hide Memorial Summit Day 1 - Part A

May 2nd marked ten years since the legendary musician hide passed away. In order to commemorate this, a two-day event was organized on May 3rd and 4th, at the Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo. A variety of artists were invited to play on these two days and the line-up contained an interesting combination of bands, old and new, famous and not so famous yet, visual kei and also pop, promising a great event for the many people that came to commemorate hide's passing on these days.

People were still trickling inside Ajinomoto Stadium when the first day began with Noriko Shouji, also known as "rocking mama," famous for being a fan of X JAPAN and other visual kei bands, and Matsumoto Hiroshi, hide's brother, who organized the event along with YOSHIKI. They both reinforced the message that the concert was a festive occasion whose objective was to have the feelings of everyone become one, and that emotion would achieve hide. They also spoke about the charity organizations supported by the event: Heart Ribbon Project, Japan Marrow Donor Registry, Orange Clover, Make-A-Wish Japan and Japan Society of Breast Health. The people in attendance received wrist bands with the names of the organizations, and some of the artists wore them as well.


DJ OZMA

The first to enter the main stage was none other than DJ OZMA. Wearing hide's army style clothing and dyed pink hair, he made his appearance on stage to the sound of X JAPAN's World Anthem. But OZMA wasn’t alone; his entire dancing crew was dressed the same way, down to the pink hair. Although the stadium was not completely filled yet, DJ OZMA went ahead and started with his hit song Age Age EVERY KNIGHT. The people in attendance were fired up right away and many were familiar with his songs and choreography.

The audience continued dancing and cheering DJ OZMA on during his second song CHOU!, and when he began to perform his interpretation of hide's EVER FREE, the celebratory atmosphere he'd created skyrocketed. After this cover, he took some time to talk to the audience, showing his sense of humor with comments like, "You don't have to rush back to your seats, I'll be here for a while." When he shouted "WE ARE...?" out of the blue, the fans needed some time to understand what he meant.

After a couple more songs, OZMA finished the live with the song he began with, Age Age EVERY KNIGHT, this time supported by co-singers doing a TOSHI-cosplay. He even pulled down his pants during the last seconds of the song, displaying his underwear which was yellow with red hearts, a creative tribute to hide's guitar with the same pattern.

Setlist:

1. Age Age EVERY KNIGHT
2. CHOU!
3. EVER FREE
4. Spiderman
5. Shippu Jinrai
6. Junjou
7. Age Age EVERY KNIGHT


DaizyStripper

DaizyStripper, a new visual kei band, captured the audience's attention with their youthful looks and visible excitement as they took the stage. They started off their set with hide's ballad MISERY, which opened softly with only the vocal and piano until the rest of the instruments kicked in, making the song more powerful.

They continued with Dandelion which also opened quietly, but soon turned into a catchy pop-rock song that had the audience waving their hands in the air with the music. Vocalist Yugiri screamed and encouraged the audience to be more energetic and they happily obliged. Their third and final song, decade, was also mostly cheerful pop-rock. The band seemed to be full of energy as they ran around the stage with endearingly youthful abandon.

Setlist:

1. MISERY
2. Dandelion
3. decade


Ra:IN

At 2:40 p.m. Ra:IN made their appearance on the second sub-stage, to the right side of the main one. PATA entered first, with his double neck guitar, followed by Teru, D.I.E. and michiaki. The band has two very famous members, PATA (X JAPAN) and D.I.E. (Spread Beaver), so the number of people in the stadium increased.

Soon Ra:IN dove into their first song, and as they only play instrumental songs, many people sat back down in their seats, moving their heads in response to the performance. Without a break, the band dove into their second song, Metal Box, and PATA changed to a single neck guitar.

At the end of the second song, keyboardist D.I.E. thanked the audience for coming and said he'd been concerned when he realized it would be a rainy day. He started to yell "yeah yeah yeah" and soon after, Ra:IN began their fast paced third song, 382. PATA impressed the audience with his very fast solos, as D.I.E. raised the energy level by jumping around. D.I.E. then switched to his portable keyboard and began running around the stage. At the end of the concert they smashed both keyboards, the guitar and the bass.

Setlist:

SE
1. Indicator to the future
2. Metal Box
3. 382


RIZE

Crossover band RIZE began 15 minutes later than planned, but received a warm welcome from the audience. JESSE in particular, nowadays with long hair, had a great number of excited fans in the stadium. The quintet opened with their single from last year, LADY LOVE, and apparently the technical staff had some trouble enhancing the sound. Nevertheless, RIZE and especially JESSE continued rocking, running around the arena making contact with the audience and rolling around on the ground.

Their set continued with American Hero, their latest single, Live or Die, and Television Song, at which point the weather cleared up and several sun beams reached the arena. At that moment RIZE, with perfect timing, started their reggae-influenced song GHOST, which was even more amazing live than on CD. The next song was the highly anticipated PINK SPIDER cover RIZE released as a single a few years ago. The audience was on flames again when the first notes floated out of JESSE's guitar. As was the case when bands performed cover songs earlier that day, everyone had a hide doll within reach to shake along to the beat.

Their last song for the day was the classic crossover song Why I'm Me, which inspired a lot of movement even in the chair-filled venue. Once again, JESSE made an effort to make personal contact with the audience by climbing the barrier between the stage and the fans. After that highlight, RIZE left the stage.

Setlist:

SE pikopiko
1.LADY LOVE
2. American Hero
3. Live or Die
4. Television Song
5. GHOST
6. Pink Spider
7. Why I’m Me


Versailles

Versailles made a stylish entrance, walking onto the stage one by one to heroic intro music, all in extravagant costumes and elaborate make-up as usual. And with a majestic air, vocalist Kamijo threw a rose to the audience, to which their fans responded enthusiastically.

Their set began with The Love from Dead Orchestra, which immediately plunged the audience into the band's unique world of hard metal guitars and Kamijo's smooth melodic voice. They continued with Shout&Bites, which the audience waved their hands along with. In their usual theatrical style, the band members swirled and spun along with the music. When Versailles started playing their hit The Revenant Choir, the excitement in the venue surged as people head banged and threw their arms in the air. After the song, Kamijo threw a kiss to the audience and they all bowed before they left the stage to the accompaniment of loud cheers.

Setlist:

1. The Love from Dead Orchestra
2. Shout&Bites
3. The Revenant Choir