hide Memorial Summit Day 2 - Part A

The concert on the 4th started at 1 p.m. when NORI, the guitarist from TOKYO YANKEES, was introduced as the presenter for the night's show. NORI remarked that he'd been drinking until 6 a.m. and their rehearsal was at 9 a.m. so he couldn't believe he was actually there. He went on to say that it's already been 10 years since hide's death. He, TOKYO YANKEES' vocalist UMEMURA and YOSHIKI had thought about a memorial at the time but YOSHIKI hadn't felt emotionally ready. Unfortunately last year, UMEMURA passed away, but finally the day has come, and today YOSHIKI would make it happen because of the fans.

NORI then introduced Matsumoto Hiroshi, hide's younger brother, and asked the audience to pay attention to them because everything else was unimportant. He also discussed how TOKYO YANKEES had been invited to be a part of the hide memorial only ten days before the concert; NORI had called Hiroshi asking if it would be possible for TOKYO YANKEES to be a part of the event, and Hiroshi responded, "I-I'll...find a way...!!"

The stadium held a crowd three times bigger than the previous day's, and while it wasn't sold out there were very few seats left. NORI stated that everything had come together because of Matsumoto Hiroshi's hard work and offered him a bottle of champagne, making a toast. Hiroshi then took the opportunity to thank everyone present, all the volunteers and all the artists involved.


heidi.

heidi. was given the honor of kicking off the second day of the summit and they started appropriately with a cover of hide's TELL ME which immediately created an elated mood. As usual they were dressed simply, as opposed to the visual style, in mostly black loose fitting clothes. The audience danced happily along as they continued with the upbeat Houmatsu. A large number of people had already shown up at the venue and waved their arms along to heidi.'s energizing music.

After Houmatsu ended, there was a short MC before they continued on with another cheerful song, Rem. The band's enthusiasm climbed as they moved around energetically throughout their set. The dynamic performance was a very promising start for the day.

Setlist:

1. TELL ME (hide cover)
2. Houmatsu
3. Rem


TOKYO YANKEES

Guitarist NORI appeared first, toting a towel which he threw to the audience. YOSHI and UDA appeared just after him, and TOKYO YANKEES launched into their first song. Since the band's vocalist UMEMURA passed away last year, NORI and YOSHI took turns singing. After the second song NORI encouraged everyone to work harder, just like them, now that they were working as a 3-piece, to honor those in heaven like hide and UMEMURA. During Ace of Spades, a flag with the word "Muteki" appeared on stage, suggesting that at the end of the show, the legendary session band "Muteki Band" would revive.

Setlist:

1. Pre-emptive strike
2. Serial killer
3. Ace of Spades (Motorhead cover)
4. Hollywood Heartbreaker


LADIES ROOM

Looking very exited Hyakutarou, Nao and George made their way on to the stage and quickly launched into DAMAGE while a roadie carried the "Muteki" flag around the stage. Just after the second song, Hyaku said that last night had really nice and quiet bands, but today they would torture the audience. They gave an exhilarating performance but their set didn't draw the most attention due to its brevity, so after the last song the band proceeded to trash their instruments, which had the desired effect of stirring up the fans.

Setlist:

1. Damage (hide cover)
2. Jet Coaster
3. Sex sex & Rock'n Roll


Dir en grey

Before the curtain was even drawn for Dir en grey to go onstage, the stadium erupted into enthusiastic cheering. Evidently this would be one of the highlights of the day. Dir en grey started off with THE FINAL and the audience went wild, head banging and throwing their arms towards the stage in ecstasy. People sang along easily with the calm parts and went nuts at the harder sections, and the atmosphere throughout the entire stadium was more energetic than ever so far.

They continued with REPITITION OF HATRED, a more violent song that again had the audience head banging along with the band to the heavy rhythms. GRIEF continued in the same noisy way and the audience clapped along excitedly. Next up was a cover of X JAPAN's Miscast and the audience seemed pleasantly surprised, waving their arms along as they enjoyed the moment. After a short pause they continued on with the emotional CONCEIVED SORROW, during which the audience stood still taking in the intensity of the music to its fullest.

When the intro to dead tree was heard the audience cheered again and started moving their bodies to the music. Kyo conveyed his inner pain physically by hitting himself and cutting his chest. Next up was OBSCURE and the uncensored, graphic video was shown on the large screens while the band played, and Kyo threw in some improvised screams at different points in the song. DOZING GREEN and -saku- inspired more head banging and the audience looked like a sea of whipping hair from above. Kyo screamed "last song" and they finished with THE IIID EMPIRE. They exited after throwing their microphone stands and instruments around the stage in a last violent burst of energy, and Shinya tossed his drumsticks into the audience. They all seemed to be in good shape and put on a stunning performance that reminded the audience what a talented band they are.

Setlist:

1. THE FINAL
2. REPETITION OF HATRED
3. GRIEF
4. Miscast (X Japan cover)
5. CONCEIVED SORROW
6. dead tree
7. OBSCURE
8. DOZING GREEN
9. -saku-
10. THE IIID EMPIRE