My First Taste of Convention Life

I attended Fanime a few years ago, but Sac-Anime 2009 was my first overnight convention. Between the two, Fanime is a whole lot better. In my opinion, Sac-Anime was way too small and unorganized. The hallways were narrow and on top of that were Artist Alley booths clogging the hallways. You could not stop to look at the artwork because you would be blocking traffic. The Dealers Room was worse with very little space to walk around and not too many vendors. Most people were outdoors to avoid the crowded hallways, but it was way too hot outside. I could not take a whole lot of pictures since I could not stop in the halls and many people were resting from the heat. I prefer Fanime since it was bigger and has a lot more space. And it since it was mostly indoors, that was a huge plus. The auditorium, which held the Masquerade and fashion show was also small. I will not let the slightly bad experience at Sac-Anime let me down. In fact it makes me look more forward to other cons.

Sac-Anime Concerts

Three bands performed at Sac-Anime: Tanuki Suit Riot, Buranden, and Akai Sky. Before leaving, I checked their Myspace pages. Out of the three I was most interested in Tanuki Suit Riot because they do video games and anime covers/mashup like Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Megaman, and Mario Brothers. The name Tanuki Suit Riot came from one of the Mario video games where Mario wears a raccoon outfit, which is what "tanuki" actually means in Japanese. Their combination of rock guitar riffs, funk bass tabs, and jazz leads from the trumpeter and saxophonist created a very soothing and relaxing sound. My favorite song of theirs would have to be their Megaman Snakeman Boss theme mashed with Cowboy Bebop since I played the Megaman games and watched Cowboy Bebop and never thought how well they would sound together. Just like the Megaman and Cowboy Bebop mashup, they took the unforgettable themes of famous anime and video games and put in their own twist and sound, which showed me how creative these guys are. Tanuki Suit Riot is always working on their music and is willing to take fan requests on their Myspace. That day I wore my Megaman shirt and got a CD for free.

The next band to perform was the J-Pop band, Buranden. They are originally from Texas but just recently acquired a recording label from Japan and are doing a country wide tour in Japan some time in two weeks. They expect their full length album to be released next year in April. Excluding the horrible equalization--especially from the keyboards--they sounded pretty decent. I found it interesting that their singer/founder named Brandon writes in English, Japanese, or both in his songs. Brandon is not Japanese at all but he knows the language very well since he has studied there. You can tell when he sings the Japanese sounds off. I wonder if the Japanese will be bothered by this during his tour? Other than that, they did not sound any different from your average J-Pop bands. I probably would have enjoyed them more if the equalization was better. The keyboards were way too loud blowing off the speakers and it sounded screechy when the guitar went into distortion. The guitarist's solos were a little bit boring, uncreative, and pretty easy. But since it is pop, it is up to the keyboardist to make up with catchy and intricate tunes.

The last band to perform is a local band close to where I live: Akai Sky. They were easily the most active band out of the three. Unlike the other two, they got most of the crowd involved. They just replaced their drummer and singer about a year ago. I must say I never heard the original singer but this new singer is a definite keeper. He has a very wide range of vocals and does not get out of breath. All the members of Akai Sky composed songs for their set list. The drummer was good too. He was slightly louder than the bass and guitar but it was still okay. And I am thankful for the bassist who did not just play the root notes of what the guitar played, which usually gave the impression that playing bass is boring. They were a good band to end the Sac-Anime concert. Perhaps if the weather was cooler or the concert were held perhaps indoors, there probably would have been a better turnout.

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