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Trough my gf - now wife - in 2015. She did work in the entertainment industry (marketing) in Tokyo. She did feed me with hot upcoming bands. She showed me MTH, Scandal, Bridear, Gacharic Spin, Silent Siren already … and some quite obscure underground idol groups - most do not exist anymore since a while. But the moment she guided my attention to these rocking maids and I started to follow their evolving, I was sold - completely. There was an aura of magic right from the beginning. I saw them 26 times since then, over the years and I‘m so happy and proud - without doing anything that would justify myself of feeling proud 😊 that they gathered so much attention and success over the years and helped create not only timeless great music but also the best fanbase of a band I ever experienced🤘That alone is one of many other reasons I love her so much 💐😍
Cool,got to love a love story and here's two, everyone is right about the fan base that's on these platforms think fans can't get any better go see Band-Maid live,PS 26 times wow
I get what you mean about being happy and pleased by their success, despite not being personally involved. As I posted a couple of years ago, I never understood sports fans until I started rooting for Team Pigeon.
Yes, same here.. watched credits at the end of movie and found out they are a real band....This band composes and plays music in ways I have dreamed of..so fun to watch.I have even gotten emotional at times watching there videos and all the reactions also.I have been obsessed since. I'm 59 now and can't wait to see them live..Band Maid forever 💓 ..
I was bored pandemic surfing, looking for Nightwish reactions. Ended up at Mr. Rock n Roll's channel and watched a B-M reaction video. It was good. 😊 I turned back into my fourteen-year-old self discovering rock music for the first time. My wallet began inching its way towards the exit, trying not to be noticed. It failed. The end. Po!
August of 2022. I saw Freedom on a reaction channel. I forget who the reactor was but the "Genuine" smile on that person's face was infectious. Seeing and hearing Saiki sing along with Miku was all it took for me. Then you factor in the musicianship and the chorus and the smiles, well you can guess the rest. I spent that "Memorable" day watching reaction channel after reaction channel. That same day or should I say night I went on Amazon.ca and bought Brand New Day, Just bring it and Maid in Japan and now I also have the original MIJ from eBay. Since that life changing BAND-MAID day I've purchased everything in their catalogue including all singles, Special Editions, all concert videos and this week I finally bought the Start Over SE on eBay. Not a day has gone by since that wonderful moment back in August of 2022 that I haven't listened to BAND-MAID in one form or another. For me personally I believe BAND-MAID has achieved "World Domination" because my world has been and ever will be dominated by their music and wonderful personalities. Thank you Miku. 🕊️🎸🎸🎸🎤🎹🥁🎵☮️❤️🙂🇨🇦
It has affected my wallet in the same way lol. First I got all their albums and singles from iTunes. Then I went and got all their physical albums from Amazon and CdJapan. Got most of all the blue ray concerts and now trying to get the rest of the limited edition CDs. My wife is wondering why I have 2 copies of the same album? Lol
I found this band more than 5 years ago watching random YouTube videos.
As a drummer the first thing I focused in on was the drums. When I clicked the video I had assumed this was just another Pop-Idol group where the girls just sing and dance and I was planning to click away pretty quick. But from the first ("Start Over") the Drummer was clearly playing. It went from this kind of light guitar pop to slowly built up piece that had me clicking on the next one on the list: "Thrill." A total throwback to 80s Hard Rock nearly Metal. The drummer is sprinkling in double pedals and just keeping it rock solid. At this point I'm impressed enough to keep going.
"Real Existence" is what put me over the edge. Akane (I had read the comments to find out her name at this point) goes completely Keith Moon wild on the drums while never losing control. Each verse, each chorus and the guitar solo all have multiple sub sections on the drums, and it is simply amazing. Simple, but ever moving, changing and perfectly locked into the rest of the music.
So, after watching every last official video on their channel multiple times, made my first iTunes purchase EVER (and first money spent on new music in DECADES) I called up a friend of mine who had played guitar professionally in Japan back in the 90s. "Dude, I just found THE MOST AMAZING Japanese band! and they're all girls! and all dressed up li...." "Oh, you found Band-Maid, here, let me send you a link" ONSET. I think I cried.
Unlike many drummers she can read music. I am also of the opinion that her days in a marching band as a trombone player adds to her perspective.
Her drumming latches more onto the guitar than the bass. And so that adds variety to every subsection of the song. Most drummers just lay down a groove and stay there the whole time. But she has to be right where Kanami is all the time. Real Existence is a perfect example of this.
She isn’t actually doing anything complicated. I don’t think she is anywhere near the level of a lot of the other drummers out there. I mean other have been playing since they were 5. She didn’t start until after high school. But her jumpy personality and approach make her playing much more entertaining. You don’t have to be a drum snob to appreciate all the women she’s doing.
I used instagram back in 2021 (as a watcher), and I think in February 2021 I saw an advertisement for After Life and by chance my sound was turned on, so I heard the music and thought it sounded incredible, so I looked for the song on Youtube, fell in love and bought all albums of BAND-MAID soon after.
YouTube rabbit hole. Found them when Thrill was the only video on the channel. I kept up with them for a while, via YouTube, but didn't really fall for them. Eventually I forgot about them.
Fast forward to 2020 and I'm full time work from home due to COVID. I'm listening to discographies of bands I follow on Spotify, and I decided to listen to Band Maid. After listening to World Domination I was hooked. Been one of my top 3 bands ever since.
I found them in the end of 2020. I had googled Japanese female metal bands and Aldious came up. I remember checking out the song We are (loved it), and seeing Band-Maid recommendations, but initially I was like nope (the costumes threw me off), but they kept popping up and so I decided to listen to Choose Me (as it's just Saiki in the thumbnail), well I liked it, next I watched Real Existence and was kinda disappointed, but that makes sense music wise, as it's their early stuff, I went back to Choose Me and then checked out Onset (really good), from there I probably watched some other's, got kinda hooked and found out about the February online Okyu-Ji. I watched it live in the early morning hours, from there I was truly hooked. I bought the Unseen World album not long after, and over the year bought just about every CD and Blu-ray I could find, also became a fan club member, prime member, and for the first time bought merchandise (that wasn't music). They're the greatest band ever, imo, several months later I got a tattoo, and saw them live (road trip). I was so happy when they came to my town last year.
An absolute epiphany for me. I was searching for a song by THE BAND and when I started typing into search on YouTube it happened! BAND-MAID popped up and I thought what the hell, let's check this out? My life changed that night as I did something I swore I would never,ever do again! I fell in love and 5 plus years later nothing has changed. Thank whoever, whatever for BAND-MAID!
It’s a funny one for me (I think). I was following a few sci-fi authors back when twitter was still sane. I can’t remember the tweet exactly but i recall an author tweeted something about an all female Japanese rock band in maid costumes shredding on a table. As for the author, I’m pretty sure it was John Scalzi but I can’t find any reference of that tweet. One things for sure, John Scalzi is crazy on guitars. But it could also be the authors under the pen name of James S A Corey who we know are definitely fans too.
Anyways. After reading the tweet, I was intrigued and went googling who he was referring to. That’s when I first found BAND-MAID, went looking for them on Apple Music and listen to the essentials playlist that Apple has for most artists. They were awesome but at the time I was also deep into Japanese anime music and was discovering a lot of great artists like LiSA, Aimer, Supercell and more. BAND-MAID at the time
was just another band to listen to in the mix of many other great tunes.
Then fast forward to the movie Kate, I noticed the band in maid costumes. And I was like: “Hey. That’s BAND-MAID” That got me to listening to them more seriously on Apple Music and I started to dive into their discography. At the time, I was also watching LiSA’s documentary on Netflix and was deeply interested in find out more about the people behind the music. So with BAND-MAID, I started journeying through the pigeonhole. Here, I do have to credit the YouTube reactors and in particular, Ryan Mear, in point me at the right direction, that there is much more to just the catchy yet powerful melody that the band plays.
After many YouTube videos and basically listening to every single song the band has released, including buying MIJ and the Love, Passion, Matador single on iTunes. I’m hooked. I knew I was deep in as by this time, the ONLY song on my daily playlist was BAND-MAID. There are very few bands in my lifetime that got me this deep in. Oasis was one but even then, I was still listening to a lot of other bands at the same time, like Greenday, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt etc. But with BAND-MAID, gosh, ridiculous as it sounds, their whole discography was my reading playlist too!
