Emerging Artist Reviews

HANABIE. Concert Photos and Review

by Brooks Robinson

Updated April 14, 2026

HANABIE. – Belasco Theater – Los Angeles – April 13, 2026

I had no idea what to expect Sunday night at the Belasco Theater, where HANABIE. would be playing their second night in a row. I had only recently heard of the four-piece all-female Japanese group that combines metalcore music with Harajuku fashion aesthetics, or Harajuku-core as they call it. It sounded like an interesting mix, but what would it be like live, and how would the audience react?

Let me start off by saying this was one of the most fun concert-going experiences I’ve ever had. On the surface, their Harajuku sensibilities seemed at odds with the kind of heavy music coming out of the PA system. In the largely male-dominated world of metal, where everyone comes to concerts wearing black shirts, this was something very different. Smiles from the stage, fist bumps to passing crowd surfers, bright colors, and lack of guitar-face while playing fast and complicated music was the first sign that things were different. Small children riding on the shoulders of parents while wearing hearing protection was another, and surprisingly, so was the makeup of the audience. I would have suspected a large female contingent, but the crowd was mostly men, many in their 40s, 50s and above.

As mentioned, it was odd at first seeing young women dressed in bright colors killing it with heavy music and aggressive vocal stylings to match, but I got past that quickly and moved on to how awesome the show was and what a good time I was having. Unlike BABYMETAL, HANABIE. doesn’t feel like a corporate product put on stage to sell shirts and concert tickets. HANABIE. is a great band that has killer songs and attitude, and their fans were there to celebrate with them. Despite singing in Japanese, people everywhere in the audience sang along with each song.

After my three songs in the photo pit, I went to the upstairs balcony to observe the rest of the show from above, where I could get a good handle on both the band and crowd, and what I saw surprised me. I locked in on one man on the floor – he was tall, had white hair, and was probably mid-60’s. He would alternate between getting throttled and knocked to the ground several times in the pit, before standing just in front of the pit singing every single lyric at full volume despite them not being in English, air drumming in perfect time with each drum fill, and pumping his fist in the air on beats of punctuation, obviously knowing each song by heart. He wasn’t the exception to the rule.

The mosh pit was one of the most aggressive I’ve ever seen. The demographic bent older than most shows, and I likened it to watching a nature documentary about bighorn sheep during mating season, with the young bucks trying to showcase their strength and youthful energy to win over the females by running head-to-head into the older and more established males. Youth is favorable in many cases, but old-man-strength can’t be underestimated, and the older rams often beat the youngsters back into their place in the pecking order. Documentary films aside, that’s exactly what the HANABIE. mosh pit at the Belasco was like – a bunch of big old dudes crashing into one another and the occasional lightweight twenty-year-old with great force – it was not a place for the timid, but everyone seemed to be having a blast, and there were hugs and high-fives after each song. There was also a wall of death at the midway point – this band and these fans weren’t just going through the motions.

Sunday night’s show was the last of HANABIE.’s headlining tour of America, and they celebrated near the end by bringing out the opening bands for a toast and a drink. Guitarist Matsuri sang an impromptu song, “I like to drink tequila”, and Dickie Allen of Nekrogoblikon and Travis Worland of Enterprise Earth stayed on stage to sing “L.C.G” with the band.

People genuinely had a good time at this concert. HANABIE. was active the entire time – jumping in the air, high-kicking, running around the stage, high-fiving everyone in the front row against the barricade, and fist-bumping the constant stream of crowd surfers, all while maintaining smiles on their faces. Good music, good people, and good times. It was refreshing to see that not every band has to look or dress the same in order to have a positive effect – it was a killer show, and I will definitely be back the next time HANABIE. plays in Los Angeles - I’ll stick to wearing my black shirts, but I’m a fan!

HANABIE. is:

Yukina – Vocals
Matsuri – Guitar/Vocals
Hettsu – Bass/Vocals
Chika – Drums

Setlist:

NEET GAME
SUNRISE Miso-SOUP
Reiwa Matching-sedai
TOUSOU
Kotoshi koso Gal~Shoka ver.~
ICONIC
Spicy Queen
Ware Amatou
Watashitachi no 7kakan Sensou
O•TA•KU Lovely Densetsu
Tokimeki About you
Choujigen Galaxy
Osaki ni Shitsurei Shimasu.

Encore:

L.C.G (With Travis Worland and Dickie Allen)
Today's Good Day & So Epic

Nekrogoblikon

I had never seen Nekrogoblikon before, but knew a bit about them. Still, it was somewhat shocking when the ten-foot-tall inflatable green goblin head was revealed, and the band made its way to the stage. I knew about John Goblikon and his green mask and hands, but was unprepared for everything else, like his pink tutu, and propensity to dance like he’s opposite Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, or the need to hump fellow bandmate’s leg mid-song. He started off by saying “Hello Encino” (a town in the Valley – a part of Los Angeles County, but far away from downtown where the show was), and continued to refer to us as being from Encino for the rest of the night.

They were super fun, but their costumes and dress (Joseph Daniel Nelson on guitar was wearing a shirt that said “PeePee, PooPoo”) belies the fact that their brand of melodic death metal (or goblin metal if you prefer) is heavy with huge guitars and double bass drums. It’s easy to overlook the level of musicality while being distracted by a goblin humping a guitar player on stage, but that’s the contradiction of Nekrogoblikon. They are very good at what they do, and it was obvious that they were having a good time doing it, while allowing everyone in the crowd to both rock out and smile simultaneously.

Nekrogoblikon is:

John Goblikon - Vocals
Dickie Allen – Vocals
Alex Alereza - Guitar
Joseph Daniel Nelson – Guitar
Aaron Minich - Keyboards
Eric W. Brown - Drums

Enterprise Earth

The first thing I noticed when Enterprise Earth started up was that Travis Worland’s vocals were unbelievable – screams so loud and high that they pierced my ear protection like they weren’t there, and yells without the mic that could be clearly heard from the back of the venue. Travis also encouraged moshing, horns in the air, and calling on the audience to “bang your fucking head”…a challenge that was happily accepted. As a way of celebrating those courageous enough to take him up on his request, he made his way to the front of the stage for every crowd surfer that landed in the pit to fist bump each and every one of them.

During the second-to-last song, the tour photographer/videographer put down his camera and joined Travis on a mic, singing the heaviest of vocals in the chorus, before finishing the song and picking up his camera to film the rest of the set. This band put out an unbelievable amount of energy and was a great kick-start to a really fun night of heavy music.

Enterprise Earth is:

Travis Worland – Vocals
Gabe Mangold – Guitar
Aron Hetsko – Drums
Dakota Johnson – Bass

Brooks Robinson Photographer & Writer

Brooks Robinson is an LA-based concert photographer, and 30+ year freelance camera operator for film, television, and music videos. He has photographed some of the largest film/TV projects in history, and hundreds of music videos in MTV's heyday.

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