Finally saw fripSide’s performance at Animelo! They spent about 20 minutes on stage and came on immediately following the opening act.

Summary
fripSide performed with a live band, sounded fantastic
Nanjolno made dramatic entrance, hair looked amazing
Three magicians performed tricks during only my railgun
Magician Shinji threw over-sized ears at the audience
LEVEL5 black PV bag appeared, nothing happened
Sat played a shoulder keyboard in a glowing sea of orange light
First announced new album during MC
frequent fripSide guitarist a2c played with the band onstage, playing the solos as well
Nanjo and Sat post about the concert at their own blogs, include photos

only my railgun began similar to MJ. A few chorus lines, a capella, repeated with a delay effect in the beginning. Then, the song, played by a LIVE band, began with the intro. The song was less synthetic and had a rock feel to it. The piano during this song was incredible – I love how pronounced it was. As the intro went on, Nanjo rose up from under the stage in a dramatic entrance. The song went on normally, until after the real first chorus when the music came to an abrupt end. Slots appeared under the words fripSide only my railgun. On the stage’s runway, a magician dressed in robes appeared, and the slots on the screen spelled on Magi- Toshihiro. He threw off the robes, introduced himself and profusely apologized for tricking the audience (everyone thought it was Shinji), then did an illusion where he turned a small red handkerchief into a long baton. The music started again, and after a few measures, Nanjo began the 2nd verse. Shortly after, Magician Shinji finally appeared with his large ear! He kept tossing ears into the audience as he walked down the runway. After an impressive guitar solo, Nanjo sung the last stretch of only~ (my favorite part is the second last chorus, beginning with ‘hakanaku mau ~ subete hokoreru’). Behind her, the doors opened and revealed the last magician, Magician Shirou. He came out with a bouquet of flowers. Finally, only my railgun ended. I was extremely impressed by the live arrangement; it was incredible!

Then Nanjo did an MC introducing fripSide, welcoming the audience, and thanking the three magicians. Nanjo was clearly nervous, but so endearing! She spoke with the magicians first. Magician Shirou gave the tops of his flowers to the others, and he asked Nanjo what her favorite flowers were, and what color. She said she liked yellow roses, and when he said he didn’t have any, she said she liked pink flowers. But he joked and said, ‘let’s do red ones,’ and she agreed, saying she liked red too. The other magicians threw sparkly dust onto his blank bouquet, and then a few red flowers bloomed!

After they left the stage, she spoke directly to the audience, telling her how she felt being on stage this year.  She also announced that fripSide will be releasing a new album on 12/1.

Finally, LEVEL5-judgelight- came on, and like only~, sounded more impressive with the live band. But I could tell that -judgelight- was the more difficult one to sing. This time, a few female dancers ,dressed as school girls from Railgun, danced in the background. Nanjo was less stationery, walking the length of the runway and back while waving to the audience. During the last chorus, a bag rose up from under the stage at the end of the runway, and Sat ran to it, playing a shoulder keyboard. He jammed around the bag, everyone expecting Esper Ito to appear out of it. They ended the song by holding the long note, not letting go until Nanjo ran to both sides of the stage yelling “thank you!” Finally the song ended, and fripSide exited the stage. Meanwhile, the PV scene with Esper in the bag played and the words “See you next year” appeared. Let’s hope

Basically, two really awesome performances. There were some minor flaws, but overall, they were really enjoyable to watch. Both really know how to bring energy to the stage through music, vocals, and spontaneous shout-outs (lol, weird way to put it). I don’t know how often sets get cut from DVD, but it would be a shame to leave out either song. Like I said before, I would buy it purely for these 20 minutes of fripSide.