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A combination made to go wild! There wasn’t even one person in the audience who didn’t headbang to the heavy, dark and emotional songs these bands presented!
JILUKA and ACME had their first two-man show on the 10th of September, 2022 at SHIBUYA CYCLONE. We couldn’t miss the chance and had to write a live report for this occasion!
Both bands have worked closely together with us before and use every chance to reach out to their foreign fans. JILUKA, as well as ACME, belong to the bands we’d call “live bands”. They always have concerts scheduled and are ready to show what they are capable of! We hope that this live report conveys at least a little of the energy we were able to feel during the show.
ACME started the live with Come Back to You, a melodious but very expressive song, which made the whole venue raise their hands or jump to the beat. CHISA (vo.) intensely looked at the fans and winked at them playfully during the line “I come back to you”. Next in line was ROTTEN ORANGE, where RIKITO (ba.) went to the edge of the stage and demonstrated a very fast and fascinating bass play! In RISING SUN, CHISA seemingly effortlessly switched from high tones to deep growling. All the while, the fans supported the band by raising their hands to the beat. A last drum roll from drummer HAL ended the song and the band held a small MC about how it was their first time having a two-man show with JILUKA. A while ago, JILUKA also appeared during the radio ACME hosts every Sunday and apparently all kinds of things happened, but if the fans liked the combination of these two bands- maybe they will continue performing together!
The next song after the MC changed the atmosphere completely; from a playful sound that had some jazz elements to rap: ENCHANTED. The song had a slower pace and therefore granted the fans a small break to catch their breath. But it was really only a small one. They continued powerfully with WALK. The white lighting from the back of the stage together with the fog bathed the stage in a mysterious atmosphere. However, that didn’t last long, as the fans started to headbang strongly with the first beats of the song and continued to go hard until the next MC; the whole venue looked like a waving sea of hair flying around wildly.
During the MC, CHISA checked with everyone whether they had fun and told the audience that they’ll have many concerts coming up with their new one-man tour starting in the middle of November. The final will actually be at SHIBUYA CYCLONE too! Before they continued with the last part of their performance, they shared that JILUKA is always working very professionally, even during rehearsals. Therefore they also need to give 100% to not be left behind! And with that they continued with KAGARIBI. CHISA sang the lines so emotionally, they directly hit you in the heart. The fans answered his effort by clapping their hands in support. The lighting added a special nuance to the atmosphere, with brighter light during those emotional parts in contrast to the darker light of the more aggressive parts. ADVENTURE TIME granted the fans an experience appropriate for its name. Yellow spotlights were traveling through the venue, the audience clapped their hands excitedly, and the band motivated the fans to jump higher and higher! A highlight of the song was definitely SHOGO’s guitar solo, accompanied by white spotlights dancing around him. It was not only a feast for the ears, but also amazing to look at! They finished their performance with ZESSHOU OUKA (絶唱謳歌), a well known and popular song among the fans and the final view was just amazing! Everyone in the audience had a fan ready so that they could move it according to the chorus.
Even though it wasn’t the first time I have seen the band live, they always surprise me with how emotional their performance is. You can easily see the attachment to their songs and their fans, which makes the experience so much more precious. I can only recommend checking them out during a live performance to experience this for yourself- you won’t regret it!
The next performance was JILUKA.
Their fans didn’t waste even one second and started to clap their hands immediately once the curtain raised and the first tunes of the intro echoed through the venue. Sena (gt.), Zyean (dr.) and Boogie (ba.) were the first to enter the stage and greet the fans, shortly after followed by Ricko (vo.). They surely didn’t have a slow start and went in right away with SUZAKU. Ricko motivated the fans to clap their hands to the beat and he didn’t need to say any more: the whole venue followed his orders immediately. M.A.D and Ajna (-SgVer) followed and didn’t grant the fans time to even catch a breath. The venue was bathed in dark shades and the fans headbanged through most parts of the songs. But that wasn’t enough for the band at all and they requested more and more!
After such a powerful start, everyone was in need of a small break, and therefore Ricko mentioned that he wanted to see everyone’s towels- also those from ACME. One after the other raised their towel until the whole venue was full of them. Now that everyone was ready, they promptly started the next song: Divine Error. Ricko’s high toned screams combined with incredible fast drum play and a bass/guitar combination left you stunned! The song really brought out the best of every member. Continuing with the next extreme song, they once again demanded everything from the fans, who gladly obeyed. In Helix, Ricko made sure that the fans didn’t slow down with “can you still come up with me? Come on, go crazy!” The whole scenery was very well staged- during melodious parts, the lighting was brighter and you were able to see the band clearly, while the aggressive parts were darker and the only thing you could see was hair flying around. When it was Sena’s solo, Ricko and Boogie turned to Zyean, leaving the whole stage to the pink-haired guitarist, who demonstrated his skills to the fullest while still throwing flirty looks to the fans in front of him. Before the next song started, Boogie already jumped in excitement, and as soon as the first sounds echoed through the venue, we knew why: BaLa-DeDa. The song sticks out quite a bit, whenever we hear it. The red lighting stressed the mood of the song perfectly and combined with Ricko switching between rap, growling, and melodious singing placed you in a trance-like state! A last drum roll and then they had a short break for a small MC.
“Thank you all for coming! We really hope that you will see us again in bigger venues as well, so please take in our message for you.” With these words of the vocalist, they entered the last stage of their performance with Faceless. We really aren’t exaggerating when we say that this band has endless power! The only small breaks they took were in between the songs; everything else was filled with headbanging, jumping around, or running to other members to interact with them. The next song, Ablaze (extended ver.), wasn’t any different. Boogie showed his fans an impressive bass play while balancing his bass on his thigh. It must have been pretty difficult to play like this, but it definitely looked amazing! Another highlight was Sena’s impressive guitar solo, which sounded nearly playful. If you could have seen his expression- it showed nothing but bliss! It was as if he was born to play the guitar on stage! They ended the evening with D.O.J, yet another song that made everyone headbang wildly.
I was stunned more than once by how they managed to perform so many aggressive songs that made everyone go wild, without passing out due to exhaustion- but they did, and they did a great job! The whole venue was following the band’s every move and the atmosphere couldn’t have been any better!
The combination of these two bands was really amazing! ACME, with its more melodious and brighter songs, complemented JILUKA with its darker style perfectly. The fans of both bands apparently thought the same, because it didn’t take long for fans of the other band to join in and it definitely didn’t matter which fan you were once everyone was headbanging! I enjoyed the whole event very much and hope that we will have more opportunities to see the two bands perform together. Personally, I would have loved to see them perform one or two songs together- but as they say: never say never, maybe next time!
Report: Jenny
English Edit: Kaity
It would be great if you could support us with a small donation.
It might not be much for you, but it would help us providing more and better interviews in the future.
With a little bit of your support we might be able to realize even more!
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