2011/09/10 - L'Arc~en~Ciel 20th L'Anniversary Tour | さいたまスーパーアリーナ
They were one of the first bands I came into contact with when I first got to know about Japanese music (although that came from randomly picking up a *cough* not totally legal version of Clicked Singles 13 in a shady shop in China). So it was a dream come true when I got the email telling me that I had managed to successfully ballot for 3 out of 4 shows on their 20th L'Anniversary tour.
I was running a little late, so I gave up on queueing to buy the goods, since I figured that the lines would be horrendously long (and I was right). Saitama Super Arena today. The last I was here was in mid-April for the SKULLSHIT festival.
Entrance to the stadium. Not too much a fan of roses and such, but I love how the ticket is customised, since it makes for awesome concert memorabilia. I guess this is what you pay for when you join the fanclub.
Flowers from Aoki (the Hyde impersonator), INORAN, Kuroyume, DAIGO... Kanou Eikou??? Did not know that they were friends! Interesting. Also, the bouquet from fans was really pretty.
Our view of the stage. Two words: AWESOME SEATS <3 I can't help but wonder what kind of seats we managed to get for Kyocera Dome now. The stadium was divided into arena, seating on the first floor, and seating on the second floor. It was pretty empty when we entered, but by the time 5pm rolled around, it was packed (it was a sold out show after all).
SETLIST
01. 虹
02. SEVENTH HEAVEN
03. GOOD LUCK MY WAY
04. the Fourth Avenue Cafe
MC
05. DRINK IT DOWN
06. Dune
07. REVELATION
08. 夏の憂鬱 [time to say good-bye]
09. forbidden lover
10. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
MC
11. HONEY
12. Caress of Venus
13. In the Air
14. Blurry Eyes
15. READY STEADY GO
ENCORE
EN01. 花葬 -L'Acoustic version-
EN02. X X X
EN03. Lies and Truth
EN04. Link
EN05. あなた
Didn't expect them to be on time (and they weren't). The show was supposed to start at 5pm, but it was only at 5.20pm that all the lights suddenly went out, and we knew that the show was finally going to start. It was then that I finally understood the rationale behind not letting fans choose the lightstick colour - when the lights went off, the randomised sea of colours was breathtaking. An introduction video started playing. They showed pictures of one eye from each band member (order: Yukihiro -> Tetsu -> Ken -> Hyde. Think Tetsu and Hyde had red contacts on), and then there was this other animation where they had a glowing ball zoom through the galaxy, breaking through shields (reminded me of the shields protecting Hogwarts in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 melting down), and finally landing on Earth.
An image of a row of lit candles (probably 20) appeared across the screen at the top of the stage, and a dark figure on stage sang the chorus to 虹. I thought that it wasn't Hyde, because the figure looked tall (for one), and the voice sounded not quite like Hyde, but a really good imitation of him. Thought that it might be L'Arc humour to start off the show by tricking the fans by having Aoki (the Hyde impersonator I had mentioned earlier on) stand in at the very beginning. Okay, maybe it's also a little fantasy of mine to be able to see the two of them perform on the same stage.
But anyway, at the end of the chorus, it's as if someone blew the candles, and all of them went out. Ken played the guitar intro to the song, the lights came on, and we could see the whole band already onstage: Yukihiro at the back, Tetsu on the left, Ken on the right, and Hyde in the center. I guess... it really -was- the real Hyde after all D: Apart from the band, there was also a string ensemble behind them in a long, cube-like structure.
