X Japan in London Review-ish
So last Tuesday I saw X Japan in o2Shepherd's Bush London. This is a short, little incomplete review of it <3
Me and my two darlings Oscar and Raisa were there monday until thursday, so between sightseeing I had a day of Xtreme Xness.
It started monday evening, late, when Oscar and I took a look at the venue, which was only a 10 minute walk down the road. You can't camp at o2 venues, but in the park across the road we saw a lot of X fans, who were going to camp in the park. Earlier that evening two X fans approached me asking me if I was a hide fan (yes...i am..) and when we went back from our little walk that night we spotted a lot of Xfreaks going to the venue/park. After a good night's sleep Oscar and Raisa left me at the venue and ... it was pretty scary. I'm not used to being all alone at a venue in a country that's not mine but soon really nice Xfans started talking to me and I hung out with them until Jenny and Cat came, and later Heather(leifang) joined too. The weather was absolutely terrible, but fortunately I had a good, dry spot close to the entrance with Helen and Amanda (the nice X fans). The queue was crazy, because people just didn't want and couldn't sit down, so we had to stand all day. There were so many people, from so many different countries. So many Japanese fans who flew in to go to the show, and/or follow the tour, but also people from China, korea, france, germany, poland, greece, america, taiwan... honestly they were ALL there...
So at about 3ish they arranged the queue some more, and more definite, so I went out to get some cash and eat, which i didn't in the end, and met Raisa and Oscar who had just come back from sightseeing. Went to get my coat and then had to say goodbye to them, because at that time, the queue had...wrapped around the venue... so, they had to go to the end of the line. But I heard they met a lot of nice people, i'm so glad. At 7 they opened the doors, but of course, it was complete chaos and they were being really harsh/nasty about it. I got in and skipped to the right side, because there were less people there. I got second row, and soon people joined me and after a while the venue got reallllyy stuffed. The venue, is awesome btw. It was SO pretty inside, i didn't even get bored waiting xD
At 8ish the support band came on and...they were kind of miserable. Every song sounded the same and the vocalist was terrible, I was so glad Helen had given me earplugs <3 At 9, X came on, the opening being epic on its own, because i've seen it SO many times when I watched X lives. So after the...X Japanjapannjapanjapanjapanjapanjapan... the members came on and they opened with Jade, their newly released single...which I've had on my laptop for months already. I love the song, eventhough the lyrics are a bit ~~~ at points, I sang along with it. In the meanwhile, the crowd at gotten so chaotic and Xtremely close that I was being pushed to the front, and when they went over into Rusty nail, the second song that night, I was on the first row, squished between two other people. It was either between them, or on their back... and I prefer between. Then Silent jealousy and Drain, which I love but don't know the whole lyrics of. They were great. The power and energy pretty much radiating off those men, was just amazing. The skills...it blew me away. Then, they went off stage, and Sugizo got his violin. I nearly cried. Sugizo and his violin... that combination it never fails to send shivers down my spine. I watched, mesmerized by the way he played. When it ended, Yoshiki did a short piano solo...which also, had me staring in awe. Then they started the piano&violin intro to kurenai, and I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.
Kurenai was great, it was EPICness all over and I had the time of my life, eventhough I was being squished from all sides and was afraid my ribs would be bruised by the end of it. Then ToshI and Yoshiki talked some, and Toshi played drums...and did it pretty...well xD really, that man has more skills then people think (he can also play piano... I know xD) It was amusing to see them like that, eventhough they don't talk english naturally, it was just... nice. Next was Born to be free, and again, I grinned like a mad person. I LOVE that song, and hoped everybody could sing along with the chorus backvocals...but sadly not a lot of people did...it would've sounded awesome tho xD But yeah, that was great..and soon after Yoshiki's drum and piano solo, which made me smile even more. He did some classic piano and cool drumming(i'm not an expert on drums~~ but...it's yoshiki xD) I loved how he combines the two.Then came IV and X...and it was one big party. IV is nice and rock-ish and X is like... X Japan's freaking anthem xD so yeah, it was great. After a lot of WE ARE...!!!!! they went off stage for a break(a rather long one) and I hung over the fence some with my fellow X fans. After a while, Yoshiki came on and got seated behind the piano, in a very pretty kimono this time and did an MC in which he mentioned how they loved being here, it was hot and he would like some tea.. pg FUCKEN tips... Next was Endless rain...and honestly...I cried.. I'm embarrassed I did..but... it was just so amazing. Then Sugizo played a violin intro and they did Art of life, Yoshiki doing some really intense piano playing. They finished and there was a song playing on the speakers... but I can't remember which one it was. I was concentrating on how cute those 40+ ers looked, chilling on the little stairs to the drums and taking pictures of the crowd. And then Yoshiki decided to jump the crowd.... of course.. so I pretty much fell over, if it hadn't been for the other people...being squished together with me. So after a few minutes of gathering myself I went off to merchandise...fought myself through the again, crazily closely packed people and got a shirt and then fought my way back through the queue and fell into Jenny... I'm so glad he was there...
So after saying goodbye to Jenny and Cat I went for dinner with Oscar, Raisa and Heather at the Mac... and back in the hotel I kept the former two awake till 2 am xD I'm really glad they enjoyed the show too, coz they aren't really fan of XJapan.
The next day we went sightseeing again and I met LOADS of fellow Xfans with the same idea. I even made a picture with one..and a guy in Camden asked for a picture of me, to show his friend. It was BRILLIANT honestly..but I was completely Ded... yup...I can definitely say...I'm completely X-ed
.