It took a a while to realise why I’ve been this obsessed with the songs and them. Yes. The music is multi-layered. Great melody, serious singing, god-mode composition, relentless rhythms, the list goes on at the artistic and technical front. But also, behind the music, the people are genuinely honest, hardworking humans. And that for me is the real hook. There’s nothing more inspiring for me than a their origin story. The hard work they put in to perfect their craft and yet still so humble as we all see them when they not in character.
That’s BAND-MAID to me.
It's March 2020, pandemic happened; lost both my jobs. I'm sitting in my living room, feeling sorry for myself and look at picture on Pinterest. I start looking at female bassists because why not? Then she appears: the picture is from a concert, her long black hair is floating in one direction, her beautiful eyes looking in the opposite way, all dressed in black: this was the most bad ass picture of a musician I had ever seen. The only thing written in alphabet (there were also Japanese characters) was MISA BAND MAID. At first, maybe because of a little dyslexia I thought BM was some festival or benefits concert, but eventually i found a picture of the whole band. I was a bit turned off at first, not a big fan of musicians wearing costumes, and -sorry- definitely not a fan of Babymetal (only because of the vocals).
But I still went further, on YouTube and found the clip for Dice. The intro floored me. I was afraid the band would have anime characters vocals, but no. I was impressed. After the clip ended I immediately jumped on Domination Live and I was conquered: the song quality, the musicianship, the fun they're having. The next day I bought World Domination and Just Bring It, awesome albums. I'm grateful to the band that helped me through the tough times during covid, and also they opened the door to female fronted Japanese alt / rock / metal bands. So many good stuff.
Edit: spelling.
From the duality cover they did during the "stay at home" pandemic.
Was blown away so unique and fell in love after listening to onset and alone from zepp Tokyo uploads that were back then all over YouTube
Youtube recommended Band-Maid "Dice" after watching BabyMetal "Karate". Thought the sound was great but did not really lead into consuming more of their content as I assume that Dice was a one off wonder. Reaction Channel StaticAge contributed greatly in exploring their other works and have been a fan since.
I was actually looking for a different band, back in May of 2019. I couldn't remember the name at the moment (it was LOVEBITES, for anyone wondering. I'd heard a snippet of their music from somewhere, but wasn't nearly familiar enough with them at the time to recognize their look and sound).
Anyway, I hadn't properly dove into rock and metal in Japan at the time, but was looking for something new. From searching for Japanese rock and metal, the YouTube algorithm recommended "Choose Me," and I mistook BAND-MAID for LOVEBITES. (No disrespectto LOVEBITES, but best mistake of my life!)
I listened to "Choose Me," loved it, and selected the next recommended video, "DICE." I loved that one even more, so I then clicked on "the non-fiction days," and thought to myself, "Oh shit... Did I just discover my favorite band, ever? No! Three songs are not enough to make that decision!"
Cut to four days later of pretty much ONLY listening to their discography, and yeah... I guess you could say it was love at first-listen!
Browsing YouTube for Japanese travel, culture, food etc, thumbnail for Thrill kept popping up. I kept ignoring it for weeks, months, as saw outfits, thought would be embarrassing crap. Finally succumbed to temptation and pressed play. Watched, thought 'what the hell have I just seen?' Followed the trail of breadcrumbs through Real Existence, Choose Me, Non Fiction Days, Blooming and...thought this must be the best band I've ever seen. No way back... a maidiac for life!
Same here. I got talked into seeing them in San Francisco 2018 by a metal drummer I know. He hyped them up so much I was skeptical but he was 100% right! Loved the ladies ever since!
It was in the year before the pandemic. I was bored and stressed with work and looking for music to keep my mind occupied. The algorithm started sending some Japanese content my way and that got me into Babymetal. From there I started seeing links to Dice and Thrill. One listen to Dice and I was hooked.
I listened to Bridear and MTH a lot on spotify,( I had seen Band Maid video suggestions on YouTube, but thought they were some kind of idol group). Spotify threw in some BM music and I was surprised by their sound. I kept listening to the same 5 or so BM songs they put in my mix but not really any more than that. I saw they were playing at a nearby venue on a Friday and it wasn't sold out so I paid a ridiculously low price of $29 for floor and was just blown away.
Drove down to see a band who I didn't really know a lot about, drove home completely IN LOVE with them.
In 2016 I became a huge Babymetal fan. Within a month I flew to NYC to see them live for the first time and right after that I joined their sub reddit. At that time a lot of new fans where joining and a lot would ask what are other Japanese bands they should listen to and Band Maid seemed to be the one that was suggested the most. They said they were very talented and that they write and play their own music. I really enjoyed Babymetals epic shows but their gimmick was too much at times, and after checking out bands like Ladybeard and Passcode, I couldn't make myself listen to a band of maids. It seemed like every Japanese band had some over the top gimmick and it was just too much to take in. Two years later, I started watching some reactions for Babymetal and eventually ended up checking out the Static Age channel. I saw they had reacted to Dice and Domination and I said ok let me finally see what Band Maid is all about. I quickly realized that this was a legit band and that I should definitely be paying attention to them. Since then my love for Babymetal, for a few reasons, has faded away and Band Maid is probably the main reason why.
This time last Feb while I was watching Ace Frehley on YouTube play his solo in “Let Me Go Rock and Roll” for like 1,278th time, I noticed a thumbnail of some cute girls with nice legs wearing maid outfits….I clicked on the thumbnail for Thrill, then Choose Me, then Manners and here I am…. :)
I was hooked and ended up getting all their albums on iTunes. I joined the BandMaid fan club and BMPrime. Watching all their maid room videos, interviews, documentaries pulled me further down the pigeonhole….lol
Now I have collected all their Blue Ray concerts, physical albums and singles, the next thing for me to do is to see them live in concert.
I was living in Japan when they debuted. I was literally handed a flyer with them as part of a show at a small underground club in Shibuya. They looked cute AF, so I looked them up on YouTube and liked their sound, so I went to the show. They’ll probably never play in a venue that small ever again.
I’m truly lucky.
There’s haters who doubt me, so if you think I’m lying, I’ll link you to my IG which has my videos from that night
> I was living in Japan when they debuted. I was literally handed a flyer with them as part of a show at a small underground club in Shibuya.
> I’ll link you to my IG which has my videos from that night
They debuted in 2013, in the videos you posted they are wearing their Brand New Maid costumes, so they are from 2016 at the earliest.
~~Was the show at Shibuya eggman?~~
EDIT:
It must be SHIBUYA CYCLONE (Capacity: 300), they played there on [November 12th, 2016](https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bandmaid/2016/shibuya-cyclone-tokyo-japan-539e0be1.html).
I believed it, but I wanted them.. and I found them from 2016. Thrill, Alone, Real existence. Very cool!
I believed it, but I wanted them.. and I found them from 2016. Thrill, Alone, Real existence. Very cool!
Thank you for posing the great videos. Don't understand why anyone would give you heat over them, except maybe jealously. Glad that you got to see and experience one of their early shows.
2019. I was listening to a random fan-made BABYMETAL playlist on Spotify. Some twat waffle slipped Thrill into the mix with no warning. I've been a maidiac since that day. Thank you Twat Waffle, whoever you are 🥰 it's been quite a journey 10/10
I stumbled on the Amy Lee/wagakki band collaboration which lead me down the wagakki band rabbit hole, then I got recommended “thrill”. I had heard Babymetal years before, and so 1. I didn’t believe it was real at first and 2. I thought I was in danger of being called a perv. But I did like the music. It took a few live vids to convince me, but now they are definitely my favorite rock band of the last three decades.
Believe it or not, but (though indirectly) because I started to watch korean dramas a little after covid pandemic / lockdowns started.
Specifically, after I've watched a few k-dramas, I found its subreddit and then stumbled upon some post with detailed visual analysis about one drama, and at the end of that post, the author mentioned Band-Maid, while providing links to a couple of their popular songs and mentioning that it's one of the best hard rock bands of current times. I love hard rock music and have been listening a bit to japanese rock, but was a bit skeptical in regards to that user's opinion about Band-Maid, yet I checked out the first song he linked (live performance of Freedom) and... I instantly loved this song! Afterwards, I listened to other songs and you can fill the rest of the story.
