X Japan - Film Gig
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Your humble host, crazy Iguana, went to four of the 10 X Japan
Film Gigs in Janurary 2002. Here a small report on the gigs:
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But first of all some explanations:
1) What is a Film Gig?
Well, a few thousand fans are standing in front
of a screen where a concert video is being broadcast and scream at it as
if it was a real live and as if our heros were really up there on stage
playing for us.
2) What is "kiai"?
This question was put to me by a hide chan fan friend
of mine and it seems that not everyone knows and therefore some explanation.
Sorry if this is boring for all those who know what "kiai" is.
Well, kiai is the scream that you do in karate when you attack your
opponent. I have no idea who invented the X kiai or since when the fans
are doing it but the idea is as follows: A number of fans (anything from
just a few to a few hundred) get in a circle, embrace each other, put their
heads down towards the middle. That's the preparation. Then the kiai instructor
takes the lead and screams "We are..." then the crowd screams "X", this
gets repeated a few times, mostly three. After that the person next to
the kiai master starts the round, while the others scream "X, X, X..."
all the time the round starts with the fans screaming their favorite band
member one after another. That means the whole kiai sounds as follows:
"We are X, we are X, we are X, Yoshiki, X, hide, X, hide, X, Toshi,
X, Yoshiki, X, hide, X, Heath, X, Pata, X, Yoshiki, X, hide, X, Taiji,
X, hide..." and so forth. By the end, when the circle is completed and
has returned to the kiai master he/she finishes the kiai with another few
"We are X, your are X..." and so forth. There are lots of kiai variations
and the group decides before they get started how to proceed. It's fun,
it's great, it brings the fans closer together and it's a great means to
get warm on a cold New Year's Eve day, where X so often had concerts.
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And as you can see folks! I finally got a new scanner!!! That means
you may look forward to tons of hide chan photos and goods photos that
I gathered during the past scanner-less year!!!
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Iguana desu! In Sendai
and Omiya!
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A4 size sticker (filmg gig goods item)
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And now the film gig reports:
X Japan Film Gig 13.01.2002 Omiya Sonic City
Let's be honest! X never did concerts, they did dramas
on stage. So it is more or less only natural to presume that the Film Gig
is also nothing but a drama. And that's what it is indeed, the drama of
X and to a certain degree it was quite some emotional battle to watch this
Film Gig.
I am wondering if I really want to see, before the real
Film Gig, some sort of a five minute portrait of hide chan, with theatralical
subtitles like "He loved music, he loved alcohol, he loved the people"
and then in big fat letters on the big screen the day hide chan left us.
Do I have to see this? Do I want to see this?
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During the Film Gig it wasn't much better: Do I want
to see Yoshiki crying with pain and screaming "it hurts, it hurts" after
he hurt his neck in Nagoya during Dahlia Tour 1995 in the dressing room
and seeing him being carried on a stretcher to the ambulance?
Rather not... but anyway, that's what we got to see.
But that's X and that's the drama of X and seeing it
for the first time was quite a shock and not all fans liked it, I heard
quite some complaints right after the Gig. However by the second or third
time you slowly get used to the stuff. But tensions were high in the Omiya
Sonic City Hall and I guess there was nobody who didn't cry once or twice
during the film gig.
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What I am personally not very happy about was, that the
complete Film Gig has not one song of hide chan, no Scars, no Sadistic
Desire, no Joker, no Celebration... for whatever reason.
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Well but now let's get back to the Gig itself.
Before the Film Gig started everyone was surprised...
there was a pre-band. Name "Pink 2 Hands", style: more pop than rock, they
are being produced by the Extasy record label like "Beast" and "Ladies
Room" as well who appeared on other Gigs as the pre-band.
The Film Gig itself shows to some 70% stuff from the
Last Live, the rest is composed of all kinds of lives X did, dating back
to their debut days in 1987. There are a few scenes and shots I had never
seen before, from backstage, debut times and maybe a minute Tokyo Dome
1993, but all in all it is known material.
