12012 Live in New Jersey at AnimeNEXT

On Friday, July 6th, 12012 had their third performance in the USA at the anime convention, AnimeNEXT, in New Jersey. Having moved to a new label and recently released the single, Cyclone as the ending theme for the anime, "Romeo x Juliet," 12012 embarked on a new journey overseas before they begin their summer tour across Japan in August. The band returned to American soil after making their first North American appearance at Oni-con last year in October. Equipped with new songs and new gear, 12012 made a huge hit in the East Coast at AnimeNEXT in New Jersey.

Just like the setup at Oni-con last year, the audience's floor was set up into two sections: a special section right in front of the stage (that required a purchase of a special ticket), and a seated section right behind a rope that divided the two sections. The stage was fairly large, with two widescreen televisions installed on either side of the stage to make sure that everyone will be able to see the performance on stage.

An announcer appeared on stage, pumping up the crowd as he gave a brief introduction. He told the audience that the band had come back to the USA wanting to see how "crazy" the East Coast crowd can get compared to the crowd they had during Oni-con (South-coast). The announcer probably didn't realize that there were fans and con-goers that traveled all over - locally and nationally - even fans flew all the way from Japan just to see the band! Nevertheless, the crowd gave the band a warm welcome with a roar of cheers as the band members finally appeared on stage.

Dressed in new trendy outfits, it was obvious that the band had long dropped the visual look since last year. The members all still looked amazing in their casual, yet fashionable attire. Kawauchi, the drummer was a bit dressy with a black vest and slacks over a white dress shirt. The guitarist, Sakai, was a little more casual in a black suit with a screen-print t-shirt. Suga, the other guitarist, wore jeans and shiny silver shoes that he wore with a dark jacket complete with a brown and black scarf wrapped around his neck. The bassist, Enya, wore a leopard-print scarf with jeans and a black blazer. Miyawaki, the vocalist also had the shiny silver shoes to go with his black pants and trench coat worn over a leopard-print camisole and black and pink stripped scarf. Although very fashionable, you'd think they were making some sort of fashion statement with leopard-print and wearing scarfs around their necks since this wasn't the first time they wore those.

The band started off with ambience, which was the perfect song to set the mood as the audience began to groove to Suga and Sakai's funky guitar rifts, which was blended all together with a heavy rhythm brought out by Enya's bass. The sound was crisp and clear; even over Miyawaki's passionate growls and raspy voice that had the audience begging for more. Their pleas doesn't go unanswered as the band kicked it up a notch, having the audience rock out to the more harder songs such as my room agony and wana, where it was exciting to follow the members' action when they were head-banging and jumping up and down on stage with such an energy that surged as adrenaline for the audience.

Miyawaki gave a brief MC afterward, which involved him saying in a very accented-English and something along the lines of, "Hello! We are 12012! Let's make it our awesome night! Are you ready?" Everyone cheered with excitement, although it was pretty funny when it became obvious that he was reading all of it off a piece of paper tapped to the platform on the stage.

All the members were riveting with energy and passion. The two guitarists, Sakai and Suga often interacted with the audience, riling them up even more and just showing off their guitar skills while having fun with their fans. A lot of times Suga was seen singing along, but not into the mic, although he did plenty of back-up vocals, which could have been heard better. The bassist, Enya was also seen doing some of the back-up singing, but he usually was kept to himself, posing in a cool-manner and casually shooting the fans a nod and smile. Kawauchi was just having a good time and probably didn't realize the silly faces he made while he drummed happily. The vocalist shows how he can entertain the audience with crazy and spastic dance moves, stage acting, and even a little fan service.

During the performance of wana, fans reacted excitedly when Miyawaki was somehow reenacted the character he portrayed in the music video by acting like a deranged person as he let drool drip from his mouth or danced around in circles. Then Miyawaki towered over the audience and starts grabbing himself, easily making the fans go wilder.

Songs like [6]party and Shinshoku were big fan-favorites since it involved more interaction between the band the audience. During [6]party, Miyawaki led everyone to clap along with the tune and had everyone head banging as Sakai kicked in with his guitar. The members seemed to have the most fun to this song as they joined in with the rest of the fans at head banging and jumping around and being all over the stage. Shinshoku was one of the last songs they played and they drew it out a lot longer than usual. Miyawaki was driving the audience beyond their limits as he had the crowd jumping, and pumping their fists and throwing their arms in their air while they head banged.

The set list was mostly made up of the band's newer songs and best hits, though, there was one entirely new song performed. Compared to the recent release of Cyclone, this was quite the opposite with a darker tone and a somber mood to it. The majority of the lyrics sounded like they were sung in English and it was apparent that the band had been experimenting with new musical styles and techniques that sounded new for the fans and for the band, themselves. 12012 made a smart move by putting Cyclone at the end of the set list since the newer and anime fans were anticipating this performance the most and by placing the song at the end, made sure everyone stayed for the entire show.

Being their third performance in the USA, 12012 put on an energy-filled and riveting performance that was enjoyed by previous and new fans alike. Their different music styles and addicting personalities made their show more exciting and exhilarating; one that won't easily be forgotten.


Set list

01) ambience
02) [6]party
03) my room agony
04) survival
05) wana
06) melancholy
07) shower
08) queer passion
09) Page
10) Breaking the modern society
11) Heart
12) Shinshoku
13) Cyclone

en1) butterfly
en2) newspaper

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Photos by: Israel Peskowitz, Kim Slade, and David Ng.