X Japan FEVER: Live in YOKOHAMA ~ 2010.08.14
I consider myself blessed to have not only been able to visit the hide Museum (while it was open), go to both the X Japan Reunion concert in 2008 and the 10th anniversary hide Memorial Summit (where I not only got to see X but also spread beaver, Luna Sea, MUCC, TMR, marbell, and a ton of other bands play!) but also this year’s X Japan World Tour: Live in Yokohama as well as a ticket for their show in Los Angeles this upcoming September. What all this is saying is that I am a huge fan of X Japan. Everyone has that ONE band, you know: X Japan is mine.
A little bit of backtracking: I’ve been a fan of X Japan since 1998 when I saw an animated movie called “X” based off of CLAMP’s X/1999 manga. The ending credits had a song called “Forever Love” by the band X Japan. I hunted them up on the internet and my love was born. It was, however, one of the worst blows to find out that the year I got into X was the year that the guitarist, hideto Matsumoto, died (may his soul rest in peace). But still, a love was born and has continued unabated to the present day. With tons of old VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs, jewelry from Necromance, every single hide plushie UFO doll I could get my grubby little paws on, and three different hide cosplay costumes (using official hide LemonED merchandise), my room has evolved into a mini-shrine to the band (especially my love of hide). We all have our fandoms and X Japan has been one of mine for a while now.
With that said it was an amazing coincidence that I happened to be in Japan in August for the concert. I had just finished up my Masters degree in Melbourne and was headed to Japan for a month of playtime with my best friend before heading back to the States. I found out about the concert while I was in Japan and rushed to snag a ticket even though I was based in my old home of Osaka which isn’t very close to Yokohama. Ticket acquired, I then had to figure out how to get there and back knowing full well that I had a flight to America from Osaka on the morning of August 15th. A little chancy but certainly doable, and I did it with 2 hours to spare to catch my flight back to LAX. Whew! That was a crazy, hectic time!!
Now on to the concert itself:
The show (shockingly!) started on time (or close enough) at 6pm with their new song “Jade” followed closely by a fan-favorite, “Rusty Nail”. A bit of Pata vs. Sugio on guitar followed which was nice but got too repetitious for my liking and I found myself getting a bit bored of this after the first couple of minutes. However, the next song, “Say Anything (Sugizo violin version)” more than made up for it; soooo pretty and so awesome to see Sugizo (formerly of Luna Sea) on his violin playing with X Japan. And then the next song which made the whole concert worthwhile: “Kurenai” my absolute favorite song and my online moniker for sometime now based off of this self-same song. I love it! It was the only time during this concert where I felt teary-eyed (though mostly that was because of the opening images of hide playing for the first minute of the song on the large screens). After that came another new song called “Born to Be Free” and then an intermission in which Yoshiki’s piano was being readied for an appearance in the midst of the audience on a pyramid-base where only Yoshiki and Toshi appeared to do a piano rendition of “Dahlia” and “Forever Love” and then both running around and taunting the audience afterward. Another new song, “I.V.” came after that with a ridiculously long session between the fans and the band members with the same lyrics over and over again: “In the rain…. ….find a way.” Nice and all, but another too-repetitious part of the show. And then came a moment long awaited for by old-school fans: the appearance of the old bassist of X (before they became X Japan): Taiji for the song “X” which was rather long as well (longer than usual) but full of energy and tons of fun. All the fans were jumping up with the X-arm motion every time Toshi screamed the letter “X” into the mic. The encore came up to be “Endless Rain” and more running around and waving to the fans and such and then the show ended around 8:30.
What to say about the show? It was fun, not amazing by any standards, but still worth the ridiculous effort made to get to this show and then back to Osaka in time for my flight. I admit that the Reunion live in 2008 had a much bigger impact and I remember thinking how much better the set list was (though for the life of me I can’t remember what it was now) and it was amazing to see all those old clips of hide playing and just crying because I could finally, finally see X Japan play live. I don’t think any show will ever, ever beat that one; it was so emotional and meant so much to me to be able to attend. I suppose that fervor has worn off a bit and the jaded part of me is wondering if these new shows are just another money-making machine, especially with the controversy that has just cropped up with the use of hide’s image both in the band and the new Pachiko “FEVER X Japan” game. The talk of hide “leaving” the band is just strange because how a dead man has the ability to leave a band is a bit beyond me…
But with that said I still bought a ticket to the X Japan Los Angeles show so I’m curious to see how that will go. I admit that I am very wary of this upcoming show because some non-Japanese fans sort of drive me absolutely nuts with how crazy they can act at these lives. ‘Yeah, I get it. You’re a fan, too. Ok, fine, but do you really have to act that stupidly fanatic?!’ It was for that reason that I wanted so much to go to this one final Japanese show, to see X Japan “as usual” in Japan. Foreign shows are a completely different beast and sometime foreign fans seem like they have to work that much harder to be considered a “true” fan and I find myself aggravated at these shows so I really, really hope this isn’t the case for my next X Japan show. Well, regardless, with ticket in hand I wait to see what happens during their World Tour this year and am quite excited to hear some of their songs in English. Wish me luck at this next show so that I won’t get trampled to death.
X Japan will be playing in L.A., Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto, and New York in late 2010 if you’re interested in seeing them live in North America.
Happy concerting!!
