Japanese rock band, Survive Said the Prophet (SSTP), kept their promise for a U.S. tour after an initial snafu that delayed their tour earlier in the year. Known also as Sabapuro, the four member group excitedly greeted fans who arrived early for their show. Even before they arrived in Los Angeles, their merchandise booth had scant quantities of their shirts. On the day of the event, everything but their posters were completely sold out. The venue added to the intimacy of the setting by placing the crowd right next to the stage, without a barrier.
Opening for the band, rapper Kala prepared a set for fans of anime and Japanese culture. His second to last song was a cover of Porter Robinson’s “Shelter,” which got most of the crowd energized for the main show. With no delay, the four members appeared on stage as the introduction to the heart pumping metal song, “Fool’s gold.” While Show, the drummer, slammed on the bass drum and crashed the cymbals, guitarists—Ivan and Tatsuya—jumped around with their instruments as Yosh took center stage.
“I’ve been waiting goddamn 20 years to be here! I spent my whole entire life trying to play a show in LA. Today, you’re making history with us,” vocalist Yosh yelled. Commanding the crowd to get louder, he and the other members went full throttle into the fist pumping track, “Network System.” The entire Echoplex screamed in unison during every call and response, with possibly the loudest collective shouts of “whoa” that Echo Park has ever heard.
Although the Echoplex has signs all over their venue dictating no crowd surfing, someone jumped on stage and immediately dove on top of the audience in the middle of the Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion III Imperial Road theme song, “NE:ONE.” The members seemed unalarmed, as Yosh himself kneeled down to have the fan wrap his arm around him before immediately leaving the stage in less than 10 seconds. No other person ended up doing the same thing, especially not with the threat of getting kicked out.
“This moment right here I’ve been dreaming about. But tonight, just for an hour, we’re going to selfishly take over your eyes and ears for a second. We brought over some culturally appropriate anime songs that you guys will patiently have to wait for,” Yosh said while laughing, before setting up the crowd for the upbeat heartbreak song, “Right and Left.” Thanking fans for their time, the band wanted to show their appreciation by performing an unreleased song titled, “Useless.”
Without any introduction to the next song, Yosh began singing the first lines of Banana Fish’s second ending song, “red.” Knowing how many anime fans showed up for them, Yosh took a moment to recognize their presence and which songs they could expect next. Unfortunately, they couldn’t play the Final Fantasy VII Remake ending song, “Hollow,” since the song isn’t from Survive Said the Prophet. However, there were plenty more they haven’t played from their anime song collection, including their most famous ones from Vinland Saga.
“It takes every single one of you coming out tonight, enjoying, respecting, and wanting to share a culture together. That’s what our fucking American dream was,” Yosh started. “We want to share a song about how sometimes it wasn’t so easy. It took a song for us to uplift each other. If someone bought you a shot, you cherish them!” Easing into the emotional rock ballad, “Uplifted,” the members prepared themselves for the high energy song that would come after.
“Sometimes we find ourselves living at this fine line between reality and what is not. Sometimes we find ourselves living in this place called paradox,” Yosh said, cheekily hinting at their next high-octane song. “Tonight, we sing this song about Thorfinn.” The crowd flew into a blind fury as the band played the second opening of Makoto Yukimura’s viking epic, Vinland Saga.
As their show came to a close, the rock band saved the best two of their anime songs for last. Yosh introduced “found & lost,” which was the first opening for Banana Fish, as a song “about two gangsters in New York falling in love.” Like the intensity of the cheers earlier, barks and cheers could be heard from all the way back for the sentimental metalcore track. Despite all of his metal screaming, the vocalist’s voice impressively could carry on towards the last track, “MUKANJYO.”
Before they could even bow and leave the stage for a short break, the echoes of “encore, encore” filled the room. Quickly coming back, Yosh shared an interesting experience they had early on in their tour. “While we came to America to play some rock shows, I’m not going to tell you where, but we played a show and there was a bit of mosh pitting,” he chuckled. “The first night, we played on that side of America, and someone told us, ‘I’m really disappointed in you because you started a circle pit. I like your music, but circle pit isn’t for everyone.’ You clearly chose the wrong venue! I’ve been keeping that shit in the whole tour.” The band waved their arms to encourage the crowd to mosh during the first encore song, “T R A N S l a t e d.”
But before the real end of the show, Survive Said the Prophet had one more parting gift. As a special treat for their Los Angeles, the members returned onstage for an extra encore song. Although other tour stops would either have “T R A N S l a t e d” or “HI | LO” as the only extra song, LA fans got to hear both. “Y’all losers should know when to go home,” Yosh joked, as the band took their places once more onstage. “You want to rock with the rest of Survive Said the Prophet? ONE MORE SONG!”
Click on the photo below to view our photos from the concert:
Setlist:
1. Fool’s gold
2. Network System
3. NE:ONE
4. Win/Lose
5. Right and Left
6. Last Dance Lullaby
7. Useless
8. red
9. Uplifted
10. Paradox
11. Mary
12. found & lost
13. MUKANJYO
Encore:
1. T R A N S l a t e d
2. HI | LO
