By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
We are less than three months away from one of Japan’s most exciting rock concerts of the year. Announced four days ago on their official site, j-rock group Glay along with groups X Japan and Luna Sea will be performing on day 1 of the Visual Japan Summit 2016 Powered by Rakuten. Visual Japan Summit is a visual kei music festival to be held indoors at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 9-11 in Chiba Prefecture. This event takes place October 14-16, just one week apart from events like the Nihonmatsu Lantern festival (October 4-6) and the Kurama Fire Festival (October 22).
Visual Japan Summit announced the line-up recently of days 2 (October 15th) and 3 (October 16th). X Japan, Glay, and hide with Spread Beaver perform Saturday and X Japan, Luna Sea, and ゴールデンボンバー (Golden Bomber) on Sunday. More guests may be announced in future. Tickets are ¥ 14,000 (tax included) for 1 day admission ticket, ¥ 39,000 (tax included) for 3 day admission and ¥ 60,000 (tax included) for 1 day VIP pass. For more details visit the Visual Japan Summit 2016 Powered by Rakuten official website (Japanese only) at http://visual-japan.com/
Visual kei can best be described to those unfamiliar with the term as not a music genre but an art form. Visual kei defy any labelling of music being played because visual kei groups are not bound by the music played. What does define visual kei is it’s use of make-up, elaborate hairstyles, and flamboyant costumes, sometimes coupled with artists whom for reasons either real or fantasy appear androgynous. Dir en Grey, Malice Mizer, and Shazna are earlier examples of Japan’s visual kei while Boy George of the Culture Club, Kiss and The Cure are examples in Western Society. Although the term was coined in Japan in 1992 David Bowie himself is considered by many as the Godfather of visual kei.
