 Los Angeles, November 7, 2016, it has been a little over a year since the Japanese rock band, VAMPS, was last in LA. HYDE and K.A.Z’s performance on October 5th, 2015 at The Roxy Theatre was memorable but their show at the El Rey Theatre would prove to be unforgettable. As per usual, the line of people waiting to get in wrapped around the building and fans were animatedly chatting as they held tight for the doors to open at 7:30 PM.
El Rey Theatre is an intimate venue with just a main floor in front of the stage and some extra space off to each side where merchandise was being sold. Naturally, the fans headed straight for the pit directly in front of the stage and anxiously counted down the minutes until the opening act, Citizen Zero would come on. At 8:30 PM exactly, the alternative rock band from Detroit, MI stepped out on the stage and were greeted with a welcoming cheer from the audience.  Just a year passed since Japanese Rock duo, VAMPS had their last show in Hollywood, and their success then is matched with another North American tour for November of 2016. With the chilling, breezing weather, fans looked forward to a heated performance. This time around, VAMPS welcomed Michigan-based band, Citizen Zero, to tour North America alongside them. On November 7th, the two groups made their second stop on the tour in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theater, while crowds of fans began to lined up outside. The large venue was a significant boost for VAMPS, with its broad stage and spaces that gave both the band and the audience plenty of room to rock out.
 This time of year not only has the best holidays, but it seems everyone who is anyone in the visual kei world is releasing music! Below are some of the albums and singles released in the past couple months, and those to be released in the next few months! Don’t see your favorite band on this list? Head over to CD Japan to see if they’re releasing anything soon!
BUCK-TICK – Atom Miraiha No.9 – September 28 Kaya – Perfana – October 19 Matenrou Opera – New CD & 2 Greatest Hits Albums – October 19 Mejibray – Uka – November 2 SuG – SHUDDUP – November 2 Arlequin – Karma – November 16 D=OUT – Manji – November 16 exist trace – ROYAL STRAIGHT MAGIC – November 16 Ryuutarou Arimura – Demo – November 23 Gackt – Kimi Dake no Boku De Iru kara – November 23 Onmyo-Za – Karyo Binga – November 30 LM.C – Veda – December 21 DaizyStripper – Home – January 11, 2017 Plastic Tree – Nenriki – January 25, 2017 -Kelsey  This month’s Throwback Thursday artist is HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA! Halloween is barely behind us and who doesn’t love a little bit of Halloween the entire year round?
 “We Are X” is an amazing documentary about legendary Japanese rock band, X JAPAN directed by Stephen Kijak. It premiered at Los Angeles’ Nuart Theater on October 21, 2016 and we published a review of it shortly after. (This can be found HERE.) Following the screening though there was a special Q&A session with Yoshiki of X Japan and Stephen Kijak himself. This article is a transcription of that Q&A with most of the contact intact. A few losses were made regarding some of the questions and the first part of one of the answers, but we think that fans of X JAPAN who were not able to attend the special screenings that had these type of events will enjoy this!
Moderator: (Asked Stephen a question about the film process of “We Are X”)  On the surface “We Are X” is the story of X JAPAN’s rock history but this musical documentary accomplishes much more than that. It takes the five superstars of the legendary visual kei band and reveals their innate imperfections; making them more humane and relatable to the audience. In fact, Yoshiki’s first question in the film is one of man’s timeless inquiries, “Who am I? What is human? In Japan we say, ningen. Ningen te nani? My mom would say Yoshiki, you’re a human. I know but I wanna know where I came from.”
 Halloween is in less than a week and we all have our favorite playlist for this time of the year! For Visual Kei fans, I thought it would be fun to highlight some Halloween worthy artists and songs that you can add to your night of creepin' around! This list is a mixture of styles that reflect the different themes of Halloween that we all love.