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The menue is as follows (as far as I remember):
Kurenai (only half the song though - medley from X 1987
till 1997)
Amethyst (Last Live)
Rusty Nail (Last Live)
Vanishing Love (Indies etc.)
Blue Blood (from Indies till last time X played Blue
Blood live on Stage in 1994 White and Blue Nights)
Dahlia Tour Impressions part 1 (first concert in Yamagata)
Week End (Last Live)
Dahlia (Last Live)
Say Anything (Studio Version with impressions from Dahlia
Tour, Kobe charity live etc.)
Longing (Yoshiki hurts his neck)
Kurenai (Last Live)
Orgasm (Last Live)
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Encore 1
Drum Solo (Last Live)
Forever Love (Last Live)
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Encore 2
World Anthem (Last Live)
X (Last Live)
Endless Rain (Last Live)
Tears (Credits)
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The whole Gig is about 2 hours and 30 or 40 minutes long.
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Because I just cannot stand to hear to Forever Love anymore
I went to the lobby where they had a little Photo Exhibition from photos
that were published for all the 30 or so X Japan Fanclub Magazines, some
of them I had never seen (since I don't have all of the fanclub magazine's
(tears)).
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Reading the report until now you may get the impression
that I hated the Film Gig, but don't worry, of course there were also good
points. Doing X jumping again after an abstinence of 4 years, screaming
hide chan's name again together with all the others. Enjoying to be together
with some 2500 people who love X. It was great to do cosplay again and
it was like back in the good old times, hanging out together with the fans,
doing photo sessions, doing kiai... damn, I missed that. We did two kiai's:
one in a small circle of maybe ten people and one in a big circle of some
50 people. I met by coincidence a good old friend from Osaka, whom I hadn't
seen in three years.
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It was nice to have been there, but I think none of the
people who went to see the first Film Gig in Omiya left the hall entirely
happy... somehow it's difficult to describe these feelings and I really
had doubts whether I wanted to see the other three film gigs I had already
tickets for or not.
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X Film Gig Report 20.01.2002 Sendai,
Izumiti 21
Everywhere, there flows blue blood! I was in the mood
for some more pain and decided to go to my second X Film Gig in Sendai
although I was not so sure whether I really wanted to see all this again
after the Gig in Omiya. But it turned out not to be so painful at all and
I'm very happy that I went! (laugh).
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I arrived in Sendai at about 15:15 and had to look for
the Izumiti 21 hall first of all and found it at the end of the only subway
line of Sendai finally at about 16:00 after some searching. At first I
was surprised... no
one there???
Oh they were there! Inside! The Izumiti 21 has a big
entrance hall and the very nice organizers of this event allowed the freezing
fans (it's cold in Sendai, it was cloudy and about 0 degrees) to hang out
in the entrance hall! Wow... what a service.
I vanished in the rest room of the facility
and dressed up (I'm a coward, I know... I didn't dare to do it on the train
(laugh)) and joind the fans and somehow, since it was warm and cosy everyone
was in a good mood and I did not stand there for 2 minutes and the photo
sessions started... (laugh)... I met also my friend from Osaka again and
we did lots of very nice cosplay sessions with tons of cosplayers and it
was great. Once we went out and made kiai in a circle of about 30 people
but soon fled inside again, since it was really damn cold outside
(laugh).
At about 18:15 I went into the hall (the hall was more
or less sold out with 1500 people) and waited and the gig started rather
punctually at about 18:45 after only a brief interlude from the pre-band
"Beast" (very trashy kind of rock, more noise than melody).
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Now the atmosphere was completely different from Omiya.
In Omiya, which was the first Gig, nobody knew what was going to happen
and nobody knew what we were going to see. By now
though news of what is going on during the Film Gig had spread all over
the fan community via Internet etc. and even those people who didn't see
the Gig yet, knew what they were going to see. Somehow everybody was prepared
and it was really a completely different atmosphere
from the high tension of Omiya, where everyone was on his or her edge and
emotions were flying high.
