The setting is an upscale hotel ballroom. On a stage in the center of the room sit two crystal-clear transparent pianos, facing each other, and a mic stand. In a circle around the stage, facing inward: an audience. everyone's gaze is fixed on the guy at the piano and the guy with the mic. Yes, while the now-middle-age visual- kei pioneers' natural habitat is the stadium, Yoshiki Hayashi and Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama sometimes perform at highly lucrative dinner shows. This one, held a few months ago at the Tokyo Prince Park Tower hotel, was for an audience of just 1,000 — a tiny fraction of the 45,000-capacity Tokyo Dome crowd X Japan usually entertains.