With a SOLD OUT SHOW at The House of Blues in Anaheim CA on Tuesday December 3, 2024
When the Spirit of Heavy Metal called The Fox God announced BABYMETAL’S 2024 U.S. Tour for Los Angeles, CA several months ago, Metalheads everywhere in the Metalverse celebrated, especially The BABYMETAL FANBASE called “The One”.
Written by Don Marcelo
When the ticket sales began, “The One” waited in line on their phones and computers for hours to purchase their tickets. December 3rd show quickly sold out. Those who were lucky enough to get their tickets were ecstatic and shared their joy all over social media. But for some Babymetal fans, their hearts were broken and were sad to hear that the show sold out so quickly since they weren’t able to purchase their tickets on time.
Babymetal social links:
Hearing the news that The December 3rd show SOLD OUT so quickly, The Fox God gave “The One” and everybody else another chance and quickly added 2 additional shows at The House of Blues in Anaheim on December 4th and 5th. Metalheads who didn’t get to purchase their tickets in the Metalverse on time jumped up with excitement and joy and lined up again to get their 2nd and/or 3rd chance for a ticket, especially the ever so hard to get VIP tickets. And with that, all three shows at House of Blues Anaheim, a 2,200 capacity venue, were SOLD OUT.
On the day of the show, Tuesday, December 3, 2024, BABYMETAL super fans (“The One”) from all over the world gathered and lined up as early as 3am. Several fans I know from The San Francisco Bay Area, Rene, Darren, and Logan, drove down to LA in Rene’s van armed only with grit, determination, and their coveted VIP TICKETS and their love of the band for all three shows. These Bay Area Fans have seen them at least 30 times or more.
Another super fan I know, Nathan, from Portland, OR flew to LA to see BABYMETAL in concert for all three days also armed with 3 VIP tickets. I also met several new fans including a very nice and generous fan named Misato who gifted me a BABYMETAL pin, Rey a regular fan in the JROCK community gifted me a BABYMETAL Towel, and two other fans whose names I didn’t get, got me some Fan Artwork and custom made pins. What a great way to start the show and just hang outside with the fans and the JROCK community. These dedicated fans truly love BABYMETAL.
As the lights were dimmed down at showtime, the darkness gave way to BABYMETAL’s introduction. The tale of BABYMETAL is shown on the screen behind the drums while the storyteller talks to us and tells us the lore behind BABYMETAL and the Fox God. “Are you ready to Headbang?” asks the storyteller. A sea of fans enthusiastically roared BABYMETAL chants and were ready to dance, sing, mosh, and surf the crowd.
BABYMETAL marched on stage and started off the night with their song “Babymetal Death.” This is the song they often use to start their shows performing and dancing and introducing themselves on this first song/performance: “Su-Metal Desu! MoaMetal Desu, MomoMetal Desu! Babymetal Desu!” (The Japanese word “Desu”, the “u” is silent and is prounounced as DES. It is like saying “Hi I’m so and so name”)
As early as the 2nd song, “Distortion”, the crowd became intensely wild. Right away, two crowd surfers made their presence known to BABYMETAL and to the world. When this happened, we the photographers, knew that the photopit would become a wild and crazy area throughout the evening as these two fans set the tone for everyone to follow. And sure enough, security was busy on this night where they kept proper order on things on songs 3 and 4, “PA PA YA !!” and “MAYA.” They were very nice and professional but also stern and kept great control of the crowd and made sure none of the crowd surfers or the other fans got hurt when the surfers were having their “day in the sun” and their shenanigans.
Despite the tightness of the area and sharing the pit with 4 security people and the crowd surfers, we the photographers got the OK to enter the pit to work. We set ourselves up and secured our positions and spots and immediately focused our attention to BABYMETAL to capture the fleeting moment. The lighting on this night was absolutely pristine which made us 9 or 10 photographers very happy. The songs we were allowed to photograph were the following:
5. METALI (KAMI Band solos)
6. KARATE
7. Time Wave
8. Megitsune
9. RATATATA (Babymetal and Electric Callboy cover)
After the 9th song, The party continued with BABYMETAL and their fans as the crew of HOB Anaheim escorted us out of the pit and into the mezzanine. We graciously thanked them for their hard work and their hospitality. Most of us stayed next door and watched the rest of the concert on the big screen inside the Parish Room, the smaller venue of The House of Blues Anaheim, or by the merch table and bar area.
BABYMETAL played 3 more songs after RATATATA:
10. Gimme Chocolate! And then the Encore.
11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
12. Road of Resistance
Photo Gallery of the performance by © Don Marcelo Photography 2024
The last song, “Road of Resistance” is where the best mosh pit happens. This is where Su-Metal’s powerful stage presence and her death stare command the audience to split up and open “The Wall of Death”. Only the strong survives during this part of the show or the ones who don’t participate in the mosh pit.
In conclusion, BABYMETAL once again, through the powers that were bestowed upon them by The Fox God, delivered an astounding and fun performance on this night. I’m a late bloomer and only became a fan in the beginning of 2023 right after their latest album when I heard a fellow JROCK fan played their CD at another JROCK show I saw in NYC. When I heard “Monochrome” and “Time Wave”, I gave BABYMETAL another chance because I wasn’t sold on the concept of “Kawaii Metal” for years. But once I gave them another chance and I started watching all their music videos and live shows on YouTube, I began to understand the fascination behind “Kawaii Metal” music. And I’m glad I gave them that chance. And when I first experienced and saw BABYMETAL LIVE on stage in late 2023, I truly became a believer. And it was the fans who sold me on their style and their music because there is nothing like being surrounded by the die hard fans of BABYMETAL. And those two songs were the ones that opened up the gates for me to Babymetal-verse.
FOLLOW BABYMETAL on all their social media for more along with the members:
Su-Metal aka Suzuka Nakamoto
Moa-Metal aka Moa Kikuchi
Momo-Metal aka Momoko Okazaki
THANK YOU BABYMETAL for all your hardwork. As you always say at the end of your concerts…”SEE YOU!”
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