Tour diary - Sydney (Part 2 / 5)

 Our second show and our first interstate one on the tour and actually it's the first time that we've ever put on a show in Sydney.  Sydney has been a city which we've struggled to get a show happening in 2011.  However things really started to go our way in 2012, a growing cosplay scene, new sponsors plus massive support from our lead catgirl (Rachel) and also from the venue owner (Herbie), we could make it happen.

Sydney was by far our most nerve wracking show, we've had difficulty attracting hype and interest but in the weeks leading up to the show we've had a lot of love and support from our fans to make this an awesome party.  I rocked up to find myself actually really enjoying Sydney, the arcades, food and the city were absolutely amazing, plus our venue as well too.

Our Sydney show is one of our most uniquest shows on the venue, taking place in an unconventional venue, it makes for an interesting and unique underground feel that really put an interesting twist on our show and for one great atmosphere for the show.  Mixed with an extremely varied Sydney crowd which has an interesting mix of alt, rave, goth, cyber, furry, cosplay and geek cultures.

The show went better than we expected, in particular we noted that the sushi in Sydney went faster than in any other city by far and we had really great fans who really stuck till 4am to party hard, I was suggested to play speedcore near the end and they did dance to it.  Favourite highlight was by far Kuma Drop playing his entire set in a pedobear outfit, plus Shyen's Disney was a popular crowd favourite.

We love this show, it's an amazing venue to deal with, nice massive chill out area and is a popular one for the interstate fans as well too.  Sydney was a blast and after spending another day discovering the massive city and having a blast, we're excited to be back for SMASH to throw a massive after party for all the Sydney fans!

Tour diary - Adelaide (Part 1 / 5)

 First stop Adelaide!  Our tour starts off in Neko Nation's current home of Adelaide.  Adelaide is by far the most exciting show to prepare for as we regularly gets our fans coming into Tokyo Hardcore to buy tickets, we get to see the excitement first hand and actually interact with the community in our own hometown, compared to just talking to people on Facebook with the interstate shows.

We headed into the show completely sold out of pre-sales, the second time we have achieved this feat (the other time being Perth for the unofficial Wai-Con after party).  So we had massive reasons to get very excited for this show, especially since we were going into this show nailing what we believed would be one of the most amazing shows ever as we believed the last show was great but we could finally work on putting on all the finishing touches to get everything the way we wanted it too.

The Adelaide show was pretty much the stuff of dreams, a titanic amount of support came from all over the place, 14 DJ's, 8 catgirls, 10 media (including AVCon), it's by far the biggest show staff wise and well supported by the entire Adelaide cosplay community.  Our numbers hit over 300, taking the attendance title back after temporarily losing it to Brisbane at the last show.

Adelaide is by far the most special show for us in terms of the amount of support, attendance and love we receive and it was massive motivation for the rest of the tour, plus Adelaide certainly knows how to party with absolutely packed dancefloors and crazy antics all over the place.  It's a show like this that shows why Neko Nation has chosen to reside in Adelaide.

Having been satisfied we were ready to pack our bags for our debut show in Sydney!

Top 10 Moments of 2011

2011 was an amazing debut year for Neko Nation, we put 7 shows on and we've met an amazing bunch of people and had an amazing amount of time and experiences.  While the whole trip has been amazing, there were a fair few standout moments of the year and we're going to count them down.

10. Neko Nation launch! (Purrth, February 2011)

Our first show in Perth may have only had 4 DJ's and 2 catgirls but nonetheless it was enjoyable night as the very first Neko Nation took place when it was launched in at Bar 138 in Perth on February 5th 2011.  The turnout was around 100 people, maybe it wasn't as big or amazing as our most recent shows but we had to start from somewhere but there was enough love and demand to put on another show and another one and another one!


9. Cheeseburger Sushi (Purrth, September 2011)
While many people reading this might be in shock at such a creation everyone at Neko Nation Purrth was.  Iku Sushi ended up providing up with cooked cheeseburger sushi and the end result?  It was the most fastest sushi run any of our catgirls had ever done, there was no need for taking laps around the room as this was virtually gone by the time they got from one end of the venue to the other.  This stuff was amazing and those who tried it at Purrth definitely thought so.