So far for this review, the pics are from people from facebook who were so nice to make pics and put them on there <3 Helen, Amanda and Jenny <3
Me and my two darlings Oscar and Raisa were there monday until thursday, so between sightseeing I had a day of Xtreme Xness.
It started monday evening, late, when Oscar and I took a look at the venue, which was only a 10 minute walk down the road. You can't camp at o2 venues, but in the park across the road we saw a lot of X fans, who were going to camp in the park. Earlier that evening two X fans approached me asking me if I was a hide fan (yes...i am..) and when we went back from our little walk that night we spotted a lot of Xfreaks going to the venue/park. After a good night's sleep Oscar and Raisa left me at the venue and ... it was pretty scary. I'm not used to being all alone at a venue in a country that's not mine but soon really nice Xfans started talking to me and I hung out with them until Jenny and Cat came, and later Heather(leifang) joined too. The weather was absolutely terrible, but fortunately I had a good, dry spot close to the entrance with Helen and Amanda (the nice X fans). The queue was crazy, because people just didn't want and couldn't sit down, so we had to stand all day. There were so many people, from so many different countries. So many Japanese fans who flew in to go to the show, and/or follow the tour, but also people from China, korea, france, germany, poland, greece, america, taiwan... honestly they were ALL there...
So at about 3ish they arranged the queue some more, and more definite, so I went out to get some cash and eat, which i didn't in the end, and met Raisa and Oscar who had just come back from sightseeing. Went to get my coat and then had to say goodbye to them, because at that time, the queue had...wrapped around the venue... so, they had to go to the end of the line. But I heard they met a lot of nice people, i'm so glad. At 7 they opened the doors, but of course, it was complete chaos and they were being really harsh/nasty about it. I got in and skipped to the right side, because there were less people there. I got second row, and soon people joined me and after a while the venue got reallllyy stuffed. The venue, is awesome btw. It was SO pretty inside, i didn't even get bored waiting xD
At 8ish the support band came on and...they were kind of miserable. Every song sounded the same and the vocalist was terrible, I was so glad Helen had given me earplugs <3 At 9, X came on, the opening being epic on its own, because i've seen it SO many times when I watched X lives. So after the...X Japanjapannjapanjapanjapanjapanjapan... the members came on and they opened with Jade, their newly released single...which I've had on my laptop for months already. I love the song, eventhough the lyrics are a bit ~~~ at points, I sang along with it. In the meanwhile, the crowd at gotten so chaotic and Xtremely close that I was being pushed to the front, and when they went over into Rusty nail, the second song that night, I was on the first row, squished between two other people. It was either between them, or on their back... and I prefer between. Then Silent jealousy and Drain, which I love but don't know the whole lyrics of. They were great. The power and energy pretty much radiating off those men, was just amazing. The skills...it blew me away. Then, they went off stage, and Sugizo got his violin. I nearly cried. Sugizo and his violin... that combination it never fails to send shivers down my spine. I watched, mesmerized by the way he played. When it ended, Yoshiki did a short piano solo...which also, had me staring in awe. Then they started the piano&violin intro to kurenai, and I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.
Kurenai was great, it was EPICness all over and I had the time of my life, eventhough I was being squished from all sides and was afraid my ribs would be bruised by the end of it. Then ToshI and Yoshiki talked some, and Toshi played drums...and did it pretty...well xD really, that man has more skills then people think (he can also play piano... I know xD) It was amusing to see them like that, eventhough they don't talk english naturally, it was just... nice. Next was Born to be free, and again, I grinned like a mad person. I LOVE that song, and hoped everybody could sing along with the chorus backvocals...but sadly not a lot of people did...it would've sounded awesome tho xD But yeah, that was great..and soon after Yoshiki's drum and piano solo, which made me smile even more. He did some classic piano and cool drumming(i'm not an expert on drums~~ but...it's yoshiki xD) I loved how he combines the two.Then came IV and X...and it was one big party. IV is nice and rock-ish and X is like... X Japan's freaking anthem xD so yeah, it was great. After a lot of WE ARE...!!!!! they went off stage for a break(a rather long one) and I hung over the fence some with my fellow X fans. After a while, Yoshiki came on and got seated behind the piano, in a very pretty kimono this time and did an MC in which he mentioned how they loved being here, it was hot and he would like some tea.. pg FUCKEN tips... Next was Endless rain...and honestly...I cried.. I'm embarrassed I did..but... it was just so amazing. Then Sugizo played a violin intro and they did Art of life, Yoshiki doing some really intense piano playing. They finished and there was a song playing on the speakers... but I can't remember which one it was. I was concentrating on how cute those 40+ ers looked, chilling on the little stairs to the drums and taking pictures of the crowd. And then Yoshiki decided to jump the crowd.... of course.. so I pretty much fell over, if it hadn't been for the other people...being squished together with me. So after a few minutes of gathering myself I went off to merchandise...fought myself through the again, crazily closely packed people and got a shirt and then fought my way back through the queue and fell into Jenny... I'm so glad he was there...
So after saying goodbye to Jenny and Cat I went for dinner with Oscar, Raisa and Heather at the Mac... and back in the hotel I kept the former two awake till 2 am xD I'm really glad they enjoyed the show too, coz they aren't really fan of XJapan.
The next day we went sightseeing again and I met LOADS of fellow Xfans with the same idea. I even made a picture with one..and a guy in Camden asked for a picture of me, to show his friend. It was BRILLIANT honestly..but I was completely Ded... yup...I can definitely say...I'm completely X-ed
.
So far for this review, the pics are from people from facebook who were so nice to make pics and put them on there <3 Helen, Amanda and Jenny <3