No band, only Yuki and the FJ women. Despite that, I thought the backing instrumentals were nice and powerful.
I hadn't seen that Yuki had posted the setlist via a Spotify playlist on the
FictionJunction website. I was hoping for a few English/ Kajiuriago tracks but only got swordland as the opener. But despite that I highly enjoyed some old favorites like Honoh no Tobira, parallel hearts, and stone cold. I noticed that REMI's prerecorded vocals were included in swordland just like they did in the opening songs of volume 20.
The singers continue to amaze me at their power. They really belted the hell out of each song.
Yuki spoke a mixture of English and Japanese. She said it was her first time in Chicago. She said that she is working on several upcoming projects this year and into 2027 that she can't talk about yet. She said Yuriko will be featured in the new Madoka Magica movie soundtrack. They also said they hoped to be back soon. I recorded most of her speeches, not sure how well the audio turned out. They took a group photo with the audience behind them so I assume they'll post that on their X.
I didn't love how the conference made each event first-come first-serve. There were other people who'd flown in who felt anxious about being able to get in to the concert at all, although I think everyone who waited in line was able to get in (cause Im pretty sure there were some open seats on the edges), but they had this super stupid system that you had to buy a YK CD/BD over $50 to get a ticket to the meet-and-greet and when I finally got to the merchandise booth they said they sold out in 10 minutes
Phenomenal getting to witness their talents in person but wouldn't need to do it twice