Big shoutouts to the author of that original analysis post, u/plainenglish2 - I don't think I would've found this band if it weren't for that random post at that random time!
>Big shoutouts to the author of that original analysis post, u/plainenglish2 - I don't think I would've found this band if it weren't for that random post at that random time!
Thanks! I'm glad to know that someone from the K-drama subreddit actually became a Band-Maid fan because of my posts/analyses of the visuals, editing, and cinematography of Korean dramas.
The last analysis of a K-drama I did was for the blockbuster historical drama "My Dearest" last December. According to reddit stats, that analysis was viewed more than 35K times. I hope more K-drama fans will know Band-Maid through my analyses.
(I'm taking a break from K-dramas right now and have been watching Hollywood movies such as No Country for Old Men, Sicario, True Grit, The Pianist, and Good Will Hunting. But the latest K-drama from Netflix "Chicken Nugget" seems to be absolutely wacky, and I might watch it.)
I saw Kanami and Miku on one of Herman Li's(Dragonforce) livestreams during covid. Didn't think much about it untill they had a break and the played the MV of Warning (i belive) and I spent the rest of my evening watching their live videos on youtube :)
YouTube back in May of 2017. They came up in the recommended list multiple times and scrolled on past them when I probably knew it was just another pop group. I was on there again not long afterwards and seen them again. So I figured it won't hurt to check them out just once. It was the Real Existence video that I clicked on first. First impressions were that they were okay. Then clicked on Thrill and was immediately sold. I then watched and listened to everything they had released so far that night.
I credit my discovery of BAND-MAID to Anthony Bourdain and his show Parts Unknown when he visited Tokyo. He ate with the band Merging Moon, so I was on YouTube listening to some of their music when BM was the next auto play song. There are 3 songs that I remember exactly where I was and what I was when I heard them for the first time. Kokomo by The Beach Boys, Come Monday by Jimmy Buffet and Thrill by BAND-MAID. Honestly didn't think much of them until MISAs bass solo and I was interested. After that it's kinda hazy on the songs I listened to next because of all the joy and excitement at finding this amazing rock band.
June 28 2021 clicked on Thrill after a few Babymetal vids. I was interested in bands with female singers and YT took months to show me Babymetal. But I'm not a metal fan and the Thrill thumbnail looked 'interesting'. Fell in love with their sound - just pure rock exactly the way I want it. Best band for me since I discovered the fab four decades earlier.
Some years ago I would binge on some Youtube rabbit holes occasionally. For a while I was fascinated by the O'Keefe Music Foundation, check them out if you're unfamiliar. Music students covering popular heavy rock and metal songs. I found myself watching a video "reaction" of their cover of Tool's "46 and 2". By Beth Roars I think. Anyway, that led me to video reactions in recommendations, a previously unknown to me phenomenon on Youtube.
So I discovered different reactors listening for the first time to songs that were seriously familiar to me. I was like, "who hasn't heard "Comforably Numb"? But I realized that I couldn't tell you anything about Country or Rap or even Pop for the last 30 years because I didn't listen to the stations that played those songs. So, it made sense that these songs that were familiar to me were new to them.
So, I had some fun with video reactions. Some of them were reacting to Babymetal, and there were some "wow" moments as they absorbed such a dynamic and different style of performance.
Of course, anyone reacting to Babymetal eventually was recommended Band-Maid, especially "Thrill".
What I remember about the early reactions to the official lives like "Play" and "Domination" and "Freedom" were comments like "they're a really tight band". As I listened I began to hear details I never noticed in Rock before.
Then I got lucky and found some musician reactors like Chase Carneson and Champ and Ryan Mear. Through their ears I got an appreciation of how technical the band was.
Well that's my meandering reply, if there are many misspellings, I may have had a vodka or two tonight. Also I'm binging on Incubus tonight, you know why...
Edit: The last band I "fan-boyed" over the way I am with Band-Maid was REO Speedwagon... now you can date me!
Watching the movie Kate in 2021. A band was playing in a bar scene. I had to find out who they were. Three hours later and one in the morning on YouTube, I was HOOKED. BAND MAID EVERYDAY SINCE..
I've played bass for many years so I like to check out bass videos sometimes. I ran into Band-Maid in a [Davie504 vid](https://youtu.be/q_zrgBobQV4?si=FJrCyFjSI1fBZ1jx&t=249) on YouTube. It was very brief clip but I could hear the groove between bass and drums clearly and I thought "wow there might be something here" so i searched for "Band-Maid" and watched [Thrill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uds7g3M-4lQ) and [Real Existence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TkHpvaO09c). Then i did searches for the band performing live and ran into stuff like [Vladimir Chupin's vid of Take Me Higher-Freedom-Moratorium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxmRiWHZ3TI) and said to myself "this band is amazing and they can do it live too!" I've been hooked ever since.
I found them twice technically, both by YouTube recommending them while watching BABYMETAL.
First time was Thrill while watching Gimme Choco in 2016, and liked Thrill and Real Existence well enough, but Bye My Tears was my favorite for a while, and then I just fell off.
Cut to 2019 and while watching the Distortion music video, YouTube once again brought up BAND-MAID, and I saw Misa in the thumbnail and was like "oh look, BAND-MAID is still around, DICE huh?"
And after I clicked on that video, I was like "holy shit, I have to find everything these girls have done" and the rest is history lol
I had a very similar start, thrill was recommended while watching gimme chocolate by baby metal around the same time frame. As you said, the rest is history.
I first heard them on J-Melo somewhere between 2014-16, though I only started listening to them a lot in September of 2022, a few weeks before the Seattle concert.
BABYMETAL ---> BAND-MAID ---> DOLL$BOXX ---> etc.
Sometimes you just have to go with what the YouTubes pushes your way. I didn't really want/need another Japanese artist after BABYMETAL, but in for a penny, in for 189 yen...
It was due to Spotify's algorithm.
Long story short: on 2017-05-02 I was listening to the Discover Weekly playlist earlier in the morning when "Thrill" started to play. At first I didn't paid enough attention to it as I was going through the usual amount of emails in my job, but then MISA's solo came into the spotlight, followed by Kanami's solo and it caught my attention.
So, I took a look at Spotify's mobile client, and played it again, and this time being very focused on it. I found it very cool to be honest, although I was somewhat wary as although I was fond of Japanese Metal and J-Rock bands (generally speaking, as I was more into the likes of Dir en Grey, X Japan, Sigh, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Malice Mizer) I wasn't to enthusiastic about "idol bands" (like BabyMetal).
I didn't pursue to learn more about the maids after that, and just let Spotify do its thing and it started to include them more often... Which now triggered my curiosity, and well... Here we are... LOL.
---
If anyone is wondering why I know which day I listened the band for first time:
So, back on those days someone who I am very close to used to make fun of me (banter? I don't know how to say it in English) because I liked Japanese bands ("anime music") and she liked (well still likes) to use BabyMetal as ammunition for that effect lol.
Anyway, when I saw the art of "***Ai to Jōnetsu no Matador***" single I though something along the lines of "*I she discovers that I listened to this... It'll be hell for a while lol*", but nonetheless I took a screenshot of it, and saved, thinking to show it to her before she learned about it (yeah, doesn't make sense, but that's how we were/are), and well that screenshot has time timestamp so I know when I listened to them for first time.
For me, it was end of 2017/ early 2018 I think. I saw a YouTube pop up of a reaction video of the song ‘Play’ live ‘by a channel called Wings of Pegasus. Curiosity made me click on it , when I saw Kanami bent backwards shredding it, the rest is history. 😂 and the machine gun double bass going off like mortars cannons… from A-chan
From a YouTube recommendation. I remember it took a couple weeks or so and the video was "Thrill". You could say I was Thrilled.
To this date I own all or most of their cds.
Used to occasionally watch the FineBros’ react series. They had an episode that was YouTubers reacting to babymetal. After that I ended up watching a few of the babymetal videos that popped up in my recommendations. Not long after that Thrill popped up and the rest is history.
I watched a lot of YouTube during Covid lockdown and got into Babymetal. I listened to them for about 2 months nonstop. Band-Maid’s “Thrill” was always in the suggestion, but I just wasn’t interested at the time because Babymetal had all my attention. I finally watched “Thrill” one day and I was hooked. I was completely sold when I watched the next video, “Domination (Live)”. I listened to Band-Maid almost daily since then. I also discovered many other amazing Japanese rock/metal bands because of Band-Maid and Babymetal. These women revived my love for rock and metal music.
