Versailles at Rock may kan

On June 23rd, the Rock may kan, the legendary venue where X-Japan made their debut, had a strange air about it... A vast crowd of men had gathered with no women to be seen! What had undoubtedly attracted these men to the venue was the looming prospect of Versailles' very first showcase!

Versailles is a five piece visual-kei band consisting of vocalist KAMIJO, guitarists HIZAKI & TERU, bassist Jasmine You and drummer YUKI. Due to the band members overwhelming music history, they have attracted a great deal of attention both in Japan and overseas. The venue itself was to be filled with men with a good ear for music.

Akemi Oshima, a major writer for visual-kei artists, was doing an MC on stage stating that she was going to introduce each member while they were playing solo parts. Her first introduction was YUKI on drums: a black-haired, good looking guy who showed immense skills on the drums. The second to appear on stage was Jasmine You: sexy and beautiful, wearing a peacock feather in his hair, presented the audience with a magic show instead of playing his bass, as (according to Akemi), he is greatly influenced by Princess Tenko. The third and fourth introductions featured both guitarists, with TERU proceeding to make the heavens resound, whilst feminine HIZAKI played melodious sounds that caused the anticipation for the oncoming performance to swell to new heights. At long last, KAMIJO finally made his appearance on stage. Standing dead centre, he began to sing while the audience remained deathly silent, focusing their whole being on the beautiful melody that the band created.

After their introductions, the stage was then set up for the upcoming press conference. Akemi herself read the questions from the press and all of the members contributed to the resulting answers. To the question as to why they had decided to perform in front of men only, KAMIJO replied that visual-kei concerts were mainly attended by women and so the men could not enjoy themselves as fully. As if to agree with KAMIJO’‘s statement, many of the male audience nodded in agreement. KAMIJO also revealed that he was receiving many e-mails from overseas and was in fact hoping to take the band’s activates overseas at some point in the near future.

Probably the best answer from KAMIJO at the conference was "Ultimate level of self-complacency" when asked what Versailles ideal was. Jasmine You had adopted a peculiar Japanese accent, making it sound as though he was a foreigner who had not quite grasped the Japanese language! All of the members showed a great sense of humour coupled with very original characters.

Finally, the stage was set for their live performance. We were finally granted the opportunity to watch the whole PV for "The Revenant Choir" for the very first time, after having to be content with mere previews on Youtube for so long. This PV however, confirmed that Versailles was a family of roses and after the PV’s conclusion, the band returned to the stage, opening their set with The Red Carpet Day. With such skilled musicians with expertise in their field, it was no surprise that coupled with KAMIJO‘s charisma, the crowd went wild! Some of the men took their shirts off whilst others head banged along to Versailles‘ music before they left the stage four songs later.

I was fortunate enough to witness the whole even from the second floor, although it was a strange sight to see a group of men dancing, head banging and being crazy, as opposed to girls.

According to Versailles, they plan to head all over the world- with no borders between countries, races, sexes... Their symphonic, beautiful and steamy sounds are international. Check out their "YOUSHIKIBI" (form of beauty) music!!!