Jack in the Box, Maverick DC Group’s much-anticipated annual event, was met again with much success last month at the usual venue, Nippon Budokan. With members from all the bands in the company, including Creature Creature, MUCC, girugamesh, Zoro, Sid, and others, the festive event delivered another surprise-filled day.

With an opening act by Administrator playing “Promise” and “Te Maneku Taiyou,” the event kicked off with the newest Jack in the Box theme song — “Eien no Machi —The ‘Noise’ City” (composed by Jimmy, lyrics by Paul, arranged by Ken), and was followed shortly by over six hours of stimulation.

Session A:

Vocals: Paul (44Magnum), Satoshi (girugamesh)
Guitar: Marty Friedman and Taizo (Zoro)
Bass: Shuu (girugamesh)
Drums: Sakura (Creature Creature)

The sextet performed “Shout at the Devil ’97,” “We R Rock’n’Roll Stars,” and “In the End.” The twin guitar solo and the dueling vocals left the greatest impression.

Session B:

Vocals: SATOchi (MUCC), Ken (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
Guitars: Shinji (Sid)
Bass: YUKKE (MUCC)
Drums: Яyo

The unforeseen combination, especially with SATOchi on vocals, brought on surprised cheers and laughs from the audience because of not only YUKKE started the intro to L’Arc~en~Ciel’s famous “Lies and Truth” and failed to hit the high notes, but also because of SATOchi in jean vest and extremely tight-fitting jean shorts, paired with orange sneakers. Not to be beat, Яyo wore black bunny ears and played drums with a huge smile on his face. The second song “winter fall” was also met with the same unmatched funny elements as SATOchi and Ken both struggled to remember the lyrics and hit high notes. According to the members’ own words, the concept was to combine all the funny members of each band and to have karaoke-like session, which they definitely succeeded in.

Session C:

Vocals: Tatsurou (MUCC)
Guitar: JUN (spiv states), Sugimoto Yoshinori
Bass: Shuu (girugamesh)
Drums: Yu-ya

The five members performed “Love You Only” and “I Wish,” two light and poppy tracks that took up little time, and the audience was very disappointed when Tatsurou announced that that was all they were performing, but immediately cheered up once he announced they were going to use the remaining time, an entire 8 minutes for short talks about each member.

Session D:

Vocal: ken (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
Guitar: Miya (MUCC)
Bass: Aki (Sid)
Drums: Miura Tomoya (PULLING TEETH)
Keyboards: Hatano Takeyuki

With Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and “Telephone – DJs from Mars Metallica Remix 1,” Session D delivered a danceable set infused with rock elements.

After a series of sessions, each band took turns to take over the stage:

ZORO: 1. Saruai, 2. DYNAMITE FLAVOR, 3. KITSUNE

Creature Creature: 1. Dream Caller, 2. Amor Fati, 3. Gone By Rain, 4. Red

girugamesh: 1. Destiny, 2. Break Down, 3. CRAZY-FLAG, 4. driving time, 5. evolution

Then it was time for Session E. At the beginning of each session, giant monitors to either sides of the stage would display images of the members in the upcoming session, and to the audience’s surprise, Session E only showed one picture — of Mao from Sid, who promptly walked onto stage in full-on kimono, and sang “Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru,” (In Love with You Again) — enka song, as dry ice filled the stage floor.

Next on was MUCC, who played a combination of old and new songs: “Falling Down,” “Fuzz,” “Ranchu,” and “I am Computer,” showing off their wide range of music types ranging from dance, electro-techno, to head-banging heavy metal.

Session F:

Vocals: hyde (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
Guitar: JIMMY (44MAGNUM)
Bass: TAKASHI (BUG)
Drums: Yuuya (Sid)

In quite fluent English, the quartet performed “Electric Eye” and “Freewheel Burning,” and with the addition of pyrotechnics the audience’s excitement heated to the max.

The last one-man band to perform was 44MAGNUM. The father and son vocal duo performed “Take Me To Your Heart,” “I’M LONELY MAN,” “SURRENDER,” and “I JUST CANT TAKE ANYMORE.”

Lastly, it was time for the much anticipated grand finale performed by MAVERICK DC SUPER ALL STARS:

Vocals: Paul (44MAGNUM), kyo (BUG/D’ERLANGER), Morrie (Creature Creature / DEAD END), hyde (L’Arc~en~Ciel), Tatsurou (MUCC), Mao (SID), Satoshi (girugamesh), Ryuji (ZORO)
Guitars: JIMMY (44MAGNUM)
Bass: JACK
Drums: JOE (44MAGNUM)

Together, with over 40 musicians on stage, the group performed the theme song of “Eien no Machi – The ‘Noise’ City” while the audience, no matter whose fan they were, sang in unison, marking the end of this eventful and memorable day. Fans can definitely expect another surprise-filled festival the same time next year.

Live Report by: Christina F.
Edited by: Debra H.