The most astonishing thing was that during that 5 minute
hide chan portrait at the beginning the complete audience remained seated
and nobody said a word! I was very surprised by this.
In Omiya all had got to their feet and were shouting with surprise at the
photos of hide chan 5 years old and 15 years old with his first guitar,
or at the stupid comments later on. This time however,
almost in a symbol of protest, the hall remained seated and absolutely
silent. It was almost spooky. It made the impression as if really absolutely
everybody knew what they were going to see.
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Then the portrait was over and the gig started and everybody
got to his or her feet and the hall came to live, it was as if someone
had turned a switch.
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While Omiya had been a collective weep out, Sendai was
much more relaxed. Of course some people were crying here and there, but
all together the audience tried to keep their composure
and enjoy the enjoyable parts of the Gig, me included. The atmosphere was
really completely different compared to Omiya.
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Trouble was that I had to leave in order to get the last
train to Tokyo. So I couldn't do X jumping (tears!!!) and had to leave
after Yoshiki's drum solo in running style, catching a taxi to the station.
All in all I am very happy that I went to Sendai for
this Gig and it made me looking forward to the last two Gigs in Tokyo on
the 26th and 27th!
Thanxx Sendai.
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up: all X fans
down: all hide chan fans
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X Japan Film Gig report
26.01.2002 Tokyo International Forum, Hall A
They had come, the two last days of the X Japan Film
Gig. I arrived at the Tokyo International Forum at about 15:00 and already
hundreds of fans were there and many, many of them in cosplay. A great
feeling... almost like back in the good old times.
I found my friend from Osaka again and we had a good
time doing photo sessions. We managed to get some photos done with a group
of 30 cosplayers or so as you can see above and it was really nice, since
the weather was fine also.
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A friend of mine from Saitama had booked all the tickets
for me and today she was with me at the Film Gig. It was her first one
and even though I had "warned" her about the contents it turned out to
be quite a battle with tears again.
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But before that there is something else to report. The
first "pre-band" was "beast" again and after beast it was Ladies Room's
turn and before Ladies Room started to play a special guest was coming
on stage, Taiji! Of course the hall was screaming! Since Taiji had left
the band in 1992 and I had become fan only in 1994 I had never seen Taiji
live on stage. Unfortunately our seats were in about the 25th row of this
maybe 4000 people hall and we couldn't really see much of Taiji, but nevertheless,
it was great that he came. He stayed on stage not even five minutes, more
or less only saying hello and introducing the next band: Ladies Room.
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After Ladies Room the Gig started and my friend from
Saitama was very moved and cried a lot and of course that made me crying
again as well. This time I even stayed for Forever Love and I really shouldn't
have done that, I just cannot listen to that song anymore, especially not
with scenes from The Last Live with hide chan crying himself and so on...
so it was quite some emotional stress again... tears...
Well, all in all it was great to have the film Gig in
Tokyo and to be there with all the other fans and that Taiji had come,
even if it was only for five minutes.
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..
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X Japan Film Gig report
Tokyo International Forum, Hall A, 27.01.2002
The last day of the film gig: This time I arrived at
the Forum at about 14:30 and the afternoon was very busy. It had been raining
since the last night and everything was wet, however the rain had stopped,
but in exchange it was damn windy and very cold and wind is really not
good for cosplay, especially not for all the kids with elaborately standing
hair! (laugh). But anyway we had lots of photo sessions and this time the
biggest kiai I ever participated in with more than I bet 200 people. The
kiai was veryyyy long and very good and somehow the time until 17:30 when
they let you into the hall was going by like nothing.
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Today the seats for my Saitama friend and me were very
far in the back, row 42 or so and the stage was pretty far away. I didn't
mention that yet, but when you entered the hall and your tickets were controlled,
you received a little package with 5 trading cards. So my friend and me
opened our trading cards and complained that we always get only the same
cards and the lady behind us must have heard us and got out all her trading
cards and she had, oh gosh, all of them!!! (laugh)...