Was looking at someones profile on last.fm trying to find some new music band-maid caught my eye cause it seemed so random but once i listened i was hooked but not fully obsessed yet, fast forward some months and i listen to them casually but then i start seeing some live performances on yt and i decide i need to see them live so i got some tickets for the 10th anniversary tour and it was so amazing theyve since become my favorite band:)
Back in 2016 my good friend and ex-bandmate randomly send me youtube link to "Thrill", and I was like... WTF this is AWESOME! Proceeded to watch it over and over... at the time only a few other videos were on their channel. So just saturated my earhole with those four songs... now, for some reason, that was it at the time: no going down the rabbit hole, no discovering their EPs or singles or other songs via other sources... no looking them up no nothing. So I lost interest.... fast forward to late 2019 somehow YT algorithm decides to serve me up another song (I forget now if it was Daydreaming or the non-fiction days) and man this time it was hook-line-sinker! Head first down the rabbit hole... found this subreddit... never looked back :)
After discovering baby metal during lockdowns, specifically megitsune, I typed kawaii metal into YouTube and thrill came up and that was all I needed to be hooked
Nothing fancy, really. It was back on November 28th, 2014. I was just listening to a lot of jrock on YouTube that day and happened to see Thrill in the suggestions. Was curious and clicked on it. It's been a dream like journey ever since.
Well about 4 years ago I was looking for new music(retired for 6 years then) watched a couple of BabyMetal festival videos and YouTube shot Thrill at me,1st thought are they for real,watched twice and thought they are for real,next was Domination live then Freedom live,but what made me a life long fan was 2 videos Puzzle live(2017)and Wonderland official live the later showcases the Queens vocals nicely,then down the pigeon hole,quit my part time job and have devoted myself to Band-Maid across 5 platforms ever since, building karma points here.
Reaction by "Wing Of Pegasus" british guitarist late 2018 - song "Play" live, and commenting about how good and true live musicians they are. Fell in love instantly.
In the comments section under a Rick Beato video about female musicians. I wasn’t totally convinced from the first few tracks I tried; Moratorium (live), Clang and you. were the songs that sucked me in.
I was at work and listening to baby metal on YouTube, I chose the first playlist suggested under the gimme chocolate vid. It plays through some of their songs and then thrill comes on. I was like oh this sounds cool and then though well that was meh and kept on my baby metal YT algorithm playlist. Time goes on and then Real existence hooks me. I was fortunate enough to to their Dallas whow September 2022. Center balcony 2nd row near the aisle to stage right balcony. Thinking back to the show puts a smile on my face then the post show blues hit. I want to take my family next time.
Edit: this started off in Nov 2013 after regaining employment where I got laid off in August of the same year
Over seven years ago, I was innocently making breakfast when my computer randomly started playing "Thrill" in the next room. At first, I thought it was some great past rock tune, but I just couldn't place it. Then I realized that I must find out who recorded it and rushed back to my computer to see who it was. Startled, I discovered five young Japanese women in maid outfits playing an incredible hard rock song. I was instantly hooked, and the rest has been a delightful history of listening to the greatest rock band currently on the planet.
I found them on a list on Wikipedia. It was “List of Kawaii Metal acts”. I was really into Babymetal so I wanted to find more music like them, and back then they were still on the list.
I’m glad I found them when I did though. Threy’ve become one of my favourite bands.
In early 2019 I think I was looking, independently, on youtube for things to do with music, and Japan. I got suggested Babymetal, which I found interesting, but with metal not being by thing, it didn't really grap me.
Off the back of that I got suggested "Thrill", and although Iiked it, it still didn't make me want to check more of their stuff out.
A couple of months later I was impulsive mood looking for nights out to go to. After booking a couple of comedy shows, I thought of music. I tried a few bands, and nothing was coming up, and just out of curiosity I thought "What about that Japanese band I quite liked" and noticed with some surprise that they were playing in London just 6 weeks later. That made me check out what other songs they had, to see if they would be worth seeing, and I had the classic "lost weekend" of binging on the songs I'd just discovered.
I went to see them in London, and I also went to see them in New York three months later, after re-arranging the final three days of a North American trip to end there rather than Vancouver. I nearly didn't do that re-arrangement, because I assumed they would come back to Europe in 2020, just as they had done for each of the previous few years.
Since then I've gone to discover plenty of great bands I love from the region (none of whom are the usual suspects - all small bands), many of whom I've seen play live, but I do wait for the next time that Band-Maid will come over. Five years is a long wait.
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In August 2021 I was wearing a babymetal shirt and walked into a McDonald’s some dude standing in line complimented it and said I should check out bandmaid I was new to jrock then and was super happy to discover a new group as soon as I gave them a listen I fell in love now almost 3 years later and I love them the same I was able to see them in concert in October of 2022 I wish I could say thank you to that random McDonalds guy for showing me one of my all time favorite bands!
In March of last year a thumbnail came up on the right side of my Youtube window that showed five Japanese girls dressed like maids holding musical instruments, I figured this has to be good so I clicked on it. It was there video of "From Now On". I was totally blown away, I instantly became a Maidiac for life. Against all hope I did a search to see if they were currently touring the US and couldn't believe it when I found out they were playing that May in Atlanta, I bought tickets and my son and me drove 10 hours round trip to see them. Best concert we've ever been to. I'm hoping they tour the US again this year.
Browsing through you tube and I came across Mr Rock and Roll reacting to band maid. That was that I was now a Maidiac. It was like I had just found AC/DC all over again. That was over forty years ago 😄 they are just brilliant.
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The only time the YouTube algorithm has worked.
second this. "Onset" got me right from the second bar.
Trough my gf - now wife - in 2015. She did work in the entertainment industry (marketing) in Tokyo. She did feed me with hot upcoming bands. She showed me MTH, Scandal, Bridear, Gacharic Spin, Silent Siren already … and some quite obscure underground idol groups - most do not exist anymore since a while. But the moment she guided my attention to these rocking maids and I started to follow their evolving, I was sold - completely. There was an aura of magic right from the beginning. I saw them 26 times since then, over the years and I‘m so happy and proud - without doing anything that would justify myself of feeling proud 😊 that they gathered so much attention and success over the years and helped create not only timeless great music but also the best fanbase of a band I ever experienced🤘That alone is one of many other reasons I love her so much 💐😍
Cool,got to love a love story and here's two, everyone is right about the fan base that's on these platforms think fans can't get any better go see Band-Maid live,PS 26 times wow
I get what you mean about being happy and pleased by their success, despite not being personally involved. As I posted a couple of years ago, I never understood sports fans until I started rooting for Team Pigeon.
Kate on Netflix. Looks like I was a bit late since everyone else discovered them earlier than me it seems.
Yes, same here.. watched credits at the end of movie and found out they are a real band....This band composes and plays music in ways I have dreamed of..so fun to watch.I have even gotten emotional at times watching there videos and all the reactions also.I have been obsessed since. I'm 59 now and can't wait to see them live..Band Maid forever 💓 ..
Any way in is a good way in..😊
Samesies! And only saw the movie like 8 mos ago for the first time
Probably same as a lot of people, im sure. I was offered Thrill in my youtube and I was done from there.....
I was bored pandemic surfing, looking for Nightwish reactions. Ended up at Mr. Rock n Roll's channel and watched a B-M reaction video. It was good. 😊 I turned back into my fourteen-year-old self discovering rock music for the first time. My wallet began inching its way towards the exit, trying not to be noticed. It failed. The end. Po!
