XodiacK Live Report

HearJapan recently caught up with XodiacK for their second performance in their new costumes at SUN PHOENIX HALL in Yokohama. They were the last band to perform after a dizzying number of visual kei bands before them and ended up being the 20th band to play that day. Their performance started with the video that is on their album page for Owari no Hajimari which was projected onto a big screen. Some of it was a newer version with verses such as, “we exist to fight for the weak.”

XodiacK didn’t waste any more time though and immediately opened with MASK. MASK has been a song that the band has played many times at live performances, but hasn’t been released as a recording yet. The song can only be described as pure fury. While the guitars and bass are blasting dark riffs, Eros seemed like a fierce wild animal who was waiting for their moment to attack. Eros even wore his two gloves/claws during the show. He used his red one to hold the mic while the bigger one was for elaborate gestures. This was a very cool addition adding further to the image of being deities from the heavens. The other animated member was, agito who would come up to the stage and show off his playing abilities. The overall band’s sound on MASK, was a bit garbled but good none the less. The players are usually strumming very low notes which might have been a little hard for the venue’s amps to amplify. During the solo Eros was really getting into it. In addition to the manic-like head banging and crouching, he would swing his tongue at the audience like he had just prayed on a beast of flesh. By the time MASK had finished the stage had lit up to allow the audience to see their elaborate costumes.

During the brief intermission already. While he talked he would often do a whisper grunt into the mic. The second song was Kimi ni Furu Zetsubou no Ame from Owari no Hajimari. It started with a riveting bass intro and gradually became heavier and heavier. Once agito came in with his eyes rolled up in their sockets the stage just exploded. For the bass solo, yahiro came up to the front of the stage and wowed the audience. Sound quality wise, the band started off with a rocky start but with Kimi ni Furu Zetsubou no Ame they redeemed themselves and everything came in crystal clear. The guitar solos were all performed superbly.

For the third song the band played Kuroi Taiyou. At one point, Eros used his gloves to try to pull out his hair. The whole thing was very dark and used mostly red lights. The band just seemed to let everything go for this song and were moving around the stage like savages. At one point yahiro fell down but quickly got up. The song finished and the band quickly departed the stage.

This show was their second show with their full costumes which encumbered them slightly throughout their performance. It can be expected that through time they will become more comfortable in their gear and will continue to improve their sound. For the second concert though, it was very intense. Intense would be the key word to describe XodiacK. At the end of the show, a bunch of fans brought presents to chiri and Eros.