My Experience with Miku Expo 2024

the first time i started listening to hatsune miku, i was in 4th grade. iirc, the first vocaloid song i listened to was actually PoPiPo, followed by the popular choices of the era - world is mine, triple baka, ievan polkka, among others that i can't remember at such a late hour. i was hooked right away - and this 4th grader intended on being very vocal (annoying) about this cool new virtual japanese pop star. of course i was weird for this (to be fair, i was weird about it) and subsequently bullied until i was "normal". i still keep a love in my heart for miku and other vocaloids and utauloids of course, but that in combination with the way my music taste developed over time definitely had an affect on my feelings towards my first experience with miku in concert.

first and foremost, i'd like to mention that my general expectations for concerts are quite high. my first real big-boy concert was paul mccartney which was the best 3 hours of my life, i think. my next real big-boy concert was KISS - which was also outstanding. and if you think i'm hyping these boomers up, i don't know how well i can convince you through words. it's something about their energy and knowledge of their influence, on top of an amazing selection of songs and still impressive sounding voices for 70+. with notoriety like that, you can pay for the best of the best to mix your live show for you - which is exactly where my biggest issue lies.

the way that the audio was mixed was Not my favorite. the bass/low end was mixed really loud. i'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and say that this is due to the way a lot of modern pop is currently, being that it is very bass heavy - but it still made my head and ears sad. there were a few times i had to step out for a bit and take a break from the music even though i was using earplugs. just to make sure i wasn't alone in this, i asked other concert goers what they thought. one person i talked to claimed to not be an avid concert goer - but they "felt like they were underwater". this is something that your ears do in response to sounds that are too loud, meaning this person i talked to could've been damaging their hearing - as well as anyone else without earplugs!

the other thing that made me sad was the lines for the merch. which honestly, was expected. i might try and scrounge for a penlight and other trinkets if i can, though i doubt i'll actually get my hands on anything.

outside of those two complaints though, i had a great time! i'm more of an old-head when it comes to vocaloid so while i didn't recognize all the songs, the live band did a great job and the lights show was super cool. i may go to a second miku expo if they do another one in america - but i definitely want to get a cosplay ready beforehand.