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ITT We discuss how AWESOME JAM Project was


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Yeah, big props to all who helped pull that concert off. (Not so big props to whoever decided to stick press in the back. Yeeeeeaaaah. I passed my camera off to a friend in the third row, so I got good pics at least.)

For those curious about the setlist...

Rocks

Crush Gear Fight

No Border (English)

Meikyuu No Prisoner

Savior in the Dark

Cha-La Head-Cha-La

Yuusha-Oh Tanjou

Rinbu Revolution

Cry for the Earth (acoustic)

Little Wing (acoustic)

Fire Bomber (acoustic)

We Are

Hagane no Messiah

Negaki no Rosario

Break Out

Victory

Gong

(encore)

Soul Taker

Skill

EPIC WIN.

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The concert was awesome! I didn't know all the songs they sang, but they had so much energy! And their attempts at English were cute to listen to.

I'm just totally pumped out that they sang "Skill" at the very end. When they started Soul Taker I got so disappointed because I thought they wouldn't sing Skill. But then I decided to trust them and everything worked out fine.

In conclusion, I had an awesome first real concert experience :D

I just wish there were more people there.

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The crowd got bigger towards the end. Unfortunately, remember the X-Japan fangirls who were like "JAM who?" For every hardcore, t-shirt-wearing, CD-buying otaku who knows all their songs, there's at least one if not more of those.

And we were the first ever to hear the English No Border. At the panel earlier, when somebody asked about doing English versions of their songs, Fukuyama-san and Makkun face-palmed, and Dani put his head down as Kage talked about doing the song tonight. English is haaaaaaaard.

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The crowd got bigger towards the end. Unfortunately, remember the X-Japan fangirls who were like "JAM who?" For every hardcore, t-shirt-wearing, CD-buying otaku who knows all their songs, there's at least one if not more of those.

And we were the first ever to hear the English No Border. At the panel earlier, when somebody asked about doing English versions of their songs, Fukuyama-san and Makkun face-palmed, and Dani put his head down as Kage talked about doing the song tonight. English is haaaaaaaard.

Edited by W-General
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Oops, got a couple song titles wrong, my bad. Otherwise I think my order is correct.

Edited by Aresef
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I loved the concert, the panels and everything that involved them. I got pretty good seats, but for half the set I was next to some a-hole who proudly proclaimed he was just there to miss off people. So if you heard anyone screaming insults at the fans or band from the center row, it was him. He eventually left, which gave me more room to move around. I lost my voice and my legs hurt from jumping after the concert. The panel was funny too. I was able to video tape JAM doing their "screams for justice" and got to ask them a question. That then got me a ticket, so I was ~20th to get an autograph and after I gave Endoh the metal horns, he gave me one of those man-hug-shoulder-bump things. These last two days are definitely in my favorite days of my life, so thank you Otakon staff for getting JAM to perform. It makes me happy that I'll go home broke.

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I hit both autograph sessions today, but not so I could double dip.

A friend of mine, who is epileptic, came to Otakon for the first time since 2001 with the sole purpose of seeing JAM Project. She got checked out by an army of doctors to make sure she was cool with the strobes and stuff.

Hopping off the Amtrak at Penn Station, she slipped between the train and platform and messed up her leg. She limped her way through Thursday and Friday. Friday, after returning from the concert, she had a seizure. She then had to head home today. She wanted to get the shirt autographed, so I took care of it at the first session, then went downstairs with my CD.

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I loved the concert, the panels and everything that involved them. I got pretty good seats, but for half the set I was next to some a-hole who proudly proclaimed he was just there to miss off people. So if you heard anyone screaming insults at the fans or band from the center row, it was him. He eventually left, which gave me more room to move around. I lost my voice and my legs hurt from jumping after the concert. The panel was funny too. I was able to video tape JAM doing their "screams for justice" and got to ask them a question. That then got me a ticket, so I was ~20th to get an autograph and after I gave Endoh the metal horns, he gave me one of those man-hug-shoulder-bump things. These last two days are definitely in my favorite days of my life, so thank you Otakon staff for getting JAM to perform. It makes me happy that I'll go home broke.
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Oh, also, last night I had a feeling, just a random feeling something fun would happen at the Bandai Surprise panel. So I went there, sat down with some other press monkeys up front.

At one point they were doing Lucky Star trivia and tossing out Scrapped Princess vol4 LE boxes. There's a question about who took away the serafuku in the show. The answer? JAM Project. So Bandai decided to give them back. They had boxes and boxes of the t-shirts from the show with the uniform printed on them, so they made us all wear them. After a little bit, the Bandai guys have us scream "JAM!" then I instantly knew what was up.

