Golden Bomber is a Japanese visual kei band with the concept of Hyper Giga Hybrid Super Subculture Visual Rock. They are currently a 4-piece band focused on creating both power rock and pop music, and are one of Japan's biggest visual kei acts despite not being under a major label, with Memeshikute, their most popular song, amassing 7 million streams on Spotify alone, and the song's MV boasting 21 million views. The band is well known for how they call themselves an "air band", meaning none of the band members play their instruments. This claim isn't always true, however; Kyan has played his guitar during slower and shorter guitar solos, and Sho writes and arranges every single song alongside their producer tatsuo, Everset's former guitarist. Sho can also play several instruments, including violin, piano, drums, and bass. Little is known about Jun's music talent, but Kenji can play the guitar at a beginner level. They're also well-known for their concerts, with each tour having its own storyline revolving around the band, as well as faux "drum solos" and "guitar solos" where neither instrument is played, thus turning the stage into a playground for the members to do anything instead of performing. Each tour usually has stageplays with the members portraying different characters that usually fall in or out of love with each other.
The band started off in 2004 as Ni-yan, a punk act started by the vocalist Sho
Kiryuin, the guitarist Kyan Yutaka, and a bassist known as Ko-mi who left
shortly after. In 2005, the band changed their lineup to include drummer and
keyboardist Chimatsuri Teppei, who left in 2007, shortly after the reform to
Golden Bomber.
As for Ni-yan, the unit was very short-lived; it lasted nearly a year, and
disbanded sometime in 2005. While there is no exact reason, one reason usually
stated was that Sho was dealing with mental issues during this time, as well as
Ko-mi leaving the band. As such, Ni-yan disbanded, and shortly after, Golden
Bomber would form. Golden Bomber also suffered a fate of being shortlived, but
was revived when Kyan told Sho about how he wanted to start over with the band,
eventually restarting their activities.
In November 22nd 2006, Golden Bomber held their first live at the legendary Meguro Rokumeikan. The date of this concert is usually the official anniversary of Golden Bomber. They released 3 indies albums, with the first being released December 2006 and the last two being released December 2007. In 2007, the drummer Dankichi Tenkujou joined, being one of their first drummers to last over a year with his tenure, with current bassist Jun Utahiroba joining not long after in April 2007. Every month from May to September 2008, the band would release single CDs with cards containing member pictures as well as lyrics to the songs. It wasn't until 2009 that the band would start touring across Japan, with every concert up until their April 10th performance featuring Dankichi. Not long after, their current drummer Kenji Darvish joined, forming the band's final lineup which has been constant to this very day.
The band gained major popularity on the internet in October 2009 with the release of Memeshikute, spawning several parodies, animations, dance videos, and fanart drawings throughout the early 2010s. It is still their most popular song to this very day, and is usually performed by the band during encores or at festivals. The song ended up in Just Dance and was re-released alongside a more comedic version of the song, Nemutakute, in 2011. Moreover, they've also performed at some of Japan's biggest venues, including Nippon Budokan, Yokohama Arena, and Saitama Super Arena. As of 2025, they've had nearly 30 national and fanclub-exclusive tours, with their most recent being "Kyan Yutaka", set to start in August.