Hyde had his hair in cornrows, which were long, dreadlock-y, and black and blonde. He was in a black bowler hat with black feathers, wore a black dinner jacket (is that what it's called?), with everything else inside a myriad of colours. Ken was in a suit, black vest, with a pink collared shirt unbuttoned till about mid-torso (extra: his guitar strap was the same shade of pink). Tetsu had on a black vest and white shirt (and that's all I remember of him, sorry :/ Oh, he had a large "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" sticker pasted in the middle of his bass). I don't really remember Yukihiro's outfit either, but I do know that it was some jacket thing, with a grey tank top underneath (because he stripped halfway into the set). There were four rectangular screens at the side, and each one was focused on one member. Ken and Yukihiro looked exactly the same as the last time I saw their faces (I think it's because they do look... somewhat older in the first place). Hyde is a total vampire. He looked like photoshop come alive (i.e. so perfect that it's... just wrong). On the other hand, it looked like Tetsu aged in the place of the other three members. His eyebags had become more sunken and defined, and he had a really tired look on his face :(
No sooner had the last note died away did the band launch into the introduction for SEVENTH HEAVEN. The screens at the side which were previously showing closeups of each individual member now showed a black figure of a woman dancing against a hot pink background, similar to the women dancing in thisiPod advertisement here. There was a very poppy, light-hearted, disco feel to it, which is really what SEVENTH HEAVEN is anyway. The closeups of the members were shown in the large screen in the center now, and apart from Hyde who kept walking the breadth of the stage, no one else shifted from their positions.
The next song, GOOD LUCK MY WAY was the first in the list of "songs I do not know because I'm a fail fan". But all was well when Yukihiro immediately played the drum introduction to the Fourth Avenue Cafe after GOOD LUCK MY WAY ended, and that got the audience clapping along. They pulled the structure housing the strings ensemble to the side, probably so that everyone could really focus on the band without being distracted by moving things in the ackground. There's some parts in the song where a trumpet plays, and during those moments the screen would show black figures playing the trumpet against a yellow background, in the same iPod advertisement style that they did the visuals I mentioned earlier.
There was an MC break after this, and fangirls around me started calling the band members' names (okay, 90% Hyde and 10% Ken) like they actually thought that they'd be able to hear them from the stage. Hyde talked about how he left his hair long for this tour and kinda liked how it turned out. Asked the fans if they would allow him to keep it, to obviously a resounding "kakkoii~~". He called us 'Saitama-chan', which was apparently something he had thought up on the spur of the moment. The camera suddenly focused on Ken, and you could see that he had already started smoking onstage hahaha.
L'Arc has the best use of visuals I've ever seen for a live (so far). I was going to describe all of them, but my brain is leaky and can only remember so many :/ DRINK IT DOWN left the strongest impact though. The intro was in a minor key, played by the strings, and that caught my attention instantly. A search on Youtube tells me that this is the theme for Devil May Cry 4. Anyway, I say the visuals of this song left the greatest impact because they were of intense red flames spreading out, and licking the screen. It's the kind you see in blockbuster films when things explode underground and the fire whooshes through a tunnel. Maybe I'm an arsonist like that, because I do think that fire is beautiful.
The next song (Dune, apparently) was really old song that I didn't know. Am assuming that it's old because the melody and feel felt visual-kei-ish. Was half expecting Hyde to turn out in some black feathered cloak and sway from side to side while singing, actually. The fans sang parts of the chorus automatically, but I was fail and didn't know the lyrics. It amazes me that they know exactly when to sing and all. I mean, sometimes Hyde doesn't give cues, but they manage to continue from where he left off without skipping a beat.
REVELATION (finally something I knew!) started off with a black screen with a grey head mesh in the center, giving an announcement in a tone of voice similar to what you hear in those propaganda speeches. I think it was in English, but really couldn't make out what was being said. I guess only I would care about it because I'm guailan like that (also curious to hear what engrish it was). The stage was dark, but the lights suddenly turned on, the band played two notes and stopped, and the lights switched off again. That was a giveaway though, because the two notes were really low and heavy, and there's only one L'Arc song that starts off like that. This was repeated for 4 more times before the band kicked in, and Hyde led us in pumping our fists in the air and going "HEY!" (which was good since that was the natural action I would do, but I wasn't sure what to do with this crowd as I've been doing different stuff from them since the start). The crowd sang the world "revelation", jumped at the "HEY!" parts in the chorus, and there was another part in the middle where Hyde led us in another bout of fistpumping.
The visuals for 夏の憂鬱 [time to say good-bye] were pretty as well. The stage went dark and the audience was treated to the sound of dripping water before the song began. If I'm not wrong, they showed visuals of water droplets on a deep blue background. They did not just show the visuals, but overlayed it with a live video feed of the band, so (okay I can't describe it well) it made the stage feel like it had infinite depth. A nice way to make the stage feel larger than it actually is.