 Mejibray are back! Showcasing their brand new single 羽花 (Hane Hana) with a fresh new look to match! The song starts with beautiful and addictive clean female vocals which may remind older fans, such as myself, of previous Mejibray singles such as Black Baccarat and Die Kusse. Vocalist Tsuzuku's piercing screams kick off the song and we get the energetic rage and passion that we all know and love. The music video allows us to more closely view their new look featuring Tsuzuku's new hair cut, guitarist MiA's princess outfit, drummer Meto's face bouquet, and oh, look! Bassist Koichi is finally sporting both eyes for a change! The song itself brings us a mix of both highs and lows which compliments their unique sound. Both the video and song come to an end, closing off with an amazing guitar solo by MiA. This song showcases the uniqueness of Mejibray without falling into the realm of generic Visual Kei. Although one of their more softer sounding songs, they own their style and are hard to compare to any other band within the current scene. Check out the video below! -Kaz Mejibray - Hane Hana MV The wait is over! With his new album “FIRE BIRD”, released back on August 31st of 2016, MIYAVI has officially announced a new world tour. The tour will begin in February of 2017, starting out in Asia then heading out to explore other countries. Three dates have been officially announced and they’ll be listed below. Among the tour announcement has been an even cooler opportunity… MIYAVI is looking for a personal assistant! Details can be found on Twitter @MIYAVI_STAFF, check it out and good luck! Feb 19: Seoul YES24 LIVE HALL (元、AX KOREA） Feb 24: Hong Kong MacPherson Stadium（麥花臣場館） Feb 26: Taipei ATT Show Box（ATT文創立方） http://myv382tokyo.com/ -Reida    X JAPAN is irrefutably the revolution behind the visual kei scene and arguably the most well-known Japanese band, inside and outside of their native country. It comes then as no surprise that a documentary featuring the band’s exhaustive and colorful history was produced. “We are X” the title of their documentary and the name comes from the call and response performed by X JAPAN with the audience during live performances of their self-title song “X”. During a lull in the song, a band member (usually Toshi) will yell, “We are…” and the audience shouts back “X!”. Filmmaker Stephen Kijak was a natural choice as director given his already expert background in creating documentaries on musicians (Rolling Stones “Stones in Exile” and Backstreet Boys’ “Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of”). The movie is a Passion Pictures production with Drafthouse Films distributing in the United States. “We are X” premiered on January 23, 2016 at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. It went on to receive a Special Jury Award for Best Editing in the Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition and is an official selection of the SXSW Film Festival. “We are X” also snagged a Audience Award for Excellence in Title Design at South by Southwest and is currently nominated for the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for “Best Music Documentary”. With all these renowned accolades pouring in, it is no wonder that director Stephen Kijak was quoted saying “I might have to quit music films after this one. The story is so unreal, I don't know where else I could go after this." We Are X Trailer "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock" has been X JAPAN’s slogan and it comes across distinctly in the documentary trailer. Startling images of everything to Kabuki demons to hallucinatory abstract snapshots of X JAPAN in the prime of their visual kei years coupled with Yoshiki’s voice revealing melancholy statements brings this mantra home to viewers. The trailer opens to Yoshiki questioning, “Why am I here?” “Why am I in this world?” and he concludes with “I almost feel like I was looking for a way to...die”. Timeless inquiries into the meaning of purpose highlight not only Yoshiki and X JAPAN’s search in the documentary but also pose the question to the audience. Pain is another motif in the trailer, especially the pain from losing someone to suicide. Yoshiki’s father killed himself when he was only 10 years old and 23 years later in 1998 he would lose hide (lead guitarist of X JAPAN) to suicide as well. Yoshiki’s voice is heard in the trailer stating that “Pain has been my friend, my enemy” and leads to viewer to ponder if pain in creating musical art is inevitable.  Yoshiki has said that he has two personalities, his public persona and a man wounded by the tragedies in his life. This dichotomy is hinted to be the reason why Yoshiki is so driven to give music his all. “If you put everything into something, you don’t lose. Worst comes to worst, you die”. His struggle to give his fans, his band, his music everything is stressed by subsequent footage of Yoshiki collapsing after every live show and staff literally carrying him off the stage. This culmination of this zeal underscores how much Yoshiki and X JAPAN value their fans, how they depend on them for support, for life, and how Yoshiki has come to find the stage as his home.
While death appears to be the main theme of the trailer, the ending line of “A swan sings only one time, before they die” leaves the viewer wondering what and when will X JAPAN’s final performance be. Certainly the October 21st screening of “We are X” will not disappoint fans in discovering this and more about their beloved X JAPAN. -Christina (JRockInLA) |
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