Re:O at HYPER JAPAN (review and photo essay)

What an absolute delight to be able to write this post. Last year (nearly to the day!) we shared Rio Suyama’s post asking her fans to help her band Re:O reach 5k followers on Instagram. Fast forward just 12 months and the band not only managed to surpass 10k followers, but enjoys thousands of plays on streaming platforms and graces different stages all over the UK with their electrifying presence! And one of those stages was at HYPER JAPAN just a couple of days ago, on Sunday 26^th of July at the iconic Olympia London (Hammersmith Rd). We don’t even have to say that the gig was sold out and packed to the last seat.

This year’s edition of HYPER JAPAN was their biggest celebration of Japanese culture in the UK to date. The annual festival showcases the best the Land of the Rising Sun has to offer: from food and traditional culture (Awa Odori, theater, taiko, or the art of ikebana) to contemporary phenomenons such as anime, games, music, fashion, and cosplay.

Over the three days (24^th -26^th of July) nearly 50.000 people visited the Olympia Hall and participated in a plethora of attractions prepared for them: artists alley, food court, gaming zone, virtual zone and musical performances. The event was huge – more than 540 stalls offered hand made artworks, clothes, kimonos, plushies and everything else a fan of Japanese culture could want. Of course, for purposes of this article, we are most interested in the live performances that, except Re:O, included Queen Bee, Avantgardey, Upiko, Eir Aoi, The Sixth Lie, Sacred Fleramo, and JERO11.

Even before Re:O set their geta at HYPER JAPAN, their presence at the convention was met with great interest. Local press ran several articles (here and here), Bayliss Media interviewed them and highlighted their achievement (10k followers on Instagram, nearly 100k streams on Spotify and more than 150k views on YouTube) and fans bombarded them with questions about merch and photo cards. With such intense home support, the quartet had no choice but to give their best.

Rio holding her faithful blade, Katana-chan photographed by JJ Grant

Rio in front jumping with Jay Stevens on drums in the back and James Wright on the right, picture by JJ Grant

Jay, Rio and James live on stage, picture by JJ Grant

Re:O performed as an opener for Avantgardey, an internationally acclaimed dance group, finalists of America Got Talent in 2023. Their show started at 15:45 pm and lasted about 30 minutes. It is worth noting that Re:O’s long standing guitarist Alex Carli couldn’t perform (please don’t worry, he simply was visiting his family in Italy!), and was replaced by Jonathan Robert’s who graduated from the band last year. The rest of the group (Rio, Jay Stevens and James Wright) were in fantastic shape and gave a show that was described by Kerrang! Magazine as “tearing the roof off of the venue”.

Speaking of Kerrang! Magazine – one of their DJ’s Paris Munro, was in attendance and he interviewed the trio, you can see the hilarious clip on his Instagram here. Paris also gave the band a glowing review on his show on Saturday the 1^st of August. You can hear it at the 35:20 minute mark at Kerrang’s website. You may need to register before you can listen, but setting up the account is free.

Re:O played five songs: “Crimson Desire”, “Marionette”, “Reverie”, “The Haunted”, secret song (not yet released single), “Guild” and finished their set with “Ronin”. Rio was jumping up and down swinging her mighty sword that bears the official name of “Katana Chan”. And although the audience was asked to remain in their seats for the duration of the performance, their reaction was amazing. People clapped, cheered, nodded their heads and moved with the music. No mosh pit like they had at the MCM Comicon, we are afraid, but overall, this was a great gig. There were few technical glitches with their microphones at the beginning but they quickly overcame them and made the large stage their own.

Jay behind his drum kit, picture by JJ Grant

Re:O’s music summoned all videographers and photographers from the convention so you can find a lot of pictures and videos on the world wide web. Full performance can be viewed below or by clicking on here. We have teamed up with their official photographer JJ Grant (aka Wonderlens) and we can show you some of the best shots from the trenches or, as we professionally call it, the photo pit. Thank you so much JJ – you are absolutely brilliant!

So what’s next for the band? On 2^nd of August, they will support Broken By The Scream at The Dome in London (the show is now sold out as well) and then they will come to the Flapper in Birmingham to play at Edowave UK alongside Dead Happy, Le Bone UK and VaiWatt. Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Birmingham/The-Flapper/EDOwave-UK/42264344/