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Finally, a show where JILUKA were able to show what they are made of! Without most of the corona regulations, they were finally able to go in hard again- and that’s definitely what they did!
After JILUKA wooed their fans with their single BLVCK, which marked the start of the band’s Electronic Gothic Metal era last year,they continued strong into this year by releasing a new digital single called OVERKILL on March 8th. To commemorate the release of the new single, the band played a one-man show on March 10th at Shibuya Kinmirai Kaikan in Tokyo.
The one-man show was very well attended, with fans filling the live hall from the front to the back door. As soon as the red curtains fell, the stage was bathed in a mix of red and blue light and the members entered one by one: Drummer Zyean, bassist Boogie, guitarist Sena and finally, vocalist Ricko – all of whom were greeted by fans enthusiastically screaming their names as loud as they possibly could. “Well then, let’s start, shall we?“ Ricko responded to the fans’ greeting calls and JILUKA immediately started playing the perfect opening song for the night: the band’s latest single OVERKILL. Hair was flying in the audience while Ricko showed off his growling skills. Both band and fans were giving it their all from the very start, and soon it was obvious that today’s show would become intense and insanely hot. Ricko ended the song by shouting “We are JILUKA!“ and urged the fans to give some more as it was allowed to shout and scream today. Loud shouting occurred and it seemed like there was no one left in the hall who didn’t follow Ricko’s instructions. JILUKA continued its Electronic Gothic Metal streak with BLVCK. While performing BLVCK, Ricko could be spotted kneeling down to smile and sing directly to the fans in front of him, whereas Zyean had a bright smile on his face, hammering away eagerly on his drums. “Shibuya! We are having the best time – thank you all! Let’s have even more fun! Let all your current feelings out and throw them at us…Who here likes a good wall of death?“ Ricko questioned the crowd, after the band had moved on to Screamer and Eclipse. Needless to say, the crowd responded with huge applause and shouts.
Fans split up on two sides to create a circle in the middle of the hall, and as soon as the first beats of SUZAKU resounded, at least half of them began running around in the open circle, slamming into each other when meeting. The energetic show continued with Hellraiser and Faizh – during which Sena was shining with a melodious guitar solo. Finally, after performing Mephisto, Ricko, Sena and Boogie left and handed the stage over to Zyean, who then delivered an incredibly powerful drum solo for ten minutes straight while the flashing stage light was changing colors with every beat of his drumming. The members came back on stage and Ricko, who was clearly just as impressed by his colleague’s solo as the crowd was, asked: “Shibuya! The atmosphere is really great today! Are you having fun? Don’t we have an amazing drummer?“. The audience was buzzing with excitement when JILUKA continued with a fan-favorite: BaLa-DeDa. That the band was having just as much as the fans was especially visible when Sena was voicing the lyrics and forming the rock sign with his hands multiple times. Fans weren’t granted a single break from headbanging as JILUKA moved on to Flux, the refrain of which had fans take out and swing their towels in the air. Picking up the hot atmosphere in the hall, Ricko remarked “Even if we play so many heavy songs, it’s never enough, is it?! It’s never enough, don’t you all agree?“ and the screaming crowd indeed couldn’t agree more.
The next song, KUMARI, one of JILUKA’s most iconic songs, even had Ricko headbanging together with the fans. During the dramatic refrain though, the stage was drenched in blue light and fans held up and waved their hands in solidarity. The members carried on playing Lethal Affliction, Faceless and Ablaze excitedly, making use of the whole stage. Ricko ran to Sena and Boogie’s side of the stage multiple times to lean on their shoulders while singing directly to them. “Shibuya, are you having fun? The next song will be the last. Right now at this moment I feel insanely good! You all too, aren’t you? What do you say? Don’t you want to destroy this live hall together with us? Don’t you?!“ Ricko upped the clapping fans’ excitement, “Let’s go! Let’s spill out our brain matter and have our blood vessels explode! Give it your all until you are dead!“ he continued and fans once again split up in two, opening up an empty circle in the middle of the hall. JILUKA had chosen to play its new single OVERKILL once more as the last song – this time with a wall of death section. The hall was hot as if a fire had broken out when the members left the stage, and fans immediately began to shout for an encore.
