Two years have already passed since Versailles’ last gig in Germany, at that time still as a quintet. The band has returned now with only four members and support bassist MASASHI. Their Versailles World Tour 2010 started on June 4th in Brazil and since that day numerous fans around the globe have fallen under their spell. Germany was honoured with two live shows and JaME had the chance to experience the “Descendants of the Rose” performance at Hamburg’s Knust on July 9th, 2010.
Running several minutes late, the fans rushed into the small venue and waited impatiently for the heavy red satin curtain to open and finally release vocalist KAMIJO, guitarists HIZAKI and TERU and drummer YUKI. One by one the musicians entered the stage dressed in opulent costumes and posed for the audience. They were greeted with applause and joyful screams. Without wasting too much time, the show kicked off with Aristocrat’s Symphony and already at the beginning it was apparent that the musicians had a lot of fun on stage. They interacted with the first row over and over again; hands were shaken and lots of posing done. Unfortunately right from the start the vocals were hardly audible and the drum set was overly loud. Luckily those problems had no effect on the mood of the live; the fans were into every single song and celebrated together with the musicians.
The ballad PRINCESS -Revival of church- combined rock melodies with HIZAKI’s heavenly soft guitar solo. The fans were singing along and the song was closed with KAMIJO's hand on his heart. The band continued with a more mysterious and atmospheric feel before they left the stage with the comment, “It's hell here!”,referring to the warm temperature in the venue. After this short break where KAMIJO took off his cloak, the show continued with PRINCE. The sound finally normalized and the audience could now feel that KAMIJO was really singing. Both TERU and HIZAKI played solos and synchronous parts from time to time; they interacted with the crowd and often were right at the front of the stage. However, YUKI and MASASHI stayed mostly in the background. KAMIJO’s words “We have a beautiful philosophy” were hardly believable as fans in the first row scrambled to fight for a rose he had thrown only moments before. The announcement of the last song, Dear Princess, came surprisingly fast but when the dark organ intro turned into a wild and unrestrained drum inferno, it was all flying hair on and off stage. And so the first part of the evening ended with a dramatic finish.
The gathered fans didn’t need to wait too long for an encore. Among loud “We are Versailles” calls, TERU ran on stage only five minutes later, grabbed the microphone and after several shouts of “We are…?” “Versailles!” with the audience, the other members returned on stage. KAMIJO and HIZAKI enjoyed being close to the fans and regularly bathed in the first row. They obviously enjoyed being touched by the fans. With an “Are you ready?” the vocalist started the final part of the encore. Whilst The Red Carpet Day and The Revenant Choir echoed throughout the venue, the game with the crowd continued as well. Several spins, changes in position and a back-to-back play between the guitarists and comments á la “Oh my God!” kept the mood heated up. KAMIJO was so high spirited, he almost fell over HIZAKI. With a nice “Thank you!” even this last song ended and KAMIJO introduced all of his band members. They also thanked the now deceased Jasmine You, their original bassist, with some hand kisses into the sky. Some water bottles, picks and towels found their way into the crowd; and HIZAKI himself came down from the stage to be closer to the fans, though that was quickly cut short by security. At KAMIJO’s “Let’s jump!”, all the musicians lined up, took each others' hands and were jumping and falling together. After another round of shaking hands with the fans, the musicians finally left the stage.
Due to technical difficulties in the beginning, the evening was more eye candy than musical experience for a while. But luckily this had no adverse effect on the mood. Versailles represented their complete musical range from baroque rock to romantic ballads. One could see that both musicians and fans had fun all throughout the evening.
