The red hair dolls that the audiences picking are Hide, their lead guitarist whom passed away on 2nd May 1998. The images on that big screen on stage in this video is also Hide.
They both are classically trained from 4 years old and just later started to play drums/guitar. As i know Yoshiki (drummer) can play many other instruments. He created a big part of X Japan's songs
Seen them at both Budokan and Tokyo Dome. Many X JAPAN fans believe the lyrics refer to Yoshiki's father, who committed suicide when he was young---some say the narrator of the song is the father, in heaven. Babymetal's song 紅月---Akatsuki, "Crimson Moon"---makes both clear and subtle references to X Japan's 紅 in the lyrics. Basically 紅月 is a reflection of 紅, the same way the moon reflects the light of the sun.
X Japan is so amazing live, and since they’ve been around for so long and have such diverse music styles over the years, you can watch the same song and get a completely different feel.
The dolls will usually be Hide or Yoshiki done by Sanrio the hello kitty company. Also X-Japan are godfathers of Visual Kei the term inspired by the phrase on their Blue Blood album. Psychedelic Violence Crime Of Visual Shock.
The drummer is also the piano player in the beginning. The drummer Yoshiki goes always 200%, since he also has asthma it is not unusual for him to collapse during the shows. Images of the red haired guitar player are those of the original guitarist Hide who died in 1997.
fun fact: the violinist is the current lead guitarist too :) his name is Sugizo and he plays in another legendary band Luna Sea that was discovered by the late Hide, who used to be X Japan's lead guitarist. When the band reunited in 2007, they chose Sugizo to become the 6th member as officially Hide is still a member of the band (hence his images and playing is included on stage and at some point they even had a hologram Hide play alongside them).
X Japan are probably the most influential band on most Japanese bands now. I think they have sold out the Tokyo Dome (55,000 people) a record 17 times. The pianist/drummer is Yoshiki, also their main composer and very much revered in Japan. He is also a classical composer and was asked to compose something for a special celebration for the Japanese Emperor. He damaged his neck so badly headbanging that he had to have surgery and wears (or wore) a neck brace for a lot of the time, especially when performing ... Babymetal's use of a neck brace in their lore in just one of the many ways they pay homage to him and to X Japan. There were a couple of shots of a guitarist with pink hair and green jacket. That was Hide (Hee-deh) who died shortly after X Japan split up at the end of 1997. They have performed since they reunited at least once with him as a hologram and I think his guitar is always on stage with them. Babymetal's song 'Akatsuki' which I know you like a lot, was influenced by and pays homage to 'Kurenai'. Their song' No Rain, No Rainbow' is their tribute to X Japan's 'Endless Rain'. I'm sure you will enjoy Nemophila's cover - I'll watch that now.
Well X Japan sold-out the Tokyo Dome, capacity55,000, 18 times. So yes they were huge!! Gene Simmons said that if they had been a western band, they would been one of the biggest bands in the world. The guitarist is Sugizo from Luna Sea(!). Hide, the original guitarist, died. 35,000 attended his memorial service. They were scheduled to be the first Japanese band to perform in Wembley Arena. They fell apart before before it could happen. Long story. FYI the first Japanese band to perform in Wembley Arena, Babymetal!! Yoshiki was there to see them. There is a photo of him with the girls in London, both happy and sad at the same time. Yoshiki lives primarily in Los Angeles now. Last point, Did you notice that Yoshiki is wearing a neck collar? Wonder where Babymetal got that neck collar idea.
In case anyone cares about the exact details: Yoshiki was at Babymetal's London show in 2014, X-Japan was going to put on the Wembley Arena show in 2016, a week before Babymetal and one of it's members got sick and went to the hospital. X-Japan performed the show a year later. I don't remember a photo of Babymetal and Yoshiki at Wembley Arena or them mentioning they met there. Who was there: Herman Li of Dragonforce.
