Supergroups aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be. Despite the promise of an all-star lineup, the output can vary significantly. For every Them Crooked Vultures or Traveling Wilburys that blow our minds with cohesive tunes that showcase each member’s talents, there are the SuperHeavys or Damnocracys that just leave us scratching our heads.
Luckily, The Last Rockstars — which features Yoshiki of X Japan, Hyde of L’Arc-en-Ciel, Sugizo of Luna Sea and Miyavi of Dué le quartz — fits squarely into the former category. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that they gel so well, considering they’ve already spent time playing together. Sugizo spent time in X Japan as well as playing in another supergroup, S.K.I.N. with Yoshiki and Miyavi.
The band kicked off the year with their very literal Live Debut 2023 tour, with exclusive stops in Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles. They finished off the tour at the Hollywood Palladium, giving Southern California fans the chance to see this well-oiled machine on their seventh show together. Unsurprisingly, the audience was filled with fans of the members’ regular bands, with plenty of L’Arc-en-Ciel, X Japan and Luna Sea shirts.
For the casual American music fan, these musicians and band names are probably pretty foreign. Despite the lack of popularity stateside, they are all massively, and we mean massively popular in their home country of Japan. This might be a bit of conjecture, but Yoshiki has even been referred to as “Japan’s Bono.” The four members boast millions upon millions of records sold and chart-topping hits in the Land of the Rising Sun. That popularity was evident as the band packed the quite-large Palladium, with tickets going for well over $100 apiece.
Yoshiki and Hyde serve as the band’s duel frontmen; Hyde handled the vast majority of lead vocals while Yoshiki mainly played drums and piano. Meanwhile, the twin guitar attack of Miyavi and Sugizo provided a rich backing that ranged from chunky metal riffs to fleet-fingered guitar solos and soothing orchestral soundscapes.
The audience patiently waited for about 30 minutes beyond the previously-announced 9 pm set start time — something the band apologized for later in the set. Once the lights dimmed, the giant head of a cyborg woman announced each member, one by one, with the audience getting increasingly louder. The group took the stage to the twinkling intro of their titular single “THE LAST ROCKSTARS,” before launching into its hard-hitting opening riff.
“THE LAST ROCKSTARS” oscillated between crunchy aggression and beautiful orchestral rock. It was the perfect combination of all the members’ skills, with soaring vocals in the chorus, virtuosic guitar playing and pounding drums.
The band doesn’t have a lot of original songs in their repertoire yet, so they filled out the set with covers of X Japan, L’Arc-en-Ciel and S.K.I.N. Even with the vast majority of their original songs nowhere to be found on the internet, half the audience was singing along. Even the band had to take note of this phenomenon, which is a testament to the dedication of fans of these Japanese rock stars.
The first cover was one of Hyde’s songs, “6 or 9.” Like the open number, the song was full of energy maintaining the momentum of the band and audience. They followed it up with a pair of originals, “Messiah” and “Here’s Love.” The two tracks were a little less abrasive than “THE LAST ROCKSTARS” but still maintained the combination of aggressive verses and soaring choruses.
Next was a cover of the aforementioned supergroup that included three-quarters of The Last Rockstars, S.K.I.N. With the name “Beneath the Skin,” it’s a bit of a titular track for that group as well. Just like the previous four songs in the set, this track brought the energy during the verse only to open up into a beautiful, melody-laden ballad-style chorus.
At this juncture Hyde and Yoshiki left the stage, leaving Sugizo and Miyavi to duel. This is where Miyavi really had a chance to break out his “slap” style guitar playing — despite the similar technique, it sounds nothing like the slap bass playing made popular by Flea and Les Claypool. After the two guitarists finished shredding, Sugizo introduced the song “Folly” with an extended violin solo.
“Folly” was the first real change of pace in the set. Unlike the previous tracks which were defined by symphonic metal stylings, this song had a trip-hop quality to it. It’s worth noting that at this point Yoshiki was still off stage (and Miyavi had exited as well), with Hyde returning back to provide vocals accompanied by violin and a drum machine.
Then it was time to add a little acoustic guitar to the mix. Sugizo played the acoustic guitar on “Hallelujah” while Miyavi came back out on electric guitar. While it opened with acoustics, the song itself had an electronic rock quality to it, sounding a bit like something Greg Puciato would compose for The Black Queen.
Finally Yoshiki came back out with a show-stopping drum solo. After he finished, he stood up and launched his sticks into the crowd. Turns out those were probably some of the only drumsticks to get through the show unscathed; later on in the set, the drummer showed off how many he had broken in half — at least six but likely more.
After the drum solo, Yoshiki got onto the piano for an extended intro into the gorgeous X Japan ballad “Endless Rain.” They didn’t play the full seven minute track, instead opting to perform a verse and the chorus with lyrics projected behind them.
That brought us to another cover of X Japan, the more metallic “Born to Be Free.” Yes, it also has symphonic elements, but the verses boast a speed metal influence that had the audience bouncing off the walls. Next up, “HONEY,” a L’Arc-en-Ciel cover, showed off Hyde’s alternative rock background.
The band closed out their set with a few other original tracks, including “Up and Down,” “Red Swan” and “SHINE.” They also played “Psycho Love,” one of the tracks teased when the band was announced. The exhilarating set that concluded their first-ever tour wrapped up with a reprise of “THE LAST ROCKSTARS,” just like the other shows on the tour.
Despite only being together for a short time, they’ve already established a repertoire of original songs, with a few covers sprinkled in to satiate the die-hard fans that have been following them for years. With so many commitments between the four artists, this may have been one of the only opportunities for Americans to catch them together as The Last Rockstars. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
The night opened up with a performance by Band Maid, an all-female rock group from Japan. Inspired by their country’s maid cafes, all four members wear maid costumes.
Setlist
“THE LAST ROCKSTARS”
“6 or 9” (HYDE song)
“Messiah”
“Here’s Love”
“Beneath the Skin” (S.K.I.N. cover)
“Guitar Duo”
“Violin Solo”
“Folly”
“Hallelujah”
“Drum Solo”
“Piano Solo/Endless Rain”
“Born to Be Free” (X JAPAN cover)
“HONEY” (L’Arc-en-Ciel cover)
“Up and Down”
“Bang!” (MIYAVI song)
“Red Swan”
“PSYCHO LOVE”
“SHINE”
“THE LAST ROCKSTARS”
Additional Photos of The Last Rockstars
Band Maid:
All Photos By: Jenna Houchin
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