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The Good bands/The bad bands/The bands you might want to see next year?
Soda241
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So the good one were all the normal people who came the year before the same bands like always 
worth my time waitting in line for it to start.
The bad?
Sadly
Anamanaguchi, They sound really bad live and its not at all what they sound on like the site? You know? They sound really good on the site, i dont know if the base? Was up to high but it sounded like crap..
The good?
Mc Frontalot(Even know i never know what the hell he is saying, Hes not that bad)
Jonathan HE ROCK MY WORLD
i want him to have my kids..
Freezepop(I know i know, She cant sing, but i dont really care its better then i can sing)
The Minibosses always a good band each year.
TheOneups (Not a bad band, I just dont feel there music, Just isnt my type)
That is all
worth my time waitting in line for it to start.The bad?
Sadly
Anamanaguchi, They sound really bad live and its not at all what they sound on like the site? You know? They sound really good on the site, i dont know if the base? Was up to high but it sounded like crap..
The good?
Mc Frontalot(Even know i never know what the hell he is saying, Hes not that bad)
Jonathan HE ROCK MY WORLD
i want him to have my kids..Freezepop(I know i know, She cant sing, but i dont really care its better then i can sing)
The Minibosses always a good band each year.
TheOneups (Not a bad band, I just dont feel there music, Just isnt my type)
That is all
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(Is it not SAD that video-gaming band musicians have to thank the crowd for staying up with them... I mean, wow, that's late! *lol*)
I was not impressed by Freezepop...the singer was offkey the whole night, and it seemed like the drummer was only tacked on for show.
As far as the rest of them, JoCo was amazing, but I wish he was on earlier so it would have been easier to enjoy than at 1 am (4 for us ESTers), MC Frontalot was awesome, and the rest were...meh...
glutenfreegamer.blogspot.com
I feel the same way about Freezepop, they're definitely a crowd favorite. Liz's voice seemed a lot different this year then last year, which was odd, but they still rocked. I just think the people running the soundboard were not paying any attention. Same with whoever was in control of the lights... I almost wanted to go down to El Corazon on Saturday night to see them again and find out if they sound a lot better down there or not, but I never did..
JoCo is also awesome, the Sill Alive performance with Felicia Day was great, and not to mention the encore(s) and rick rolls
I only caught the last two songs by Anamanaguchi but they sounded awesome imo. I did get to talk to them for a while during MC Failalot's performance (Sorry guys, that's the term one of my friends came up with and I had to use it).
AS for the Minibosses... They are awesome as well, but an hour and a half long performance was fucking devastating. I was struggling to stay up to keep our camera going. Nihilist even passed out on the floor, I had to fucking kick him to wake him up, lol. So, that's my thoughts. Oh, didn't care too much for the Thickets either, they played good, but they're just not my style I guess.
Jonathan Coulton put on a great show. And though I'm not a fan of MC Frontalot's music, I did check out his concert, and I have to admit that he and his band are great showmen. If you're into that kind of thing then I could only imagine how much fun you had at his show.
Anamanaguchi... well, it was different. But I really didn't dig it, personally.
And the same is true for The Minibosses. In 2006 they looked like they really didn't give a shit about the concert and in 2008 they looked and sounded like they didn't give a shit. The guitar tone throughout the concert was terrible, bad enough that I left after they did the Contra theme; and after having been spoiled by The OneUps, I don't think I'll be checking out these guys if they return for future events.
I'd be interested in seeing The Protomen at PAX next year, if only for novelty value.
Anamanaguchi was good but just seemed like they had never performed live before because the mixing was awful so the music was barely tolerable and they only acknowledged the audience even existed maybe twice and one of those times (as someone else mentioned) was to tell the audience they were really tired. Considering most of us had been up and running all day long I was in total agreement with him, but it just seemed like he was making an excuse or something. I'm sure they're a band that sounds better in studio than live and that they will get better with experience & time.
