X JAPAN Los Angeles concert!
What to say about the show?? It was as different from my experience at the X Japan Yokohama live as any concert could be. While waiting in that long wrap-around line the contrast couldn't be much starker. This crowd was full of all ethnicities, of many ages though mostly consisting of those in the 20's-30's, of many gothy girls and boys, and a rather small scattering of hide and Yoshiki cosplayers.
As for the actual show there were still lots of people screaming names and songs and loves but the venue was so much smaller than any other X show that I've been to and the vibe was just so different. It felt a lot louder and rowdier and full of foreign fans trying to prove themselves as 'true' fans.
On the reverse you could tell that this was a different show for X - a special show - their first show for a Western audience. There was still a really high vibe and lots of fun antics and running around the stage but at the end of the show I think Yoshiki did something that he's been wanting to for a long time but has never had the audience to do so with (as this is not something that I think he could have pulled off in Japan) - he dived into the audience causing a massive black hole in that area. Everyone surged forward to touch, grab, pull at Yoshiki. I was off to the left of where he crowd dived but got dragged into that inevitable pull and got close enough that it felt as if Yoshiki ended up fallen on me for a bit with my hand on his hair as I fought the crowds to get out of that dangerous place where everyone was toppling onto each other like dominos. It was actually sort of scary - and something while crazy and fun to tell later on was at the time not somewhere that I really wanted to be. But it does become a good story.
All in all I had a wonderful time at the concert - even if I did go alone - and since I was in the pit I ended up with all the Japanese pink-haired hide cosplayers and got welcomed into their fold for the duration of the show since I was one of the only foreign hide cosplayers at the venue - and the only one in the pit. There was a green vinyl hide cosplayer that sort of watched out for me and made sure I was ok within the surging crowds - which I needed at some point in time due to a crazy and perhaps somewhat mentally disabled fan off to my left who lashed out while dancing and had no social graces to speak of. But everyone else in the pit around us were very nice, friendly, and full of energy!
Well worth the time and effort to go to this, my 4th X Japan concert and their first in America. What an honor.