8. Neko Nation Upgrades!  (Various shows)

While our launch was special, watching Neko Nation grow was quite an amazing thing to watch throughout the year, Adelaide saw the launch of an 8 catgirl show, 12+ DJ's, stalls and a mini stage.  Things were a massive improvement in Adelaide after our first show in Perth.  Things did get a lot better in Perth soon, once we worked on our next setup in the Bakery which featured a decent sized stage with DJ booth, projectors and dancers as well.  However we definitely saved the best till last in Adelaide which saw the production ramped further with a bigger stage, lazers, snow machine and a speedy music format which featured 14 DJ's which caught the attention of AV-Con and I Got Superpowers.


7. Giddy Kong (Various shows)
Giddy Kong is our most famous, interesting and controversial DJ on our show, touring around to as many shows as possible out of his own pocket, he comes to play extremely bizarre sets that aim to please our fans, make them dance and also possibly mortify them with his insane trolling.  We've seen antics such as his Pedobear outfit, his hacked guitar and DDR mats and his love of random speedcore.


6. Less than 3 but more than 50?! (Adelaide, September 2011)
Saccharine had her first bubblegum pop set in Adelaide and it was an amazing success and the crowd certainly got crazy right into it.  Of particular note was when Saccharine played "Less than Three" which ended up creating a conga line which we estimated got to around 50 people, this was not the last which we saw off it, later on we saw a smaller but still impressive Nyan Cat conga line on the night.


5. Putting the win in twincest! (Perth, Various events)

Saccharine and Kae were the first two catgirls for our first show and they kept coming back for more being well known as our two most famous catgirls on Neko Nation.  Kae and Saccharine didn't know each other before the first show but ended up getting along quite well to routinely pull off their twin act, which may have gone a bit too far at the first Adelaide show which lead to many friends getting the two mixed up!

4. Damage Dollz (Adelaide, May 2011)
This was Neko Nation catgirls at it's sexiest and finest.  Saccharine's go-go dancing group the "Damage Dollz" put on a sexy performance which included 4 of Adelaide sexiest and hottest alt models in some pretty sexy, tiny outfits getting pretty close and wrapped up in string.  It made for one amazing show and in the end it was a once off as the Damage Dollz  went their separate ways later in the year.

3. Pedobear (Perth, September 2011)

Neko Nation's beloved Giddy Kong came up with an epic idea to wear a pedobear outfit for a Neko Nation event.  While he didn't end up playing in it due to the heat and lights on stage he was seen wandering around the entire show with the outfit which created quite a few interesting pictures, especially when the catgirl twins Kae and Saccharine were around!

2. Still Alive Finale (Various Shows)
Giddy Kong accidently started a tradition which ensued at most shows which saw a bizarre celebratory dance for the final song "Still Alive", the first Perth show saw a singalong, Adelaide ended up seeing ballroom dancing to "Still Alive", while the last Perth show ended up seeing a variant of the circle of death, where we saw people running around in a circle only for the circle to collapse at the last minute, Perth certainly had a lot left in them by the end of the show.

1. The Kiss (Adelaide, December 2011)
Adelaide's cosplay scene two well known popular if somewhat controversial figures, Adnan and James ended up pashing on stage at the last show of the year during James' set.  The lead up for this moment was often "joked" about for a very long time and people certainly were pretty shocked, surprised but also very excited to see it happen as well too.  It's certainly one of the highlights that everyone remembered from that show.

2011: The finale

As 2011 comes to a close soon, I'd like to thank everyone on board with Neko Nation from all the cities we've been involved in, no role has been too small and I'd like to think that everyone has played a huge part in helping make Neko Nation what it is today.  What was a small project during my university break pretty much forced me to leave university to carry on doing this and also Tokyo Hardcore as well.

It's been a huge year with ups and downs, thankfully most of the downs were behind the scenes and more or less to do with the workloads but greatly outweighed by all the ups with how this year ended, I'm absolutely over the moon with how things have been gone with Neko Nation in 2011.

The last show in particular with Adelaide was just phenomenal and mind blowing, I pretty much planned for a massive overhaul to the Neko Nation show and my god did it work out spectacularly in the end, with over 30 staff on board I thought it was going to be a nightmare to keep things all under control but I've got a great team who helped out a lot.

