BACK TO THE INDEX.
-By Stephen Kelley-
-Posted May 29, 2005-
-Caution: Visual KEI-
A-Kon 2003 and 2004 Remembered
As we head into A-Kon 2005, I would like to talk about what I have pretty much come to realize is my favorite part of the convention: The music. It may sound a bit odd to be heading to an anime convention to see a concert, but this is different. Most of the bands I have seen only stopped at one or two venues in the US while on tour, many of which will never come back. I see myself as highly fortunate to have witnessed the artists I have seen at previous A-Kons. This shows that there is a market for their music here in the United States.
I used to be really into the whole metal/hard rock genre here in the US. I would go out and buy CDs without prior knowledge of the band, and go to the occasional concert. Working at a record store also helped that, as I could use my employee discount to get MORE music. That was until everything getting made started to get into a rut where it all sounded like Limp Bizkit on a bad day. Do not get me wrong, I used to like Rap/Rock especially Korn, but just as 80’s hair bands started ripping each other off, Nu-Metal (as it is oddly called) started to die in my eyes. It seemed to me that there was no longer any experimentation in their music, which was very evident when bands I loved *cough*Static-X*cough* released terrible CDs that were obviously what their record labels wanted to hear.
It was around this time that I self exposed myself to Japanese rock music, or J-Rock as the American fans have labeled it. I remember hearing about -the now defunct band- Malice Mizer (pronounced mee-zer) and their unique style. Malice Mizer were at the forefront of a Genre of music called “Visual Kei,” Which more or less means "Visual Style." These bands are probably closest in mindset to Alice Cooper or glam rockers of the 70’s in that they take great pride in their stage appearances. Made popular by the band X-Japan, Visual Kei is a movement in music for some (mostly male) bands of dressing in colorful clothes (including feather boas, womens kimonos or fur coats), dying their hair all sorts of unnatural anime inspired colors, or wearing theatrical make-up. Most Band members end up having an odd androgynous look to them, very similar to David Bowie or 80’s bands Like Motley Crue.
Although Visual Kei is more of an underground movement in Japan -that corporations are trying to exploit-, it has become very popular among convention going anime fans. You would be hard stressed not to see at least one person cosplaying as a member of Malice Mizer, or a member of the fan favorite band Dir en Grey, who oddly enough hate said cosplayers.
Many fans tend to concentrate too much on the visual aspect of these bands, but what really caught my eye, or I guess I should say ear, was the music. Although there are many genres of rock music in Japan, what seems the most prominent sounds very much like a cross between punk music drums, metal guitar solos and glam rock. This was a breath of fresh air to me, because all of these bands were so different that no two really sound the same. Yes, there are copycat artists all over the place, but the beauty of living here in the US is that you only hear of the really good bands.
Malice Mizer, for example, had quite a few songs that were similar to 18th century French baroque music. That is pretty odd to hear from a hard rock band that is semi popular. Most bands like that in the US would never exactly take off, and become more gimmicky than they should be.
The first Year I attended A-Kon, which is a large anime convention held in Dallas, Texas every year, I got to see two bands at their yearly concert. One was an underground band who were trying to gain support in the US in order to make it big in Japan. That band was called Duel Jewel. The other band was comprised totally of former producers and sound technicians who normally do studio work (sort of like the Gorrillaz), who formed a band called Camino.
A-Kon’s concert experience was an odd one that year. I was very used to your typical hard rock shows in the US where you get frisked and go to your seats. Then you wait for more than a few hours for the concert to start. What I got at A-kon was very different can of worms; I set out at around 5:00 pm or so on the night of the concert. What I found was an already long line that I joined to see it. Considering the concert was being held at 7:00, let us just say I was bored. The line would move every once in a while, but it was more to keep the line straight and single file, than to actually be seated. I sat through the A-Kon opening ceremonies, which was the same room being used for the concert, for an hour. The Opening Ceremonies were pretty lame aside from the trailer to New Fist of the North Star.
After the opening Ceremonies, we were all advised to pick our chairs up and move them to the sides of the ballroom, this was basically like saying: “Hey everyone! Let's pick up our chairs and run around in utter chaos until the concert begins.” Once that was over with we were all jammed into one huge “mosh pit” consisting of about, I think, 6,000 people. This was fine until the constant “Let's lurch forward” that accompanies ANY concert started to happen. After being told 100 times to back up due to fire and safety regulations, we finally got it right and the concert began.
What stood out with this concert to me was how both bands owned the stage. I have seen a few concerts in the past were there was no spark, and you were more or less bored to be watching a band. This was not the case with these concerts.
A picture of me with the drummer from Camino =>Camino took the stage first, and it was cool to see them because they had just formed months before coming to A-Kon. Their music reminded me a tad like electronic punk music, if that actually was a genre of its own. There was, of course, the obligatory ballads in which the audience all waved their hands back in forth like an ocean, which was a new phenomena to me. Normally at the rock shows I had previously been to, people would try to mosh even when sound checks were being applied. I was really impressed with Camino, especially since they were novice concert musicians. They would interact with the crowd by leading them in chants. What was cool about Camino was how the lead singer tried to talk to us in his VERY broken English. This resulted in great trade offs like this:
Camino: “YOU LIKE ANIME!”
Crowd: “YEAH!”
Camino: “YOU LIKE ANIME MUSIC!”
Crowd: “YEAH!”
Camino: “WE SING NOW THEME SONG TO KENSHIN!”
Crowd: “YEAH!”
