Kalistani Major History

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ODEN Sponsored Concert held in Memory of Princess Nicolette
Following Week of Mourning, Bands and Fans for a "One Night Tribute"
Sulari, Duchy of Suldanor
September 1, 5518

Kalistani artists from Kalistan's Big 5 Labels KMI, ARC, LCR, VDR, and LTD united in Sulari to play a one night event to honor the recently passed former Empress, Princess Nicolette I Ananto. The Concert was sponsored by ODEN and Radio 1, and the concert was free to all attendees. It was held at the Sulari Stadium, site of the recent GanJam, and was attended by 45,000 music lovers.

Kaliburg's Diana Meerick opens the One Night Tribute Concert singing a capella before switching to piano

The night kicked off with Kaliburg's artpop singer, Diana Meerick, who is just 18 and records for KMI. "I was obviously just one year old when the Princess Nicolette stepped down," said Rearick, "but she always kinda, you know, struck me, as you know, this beautiful, dignified lady. Growing up, I always had a picture of her in my room, I thought I would like to be as graceful and kind as she was, you know? And its such an honor you know to play music at a tribute concert to say thank you to her for everything she did for Kalistan." Meerick played several very baroque and jazz influenced pop tunes, including the classic Jennifer Stepanov FOMAT winning tune "How Can I?"

Meerick was followed up by LTD's Los Jefes, from Dana, who are known for Ska and Punk en Egelian. "Growing up in Sulari as part of the Gaduri community, the Empress really meant a lot to us," said lead singer Lupe Diaz. " My folks were part of the group of people who got a lot out of the urban renewal policies of the Empress, and because of that, we had an excellent living situation, safe streets and good schools. And me padre had a great job that provided for the family, that allowed me to even pursue music." The band played six rousing songs including a ska en Egelian cover of Red Tone song "Menos de Veintiuno".

Next in the list was the Addisjah duo Distant Cousins featuring dancehall artist Melvin Martin and rapper Randall Rotan, who performed a five song live set featuring music from their debut album, the self titled Distant Cousins, out on VDR. "We wanted to represent not only Vrassa and Addisjah," said Martin, "but also dancehall and hiphop at this concert. It was well known that the Princess was a fan of both reggae and hip hop in her earlier years, and we wonder what she would have thought of our music." Rotan added, "It was a lot of fun to play this show in Sulari. We didn't get to play GanJam, but this is kind of like that. Long live the Old Lady!" The set was very well received by the audience.

Addisjah's Distant Cousins end their set to a great ovation

Distant Cousins were followed by the ARC electronic Alternative musicians DeCamp, led by sisters Brenda and Brienne Karst. "When ARC asked us to play this concert we were like, 'really? Us?'" said bassist and Leader Brienne Karst, "and they told us it was a tribute to Princess Nicolette we figured we didn't really know her that well, and I think it was Brenda who asked if that was the Empress or whatever, and so yeah, I we had to read up on her. And turns out she was a pretty awesome person. Everyone loved her, and as I learned more about her, I was like in awe, so I was like 'we have to do this!" The band played 6 songs, and closed their set with the alt-rock single "God's Anvil" off their recent ARC release Shocker in Surftown.

The show closed with LCR's Crush hailing from Yoshimi. Most attendees agreed that choosing to close the show with a sludge metal supergroup was an odd choice. "You all may not know this," said lead singer Mike Quentin, "but we're huge fans of the Princess. Like me, and Brad [Edwards, the lead guitarist] and Lev [Goldstein, the rhythm guitarist] are all hardcore Institutionalists. Our first record, Boot to the Dems is what the kids might call fanfiction, its a concept record..." The hard riffs, brutal basslines and machine gun drums immediately inspired a massive "wall of death" in the general admission area as the bands more rowdy fans had waited through the more middle of the road acts for their chance to cut loose. Several times, Quentin yelled to the crowd to "get the f--k up and dance," and "there ain't no sitting down at a Crush Concert." The band played a 10 song set of the heaviest sludgiest metal including the ode to the original Anantos called "Yoshimi is a Wilting Flower" and closed the show with the groove metal moshfest called "Eyes on Baltusia". The show descended into chaos toward the end as elderly music fans departed the Stadium early and metal head hooligans took over the entire venue as Crush played an encore that they dedicated to the late Princess Mother called "Smoke."[/url]

Crush, Sludgemetal Supergroup from Yoshimi, backstage before the show

Overall the concert lasted for 4 hours and 17 minutes, and was mostly peaceful, though several injuries were reported following the Crush set, as amped up fans rushed the stage to set one of the corners on fire. Police made no arrests however, and promoters chalked the spontaneous arson up to an outpouring of emotions and sorrow for the late Princess Nicolette. Her Imperial Majesty, who did not attend the concert, as she is still in mourning, issued a brief statement thanking fans for the tribute to her late mother, and wishing the fourteen fans who had mostly cuts and scrapes a speedy recovery. A show which started out a capella and jazzy ends in a grungy, sludgy tribute to the Late Princess, and covers all ground in between-- Such is the schizophrenic nature of Kalistani Music and eclectic nature of Kalistani Music Fans.

Below are some Highlights from the Concert, which was also aired entirely on M7 in Kalistan

Diana Meerick, artpop star from Kaliburg singing "You Can't Afford to Lie", KMI

Dana's Los Jefes, singing the punk track "Dios Maldito Progresso" on LTD

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_e8ApnzXxM]
Distant Cousins from Addisjah blast the single "Jah Mean" on VDR

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pk9vrtbpds]
Yoshimi's Crush, with their showending Encore "Smoke", dedicated to the Late Princess Nicolette Ananto, on LCR