We've had a lot of spectacular fun with all our shows but this time around we managed to get some video footage and coverage through both AV-Con TV and I Got Superpowers, which I've put a link too below for both the videos and the article which featured us as well.

http://igotsuperpowers.com/events/pull-anime-themed-party/

Expect a lot more posts in the upcoming weeks in regards to some of the highlights over 2011!

Neko Nation - Tour Updates for November

Got some pretty exciting updates in regards to Brisbane and Adelaide plus some details in regards to all the other shows we're working on, let's get started with what's happening!

Melbourne
We have got plans for a Melbourne show in 2012, we are currently in talks of teaming up with another local production crew who have been involved in Manifest to combine for an uber Melbourne show.  We will have more updates soon.


Sydney
We have started getting some catgirls and DJ's on board and have almost got everything almost ready to go, more details in the near future.  ^^

Perth
We've got a new venue lined up and just waiting to sign the contract any day next week to go ahead.  Things have gone a lot slower than we would have liked due to figuring out the best options in regards to an event on Wai-Con weekend.  We do have something and details will be announced soon.  ^^

Adelaide
We've recently had a meeting with AV-Con on Friday.  To cut a long story short, we're working together with AV-Con for this show and in future shows which we are really excited about.  The biggest news is that we are having the AV-Con media team coming down with their video cameras to film the event for their latest project, AV-Con TV!

We're working extremely hard on making it the best event ever with a lot of work done on every detail that we can to make the event better.  Remember the overheating issues, air conditioning sorted.  Want more prizes, extra sponsors obtained.  We've got some amazing music producers such as Korw and Neko Theory plus interstate DJ Giddy Kong coming in from Perth.  We've got a huge AMV set up organised and arranged.  A brand new lighting setup we're working on as well, the amazing new music line up and our biggest staff list yet, (close to 28, our average show usually has 10-15 in comparison!).

Brisbane
Our debut show is getting very exciting over in Brisbane with our most massive demand seen for an Eastern states show ever!  We've recently just sorted out our DJ line up for Brisbane and my god is it one of our most amazing DJ line ups yet.  We've got big local names and interstate DJ's coming down for our debut Neko Nation Brisbane show.



DJ Triex (Owner of Ruffbeatz Records):
We've got the owner of Ruffbeatz Records, the biggest J-Core record label in Australia!  His label includes the likes of DJ S3RL, Helblinde and Shingo DJ just to name a few.  Bringing his amazing array of J-Core and a couple of surprises on board, we're very excited to have our biggest name yet join Neko Nation!



DJ Agr1ppa (Bitch Brigade)

Well known for her work behind Brisbane industrial band Bitch Brigade, Agr1ppa will have a DJ set featuring all things pink, cute and PVC (or is that kawaii?).  Famously well known as well for her love of all things Japanese which will feature plenty of Japanese pop and club tracks, we are extremely excited to have her on board for Neko Nation Brisbane.


DJ Giddy Kong (WA)
If you think that DJ's are overhyped jukeboxes, then you obviously have never seen one of Giddy Kong's sets.  Neko Nation's most famous and craziest DJ is well known for his insane and crazy antics, ranging from hacking toy guitars and DDR mats to his DJ equipment to various sound samples to make for an interesting set.  With his music variety being quite erratic, from Rickrolling to 600bpm madness, he is a unbelievably unique DJ that will have you either dancing, laughing or ragequitting.  Did we mention that he has a pedobear outfit as well?  XD

Get excited Brisbane, this promises to be one of our best shows yet!

Neko Nation Adelaide - v3.0 - Ready for Mega Update!

Hi everyone, less than 4 weeks to go till the next Neko Nation in Adelaide.  Looking forward to our third one and it's in our hometown Adelaide.  Extremely exciting since the Adelaide show is the biggest on the entire circuit (at least so far anyways!).  Neko Nation Adelaide is a lot of fun for us being in our home town since we're treated a bit like mini celebrities and are quite well known over here and we're friends with quite a fair few people involved with the show.

Neko Nation Adelaide is special in the sense that we get to bring on our revolutionary new show with plenty of new changes to our  last two which we are extremely excited to work on!  Here's a bit of a preview of what we have planned.

