X Japan live [04.07.2011-Berlin-Columbia Club]
Yeah! Dennis and me went to the first gig of X-Japan in Germany. I never thought I would see them in the near future since I missed the concert @ "Stadium" in Tokyo last year. The ticket was real cheap for a band like X (e.g. Dir en Grey in 2005 was about 55€). Dennis told me the ticket from last year @ "Stadium" was about 100€.
So for me it was a big event because X simply is the legend of J-Rock and Visual Kei (even if they don´t describe themself as a VK band) and I always wanted to see their show live. The ballad collection was one of my first J-Rock CDs and all the songs are so beautiful!
Dennis went to my place one day before the gig...we always handle it like that when there´s a concert on the next day which is not in Munich (he lives more southern than me) and if we have to travel over a big distance like to Cologne or Berlin.
We always talk a lot so we was in bed about 3am or so. When we start talking about gossip-news, gaming, music or just random nerdy stuff we forget time ^^'. Talking about gaming could be like that:"Have you seen the limited edition of Shin Megami Tensei - Persona 3 for PSP on amazon? Its way cheaper on ebay! - Really? - Yeah! - Oh I have to get it before it gets even more rare!!" ...stuff like that xD.
Next morning our Train departed at 10:30am and we arrived in Berlin Ostbahnhof about 06:15pm. The venue was relocated from "Huxleys - Neue Welt" to "Columbiaclub - Halle" where I have seen Dir en Grey for the first time. In front of the hall we met Maria, Haru and Dennis met an old friend of him ^^.
But now to the gig itself:
We were standing on the upper floor so we had a perfect sight to the stage! A dramatic Intro started and after a while Yoshiki went to his drumset and every girl were screaming ^^. It was so cool haha!
I especially liked the live performance of Sugizo when he was playing the Violin. He also had a duett with Yoshiki playing the piano and Yoshiki of course did his "drama-queen-show" :D.
The concert was about 2,5h incl. the encore where they played "The Art of Life"....and yes, they played the full version of "Endless Rain" and a shorter version of "Forever Love". So many fans were crying ... I could hold back the tears but it was hard ^^'.
Click to viewWhen the gig was over we bought a shirt at the merchandise shop which looks very cool for a bandshirt I have to say. It haves a white X with a dragon winding around the X on it.
We left the hall and went to Ostbahnhof. We wanted to go to any club first but it was raining and we wanted to catch the last metro line to the trainstation.
We stayed the night @ McCafe since its openend 24/7 and were talking a lot. Maria showed us all of her selfmade jewelery because she came straight from a exhibition in Vienna to Berlin and had it all with her. Later we went to Dunkin Donuts and had some iced coffee with vanilla and
donuts (the one with bavarian cream was so tasty!!!)
The journey home was long and exhausting..but for Maria and Dennis it must have been even harder cuz they had + 3-4h travel-time since we first were passing Ratisbon where I left.
I hope I will see X once again...maybe in another country would be the best case ;). Maybe it will be even more stunning than in Berlin.