LUNATIC FEST. – 25 Years of Band and 2 Days of History – DAY 1 [27 June 2015]

On 27 and 28 June, Makuhari Messe successfully hosted an event that gathered all generation of fans and musicians of J-rock respected bands. Both fans attending and the rockers performing were excited. The rockers performed for more than eight-hour- music-festival in two days and attracted approximately 60.000 people to come and enjoy the show!

In two days Makuhari Messe was packed by various generations of rock fans to watch their legendary bands, such as LUNA SEA, X JAPAN, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, coldrain, SIAM SHADE, DIR EN GREY, DEAD END, the telephones, TOKYO YANKEES ‘ Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas’, LADIES ROOM, AION, [Alexandros] KA.F.KA, GLAY, D’ERLANGER, BUCK-TICK, minus (-), MUCC, Ling Toshite Shigure, ROTTENGRAFFTY and LUNACY.

Around 10:30 am, the gates were opened so fans could enter the LUNATIC FESTIVAL area. The staffs are carefully organized everything needed for the fans coming to the site. As I attended the show for the whole two days, I was really glad that inside the festival area, the facilities such as lockers, toilets, first-aid, food court, shops, and also merchandise booths can be found easily. Lockers to put bags and merchandises bought are placed at main entrance on the second floor and also it’s quite surprising that this festival also provided a special place called EDEN. EDEN is like an oasis for fans who want to take a rest and charge their power. Luna Sea-themed-menu was also served there. Fans can bought LUNATIC COFFEE ~ UNAGI 屋 ~ (eel with rice) •LUNA SEA 豚まん (pork buns, with LUNA SEA’s logo on them!) and LUNA SEA •ジャンボフランク (Sausage on a stick). For Luna Sea’s avid fans, of course this special menu cannot be missed!

EDEN Area

In EDEN, there are some booths like TOWER RECORDS, LUNA SEA OFFICIAL FAN CLUB, Fender, Pearl, ESP, h.NAOTO so not only recharging energy, but fans could also buy, see and even test one of the guitars used by SUGIZO! The goods area, which was quickly taken by a crowd, sold official goods event and bands merchandise. Amazingly, around the official goods booths, the crew also made an additional storage area for bags in case fans can’t find any lockers left. Leaving EDEN, fans were led to the three stage areas. The stage areas are remarkable huge with large moon shaped in the center of the hall. The main stages are named FATE, SHINE, and MOON.

DAY 1 – 27 June 2015

LUNACY

On the first day of the event, despite the rainy day outside, nothing seemed to shake the fans that were anxiously waiting for the opening ceremony in FATE stage. LUNACY came on stage presenting songs from LUNA SEA during their indie era. The long-awaited show began with CHESS. Fans getting excited when old songs are being played with the improvement of sound quality. The band kept the excitement even higher when MECHANICAL DANCE began. The voice of all fans singing along with RYUICHI echoed throughout the hall and even with SHADE ending that nostalgic moment, the fans did not seem to lose the energy for the rest of the festival that had just begun.

Some fans may come only to see their favorite band but I can assure you that along the festival, there were many surprises made by the performer for the fans throughout the day!

9mm Parabellum Bullet

9mm Parabellum Bullet hit the stage with Discommunication. Surprisingly, J from LUNA SEA appeared in before Cold Edge and made a tremendous excitement throughout the performance. 9mm Parabellum Bullet brought Black Market Blues and 「生命のワルツ」 (Life Waltz), their latest songs, to close their performance.

the telephones

An electronic beat began to take FATE stage and everyone knew that the telephones was next. Monkey Discooooooo and HABANERO made Makuhari Messe seemed to have turned into dance floor with fans jumping and moshing following the funky rhythm. Love & DISCO came to finalize the lively performance of the telephones.

TOKYO YANKEES

TOKYO YANKEES is one of the bands well known for having performed along with members of X Japan. They hit the stage with their heavy rock genre. Fans got excited when the cover of Motorhead, Ace of Spades began and the scream of the fans became higher when PATA from X JAPAN was called to the stage for Hollywood Heartbreaker.

coldrain

While fans were still hyped and overflowed with the excitement, coldrain came up and rocked the stage with their new Japanese rock scene. Younger fans flocked near the stage and during famous songs such as THE REVELATION, NO ESCAPE and Six Feet Under, fans were impossibly resting their head! The neverending headbanging and moshing around the pit were rowdy yet fun! Coldrain ended their performance with their calmer number, THE WAR IS ON.

LADIES ROOM

LADIES ROOM painted the stage with a more hard rock number, Anarchy In The UK to begin their performance in that afternoon. Then another surprise happened; RYUICHI from LUNA SEA was called to appear on stage to performed DAMAGE in a duet with LADIES ROOM.

SIAM SHADE

Around 14.10 the fans flocked the main stage, MOON. They were waiting for one of the most expected bands from the first day of the festival, SIAM SHADE. Songs like RAIN and D.Z.I.did not seem to disappoint the excited fans who sang along with those well known songs. Fans’ fascination rose even higher when LUNA SEA’s SHINYA appeared and asked “May that famous song be heard here?” . An immediate response from fans were then replied by the melody of 1/3 の純情な感情 being played right after. A burst of energy and hype was so tremendous when LUNA SEA and SIAM SHADE were making a union on stage. During Do not Tell Lies, fans sang along together and the voice was beautifully echoed throughout the hall.

Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas

Electronic, dance and loud music, are some of the words that describe Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. They are one of the young bands who performed at the festival on the first day. All fans at Makuhari Messe seemed to vibrate with RAVE-UP TONIGHT, which made their fans jumped and danced as the two vocalists who shared the stage asked for even more excitement. Thunderclap, LET ME HEAR, one of the latest releases, brought more energy to the fans that turned up. Along with the whole band, the hall changed into a large dance floor. Everyone was clapping and dancing along with both vocalists. MINAMI, one of the vocalists and keyboardist, jumped into the audience and they sang along while holding him!!

DIR EN GREY

A well-known tone was then heard from the main stage. With only white curtain that covering the stage, DIR EN GREY initiated their performance with and Zero. They played old hits such as THE FINAL. The sense of nostalgia took fans to again head bang throughout their performance. Only when SUGIZO of LUNA SEA came on stage with his violin in hand to join in the performance of Un deux, fans turned to silence. However, the silence didn’t turn out long since they hit the stage one more time with their hard rock number like Revelation of mankind.

DEAD END

I Want Your Love opened DEAD END performance at the festival. Everyone was paying more attention to the stage when RYUICHI and SUGIZO came on stage for their collaboration because SUGIZO participated in DEAD END tribute album. Serafine was the song which the members of LUNA SEA shared space with DEAD END in the exciting duet.

X JAPAN

When they were announced to participate in the festival, many fans were desperate to get a ticket for the first day of LUNATIC FEST. X-JAPAN began their show with JADE. TOSHI’s voice echoed throughout the hall as well as the fans when he put microphone down. That time, all I can hear was the fans echoing the chorus in pure emotion. The energy coming from YOSHIKI on drums made it clear that RUSTY NAIL was next and even when TOSHI was singing, the fans can’t contain their desire to sing along, making X JAPAN members on stage got excited.

As usual, YOSHIKI divided his time between the drums and piano. Soon, a familiar melody from Kurenai was echoed. TOSHI tried to sing but the voice coming from the audience was so loud that he just let all become part of the band at that time. Don’t worry, I sang my heart out too that time (laugh).

During the break, the band said their new album was being recorded and at that time the fans would be part of the recording. All fans were surprised! YOSHIKI and TOSHI then taught us the melody for KISS THE SKY. A small training before recording was actually happened! All the “WOW WOW WOW” were combined during the training for the recording. It was really fantastic to experience numerous times of hearing fans echoing together for the whole day in Makuhari Messe hall.

BORN TO BE FREE was really hot!! YOSHIKI ran from the drum to the piano in a thrilling performance. The event passed over five hours and some fans seemed to be really exhausted but it failed to make them less excited. The climax of the show was when the band urged the audience to do the famous X JUMP. GEORGE from LADIES ROOM also joined that time. On the screens beside the stage IN MEMORY OF TAIJI and IN MEMORY OF HIDE showed the band members tribute to their beloved friends. The moment when YOSHIKI got the mic, he screamed “WE ARE!” and fans responded in chorus “X”. No matter how many times he screamed, all those fans responded together.

LUNA SEA

As the festival owners, the expectation of LUNA SEA’s performance was high. The countless hours standing and waiting for LUNA SEA to perform as the final show that night seemed not to bother the fans at all. When the lights went down, it was impossible to contain the crazy energy from the fans. The famous LOVELESS opened the long-awaited show and a stronger melody from Dejavu made the show even more fantastic.

ROUGE brought a chill to fans when RYUICHI called fans to sing some parts of the songs. Showing off his powerful voice in JESUS, RYUICHI made sure everyone felt the soul of the song. With the audience singing together, TONIGHT chorus echoed throughout the Makuhari Messe!

GRAVITY began with a calm melody until SUGIZO’s guitar roared in a strong sound performing Sweetest Coma Again. A never ending heavy guitar riffs proven that they successfully brought back the energy of rock and roll to the festival. A roller-coaster experience was tested when they suddenly performed one of their ballad numbers, I FOR YOU. Its gentle and pretty melody was of a different genre than that of the other pieces within the concert but still the song is one of LUNA SEA masterpiece.

After the break, all the fans went into crazy mode when PINK SPIDER melody began and it was difficult to keep everyone not to sing together for this well-known music that marked the generation gaps. Feels like a storm broke into the hall when STORM was performed and they didn’t let the heat within the fans died because they get even crazier when RYUICHI yelled “TIME IS DEAD!” for the next song. The temperature got higher throughout the Makuhari Messe, but there was still a song to bring all that nostalgia to everyone. Yes, people!!! ROSIER was played especially this time and the crowd can reminisce the good ol’ days together with the band. RYUICHI even lowered the microphone during the chorus part.

When RYUICHI had a small talk, fans attention were suddenly stolen by YOSHIKI who appeared carrying the famous guitar YELLOW HEART from hide. That day, the band commemorated their 25th anniversary in such powerful collaboration with many respected fellow musicians and fans. PRECIOUS and WISH came as a last wish number from the fans. The chorus ‘I Wish For’ was sung in chorus by everyone so they would never forget that moment.

First day of LUNATIC FEST ended great! I hope all fans get a good rest, because for the event next day, more surprises were waiting.

Special thanks to Mr. Takeshi Asai, LUNA SEA INC. and INDIVISUAL INC.