Supergroup Anchors At Pearl Harbor

Japanese “visual-kei” supergroup Vamps finished off its world concert tour in a very unlikely venue on Sept. 14.

The band played on the deck of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The battleship, which was decommissioned in 1990, is now a museum. Before Vamps used it as a stage, probably the boat’s most famous purpose was as the site where a defeated Japan signed the surrender agreement with the Allies in Sept. 1945 in Tokyo Bay.

Surprisingly or not, the American media seemed totally uninterested in the irony.

The Vamps band features L’Arc en Ciel leader Hyde, Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z. and musicians associated with visual kei superstars Gackt and Yoshiki of X Japan.

The group performed 20 songs with a large American flag flying behind them and flanked by 16-inch guns.

The show concluded a tour that took in 60 concerts, mostly in Japan and a few in the U.S.

Hyde said later that the symbolism inherent in the appearance was totally intentional.

“I think it’s great that an instrument of war can be used to send out a message of peace like this.”

The ship had never hosted a concert before.