chiba's last stage, but not the band's last show.

What is known about the day

March 15, 2023, was a Wednesday. LIQUIDROOM is a live house in Higashi, Shibuya Ward, about three minutes' walk from Exit 2 of Ebisu Station on the Hibiya Line. The night's event was RUDE GALLERY Presents "BLACK RUDE NIGHT," with three acts: The Birthday; SPEEDER-X, the duo of Tatsuya Nakamura and KenKen; and TRI4TH. Doors opened at 5:30 p.m. and the show began at 6:30. Tickets had gone on sale on January 8: a premium ticket with a leather holder for ¥11,000, and general admission for ¥6,900, which sold out^[18].

RUDE GALLERY, the host, is a clothing and accessories company headed by Yutaka Katayanagi. According to SPICE, its connection with Chiba began in 2003, when Katayanagi offered Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, by then set to break up, a slot at the company's event and offered to make the band's stage clothes. The two later ran a brand together, SUNDINISTA EXPERIENCE, billed as "Yusuke Chiba meets RUDE GALLERY"^[19].

This was not the first BLACK RUDE NIGHT. Ten years earlier, on February 11, 2013, RUDE GALLERY's thirteenth-anniversary party at the same LIQUIDROOM went by the same name, and The Birthday played it. Guests were asked to wear black, the brand's color, and according to rockinon.com's report Chiba called out RUDE GALLERY's name again and again from the stage^[20].

Both of the 2023 co-headliners had ties to Chiba. Tatsuya Nakamura of SPEEDER-X was the partner with whom he had started the jam event WEEKEND LOVERS in 2002^[10][21]. TRI4TH opened its 2021 album GIFT, a record that reaches beyond jazz into hip-hop, R&B, ska and rock, with "LET JERRY ROLL feat. Chiba Yusuke"^[22], and on the strength of that song brought Chiba out as a guest at the final show of its fifteenth-anniversary tour, at Zepp DiverCity on June 7, 2022^[23].

No press report describing The Birthday's set, its songs or its last song has been found. The setlist in the data table comes from fan-edited databases (setlist.fm and LiveFans) and is marked unverified; the two disagree on the order of the first half of the main set.

According to SPICE, the next BLACK RUDE NIGHT was announced that night for November 2023^[19]. Forty days later came the news of Chiba's break (see "Why it was the last"). The 64-page photo book packaged with the EP April the following year runs from the band's 2015 Budokan show to this March 2023 stage, Chiba's last^[24][12].

What the show left behind

After Chiba's death was announced, tributes followed. On January 19, 2024, a flower-offering gathering for him was held at Zepp DiverCity in Tokyo. The same day, the band announced that the three songs recorded in April 2023, just before he stopped to concentrate on treatment, would be finished by the other three members and released as a new EP, honoring his wish to complete them^[15]. From January 31 to February 2, the cable channel Fuji TV NEXT broadcast and streamed a 36-hour tribute, "THANK YOU YUSUKE CHIBA, I LOVE YOU BABY," compiling his appearances on Fuji Television from 1996 to 2022^[25].

The EP, titled April after one of the two planned mini-albums, came out on April 3 with three songs: "Saidā" ("cider"), "S.P.L" and "I SAW THE LIGHT"^[13][12][24]. On April 27 the three appeared at Arabaki Rock Fest.24 as guests under their own names^[26]. On July 10, Chiba's birthday, LIVE AT NAKANO SUNPLAZA 2022 "GO WEST.YOUNGMAN", the complete December 8, 2022 show from his last tour, was released on Blu-ray and vinyl^[10][6].

That summer WEEKEND LOVERS returned after eleven years. It had begun in 2002 as an all-night circuit event presented by Rosso and LOSALIOS, the bands led by Chiba and Tatsuya Nakamura, and had become a multi-band show in 2013^[21]. On July 28, at the Red Marquee stage of Fuji Rock Festival '24, Nakamura's LOSALIOS shared the bill with The Birthday as a trio of Kuhara, Hirai and Fujii. According to Pia's report, after a joint session Kuhara introduced the band with a simple "We're The Birthday," and the three played "Gekkō" ("moonlight") with no guest singer; the absence of Chiba's voice drew a strong reaction from the crowd. The audience sang "I SAW THE LIGHT," and on the new "Saidā" Hirai took the first verse and Kuhara the second. ILL-BOSSTINO of THA BLUE HERB joined for "Hallelujah," and the set ended with "Rōrin" ("rollin'"), sung by YONCE of Suchmos. Hirai, who had volunteered to do the talking, told the crowd it was fine to cry, but he hoped they could smile, even a little^[21]. On August 17 the same lineup played Rising Sun Rock Festival 2024 in Ezo^[11][6]. The official profile treats those summer festival shows as the point when the three resumed live work as The Birthday^[6].

On April 27, 2025, the trio played the ARAHABAKI stage at Arabaki Rock Fest.25, with Takumi Kitamura of DISH// joining them as a session guest^[16]. In September, the month of the band's twentieth anniversary, they toured the Club Quattro venues in Nagoya, Umeda (Osaka), Hiroshima and Shibuya on the Quattro×Quattro Tour'25, with guests including Flower Companyz, SIX LOUNGE, SCOOBIE DO and BRAHMAN^[16][6].

On October 26, the BLACK RUDE NIGHT announced at LIQUIDROOM in March 2023 finally took place, after two postponements, at festhalle in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, with Nothing's Carved In Stone also on the bill. The dress code was black, a color Chiba often wore, and the audience, the staff and both bands dressed in it. According to SPICE, the three members, who had sung backing vocals but never lead, now shared lead vocals song by song: Fujii sang "LOVE ROCKETS," Hirai "Saidā" and Kuhara "Aozora" ("blue sky"). For the encore, "Namida ga Koboresō" ("tears about to fall"), Taku Muramatsu and Shinichi Ubukata of Nothing's Carved In Stone joined them, and Muramatsu asked the crowd where they thought Chiba was now, then answered that he was inside them. The last song was "Rōrin." The writer, Yukiko Kajiwara, said that as a music fan she wholeheartedly supported the trio's decision to carry on^[19].

In 2026 The Birthday is still appearing under its name. The final show of "HARRY & THE BIRTHDAY TOUR2026 'Gotta Move'" was set for July 17 at SGC HALL ARIAKE in Tokyo, and a double bill with ELLEGARDEN, "AUDIO 20th Anniversary AUDIOLOCKS," is scheduled for November 11 at festhalle in Takamatsu (as of November 2026)^[17][6].

Chiba's last stage was a night of people dressed in black, at a venue where he had played under the same event name ten years before. The next night announced there was held two years and seven months later, with The Birthday as a trio.