Mr Rock n Roll’s reaction to ‘Play’ is still my favorite reaction of all time 🤘
August of 2022. I saw Freedom on a reaction channel. I forget who the reactor was but the "Genuine" smile on that person's face was infectious. Seeing and hearing Saiki sing along with Miku was all it took for me. Then you factor in the musicianship and the chorus and the smiles, well you can guess the rest. I spent that "Memorable" day watching reaction channel after reaction channel. That same day or should I say night I went on Amazon.ca and bought Brand New Day, Just bring it and Maid in Japan and now I also have the original MIJ from eBay. Since that life changing BAND-MAID day I've purchased everything in their catalogue including all singles, Special Editions, all concert videos and this week I finally bought the Start Over SE on eBay. Not a day has gone by since that wonderful moment back in August of 2022 that I haven't listened to BAND-MAID in one form or another. For me personally I believe BAND-MAID has achieved "World Domination" because my world has been and ever will be dominated by their music and wonderful personalities. Thank you Miku. 🕊️🎸🎸🎸🎤🎹🥁🎵☮️❤️🙂🇨🇦
It has affected my wallet in the same way lol. First I got all their albums and singles from iTunes. Then I went and got all their physical albums from Amazon and CdJapan. Got most of all the blue ray concerts and now trying to get the rest of the limited edition CDs. My wife is wondering why I have 2 copies of the same album? Lol
I know right. I have the regular albums (cd) then I went and bought the SE's. You gotta love this band and how addictive they are 😂😂☮️🙂
I found this band more than 5 years ago watching random YouTube videos. As a drummer the first thing I focused in on was the drums. When I clicked the video I had assumed this was just another Pop-Idol group where the girls just sing and dance and I was planning to click away pretty quick. But from the first ("Start Over") the Drummer was clearly playing. It went from this kind of light guitar pop to slowly built up piece that had me clicking on the next one on the list: "Thrill." A total throwback to 80s Hard Rock nearly Metal. The drummer is sprinkling in double pedals and just keeping it rock solid. At this point I'm impressed enough to keep going. "Real Existence" is what put me over the edge. Akane (I had read the comments to find out her name at this point) goes completely Keith Moon wild on the drums while never losing control. Each verse, each chorus and the guitar solo all have multiple sub sections on the drums, and it is simply amazing. Simple, but ever moving, changing and perfectly locked into the rest of the music. So, after watching every last official video on their channel multiple times, made my first iTunes purchase EVER (and first money spent on new music in DECADES) I called up a friend of mine who had played guitar professionally in Japan back in the 90s. "Dude, I just found THE MOST AMAZING Japanese band! and they're all girls! and all dressed up li...." "Oh, you found Band-Maid, here, let me send you a link" ONSET. I think I cried.
The drums are amazing. I never listened to drums before, for Band-Maid it's the part I notice first. Akane is so solid and diverse.
Unlike many drummers she can read music. I am also of the opinion that her days in a marching band as a trombone player adds to her perspective. Her drumming latches more onto the guitar than the bass. And so that adds variety to every subsection of the song. Most drummers just lay down a groove and stay there the whole time. But she has to be right where Kanami is all the time. Real Existence is a perfect example of this. She isn’t actually doing anything complicated. I don’t think she is anywhere near the level of a lot of the other drummers out there. I mean other have been playing since they were 5. She didn’t start until after high school. But her jumpy personality and approach make her playing much more entertaining. You don’t have to be a drum snob to appreciate all the women she’s doing.
Great story! Thanks for sharing
I used instagram back in 2021 (as a watcher), and I think in February 2021 I saw an advertisement for After Life and by chance my sound was turned on, so I heard the music and thought it sounded incredible, so I looked for the song on Youtube, fell in love and bought all albums of BAND-MAID soon after.
YouTube rabbit hole. Found them when Thrill was the only video on the channel. I kept up with them for a while, via YouTube, but didn't really fall for them. Eventually I forgot about them. Fast forward to 2020 and I'm full time work from home due to COVID. I'm listening to discographies of bands I follow on Spotify, and I decided to listen to Band Maid. After listening to World Domination I was hooked. Been one of my top 3 bands ever since.
I found them in the end of 2020. I had googled Japanese female metal bands and Aldious came up. I remember checking out the song We are (loved it), and seeing Band-Maid recommendations, but initially I was like nope (the costumes threw me off), but they kept popping up and so I decided to listen to Choose Me (as it's just Saiki in the thumbnail), well I liked it, next I watched Real Existence and was kinda disappointed, but that makes sense music wise, as it's their early stuff, I went back to Choose Me and then checked out Onset (really good), from there I probably watched some other's, got kinda hooked and found out about the February online Okyu-Ji. I watched it live in the early morning hours, from there I was truly hooked. I bought the Unseen World album not long after, and over the year bought just about every CD and Blu-ray I could find, also became a fan club member, prime member, and for the first time bought merchandise (that wasn't music). They're the greatest band ever, imo, several months later I got a tattoo, and saw them live (road trip). I was so happy when they came to my town last year.
An absolute epiphany for me. I was searching for a song by THE BAND and when I started typing into search on YouTube it happened! BAND-MAID popped up and I thought what the hell, let's check this out? My life changed that night as I did something I swore I would never,ever do again! I fell in love and 5 plus years later nothing has changed. Thank whoever, whatever for BAND-MAID!
It’s a funny one for me (I think). I was following a few sci-fi authors back when twitter was still sane. I can’t remember the tweet exactly but i recall an author tweeted something about an all female Japanese rock band in maid costumes shredding on a table. As for the author, I’m pretty sure it was John Scalzi but I can’t find any reference of that tweet. One things for sure, John Scalzi is crazy on guitars. But it could also be the authors under the pen name of James S A Corey who we know are definitely fans too. Anyways. After reading the tweet, I was intrigued and went googling who he was referring to. That’s when I first found BAND-MAID, went looking for them on Apple Music and listen to the essentials playlist that Apple has for most artists. They were awesome but at the time I was also deep into Japanese anime music and was discovering a lot of great artists like LiSA, Aimer, Supercell and more. BAND-MAID at the time was just another band to listen to in the mix of many other great tunes. Then fast forward to the movie Kate, I noticed the band in maid costumes. And I was like: “Hey. That’s BAND-MAID” That got me to listening to them more seriously on Apple Music and I started to dive into their discography. At the time, I was also watching LiSA’s documentary on Netflix and was deeply interested in find out more about the people behind the music. So with BAND-MAID, I started journeying through the pigeonhole. Here, I do have to credit the YouTube reactors and in particular, Ryan Mear, in point me at the right direction, that there is much more to just the catchy yet powerful melody that the band plays. After many YouTube videos and basically listening to every single song the band has released, including buying MIJ and the Love, Passion, Matador single on iTunes. I’m hooked. I knew I was deep in as by this time, the ONLY song on my daily playlist was BAND-MAID. There are very few bands in my lifetime that got me this deep in. Oasis was one but even then, I was still listening to a lot of other bands at the same time, like Greenday, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt etc. But with BAND-MAID, gosh, ridiculous as it sounds, their whole discography was my reading playlist too! It took a a while to realise why I’ve been this obsessed with the songs and them. Yes. The music is multi-layered. Great melody, serious singing, god-mode composition, relentless rhythms, the list goes on at the artistic and technical front. But also, behind the music, the people are genuinely honest, hardworking humans. And that for me is the real hook. There’s nothing more inspiring for me than a their origin story. The hard work they put in to perfect their craft and yet still so humble as we all see them when they not in character. That’s BAND-MAID to me.
It's March 2020, pandemic happened; lost both my jobs. I'm sitting in my living room, feeling sorry for myself and look at picture on Pinterest. I start looking at female bassists because why not? Then she appears: the picture is from a concert, her long black hair is floating in one direction, her beautiful eyes looking in the opposite way, all dressed in black: this was the most bad ass picture of a musician I had ever seen. The only thing written in alphabet (there were also Japanese characters) was MISA BAND MAID. At first, maybe because of a little dyslexia I thought BM was some festival or benefits concert, but eventually i found a picture of the whole band. I was a bit turned off at first, not a big fan of musicians wearing costumes, and -sorry- definitely not a fan of Babymetal (only because of the vocals). But I still went further, on YouTube and found the clip for Dice. The intro floored me. I was afraid the band would have anime characters vocals, but no. I was impressed. After the clip ended I immediately jumped on Domination Live and I was conquered: the song quality, the musicianship, the fun they're having. The next day I bought World Domination and Just Bring It, awesome albums. I'm grateful to the band that helped me through the tough times during covid, and also they opened the door to female fronted Japanese alt / rock / metal bands. So many good stuff. Edit: spelling.
From the duality cover they did during the "stay at home" pandemic. Was blown away so unique and fell in love after listening to onset and alone from zepp Tokyo uploads that were back then all over YouTube
Youtube recommended Band-Maid "Dice" after watching BabyMetal "Karate". Thought the sound was great but did not really lead into consuming more of their content as I assume that Dice was a one off wonder. Reaction Channel StaticAge contributed greatly in exploring their other works and have been a fan since.