They came out, put on the shirts, then Ken Iyadomi laid down the ground rules. One, we had to dance to "JAM ga Motteta! Serafuku" (their cover of the LS theme). Two, we had to wear the shirt till the end of the con. And darn it, when Hironobu Kageyama wants you to do something, you had better listen.

Then instead of having a question and answer session we had an answer and question session. They asked us questions, like what was our favorite anime, etc. At one point Fuku-chan asked how we get to see all this anime without having that much on TV.

Fuku: "Youtube?"

Somebody in Crowd: "NICO NICO DOUGA!"

Fuku: "Ah, Nico Nico! Me too."

He then said sumimasen to Iyadomi for supporting piracy. :-)

Another awesome Fuku-chan moment was when he remarked how cosplayers aren't restrained to a specific area like it is at Japanese cons, and what would happen if US schools made kids wear the serafuku. "So if serafuku is gonna be jailbait, everyone is!"

Fun fact: Makkun still has her serafuku in her closet. She claimed to still wear it sometimes. >_>

What a weird night.

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Best concert of my life. My friend and I was hoping they'd be playing Skill, song after song. And at the end, we were so freaking happy. We both stood up and started singing.

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I was kinda pissed that I can't get into the Bandai panel despite being 10 min early. I did sneak a peek and was sufficiently satisfied after coming back to the panel (props to those 30-40 people who were waiting outside the whole time) hearing JAM was on stage by then.

I guess that makes up for the 4 autographed items I got :D

Concert is awesome, words can't describe. And knock off that otagei crap W-General :P

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I was kinda pissed that I can't get into the Bandai panel despite being 10 min early. I did sneak a peek and was sufficiently satisfied after coming back to the panel (props to those 30-40 people who were waiting outside the whole time) hearing JAM was on stage by then.

I guess that makes up for the 4 autographed items I got :D

Concert is awesome, words can't describe. And knock off that otagei crap W-General :P

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LOL What are you talking about. Wotagei is a must at any concert (except Sakakibara Yui and Minorin's). According to my friends at like row 20 they could clearly see the dude in front row with 4 glowsticks (me) jumping up and down. My goal is to be the legendary eventer Wada equivalent of America.

Unfortunately I missed Bandai surprise too because I had to help run the Gameshow...

A little sad that I couldn't get pictures with them (I did it last year with Noto and Seki). I should have asked them straight out during the first autograph session because Bandai booth signing is definitely stricter...

Edited by rotinoma
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I was kinda pissed that I can't get into the Bandai panel despite being 10 min early. I did sneak a peek and was sufficiently satisfied after coming back to the panel (props to those 30-40 people who were waiting outside the whole time) hearing JAM was on stage by then.

I guess that makes up for the 4 autographed items I got :)

Concert is awesome, words can't describe. And knock off that otagei crap W-General :D

LOL What are you talking about. Wotagei is a must at any concert (except Sakakibara Yui and Minorin's). According to my friends at like row 20 they could clearly see the dude in front row with 4 glowsticks (me) jumping up and down. My goal is to be the legendary eventer Wada equivalent of America.

Unfortunately I missed Bandai surprise too because I had to help run the Gameshow...

A little sad that I couldn't get pictures with them (I did it last year with Noto and Seki). I should have asked them straight out during the first autograph session because Bandai booth signing is definitely stricter...

Were you the one trying to direct everybody into dancing as well? Or maybe it just looked like that. I felt pretty satisfied because I was to the direct right of the stage at the very corner where the seats started to go up, and every one of the members ackknowledged me at certain points because I also kept trying to pump my side of the crowd up. I Had Fukuyama-san laughing as well when he saw me double-pumping my fists like a maniac xDDDD.

When I got into the autograph panel I think I surprised Kageyama-san because I mentioned that I've been listening to his music since I was a little kid, ever since We Gotta Power...he was like OHHHHHHHH. LOL I guess they hadnt figured some people have been listening to their music for a couple decades in America.

That concert was the bomb though. They rocked the HELL out of that arena, even if some of the crowd wasnt into it.

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I was kinda pissed that I can't get into the Bandai panel despite being 10 min early. I did sneak a peek and was sufficiently satisfied after coming back to the panel (props to those 30-40 people who were waiting outside the whole time) hearing JAM was on stage by then.

I guess that makes up for the 4 autographed items I got :)

Concert is awesome, words can't describe. And knock off that otagei crap W-General :P

LOL What are you talking about. Wotagei is a must at any concert (except Sakakibara Yui and Minorin's). According to my friends at like row 20 they could clearly see the dude in front row with 4 glowsticks (me) jumping up and down. My goal is to be the legendary eventer Wada equivalent of America.