“No matter how many times we thank you, we can never ever thank you enough!“ Ricko greeted the crowd after the members had entered the stage again. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Something totally unrelated. Yesterday I was so hyped for today’s show that I re-dyed my hair red. But today I was sweating so much that the color dropped onto my face and now my face is all red!“ he explained and had fans laugh. JILUKA moved on to playing Ignite and Bloodshot, both of which had the audience jump and clap along to the beat, making the ground shake while Boogie raised his bass up with one hand, strumming the strings loudly with his other hand to show everyone his skills. After that, Ricko asked each of the members to say a few last words to the crowd. Zyean made the start, however his voice apparently wasn’t loud enough for Ricko’s liking. “Your voice is not loud enough!“ he shouted at the drummer, who responded with a “Yessir!“ before addressing the audience: “Thank you for coming. I hope you had a lot of fun. I’m not a person who usually sweats a lot, but today – today there was a lot of sweat. I feel like it’s been a while since we used up so much energy during a show. I’m very happy that so many people came today. Please cheer for us from now on as well!“ Next up was Boogie and his fans, who have eagerly been waiting for the bassist to finally say something tonight, began screaming his name frantically. “Thank you! Today’s one-man was to celebrate the release of OVERKILL. We started a new theme with the release of BLVCK and put everything we’ve gained from that experience into OVERKILL and evolved as a band. Today’s gig was really great, except for a few words from our childish vocalist here,“ the laughed “But that’s exactly his charming point. He’s like the childish main character of a series who you just want to follow. I would be happy if you all believed in him and of course in us and followed us from now on as well.“
After being pointed out by his colleague, Ricko took the opportunity to continue. “I know you all aren’t really looking at each other, but each and everyone of you has an amazing look on their face,“ he addressed the crowd. „You know how there are moments in life that change you? Every time I sing I believe that live shows are a turning point in people’s lives. JILUKA’s music is heavy and not everyone understands what we’re doing. We are like a circus, but I believe that we are like Japan’s strongest band. Please give us your all from now on as well.“ Last to speak was guitarist Sena: “Thank you for coming. It’s been a while since we were able to do a concert with barely any restrictions like today. Today made me realize how long it’s really been. Three years. I’m really glad I believed in what we’re doing for so long. To be honest, there were a lot of chances to drop out of the music scene given the circumstances in the past three years, which is why I also really want to thank you all for believing in us for so long and following us up until now. Some people might think it’s idiotic to mix metal, electronic and goth music, but this scene is what makes it possible. OVERKILL represents our feelings towards the music scene, towards the current times. The music scene died once, but was reborn again and so was JILUKA. In the past 3 years we released about 20 or more songs, and now the time for these songs to come to life and take color has finally come. We will deliver you the most powerful shows from now on, so please look forward to that.“
With those words the band proceeded to deliver one more powerful performance of OVERKILL. Finally, Boogie made three announcements: a one-man show at Shibuya clubasia on April 27th, a one-man tour in September with the tour final taking place at Shibuya O-WEST and JILUKA’s biggest one-man yet at Shinjuku BLAZE on April 27th, 2024. To end the show, the members went to the very front of the stage, held each other’s hands and jumped together with the crowd. After the members had left the stage, the hall still felt like was on fire. JILUKA definitely succeeded in almost destroying Shibuya Kinmirai Kaikan that night. The band played for 2 1/2 hours, with barely any breaks or ballads in between for the members and fans to calm down. Their show was long, and yet so powerful from start to finish and I was blown away watching it. It was my first one-man show of JILUKA and I have to admit that it was possibly the most powerful, intense and hot live show I have ever been lucky enough to watch. This one-man show with a lot of screaming and shouting and multiple walls of death sections made me feel that pre-pandemic live-show action again. This is how live shows used to be and hopefully will be again from now on. I sincerely hope that oversea fans of JILUKA will soon have the chance to see their favorite band and experience one of their live-shows, because they definitely have the potential to be life-changing.
Live Report: Tiffany
English Edit: Franzi
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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