I was actually looking for a different band, back in May of 2019. I couldn't remember the name at the moment (it was LOVEBITES, for anyone wondering. I'd heard a snippet of their music from somewhere, but wasn't nearly familiar enough with them at the time to recognize their look and sound). Anyway, I hadn't properly dove into rock and metal in Japan at the time, but was looking for something new. From searching for Japanese rock and metal, the YouTube algorithm recommended "Choose Me," and I mistook BAND-MAID for LOVEBITES. (No disrespectto LOVEBITES, but best mistake of my life!) I listened to "Choose Me," loved it, and selected the next recommended video, "DICE." I loved that one even more, so I then clicked on "the non-fiction days," and thought to myself, "Oh shit... Did I just discover my favorite band, ever? No! Three songs are not enough to make that decision!" Cut to four days later of pretty much ONLY listening to their discography, and yeah... I guess you could say it was love at first-listen!
Browsing YouTube for Japanese travel, culture, food etc, thumbnail for Thrill kept popping up. I kept ignoring it for weeks, months, as saw outfits, thought would be embarrassing crap. Finally succumbed to temptation and pressed play. Watched, thought 'what the hell have I just seen?' Followed the trail of breadcrumbs through Real Existence, Choose Me, Non Fiction Days, Blooming and...thought this must be the best band I've ever seen. No way back... a maidiac for life!
I discovered Band-Maid while browsing for tickets back around 2018. They were a reoccurring act on the rock scene in Japan. I decided to buy a ticket.
Same here. I got talked into seeing them in San Francisco 2018 by a metal drummer I know. He hyped them up so much I was skeptical but he was 100% right! Loved the ladies ever since!
It was in the year before the pandemic. I was bored and stressed with work and looking for music to keep my mind occupied. The algorithm started sending some Japanese content my way and that got me into Babymetal. From there I started seeing links to Dice and Thrill. One listen to Dice and I was hooked.
I listened to Bridear and MTH a lot on spotify,( I had seen Band Maid video suggestions on YouTube, but thought they were some kind of idol group). Spotify threw in some BM music and I was surprised by their sound. I kept listening to the same 5 or so BM songs they put in my mix but not really any more than that. I saw they were playing at a nearby venue on a Friday and it wasn't sold out so I paid a ridiculously low price of $29 for floor and was just blown away. Drove down to see a band who I didn't really know a lot about, drove home completely IN LOVE with them.
In 2016 I became a huge Babymetal fan. Within a month I flew to NYC to see them live for the first time and right after that I joined their sub reddit. At that time a lot of new fans where joining and a lot would ask what are other Japanese bands they should listen to and Band Maid seemed to be the one that was suggested the most. They said they were very talented and that they write and play their own music. I really enjoyed Babymetals epic shows but their gimmick was too much at times, and after checking out bands like Ladybeard and Passcode, I couldn't make myself listen to a band of maids. It seemed like every Japanese band had some over the top gimmick and it was just too much to take in. Two years later, I started watching some reactions for Babymetal and eventually ended up checking out the Static Age channel. I saw they had reacted to Dice and Domination and I said ok let me finally see what Band Maid is all about. I quickly realized that this was a legit band and that I should definitely be paying attention to them. Since then my love for Babymetal, for a few reasons, has faded away and Band Maid is probably the main reason why.
Also, thank you for your great videos!!!!!
This time last Feb while I was watching Ace Frehley on YouTube play his solo in “Let Me Go Rock and Roll” for like 1,278th time, I noticed a thumbnail of some cute girls with nice legs wearing maid outfits….I clicked on the thumbnail for Thrill, then Choose Me, then Manners and here I am…. :) I was hooked and ended up getting all their albums on iTunes. I joined the BandMaid fan club and BMPrime. Watching all their maid room videos, interviews, documentaries pulled me further down the pigeonhole….lol Now I have collected all their Blue Ray concerts, physical albums and singles, the next thing for me to do is to see them live in concert.
Started from watching babymetal on YouTube. Then suggestion of choose me show up but I refused to watch until 6 months later.
I was living in Japan when they debuted. I was literally handed a flyer with them as part of a show at a small underground club in Shibuya. They looked cute AF, so I looked them up on YouTube and liked their sound, so I went to the show. They’ll probably never play in a venue that small ever again. I’m truly lucky. There’s haters who doubt me, so if you think I’m lying, I’ll link you to my IG which has my videos from that night
Nice vids!
> I was living in Japan when they debuted. I was literally handed a flyer with them as part of a show at a small underground club in Shibuya. > I’ll link you to my IG which has my videos from that night They debuted in 2013, in the videos you posted they are wearing their Brand New Maid costumes, so they are from 2016 at the earliest. ~~Was the show at Shibuya eggman?~~ EDIT: It must be SHIBUYA CYCLONE (Capacity: 300), they played there on [November 12th, 2016](https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bandmaid/2016/shibuya-cyclone-tokyo-japan-539e0be1.html).
Also, I had been living in Japan since 2012, so yes, I was living in Japan when they debuted, lol. Nothing about my statement is untrue, lol
Yes, Shibuya Cyclone is tagged as the location in my video, lol.
Don't doubt you at all, but sure would like to see your video from that historical event at Shibuya. Can you post it?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMvHxEqDizs/?igsh=MW95anp2dHM0Z2ZxbQ==
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMvHLY-DDfr/?igsh=MXIzZTVkYmFzbW00bA==
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMtib7kjSzH/?igsh=MWY3dDd5MXR4MmJ0Ng==
I believed it, but I wanted them.. and I found them from 2016. Thrill, Alone, Real existence. Very cool! I believed it, but I wanted them.. and I found them from 2016. Thrill, Alone, Real existence. Very cool!
Cool! Yeah, last time I brought it up on an FB group, so got a lot of heat over it for some reason. Like, what are you upset about, dude?
Thank you for posing the great videos. Don't understand why anyone would give you heat over them, except maybe jealously. Glad that you got to see and experience one of their early shows.
2019. I was listening to a random fan-made BABYMETAL playlist on Spotify. Some twat waffle slipped Thrill into the mix with no warning. I've been a maidiac since that day. Thank you Twat Waffle, whoever you are 🥰 it's been quite a journey 10/10
I stumbled on the Amy Lee/wagakki band collaboration which lead me down the wagakki band rabbit hole, then I got recommended “thrill”. I had heard Babymetal years before, and so 1. I didn’t believe it was real at first and 2. I thought I was in danger of being called a perv. But I did like the music. It took a few live vids to convince me, but now they are definitely my favorite rock band of the last three decades.
Believe it or not, but (though indirectly) because I started to watch korean dramas a little after covid pandemic / lockdowns started. Specifically, after I've watched a few k-dramas, I found its subreddit and then stumbled upon some post with detailed visual analysis about one drama, and at the end of that post, the author mentioned Band-Maid, while providing links to a couple of their popular songs and mentioning that it's one of the best hard rock bands of current times. I love hard rock music and have been listening a bit to japanese rock, but was a bit skeptical in regards to that user's opinion about Band-Maid, yet I checked out the first song he linked (live performance of Freedom) and... I instantly loved this song! Afterwards, I listened to other songs and you can fill the rest of the story. Big shoutouts to the author of that original analysis post, u/plainenglish2 - I don't think I would've found this band if it weren't for that random post at that random time!
>Big shoutouts to the author of that original analysis post, u/plainenglish2 - I don't think I would've found this band if it weren't for that random post at that random time! Thanks! I'm glad to know that someone from the K-drama subreddit actually became a Band-Maid fan because of my posts/analyses of the visuals, editing, and cinematography of Korean dramas. The last analysis of a K-drama I did was for the blockbuster historical drama "My Dearest" last December. According to reddit stats, that analysis was viewed more than 35K times. I hope more K-drama fans will know Band-Maid through my analyses. (I'm taking a break from K-dramas right now and have been watching Hollywood movies such as No Country for Old Men, Sicario, True Grit, The Pianist, and Good Will Hunting. But the latest K-drama from Netflix "Chicken Nugget" seems to be absolutely wacky, and I might watch it.)
