On a chill evening in Hollywood, California, a crowd gathered in front of the House of Blues with high anticipation for the night’s entertainment from a band filled with legendary rock stars from Japan, VAMPS. This was an exclusive event as the band only had two shows in the US; Los Angeles being the first followed by New York. This evening was very promising that one would see as the excited crowd was dressed up in fun outfits including some people in cross play costumes. As the doors opened, a huge group of screaming girls rushed the stage.
First up to hit the stage was California’s own Living Dead Lights. There were a lot of fans of the band in the audience which contributed to the very energetic performance from the band. Plus the singer Taka Tamada who has Japanese heritage was extremely excited to open up for VAMPS. The guitars and bass sounded great as the band utilized the stage space to their advantage. Tamada’s lyrics started out a little shaky but after their second song he delivered a clean performance for the rest of the set. They performed mostly songs from their older album. “Follow”, “What Do You Do”, and “Vacant” were the crowd favorites; but the audience really enjoyed listening to “This is Our Evolution” which is a song from their upcoming album Black Letters. According to the guitarist Alan Damien, they last toured in 2011. The band took a short break to work on new material and the new album will release on January 27, 2014 which will be followed by a full tour of US, Europe, and Asia. The new material was produced by Fred Archambault who is known for working with Avenge Sevenfold. Performances like tonight plus the creativeness of their material will definitely put Living Dead Lights to the top soon and their fans, along with CrypticRock, can’t wait to see what they have in store for all of us next.
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After a brief intermission, DJ SID hit the stage wearing a Transformers mask getting the crowd to dance a bit. Sid Wilson is widely known as the DJ for the band Slipknot. Outside of performing with the band, Wilson has made a big name for himself in Japan. Wilson has made a following in Japan as DJ of Jungle music, under the name DJ Starscream. Although it is not common to see a DJ in between two rock bands that plays house and hip hop, DJ SID had a lot of fans in the audience and spun an awesome 20 minute set that really warmed up the crowd. The highlight of his set was when he dropped the bass for about a minute that made the ground vibrate very hard and even a few drinks fall off the tables.
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It was finely time for VAMPS, as the crowd grew restless you can hear girls screaming and shouting “Hyde!” The band was formed by Hyde (L’Arc-en-Ciel) and K.A.Z (Oblivion Dust) in 2008. The two musicians are heavily involved in the Japanese rock music scene and are big icons in their country. Last time the band played the venue, it was completely sold out, and tonight it was no different as the venue was packed tighter than a sardine can. The band finally hit the stage emerging one by one. The last member to appear on stage was the singer Hyde who was under a blue spotlight and he had some wicked glowing blue contacts in his eyes. The crowd erupted with some girls passing out. Opening up with “Vampire Depression “, the band performed an amazing and memorable set singing mainly English versions of their songs like “The Past”, “Memories”, and “Angel Trip”. They also played an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars”. The audience was wild singing along with every song raising glow sticks in the air which truly lit up the atmosphere at the House of Blues. Hyde did an excellent job getting the crowd to sing along with the songs as multiple times he walked around on stage waving and pointing at the audience. To close out the night VAMPS came back out for an encore of “Revolution II” and “Sweet Dreams”.
This was an amazing show and a high energy performance that the audience truly enjoyed. VAMPS really know how to put on a great performance and draw big crowds. This was a beyond doubt memorable night. Thank you VAMPS for bringing that unique sound of Japanese Rock to the US!
Written by Karina Diane Parker
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