The crowd would seriously cheer every last thing the band said. I bet if the band said “Ha ha! we hate you and took your money” everyone would still cheer as if it was a pep rally for a high school football team.*
<= Duel Jewel Takes the stage! Next Duel Jewel took the stage and instantly started pumping out insanely heavy songs back to back with poppy love songs. It was odd, because they seemed to span more than just one genre with their music, but really great. I had the “pleasure” of being something like 5 feet from the stage where the Lead Guitarist was standing, which resulted in me getting sprayed with water every time he decided to fling a Dasani bottle all over everyone. It was a nice place to stand except for the fact that I was literally right next to a speaker, which lead to me being hard-of-hearing the rest of the day. All-in-all great show if I say so myself.
After Duel Jewel’s set the obligatory “ENCORE!” chants began. Both bands came out and sang what I can only describe as a karaoke version of a Hoobastank song with 15 people singing/playing it. It made me laugh, but it was a bunch of fun.
Aside from the concert, I was exposed to the “J-rock room” in which my buddy Byron and I watched DVDs of rock videos for quite a while after the concert. This room at the time was a shoddy hotel suite up on some floor of the hotel equipped with a big screen TV. All the videos we watched lead to me eventually to downloading all sorts of Japanese music videos, mainly because they were pretty cool to watch.
One year passed and it was already time for A-Kon again. After a false start of announcing an artist that ended up not being able to attend, I began to wonder who was in charge of organizing things for the concert. Basically one month before the convention it was finally announced that there would be three bands and one pop idol at A-Kon. “Psycho Le Cemu”, “Camino” once again “Do as infinity” and pop star Nami Tamaki were the featured musical guests. What ensued afterwards a giant mess if I say so myself.
The main catch phrase of A-Kon 15 should have been “BACK UP! STAY BEHIND THE LINE,” as security was beefed up to a ridiculous point. This was because the band “Psycho le Cemu” is a MTV level band over in Japan, in fact I was really surprised that they were there. This basically meant no cameras, no running, and having to stand in a line for over 2 hours because two factions of security could not agree about anything, and we con-goers got blamed for it. If you ask anyone that was there about what they liked / disliked about the convention, most will say “organization” or “that loud woman needed to be fired,” as the spokeswoman for security was basically the meanest woman ever. I had theories of how she was librarian in training, and had no Christmas as a child, whether or not that was true, I still wished she had calmed down.
When we finally got into the concert (I will exclude a detailed report of the line because that would be ridiculous) we were definitely in for a treat. Psycho Le Cemu is a VERY visual band that is into Cosplay, as the band themselves are huge anime fans. This meant that their show was very visually inclined with intermission segments, bright costumes, props, and oh yeah great music. PLC’s (as I will write from now on) music ranges from metal, rock, and pop music. PLC is a VERY different band. This is very evident when a song calls for little or no instruments, where most bands would pretend to be doing a lot of good on stage, PLC will have a few of the members Para Para Dance (A craze in Japan) along with the music. At first glance, this is about as silly as Marilyn Manson doing the Macarena, but works very well for PLC, as their entire emphasis is being visual, and opening up the concert to audience participation. You have never lived until you see 10,000 nerdy kids moshing and doing choreographed dances at the same time. It is almost indescribable.
After PLC got off the stage, there was a pop concert from Nami Tamaki which I did not see. Pop music just is not my bag. I did watch her performance of the theme song to Gundam Seed on the big screen outside the ballroom, but that was pretty much it.
After Nami, was a brother and sister fronted band called Do as Infinity which have done music for popular anime like Inu Yasha and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. This concert was more mellow, but a good contrast to PLC, earthier and more grounded, but just as entertaining. The two main musicians were very talented the brother being the main guitarist (great solos ) and the sister the lead singer (great voice). One funny thing that occurred was how the audience acted. The Guitarist, who knew English, would ask.
Do as Infinity: “How you guys doing?”
Crowd: “YEAH!”
One guy in Crowd: “I want to marry your sister!”
To which the guitarist laughed and got in the joke by saying “Awwww not me?”
After DAI, I was also treated to my second Camino performance. Camino had gotten a new drummer and a new guitarist since last time I had seen them, and they were MUCH better. I would go as far to say that they were the best of the night. My friends and I were blessed enough to be in the Front row during their set, and this only added to the experience. It seemed that Camino has finally found their groove and I wish they were at A-Kon this year.
As we head into this A-Kon, A-Kon 16, the official website lays out the basis for this years concert:
"ZZ, Jrock band that performed "A to Z", an ending song for the series, One Piece, will be the opening act.
Kumiko Kato, the hot new singing sensation who has received multiple kudos for her appearances at several anime shows this year, will be performing Saturday prior to Cosplay, and hosting our "Night of Fire"on Friday. Kumiko will introduce...
'dream' (the two original members) who will be performing a selection of their best hits, backed by professional Tokyo dancers, at a specially designed and choreographed one-time-only limited engagement exclusively for A-Kon!
'dream' is known to anime fan for their song 'My Will', the closing theme for "Inu Yasha" as well as music that has appeared in 'Initial D' ("Night of Fire"), 'Hikaru no Go' and 'Asbotto Senki Goku'. 'dream' is known for their Pop and Eurobeat sound and will headline our special....
NIGHT OF FIRE... A-Kon presents a high-energy dance/music experience complete with live Tokyo Dance Club DJ. This dance will feature Eurobeat and High Energy music featured on Eurobeat Night straight off the dance floor from the hottest clubs in Tokyo!
This type of cutting edge musical show has never been done at an anime con before, and you will see it ALL here! (and ONLY Here!) Friday night!"
While I am not too stoked about the overabundance of pop acts, I will be happy to see the band ZZ (who sound like Linkin Park), and the DJ. Stay tuned for my impressions of the concert itself sometime in June.
Here are my only hopes:
- I hope they Bring back photo ops.
- Organize the concert better.
- No woman that needs to be fired.
Article by Stephen Kelley
Property of DMG Ice, dmgice.com, and the original author as expressed in the by-line.