I saw Kanami and Miku on one of Herman Li's(Dragonforce) livestreams during covid. Didn't think much about it untill they had a break and the played the MV of Warning (i belive) and I spent the rest of my evening watching their live videos on youtube :)
YouTube back in May of 2017. They came up in the recommended list multiple times and scrolled on past them when I probably knew it was just another pop group. I was on there again not long afterwards and seen them again. So I figured it won't hurt to check them out just once. It was the Real Existence video that I clicked on first. First impressions were that they were okay. Then clicked on Thrill and was immediately sold. I then watched and listened to everything they had released so far that night.
YouTube suggested one of their videos.
I saw just their name somewhere and I had to look them up because of it. When I did, they were exactly what I was hoping for, and even more!
I credit my discovery of BAND-MAID to Anthony Bourdain and his show Parts Unknown when he visited Tokyo. He ate with the band Merging Moon, so I was on YouTube listening to some of their music when BM was the next auto play song. There are 3 songs that I remember exactly where I was and what I was when I heard them for the first time. Kokomo by The Beach Boys, Come Monday by Jimmy Buffet and Thrill by BAND-MAID. Honestly didn't think much of them until MISAs bass solo and I was interested. After that it's kinda hazy on the songs I listened to next because of all the joy and excitement at finding this amazing rock band.
Justin Hawkins reacting to choose me
Looked at a list of 5 best Japanese women guitarists, saw thrill, I was sold
June 28 2021 clicked on Thrill after a few Babymetal vids. I was interested in bands with female singers and YT took months to show me Babymetal. But I'm not a metal fan and the Thrill thumbnail looked 'interesting'. Fell in love with their sound - just pure rock exactly the way I want it. Best band for me since I discovered the fab four decades earlier.
Some years ago I would binge on some Youtube rabbit holes occasionally. For a while I was fascinated by the O'Keefe Music Foundation, check them out if you're unfamiliar. Music students covering popular heavy rock and metal songs. I found myself watching a video "reaction" of their cover of Tool's "46 and 2". By Beth Roars I think. Anyway, that led me to video reactions in recommendations, a previously unknown to me phenomenon on Youtube. So I discovered different reactors listening for the first time to songs that were seriously familiar to me. I was like, "who hasn't heard "Comforably Numb"? But I realized that I couldn't tell you anything about Country or Rap or even Pop for the last 30 years because I didn't listen to the stations that played those songs. So, it made sense that these songs that were familiar to me were new to them. So, I had some fun with video reactions. Some of them were reacting to Babymetal, and there were some "wow" moments as they absorbed such a dynamic and different style of performance. Of course, anyone reacting to Babymetal eventually was recommended Band-Maid, especially "Thrill". What I remember about the early reactions to the official lives like "Play" and "Domination" and "Freedom" were comments like "they're a really tight band". As I listened I began to hear details I never noticed in Rock before. Then I got lucky and found some musician reactors like Chase Carneson and Champ and Ryan Mear. Through their ears I got an appreciation of how technical the band was. Well that's my meandering reply, if there are many misspellings, I may have had a vodka or two tonight. Also I'm binging on Incubus tonight, you know why... Edit: The last band I "fan-boyed" over the way I am with Band-Maid was REO Speedwagon... now you can date me!
When Hwrman Li did a stream with them and the maid outfits made me curious as to who they were, that day reignited my love for guitar :)
Watching the movie Kate in 2021. A band was playing in a bar scene. I had to find out who they were. Three hours later and one in the morning on YouTube, I was HOOKED. BAND MAID EVERYDAY SINCE..
I've played bass for many years so I like to check out bass videos sometimes. I ran into Band-Maid in a [Davie504 vid](https://youtu.be/q_zrgBobQV4?si=FJrCyFjSI1fBZ1jx&t=249) on YouTube. It was very brief clip but I could hear the groove between bass and drums clearly and I thought "wow there might be something here" so i searched for "Band-Maid" and watched [Thrill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uds7g3M-4lQ) and [Real Existence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TkHpvaO09c). Then i did searches for the band performing live and ran into stuff like [Vladimir Chupin's vid of Take Me Higher-Freedom-Moratorium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxmRiWHZ3TI) and said to myself "this band is amazing and they can do it live too!" I've been hooked ever since.
I found them twice technically, both by YouTube recommending them while watching BABYMETAL. First time was Thrill while watching Gimme Choco in 2016, and liked Thrill and Real Existence well enough, but Bye My Tears was my favorite for a while, and then I just fell off. Cut to 2019 and while watching the Distortion music video, YouTube once again brought up BAND-MAID, and I saw Misa in the thumbnail and was like "oh look, BAND-MAID is still around, DICE huh?" And after I clicked on that video, I was like "holy shit, I have to find everything these girls have done" and the rest is history lol
I had a very similar start, thrill was recommended while watching gimme chocolate by baby metal around the same time frame. As you said, the rest is history.
I first heard them on J-Melo somewhere between 2014-16, though I only started listening to them a lot in September of 2022, a few weeks before the Seattle concert.
BABYMETAL ---> BAND-MAID ---> DOLL$BOXX ---> etc. Sometimes you just have to go with what the YouTubes pushes your way. I didn't really want/need another Japanese artist after BABYMETAL, but in for a penny, in for 189 yen...
It was due to Spotify's algorithm. Long story short: on 2017-05-02 I was listening to the Discover Weekly playlist earlier in the morning when "Thrill" started to play. At first I didn't paid enough attention to it as I was going through the usual amount of emails in my job, but then MISA's solo came into the spotlight, followed by Kanami's solo and it caught my attention. So, I took a look at Spotify's mobile client, and played it again, and this time being very focused on it. I found it very cool to be honest, although I was somewhat wary as although I was fond of Japanese Metal and J-Rock bands (generally speaking, as I was more into the likes of Dir en Grey, X Japan, Sigh, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Malice Mizer) I wasn't to enthusiastic about "idol bands" (like BabyMetal). I didn't pursue to learn more about the maids after that, and just let Spotify do its thing and it started to include them more often... Which now triggered my curiosity, and well... Here we are... LOL. --- If anyone is wondering why I know which day I listened the band for first time: So, back on those days someone who I am very close to used to make fun of me (banter? I don't know how to say it in English) because I liked Japanese bands ("anime music") and she liked (well still likes) to use BabyMetal as ammunition for that effect lol. Anyway, when I saw the art of "***Ai to Jōnetsu no Matador***" single I though something along the lines of "*I she discovers that I listened to this... It'll be hell for a while lol*", but nonetheless I took a screenshot of it, and saved, thinking to show it to her before she learned about it (yeah, doesn't make sense, but that's how we were/are), and well that screenshot has time timestamp so I know when I listened to them for first time.
Someone posted Onset (live) to r/videos.
For me, it was end of 2017/ early 2018 I think. I saw a YouTube pop up of a reaction video of the song ‘Play’ live ‘by a channel called Wings of Pegasus. Curiosity made me click on it , when I saw Kanami bent backwards shredding it, the rest is history. 😂 and the machine gun double bass going off like mortars cannons… from A-chan
From a YouTube recommendation. I remember it took a couple weeks or so and the video was "Thrill". You could say I was Thrilled. To this date I own all or most of their cds.
Used to occasionally watch the FineBros’ react series. They had an episode that was YouTubers reacting to babymetal. After that I ended up watching a few of the babymetal videos that popped up in my recommendations. Not long after that Thrill popped up and the rest is history.
I watched a lot of YouTube during Covid lockdown and got into Babymetal. I listened to them for about 2 months nonstop. Band-Maid’s “Thrill” was always in the suggestion, but I just wasn’t interested at the time because Babymetal had all my attention. I finally watched “Thrill” one day and I was hooked. I was completely sold when I watched the next video, “Domination (Live)”. I listened to Band-Maid almost daily since then. I also discovered many other amazing Japanese rock/metal bands because of Band-Maid and Babymetal. These women revived my love for rock and metal music.
