Concert Memories: Classic Tunes Echoed Across the Village's Vast Sky

On Day 2, as the 19th song began and its distinctive, tranquil melody filled the air, a murmur of 'Ooh' rippled through the venue.

It was 'Pink Zora (Peach-Coloured Sky)'. 

Concert director Sasaki Atsunori once explained, on the podcast he used to host, that he times this song so that it is performed just as the sky shifts from sunset to night, a moment only an outdoor concert can offer.

That evening, the sky above the Village was just beginning to fade from a pale blue to an orange with a hint of soft peach.

'Pink Zora' is a track from the 2016 album Hakkin no Yoake. It was written and composed by Domoto Tsuyoshi of KinKi Kids (Domoto), who also played guitar on the recording. The song has long been a beloved staple of MCZ's live sets. However, after Kanako and Tsuyoshi announced their marriage on 11 January 2024, some fans began to wonder whether it would still be performed live.

As if to dispel those concerns, the group performed it only a few months later, at 'Haru no Ichidaiji' (The Big Spring Event) in Kameoka City in April 2024. After that, however, it did not appear in a setlist again for over two years.

That is why its return here, as the final song of the main set, carried several layers of meaning.

'Peach-coloured sky' refers to that exquisite moment at sunset when the sky takes on a peach hue. Many Mononofu read the song as treating that sunset as beautiful yet fleeting, and as carrying a simple message: eternity is out of reach, so live in a way that lets this one-off 'now' resonate into the future.

Life is often compared to a dream, and it is a lovely metaphor. But many mononofu feel this song quietly turns away from that idea. It accepts that human existence is brief and that none of us can attain eternity, and that is precisely why its refrain, 'Life is one time', strikes so deeply.

Mononofu also point out that Domoto's lyrics look beyond the personal to the wider world. Amid war, disaster and division, the song keeps asking what we mean by love, and refuses to look away from tragedy. It even reaches towards a future none of us will see, as if wishing to leave the song behind for people we will never meet.

Seen in that light, placing 'Pink Zora' at the close of the main set was more than a nostalgic choice. It was a song long shadowed by mononofus' worries about whether it could still be sung, returning after a long absence. And, as described in the previous article, it was the culmination of a concert whose staging spoke strongly of life and remembrance.

As the final notes faded, the peach in the sky had grown a little deeper, with the first hint of evening blue creeping in. Beneath the vast sky of the Village, it felt like a message both poignant and powerful: this moment will not come again, and that is exactly why it matters.