Before the concert actually started, Pioneer Music producer, Nobu Yamamato, took the stage and talked about what he's been busy with the past 12 months. He plugged the new Pioneer Music line of cds and encouraged folks to support the company by buying the discs. He also plugged Kajiura's "Fiction" album. With all the shameless advertising out of the way, Nobu asked the crowded if they were ready. He did a good job of riling-up the crowded by continually shouting, "I can't hear you!" I know I was about ready to run up and pull him off the stage right before he stopped.
Kajiura walked onto the stage and briefly introduced herself, and then presented each of her companions that were performing with her that night. First she introduced the vocalist, Emily Bindiger, who sings all the English songs in the .hack//SIGN soundtrack. Kajiura expressed many words of adoration for her colleague and said she loves Bindiger's voice. Next, Kajiura introduced her guitarist, Susumu Nishikawa, who worked with her on .hack. Something that stood out to me about Nishikawa was his retro appearance. One does not usually see people w/ Beatles-style haircuts and 70s attire these days. Lastly, Kajiura presented the violinist, Hitoshi Konno, who has worked with her on both .hack and Noir.
The trio of instrumentalists (Kajiura on keyboard, Nishikawa and Konno) and Bindiger performed a total of 6 songs and an encore. They started with "Open Your Heart" from .hack//SIGN OST 2. Kajiura and Bindiger also did this song during AX opening ceremonies as a teaser for the concert.
Afterwards, Kajiura introduced the next song, "Fake Wings", from .hack//SIGN OST 1. She mentioned that the song was written to for Subaru, who is Kajiura's favorite character from the anime. Originally she titled the song "Subaru", but changed it later.
The group then performed a very popular song from Noir, "Canta Per Me". Kajiura explained that she chose Italian for this song simply because she likes the language, even though the idea of an Italian song for a Japanese anime taking place in France may seem odd. She also commented that Koichi Mashimo (director of Noir and .hack) especially liked "Canta Per Me" and used it in (almost) every episode of Noir. On the Fiction album, Deb Lyons is the vocalist for "Canta Per Me". However, Emily Bindiger sang the Italian lyrics just as well (if not better).
Kajiura introduced the next song, "Key of the Twilight", from .hack//SIGN OST 1. She explained that this is Tsukasa's theme song and how it's about the character's true sex gender. Players in Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs can pretend to be whatever gender they want in game, and this is true in .hack. While explaining the roots of the song, Kajiura inadvertently spoiled the secret of Tsukasa's true gender. The audience was quite annoyed with the spoiler, but not as surprised as Kajiura was after realizing what she had done. In the end, everyone laughed.
The fifth song was "Vanity", a new one on Kajiura's "Fiction" album. This song follows the same style as her other works. With lyrics such as "lovers are in pain, they blame and pick on each other", one could conclude that "Vanity" is a love song. This song was a great addition to the concert considering everything else was from .hack or Noir.
Lastly, the group performed "Obsession", which is the opening song to .hack//SIGN. This song was originally performed by See-Saw and Chiaka Ishikawa was the vocalist. Bindiger performed the song marvelously, but unfortunately "Obsession" is not on either the US or Japanese release of "Fiction".
With the last song finished, the four performers walked off the stage and Nobu Yamamoto came back on. After much yelling of "Kajiura" by the audience, the four returned for an encore performance of "Key of the Twilight". This time, both the guitarist (Nishikawa) and the violinist (Konno) took center stage when performing their respective solos, which resulted in much cheering and hand clapping from the audience.
In summary, I felt the concert was absolutely spectacular. The only downside was that it was too short for my tastes. The whole event ran slightly under 1 hour. I can only hope that Yuki Kajiura and her colleagues return to AX in the near future.
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