For forbidden lover, the background changed into a gold-orangey sunset, with the sea and an island in the middle of it. This time, it was without the overlay of the live video feed of the band, but it felt like we were watching a PV. On another note, it was then that I was feeling a little meh, because I suck since I don't know -that- many of L'Arc's older songs :(
The strings started up, and Ken played a guitar solo. I loved the tuning - it had a soft, rounded feel, but really made an impact. It's the kind of sound that really tugs on your heart, especially when it hits the high notes, and the last note lingers in a slightly heartwrenching manner. After a minute or so, Ken melded the solo into the introductory guitar phrase for MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM, and the band kicked in. I think the visuals were of clouds (there were 3? or so cloud visuals). In the middle of the song, all the instruments except the drums and (maybe) the bass stopped, and Hyde let the crowd sing the "夢を描くよ" parts, completing it with "my heart draws a dream". There was a low voice singing together with the crowd, and I kept looking to see who was singing it. Thought it was Tetsu, but it didn't look like his mouth was moving (I had to STARE at the stage because the band wasn't shown on the screens then). Was afraid that Hyde would screw the high notes because it's really obvious when the whole arena is silent.
The band took a break, and (I think) Hyde and Tetsu left the stage. Yukihiro is a drum machine, and so that left Ken to do the MC. That might or might not have been a good thing haha. Ken went "うぃぃぃん", and held out both his hands, to which the crowd laughed and imitated him. He then did the same thing, but in a higher pitch and held both his hands over his head, both with the \m/ handsign, to which the crowd copied as well. Ken then asked the audience who was the person who came up with the second "うぃぃぃん", and there were very audible "え？？？"s heard around me. Apparently the first one's by this dude called Chou-san, and the second's by Stan Hansen. Ken then did the two "うぃぃぃん"s in quick alternation, did another version that went "wee! woo!" and asked us who came up with it. Obviously, silence in the crowd, and people around me were going "知らないよ" ("I DON'T KNOW") and "YOU???" hahaha. Ken wondered aloud if the Stan Hansen joke wasn't well-received in the Saitama area, and commented that "all of you have blank faces". He then proceeded to say that today was the first day of the tour and (I think) asked what we had done to prepare for this. No response from the crowd and he went (in mock anger), "You guys didn't do anything?!" He said he had his hair cut, and talked about something that looked like coffee that stank (was it the mousse?) and people around me went "ahhh" and nodded like they knew exactly what he was talking about (except me). So he shook the coffee-looking thing and pressed it thinking that it'd smell like coffee, but obviously it did not ("やっぱ臭いねん！！" - Kansai-ben ftw <3). There was appreciative laughter in the crowd, and Ken wondered aloud, "Hmm okay I guess you guys don't find this too funny either."
Hyde had come out with his guitar, and stood at the side chatting to Yukihiro at the drums. In addition to the haircut and having to endure smelly stuff, Ken also said that in preparation for today, he watched all 5 Rocky movies. He said "Rocky" to which there was an "aahhhh" of understanding from the crowd, and "Rocky Balboa" to which the crowd kept silent, and he wondered why we wouldn't respond to his full name. "Perhaps because there aren't many people who like fighting movies here? This is strange...", he said, and continued by giving a summary of ALL FIVE MOVIES: Rocky 1 was when he had no money and had to use meat as punching bags, and he became the champion. Rocky 2 was when (okay I couldn't hear this part), and he became the champion. Rocky 3 was when he won against some Mr T. The moment Ken said "Rocky 3", Hyde who had been standing at the side with his guitar went and sat down against the amplifiers XD So just when Ken thought the match in Rocky 3 was the final retirement match, out came Rocky 4. There was some really strong guy called Drago(?) from the Soviet Union, and after a really difficult match, Rocky won (Ken said something about some Italian something, but I couldn't catch it). In Rocky 5, some guy called Tommy(?) came up to Rocky and wanted to learn boxing from him. Rocky agreed, and they managed to find a good management team. Ken said something else, and something about Tommy fighting Rocky on the streets with Rocky emerging victorious. It looked like Ken was going to end there, but he suddenly started up again by going "but you know in Rocky 5..." and the cameras panned to the faces of the other members