AnimeNEXT 2009: The FAKE? Concert Review and Photo Gallery

on Saturday, June 13, 2009 1:51PM

After surviving her first day on the AnimeNEXT con floor, Tina checked out the FAKE? concert — a kick azz Jrock group making a special US appearance.

From Tina Chou:
If you’ve never been to a FAKE? concert before, it’s very difficult to describe in words. This may have been one of the best concerts I have ever been to, in terms of attending and taking pictures. It was AMAZING.

After having spent the day wandering the halls of AnimeNEXT and being mind-boggled by all the strange clothing around me, I finally entered familiar territory — concert photography. With a start time of 9PM, at 8:55PM I arrived at the door and in the nicest way possible was ushered inside. I found my contact person, Katie, who actually escorted me by the arm to the front of the barricade and made sure the staff knew that I had legitimate credentials for the concert. So far, so very good.

The VIP section was already full, basically centered in front of the stage where everyone stood. Press was placed in front of the barricade in front of the VIP section which was pretty sweet. There were maybe 8-10 other photographers there, security people, and a couple writers.

With some time to kill, I asked some fans in the front row about FAKE? since I had no idea who they were. I usually research before the concert but I didn’t know if I was actually going to AnimeNEXT until this morning. I learned that one guy (Ken Lloyd) writes almost everything and is also the lead singer. There was a band accompanying him which may or may not be his usual band. There were 2 guitars (or basses), a drummer, and a DJ, I think. They are from Tokyo and according to David sound pretty good.

I would describe his music style as intense and hardcore reminiscent of heavy metal. If you need to focus and “get in the zone” to be motivated, I would recommend this band. I decided to use my 20ish-70ish f/2.8 Tamron lens on my Nikon D80 at ISO 800 on Manual to start out with. Press was allowed to shoot the whole concert and everyone was very courteous with enough room to move around. This is very different from the Epik High concert where there was about 5 feet to work with and it was really, really hot.

I didn’t understand a word that the lead singer (and only official member of FAKE?) said but could hear the instrumentals very well. Ken Lloyd is an extremely energetic person and was moving around the whole time, kind of like he was in his own world. I think his eyes crossed and rolled up a couple times. I might describe his movements as an adrenaline-infused interpretive dance that lasted the entire night. It was very intense, especially with such a close view. The guitarists/bassists also moved around a lot with lots of head-banging and plenty of jumping. The other photographers had earplugs but after the first song I was halfway deaf so I figured it couldn’t get much worse.

With 3 songs left in the set, Ken talked about the change FAKE? has made in labels and how they are working on bringing their music to the US hopefully by next year. He understands that it’s been difficult for people to get the music and said, “I give you my permission to illegally download my music” which will solve the problem for now but “you didn’t hear it from me.” I see lots of scribbling on notepads after he says this.

Overall, it was a great concert. The audience was very responsive. The lighting was different, changing much faster than other concerts but I worked out it with my camera. At one point the guitarist/bassist was up against the stage right above me and he started shaking his head up and down. By now he had worked up a good sweat and I started to feel water droplets that I assumed belonged to him. So I decided to move away.

The middle monitor had a kind of metal cage box around it that Ken liked to climb/crawl onto and stand/dance/grip on which was pretty entertaining. He also made very interesting facial expressions and formed positions with microphones that you normally would not imagine. This made for very interesting pictures. Halfway through I figured I had gotten most of the shots possible so I switched to my 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 on ISO 1600 and kept it on for the rest of the concert. I probably used about 4-5GB of memory shooting in RAW.

Ken had said that his band doesn’t do encores and with a last song and something very close to smashing guitars (without the smashing) for a long drawn-out final note, they left the stage. It actually kept on going after they left and a staff member had to come out and turn down the amp. However, the VIP section at least stayed, hoping for something. A few minutes after the end, staff started throwing guitar picks and the paper with the song order taped to the stage plus some other things that made everyone scream in elation and joy. Or at least the people who got the stuff did. Then the event was really over and people could buy the $27 FAKE? shirts being sold or head on to another event.

I missed the “My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours” panel since I couldn’t really hear after the concert but I think it was worth it. Even though that is a pretty awesome name for a panel. Speaking of panels, FAKE? has a Q&A panel tomorrow at 1:30 and I think I will be there. Until next time, comments or questions appreciated! –Tina.

Find out more about FAKE? at http://www.myspace.com/fakeofficial.