First five photos courtesy AWR Music Productions
Last three photos, all photo editing: Brian Lee
As I write this article, I'm actually on a flight back home. It's been a wild two nights and I'm a far way from home. I had traded the pleasantly sunny skies of California for the snowy streets of Chicago for the weekend. "Why?" you might ask. A very good reason: the premiere of the Nier: Orchestra Concert re:12018 tour.
Multitalented Shoko Nakagawa is best known as a singer, voice actor, and television personality has released her 5th full album RGB~True Color~. Songs on the album include anime tie-ins from series including Pokemon, and Zoids Wild. The album also includes the song "Aruhi Dokokade" originally unfinished by Shoko's late father and album illustration drawn by Shoko herself.
Japanese band FLOW has just announced a world tour for 2020. Enterprising individuals had found the dates at their local venues early on Friday and just a few hours ago the band made an official announcement.
It's been a while since DIR EN GREY was in America but they'll be making a tour of it in the usual places come December. The tour kicks off in Los Angeles at the Regent Theater followed by Sacramento's Ace of Spades before heading east to Colorado, Chicago, and beyond. After reaching New York they will loop back towards Texas before making a final stop in Mexico City, Mexico.
FLOW took the stage and performed at Crunchyroll Expo in San Jose on August 30th. This was FLOW’s third time performing in San Jose with the first and second at Fanime Con in 2010 and 2011. It's been eight years since then. The concert was sold out with approximately 2,000 people in attendance.
Dance and vocal group MADKID is composed of five members who performed for the first time in the United States at Crunchyroll Expo on September 1st. The quintet features both singers and rappers and all of the members execute their dancing with a crispness second to none. They appeared twice during the expo and we were there for both.
On September 6, MAN WITH A MISSION kicked off the North American leg of their 2019 tour at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. The Japanese wolf band made their return with their first solo independent tour in five years. They will travel across the United States before making their way to Mexico and ending the tour in Canada. The tour is titled “Chasing the Horizon” which is also the name of their most recent album.
Man With a Mission has an announcement right on the eve of the start of their Chasing the Horizon Tour - North American leg: their song "Dark Crow" will be featured as the second opening song for the anime adapter of Vinland Saga.
Everyone's favorite supercharged wolves will be returning to North America in September for their Chasing the Horizon World Tour. This is Man With a Mission's first standalone tour in five years. The tour kicks off in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles, Dallas, Mexico, New York, Chicago, Toronto, and finally Vancouver.
Back in 2008 there was an anime called Mnemosyne. It was a weird kind of anime full of blood, violence, and a little bit of ero, and was based off of a light novel of the same name. It wasn't the best anime but it did do one thing right and that's introducing me to a Japanese band called Galneryus who played both the OP and ED songs. In two weeks Galneryus is set to have their first American performance at a festival called ProgPower USA.
Anime Expo 2019 may not have had as many concerts as years past but what it did have was quality. Love Live's Aqours played to two sold-out crowds at The Novo on July 5th and 6th. The performances, titled "BRAND NEW WAVE," would leave concertgoers with memories for years to come and build upon Aqours' legacy in Los Angeles.
Korean pop group Davichi will be holding a concert in San Francisco at the Herbst Theatre on June 29th at 7:30PM. Ticket prices will start at $90 and upwards to $290 for box seats. Online tickets sales begin on Sunday June 2, 2019 at 12:01 AM PST at City Box Office.
Japanese hip-hop group HONEST BOYZ’ newest single “ELECTRICITY (featuring Lil Uzi Vert)” will be the original ending song for the Hollywood live action movie Detective Pikachu.
K-Pop group TWICE has released the highly anticipated music video for their latest song, "FANCY." The video has garnered roughly 40 million views in the span of 24 hours, breaking the group's previous 24 hour view record of 31.4 million views.