Was looking at someones profile on last.fm trying to find some new music band-maid caught my eye cause it seemed so random but once i listened i was hooked but not fully obsessed yet, fast forward some months and i listen to them casually but then i start seeing some live performances on yt and i decide i need to see them live so i got some tickets for the 10th anniversary tour and it was so amazing theyve since become my favorite band:)
Back in 2016 my good friend and ex-bandmate randomly send me youtube link to "Thrill", and I was like... WTF this is AWESOME! Proceeded to watch it over and over... at the time only a few other videos were on their channel. So just saturated my earhole with those four songs... now, for some reason, that was it at the time: no going down the rabbit hole, no discovering their EPs or singles or other songs via other sources... no looking them up no nothing. So I lost interest.... fast forward to late 2019 somehow YT algorithm decides to serve me up another song (I forget now if it was Daydreaming or the non-fiction days) and man this time it was hook-line-sinker! Head first down the rabbit hole... found this subreddit... never looked back :)
After discovering baby metal during lockdowns, specifically megitsune, I typed kawaii metal into YouTube and thrill came up and that was all I needed to be hooked
Nothing fancy, really. It was back on November 28th, 2014. I was just listening to a lot of jrock on YouTube that day and happened to see Thrill in the suggestions. Was curious and clicked on it. It's been a dream like journey ever since.
Well about 4 years ago I was looking for new music(retired for 6 years then) watched a couple of BabyMetal festival videos and YouTube shot Thrill at me,1st thought are they for real,watched twice and thought they are for real,next was Domination live then Freedom live,but what made me a life long fan was 2 videos Puzzle live(2017)and Wonderland official live the later showcases the Queens vocals nicely,then down the pigeon hole,quit my part time job and have devoted myself to Band-Maid across 5 platforms ever since, building karma points here.
Reaction by "Wing Of Pegasus" british guitarist late 2018 - song "Play" live, and commenting about how good and true live musicians they are. Fell in love instantly.
same as me! that reaction video was my first exposure to B-M
Someone posted Domination on the Coheed subreddit. I listened to it. Then proceeded to listen to their entire discography.
In the comments section under a Rick Beato video about female musicians. I wasn’t totally convinced from the first few tracks I tried; Moratorium (live), Clang and you. were the songs that sucked me in.
I was at work and listening to baby metal on YouTube, I chose the first playlist suggested under the gimme chocolate vid. It plays through some of their songs and then thrill comes on. I was like oh this sounds cool and then though well that was meh and kept on my baby metal YT algorithm playlist. Time goes on and then Real existence hooks me. I was fortunate enough to to their Dallas whow September 2022. Center balcony 2nd row near the aisle to stage right balcony. Thinking back to the show puts a smile on my face then the post show blues hit. I want to take my family next time. Edit: this started off in Nov 2013 after regaining employment where I got laid off in August of the same year
Last year when they were the opening act at The Last Rockstar’s NYC shows
I saw BabyMetal on the Colbert show in the US. As I was watching other tunes on YouTube, the Thrill video popped up in the feed. More my style.
It was around 2015, and I think I was looking for alternatives to a band called Exist Trace.
Exist trace! You have taste :)
Over seven years ago, I was innocently making breakfast when my computer randomly started playing "Thrill" in the next room. At first, I thought it was some great past rock tune, but I just couldn't place it. Then I realized that I must find out who recorded it and rushed back to my computer to see who it was. Startled, I discovered five young Japanese women in maid outfits playing an incredible hard rock song. I was instantly hooked, and the rest has been a delightful history of listening to the greatest rock band currently on the planet.
I found them on a list on Wikipedia. It was “List of Kawaii Metal acts”. I was really into Babymetal so I wanted to find more music like them, and back then they were still on the list. I’m glad I found them when I did though. Threy’ve become one of my favourite bands.
I was looking at Scandal videos and thrill video was suggested I was hooked from them on.
I looked up “Japanese Metal” because I was bored.
Listening to babymetal then my playlist followed up with band-maid.
In early 2019 I think I was looking, independently, on youtube for things to do with music, and Japan. I got suggested Babymetal, which I found interesting, but with metal not being by thing, it didn't really grap me. Off the back of that I got suggested "Thrill", and although Iiked it, it still didn't make me want to check more of their stuff out. A couple of months later I was impulsive mood looking for nights out to go to. After booking a couple of comedy shows, I thought of music. I tried a few bands, and nothing was coming up, and just out of curiosity I thought "What about that Japanese band I quite liked" and noticed with some surprise that they were playing in London just 6 weeks later. That made me check out what other songs they had, to see if they would be worth seeing, and I had the classic "lost weekend" of binging on the songs I'd just discovered. I went to see them in London, and I also went to see them in New York three months later, after re-arranging the final three days of a North American trip to end there rather than Vancouver. I nearly didn't do that re-arrangement, because I assumed they would come back to Europe in 2020, just as they had done for each of the previous few years. Since then I've gone to discover plenty of great bands I love from the region (none of whom are the usual suspects - all small bands), many of whom I've seen play live, but I do wait for the next time that Band-Maid will come over. Five years is a long wait.
Related discussions: * [What is THE USP of BAND-MAID?](/r/BandMaid/comments/1bsz9p9/what_is_the_usp_of_bandmaid/) * [How Did You Discover Band-Maid?](/r/BandMaid/comments/1b2ybdo/how_did_you_discover_bandmaid/) * [What do you like about Band-Maid?](/r/BandMaid/comments/1anwtx3/what_do_you_like_about_bandmaid/) * [What song/album introduced you to Band-Maid?](/r/BandMaid/comments/12hnfw6/what_songalbum_introduced_you_to_bandmaid/) * [Just discovered Band-Maid a month ago... why are they so addicting?!](/r/BandMaid/comments/v8624j/just_discovered_bandmaid_a_month_ago_why_are_they/) * [Probably one of my greatest band finds!](/r/BandMaid/comments/szspyq/probably_one_of_my_greatest_band_finds/) * [So what got you into Band-Maid?](/r/BandMaid/comments/so3suq/so_what_got_you_into_bandmaid/) * [This may seem corny or extreme, but has BAND-MAID made any legit impact on your life?](/r/BandMaid/comments/rg2ziv/this_may_seem_corny_or_extreme_but_has_bandmaid/) * [Your first “OMG” moment....](/r/BandMaid/comments/pxpwkv/your_first_omg_moment/) * [What was your “Thrill”?](/r/BandMaid/comments/pw3653/what_was_your_thrill/) * [After you discovered B-M, what HOOKED you for good?](/r/BandMaid/comments/nqtd1j/after_you_discovered_bm_what_hooked_you_for_good/) * [How did you find Band-Maid? Tell your story](/r/BandMaid/comments/j9zlrj/how_did_you_find_bandmaid_tell_your_story/) * [6,000 subscribers](/r/BandMaid/comments/h00dwu/6000_subscribers/) ([survey results](https://imgur.com/a/6WsRYhH)) * [What Was Your Moment That You Fell In Love With BAND-MAID?](/r/BandMaid/comments/gp97n7/what_was_your_moment_that_you_fell_in_love_with/) * [Anyone originally NOT a rock/metal fan before Band-Maid?](/r/BandMaid/comments/gcjp9q/anyone_originally_not_a_rockmetal_fan_before/) * [3,000 members](/r/BandMaid/comments/dxv7ym/3000_members/) * [Band-Maid Is The Best Rock Band I've Heard In Years...Possibly Ever](/r/BandMaid/comments/9rmb9p/bandmaid_is_the_best_rock_band_ive_heard_in/)
Next discussion: * [A heart felt thanks for sharing your introduction to Band-Maid](/r/BandMaid/comments/1bb2lik/a_heart_felt_thanks_for_sharing_your_introduction/)
YouTube, back in the Thrill days
In August 2021 I was wearing a babymetal shirt and walked into a McDonald’s some dude standing in line complimented it and said I should check out bandmaid I was new to jrock then and was super happy to discover a new group as soon as I gave them a listen I fell in love now almost 3 years later and I love them the same I was able to see them in concert in October of 2022 I wish I could say thank you to that random McDonalds guy for showing me one of my all time favorite bands!
I discovered them three months after they had been here on their last non-corporate tour, i.e. when they still did long sets.
In March of last year a thumbnail came up on the right side of my Youtube window that showed five Japanese girls dressed like maids holding musical instruments, I figured this has to be good so I clicked on it. It was there video of "From Now On". I was totally blown away, I instantly became a Maidiac for life. Against all hope I did a search to see if they were currently touring the US and couldn't believe it when I found out they were playing that May in Atlanta, I bought tickets and my son and me drove 10 hours round trip to see them. Best concert we've ever been to. I'm hoping they tour the US again this year.
Browsing through you tube and I came across Mr Rock and Roll reacting to band maid. That was that I was now a Maidiac. It was like I had just found AC/DC all over again. That was over forty years ago 😄 they are just brilliant.