An Cafe at The Avalon in Los Angeles

On April 11, 2009, An Cafe played at Hollywood’s historic live house, the Avalon. The Avalon is famous for bands either trying to rise to fame or bands climbing back up - An Cafe is definitely a band rising to fame. Their first live in America not held at an anime convention, the Saturday live was just a small part of their larger world tour called LIVE CAFE TOUR'09 NYAPPY GO AROUND THE WORLD II -Harajuku Dance Rock Night-. Dedicated fans had camped out at the venue as early as since the night before, and more fans continued to come early in the morning.

At exactly 7 pm, the doors opened and the excited fans went in cheering. Following a well-known policy at the Avalon, the fans were asked to sit on the floor and not permitted to stand until directed by security. Fifty minutes later, the fans were allowed to jump up creating a wave-like effect, and they began to chant for An Cafe.

The band members came out at 8 pm on the dot to a dark stage. At first the fans didn’t quite know what was happening as the lighting never changed. But Teruki appeared quietly walking onto stage and behind him Yu-ki dashed out onto stage. kanon and takuya walked onto stage one after the other, taking turns standing on the front platform to wave to fans. Finally, Miku came out with a wide grin on his face. The crowd grew louder as he came out and yelled a few things to the crowd before the band went into Cherry saku yuuki.

For those who had never experienced an An CafeAn Cafe was an extremely entertaining band to see live for their pure energy and addictive rock music. These guys loved playing the crowd, and having fun with and teasing the fans. kanon and takuya ran to each others' sides of the stage more times than could be kept count, and would also switch basses and guitars after almost every song. During SUMMER DIVE ~ sweet-melty PEACH.BEACH, the forth song of the night, there happened to be slight problems with one of kanon’s bass guitars. It eventually became problematic enough that kanon actually stopped playing and stepped off of the stage while a roadie helped him fix his bass. SUMMER DIVE ~ sweet-melty PEACH.BEACH didn’t have a bassline for about twenty seconds, but kanon came back as excited as ever without even missing a beat. Thankfully, there were no other noticeable technical problems for the rest of the show.

Soon the lights dimmed down, a soft blue glow filled the venue and the music for ZETSUBOU started. This slower jazzy song had great atmosphere with Miku dancing with his mike stand, the rest of the band comfortably playing, and the fans gently swaying to the music. From this song they played Orange Dream, then went into An Cafe’s standard introduction song which made their fans call out their names. This transitioned smoothly into Nyappy in the World 4 and Yu-ki came down from his keyboard platform with a microphon in hand. Soon Yu-ki and Miku came together and started what seemed to be something like a singing and dancing competition between the two. In the middle of this song, Yu-ki tripped close to the front of the stage, almost going down into the gap between the audience and the stage. From afar, it didn’t look like he tripped at all and was mistaken as Yu-ki was just going down to reach out to fans and then coming back up to dance some more.

For the third MC of the night Miku called out each of the members to say a few things to the fans in English. Teruki went first and pulled out a small piece of paper to say his part. When it came to kanon, he didn’t have a piece a paper, but said "Tonight I will make you melt!" A humorous moment followed as he nervously stumbled over what he was going to say next and started to play a small bass solo as a cover-up. The other band members all watched him with confused expressions on their faces and Miku even asked kanon what he was doing with the bass. Looking bashful, kanon stopped playing and the band went back to their show.

After building up the fans' excitement and leaving them wanting more, An Café went into Duck’s Magical Adventure, an very interactive song with a kooky personality. Miku walked back to teruki’s drum platform to the pile of random objects sitting on it, and pulled out a Donald Duck puppet to help him sing the song, which was pretty much Miku singing in a Donald Duck voice. In the middle of the song, he asked in a sing-song voice which did the fans like more: An Cafe or the Dodgers? He repeated the question again, but this time holding a Dodgers bat. The overwhelming response was for An Cafe. Miku then swung the bat, hitting a Dodgers baseball into the crowd which soared back and fell at the sound engineer's table and bouced even further back. Later on in the live, when Miku started to throw water bottles, the sound engineer could be seen cringing and stepping back as the semi-filled water bottles came dangerously close.

After this crazy song, there were two more songs before Miku yelled out to announce the last song: "Last song! Show me your power!" Snow Scene came on, and throughout the duration of the song, it felt like the band and the fans had been brought closer together, both sides giving their all. Miku sang with everything he had; Yu-ki danced, spun, and jumped around madly; both kanon and takuya ran to opposite sides of the stag and eventually ended up playing back to back; and Teruki kept a steady beat, smiling the whole way through. The song ended and the fans immediately cried for more before they were even off stage. The band members walked off the stage one by one until only Teruki remained. He lingered a bit on stage, excitedly waving to the fans, looking for whatever he missed from behind his drum set, and slowly and hesitantly left the stage. Not even a second later, the fans started screaming and chanting for An Cafe.

After what seemed like forever to the fans, the band came running out with the tour shirts on that was exclusively for their American Tour. Only two songs were played for the encore, but they were songs that were dedicated to the fans. Miku started off by shouting out "Do you want more?", each time louder than the last. Finally he announced Bonds as the first song for the encore. The distinctive red tour towels waved through the air along with various objects like stuffed Donald Ducks, large lollipops, and streamers. Miku started off this encore looking like he went for a bit of a jog, but by the end, he looked like he had run fifty miles through a monsoon. He went through countless water bottles, alternating singing, spitting the water into the crowd, and dumping the rest of the water on himself, his energy unrelenting.

The second song of the encore, Smile Ichiban Ii Onna pulled everything and everyone back together after the craziness of Bonds. The whole audience sang along with Miku and some did the hand motions with him. Towards the end, fans just held up hearts with their hands and some of the band members reciprocated the gesture, prompting more people to hold up hearts. Even when the songs had ended, all of An Cafe remained on stage for some time, waving to fans and running up to them to get the presents the fans were trying to hand them. Several times the band members were pelted with gifts like bracelets, Donald Duck plushies, scarves and Miku was even hit with a bright pink bra.

While there are a number of people who might find An Cafe and their extreme and bright cuteness overly saccharine, sometimes positive and happy rock doesn't hurt. Let’s hope for more world tours from this band, as An Cafe surprised a lot of skeptics by their extremely entertaining antics and catchy rock music.


Set list:

Cherry saku yuuki
Tekesuta Kousen
Kawayu's Rock
SUMMER DIVE ~ sweet-melty PEACH.BEACH
ZETSUBOU
Orange Dream
Nyappy in the World 4
Duck's Magical Adventure
AROMA
My Heart Leaps for "C"
Snow Scene

Encore:
BondS ~Kizuna~
Smile Ichiban Ii Onna