Darkest of the Hillside Thicket...put on a pretty good show, great energy and the music wasn't bad. The only thing that confused me was they seemed rather "upbeat" and happy for being a Lovecraft/Cthulu themed band.
MC Frontalot....I really TRIED to like them after catching the last 15 minutes of the documentary they seemed really great but unfortunately I guess it was WAY too late for me to try and understand anything the lead was saying. Again, the samples of their stuff from the film sounded great but live it was like watching and listening to a 5th grade science teacher try to rap. I'm sure he has excellent verbal prowess and "mad skillz" but it was too much for me at midnight. The instrumentals sounded pretty great though. Again... something I'd rather download than watch live.
I was disappointed that I couldn't stay for the Minibosses but I was passing out on the back chairs before Frontalot took the stage. :-(
I don't want to sound like I hated the music...I just was looking forward to acts like the Video Game Pianist or after hearing Tycho sing at the Q&A and make a strip...I'd kill to have HIS band perform. I hate to sound harsh but I honestly was more impressed with the guy making music with the gameboy sitting on the steps outside the convention center than the bands I saw Sat. night.
OneUps: AWESOME. There were a couple of times I had trouble recognizing which theme song they were playing (even with the screens - it seemed like they didn't match sometimes), but that's probably just because I'm a youngin' and don't remember a lot of the more obscure games from the period (Toejam and Earl was a treat, though). In any case, though, the music was impeccably top-notch. Loved every second of it. Also, the guy on the keyboard and sax totally looked like Laurence Fishburne, so that rocked.
Freezepop was hit-or-miss. I'll forgive them for the equipment failure during 'Bike Thief', but even then the set was only 50/50. The songs they did well (Less Talk More Rokk, Get Ready to Rock, Brain Power, fucking Final Countdown) they did really well, but the songs they didn't ace were less than mediocre. The two encore songs (Less Talk More Rokk and Final Countdown) totally blew me away, though. I could feel the floor shaking, so many people were jumping around. Also, the only set to inspire crowd surfing. And The Duke totally looks like Matthew Lillard.
JoCo was, as he has always been and always will be, a brilliant class act with humor and charisma to spare. I can't really go on enough about how much I love this guy's performances. He's probably the only performer I saw who I would say is better live than on CD (his banter and antics on stage - like rickrolling the entire audience -are just awesome). I have a signed copy of the Thing-A-Week box set, and I know most of his songs by heart, but I still go and see him every year. The guy is just amazing. I really hope they pull the version he did of 'Mr. Fancy Pants' off the soundboard and make it available for download. And two fucking encores (one of which was actually about fucking...outside). I hadn't heard of him until PAX last year, and I've been a die-hard fan ever since.
I missed Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, which I heard were supposed to be really good. Anyone catch them/have an opinion?
Man I fucking lost it when I saw that from the back, and I got it on film too! I'm still trying to find it though so I can post it. Props to whoever that was.
EDIT: I just uploaded this to whoever wants to see it. I'm going through to see what I want to put up next, I'll be sure to post it when I get it ready. BTW, Sorry I had to drop some quality to get this up when I did, but it's still pretty good. We'll probably get a better one up later, but this should be fine.
OneUps Tristram theme
Saturday night's concert was far, far better than expected. I didn't know much at all about Anamanaguchi, but after Reformat the Planet I was stoked to see them, and they didn't fail to impress.
I love the Thickets' music, but never seen them live, so their stage-show with their music was hilarious. Perfect compliment.
Frontalot just always rocks, quite fun to dance to as well.
I'm extremely glad the Minibosses decided to finally play some new stuff this year, Batman was really fun. Megaman 2 was rocking as always. I had to leave during the second Castlevania they played, though, my feet were destroying me.
Also, I didn't see any mention of the most fun concert: The unofficial chiptunes jam session outside the doors on the street!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS4xcl20ijs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7JFRKb18BE
I think they intentionally used videos where they died often just to emphasize the "Oneups" name. I'm waiting for another performance of their version of Dancing Mad though. I saw a video of it once and I've been waiting for another performance of it for a long time.