She said she went 6 times or so and all the time together
with her husband and thus they had gathered tons of trading cards. She
was a Pata and Heath fan and asked us whether we could trade, but I had
left the other cards at home and my friend as well and thus there was nothing
much to trade. But then we made a deal.
She had come in a group of four and her husband and some
friend were sitting some place else and she offered us to give us the hide
chan cards we were missing if we changed place with her husband so that
they could sit together. Of course we agreed! (laugh). The new seats were
not even that bad and we got all hide chan trading cards from her in exchange!
(laugh). Thanxxxx!
In total it seems that there are 25 cards, 5 for every
member (X Japan, i.e. no Taiji cards). And both, my friend and me were
missing two of the hide chan cards and now both of us have them all. Thanxxx.
The cards are nothing special, no overwhelming new photos. But anyway,
it's nice to have them.
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Then the gig started with the "pre-band" "pink 2 hands".
Then Georgy from Ladies Room came on stage again and introduced Heath and
Pata chan!!! who came for a little chat onto the stage. They only stayed
five minutes, just like Taiji the day before.
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Next was a band from the US that Yoshiki seems to like,
don't ask me for the name, I forgot it and before they played they showed
a music video clip of that band where Yoshiki appears for a few seconds
since "he happened to show up during the shooting of that video and they
asked him to star in it". Of course the audience was screaming like hell
and all Yoshiki fans will buy that clip whether they like the band or not
(laugh). Then the band came themselves and played 5 songs. A mixture of
pop and rock, not bad, but not too overwhelming either. After that long
prelude it was finally time for the Gig and the film started.
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Today my friend and me managed to keep our composure
more or less, but the whole hall was under tension, since there was the
rumor around that Yoshiki would show up as well. But so far there had been
no sign of Yoshiki.
I fled Florever Love this time and had a cigarette in
the smoking corner outside the hall and I was not the only one who fled
the song! There were some 5 or 6 more people chilling out, not very keen
on listening to Forever Love either.
After Forever Love I went back into the hall and managed
not to cry all the time until the last song which was of course Endless
Rain. Hide chan at The Last Live crying again and of course that makes
me crying as well, but then panic in the hall! Suddenly the sound of a
real piano playing Endless Rain and they raised the screen and behind it
on the stage was Yoshiki playing Endless Rain on the piano.
Of course the hall was going completely nuts. There was
not one person in the whole hall who was not crying. Me included. And even
the boys cried. In the row in front of me there was a young fellow who
was sobbing like all the girls. We sang Endless Rain together with Yoshiki
on the piano as far as we could, but half of the song drowned in tears.
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After that Yoshiki took a mike and talked to the audience
and he was quite overwhelmed himself and couldn't speak from time to time
crying and the whole hall was in a collective weep out. I don't remember
all the things that he said, but most of it was rather sad.
For example: That he himself had cried all the time when
he supervised the editing for the film gig material and that X had always
said they would stand together and that they would overcome every wall,
but that 4 years ago, when they disbanded, they had hit a wall they couldn't
overcome anymore. And that he was moved that all the fans were still standing
together and supporting and loving X and he asked us to keep up the faith
and the spirit and to stand by X and all its members, Taiji, Toshi, Heath,
Pata and of course hide chan...
He said the names in this order if I remember correctly
and I will never forget the way he said hide chan's name... tears...
Yoshiki promised to come back on stage within this year
but he didn't specify how or with whom. Then he was gone and the Gig was
over and everybody tried desperately to calm down for the way home.
The 27th was really hard... Pata was there Heath was
there, Yoshiki was there but... namida no naka...
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But we have no choice but to go on and keep the X spirit
alive and I hope very much that there will be something like a film gig
again one day! Because X is the fuxxing damn best band that ever played
on this lousy planet!!!!
Forever X
Forever hide chan
Your humble reporter
Iguana
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the film gig goodies
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hope you found this little report interesting
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