Fanime 2011 Music Fest

Fanime 2011 had Yuya Matsushita and FLOW for Saturday night's MusicFest.

Yuya Matsushita is a Japanese R&B and hiphop artist. He is most commonly known for having songs and roles in the "Black Butler" anime, which I am not familiar with. He also has one of his hit singles asthe ending theme to the anime "Durarara," which I am familiar with. During his performance he had two back up dancers. Yuya and his back up dancers danced throughout his entire set, which I have to admit is impressive for him to be able to do those very complicated moves and sing without missing a breath. And NO, he was not lip syncing. Since he had no band members or anyone playing live music to accompnay him, he was singing on top of his songs' instrument tracks, which was a very easy way to equalize and hear Yuya actually sing. He was able to speak very good English when talking to the crowd. He says that this is his first show ever in the USA and he was happy to see a lot of "Black Butler" cosplayers. He even did some Black Butler impersonations and quoted some famous lines from the anime like "I am a devil of a butler" and the crowd seemed to love it. I did not recognize most of his songs throughout his set but to me he sounded more J-Pop than R&B or hiphop. But it's fair to say that I don't listen to a lot of R&B or hiphop in general. When Yuya performs, he is very energetic and is a true performer. During MusicFest, he was able to always keep the crowd involved and excited. His songs were catchy and very upbeat. Even his slower songs had a certain catchiness. He and his backup dancers did not falter much at all while dancing those complicated moves. His backup dancers had even more complicated moves. In the end, he was able to perform two encore songs, which I or the crowd did not have problems with that all.

FLOW came on stage right after Yuya Matsushita's performance. FLOW is a huge and successful J-Rock band who previously performed in last year's Fanime. And we weren't complaining. I think they are a very good band to bring to Fanime since it is a convention for people who love anime. FLOW has had their songs in just about every anime that everyone has at least seen or heard of such as "Heroman," "Eureka 7," "Code Geass," and the infamous "Naruto." Keeping up with the excited and energetic crowd that Yuya left, FLOW kept the excitement and energy flowing from their first song played to their very last. The FLOW members were just as energetic while playing as they leapt all over the stage in a frenzy. The song set list was more or less similar to Fanime 2010. Maybe two or three songs were different or I was suffering from some deja vu moments. The two singers were also able to speak fluent English, which helped get the audience pumped up along with them throughout their set. One little complaint I had was that the bass was not loud enough. FLOW songs have very good bass tabs and it was sad to be unable to hear the bass solos. The drums and guitar were just about right--maybe the guitar was a little too distorted at some parts. The vocals were easily equalized the best. FLOW ended their set with their most famous and popular song "Go," which was an opening to "Naruto." They then encored with a brand new song that they will soon be releasing, which was very exciting to hear a brand new song from a band you enjoy listening to. Although Yuya played for about one hour and FLOW played for almost two hours, if felt like FLOW's time flew a lot faster than Yuya's show. FLOW's more recognizable and energetic songs probably made the concert feel a lot faster to me. I enjoyed this year's MusicFest lineup and I am excited to see what next year Fanime MusicFest may bring.

-- Back to Fanime 2011 --