Unfortunately I missed Bandai surprise too because I had to help run the Gameshow...

A little sad that I couldn't get pictures with them (I did it last year with Noto and Seki). I should have asked them straight out during the first autograph session because Bandai booth signing is definitely stricter...

Edited by W-General
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One more thing that kind of bothered me about the concert was the lack of a pit area. I don't get why they do not do this (also at the Sunday concert). Just make some space for standing room only, get some chairs or fences to block off the front, and we're all good.

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It might have been an arena thing, but what I would have done, since we were all standing anyway would be get some fencing and make it standing room only. It would also make it easy for press to get up into the pit for the photos.

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I personally think the concert itself was perfect. I don't think I'll ever see an Otakon again that lives up to how awesome this one was (unless JAM comes back).

I was a little surprised how few people came. I'd guess it probably has to do with how little information there was on the concert available. It took me forever to find out where the Arena was since there was nothing in either Otakon booklet about it. Ended up asking a staffer after searching the books proved useless.

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I personally think the concert itself was perfect. I don't think I'll ever see an Otakon again that lives up to how awesome this one was (unless JAM comes back).

I was a little surprised how few people came. I'd guess it probably has to do with how little information there was on the concert available. It took me forever to find out where the Arena was since there was nothing in either Otakon booklet about it. Ended up asking a staffer after searching the books proved useless.

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I was in front row. I must say.. that concert really was only for the fans. I was hoping I'd get into them but I just couldn't get into their music.(besides head cha la) A bit boring for those who are not fans, but overall an OK concert.

Edited by lambogirl
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I was in front row. I must say.. that concert really was only for the fans. I was hoping I'd get into them but I just couldn't get into their music.(besides head cha la) A bit boring for those who are not fans, but overall an OK concert.
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I must say they thought they were TOO AWESOME to bring their band on tour.

Can't say I agree with that, but I did enjoy their setlist.

The audience was less than enthusiastic compared to other con concerts I've been to. . . :P

Since Otakon pays for their, their crews, and all other related stuff travel, hotel expenses and other things, I doubt it was really that simple. If they could have brought their band (and Ricardo Cruz) I'm sure they would have.

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Actually I think only us in the front rows were basically going on a rampaging and cheering up and down and screaming and singing along very loudly - if you saw a guy in the front row with FOUR glowsticks jumping up and down the whole time, that was probably me.
Edited by ZGL
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I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the JAM Project concert and having been a Makkun and Kageyama Hinrobu fangirl for 10 years and a Fire Bomber one for five...IT WAS EPIC WIN.

Everyone there was so into it and it was awesome to hear Cha La Head, Rinbu Revolution, and Angel Voice live.

Unfortunately I did miss the panel because I was doing my stafferly duties, but I'm glad everyone enjoyed them and that I got to see the concert.

And I was very interested in seeing how Yoshiki-san sounded live because he does what I call "epic song wailing of awesome".

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Epic song wailing? I thought that was Endoh's department. Like in Hagane no Messiah, near the end of the song when he holds the last note of "STOP THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" for about half a century.

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Yes, Endoh wails fantastically as well.

What I mean is, for the example, the "woah"s during "Angel Voice".

But I admit I'm also partial to Yoshiki as I am a Fire Bomber fan. ^^;

And yes..half a century is pretty accurate, lol.

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I remember at the concert, he said "Everybody yell! It's me, Endoh!" Pretty much sums it up.

And I've seen all sorts of numbers on blogs, from 3000 to 5000. Anybody out there on staff care to enlighten us? There was no stickering or anything, so I guess it's hard to really do an accurate count.

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One more thing that kind of bothered me about the concert was the lack of a pit area. I don't get why they do not do this (also at the Sunday concert). Just make some space for standing room only, get some chairs or fences to block off the front, and we're all good.

Because of liability issues -- even *cooperating with* a lawsuit related to mosh pit nonsense would cost more than we can afford.

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One more thing that kind of bothered me about the concert was the lack of a pit area. I don't get why they do not do this (also at the Sunday concert). Just make some space for standing room only, get some chairs or fences to block off the front, and we're all good.

Because of liability issues -- even *cooperating with* a lawsuit related to mosh pit nonsense would cost more than we can afford.

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I must say they thought they were TOO AWESOME to bring their band on tour.

That's not remotely the case, at all.

It's a matter of economics. We couldn't afford to bring their band and other support stuff as well -- not for a concert that, for all practical purposes, was free. A typical concert of this type would be a $50-60 show PLUS ticketmaster fees.

As it was, we had to fly out about 20 people, and take care of them from Weds morning through Monday, including food, lodging, transport, snacks, booze, shopping trips, etc.

