2013 marks the seventh year for the HALLOWEEN PARTY 2013 event presented by VAMPS.
This years’ event took place at the same venue, Kobe World Memorial Hall for two days and Makuhari Messe for three days following 2012 precedent while the tickets sold out like a premium deal. That was clear evidence the Vamps Halloween event has an increase in consumer demand. That said, the event finale on October 27 at Makuhari brought in 14,000 people in the audience, full of excitement.
The starter of the day stage was DAIGO, who also released a single this past summer. He has an upcoming release in December, ‘BUTTERFLY’ from which he must have gotten an inspiration for his butterfly like costume for the day.
Next appeared Nogizaka46, in the gothic-inspired and vampire like black costumes. They smiled saying, ‘we usually wear school uniforms, so this is kind of fun’ and performed using the space on site to show their stage.
The third artist was Golden Bomber. At first the monitor screen showed the members making them look like they were dressed as women, but it wasn’t them for real. The real members jumped out of a secret spot covered by a black fabric giving fans a nice surprise. Like one of those typical Japanese summer scenes hitting a watermelon with a stick on the beach, they had a cute little ‘pumpkin-hitting’ on stage for fun, and the stage went on with songs involving groups to head bang on and off stage. The last song by Golden Bomber was ‘Memeshikute’ in which the audience jumped up and down to the tunes.
More entertainment was thrown even in between artist stages. Hisashi Yamada, who claims to be one of the representative VAMPS fans, came up as the presenter on stage, facilitating the audience to compete dance performance, which had been announced well in advance via VAMPS homepage with complete choreography for HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY 2013. A costume fashion show followed by name of HALLOWEEN COLLECTION 2013 (a.k.a NOT an equivalency of Paris Fashion Week!). A karaoke stage took place shortly after featuring a comedian, Ryuji Aoki, known for his impersonation of artists. “Got a call from god (HYDE) saying, ‘You just come’” said Aoki joining the stage for karaoke battle ‘From KARAOKE to the STAGE’. This karaoke battle was quite a serious game in which people had to audition on the day and the finalists were picked by the VAMPS themselves.
7:45 pm at Makuhari Messe. Wild applause and cheers were heard in the back of the audience area. It was VAMPS brought in by a decorative coach, from which HYDE was staring at the audience with glares in his eyes. The band members headed toward runway as they got off the coach. HYDE took his steps slowly. Like a medieval circus on wheels, the huge stage set started lighting on and off. HYDE went toward the back of stage and moved his way up to the top of stairs. He stood on top and held the cheers from the audience with both hands, and in the next second HYDE took a dive in the air. We heard screams. Screams then turned into wild cheers as HYDE revealed himself on the top of the coach again. People looked puzzled to understand what just happened. The audience was completely taken by a surprise.
The opening song for VAMPS was ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY~HARD CORE Ver.~’. The coach ran around the venue with HYDE. HYDE was giving a roar as he sang. People knew that HYDE had ‘descended’ for this day event. Servants like bats held onto VAMPS flags and the band played ‘REVOLUTION II’.
“Welcome to HALLOWEEN PARTY. We are gonna make it the craziest night ever.”
As they fueled the fans, they played ‘AHEAD’. During ‘ANGEL TRIP’, K.A.Z. dashed through the runway while the metallic red tape confetti flew in the sky. The fans waved to dance along K.A.Z. making him look like he was Moses controlling the ocean waves.
“Are you dead finely? (lol) You all look 20% prettier than usual that is the magic of cosplay. Feels like I wanna eat you all up.” (HYDE)
As fans responded to him in excitement, HYDE made a comment on his outfit, “well, today is the last show, so I came in full formal wear.”
HYDE showed up in his original vampire character costume. It was 2012 when he first revealed the style in full, illustrated and made by HYDE. On top of HYDE thoroughness, staff showed their seriousness, and that is this crazy Halloween event has come this far. Thoroughness to have fun is really an interactive effort between the band and the fans. HYDE continued;
“I know you are gonna pop ‘cuz it’s our last day. Let’s do it. Are you all ready, to be naughty? Let’s move on!”
Flames of fire were rolled out on ‘RUMBLE~HALLOWEEN Ver.~’. The original of the song is a jazzy one with melancholic tunes, but it was a complete different arrangement. It was like a symphony at first then sounded more like ‘loud’ music. The arrangement was just full of variation almost like a ‘remix’ of some sort. This was one of the very moments proving VAMPS was not just a stage performer, but one band of a kind that is constantly hungry for all the better.
VAMPS live show came to pause, and HALLOWEEN JUNKEY ORCHESTRA time started.
In addition to the performers of the day, lots of names including Shinya (DIR EN GREY), Kanon Wakeshima, Shinji (SID), aki (SID) and more guests from previous attendees all joined in this occasion. Anis acted a facilitator for the drumming game ‘Rhythm Game’, in which HYDE and K.A.Z. ended up getting the penalty together.
The rarest scene of the day was TERU and TAKURO from GLAY appearing on stage.
TERU dressed as Captain Harlock and TAKURO in top-to-toe white vampire look, and they performed one of their hit songs ‘Yuwaku’ with HALLOWEEN JUNKEY ORCHESTRA.
TERU and HYDE took the main vocal and chorus parts in turns. Not only it was the sweetest bonus to the audience, it was really a hot surprise for the performers. DAIGO stood in awe saying, ‘uh, I know I’m supposed to run around and get best out of everyone here, but gee I just stood and watched this awesome performance” HYDE added his comment saying, “I’m definitely turned on”.
The audience laughed with TERU and TAKURO on stage. So did staff members. More than this Makuhari Messe event being out of reach for everyone, this was a moment like a friendly family event.
Tommy heavenly6 was called in on stage and everyone played the very song made for the event, ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY’. The bats on stage danced to the tunes as well. HYDE’s HALLOWEEN world interprets it like a pop and colorful lively event. And it’s never complete. Every year HYDE seems to bring in more elements to it. Maybe more feel.
As ‘HALLOWEEN PARTY’ kept playing, the venue light was gradually turned on at around almost 9 pm. HYDE called out to Makuhari;
“HAPPY HALLOWEEN！See you next year！”
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