The Nothing but Noise tour lived up to its name on January 21st,2024 at 1720 in Los Angeles. Even when the night's first act graced the stage, the crowd was already roaring with energy. The opener being none other than the radiant Minmi. She brought both energy and her unique sense of humor to her performance, giving off the energy of someone who could easily headline their own show. One of the best moments being when she got the whole audience to joke around with her and everyone laughed along. Which ended up leading into a song that’s fun to dance along to, regardless of what language you speak. Although one of the songs that the audience seemed most hyped for was Minmi singing a song from Evangelion. The room was filled with people waving their hands up in the air, cheering, and people singing along to the song. You can even see visuals from the anime playing behind Minmi. It was just one of those songs that everyone knows and loves. One of the songs Minmi is known for is "Shiki No Uta" from the classic anime Samurai Champloo. Minmi also took up the keys, for a hopeful song about how it’s never too late to change your life and follow your dreams. The song was beautiful and had the audience clapping along to it.  She gave off a very memorable performance and when she got off the stage, you can tell the audience wanted more.

Getting us ready for our amazingly talented headliner, DJ Hyper Potions takes up the stage dazzles the packed house prior to announcing Nano.  With fans literally loosing their minds,  Nano made quite the entrance wearing a hoodie with the stage lighting and the hood concealing part of their face.  This to me felt like a call back to their early days when their identity was concealed. During that time, there were a lot of cool anime-style drawings that represented nano and in a sense their identity was genderless. One of the turning points of her career was when she did an English cover of the song "Gallows Bell", a song that is incredibly sad and dark but beautiful. Nearly makes me cry every time I listen to it. I’ve been listening to Nano since the very beginning and have been wanting to see them live for several years now.  The way Nano expresses herself has made me as a person more confident in how I express myself and even though her being mysterious before was an interesting experience, I’m happy that she’s now able to be more free with her music and be who she is.  While a faceless artist is always cool, nothing can beat seeing them smile while doing what they love up on stage and Nano’s smile lit up all of 1720 that night. Nano’s appearance during her first song of the night, which is "Nevereverland", somewhat resembles the boy wearing a hood in the music video which is playing in the background while she sings.  The audience during the beginning of the song brings up the energy by chanting “hey hey hey” and clapping.  Towards the end of the song, the boy in the video is no longer wearing a hood and the same goes for Nano.

Her third song on the set list, "No Pain, No Game", is a personal favorite of mine and has the same characters from Nevereverland in it. The song came out over 10 years ago but is timeless. When Nano threw her hands in the air during that song, it was an epic moment.  If you need a song to energize you, "No Pain, No Game" is definitely one of those songs. After that one was "Magenta", a song with a different type of energy to it - but just as exciting. The visuals for this one were especially beautiful.  I really loved seeing the trees without leaves combined with the pink lighting. "Magenta" is also the kind of  song that reminds you that you’re not alone and even if the world is falling apart you will get back up. Right before starting another one of her songs, Nano tells the audience “No Matter what if you really want something you gotta always keep believing in it” and I feel like those are words to live by. Her next song "Dreamcatcher" embodies those beliefs and will give anyone who listens to it strength to not give up. Her song "Blue Jay" was the one where everyone stayed silent and listened with Nano’s voice enchanting the entire room.  If you’ve ever lost someone you hold dear, this song will resonate deep in your heart.  The angel wings falling in the background along with Nano sitting down for this one, helped make the feeling of the bittersweet beauty of the song even stronger. At a certain point we had a break period where DJ Hyper Potions took over and the space briefly felt like a really fun anime rave. Hyper one hundred percent lives up to his name and knows what songs anime fans get down to most. He kept the energy high. Nano reenters the stage with the song "All I Need", a powerful song that I’m sure everyone has related to at least at one point in their lives.

Nano’s dancing especially in "Savior of Song" and "Fight Song" was incredible.  Being as a photographer as well as a fan, it was engaging to watch and filled me with excitement.  Nano ended her set with the song "Freedom is Yours", where everyone moved their arm back and forth in sync. Now luckily even though I say ended, truth be told it wasn’t the actual end of the set. What happened next was the longest chant I’ve ever heard for an encore in probably my entire life. Probably one of the loudest encore chants I’ve ever heard too, I think it went on without stopping for at least several minutes. This is just a testament to how amazing Nano is, her fans were all willing to risk losing their voices for this encore. She came back out wearing a Nothing but Noise t-shirt, that ended up completely selling out that night before Nano even finished performing.

The final two songs would be "Let’s Make Noise", which is the reason for the name of this tour, and "Oblivion" a newly released song. During "Let’s Make Noise", the audience had the cool experience of Nano taking a video of all of us singing along while she was singing and yeah we all made noise. Nano wrapped up the night with "Oblivion" and the audience singing along the lyrics “listen to your heart”, was the perfect way to end the night. The audience singing along to even the Japanese lyrics is proof that even speaking different languages, we can all come together. Seeing Nano live after waiting several years was worth it and something I will always remember, looking forward to catching her again soon