So after coming back from New York and AnimeNYC and Hololive All for One concert, I am going to see the Evangelion wind symphony in Toronto at home. Part of me actually forgot that this was like the next day after coming back from New York but it’s alright. Let’s see how this event went.
Because the concert was downtown, I went into the office for work on Tuesday. I would have rather I didn’t since I was still tired but that’s how it goes sometimes. This is me walking towards the venue after work.
To the right is the Metro Convention center, where FanExpo was held a few days ago as well; a very mid convention where all the attendees only care about anime and want it to be about anime but the convention and organizers will have none of that and will do everything in it’s power to prevent that from happening because they have no real business connections to the anime industry at all, frauds.
Looks like the city is trying their best to appeal to tourists and have art shit like this around, not bad I guess.
Looks like the normies are going to a blue Jays game, you can see them, because they usually wear blue.
I appreciate the sign but the distance between these ‘districts’ is so short, I question why we even bother to name them ‘entertainment districts’ and ‘harbourfront’.
It began to rain while I was walking by union station. For some reason today was colder than normal, like chilly that I actually wore a light hoodie to work. Good thing I did. Guess summer is already over.
Rain in my city huh, in summer? I guess. Proof of umbrella hence rain existence.
And here I am at the Merdian Hall, a place that has gone by multiple number of different names over the years, Sony Center, Hummingbird center and a few others I can’t remember. That sign is pretty bad man, you can see where the old sign was badd.
Some people just waiting outside the place since it’s kinda of hot inside the lobby. Cool.
Inside the lobby, the doors open at like 6:30pm, this is at like 6pm I think? So not that many people camping. The merch game for this concert is kinda mid so yea, not that big a deal.
Proof of existence, got in pretty early edition kinda tired edition.
Waiting in line for merch, got in early edition. They only had like shirts, hoodie, tote bag and a key art print. All expensive and limited venue only so what can you do.
Line has not fully started yet but i’m almost there. I messaged dan who has not come yet if he wanted me to buy him something, he said just a hoodie so I did.
Merch obtained, ez.
The line grows.
It kinda wrapped around quite a bit. Good thing I got my shit early so I don’t have to wait in this, ha, amateurs.
If you brought tickets and were one of the first 1000 people, you are special. When you enter they give you a ticket to redeem to get a fancy collectable badge that has the key art. This was the station where you redeem them, this girl holding it and giving it out was helping the staff. I did not get one of these.
Around this time, Dan came. This is his proof of existence photo.
Line up for merch still goes pretty far back. Some people were in cosplay, mostly Asuka cause best girl.
Going in to find our seats.
Nice place inside here.
It’s not that big but it seems appropriate for this kind of show.
Proof of stage existence.
Most people are waiting in line still for merch.
They offer drinks and beverages so I decided why not, to kill some time before the show. This craft beer is $10. Not bad but also not worth but whatever. Nice boat. The show began shortly after that, no photos or videos allowe of course.
The key art for this concert tour. They showed this during the intermission period, after an hour in. Pretty ok.
People moving for intermission time, mostly washroom. The first half of the show was music from the original anime, the conductor guy said the second half of the show focuses on music from the rebuild movies, which I have not watched at all. We’ll see.
Andd our show is now over, we have conductor on the left, Yoko Takahashi the main singer for EVA songs and black guy is the pro trumpet solo guy they good. Pretty good shit.
Standing applause for the wind orchestra.
So yea, I saw a concert. It was pretty good. I only really recognize honestly about 20% of the music since I only watched the original anime like 20 years ago or something. The performances were good but I think the production could be better, they used lots of still images from the show/movies on the big screen while playing and used lots of generic screen saver like video instead of putting anime footage which is kinda questionable/bad. The second half of the show was much shorter than the first half, it felt like 45 minutes, after half hour of intermission prior while the first half was 1 hour. Weird. Overall I would say this was a good concert for hardcore fans of EVA, which I am not so some of the impact of it all was lost on me. Of the three orchestral shows I have watched over the past couple of years, this is probably my least favorite but yea, it was worth attending regardless.
After the show we decided to go to the Keg as it was one of the places that was open still kinda late-ish.
Proof of eating at Keg existence with some bros right besides us in the other table doing shit.
Free bread was good shit, nice compound garlic butter too.
I got a classic dinner so it came with a salad, their ceasar salad is pretty good.
Their version of ‘frizzled onions’ hmm, they look kinda different from what we are used too, looks like they have been sitting around for awhile and or hard/old.
So I got this teriyaki sirloin. It was not that good honestly. For one, it was past medium rare not as requested, overcooked and was kinda cold, it felt like it had been resting for over half an hour more, not fresh. I thought that the terkiyaki meant that it has some teriyaki sauce on it, it did not but seemed to be just marinated in terkiyaki sauce, which is not the same really. While the first bites were good, the more you ate it, the more it kinda tasted strange and off, I am not sure, but by the end even tho so small, I can say that this steak was shit. The mash was fine, beans and veg were plain steamed, whatever.
Dan ordered the Rib steak, he said that it was good but also has some overcooked issues like I did and may have rested for too long. He got the same sides as I so I assume the sentiment can apply here too. The frizzled onions, while ok, were not the fresh crispy onions that we are used to in our more local Keg in Scarborough, these were like premade shit and kinda hard, missing that oil and onion flavor, as if these were just chips from a bag, not fried fresh.
My steak dinner before tax and tip was like $50, dan’s was a bit more I think at like $60. After tax and tip my bill was roughly like $66. Hmm, I don’t think it was worth it at all, in fact, this might be the worst Keg steak experience that I ever had, the first shit Keg. Wow. Perhaps it was my steak type but you can’t forgive the temperature and overcooked nature of my steak, add the weird taste from the teriyaki marinade and you got yourself a bad steak. While the decor and location are top tier, the food, maybe because the late time as-well contributed towards it’s poor quality. I’m not holding back, my steak was shit, worst keg in my life 4/10.
After a somewhat unsatisfying keg steak dinner, we head on back to find the subway to go home and so yea, that about ends the day. By the time I got home it was like 12am. Wow, late night.
And here is the shit I got from the concert, an overpriced tshirt and bag. While expensive, it’s what you gotta do you know, for souvenirs and merch. This concert is actually associated with Anime North, they helped bring this production over to North America, which is probably the only good thing that they have done towards forwarding better events in Toronto for years. They are also holding some free convention just for artists later in the year, some bullshit, let’s see how that goes.
Print of the key art for this concert. $20 but a bit beat up cause transport in the tote bag is not perfect, ahwell. Not bad.
So then, how was this show? It was alright. I don’t hold that strong attachment to EVA like others might, I like EVA and it’s characters (girls) as they are iconic anime characters as too is the show itself and it’s newer movies as iconic influential anime works in anime history/culture. The music tho? Outside from cruel angel thesis and a few other songs, I really don’t know that much at all about that at all really lol. While not a bad show in any way, I personally put the FF7 and Nier concerts above this one considerably, as I am generally more invested in those IPs/games/works and I think their production values considerably higher than this one. Not bad, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing another show by this production company, as I think they could have done much better.