Commemorating their 10th studio album, “honeycreeper”, Japan’s forefront pop pair, the collective duo known as PUFFY, came over to the west coast for the November leg of their honeysweeper tour. Puffy AmiYumi, as they are known in the US, is no stranger to playing live shows in the West. After all, they had a damn cartoon show made after them. This attracted all kinds of “fans” to the show, ranging from kids to older people, who were probably the parents of those kids. Sadly I wasn’t too surprised when I saw this assemblage. I don’t want to say it was a bad show, but I was quite disappointed at the experience and outcome.

The venue was the House of Blues Anaheim, located in Disneyland’s shopping district, Downtown Disney. I had the chance to cut the line by eating in the restaurant beforehand, and was among a small group of people who were let in the music hall a couple minutes early. This was their last show on the US tour, and I wish it could have been better for them. I had the perfect spot at the front, so what’s wrong with me. Did PUFFY just suck that much? No. PUFFY was great. The crowd, however, was horrible. It was by far the worst crowd I have ever been a part of. Most of them only knew of PUFFY from the cartoon. It was what I was afraid of, the floor consisting of little kids and their parents. I expected a lot jumping, dancing, chanting, and maybe a little pushing, just like the usual PUFFY crowd. Instead, it was the opposite. There was no energy coming from the floor, save from the few people scattered around who actually knew their songs. The House of Blues did not permit any photography at all during the show, and that added with the lame audience got me kind of frustrated.

Despite all that crap, I enjoyed the performance, PUFFY put on a very good show. The band was great and the duo sang well. As the name implies, most of the songs were off the new album. The driving rhythm of “boom boom beat” started off the show to much of the crowd’s delight, but they were soon lost in it’s foreign sound and turned pretty static. Each block of songs were separated by a short MC, where the two would talk a little about their adventures as they read from their notes. I was quite surprised at how well Ami spoke English and literally said “Oh shit-” as she started talking. Totally unexpected. Yumi wasn’t as fluent, but she provided some funnies. They took turns reading from their notes and prompted some responses from the crowd. Not to mention, they both looked really good. For a pair who’s in their thirties, they looked 18. I can’t overlook their band either, those guys were working really hard to get the crowd involved, even more so than PUFFY themselves. The MC were followed by a track from the new album, featuring the popular “Kuchibiru Motion” and the oriental laden… “Oriental Diamond”. Among the set list were a few songs from the previous album, Splurge. Two of the roadies joined PUFFY on stage, readied with sunglasses, helmets, and Mickey gloves to help with the dance on “Mogura Like”. The cover of Green Day’s “Basket Case” rocked the hall as lights lit it with red. There was finally some pretty good crowd interaction as they introduced their band members during the break of the head bang inducing “Youkai PUFFY”. The once stationary crowd finally let loose for the two songs they only knew, “Hi Hi”(from the cartoon) and the Teen Titans Theme. The mood was just right for the bouncy pop of “Closet Full of Love” as the set winded down to it’s last few songs. Instant classics were included and I was happy to be doing the punching motions with “Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Etosetora” and struggled to sing along on “Asia no Junshin”, their staple closing song. It took only two minutes for them to return for an encore, but only gave us one more song, despite a guy confidently suggesting them to do five. After one last song, the seven of them took time for a bow as the audience applauded a good show.

The merchandise sold pretty fast after the show, but I managed to grab a towel before it started. I didn’t bother waiting around, but apparently some people got to have a little chat with Ami and Yumi. It was a good, solid performance. PUFFY were naturals on stage and are still going strong after 12 years. I still walked out of there pretty disappointed. They deserved a much better crowd than that. And screw the House of Blues with that no photography crap! I felt like I walked out of that show with nothing. But whatever, I finally got a towel, and I was really close. I would go see them again for sure, but in Japan.