Otakon 2004 Report at centigrade-j

Although I'd come to Otakon 2004 to 'get my L'Arc on', I was intrigued that they were not the only live act performing at Otakon- another act named angela was performing on Friday night. Though I'd never heard of them before, apparently they are one of the rising stars of anime music in 2003 and 2004, with a couple of new series' themes under their belt.

angela is comprised of Atsuko on vocals and Katsu on guitar. The two musicians met in high school and created a sound reminiscent of the 80's with Katsu's strong but poppy guitar hooks under Atsuko's both soft and penetrating power vocals. Though I wasn't able to interview the band myself, I learned later that their name comes from a Motley Crue song- Katsu is a big fan of the 80's hair metal legends.

Before the concert began, a man from angela's management took the stage and asked the crowd for a phrase we could use to coax the band out. Several suggestions were hurled towards the stage, but it was 'いけ! angela!' ('Come out! angela!') which made the cut. Despite the energy of their introduction, the pair merely saundered out on stage, never quite revealing how excited they were.

1. 明日へのbrilliant road

2. Over the Limits

3. 綺麗な夜空

4. The End of the World

5. 残酷な天使のテーゼ

6. Separation

7. Shangri-la

E. 明日へのbrilliant road

day2://angela.set/list.htm

angela hit the ground running, producing a murmur of excitement through the crowd as many recognized their opening song, '明日へのbrilliant road' ('Brilliant Road to Tomorrow') as the theme to the anime Stellvia ( an import not yet available in the US). The band immediately drew in the fans with Atsuko's hand clapping and Katsu's rock guitar theatrics. The song itself was the kind of power pop where the chorus gets stuck in your head after a few go arounds.

Blurring anime into reality

The energy continued into 'Over the Limits' before coming down for the next two songs - '綺麗な夜空' ('Kirei na Yozora'), a power ballad, and 'The End of the World', one of their anime end-themes. It was when Atsuko and Katsu took a breather for a mid concert MC that the crowd went nuts. Atsuko, a rather timid looking woman with a laid back stage prescence asked us, "Do you know Evangelion?" to which the crowd responded with joyous affirmation. The band then busted out a rockin' version of perennial favorite 残酷な天使のテーゼ ('Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis') which gave the original a run for it's money.

Posin'

day2://angela.photos/portrait.htm

Though one of angela's strengths was in their energetic stage antics, it was the softer 'Separation', the ending theme to Fafner-in the azure, that got my head nodding along and really held my attention. In the pre-song MC, angela did the hard sell on the series, but I think the music was the real selling point- it traded the dancey 80's hooks from their other songs for a slightly Japanese flavor. On the last song of the set, 'Shangri-la', Atsuko's vocals stood out as being both peppy and stinging while Katsu enjoyed doing 'the point' during his brief pauses on guitar. Maybe he was pointing at me, and directing security to haul away that annoying punk who was abusing his camera flash.

Just when we'd thought it was over, things took a turn for the bizarre. A member of the King Records/STARCHILD staff came out to address the crowd, and had a little interplay with the band and assorted staff members. Atsuko took this opportunity to say that she hoped everyone would join her in some classic Japanese hand motions. After going through a few disasterous practice runs, the band started up '明日へのbrilliant road' again. Sure enough- during the chorus, audience hands went up in a (somewhat) steady rhythm. The crowd ate it up when Katsu took time out of his guitar noodling to join us for a round.

Overall, angela proved that they can entertain casual and hardcore fans alike with both their energetic stage show and captivating music. Though the set was short, the show never dragged, and musically angela came off like a top tier act that doesn't need to rely on anime-tie ins to win over an audience. I think it speaks volumes that they were able to engage an unfamiliar audience within the space of an hour- especially when many of the audience members didn't know of the group before the concert. For those interested, their new album ソラノコエ (Sora no Koe) is available now. From the bits of the album I heard at the show, it's definitely worth a listen.

To wind down from the excitement of the concert, I decided to check out the 'Otaku Idol' event. It was like American Idol only, you know... dorkier. Yours booly would have made a run for the title but sadly, all the competitors were pre-registered, and had prepared material (sometimes months) in advance- which made it all the more shocking when so many of them did poorly. I did respect a few of them; though I thought she was a guy at first, the girl who sounded like a Japanese school girl was mind blowing. What can I say... gender confusion was a recurring theme throughout the convention.

Seriously folks- as easy as it is to make fun of 80% of the competitors (and make no mistake, it is easy), let's give a big round of applause for all the people who made asses of themselves without even the promise of TV exposure! Although the guy they got to do Simon was alright, they really should try to find staff who won't put the crowd to sleep. I didn't stick around to see who won, but I did manage to stay long enough to see the Kyo cosplayer sing a painfully soulless version of 'Blurry Eyes'. Yay!