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Archive for the ‘Hanabie’ Category

Hanabie (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026)

Posted in Enterprise Earth, 花冷え。, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Hanabie

I saw Hanabie [花冷え。] a year and a half ago when they opened for Jinjer.  They were great and they blew me away with their heaviness and with their mixture of heavy growls and J-Pop moments.

Hanabie [花冷え。] cpmbines loud and heavy music with Harajuku aesthetics in a style self-described as “Harajuku-core.”  They have been around since 2015 (when they started as a Maximum The Hormone cover band).  They have clean vocals and unclean vocals and the most fascinating thing is that singer Yukina does both!  She can sing in an incredibly high pitched voice and then shifts to a growl that would impress anyone.

Guitarist Matsuri also sings–and has a lovely voice.  She often sings super catchy chorus and bridge parts while Yukina adds to them.  Bassist Hettsu sings too and she has a lovely clean vocal style.  The three of them together are a dynamic force.  Drummer Chika is the newest member (they’ve had several drummers over the years).

Last time I wrote: Their fashion sense was pretty great too.  They were a great opening act and I would absolutely see them again–I hope as a headliner.

And here they were headlining.   They said it was their first time in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia was ready for them!  They had sold out the show and the crowd was 100% into it–pits and crowd surfing galore. (more…)

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Nekrogoblikon (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026) [HANABIE]

Posted in Enterprise Earth, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Nekrogoblikon

My son and his friend went to see Nekrogoblikon back in 2023.  I had wanted to see them, but opted not to tag along.  So I was pretty happy that the goblin band were opening this set.

I didn’t know much about them except that they had a goblin in the band.  And, indeed, they do.  They inflated a giant goblin head in the middle of the stage and after a few minutes the band came out.

I couldn’t see the keyboardist on the far side at all (because of the goblin head), but I was on the perfect side for seeing John Goblikon.  Evidently the band has changed over the years.  I assumed that John Goblikon was just a mascot or something.  But now he actually sings.  And the really surprising thing is that he sings clean vocals while the human singer sings insanely unclean vocals. And, actually that’s where the problem was for me.  Dickie Allen doesn’t growl or sing in a deep way.  Instead, his vocals are at the higher end of things and sound kind of strangled.  On record it’s weird and maybe a little funny.   But live, he sang so fast that I genuinely didn’t know if he was singing words or just making off-putting goblin sounds.

But when John Goblikon sang, he had a really good voice and his parts were surprisingly catchy.  In fact, most of the songs were pretty catchy. I just hated hearing the main singer sing.

Because John Goblikon was pretty funny–a convincing goblin mask and hands and he danced around and made rude gestures.  There was someone near me with a Nekrogoblikon hat (green with pointy ears), so there were definitely some fans.  (more…)

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Enterprise Earth (Theatre of Living Arts [TLA], Philadelphia, PA, March 21, 2026) [HANABIE]

Posted in Enterprise Earth, Hanabie, Nekrogoblikon, Philadelphia, PA, Theatre of Living Arts on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2026] Enterprise Earth

I was surprised that this show was scheduled to start at 7.  I made it to South St and realized I hadn’t been to a show on South St on a Saturday night in a really long time. On a weeknight it’s usually not too hard to get a decent spot, but on a Saturday night–yikes.  I was lucky to score the last ADA spot a few blocks away.

By the time I got to the venue it was like 6:45.  I had actually thought that if I missed Enterprise Earth it would be fine, but the place was PACKED, so I’m glad I got there so early–I was able to sneak up to near the stage on the side safely away from a potential mosh pit.

I didn’t know Enterprise Earth who are from Spokane WA.  They are a deathcore band and have been around since 2014.  Huh, interestingly, none of the original members are in the band anymore.  And their singer and bassist joined in 2021.  And their drummer joined in 2024.  Fascinating.  The longest tenured member joined in 2017.

They are very heavy with growled vocals, but a lot of high guitar riffs thrown into the overall heaviness.  The crowd was properly into them.

They were pretty great as an opening band because they did everything they could to get the crowd moving.  During every song singer Travis Worland, encouraged or demanded either horns up, or a circle pit or crowd surfing or whatever else he could demand of people. (more…)

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Jinjer (Starland Ballrom, Sayreville, NJ, September 20, 2024)

Posted in Hanabie, JInjer, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom, Ukraine on September 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2024] Jinjer

I’ve seen Jinjer twice.  Last time, after the show I wrote:

Now that I’ve seen “Pisces,” I don’t think I need to see Jinjer again.  In fact, I’m probably not going to go to too many more metal shows.  I think I’ve seen everyone I wanted to.

Pisces was the song that introduced me to them and Tatiana Shmailyuk’s incredible voice.  She can sing beautiful soaring melodies and then on a dime turn into a scary growling monster.  It’s fascinating on record but it is mind blowing to see live.

