MIX LEMONED JELLY 2008 feat. hide Birthday Party!

For fans of hide, there are two important dates throughout the year: May 2nd and December 13. May 2 being the date on which the talented artist passed away and December 13, hide's birthday. Even though it has been ten years since he passed away, every year events are organized on both dates. After the spectacular two-day memorial in May, it was time for a smaller birthday event in December at the Kawasaki Club Citta. Not only has the tradition of holding memorial and birthday events continued each year, but so has the event that hide set up himself many years ago, MIX LEMONed JELLY. This time, it had been decided that the birthday event would be combined with MIX LEMONed JELLY, with a wide variety of bands and acts.

Seeing as there were quite a number of bands planned to play, the stage had been divided in two smaller stages so the staff had an easier time preparing for the next band behind the closed curtain while the other stage was used to perform on at the same time. At both the MIX STAGE on the left side, and the LEMONed STAGE on the right side, a big poster of hide decorated the back of the stage. At the ceiling, lots of colorful balloons were hanging and on each side of the hall were two video screens, that showed animations and announcements between shows.

Even though the event wasn't supposed to start until half past two, the opening band Chemical Pictures already started at a quarter past two to entertain the waiting fans. Chemical Pictures came as quite a surprise, seeing as their appearance was unannounced and turned out to be the new project of vocalist Tenten (former Hanamuke, KuRt). Even though the band hadn't officially played their first show yet, the quintet looked confident playing together on stage. All of them were wearing black pants with a white shirt and a grey shirt and even had the same blond haircut, except for Tenten whose hair color was black. Their set list consisted of one hide cover and two of their own songs --a little generic sounding rock-- and during their short set of fifteen minutes only, they already succeeded in warming the audience up.

Next was DaizyStripper, a pretty new visual kei band whose popularity has been growing rapidly over the last year. While the curtains were still closed, they started on their rendition of hide's MISERY. Instead of upbeat rock, they had changed it to a rather sensitive ballad, which sounded simply beautiful. At first only piano was heard, which was played by drummer Kazami who had a keyboard next to his drum kit. Vocalist Yu-giri joined in, his voice sounding crystal clear. Soon, the rest of the band kicked in and the song took on a rockier edge as Kazami changed the keyboard for his drum kit.

Their set list contained hide and X JAPAN covers only, to the delight of the many fans that were enthusiastically singing and dancing along, reacting eagerly to the band's gestures that cheered them on. Especially their cover of X JAPAN's Kurenai was excellent, Yu-giri's high pitched voice sounding almost exactly the same as TOSHI's. During the harder parts, the audience went totally crazy, head banging and jumping around.

The rock band FUZZY CONTROL was next, seeming a little out of place without any glamorous visual kei outfits. Instead the trio wore rather casual rock fashion, bassist Joe standing out most by only wearing a pair of red shorts and no shirt. Their music was catchy and consisted of upbeat rock songs with a punk-like flare and a clear influence from American bands. They entertained the audience with a set of four songs, consisting of various guitar solos, fast bass lines and raw, punk-like drums provided by Satoko, the female drummer who swung her long black hair around wildly as she pounded the drums. As they left the stage after their twenty minute set, they received a mild applause from the audience that didn't seem too impressed with the trio.

Just like DaizyStripper who had been part of the hide memorial event in May, heidi. was invited again as well. The quartet started with the same song they had played at the memorial: hide's TELL ME. The cheerful-sounding song was able to change the atmosphere to a very merry one which was visible on both the fans and the band. The heidi. band members were smiling and moving to the beat and vocalist Yoshihiko danced to the music skillfully as he sang.

They proceeded with their own songs, amongst them the catchy Parade. It seemed that no one, not even the most stoic people in the audience could resist the groovy rhythm, and everyone was moving along to the beat, encouraged by the smiling band members.

The following band was the young indie visual kei band as.milk. The five men were in matching white outfits with some black accents. During the first two songs, the audience listened mostly quietly or moved hesitatingly to the beat, as if they were still determining whether they liked the band or not. After an MC in which vocalist Jouei let the fans scream hide's name, followed by the heavier song Disturb, they seemed to have decided on a positive opinion regarding the band. When they played hide's song Pink Spider, as.milk seemed to have won the majority of the audience over in its entirety, as everybody cheered and sang along to the song, jumping up and down enthusiastically.