and you could see them smiling awkwardly (苦笑い). I'm sure they would have facepalmed if they could. Ken rambled on about how Rocky became the world champion or something, his young son becoming all grown up and watching his father at his peak, and finally concluded that after watching all 5 in one sitting, he received a lot of energy, and here he was standing in front of us on the stage. It sounded like Ken had finally finished his whole monologue about Rocky, but he suddenly went "but you know..." and at this point, Tetsu gave up and started walking to the side of the stage to hand his bass over to the roadie. By the time Tetsu reached the side of the stage and was just in the act of handing over his bass however, Ken decided to FINALLY conclude by going, "With all this long talk about Rocky, I'm sure you guys really want to hear our songs now right?" and Tetsu changed his mind and took his bass back. "What do you guys want to hear?" Ken asked the crowd, and everyone went "EH????" He asked the crowd the same question again, and went, "On the count of 3! One, two..." and obviously he got a whole myriad of answers which no one could make out -_- But of course those weren't the answers he was hoping for. Apparently the answer he was looking for was "Rocky" -_- Everyone loled, the band did facepalms in their hearts, and Ken went, "Okay Hyde, bring on 'Rocky'!" Hyde, who was walking up to the microphone, understandably had a WTF???? look on his face.
Obviously, Hyde completely ignored Ken and went straight into HONEY. I LOVE this song. I think it's one of the first songs (this and Blurry Eyes) that I first heard from L'Arc. Caress of Venus was a dancey song, and they shot streamers into the crowd right at the beginning. I was worried that we were too far back to get any streamers, but saw that there were a few strands floating above us. It was ETERNITY waiting for them to reach us, but while one fell to the front and one to the right, NONE reached us. The girls right in front of us were lucky because the guys right in front picked the streamer up and passed it to them T_T I was quite upset, because the streamers were customised (i.e they had the event name printed on them and all, not just plain coloured streamers which I wouldn't care so much about). It was funny though, because you see people in the arena running to the back just to grab bunches of the streamers (okay, I would do that too if I were them). Unfortunately we were stopped by the gate and couldn't.
There was a really long solo before In the Air, but I didn't know the song. After the song ended, they played a bagpipe ditty, and Yukihiro kicked off by playing 2 bars of rhythm and stopped. I should have recognised this as the starting to Blurry Eyes, but of course I was fail and didn't. Anyway this happened a couple more times before they went into the intro of the song. As usual, like I see happen in all their other lives, Hyde blows a whistle, holds it by the string and swings it over his head like a lasso, and flings it into the crowd (it was white). The whistle went to the people on the right. The crowd sang the chorus with Hyde finishing up the last sentence.
After the end of the guitar solo where Hyde sings "why do you stare at the sky with your blurry eyes", the band stopped playing. Hyde growled/made moaning noises into the microphone and called us "Tama-chan" (shortened from "Saitama-chan". So the man's calling us "balls". Okay, I get it). Everyone seemed to love being called Tama-chan though. He continued with the whole seductive act and went suggestively, "I want to see tama-chan's awesome parts (たまちゃんの凄いところが見たいな)" and "You guys can do it if you want it, right?". Hyde continued on with this suggestive play thing for awhile... which all came undone when the camera panned to Ken who was lolzing away at a corner, lit cigarette in his hand as usual. Hyde looked confused for a second as to why everyone was laughing, then turned back to look at the screen. By that time, the camera had switched back to Hyde, and the moment Hyde turned away, it went back to lolzing Ken again. Hyde turned back and saw lolzing Ken on the screen, and the camera then panned over to Tetsu and Yukihiro (YUKIHIRO FINALLY GETS MAIN SCREEN TIME <3) who were both smiling and trying to control their laughter. "Nonono that's not Tama-chan," went Hyde to laughter from the audience. Going back to suggestive play again, Hyde said, "Will you let me see it? L'Arc en Ciel's fans are more than this, right? I can't hear you, Tama-chan!!" The MC was of course longer than this (with repeated "TAMA-CHAN!!!" growls) but it's annoying to type. Aaanyway Hyde finally shouted, "BLURRY EYES!!!" and the song continued. The fans sang the chorus, with Hyde singing the last line, and we also did the "your blurry eyes" parts.
