Hello again! Last weekend Mihomiho and I stepped out for the Zy Magazine Seventh Anniversary stylish wave ILLLUSION'08 concert January 20, 2008 at Zepp Tokyo! Since Mihomiho gave you the dirt last time, this time I get to write the review, mwahaha.

Disclaimer: I'm actually not that familiar with these bands so if I'm off a song or member, please forgive me.

The setup: six huge Jrock bands, roughly five songs each for a total of nearly four hours of music, MCs, and interviews. The featured bands were:

• Shojo Lolita 23ku


• Sadie


• Lynch.


• Moi dix Mois


• D'espairsRay


• Plastic Tree

This is going to be a long review, so if you want to skip to a band, use the links above.

Introduction

The night began with a brief introduction from star child Inc. president Mr. Seiichi Hoshiko and 73-year-old Jrock ambassador Noriko Shoji. After working the crowd into frenzy, they announced that the event would be filmed for the Sky Perfect TV program V-Style "Move." Hoshiko-san and Shoji-san leave the stage to take a seat up near us, and the show begins:

Shojo Lolita 23Ku

Shojo Lolita 23ku kick things off with the track "Red Room." While the rest of the band stays primarily stationary, vocalist Sou clad in his black and white "Brand New World" outfit prowls the stage singing and egging on the fans. The crowd, on the other hand, absolutely loves it, and practically all of Zepp Tokyo is doing that hand motion thing popular with the V-kei kids. Between tracks Sou gives a heartfelt "thank you" to Zy Magazine, entirely oblivious (in an utterly cute way) to the fact that whenever he says "Zy-san" ("Mr. Zy") he pronounces it "Jiisan" ("old man" ) until the grins of the crowd tip him off. The band plays through my favorite track of the night; the bass and electro-heavy "Mikansei Sapphire," before polishing off their set with closing ballad "Genosense."

Sadie

Sadie comes on strong with the nu-metalish number "under the chaos" with Tsurugi and Mizuki's guitars blaring and Mao well on top of his high notes--and on top of Mao and Tsurugi their distinctively looming hair styles! Sadie pushes hard throughout the entire set, and meanwhile the crowd tries to keep up tempo with their hand moving, head banging, and dances, while reliably singing along on the choruses. Seriously, the concert floor looks like an aerobics gym with all the motion. Sadie plays through five tracks including an outstanding rendition of "Silent Eve" and the closer "Meisai." Sadie's flawless performance of "Meisai"s demonic verse and almost balladic pre-chorus make it my favorite Sadie number of the night. What's more, it turns out vocalist Mao had been hospitalized before the show, left specifically for the concert, and returned after the set. That's dedication. ROAAAR!!

lynch.

Lynch utilize the band's trademark death voice on their opening track "I'm sick, B'cuz luv u" before breaking into more melodic fare like "liberation chord." By now the crowd's so worked up they look like they're having seizures. Lynch's third song is actually a new song, which I don't know the name to but was quite fond of--fairly melodic with a really destructive metal bridge. However, my favorite lynch. track of the night was a sort of remixed version of "unknown lost a beauty." Imagine the bass and electronics bridge prominent towards the end of the recorded version used more actively during the verse. Perfect.

Moi dix Mois

Next comes one of the bands I was most looking forward to. Before the arrival of Moi dix Mois, the sounds of "Sacred Lake" play through Zepp's speakers and a very Moi dix Mois-esque deep blue light fills the stage. The band takes their poses on stage, and a moment of tranquility fills the room before Mana-sama's guitar ruptures it with the sting of the intro to "unmoved." The band plays tight, the cross on Mana-sama's guitar glows in the dark, and the crowd audibly cheers but gives up on trying to headbang to the double bass drums. Seth then busts out a loudspeaker for "exclude" runs through the reworked version of "Perish," and then kicks into a very crunchy "Immortal Madness." Midway through, Seth declares that he's going to make the entire venue one. Now comes the call and response--Seth sings, then the crowd shouts "Dix Love!" They do it once, but Seth isn't having any of that and tells everyone to try harder. After six progressively louder rounds, the venue is practically shaking with "Dix Love." Seth is satisfied, and the band closes off the song. After five tracks the audience is shaking and Seth, Mana-sama, his electric guitar with the glowing cross, and the rest of the band leave the stage.

D'espairsRay

D'espairsRay hasn't even arrived on stage yet and the crowd is already screaming so loud that you can't hear a thing. When the band breaks into "MIRROR" the audience erupts into a sea of arms and what looks to the naked eye like aerobics. The crowd is really into it, the band is really into it, and everyone's just glad to be there. "Fuyu Shita Riso" ends and HIZUMI announces this is their first show of 2008. More screams before the band closes up with "Hollow." HIZUMI's plays along with a tamborine, the spotlights beam off the metallic pick guard of ZERO's bass--making a striking visual as the beams pierce the foggy room, and the crowd goes absolutely wild with every "Na Na Na NAAAAA Na Na."

Plastic Tree

Plastic Tree starts off the final set of the night with an extremely atmospheric "Kuchu Branko." It's jarring for the crowd to move from the more metalish sounds of the previous bands to the almost shoegazer-sounding "Kuchu Branko"--which isn't to say that the they aren't screaming louder than they have the entire night, just that they aren't quite sure how to dance. Despite the more "melancholic" nature of the band, their actually quite active on stage. Midway through the set, adorable vocalist Ryutaro Arimura gets a little MC where he introduces the band and announces that this is also their first show of 2008 in that unique little voice of his. I don't know how to explain it, except to say he kinda reminds me of L from "Death Note" in a dress.

Their best song of the main set is a very rocking "Baria." However, after they close out their set the crowd absolutely refuses to let them go home. Plastic Tree meets the calls of "encore" with the announcement of a new single coming in spring (maybe I just heard the Japanese wrong, CDJapan has no info on this yet) and a super rocking rendition of "Reset," their best track of the night. Finally, Arimura does that weird little hands-together bow thing to thank everyone, and waves bye bye. Swoon.

Closing

At the close of the show the crowd is completely entranced and shouting "NORIKO" in anticipation of the return of Noriko Shoji and Seiichi Hoshiko. After saying some closing comments, our two hosts call the various bands back onto the stage to get their impressions of the show.

Striking Revelation 1: both Sadie (minus vocalist Mao who has returned to the hospital) and lynch. have completely finished packing up, so both bands return to the stage in jeans, T-shirts, and completely without make-up!

Striking Revelation 2: breaking tradition, Moi dix Mois participates in the closing interviews--with Mana-sama giving comments through his translator K.

When Noriko Shoji asks Moi dix Mois for their opinion of the show, Mana-sama whispers something into K's ear, a brief pause strikes Zepp, and then K takes the mic, erupts with a pithy "SAIKO DESU!" ("It rocked!") and makes a cross with his hands. I think that pretty much summed up the night for everyone at the concert . . . particularly HIZUMI from D'espairsRay who does his best impression of K when it's his turn to talk. Finally, Ryutaro Arimura from Plastic Tree thanks everyone, and the absolutely epic stylish wave ILLUSION'08 comes to a close.