A lot of masquerades have opening acts, usually having something to do with music (wether it's a band, or an orchestra, or a cosplay group). Give Secret Secret a break - their own concert got screwed up, so they played for an audience who CLEARLY wasn't interested. They knew that, and that's why they skipped to their last song right after their first. They probably felt pretty bad.

Did you not like the kareoke winner, either? Because she sang a rock song. Just because you didn't like Secret Secret is no reason to demand they never come play again, ever.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-04 AT 02:15 PM (PDT)
 
>A lot of masquerades have opening acts, usually having something to do
>with music (wether it's a band, or an orchestra, or a cosplay group).
>Give Secret Secret a break - their own concert got screwed up, so they
>played for an audience who CLEARLY wasn't interested. They knew that,
>and that's why they skipped to their last song right after their
>first. They probably felt pretty bad.

I was extremely grateful that Secret Secret had the decency to cut their show short after they kept everyone waiting. (It was pretty easy to see that they could tell their audience was angry >.> ) I personally had no interest to see them in the first place, and frankly, from Midori Kou's explanation of the situation, it sounds like Secret Secret were being divas who preferred to do their own thing rather than work -with- PMX staff and their fellow performers. And, their breed of music isn't really generalized enough to appeal to a majority.

>Did you not like the kareoke winner, either? Because she sang a rock
>song. Just because you didn't like Secret Secret is no reason to
>demand they never come play again, ever.

No one said anything negative about the karaoke winner - in fact, Shinibun said that showcasing a karaoke winner was FINE. I myself really liked the girl's performance. There's also a HUGE difference between the style of song she sang (melodic pop rock), and Secret Secret's style of music (often-dischordant heavy goth rock).

I myself wouldn't mind a musical performance before masquerade, as long as 1) they were ON TIME to begin with, and didn't spontaneously vanish like ninja, leaving people waiting around; and 2) the musical group chosen played a style of music that was more generally appealing. Pop-rock, glam rock, traditional Japanese music, taiko drumming, to throw some potential suggestions out there.

While I personally didn't like Secret Secret (they were my ONLY gripe of the entire convention, otherwise I -loved- it), I wouldn't care if they were back at PMX as long as they -weren't- put before masquerade again (and as long as they can work with the con staff and the other groups better, since that's what it sounds like the problem was).

Beyond this, I felt that for a first year con and the date it was set at, PMX went VERY well. The con and masquerade was a lot of fun, and even my one gripe about it was thankfully not as big of a deal as it could have been, because Secret Secret made up for their tardiness by cutting their show short.

>Did you not like the kareoke winner, either? Because she sang a rock
>song. Just because you didn't like Secret Secret is no reason to
>demand they never come play again, ever.

I have no problem with rock songs in general (or the karoke winner, as I stated above) nor would I mind if Secret Secret ever came back to PMX. I just would prefer that NO band is booked to play right before masq like that again. It's not fair to those of us whom are sitting, nervous/excited and possibly in pain from our bizarre costumes, waiting to participate in masquerade to have to sit through a show we may or may not like nor is it fair for a band to play to a possibly hostile crowd. Thankfully, to my meager understanding, this seemed to be a one-time fluke incident due to schedules getting pushed back or messed up.

Again, I honestly do not care if Secret Secret ever returns to PMX; that is up to them, the convention, and their fans. I appreciate the fact they only played two songs before leaving the stage. I just would like to see this same delay avoided in what was otherwise an extremely enjoyable masquerade.

>I have no problem with rock songs in general (or the karoke winner, as
>I stated above) nor would I mind if Secret Secret ever came back to
>PMX. I just would prefer that NO band is booked to play right before
>masq like that again. It's not fair to those of us whom are sitting,
>nervous/excited and possibly in pain from our bizarre costumes,
>waiting to participate in masquerade to have to sit through a show we
>may or may not like nor is it fair for a band to play to a possibly
>hostile crowd. Thankfully, to my meager understanding, this seemed to
>be a one-time fluke incident due to schedules getting pushed back or
>messed up.
>
>Again, I honestly do not care if Secret Secret ever returns to PMX;
>that is up to them, the convention, and their fans. I appreciate the
>fact they only played two songs before leaving the stage. I just would
>like to see this same delay avoided in what was otherwise an extremely
>enjoyable masquerade.

