It's been a long three years since American fans were able to see Nemophila on US soil. The girls have been busy between now and then with a bevy of shows including one at the famed Nippon Budokan in the heart of Tokyo to celebrate their fifth annivery in 2024 and an open air live where they played every single song in their discography in 2025.
They were set to return to America in fall 2025 alongside fellow Japanese bands Risky Melody and ALLiCA but due to unforseen circumstances had to cancel, much to the chagrin of western fans. Thankfully we would not have to wait that much longer for a proper tour that went coast to coast going all the way from New York to California.
Pomona's The Glass House served as the tour's final stop on July 14. This is actually the first time I've been to an event in Pomona. Pomona sits on the eastern side of Los Angeles county, north of Anaheim. The Glass House marks its thirtieth anniversary this year and has seen many a band on its stage including No Doubt, Rage Against the Machine, Weezer, and The White Stripes. The Glass House is nominally an 800 person venue, putting it slightly on the smaller side of the "medium venue" scale of things. I would describe tonight's crowd as "comfortable." Not overcrowded like some shows I've been to, but by no means empty. In addition to the main floor, The Glass House also has a small balcony for people to watch the show from. As an independent venue, ticket prices are kept very affordable. Parking is plentiful outside and the public Pomona lots are free for two hours, and $2 flat rate after that. Very different than say, downtown LA or San Francisco where parking is a gun fight for street parking or you pay up for a garage.
The temperatures for the day peaked at 100, not too unheard of for southern California, but still on the higher end of things and marked the beginning of a heat wave. People had reportedly been in line since before noon, showing just how dedicated some of Nemphila's fans are.
Nemophila consists of vocalist Mayu, guitarist Hazuki (ex-Disqualia), bassist Haraguchi-san, and drummer Tamu Murata. The band released their most recent album, Apple of My Eye, in January 2025, and a new EP, Gozo, in January 2026.
Between 2023 and now, a lot has happened. The quintet is now a quartet after the departure of guitarist Saki shortly after the Budokan show in early 2024. Saki continues onward with a solo career as well as a spot in L'Arc-en-Ciel cover band Like-an-Angel (helmed by L'Arc-en-Ciel's bassist Tetsuya). The switch from quintet to quartet also signaled the end of the band's work with longtime composer and producer Kensuke Akiyama. Both Akiyama and Saki helped establish the framework of the band and it would be up to the remaining members to continue onward. Musically, this did mean they had to adjust from a dual guitar setup to a solo one, but live, you'd be hard pressed to notice. Hazuki is fully capable of holding things down on her own.
The first four songs would be "Hoozuki" from REVIVE, "Kaika Sengen" from GOZO, "Anata Dare" from Apple of My Eye, and "RISE" from Evolve. A good representation of their body of work, and all killer songs in their own right. There was a brief pause to allow for technical difficulties as the speakers for the crowd were malfunctioning but soon enough we were back in action and it was time for "Change the world" from REVIVE.
A little over a third of setlist would consist of songs from their first album, REVIVE, including "DISSENSION," "RAITEI," and "SORAI." Their second album, Seize the Fate, had them play the songs "ADABANA" and "ZEN" (but sadly, no "Ray of Light"). From Evolve we had "OSKR" and "RISE." From Apple of My Eye we had "BRAINWASH," "Anata Dare," and "Good as hell quartet." Holding it down from Gozo were the two songs "VS EGO" and "namas." Even though it is among their newest songs, "namas" has to be one of the heaviest in the bands repetoire.
The final song was the song that first got me onto Nemophila, "OIRAN." It's all thanks to YouTube and its algorithm serving me up that song on my drives to work that I know of the band.
One thing that stood out to me is how fun they have on stage. Haraguchi-san even playfully stuck out her tongue during the set. They are a band that can stack up with any other one you can think of and bring vibrant energy to go with a heavy sound. The crowd fed off their energy, and in return, the band amped it up too.
The schedule posted on the wall had showed Nemophila starting at 945PM with a mere hour of play time. Having seen the set lists for other shows on the tour, I was initially a bit worried they would be playing a truncated version of the show, but to my pleasure, they played the whole eighteen-song set. My group ended up leaving the venue sometime around 1120PM after everything was said and done. The band threw out a lot of things at the end of the show, including drum sticks, picks, and even made paper airplanes out of the stage set lists so they could go farther into the crowd.
It's always a pleasure to see Nemophila and it was worth flying down for. I'll have to see if I can catch more of their Japanese shows in the future because a three-year wait is way too long to see a band of this caliber.