One-Ups
JoCo
Freezepop (seriously weren't that bad... Maybe it was because I couldn't hear the singing)
Minibosses
Pretty good
MC Frontalot
Didn't see anyone else... So really I enjoyed it.
I listen to Anamanaguchi all the time and love their music, but their show on Saturday was a major disappointment. They played a recording of their music and then thrashed electric guitars on top of it. I guess that's a thing? I wouldn't invite them back unless they figure out a way to actually perform their music live.
I also really like listening to MC Frontalot's recordings, but he *really* needs to work on his microphone skills.
But... That's how they do it? If you watch Reformat the Planet, it shows how their NES thing works, you have to program a chip on the computer, attach it to the NES cart, and then play it on the NES. Are you asking them to completely change what they do?
Interesting. I guess you're right. Maybe it's just that the guitars are the least important part of their songs (to me)?
It just made it feel like watching some rock band play a whole set without a singer. The songs felt a little empty.
The Friday ones all rokked, and I loved them all, but Anamanaguchi wasn't great. I like them, but there's not really anything special about seeing them live, and all of their songs pretty much sounded the same. There's no sense of dynamics, and their show was basically just putting on each song very loudly with some occasional guitar over it.
Yeah, Freezepop was probably off key, which I didn't notice myself.. but my friends mentioned it to me. I guess it's kind of something you get used to, like if you see enough of their live stuff you kind of get used to it. It's a bit strange, but it's also not very good that Liz hasn't gotten better either. You shouldn't have to get used to it.
@ Nerd Trauma: The drummer was probably there because the Duke has had... not so much vacation time lately with Rock Band 2 coming out and all, so they probably needed him to fill in because the Duke would probably be flying back home early. Or it might be just because he's been touring with them lately and they just wanted him to come.
Eh, who knows?
He DOES work for Harmonix, so... yeah, that's pretty likely.
Next year, please..... DETHKLOK!!!
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
MC Frontalot - Awesome, although I had a hard time understanding him at first.
Freezepop - Not really my thing but they were OK. The Final Countdown did indeed rock.
The OneUps - Meh
MiniBosses - Meh-- , I left after their second song.
I skipped the other two.
Did you catch the jam session out front, that I posted videos of previously?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=637avNX9eAU
Keep your eyes on this and this if you want to see more of our clips as they go up.
Has anyone ever thought of moving outside of this very narrow nerdcore genre and getting some more legitimate (not that they aren't legitimate), mainstream artists to play at PAX? It's a large venue, I'm sure we could attract some mainstream names.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
I fell in love with One Up Studios way back in 2001 or something like that. I heard their version of Donut Hills from Yoshi's Island. Been following them ever since. Their performance was absolutely stunning. With the fact that they almost doubled the amount of songs on their volume 2 disc, I find that there's a less amount of music that I like from the second volume compared to their first. Probably because they expand on the amount of game music they play, a lot of which I haven't played, and probably should.
Freezepop was a lot better this year, probably mainly because of the non-lack of their third band member, who wasn't out working on Rock Band 2. The floor was bouncing to their music again this year, and their performance of "Final Countdown" was a lot better this year.
JoCo was amazing. I'm impressed with his setlist being a lot different than last year, and with the songs that were repeated this year, they were arranged differently. I heard a few songs that I don't really listen to from his Thing A Week project.
As for suggestions for next year's bands, I really want to get The Megas to play at PAX next year. They've started to turn me off to bands like the NESkimos and The Minibosses, who just play the music in the intended genre that they play. I love bands who arrange game music and make the music their own thing (like The OneUps).
If any of you haven't heard of The Megas, check them out. They have only one album out, which consists of music from Mega Man 2, all arranged in a rock style, and they've added very clever lyrics to each song. There are 8 songs for the 8 robot masters, and the lyrics are written in a second person perspective, which give each of the robot masters a personality.