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Um Jammer Live at the Roxy[08.31.99] » Lammy, Chop Chop, and PaRappa appeared live on stage for Sony's big bash in New York. Check out our thoughts. (Photos included.) Last Thursday night at the Roxy in New York City, Sony Computer Entertainment of America threw a giant launch party for its new musical game, Um Jammer Lammy. (Photos available below.) The rising star lamb and her band, Milk Can, played to a medium-sized crowd of religiously dedicated PaRappa and Lammy fans and a few completely confused general news reporters and friends of friends of friends, who didn't know what to do with themselves. Why? Because, this concert was really for those folks who loved the game and wanted to see and hear the real people behind the flat, 2D characters in the game. For anyone else, it was an oddity. Needless to say, this gamer had a frickin’ blast, and was there to bring back the, er, facts, on this high-level, er, uh, concert/party. Yeah, it's tough doing this job, but somebody's -- ah, you know. To a not-quite-sell-out crowd, creator Masaya Matsuura and his five-man band Milk Can performed a two-part concert, with a surprise contest in the intermission. Michelle Burks, who plays "Katy Kat" in both PaRappa the Rapper and Um Jammer Lammy, led the band with her upbeat vocals, singing with a warm, lush voice. Matsuura played keyboards, and was assisted by a drummer, bass played and guitarist. Lucky game enthusiasts from videogames.com (Jeff Gerstman) and PS Extreme (Greg Off) were brought up on stage in the intermission to compete for bragging rights, and in a ragged, shameful performance the evil of two lessers, Gerstman, took the prize (getting a score of bad). You can only imagine what Off got, if Gerstman got bad. Both won prizes: Gerstman nabbed a $300 custom, battery-powered guitar, with a built-in speaker and images of Lammy painted all over it. Off received a stuffed animal in the form of Lammy for second place. In the second half of the show, the band went back up on stage and cranked out the rest of the songs from the game, and performed the music from the Plane, Fireman, and Chainsaw levels extremely well. Also in the second half of the concert, surprise visits were paid by the real life people Ryuichi ("Ryu") Watabe (Chop Chop Onion), Dred Foxx (PaRappa), and Everette Bradley (Beaver). And the wonderfully upbeat songs from PaRappa the Rapper were played to finish off the concert. The biggest surprise of the show? Well, actually seeing who brought PaRappa's and Chop Chop's voices to life. Chop Chop seems like the master of music in the game, a character who towers over everyone else, and yet Ryu Watabe is a smallish Asian man with a ferocious stage presence. And PaRappa, who seemed like such a shy, small character, is, in real life, a giant African-American man with dread locks, who goes by the name of Dred Fox. Seeing these people in real life was a wonderful surprise to say the least. Overall, the concert was awesome. The band emanated a warm and energetic feeling throughout and the musicians played each song immaculately. It wasn't as well attended as I thought it might be, and I was surprised to see fewer people near the ending on the dance floor. What were they thinking? Oh well. All had a good time, and thankfully we to meet each of the band members after and tell them about our own experiences with PaRappa and Lammy. Now I can say I met PaRappa the Rapper. That, for me, was the best part. The GIA would like to thank IGN.PSX's Douglass Perry for the fantanstic first-hand concert impressions and photos.
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