So, as most of you can tell by lack of concert-going updates, my life has been kinda lame lately. I found out from going to the Japanese conversation hour that this local club, Jaxx, was hosting a concert for otaku featuring Psychic Lover and Salia. I had not heard of either, but tickets were only 20$ and it was preferable to sitting at home knitting and watching Star Trek (sadly, my Saturday night fun as of late).
I found Jaxx with little trouble - after Japan, ANY concert venue is easy to find - and arrived at 5pm. According to the website updated ON THAT DAY, the doors were to open at 4:30 and the show was to start at 5. Right. Doors didn't open until at least 6:30 and the show didn't start until 8.
Since I'd gone alone, I kept looking for my acquaintances from conversation hour. I was sure they'd come, as I watched them buy advance tickets, but they never did, oddly. So, I mingled with the strange, geeky, and poorly dressed crowd. First some guy named Matt started asking me if I'd been to the last Akibafest. I told him it was impossible as I'd moved to Maryland only recently. He wandered off. I wondered vaguely if was some kind of confused nerdy flirting. Then some very short (as in shorter than me) and very shy black guy started telling me how cute I was and how I ought to have brought my boyfriend and if I didn't have one he'd be happy to be my boyfriend. I told him I had to get to know him first. Mostly he talked about living with his mom (not necessarily a deal breaker) and shonen anime I'd lost interest in ages ago (kind of a deal breaker) and how he had no intention of getting beyond a HS education (at this point, a deal breaker). So then I wandered over to some girl, Sonya, who had just got back from Japan. Strangely enough, she'd gone to Gaidai too! And went to indie concerts! All the time! And we both missed Japan a whole ton! I found a friend. Her friend Ficus was pretty cool too - she was a history major who liked to knit. Yay for meeting random cool people. The first guy, Matt came and talked to us some more - he works at Jaxx, even though he is only 17. So when he found out that Ficus, Sonya, and I were all over 21, he was sooooo randomly (and kind of hilariously) angry.
Anyways, they finally let us into the hall . . . and we got to wait some more after being given a bag of free crap from a car company that was sponsoring the event and other random companies. Don't ask me why a car company would sponsor an event where 95% of the audience is under 25 and probably can't afford to buy a car, but whatever.
The show finally started with a bunch of lame filler. Sonya and I seized the wide-open front row. Yay front row and being able to see! The MCs were dressed as Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth and engaged in a bunch of lame banter. This one guy kept heckling them and demanding that the various sponsors shilling cars and Akibafest goods dance. It was the only thing that made it interesting.
Then there was a costume contest. This HS girl next to me really wanted to win. Actually, she and her friend were really into the whole thing. It was probably their first concert. A girl dressed as an Indian won I think because her clothes were skin tight and she was pretty and skinny enough to pull it off. They gave out more free crap as prizes and raffled some off to the crowd.
Finally Psychic Lover came on stage. At this point, I should mention that I was so concert deprived that anything male, Japanese, more or less cute, and playing guitar would have resulted in fangirling. For that matter, 3 of the 4 would probably suffice but at any rate Sonya and I decided to be shameless fangirls even though the music was too poppy for our taste. On the whole they weren't bad. Most of their songs are opening or ending themes from Power Ranger type shows (there are many of these in Japan) and some animes (including Yu-Gi-Oh). I appointed myself saizen leader and got a bunch of the front to do guitar solo parapara for Joe (Imajo but we all know Joe is a cooler name) and Sonya and I yelled random stuff at them in Japanese, telling them that we knew Japanese, had lived in Japan, liked them, thought they looked cool, and had pretty nails (Joe had the most ridiculous MAN-icure I have ever seen. Multiple colors and rhinestones ^^;;;). Yoffy, the singer, told us we were a great audience, moved him to tears, apologized for being sweaty, and asked us if we liked Psychic Lover or hamburgers better in the most adorable Engrish ever. Apparently he had a really awesome hamburger yesterday? Joe said "sankyuu foa koming!" and had Fred, their translator (and the guy from Japanese conversation) do most of his talking. Yoffy kept calling Fred "my god" which was inadvertently hilarious as Fred is a slightly overweight squirrelly otaku type. Also, Yoffy had manbling and this fringy ass studdy belt thingy that would be the envy of Dir en grey. So, while it was not the greatest music, they were cute and had good energy (Yoffy almost passed out, or so he said - he had Fred translate a Japanese phrase that meant "the more sweaty the man, the more sexy he is" so of course we had to yell "sugoku kakkoi" at him a bunch). It was quite fun.
Then Salia came up. She was cute in her Goth Loli dress, but super boring. I ended up sitting down with Sonya for the rest of her set.
Finally the show ended and we got into the autograph line. I didn't want to buy anything but the staff said they'd sign my flyer. While talking to Sonya, we realized we both new this one girl Jenn from Gaidai who I went to concerts with. Small, small world. Then I "otsukaresama"ed at Psychic Lover, told them I had fun, got my flyer signed, and drove home.
So, the music wasn't the best but I got to fangirl in the front row and I made some friends who I will hopefully get to do stuff with and had probably the most fun I've had since moving here. ^_^
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