I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2023] Isiliel

This was my fourth show in four nights and I was surpirsed how little it had caught up with me.  I was fortunate in that most of the shows were fairly short.  And this one promised to be super short.

There was no opening act, so despite a 15 minute soundcheck and setup delay, the show still ended by 9:30, which was perfect.

So, who is Isiliel?  She is Himari Tsukishiro who is the main singer in the Japanese band Necronomidol.  As her site puts it

Isiliel is a solo dance/vocal project by Himari Tsukishiro (NECRONOMIDOL).
Mixing genres as diverse as folk, blackgaze and city pop via a worldwide team of veteran songwriters such as King Dude and NARASAKI of COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS, through Isiliel Himari will express hitherto unexplored depths of pathos and beauty on stage.

As Isiliel, she has one album out.  It is, as implied, a heavy metal sounding album, with heavy guitars and a lot of double bass.  But she does not sing like a heavy metal singer.  Her delivery is quiet and slow (and it’s in Japanese).

I hadn’t heard of either her or her main band until about a week before this show was announced.  But when I saw what Necronomidol looked like, I wanted to go to this show too.  It turned out she has some real fans in Philly.  The audience was probably about 30 people, but the show had about a week’s notice.  And several of these fans brought identical small red lanterns which they waved in time to the beat (I asked the merch guy if he was selling them and he said no–they brought them in!)

She wasn’t in corpse paint (like the other band), rather she was dressed much like she is on the album–a midriff baring top (with a metal breastplate) and short skirt.  Her hair is crazy long.  And as soon as she started, the venue (I assume it was the venue) projected the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion behind her.  I don’t know the story and it was incredibly hard to follow with no sound, but it made a weird kind of sense to have the video behind her like that.

When the music started she began dancing.  It was sweet and a little weird–it reminded me a but of when my daughter was little and she would make up dances that seemed to fit with the music.

I was charmed and sort of amazed that she felt confident enough to stand up there doing this.

And then she sang and her voice sounded great.

So basically, it was like karaoke, but to her own music.  The album was loud enough, and her voice was mixed quite well.  Although in playback recordings, she sounds flat which I swear she didn’t when I was there…

She played almost all of her album Moonglow Genesis, plus a dancier song that acts as a kind of goodbye song.

Every three songs or so, she talked to us, telling us she was happy to be in Philadelphia.  Her English is poor, but she got the basics of her story across and everyone was super supportive.

So she sang for ten or so songs and that was that.  Evidently, she was going to come down and sign some merch, but I was pretty happy to get home early so I didn’t hang around too long to meet her.

She promised she’d be back.  I’m curious in what format.  I’d love to see Necronomidol.

1. Koumyou Kishi ⊄  光明生死
2. Geshoku Senka ⊄  月蝕戦歌
3. Jodo Dokushou ⊄ 浄土独唱
4. Seian Kengen ⊄ 聖暗顕現
5. Keisei Densetsu ⊄ 景星伝説
6. Kikoku Enbu ⊄ 鬼哭演舞
7. Lilith *
8. Enen Futou ⊄ 奄奄不撓
9. Sange Ittai ⊄ 散華一体
10. Genesis ⊄
11. Seizon Senryaku $ 生​存​戦​略

* single (2023)
⊄ Moonglow Genesis (2023)
$ single (2022)

1. 光明生死 05:24 info buy track 2.  04:25 3. 浄土独唱 04:44 4.  06:18 5. 制覇早暁 03:40 6.  03:47 7.  04:32 8.  04:06 9.  04:16 10. Genesis 04:53