As part of HP's All That Matters Music Matters Live series, J-Rock bands flumpool and SID performed at Clarke Quay's Fountain Stage. Their performances came under a special segment called "J-Rock Matters", presented by the Japanese online publication BARKS.

It was a great show. Best of all, it was free.

I was considering doing a live report, but I noticed that the videos from the livestream of the concert were still up:




I think these convey the experience of the live better than any report of mine could. Any suggestions that I may just be too lazy to write a report will be huffily ignored. I'm not sure how long these videos will be up for, so if you haven't watched them yet, go get to it.

At around 11:30 of flumpool's performance, vocalist and guitarist Ryuta kisses the pick he was using and tosses it into the crowd, close to where I was standing. I normally don't bother going for these kind of things even when they come my way because I'm neither tall nor forceful enough to stand a chance. But this dude who hadn't even noticed what was going on got hit in the chest by the pick, and then coolly bent down to retrieve it. Lucky guy.

Fortunately for me, that dude happened to be the brother I'd dragged along to the show. He didn't really want it, so...


Couldn't have asked for a better souvenir.
So thank you, BARKS, for bringing flumpool and SID to Singapore. I hope you bring other Japanese artistes here as well! Also, hopefully, for free.

(Written in bits and pieces over several weeks, with less proofreading than should have been necessary. I hope it's still passably coherent...)


Ah, Kalafina. I can't remember being as enamoured with any other musical act since I quit idolising boybands as a teenager. And I'd never gone to another country (even if it was just neighbouring Malaysia) just to watch an artiste perform live.

Kalafina were certainly worth the journey.

I'd planned to reach Kuala Lumpur on the afternoon of the 8th of June. It turned out to be an even better idea than I'd have thought because AFA later announced that an open-door press preview would be happening that day. And of course, making an appearance was...

I'm going to be so broke in March...

Kalafina After Eden Blu-ray and DVD announced!!

DVD and Blu-Ray of Kalafina's After Eden Special Live at Tokyo Dome City Hall, to be released on March 21. CDJapan's got them up for pre-order already (DVD and Blu-Ray). Canta-per-me.net's got the set list here and ADORE IS ON IT. I MUST HAVE THIS NOW.

Also, Kalafina's live performances for Animax Musix Studio Live and the Animax Musix 2011 concert have hit YouTube.





...Not their best performances, but still watchable. I thought Oblivious in the studio live was quite good, actually. That Sorairo Days performance, though, was doomed upon its conception. The song really doesn't suit them, and they really don't suit it. I'd normally find the idea of Kalafina doing something different refreshing but this is just too jarring. Seriously? Who came up with that? What a waste of an opportunity. There's a hundred other, better songs I'd love to have seen Kalafina cover...

That studio live was pretty easy on the eyes. Nice roving shots, and lots of gorgeous close-ups of Hikaru's super-fierce expressions, Wakana looking...like Wakana (well, she looks good), and Keiko...well, Keiko.


Super-fierce


Wakana.


And Keiko...well, Keiko








And some bonus Wakana!dansu


(This blog has 10,000 hits how the heck did that happen??)

(EDIT: Re-read, realized I wrote this half-asleep, tried to improve...I don't think it's much better though. Haha.)

Eh heh heh I sure took a while didn't I? It's been so long that some of the details are lost to me, but I still couldn't not write this up.

There were five performers at the third day of AFA 11's I Love Anisong concert: Kanako Itou with Chyomaru Shikura, the seiyuu unit Milky Holmes (from a show I've never watched), angela, Kalafina and May'n. And as you can see from the post title, there were only two acts I was familiar enough with to care about and report on, so I apologize if you were hoping for reports on the rest. Popcultureonline.net has a pretty good report and lots of awesome photos.

But if you still want to read mine...Let's start with how I got starstruck at Kalafina's autograph session.

SGD98...that's crazy. I still can't believe I blew all that money on a show I knew wasn't going to last much more than an hour. It wasn't without its setbacks, but all in all I think that opportunity to see angela live once again was worth it.

Also, autographs.

A lot more after the jump.