The lowdown on glowsticks at H!P concerts

Glowsticks, referred to as “lights” by the wotas, have long been a staple at Hello! Project concerts, whether a °C-ute firestorm at the Yokohama Blitz, a Berryz Kobo outburst at Saitama Super Arena, or a joint Hello! Project spectacular at Yoyogi Hippodrome.

 

Such glowsticks always seem to be in short supply come concert day, so it’s a good idea to get them in advance at http://www.glowsticks.com if you plan on going to one of these events. However, it’s also cool to have them around even if you can’t drop everything and spend $4,000 to go to Japan and back. Just sit in front of any half-decent flat-screen TV, flip on your own glowsticks or finger lights, and have at it as you watch the Region 2 DVD played on a region-free DVD player with, ideally, a 50-inch plasma HDTV monitor. Turn the room lights down for effect.

 

Either way, glowsticks are very cool. There’s something comforting about them if only a handful of fans are waving them, such as during the July 4-5 concerts by idol singers Ishida and Shokotan at Anime Expo 2008 in Los Angeles. But when an arena full of fans hoists an ocean of such glowing colors, it can be a grand display, and pulls the crowd right into the show along with the performers.

 

AX 2008 even had a great, packed-out glowstick class for some 500 people – but the instructors say they never heard of Hello! Project and were stunned that glowsticks were used during concerts.

 

“I’ve never heard of that happening,” said instructor Paul Trinh, who has been running filled-up glowstick clinics the past three years for Anime Expo.

 

“We just teach the ceremonial use of these glowsticks,” said David Oh. For the AX 2008 demo, they used hundreds of the cracked chemcial sticks, which burn bright for about an hour. LEDs are the far superior type of glowstick for any occasion.

 

As for the lack of basic knowledge exhibited by Oh, Trinh and the other instructors on idol J-pop, that’s what you get being among a bunch of anime fans who are clueless about certain aspects of Japanese music. They certainly were in for a shock when first Ishida, then Shokotan, took the stage at the 7,100-seat Nokia Theater and glowsticks – and even cell phones lit up and used instead of glowsticks – made for a fantastic setting.

 

Anyway, the glowstick lesson was also great because of one URL the AX 2008 instructors referenced: http://www.glowsticks.com . That’s the Web site where you can order all kinds of glowsticks – the chemical kind that you snap and use after the chemicals mix and start glowing, and the far superior LED-powered sticks and fingertip lights that would be ideal for Hello! Project concerts.

 

Some wotas, though, are committed to the old-fashioned, traditional chemical sticks despite the fact they fade midway through the concert. The LED sticks are multicolored with multiple sets with pushbutton control. They are killer glowsticks. They have a half-dozen color settings and automatically change colors in one setting. Super cool.

 

And the fingertip lights. Holy mackerel, they rock. And they double, especially the white ones, as handy finger flashlights to use inside a dark car when you’re hunting for the missing pencil or map at night, or when you’re trying to wire up that HDTV to fire up the latest °C-ute or Berryz Kobo “Battle Concert” DVD.

 

The LED batteries, identical to those used in watches, come packed in three to a light (or stick) and last for many hours. And in some cases the batteries can be changed out. The chemical sticks, meanwhile, are used only once and then they have to be tossed – a politically incorrect environmental hazard. Better to go with the LEDs and keep them for concert after concert.

 

Bottom line is that, at least on http://www.glowsticks.com , they come pretty cheap and fast. A dozen LED glowsticks run about  $18, and it only costs about $9 for 30 or so fingertip lights, which come in green, red, white and blue. Glowsticks, mostly chemical and not LED, will cost you $5 a pop at least at the concert, if they cam be found at all.

 

Some protocol notes: The LED glowsticks are great because you can just turn them off at times where glowsticks aren’t appropriate for a particular song, which has the side-benefit of not upsetting any nearby fans. The fingertip lights? They’re more associated with the rave scene in the US and are not particularly embraced.

 

But anything beats the elaborate homemade, altered-glove, multilight packages bandied about by some of the Hello! Project fans. In fact, they wave those lights around so fiercely that they sometimes slump in exhaustion, even as Morning Musume has yet to roar into its final set.

 

So, enjoy the glowsticks. Kids will have fun with them, too, even if they’ve never heard of Chisato, Hagiwara, Momoko or Risako. And there’s always Halloween.

 

This is Rad signing off – for now.