VAMPS live report: Roseland Ballroom; New York, December 8, 2013

 

On Saturday, Dec 8, VAMPS rocked the Roseland Ballroom in New York City's Theater District. It was my first time seeing them live and my first time seeing Hyde live since 2004. Roseland Ballroom is significantly smaller than Fukuoka Dome, where I saw him perform with L'Arc~en~Ciel for their Smile Tour, and VAMPS is at its core a much different band than either Laruku or Oblivion Dust, the main band for guitarist K.A.Z. They're definitely suited for smaller livehouses; I don't think VAMPS would work as well in a mega concert venue.
SETLIST
VAMPIRE DEPRESSION
DEVIL SIDE
REDRUM
REPLAY
SECRET IN MY HEART
Life on Mars? (David Bowie cover)
HUNTING
AHEAD
ANGEL TRIP
TROUBLE
MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION
REVOLUTION
SWEET DREAMS
LOVE ADDICT
SEX BLOOD ROCK N' ROLL

I got there at 7:30 (doors opened at 7) and didn't realize that the entire first hour was going to be openers. The two opening acts for VAMPS were pretty underwhelming. Killcode, the first opener, was a hard rock band which had as much in common with VAMPS as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - basically nothing except the fact that they were both bands. The second act was Sid Wilson from Slipknot, who performed a DJ set, and again had as much in common with VAMPS as Kyary. The crowd was pretty bored through both of them. At the end of his set, Sid had the brilliant idea to try crowdsurfing, and unfortunately that backfired, as the mostly female audience at the front of the stage scooted back in alarm.

At 9 PM, the DJ stuff was put away and we got ready for the real thing. There was no fancy opening or dramatic stage entrance a la bigger bands - after a brief opening SE, VAMPS came right on stage and started their no frills set. Hyde in particular seemed particularly happy to be going crazy on stage - jumping, screaming, flailing his arms. A few of my friends who were there and had seen VAMPS live before also mentioned that K.A.Z. seemed to be letting loose at this show more than he had at previous shows.

Encore:

If I could describe the live in one word, it would be "energetic." VAMPS is very much a live band - all of their songs seem to be designed to get the crowd pumping as fast and as hard as possible, and it definitely worked. The venue was filled up by the time they came onstage, but as the main audience was mostly pushed up in the front toward the stage, the back of the ballroom was a lot sparser and gave some room to breathe for those of us (like me) who didn't appreciate being jammed up against sweaty headbanging people. I don't know anything about VAMPS live in Japan, but considering that they've had multiple top 10 Oricon releases for the past couple of years, I'm guessing that the NYC crowd was much smaller than they're used to. From what I've heard about the less-than-stellar promotion of this tour, and how there were still tons of tickets available at the door, I'm not surprised.

The best part of the live was seeing the different kinds of fans all packed into that room together enjoying themselves. There were two huge guys in baggy pants standing to my front left, and I wondered what they were doing there - but when the music started, it became pretty obvious that they were the hardest of hardcore fans. They knew all the words to every song and all the hand gestures. As VAMPS only had two stops on this tour, I'm sure that a lot of the audience came not only from the east coast, but from even further.

The show itself was one of the shortest shows I've ever been to. From start to finish it was barely 90 minutes with an 11-song setlist and 4-song encore with a few of Hyde's English MCs thrown in: "Are you having fun? Me too!" It was apparently also drummer Arimatsu's birthday, and in between "Sweet Dreams" and "Love Addict," they wheeled in a big cake. We were treated to Arimatsu blowing out the candles and doing a short English MC of his own. After that, it was two more songs and then bam, the end. With a "I'll be back!", Hyde and co. left the stage, the house lights came on, and we were cleared out of the Roseland Ballroom as fast as the grumpy staff could manage.

In all, I enjoyed myself and everyone I talked to had a great time. No one took themselves too seriously, there was serious energy between the band and the crowd, and it was everything a live hard rock show should be. I hope VAMPS comes back to the east coast again; I'd go see 'em and you should too!

Zdroj:https://www.tumblr.com/shiroi-heya-blog