Red Hot Chili Pipers are a rock-centric, bagpipe-driven cover band hailing from Scotland. Making their first appearance at Fujirock, they rang in the 2019 festivities as the first act on the Red Marquee during the pre-festival party known as ‘Zenyasai’.

Winning BBC’s “When Will I Be Famous?” in 2007, the group has gone on to gain more attention, playing Radio 1 and various festival and live events worldwide.

With a burst of fireworks and a festival welcome by organizer Koichi Hanafusa, the Pipers took the stage and launched into their now famous cover of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”. This song is perhaps the best showcase of the bands ability as well as their talent for translating pop-rock covers into bagpipe-heavy sing-alongs.

While the drums, guitars and vocals obviously keep the songs rolling along, it is when the bagpipes come in strong that the band hits its stride. Playing to a jam-packed Red Marquee crowd who stayed dry inside from the light rain that began halfway through the set, the band ran through such covers as ACDC’s “Thunderstruck”, Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” and Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance”.

Keeping their versions short and sweet (perhaps because their pre-festival slot was so short), the crowd never stopped moving and often sang along to each song, bursting into cheer after each chorus when the bagpipes let loose with their refrain.

Closing their short introductory set with Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and a quick punch of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, the Pipers seemed to win over a lot of new fans, hopefully drawing them back to their main performance on the Green Stage bright and early tomorrow at 11:00am.