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Five-Man Band Concert

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Even the Sixth Ranger has joined the fun. Now that's some devotion to The Team.

The Five-Man Band has been a long-standing symbol of group unity, so what better way to do it than to show your cast actually performing in a band? It's sort of a cousin to the Dancing Theme and shows the characters playing instruments, rocking out, and having fun. Even if they never actually play the instruments in the series. If they do, though, all the better.

Also, unlike the Five-Man Band trope, any character ensemble can do a Concert, so long they are canonically portrayed as a group and are seen interacting with each other.

The band can perform In-Universe, in supplementary material and in the music videos of the Theme Tunes.

Expect this trope to appear if there's a School Festival or if it's a Musical Episode. Compare with Fake Band (budget forbids creators from hiring real-life musicians to be the In-Universe top artists, so they cast musically untalented actors). See also Image Song (a song specifically about a character) and Band Episode (when the band lasts only one episode).


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Monster Cereals: The "Monster Mash" anniversary of the cereal would turn the original five monsters into a band: Count Chocula on vocals and keyboards, Frankenberry on bass, Boo Berry on guitar, Fruit Brute on drums, and Fruity Yummy Mummy on tambourine. The five of them would perform a cover of "Monster Mash" for the get-together. The "Monster Mash Remix" variant of the cereal added Carmella Creeper to the band, making her DJ.

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Astro City has a literal example with "Powerchord", a rock 'n roll band composed of five super-powered beings.

    Fan Works 
  • Class Trials ET 5: Wanting to try his hand at rockstardom, Kaito forms a rock band with Ibuki, Shuichi, Keebo, and Sayaka that lasts until Ibuki's death.
  • Lucky Star: After Story: In Chapter 19, the band Red Roses and Blue Violets (organized by 5 of the original characters) perform "Castle in the Sky" at a Halloween party concert. Basically, think of them as the Lucky Star version of Ho-Kago Teatime. As for the members, Ayaka is the bassist, Nanami is the lead guitarist, Mariko is the drummer, Chiyoko is the lead singer and the keyboard player, and Tomoyo is the other lead singer and the percussion player. In Chapter 27, Hiroko joins as the saxophone player And in Chapter 28, it's Mikoto enters the band as a backing singer and a percussion player.

    Films — Animation 
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: The Movie's entire premise is this trope, complete with prelude shorts. Long story short, the villains turn the Canterlot High talent show into a vicious Battle of the Bands. Since they are not affected by the evil spell, "The Rainbooms" team up to stop "The Dazzlings" — Twilight Sparkle will write the counterspell while the rest will enter the show as a competing band to buy time for her. Rainbow Dash is the vocalist and guitarist, Applejack is the bassist, Rarity plays the keytar, Fluttershy is on the tambourine, and Pinkie Pie is on the drums. For this, they perform "Awesome as I Wanna Be". Later, they reunite to cast the musical counterspell together by performing together. Here, they are joined by Sunset Shimmer as the guitarist and Twilight Sparkle as the vocalist. Sunset Shimmer becomes the lead singer after they are temporarily defeated by The Dazzlings.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: In this cult classic, Buckaroo Banzai and The Hong Kong Cavaliers are both a crime-fighting and a music band. They give a concert at "Artie's Artery". The Ace and Leader Buckaroo rocks it on the electric guitar, Reno is the trumpeter, Perfect Tommy plays the electric bass, Rawhide is the pianist, and Casper on the drums. There is a couple of extra characters playing the guitar and the trumpet as well, so it's more like a seven-man band concert. Later, when Buckaroo asks Dr. Sidney "New Jersey" Zweibel to join the group, their rise their numbers. Numbers that sadly decrease when Rawhide dies.
  • Juliana: Arañita and Pelé have gotten the shit beat out of them by Don Pedro because they've failed to pay up their quota twice. Everyone hears them cry and sob without doing anything until Juliana starts singing a cheerful tune from the radio. She slowly gets the other kids to play their instruments, even Arañita and Pelé, together so they can share a moment of joy and cheer the two beaten kids up. Notably, Arañita and Pelé do the percussion and Clavito plays his zampoña.

    Live-Action TV 

    Video Games 
  • Deardrops: As if proving that Tropes Are Tools, it's Played for Drama in this visual novel. A Five-Man Band Concert is the premise —Shouichi, the main character, has his dream of being a professional violinist shattered, so he returns to Japan. There, meets fellow musicians — just, that they are not Classical Music artists but aspiring rockstars. Predictably, Shouichi gets roped into being part of a rock band and is only then that the Five-Man Band is formed. Shouichi, The Hero but not quite the leader, is the guitarist as well as his guitar teacher Yayoi (the Only Sane Woman). Riho, The Heart, is the singer. Eiji, The Lancer, is the bassist. And Cloudcuckoolander Rimu invokes All Drummers Are Animals because she features a prominent Animal Motif (cats), but is human. The drama part comes very early when Shouichi fails to play the guitar to his own, perfectionist standards and decides to break his hands and quit his first (makeshift) rock band.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner: Played for Laughs in "Halloween Hijinks". After the Large Bean shots a paralyzing beam to Teen Strong Bad, Teen Homestar checks on him and suggests they play in a band. Just like that, out of nowhere. Cue for an Insert Song sequence of the "Mysfit-teries" with The Leader Teen Homestar singing and playing the guitar, Token Evil Teammate Strong Bad (who gets defreezed for this) on the keyboard, The Heart Teen Marzipan playing both the tambourine and the trumpet, and The Big Guy Teen Strong Mad on the drums. They perform Kooky Monlight. Later, Stave aka Large Bean, because everyone forgets he's a murderer, is invited by Teen Homestar to play the classical guitar and provide some backing vocals in the song's reprise.
  • The album cover art for the TOME soundtrack has Flamegirl on the electric bass, Nylocke on guitar, Gamecrazed on the keyboard, Kirbopher on drums, and Alpha as the singer. The Season 2 soundtrack re-iterates this theme, but with the Netkings, with Kindarspirit as the singer, Execk on bass, Rubirules on guitar, Webmaster as a DJ, and Bitshrum on drums. To allude to the second season's more techno-dubstep style (courtesy of The Living Tombstone), the Netking band uses electronic instruments.

    Webcomics 
  • Axe Cop: In the Ask Axe Cop 36th issue, Axe Cop reveals he is part of a band predictably called "The Axe". Ralph Wrinkles on the drums because All Drummers Are Animals, The Big Guy (on account of being a dinosaur) Wexter on the violin, a Chinese wrestler on the flute, a wrestler on a bear on the electric bass, Sockarang on the lead guitar, and Axe Cop on the... axe. As it turns out, if you flip his axe it turns into a string-less guitar. Oh, and Baby Man as the dancer. They have released two albums with Double, Double Titles: "Axe Axe Axe" and "Boom Booom Wexter's Fiyah Powah".

    Western Animation 

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