Panda answered pretty well, but as a member of SS, I felt I'd say something also.

One: nobody performing that con were 'divas'.

All the bands had terrible conflicts due to the blatent miscommunication and problems with communications between staffers relating to the performers. I think the people that got word of the new developements best were PLC's management team. O-dai, and SS were more or less completely out of the loop.

Two: Claire covered this well; we had no business playing the masq.

We knew our supporters werent there, and we knew we were messing with the fans who came to see the masq. It wasnt our decision to play there, in front of an audience that was not our own; no, that bright idea was Rob P., the concert head.

Three: this all boils down to terrible communications.

It seemed the staff at the con expected us *SS* to magically know all the decisions they have made on our behalf, without having to directly inform us. Now its easy to blame so and so, and whositwhat for this and that, but that is a waste of time. The reality is, there wasnt a healthy flow of communication, and that led to terrible confusion, delays, and misinterpretations on EVERYBODY's part. Its a shame that the ones who suffered most, were the fans. In the future, I'm pretty sure PMX wont have these types of problems.

For anyone who wants more direct details regarding what happened between the band Secret Secret and the staff of PLC's management, O-dai's management, or the staff of the convention itself, feel free to email me at winterwisps@hotmail.com I'm pretty sure I can personally give you some straight answers quicker than you'd get it from the bigwigs here-no offense of course.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-05-04 AT 02:38 PM (PDT)
 
Thank you (and thanks to Pandabear as well) for explaining the matter and clearing the whole thing up. I apologize if I came off harsh or accusatory (huzzah for miscommunication >.> ), and I'm glad to finally know the full story.

>Thank you (and thanks to Pandabear as well) for explaining the matter
>and clearing the whole thing up. I apologize if I came off harsh or
>accusatory (huzzah for miscommunication >.> ), and I'm glad to finally
>know the full story.

There is no need for you to apologize at all, you are fine, dont worry.

Secret Secret was scheduled to play before PLC, but PLC demanded to have more sound check time so they told Secret Secret they can't play before them. The staff felt really bad for Secret Secret so we decided to have them open for Masquerade.

Again, we appoligize for this mishap. This will never happen again.

Again a HUGE thanks to the staff for working SS into that slot. I saw how much you guys had to work to make that happen and I personally appriciated it and I know the band did as well.

That answer is incorrect. I worked for SS so I have a pretty good idea of what decisions were made by the band, who was informed of what and when, because I did most of the informing. The PLC concert on Saturday was schedualed for a four hour block beginning at 9:30. I'll be the first to admit that SS was late to take the stage on Saturday, because there was no stage manager there to tell them when to take the stage. Because of that the sound guys weren't even aware SS was back there until I told them. One of the PLC staff was even messing with a drum while SS was on stage (and yes I am 100% sure that's what happened because I was right there watching it happen). Seeing as how there was such a huge gap between when SS performed and when PLC was schedualed to perform I don't see how they can be blamed for a several hours long delay. PLC had a tech problem, it happens, but don't blame the other bands.

On Sunday several COMPLETELY different things happened.

First SS's panel was moved and we were not informed. So at 1pm we show up for a panel that had been moved to 11:30. Second O-dai was not put on the schedual for Sunday so they had to be added which messed up SS's time slot. SS was asked to play at 3:30 and requested a later time due to a schedualing conflict (a message which apparently never trickled through the PMX staff chain of command) Because of delays on Saturday PLC requested a larger block of time(4 hours BEFORE their schedualed 4 hour block of time) so SS was effectively pushed out of playing. A last minute attempt to get stage time before or after PLC failed twice. The suggestion was then made (I'm not sure by who but I know it was made inconjunction with PMX staff) to move them to an opening slot before the Masquarede. The concert manager, sound guys, SS, and the head of the masquerade all agreed and several people worked feverishly to get it set up.

Why was SS late? Simple, they thought that PMX staff or SS staff in the actual room where SS was performing would give them a heads up as to the time, but that never happened.

I'm not sure where you got your information but please be careful what you say here. Blaming the bands isn't a good idea, and it really isn't good PR for either side.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-04-04 AT 02:16 PM (PDT)
 
Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't well-informed about the situation since everyone was totally busy to work around the situation and ignored info desk.

I would like to clearify that when I say PLC, I am referring to their management, NOT the band.