Offline Concert Goer Surprised By Chiptune Band’s Rock Sensibilities

I had never heard of the band Anamanaguchi going into this; in all honesty, I was here for the opener bands Fanclubwallet and Ovlov. But hours before the show, I put on Anamanaguchi's newest album Anyway on and vibed out to the fuzzy northeastern guitar rock. I loved it, and was excited to see them live. I’ve been very rock n' roll pilled this whole summer, but when I started listening to their older, more popular tracks, I got really confused. ‘Wait, this is video game music. This band that sounds like every other sloppy, crunchy, grungy indie band has its roots in chiptune and 8-bit video game soundtracks?" I was caught off guard. It was a weird, off-kilter day all in all. An unusually warm and wet Tuesday in October, I didn’t even know I was going to this concert till a few hours before doors, but I was hyped to see some great guitar music.

    Ottawa’s Fanclubwallet opened, a prime indie-rock band with lots of cute drawings used on their covers, merch, stage visuals, and a video game on their website. Their music feels kind of floral in a dirty way, like when you’re trying to pick a flower (plucky upbeat guitars) but end up ripping the whole plant out of the ground, dirty roots and all (emotionally confronting lyrics with sugary sweet vocals). They played singles and unreleased songs from their upcoming album Living While Dying, the bassist rocked out so hard the cable popped out, and they joined the drummer on the last track. 

    Hard-hitting noise pop-indie rock band Ovlov from Connecticut followed up; they were really cute, and the music rocked. 50% beard rock, 75% hat rock, 100% post emo grunge whammy bar rock. After every song, the frontman Steve Hartlett would throw his arms up in the air as if to say "YES! That rocked! I love music!" I really enjoyed their set, especially when some guy in the audience would update them on the ongoing Yankees vs Blue Jays baseball game. The Jays were totally crushing the Yankees, which devastated the band. During the headliner’s set, I stood behind Ovlov in the crowd and watched them watching the game on their phone. They promised they will come back to play in Montreal again, and I will be there. 

    I like it when rock bands bring in electronic elements into their music, whether it's electronic instruments or just layers and layers of effect pedals, I find it creative and expansive. But there is a point when the majority of the sounds I hear from a live band don’t seem to be coming from the stage in front of me. The live music of Anamanaguchi felt very detached from me, standing in a crowd of megafans. I really felt like I was in a movie, and not in a disassociated way, in a Scott Pilgrim way. It felt like I was watching a 2010s YouTube video of a half-animated-half-live-action Manic Pixie Dream Girl chaser rock concert of a chiptune band. It didn’t help that some of their songs had vocalists who weren’t there, or didn’t even have a corporeal body (I do not understand what Hatsune Miku is). All that being said, the crowd was eating it up. All of Petit Campus was bumping and dancing, and I was simply shocked out of my element. I really liked their more rock n roll type songs, and their lighting and stage prop setup was cool: big star shapes with colored and patterned lights and a light-up rope Charli XCX style. 

The weirdest part of the concert happened the next day while I was on my podcast grind at work. PanicWorld came on, a show about technology and politics, midway through the episode I was only partly listening to, did I realize the two guests were Peter Berkman and Luke Silas of Anamanaguchi. What the heck? Small world. The podcast hosts deemed the two as the ‘most online guests’ they’ve had on, which made the whole vibe of the band make more sense to me. I don’t consider myself a very online person, though I do addictively open and close and open Instagram. I find I miss out on a lot of (sub)cultural happenings, ie, I still don’t understand who Miku is. The musicians of Anamanaguchi are talented, but the cultural divide between us is too wide and deep for me to traverse at Petit Campus.