Voilla!!
Introducing Versailles Philharmonic Quintet, I think I have to first write about my favorite Japanese heavy metal band for the first time in my blog before I talk about their concert.
Surprised?
Please don't let what you see decide if you like them or not and stop reading this post here. Or, please don't judge my taste altogether and stop being a reader of this blog. I am not exactly a Goth-and-Renaissance-fairs-and-role-playing-video-games-with-a-Medieval-setting-lover type of person who moved back to Japan from the states to embrace anime-otakuness. I have nothing against whoever may be the case. I am just saying I am not. I am also not for too much makeup and costume in anything other than a ballet performance or the wonders of Cirque du Soleil. I also am not even readily fond of heavy metal music in general to begin with.
So why did I come to being a fan of them? Because I never knew what they looked like until after I heard their music and fell in love with it to begin with.
I heard their CD, without any conception of what the band is about (or what they look like), and I have to admit I was totally and utterly wowed by their musical concussion. Sure, they were different from Chopin and Schubert and Rachmaninoff that I usually hear from my stereo, and I had to turn down the volume a lot the minute it started playing... by A LOT. But I genuinely liked what I heard. I played the CD again, and like it more.
Their music, while linguistically confusing at times (like any other music by a band, heavy metal or otherwise, really), is simply great. I was intrigued enough and googled them and saw what they looked like, and I went totally dumbfounded because of their gender-confused, French-aristocrats-meets-Final-Fantasy sort of presentation of themselves. Well, I pretty much had the same exact reaction that you had when you first saw them a little while ago in my post.
I also wiki-ed them, and found out they are also critically quite acclaimed, and each member is super duper talented and have a classical music background to base the band's music on. And they are more majorly known in Europe and Latin America than in Japan.
Whatever critics say or whatever they look like or whatever they are to other people, though, I decided I love their music. Let them wear whatever they want and look however they want, because if their looks and performance styles were to overwhelm their music and their talents take backseat, I would stop listening to them pronto.
I am not writing this post to promote the band or spread my love for them. I'm not even tagging their clip on YouTube, see? (Although, I am sending copies of their CD to my friends in USA who are actually the Goth-and-Renaissance-fairs-and-role-playing-video-games-with-a-Medieval-setting-lover type of people who wish to come to Japan to embrace anime-otakuness. Oh yes, I am. Wait for CDs, E and J!) Let me tell you honestly. Had I made my visual encounter with them on line or CD jacket before I actually heard their music, I might have not given them so much of a chance to begin with. Well, because, like any other person who is not optically challenged, more often than not I use my eyes to decide what I like. And I certainly am guilty of having judged a book by its cover, or worse, by my presumption, on many occasions in my life. Aren't we all? And sadly, sometimes, as much as we know it's not the ideal, we have to be that way. There are simply too many things available out there that we can't stop and give each and every thing a fair chance to be liked, and you have to use something as your filter system, be it your eyes or ears or instinct. I am just saying, Versailles Philharmonic Quintet is something I liked using my filter system that I normally would not use. And I am sticking to it.
Until next time,
Sak
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