AT THE ECHOPLEX IN LOS ANGELES ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 6, 2024
Energized! Frustrations! Angry! Happy! Sad! Politically Charged Up! Emotionally Draining! Rowdy and Fun. Tears of Sadness! And Tears of Joy. These are just a few words to describe of what I saw on this night from this Great and Powerful Japanese Artist/Musician.
Written by Don Marcelo
This artist’s name is HARU NEMURI. She isn’t just an artist. She is the EMBODIMENT OF ART in human form. Welcome to her world. Welcome to her music. Welcome to her performance.
I have never heard of HARU NEMURI until this year when she was announced on Instagram that she was playing at The Echo/Echoplex, my favorite venue to see and photograph live bands and artists. As a lover of all types of Japanese music (particularly Hard Rock/JROCK music), I became curious and emailed Team Echo/Echoplex right away if I can be the house photographer for them on this night. I didn’t even do my homework when I got to be the House Photographer for The Echoplex on this night. But since I know Justin of Jus Management, I knew I was in for a treat because Justin has the Midas touch when it comes to picking and managing artists coming from Japan. And sure enough, I was right. No disappointments whatsoever on this night.
Immediately, I was engulfed with delight and full of smiles on my face as soon as HARU NEMURI got on stage because she came on like a lightning bolt and quickly sparked the evening full of energy, smiling, jumping, chanting, and getting the crowd excited with her presence. HARU NEMURI quickly started singing and her performing for us. The fans who knew her songs sang along with her from beginning to end. At one point during her performance, either the 2nd or 3rd song, HARU NEMURI jumped into the audience and crowd surfed (check out the moment that I captured her doing this in the photo gallery). Apparently she is known to do this often. Quite frankly, HARU NEMURI is nothing short of an animated non-stop action and energy of punk rock/rap/pop/Jpop/Jrock/experimental music Artist full of spark and emotions driven by messages of her life’s story and her own political views. Definitely a must see on your list to see and watch.
Like all artists and musicians, she has a vision that she wants to share to the world. And like everyone, she wants a better world for all of us and she wants to do this by spreading her message of love and compassion and change through her music, her poetry, her stories, her rapping, her singing, and her rocking out and entertaining us live on stage with her riot punk girl attitude. I have never seen a musician/artist so energized and passionate about change since the days of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE in the 90’s (By the way the opening band CHANPAN has the same views as HARU NEMURI and RAGE…More on CHANPAN at another report).
Because of the current events, HARU NEMURI’s performance on this night was a little politically driven as well. But she doesn’t force her political views on anyone. She just shares them as stories. And it’s up to you if you want to listen or not. And this political view is just a small part of the act. She merely tells things through her feelings and point of view and delivers them to us as she sees them. At one point she was telling us stories of her life’s journey as an artist and the current events that she became overwhelmed while performing, that she literally fell onto her knees and sat for a minute or two and cried due to all the emotions she was feeling at that moment. She was probably searching for answers within herself to try and solve the problems of the world but couldn’t solve them; thus came down the tears of emotions which flooded her eyes and her face. These are real tears and not an act. (You can see this moment in one of my captures).
Again don’t get me wrong, it’s part of her performance art/act on this night (scripted or not one doesn’t truly know, but I don’t think it was an act from what I saw–It felt real), but she definitely wants to deliver her message of love, hope, compassion, and change through her stories, writings, experience, and her music and performance. She is definitely something to see and really experience LIVE.
Like I said before, I have never heard of HARU NEMURI until this year and didn’t know what to expect, but I became a believer of her LIVE PERFORMANCE and would love to see her again on stage and back here in the The States.
In conclusion, I had an amazing time seeing and capturing moments of HARU NEMURI’s show and I’m happy to report that she is someone worth watching over and over and over again because of the energy and passion she brings with her on stage. Despite the fact that I didn’t understand any of the music she sang/rapped since it was all in Japanese, I felt the energy and the vibe of what she was singing about because she explains to us in English what each song is all about before she sings them. Also, having seen and heard a fan who said to someone else that HARU NEMURI’s music and words helped him out with the struggles he once faced growing up: “If it wasn’t for Haru Nemuri, I’m just another statistic. Her music changed my life for the better.” Thus, hearing this from him, made me realize that HARU NEMURI is truly POWERFUL. HARU NEMURI is ART. HARU NEMURI is LOVE
FOLLOW HARU NEMURI in all her socials and check out her website for more:
http://harunemuri.love
https://www.instagram.com/haru_nemuri/
Photo Gallery of the performance by © Don Marcelo Photography 2024
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