Japanese rock concert held on the USS Missouri
Japanese rock group VAMPS recently held a special concert on the deck of the USS Missouri, a battleship best known for hosting Japan’s war surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945.
Flanked by the ship’s 16-inch guns and with the stars and stripes flying behind them, the band performed 20 songs, including the upcoming release “Sweet Dreams.” About 600 fans paid $150 each to see the unique show. Vamps was formed in 2008 around L’Arc en Ciel frontman Hyde and Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z. The lineup also includes bassist Ju-ken, who has performed with Gackt and X Japan’s Yoshiki. They have released one album and three singles. The tour took in 60 shows in Japan and the U.S. and finishing off in Hawaii, which is in more than one way the meeting point between the two countries, was heavily symbolic. Hyde said, “I think it’s great that an instrument of war can be used to send out a message of peace like this.”
According to the “Mezamashi TV” clip, about 600 Japanese and American fans attended the concert.
[hat tip to The Other East]
Related video clip: a newsreel from 1945 showing the surrender ceremony:
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