The crowd for our performance, Sunday Sept 6th - Centenial Ballroom @ Dragon*Con
My costume for Friday Night - Gothic Lolita Anime girl!
This past weekend I attended Dragon*Con in Atlanta with approximately 35,000 other fans of science fiction (literature, film and T.V), anime, horror, gaming, fantasy, etc. This was my first time not only performing a show at the Con but also my first time ever attending. I had wanted to for a few years now, having heard nothing but amazing things about it. I packed up my costumes, and everything I needed for the Ayria concert that would be happening on the last official night of the con, woke up at 5:00 am on Friday and got to the Toronto airport for my flight to Atlanta. Unfortunately, my flight ended up being over 3 hours delayed, which cut into my Friday time but everything worked out ok in the end.
My friend Sarah, who was helping me at the Con for the weekend picked me up at the airport. Our first stop was to figure out where the Ayria merch table would be. Upon our arrival, one of my helpers, Angela met us to help us set up. Let me just say right now that I could not have done this weekend without my Ayria helpers. 15 volunteers that ran the Ayria merch table, taking shifts for 24 hours a day for 3.5 days. They were incredible! Thank you: Angela (the star table cloth rocked!), Brittany, Kellie, Alan, Tammy, Kevin, Bernardo, Louis, Raymond, Laura & Adam, Nicketas, Michelle, April and mangopork. There was also a team of about 30 people who helped flyer to promote the show, you guys absolutely ROCK and there's too many to list but special thanks to Lucky and Voni who between the two, must have distributed over 3,000 flyers on their own!
Once we checked in to the hotel, I got ready for Friday night where I dressed up as "gothic-lolita-anime Jenn" with a pink PVC dress made by Artifice Clothing. I was scheduled to do a panel on the state of the goth scene (slightly difficult, I'm not really goth but I met some great people there). Later that night, I was scheduled as the special guest at Funcom's Anarchy Online gaming party where they played my music and announced the show. Those Funcom guys were great and so nice to hang out with.
Sarah (Lady Luck) & Jenn hanging at the merch table on Saturday
Saturday was much of the same, hanging out at the con, signing merch for fans, taking pictures, staring at all the amazing costumes and having a lot of fun! Saturday I went dressed again as an anime, lolita character again (yeah, I really love that look!) but this time in black and white. Clothing again was made by Artifice Clothing. Highlight of Saturday was seeing my friends from the Cruxshadows play to a packed house! We toured with them in the fall of 2008 and I hadn't seen them since last December. It was great seeing their show again!
Skipping to Sunday, the night we were to play, I was a bit nervous since the size of the concert room was HUGE. In the video's I'm posting below, you can see there are projection screens that are half-way back in the room, that are actually playing the concert for the seated area in the back! It's really impressive. We were the last performance of the night and we went on quite late since the party never really stops at the Con! I was blown away at how many people were there to see us live, who were energetic and ready to dance! We had the place jumping, singing, chanting and of course, making up their own dances. My favourite was the weird bird like dance that caught on during the song "Cutting" about 20 people were doing this because one row of guys started it! I even stopped in the song to ask "What is this?" Classic. This was the first show ever where the waving arms was not started by us on stage! The fans all started doing it in sync on their own, so I asked them if I could film them doing it (clip below). I loved every minute of the show, the fans did too and I fed off of their energy. I'd love to return to play again, but we'll have to wait and see. For now, I have my memories of the weekend making me very happy.
Thank you to everyone involved in this fabulous con! The organizers, the tech team at the show (and to think, not even a soundcheck! Not bad ;) I have to thank Plastik Wrap for the stage costumes. and I have to thank the incredible fans who helped out and those of you who attended the show, I have one question for you: Have your feet recovered yet?
I flew home yesterday night (Monday, Sept 8th) and I'm completely exhausted but it was worth every moment!
Much love and until next time!
<3
Jennifer
More pics...
Me with the more cowbell guy! My favourite costume of the night.
Me with Tammy. One of my merch helpers extrodinare!
Kevin at the Ayria merch table (he was another amazing merch helper!)
Me with Voni, one of the flyer girls who helped promote the show around the con
SET LIST:
Intro
Bad List
Six Seconds
Horrible Dream
Analog Trash
Red Shift
Blue Alice
Cutting
Invisible
My Device
Disease
The Gun Song
1000 Transmissions
Girl On The Floor
Encore:
It's Been Fun
My Revenge On The World