Porno Graffitti Rocks At Anime Expo

It's that time of year again for me to head down to the Anime Expo convention.  Anime  is my biggest  hobby and I absolutely enjoy watching anime. I am pretty much an anime freak as I  collect all sorts of things!  This year Porno Graffitti a Japanese Rock band came to visit. It's their first time in the US so it made it more exciting as they never been outside of the country to perform live  with their songs.  To be honest, I am not a huge fan of theirs. I just wanted  wanted to hear a few of  favorite songs that have landed in famous anime I have seen such as from Bleach, Full metal Alchemist (FMA),  GTO, and Magi.



If you haven't seen FMA,  this is a must see anime. I absolutely  love this anime. It's about two brothers who have  experience  in alchemy who have lost their  body parts and  are in  pursuit of trying to get the Philosopher  stone  to  have the power to get their body's back.  The  story line  and character development is  written very well and you really get to know each character. I highly recommend checking this series out.  There are two series to watch both Original FMA and then there is FMA brotherhood.  Both series have the same concept but have different endings. I tend to like brotherhood better because the story line is closer to the Manga.

So the main reason I went to see Porno Graffiti was because of this song Melissa  from the anime FMA. My  song from this group. I found a live version of the song!But the video  doesnt do justice, just being at Club Nokia was a memorable experience itself. 



Because me and my cousin Darren didnt have our concert tickets, we both decided to go their live panel to get to know them. They seem to have a strict policy of no pictures which was a bummer because I wanted to take pictures of them for my blog but because of the no picture policy I didnt have a shot to do this.  I did learn a few things about them. First they meet in high school  and formed the band back then. At first they named their band Porno Graffitti because they were inspired by an  An American  band here called Extreme and they  took the song title Porno Graffiti as their name. They said that if they knew they were going to be this big in Japan they would have picked a different name for the band.  Oh yes, they have been inspired by all sorts of heavy metal bands and rock bands here in the USA so its how they created their  own style for their band. Of course, their biggest inspiration of all time is Gun's and Roses!

At the end of the live panel,  a raffle was going on and Darren  actually won an official autograph session. I was very happy for him.  Then  my raffle ticket was called and I won a balcony seat to their concert. Lucky me after they passed out my concert ticket, they had extra free tickets for autographs so I was lucky to get one of those as well. As soon as the panel ended we  both immediately  had to go down to the autograph session as it was scheduled to start in half an hour. We both ended up buying a CD to get it signed.  It was cool to be able to meet them personally and talk to them for a few minutes.  Also their English is pretty good which made it easier for us to communicate with them.

Since I won a concert ticket, Darren  decided that he was going to try to get a concert ticket as well. The  only thing was that he had  to  wait in the standby line in hopes of getting a concert ticket for free. Luckily,  he was able to  get ground floor seating. While we both had to split up during the concert. we decided to meet up afterwards. Regardless the  concert was awesome.  I thought the CD I brought was good  but they were awesome live ( better than the CD). They rocked the Club Nokia by  getting people on their feet to dance  along with their songs. They also taught us  the towel trick at the concert and to my surprise there were some die hard fans that brought a towel to be able to do this on the both the ground floor and balcony. We also learned how to do some Japanese hand gestures as well as sing along with them. The main thing this duo wanted us to do was to have fun. I thought it was sweet  how they kept asking if we are having fun?  Of course we are!  With them rocking the stage  on top of  playing the my favorite song Melissa ( twice too during concert and as an encore). I couldnt be more happier! We definitely got our exercise too lol!  By the time the concert ended,  both me and Darren were converted to being their fans. In fact, we're so happy that we got our autographs from them.

Oh yes before I forget, one of my highlights of the concert is the song Winding Road its a new favorite song of mine now.  I love how the lead singer played the harmonica with this song. He actually does play the harmonica during the song.  I loved  having them around.  I have been to many anime concerts  at the anime expo  but this one was truly the best I have been to. I hope they decide to come back again, because if they do, I know I will go for sure! :)