New venue
We are moving our premises to Higher Ground which we are extremely excited about moving to a new venue.  Higher Ground promises an exciting new setup similar to that of Neko Nation Purrth which saw a massive stage and dancefloor in comparison to the last show.  The new venue has exceptional staff on board to work with us to help bring you an amazing new show.

Located not too far away from the previous venue, it's away from the usual Hindley St crowd and easy to get too.  Featuring a much more spacious open area and also a drinks line that won't take over 10 minutes like in our previous shows!

New Music Format

We're scrapping the unpopular rave room and trying out our new speed "speedycake" DJ format system, featuring 14 DJ's over a wide varieties of genres.  Featuring our usual, J-Rock, Anime, Gaming, J-Core, Gaming, Meme plus some of your favourites such as J-Pop, K-Pop, Bubblegum Pop genres, now we're going to feature debuting some new genres such as J-Trance, Touhou and Disney, yep, expect a pretty amazing new musical experience that you will not find anywhere else in Australia.

Expect some pretty amazing and incredible DJ's with plenty of new DJ's making their Neko Nation debut, including producers, Neko Theory and Korw.  We've got Neko Nation's favourite and most famous DJ on board once again, DJ Giddy Kong hailing from Perth, well known for his unpredictable and crazy sets which saw his last set involve a hacked guitar and DDR pad to make music out of while coming as Pedobear!  Although overall, expect an incredible soundtrack across so many Neko Nation music genres of the musical nyan cat rainbow spectrum!

Graphical Updates!

I've done my best to work on improving Neko Nation's image over the past few months in particular with the use of our lovely new mascots who are absolutely adorable.  XD

We're working on various new things such as our new advertising campaign featuring A1 sized posters.  We'll also be working on some new stuff for the show, including some pretty impressive graphics plus a new AMV setup with a projector that we struggled to get working at our previous venue.

Themes
Have a merry Christmas, expect a slight Christmas theme in this show, say goodbye temporarily to prize bags and say hello to presents wrapped up!  Plus expect a catgirl or two to be in Christmas theme!

Catboys
We've had a few Catboys but more or less as substitutes in the past for other catgirls.  This time, Adelaide has demanded catboys so we've picked a pair of epic catboys for the Adelaide show who will definitely dress and serve to impress!

Cocktails
Working on some pretty awesome new drinks and cocktails on the night, we have a new venue which is going to help us go ahead with this.

After Party
Think the party stops at 3am?  WRONG!

We've setup a free after party from 3am-6am at The Pimp Pad.  Adelaide's awesome gaming joint, featuring unlimited gaming on PS3 and 360, lounges to chill on, food and drinks available throughout the night plus your chance to chill out with Catalystic and Saccharine the two behind Neko Nation!

Get ready Adelaide we're ready to bring on one hell of a show for Neko Nation Adelaide, this is going to be our biggest and best show yet, get your tickets now from Tokyo Hardcore @ Shop 144 Adelaide Arcade.  We're excited and we hope you are too.  ^___^

2012 Tour!!!!

Neko Nation is extremely excited to present a Neko Nation 2012 tour!

Within half a year of putting on the event back and forth between Perth and Adelaide, we have received an insane amount of interest on the East coast and extremely excited to be bringing Neko Nation to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.  Plus of course we're not forgetting about our birthplace in Perth and also our home in Adelaide!

We will be looking to return to Perth very soon in the first show with a special event taking place during Wai-Con weekend, we are very close to getting something sorted and we've been a bit spoiled for choice with options so we're deciding on a final decision soon!

Brisbane has recently been booked, despite the dramas of last time where we had to cancel the show due to the venue shutting down, we are back bigger and better than ever with a huge response from Brisbane Supanova for February 11th @ St Pauls.

We will be making our first show in Sydney after a lot of demand for a show we're finally making it down next year and are very excited to start getting to work on their debut show!

We had our first show in Melbourne recently and sadly wasn't our best show and didn't go to plan, we're very  excited to bring a brand new show which will be absolutely better than ever, with support from some special up and coming DJ's, stay tuned for more information!

We will finish our tour with a home show in Adelaide, we have got an interesting show planned with quite a nice surprise but you will find out soon!

<3 <3 Catalystic <3 <3