It was a dark and kind-of stormy Friday night. Two college students, dressed in garb that blended with said night, stared in horror as a car barreled right towards them with a screech and splash of rainwater.

How did we get here?

First, why were these two college students even out on a Friday night in the rain? Why do they look like they were dressed for a very fashionable funeral? And why did they stand still like doofuses instead of jumping out of the way???

Well, dear readers, as one of said doofuses, let me spin you a yarn that will keep you warmer than us on this particularly cold Pasadena night.

My friend and I were on our way back from seeing the great Hiroyuki Sawano, a Japanese composer for many iconic anime original soundtracks (OSTs). He was performing in LA on the 14th of November 2025, and he brought SEVERAL vocalists (most of whom were original singers on his tracks) with him from Japan to perform for us!!! If you are a fan of hit animes such as Attack on Titan, 86, Solo Leveling, and more, you have definitely heard his artistry in the background as the anime characters dazzled you on the screen. When I found out that there was a Hiroyuki Sawano concert coming near me back in July, I immediately summoned the masses (my friends) to heed my call to gather and see this man in real life. One of my good friends took up this call to adventure, so we bought the tickets and waited patiently for the day we can witness this man’s work live again. (We actually went to an Attack on Titan concert earlier this year too, where they played music by both Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto, as they are the two composers for the series’ OST. This particular concert was hosted at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Oscars are hosted every year!)

This time, we got to be at the Peacock Theater, smack dab in the middle of Downtown LA. We were able to take the bus from Caltech’s campus to the nearest LA Metro station, where we took the Metro all the way to Pico Station before walking 10 minutes to the theater itself. We also were able to do this all for the low, low price of FREE thanks to Caltech’s free Metro and bus pass program! What we didn’t account for, though, was the fact that LA had its largest precipitation event in ages the exact week that we were going to see the great Hiroyuki Sawano live. So, with our umbrellas propped into the sky and stylishly-cobbled boots on the ground, we braved the rain and made our wet-yet-grand journey from Pasadena to Downtown LA.

Dear reader, it was an absolutely beautiful concert. Sawano opened the concert with an absolute banger, “SymphonicSuite[AoT]Part2-1st:ətˈæk 0N tάɪtn <WMId>”, and he probably had the entire audience spellcasted for the entire hour that he spent jamming out on that piano. When he addressed the audience, Sawano told us, “Sorry, I don’t speak English”, but I don’t think he needed to apologize. Music is a universal language, and he spoke to us all that night, captivating every single one of our hearts. I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing a few times.

However, that wasn’t the thing that almost ended me and my friend that night.

When the concert ended, we were still absolutely enthralled. My friend and I are currently taking Intermediate Japanese at Caltech, and I could understand some of the things Sawano was telling us in his native language as he closed his performance. Still giddy off of the phenomenal experience and being able to understand what Sawano was saying, we took the Metro back to Pasadena and praised the concert throughout. But this post-concert euphoria was about to be replaced by something else entirely.

I called an Uber from the Metro station back to campus. As our Uber was pulling up towards us, a car trailing right behind it suddenly, with no signal, SWERVED RIGHT NEXT TO the Uber as it turned, blocking it, before screeching to a stop DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME AND MY FRIEND. We stood there, frozen in shock. Our Uber driver rolled down his window and started lambasting the offending driver, who (unrightfully, in my opinion) started arguing back. Meanwhile, my friend and I were just literal standing emojis with our umbrellas open as we watched the scene unfold. Our hearts almost stopped for the second time that night when the offending driver OPENED HIS OWN DOOR, as if he was about to get into a fistfight right then and there with the Uber driver. Thankfully, the Uber driver intimidated the offender enough that he drove away before any actual physical altercation occurred.

We then got into the Uber and got driven back to campus in silence.

Great concert though! 10/10 would almost die for again!