Everything about Japan X [sic!] (above), making its stateside debut in front of a smallish audience split between die-hards (those people holding aloft stuffed dolls in the bands' likeness and crossing their arms above their heads while chanting, X, X, X, X!) and curiosity seekers, is cartoonishly over-the-top. The long-running Japanese crew makes a comically slow entrance to the stage as epic choral music pumps through the speakers. Are you ready to rock? screams singer Toshi Deyama, his voice absent any trace of irony. We are! Dressed like glammed-out extras from The Warriors, the group combines piano-driven power ballads (the band's glass-and-stainless-steel piano, which takes center stage on Endless Rain, looks like something Axl Rose might have sprung for at the height of Guns N' Roses' consumption) and thrashier, guitar heavy numbers like Jade, which more often than not are accompanied by towers of flame blasting up from the stage. With a style that combines the theatricality of a Broadway production with cheesy-yet-earnest prog/hair metal, it often sounds as though the Sunset Strip of 1987 has been temporarily airlifted to the band's hometown of Chiba, Japan. (AD)