Also the next band, DRYHI, started with hide's MISERY, though this time sticking close to the original. Although also this band was not in glamorous visual kei outfits, they looked rather eccentric anyway with vocalist hideto's big sunglasses and zebra-patterned jacket, and support guitarist Leo's panther-patterned jacket. The other three band members were in more casual, punk-like fashion.

It seemed the audience became even more critical, perhaps tired from standing still for a few hours already. When the band finished their song Mad language, they received complete silence as the audience refrained from applauding at all. The quintet bravely continued, hideto moving around stiffly and marching on the spot while waving his arms, but the audience would hardly respond to them. Finally, during their last song Dance of devil whose pounding rhythm was quite catchy and suitable to dance or jump to, a few people started to move to the music and at the end of DRYHI's set, they got a small applause.

The next artist, Jack Badora seemed to be more of a comical act instead of a band. The band consisted of three members: the vocalist and bassist who wore glasses and had his hair slicked back, which gave him the impression of a business man if it weren't for his t-shirt and shorts. The guitarist was wearing shorts and sneakers only, had his face painted and wore a fur cap with a tail and looked quite gruesome. The drummer was in a simple white t-shirt and shorts as well and stayed mostly silent, listening to the other two band members.

Their set consisted of jokes, anecdotes, funny background music from movies and sound effects, somersaults, shouting, fire, the guitarist succeeding in putting the microphone in his mouth while yelling, and various fans got beat with a drumstick on the head. Their show took longer than planned, but the audience didn't seem to mind, laughing at the comical trio.

When the opening music of hurdy gurdy, the solo project of Seizi Kimura started to play, the fans already began to applaud enthusiastically, and the volume increased as Seizi appeared on stage, obviously a favorite of many. As usual, he was only accompanied by his acoustic guitar. While this was quite a change from the other bands, he was able to capture the audience's interest with his honest and pure songs.

After every song, he received a big applause, and especially when he played an excellent acoustic version of hide's FLAME he received a big response from the audience. He ended his show with the sensitive ballad Starlight and then left the stage while waving at the audience.

From Seizi's gentle and uncomplicated songs, the next band the Underneath was quite a change. Their opening music, an industrial, loud, pounding instrumental piece shook everybody awake as the five band members entered the stage one by one. They started with hide's DOUBT and continued with three of their own songs, each of them rather heavy, fast paced and energetic. Their show had a lot of energy, which was not only heard in the music but also seen by the way the band moved on the stage, urging the fans on to jump or head bang.

Before BITE THE BULLET, vocalist TAKA held an MC, and started to sing 'Happy Birthday' to hide. He sang it a cappella without any accompaniment from the other band members and his deep voice full with vibrato sounded simply fantastic.

Then it was SHAME's turn, who started with their cover of LEMONed I scream, the same song they contributed to the hide TRIBUTE SPIRITS album in 1998. The song was kept light and laid back, the fans obviously enjoying it. Their set list contained another hide cover, TELL ME as well as a number of their own songs, such as their newest single Here.

The trio looked quite fresh and young, and could easily fool anyone into thinking they were a rather new band, even though they've been around for more than a decade now. Their music --upbeat, poppy rock songs-- fueled this thought.

Then it was time for one of the bigger highlights of the event, namely Chirolyn's unplugged performance. Chirolyn's band consisted of another former support member of hide, namely the keyboard player DIE. Toshi, formerly of Kome Kome Club took care of the percussion. They were playing at the right side of the stage, and before sitting down on his stool, Chirolyn moved over to the left side of the stage to wave at the fans at the far left side that had trouble seeing what was happening on the other side.

The acoustic trio started with the song NEVER MIND, which sounded comfortable and catchy right from the start, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place around a campfire. Chirolyn's voice sounded strong and confident, his trademark red mohawk looking a bit out of place with the gentle acoustic songs, seeing as his haircut recalled images of punk music.

