Of all the things Coachella’s been known for over the years, heavy metal has never been one of them. There’s always a wide variety of hip-hop, EDM, pop hits, hipster-friendly lighter rock bands, but any and all forms of metal are generally left somewhere around Pomona or San Bernardino on their way to the most overhyped and overwhelming festival of the year.
This time around, one of the biggest metal bands in the world has finally broken through the flower crown barrier — even if they had to come from Japan to do it.
“When I first heard from my agent that Coachella might be interested in us, I knew how big of a deal that was, and I was really excited,” says Yoshiki, the leader of Japan’s rock superstars, X Japan. “Then to find out that there are not that many rock acts and there wasn’t much competition from Asian markets, we were wondering if that was good or bad. Either way, we were ready to play. I guess it’s because our music is pretty eclectic, but we rock really hard too. When we played last Saturday, there were some X Japan fans there, but there were a lot of people who were trying to figure us out. It was interesting, but we rocked them.”
It’s far from the first time X Japan has come to America to show the West what we’re missing out on, but even compared to other major performances like their 2014 performance at Madison Square Garden or 2010’s set at Lollapalooza, the band’s trip to Indio this year holds an incredible amount of meaning. For one thing, it almost didn’t happen. This year’s Weekend One performance was Yoshiki’s first major show with the band after he was forced to get neck surgery last year for the most metal reason ever: Too much headbanging.
“A long time ago we took things for granted,” Yoshiki says with a thoughtful pause. “But after all these things happened, now we don’t take anything for granted. Every day is a miracle. I had neck surgery last year and was almost paralyzed, but I came back. Every single moment and every second that I’m playing music, I’m grateful.”
As if the pressure of recovering from surgery wasn’t enough, the 52-year-old drummer, pianist, and composer drew what many would consider the shortest straw in the history of overlapping sets at Coachella. By closing out the Mojave Tent on Saturday night, the glam metal legends’ performance competes directly and entirely with the headliner of all headliners, the return of a no-longer-pregnant Beyoncé with over a year’s worth of anticipation after cancelling last year. But as they showed by thrilling old fans and converting new believers (who weren’t interested in seeing Beyoncé) last weekend, there’s a reason X Japan still wins awards around the world for their pyro-heavy live shows even after three decades of performing.
“First of all, I think Beyoncé is an amazing artist and an amazing performer,” Yoshiki says after half-joking that he wishes he could’ve seen her last weekend. “I play every single show like it’s going to be our last show. I put my entire energy into it, and I play like there’s no tomorrow. I think that’s part of the reason we’ve been having a lot of fans, or maybe it’s because our music is good too. We rock really hard. Some songs are kind of soft, but on the inside we are dedicating ourselves entirely to the moment.”
To continue their tradition of mindblowing concerts and keep up with the grandeur of Coachella, Yoshiki not only honored X Japan’s deceased members via hologram, but also upped the bands special guests from last week’s roster of Wes Borland (the guitarist from Limp Bizkit) and Richard Fortus (the guy who currently has Izzy Stradlin’s role in Guns N’ Roses) to feature as big of a name as a hard rock band can get short of Ozzy Osbourne: Marilyn Manson. Along with that extra special guest, the guys in X Japan are glad they’ll get the chance to work with Coachella’s production crew one more time to test the boundaries of what’s allowed in terms of special effects in the desert.
“We’ve been negotiating with the production people since last Saturday because we want more, and they’re still very restrictive on what we can use in terms of pyro or lighting,” Yoshiki says. “Manson’s going to be joining us for a song, but we just want to improve on the things we wanted to do last weekend but couldn’t do. This show is going to be three times better because we will be pushing the limits, and because we didn’t know what we were walking into last Saturday. I’ve been thinking and planning a lot of things since that moment when we finished the show.”
Of course, a couple of Coachella performances surrounding the LA screening of their award-winning documentary We Are X would be plenty to keep most American X Japan fans happy, but the most exciting plans for the band this year are still ahead. For the first time since 1996’s Dahlia, the influential Japanese metal and fashion legends are getting ready to release a brand new album — albeit with a slightly smaller crew.
“As a creating and composing process, it’s the same,” Yoshiki says of the new record. “The big difference is that we lost members, so when I was composing and recording, it almost felt like Hide — the guitar player — was still recording with us. Even our new guitar player would say that he was channeling what he would be playing. Even though physically there are only five of us making this album, all seven of us are creating this album.”
[Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that XJapan performed at MAdison Square Garden in 2008 and 20014. The band was actually was scheduled to play Madison Square Gardens in 2008 but had to cancel because of Yoshiki-sama’s FIRST neck surgery. The Weekly regrets this error.]
Josh Chesler used to play baseball for some pretty cool teams, but now he just writes about awesome stuff like tattoos, music, MMA and sneakers. He enjoys injuring himself by skateboarding, training for fights, and playing musical instruments in his off time.