While sitting in the train rushing back to Germany I’m writing down these two days of Paris. Till Thursday it wasn’t clear whether I could take the opportunity to see X-Japan or not due to some bad and wired circumstances. Anyway it was a closely schedule I had because German school system is an asshole. I was only able to go to a concert when I don’t miss any school, so the Paris Concert was the only chance. After a maths exam in the morning I sat in the train to Paris at about 1 o’clock. Everyone who has ever travelled with the “Deutsche Bahn” knows that you shouldn’t take their schedules too serious. But I did. I was supposed to be in Paris at about 5 pm. Zénith’s doors are supposes to be opened at about 6 pm. ( Well they said it in the internet). I left the train at about 5.30 pm. It started to become stressful. The hotel rejected my credit card. It was the second time this happened to me in France, when it happened the first time I phoned Visa and they were sure it would work again. Well, while I was standing in this little hotel lobby I suddenly had to think at the movie title “there will be blood”…. Well, not before Monday. The reception desk guy was a bit rude till he recognized that I fluently spoke French. I hadn’t enough cash with me it was about 5.50 pm. and I had to find an ATM.
Luckily the hotel was really near to the Zeníth so I arrived there at about 6 pm. With about 10 euros in my pockets…. the rest had the hotel.
The first X-Japan related thing I saw was a small red haired girl wearing an “Xplosion” shirt, she looked also a bit stressed but now I knew I was right.
The queue was long. La Villette, the park were the Zenith is located, is big, but the queue went totally through it.
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting
I started to become thirsty; I actually wanted to buy some water and food…. I started to hate the “Deutsche Bahn”
I started to hate my shyness; the two guys in front of me seemed to be nice, everybody seemed to be nice….
When I finally got in it was amazing. Seeing this fucking crystal piano ,which you only knew from bad or less bad quality Youtube snippets, in real is an amazing feeling. I come from a village in southern Germany where everything is mainstream. And if something is different, it’s automatically strange. Now here were about 4000 other fans, suddenly you know, you are not alone! The atmosphere got better and better, and then it started.
No other band has this talent to take fans. To move them and to give them the feeling their part of the band. I regretted it, that I bought a seating place to my right there was a guy who was just there, he did really nothing, just sat there…. To my left there was a girl who smelled like oranges. Everytime I smell oranges now, I have to think at this concert
But they also were very calm.
X were fucking loud! Even I had hearing protections in my ears! While Jade and rusty nail the block in which I stuck was very calm. The sound was terrible! But I don’t think it were the microphones. Probably it was the room. The bass was really loud Pata wasn’t loud enough. The Zénith is known for his bad acoustic. Don’t know why you have a concert hall with bad acoustic…. strange
Till Kurenai really nothing happened here….. But then, it was like someone opens a valve. When Toshi shouted “Kurenai da!” the block went crazy. But Kurenai in English isn’t the same! Maybe it’s just I’m not used to it, but I sounds “wrong”. When the chorus became Japanese again, the audience started to sing along a lot stronger. I hope the band recognized this sign. Another very touching moment was I.V. Hearing about 4000 voices singing along a song is just incredible! You can’t describe it. It’s not like a choir; it’s more individual, just fantastic. Also Endless rain, which is even touching when you hear it on Youtube . Being a part of this, again, incredible!
Toshi’s voice improved a lot; it was strong all the time, he hold notes in a pitch…. Wow! But after X I was totally out of any power. Being awake since 5.30 am having a maths exam and runnig through Paris demanded their tribute. The sing along at I.V could have been a bit longer.
I couldn’t buy any merchandise because I was blank after that Credit card issue…. Grrrrr!
All in all, too much to put it into so less words, but I didn’t want to make it too long
A great concert, a stressful trip.
The band should keep their Japanese songs Japanese. They were always known as being absolutely not mainstream, but by translating their songs Yoshiki pays a too high price I think.