So I wasn’t really sure I wanted to see them again, but I was inspired by the opening band Hanabie to go see them again.  And I’m so glad I did. This was the closest I’d been to them and it was great being that close to Eugene Abdukhanov on bass. The previous tow times, I was on guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov’s side but I’d really admired the bass work on these songs.  So it was very cool to see just how complicated his bass rhythms were.

Ibramkhalilov has a great sound–shifting from quiet picking to heavy chords, but it was a little lost on my side of the stage (I noticed it more on some of the recordings I took).  Drummer Vladislav Ulasevich also adds wonderful fills and stops and starts to add drama to the songs.  He was even louder than the last time I think–I needed to put the earplugs in deeper toward the end. (more…)

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Hanabie [花冷え。] (Starland Ballrom, Sayreville, NJ, September 20, 2024) [JINJER]

Posted in 花冷え。, Hanabie, Japanese Music, JInjer, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom, Ukraine on September 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2024] Hanabie

I have seen Jinjer twice.  I didn’t really think about this tour until I checked out the opening acts.  I hadn’t heard of Hanabie, but when I looked them up I was blown away and was really excited to see them live,

I actually assumed that they would go on first since they are so much newer of a band than Born of Osiris.  But I was delighted to find out that BOO was on first so we could relax and enjoy the fun.

Hanabie [花冷え。] is a Japanese band known for combining loud and heavy music with contrasting Harajuku aesthetics in a style self-described as “Harajuku-core.”  They have been around since 2015 (when they started as a Maximum The Hormone cover band).  They have clean vocals and unclean vocals and the most fascinating thing is that singer Yukina does both!  She sings in an incredibly high almost cartoonish voice and then shifts to a growl that would impress anyone.

Guitarist Matsuri also sings– and has a lovely voice.  She often sings super catchy chorus and bridge parts while Yukina adds to them.  Bassist Hettsu also sings and has a lovely clean vocal style.  The three of them together are a dynamic force.

Drummer Chika is the only new member (they’ve had several drummers over the years).  I couldn’t see her at all because she was positioned on the far side of the stage/  Which was quite a bummer.

But Yukina, Matsuri and Hettsu were certainly enjoyable enough to watch.  They ran back and forth between stations, completely engaging with the crowd.  The few times that Yukina came over by us, you could see her making faces at people in the crowd.

Their set was so much fun–full of energy and excitement.  I particularly liked that they had so many high sounds–in a genre that is usually devoted to low frequencies.  Between the high vocals and some of the electronics it really made for a dynamic show.  I’m not sure how they all are (mid 20s, I guess?) but they had so much energy, bouncing and jumping around the stage.

And their fashion sense was pretty great too.

They were a great opening act and I would absolutely see them again–I hope as a headliner.

2024
Metamorphose! §
Ware Amatou ⊗
Reiwa Matching-sedai ⊗
O•TA•KU Lovely Densetsu §
NEET GAME ♥
Kotoshi koso Gal~Shoka ver.~ ♥
GIRL’S TALK §
Tales of Villain ♥
TOUSOU ♥
Osaki ni Shitsurei Shimasu ♥

§ single (2024)
♥ Reborn Superstar (2023)
⊗ Girl’s Reform Manifest (2021)

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Born of Osiris (Starland Ballrom, Sayreville, NJ, September 20, 2024) [JINJER]

Posted in Born of Osiris, Hanabie, Japanese Music, JInjer, Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom, Ukraine on September 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2024] Born of Osiris

I’ve seen Jinjer twice and I didn’t really think I needed to see them again.  But they announced this show at Starland Ballroom and I was intrigued by one of the openers, Hanabie.  I hadn’t heard of Born of Osiris.

Turns out Born of Osiris is a metalcore band that’s been around for over fifteen years.  Interestingly, the band’s first two records were more or less created and played by the band’s mastermind and drummer, Cameron Losch.

Their set was very loud–so loud that it was hard to distinguish anything.  I wasn’t really all that interested in anything they played.   There were a few moments that included some electronics but mostly it was just bludgeoning and intense metal.

I found it kind of dull, actually.  It amused me that the singer kept trying to get people really psyched–I’m assuming that they have played headlining shows in the last fifteen years.  But every time they pointed the floodlights to the crowd, it kept showing an empty floor.  Part of the problem for them was that the website said they were going on at 7:30, but they went on at 7:10 and Starland is notoriously bad about slow entry.

There were some people who enjoyed it, but compared to the dynamic nature of the next two bands, they seemed really rather plodding.

This was the setlist from a show a few days later.  I assume it was the same.

 

2024
Open Arms to Damnation §
Bow Down §
Elevate ¥
Empires Erased §
Abstract Art §
Angel or Alien ♥
A Mind Short Circuiting ¥
In Desolation ¥
Machine ⊗

¥ single (2024)
♥ Angel or Alien (2021)
⊗ Tomorrow We Die Alive (2013)
§ The New Reign EP (2007)

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