Gonzo Report: Covers community meets cosplayers at Rocket Con afterparty

Shortly after the conclusion of the fourth annual San Diego Rocket Con comic and toy convention held in the Scottish Rite Center on February 18, dozens of cosplayers, comic book and toy collectors, and collectible card gamers gathered in Hall G of the same building to attend an intimate concert by Caleb Hyles. Hyles is part of the YouTube “cover community,” with over 1.67 million subscribers and 547,708,522 views as of this writing. (The popularity of performing covers online is reflected in the current popularity of TikTok and lip-synching.) The unusual performance could wind up being of the last shindigs at the historic Mission Valley venue, as it’s slated to be demolished in the next few months.

According to Lisa, who runs a Twitch channel titled TatoPrincessSD, Caleb Hyles incorporates anime, American comics, Disney, tabletop gaming, e-gaming, and everything in between in his shows — “so hearing Caleb go from anime to Disney to video games made me super hyped.” Lisa sat by me at the show, settling into the movie theatre-style seating — a relic of the Bowlero bowling alley, which occupied the building in the 1950s. The hall was filled to about 35 percent of capacity.

In unison, we started the night singing “GO!!!” (by Flow) from the Naruto manga series. We are fighting dreamers/Fighting dreamers/Fighting dreamers/ Oli oli oli oh/Right here, right now! Hyles sang the Japanese verses of the track. When he performs, he often sings (or covers) over the lyric-less and instrumental music, which he plays on a laptop connected to the sound system. Then, to further dramatize the performance, he acts and performs skits and ad-libs snarky remarks and jokes.

Around 30 minutes into the concert, the piano solo to Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” blared from the speakers. Hyles, dressed in an earth-tone sweat suit/jacket ensemble, walked to a fan sitting by the front row. He reached out and held her hand. If I could fall into the sky, he sang, serenading her, Do you think time would pass me by? The fan sighed when Hyles let go of her hand to play air piano while singing. ‘Cause you know I’d walk a thousand miles/if I could just see you tonight. The crowd, including a cosplayer apparently dressed as Hercules, roared in delight.

Hyles then dropped some of his own bars: fluid and witty rap verses related to geek culture. He followed up with a theatrical cover of “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John, performed as if by a young lad from across the pond, sung and spoken with a natural-sounding British accent.

Sometimes, Hyles’ singing on his covers is better than that of the original artists, and the cosplayers present ate it up. Hyles joked around with a cosplayer playing Rin Hoshizora from the Love Live! show. But another cosplayer in an all-black ensemble who sat near the Rin Hoshizora lookalike wasn’t laughing. He sported a menacing costume, which included a gas mask with horn accents and which was based on Nameless Ghoul from the band Ghost. Happily, during Hyles’ cover of “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons and JID, the Nameless Ghoul cosplayer let loose, yelled loudly, and bobbed his head so hard while playing air guitar in his seat that his gas mask nearly fell off.

Because the crowd was instructed to remain seated, many became restless. But a girl with orange hair cosplaying as Kagome Higurashi (the bad-gal of the Inuyasha anime series) was fully immersed in Hyles’ theatrical ensemble, notably when he performed the cover of “Other Friends” by Steven Universe. “On this song, I get to be very loud and very thespian,” Hyles touted. Who am I? Who am I? What are you even saying? I’m the loser of the game you didn’t know you were playing. He proceeded to lead the crowd, some teary-eyed from laughing, to chant: Who, Wah, Ey - Who Wah Ey - Who Wah Ey. Our chants increased in volume, transitioning into the “Dragonborn” theme song from the soundtrack of the circa 2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video game. The song has a Nordic sort of sound. I found out later that the Who, Wah, Ey chorus lines were in Dovahzul, a fictional language, and our chants did indeed sound as if we were going to battle. The energy in the room intensified — but we all still remained seated,

The finale was a cover of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” by Donny Osmond, from the Mulan soundtrack. Nearly the whole room sang along: With all the strength of a raging fire/mysterious as the dark side of the moon.

“The day has gone well, and you will have sweet dreams tonight,” said Hyles. And with that, he lay on the stage in a fetal position and acted as if he had gone to sleep.