Yoshiki Superstar Project X: Auditions (e1–6)

[adevyish]

Haven’t I been burned by enough audition shows? Haven’t I seen the many attempts of Yoshiki trying to make a band happen in the US?

Yoshiki Superstar Project X, or YX for short, can get very Japanese morning news program which is not my cup of tea. The Youtube episode digests gave up on English subtitles at some point so I went from “yay subs!” to “oh god I have to read Japanese captions”.

The guest judges are eye-popping — Hyde, Marty Friedman, and Sarah Brightman in Tokyo; and Gene Simmons, choreographer Travis Payne, and a vocal coach to the stars in LA. The show ran a lot of in-person auditions to accommodate so many guest judges.¹ Yoshiki how much fucking money are you throwing around.

The First (also carried on Hulu Japan, also featuring a music star trying his hand at a music competition) was more or less a documentary, but YX is a ~reality show~. Sample contestant backstories: A nightclub host! Someone who’d studied at Beijing Tsinghua! Someone who’d studied at Berklee and dropped out due to financial circumstances — you cannot get a better music competition show contestant. Also, there was an emphasis on casting near-native English speakers.²

The band auditions were more fun for me as a viewer because it was way more clear that Yoshiki was looking for something specific. Yoshiki wanted to check out this one guy’s drum pedal and you could tell the guy was losing it over having Yoshiki play drums right in front of him. Meanwhile, a guy who plays violin and bass was very chill about playing with Yoshiki accompanying, and knew to watch Yoshiki for cues.³ In contrast to the idol contestants, who stand the chance of being eliminated as the show progresses, the band contestants were finalized by the end of auditions.

Unfortunately, the band’s vocalist, Yoshi, passed away from a motorcycle accident last month. He was one of those guys who jumped out immediately as a star — good vocalist, great performer, amazing on TV. The band had spent two months in the studio already, including vocal lessons and performances in the US. And now the show is re-auditioning for a vocalist.

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¹ Here’s the ones I’ve managed to determine are unique:

• in a theatre
• in a studio (I suspect that the re-audition in the same studio is actually the same day)
• on a TV set w/ Sarah Brightman
• possibly another day on a TV set (based on chairs, Marty Friedman shows up on two different TV set days, but I don’t think he was there when Hyde was there)
• on a TV set w/ Hyde

² For followers of the extended *pnish* universe, contestant Ijiri Ranma was in minish this year.

³ Violin and bass? Mood! I too don’t want to learn a six-stringed instrument after years with a four-stringed.