Five more backup band members would be about 8-10 more people to support...and we just couldn't swing it without sacrificing something else.

These guys were GREAT to deal with -- no real egos to speak of, they were there to have fun and it was contagious. They were thrilled to meet their fans, treated our staff well, and genuinely interested in Otakon.

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One more thing that kind of bothered me about the concert was the lack of a pit area. I don't get why they do not do this (also at the Sunday concert). Just make some space for standing room only, get some chairs or fences to block off the front, and we're all good.

Because of liability issues -- even *cooperating with* a lawsuit related to mosh pit nonsense would cost more than we can afford.

JAM Project is not really a "mosh pit" type of band and you don't really need a standing room area to stand at the concert. The fact is that the second the music started everyone was standing...

Which is why I have major issues with where you guys chose to put the "VIP and Press" area. The people in the press area literally could not see the stage at all! I'm surprised not to see more comments on that (or maybe I just haven't got to that thread yet...) My daughter and I spent the first couple songs moving to a spot up on the side of the arena where we could at least see the concert... and my daughter got hurt in the process, kind of marring the experience for us a bit. By mid show, we gave up on trying to get decent pictures for our report and just settled into enjoying the show.

That said, the show was as awsome as I expected it to be. They weren't able to bring their band over, yet they managed to bring their full energy and excitement into the performance despite the limitations of performing "karaoke'! My favorite part, as always, was the acoustic corner part of the show, where the members bring out their own instruments and sang. Of course, Fukuyama-san always has two instruments: his guitar and his incredible whistling ability!

I missed the Bandai Surprise panel, but I did catch all the other panels. Very entertaining! :D

I can't thank you guys enough for bringing them to Otakon! We had to fly all the way across the country to see it, but it was well worth the cost!

I'll start working on my report tonight. ^-^b

peace

I'm sorry your daughter got injured -- obviously nobody wants that! But I'm surprised since the crowd was far from unruly.

FWIW, most concerts I've been to -- including the giant X-Japan concert in Tokyo -- put the press a little ways back on the floor or off to the side, so that they experience the "real" concert everyone else does. When we had them on the sides, the complaint was that they were not on the floor -- so we moved them there but weren't going to deny the hardcore fans their front-row seating. We prioritize the fans at Otakon, rather than the press and reviewers. However, the concerts were open seating, so you were welcome to sit elsewhere if you were willing to stand in regular line with everyone else, and we just hold those seats as a courtesy; I'm sorry that wasn't clear.

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I got the same feeling from them. They were all enjoying themselves the whole time.

Fukiyama and I became "shirt buddies" early on, and anytime he spotted me wearing an Otakon shirt rather than one of my hawaiian shirts, he'd give me grief. Endoh was wearing a bright yellow shirt and I asked if that was a warning sign. He said "Yes!" and kept calling himself "Troublemaker Endoh". Kitadani kept asking questions about what it was like to be so tall.

At one point they suggested they were so tired that I might have to take the stage instead and they would rename it "Jim project"....they're very silly people. :D

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I picture you just gleefully hopping onstage and busting out with SKILL.

Imagine if Fukuyama spotted you wearing a cowboy shirt like his.

Edited by Aresef
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I thought the Jam Project concert was incredible. It was definitely the best musical act I've seen at Otakon since I've been coming (2005 to be exact). I was very sorry that I could not make it to their panel or autograph session but I got a great surprise when they came into the Bandai evening panel and they were extremely energetic and a lot of fun.

I don't usually buy music CD's anymore so it shows how much I enjoyed them that I ended up picking up one of theirs after the concert. I just wanted to show my support for them somehow.

So I just want to say thank you for booking such a great band. It was such a great experience to see them perform (and I still can't believe I heard We Are and Cha La Head Cha La performed live)

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I got the same feeling from them. They were all enjoying themselves the whole time.

Fukiyama and I became "shirt buddies" early on, and anytime he spotted me wearing an Otakon shirt rather than one of my hawaiian shirts, he'd give me grief. Endoh was wearing a bright yellow shirt and I asked if that was a warning sign. He said "Yes!" and kept calling himself "Troublemaker Endoh". Kitadani kept asking questions about what it was like to be so tall.

At one point they suggested they were so tired that I might have to take the stage instead and they would rename it "Jim project"....they're very silly people. :D

LOL I would have loved to have seen that Jim. Hopefully next time they come around I'll be able to speak Japanese a bit better so I can actually have a conversation with them.

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I must say JAM Project made my Con this year in fact its surpassed any con since I started going to Cons in 03. I can not even begin to express how awesome it was to have them there preforming live, which leads me to my question. Does anyone have any idea if they plan to release the concert on DVD?

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