After the second song, they sang 'Happy Birthday' to hide, and while they were still singing, PATA and michiaki of Ra:IN appeared on stage. Chirolyn seemed thoroughly surprised and the fans as well, who applauded and screamed for PATA loudly. Together, the five of them proceeded with a cover of hide's HURRY GO ROUND, which fit excellent to the acoustic setting.

The audience seemed to love Chirolyn, applauding loudly and eagerly following his commands whenever he told them to scream or clap. He spent quite some time doing call and response with the fans, having them yell hide's name.

It was DJ INA's turn then, who appeared with his turntables on the left stage. He started his upbeat mix of hide songs, to which the fans started to dance along to. He spent some time teasing the audience then, making them yell or sing along to the songs, and played with some of the hide plushies the fans were waving around.

At some point, he had the staff open the curtain that was covering the right side of the stage, so the whole stage could be used. He then started pulling various fans onto the stage, many of them in hide cosplay from various eras: long, red haired HIDE's from his X JAPAN period, or ones with shorter hair like he used to have during his solo career. Amongst the partying fans on stage there was also a YOSHIKI cosplayer, who had opted for the quite daring costume with only one pant-leg, a stocking covering the other leg and a bare chest.

The stage was full of fans then, and next they started to call out for PATA, who couldn't deny their calls and shyly waved at the audience. DIE also appeared and was hugged and squeezed by the fans. michiaki joined the party, and also Chirolyn rolled onto the stage, and the staff had a hard time keeping the fans back from the band members on stage.

The next moment, DIE jumped onto the turn table to cheer the fans up, and DJ INA passed his microphone onto the fans on stage who yelled along to the music one by one. Then, Chirolyn appeared on stage again, and to the hilarity of the fans he had taken off his clothes, save for a pair of tiny black briefs and started to dance to the music while being almost naked.

The party continued for a little longer, and then both the artists and fans left the stage again. Then, several band members from the performing bands of that evening appeared on stage for a moment and shiny, pink glitter fell from the ceiling. A live video of hide appeared on a big screen and the party went on like that, showing hide's PVs. Even though most of the people had been on their feet from 2 pm that afternoon, they didn't seem tired at all and continued to dance and jump to the videos. Everyone had probably watched the PVs numerous times already, but that didn’t stop them from partying.

After the subtitling of the event, it was announced on the screen that MISERY was going to be used as the theme song for the AK100 project, a tour dedicated to the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Then, the text "stay positive and don't be afraid to try anything" was displayed and then the PV of MISERY was shown, and the event came to an end.

It had been a long but eventful day, with a whole lot of bands which all varied in style, quality, stage presentation, and so on. hide's 44th birthday party had definitely been a success and hopefully the tradition will continue for many years!


Set list:

Chemical Pictures

1. BACTERIA (hide)
2. I wanna get away
3. B.B

DaizyStripper

1. MISERY (hide)
2. CELEBRATION (hide)
3. THE LAST SONG (X JAPAN)
4. Kurenai (X JAPAN)

FUZZY CONTROL

1. Reflection
2. Mona Lisa
3. This Word
4. Revelation

heidi.

1. TELL ME (hide)
2. Heaven
3. REM
4. Parade
5. Utakata

as.milk

1. Koishigure
2. 45
3. Disturb
4. Pink Spider
5. Zantou

DRYHI

1. MISERY (hide)
2. Mad language
3. Chocolate
4. Dance of devil

Jack Badora

Hurdy gurdy

1. Superman
2. BLUE
3. DEARLY
4. FLAME
5. Starlight

the Underneath

1. DOUBT (hide)
2. GETTING CLOSER
3. GEKKOH
4. BITE THE BULLET

SHAME

1. LEMONed I scream (hide)
2. HAPPY ANTHEM intro
3. TELL ME
4. GET READY –we are free-
5. here
6. HAPPY ANTHEM –outro-

Chirolyn~unplugged

1. NEVER MIND
2. Kiseki ga okirumade
3. HURRY GO ROUND (hide)
4. Kimi wa koiwacchimatta
5. Kawaii ano musume

DJ INA

hide

1. CELEBRATION
2. DOUBT
3. DICE
4. D.O.D
5. FLAME
6. Beauty & Stupid
7. MISERY