Good thoughtful reactions to an amazing band I’ve come to place at the top of my playlist rotation-really world class musicianship and multi-genre masterpieces. Every note is scored for every instrument even the drums by the pianist, drummer, leader and writer of most of their music and lyrics.Yoshiki . Their songs are all epic and instant classics for any generation. They aren’t well known in US but are hugely popular internationally and sold out world tours, including Yoshiki’s classical tours, worldwide. You must watch We Are X, a fascinating documentary of XJapan and particularly Yoshiki’s tragic, dramatic and uplifting history. A Sundance film festival winner, 2016. I’ve seen them all, and this rockumentary takes the prize. Gotta watch all the additional outtakes as well. I don’t usually write comments on RU-vid but have become a passionate fan of XJapan and the genius talent, charismatic Yoshiki. Had to add my 2 cents..rock on🤘 #wearex🙅🏼♀️
Great reaction as always! I see people telling you the pianist is the drummer, which is true, but I didn’t see people telling you that the violinist/guitarist is the same guitarist as the one playing the song rosier from LUNA SEA that you reacted to a few days ago, he considered the original X JAPAN guitarist, hide who sadly passed away, as some kind of a mentor and was really flattered to be able to replace him
sugizo never said he replaced hide, quite the contrary. He is the 6th member, and he tries to channel hide's energy and play homage t him, he never tried to replce him.
@@Xia-hu I never said that he made a public statement (although if every statement he made since playing with X JAPAN I wouldn’t be surprised to find one), but I happen to be working in the Japanese music industry since 2002 and it is a known fact that he considers hide like his mentor, might I add, all of LUNA SEA considers X JAPAN as their mentors since Yoshiki supported them as well as GLAY when they first started since X JAPAN was already big, this is why they were always invited in the Muteki concerts organized by Yoshiki in the early 90’s. So long story short, for Sugizo being able to play hide’s part in X JAPAN concerts is a huge honor; he admitted it several times, and I hope you can be able to accept this indiscutable truth 😅
@@Xia-hu ok after reading your message more attentively I see you were focusing on the word “replaced”, my bad, it was a poor choice of word, nobody can replace hide and I get what you mean, I thought you were arguing about the fact that sugizo said that he was honored to play the part of his mentor, I guess you weren’t arguing about that in the end so there’s no problem
Truly a Ground Breaking, Legendary band. Their Legacy live on in the modern J-Metal bands, and these new young whelps have raised the technique and musicianship bar to Insane Heights. But that doesn't detract from what X-Japan was 10-20 years ago. As for the Violin, Sugizo plays both for X-Japan, and while he is really good on the violin, he is not even in the same conversation as a Violinist as Jill. Jill is a concert trained prodigy who was a Paganini specialist in competitions.
x-Japan is probably the biggest band you have never heard of, they are pretty much unknown in the west, but pretty much every japanese person knows them.
The drummer was the pianist and the guitaerist was the violinist in the begining. My friend was in the crowd. Next day he looked like a dead fish. He said he had used up all his energy singing, shouting, waving, and jumping in the sequence of the insane performances. X-Japan was notorious (or popular if you will) for its heavy exploitation of crowd participation.
X- Japan are considered by most current Japanese bands/artists as the groundlayers/originators of Japanese modern hardrock/metal. (bands like Loudness not to be forgotten, off course).
You can also check Kurenai from the Last Live 1997 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8ArAnXLbFck.html in which the intro is different, the whole song I think is more heavier! And the drums by Yoshiki is more powerful and crazy! And that one is the last live performance of Hide(the man with red pink hair is the legendary guitarist in Japan who passed away after several months.)in X Japan.
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X-Japan was going to split up in December 1997, some of the members these days still tour together. Suzuka was born that same month, some see it as a sign, as X-Japan stopped Suzuka was born to take on the torch of Japanese Metal (in mainstream?). Yoshiki the drummer is the main/most famous member. He's the pianist at the start and the song writer. He's classically trained. Babymetal lore has something with a neckbrace, you might have read something about it, it's because the drummer broke his neck because he headbanged to much and the doctors said he wasn't allowed to perform anymore, but he performs with neckbrace now. He never had a really great body had numerous health issues, he was born to early if I remember correctly and they thought the baby wouldn't make it. Babymetal has played at the same Tokyo Dome, 2 nights in a row sold out, no song was repeated over those 2 days, they played all songs form their first 2 albums.
I kinda prefer the old guitar intro, but this newer version is certainly very nice too... I feel like a better version is the one from the Last Live concert, but maybe I'm just nostalgic for it.