Without skipping a beat after "Blurry Eyes" (and after some shouting of "TAMA-CHAN!!!" - I cringed everytime he did that :/) Hyde growled, "ARE YOU FUCKING READY???" and they launched into READY STEADY GO. There was a explosion of yellow... stuff on stage. I think the visuals were the top view(?) of some white bird against a sky blue... sky hahaha. At the chorus, Hyde would go "READY" and the crowd would finish it with "STEADY GO!!!". He let us do the "PLEASE TRUST ME" part as well.
The song ended, and the members all went backstage. At this point, 1.5 hours had passed. When the lights came on, there was an exodus out of the hall, probably heading to the washrooms. As there were seats, we decided to sit down for a bit. Like what had happened during last year's The GazettE concert, I thought that this was an intermission thing, so there was no need to call for an encore. In fact, almost no one was doing it. The crowd amused themselves by doing stadium waves. Once in awhile, there'd be some encore chants, but those never lasted long. After about 10 to 15 minutes of waiting and self-amusement with more stadium waves, the lights went out, and the strings started up. They showed a 4 minute photo slide of the band members from the different eras. You really feel how far they've come, after seeing some shots and feeling "Omg they look so young! Were they doing this already back then??"
After the photo slide, the lights came on, and you could see that they had shifted the strings section back to the center of the stage. The members (except Yukihiro of course) were all sitting on the frame of the structure housing the strings section, which was really nice because they were silouhetted on the screen behind. The version of 花葬 they played was a slower acoustic version, and as usual Ken made the guitar notes ring out with a tinge of melancholy, like in those sad Spanish songs, the way only he can.
The introduction to the next song played after "花葬" had ended, and I thought that it was another random song which I didn't know because I was a fail fan. But then the letters "X X X" in white suddenly showed up on the black screen, and everyone went "WHOAAAA" because it was L'Arc's new single, and I hadn't expected to be able to hear them play it. It was another bassy song, and when they were playing it, the visuals were of blonde girls looking seductive and sprawled all over the place like in those glamour fashion magazines. I figured that it was part of their PV (I was, for the most part, right), but wondered where the other members were (although I did catch a glimpse of Tetsu playing the upright bass). Fireballs as stage effects for this song, and it added a nice touch to the whole atmosphere.
With Lies and Truth, I was back on familiar grounds. The next song was Link, but only the introduction sounded vaguely familiar to me. Hyde made random groaning noises (probably to kill time/not know what to say) and was like, "I can't seem to do anything other than this." He introduced the song, called "kiss kiss kiss" (rather than the "XXX" that I thought was how it was supposed to be read). "It's cool, isn't it?", he asked the audience, and continued by saying that it was 20 years' worth of kisses the band wanted to give everyone. I thought he was bullshitting, but everyone around me was squealing away. Then he said, "Okay that was a lie", everyone around me went "EHHHH????" and a little part of me was vindicated. "But anyway it's filled with erotic feelings. I wrote it when I was in an excited state. So please read the lyrics when you're lying on your bed." -_- O...kay. Hyde then announced that the next song would be their final one. "It's the first day, and I'm feeling pretty nervous, not knowing what's going to happen next." He commented about how he didn't expect to be sweating like that (well, you aren't getting any younger...). "With regards to something interesting that happened, this (he pointed to his wristband) was left in the dressing room. So I thought maybe I should try wearing it. I wore it, and at that moment, I felt something that I had never felt before. Like "Hey, I'm L'Arc en Ciel!" I don't get this feeling often... I mean, it's not like I've NEVER felt it, but... hmm have I? Wait I'm not trying to pimp this, you don't have to buy it. But it's like "ah, this is MY band". Don't buy it, you hear me? I think the members standing behind me are wearing it as well..." The camera turned to Yukihiro and Hyde went, "Wait... is that a wristband belonging to another band??" But Yukihiro held it up for all to see (it was the L'Arc one) and everyone cheered. The attention then turned to Tetsu, the camera focused on him, and... he wasn't wearing any wristband at all. "Ohhhh..." went Hyde in disappointment, and said, "Okay, I guess he's a slow starter. I think... No, I know that he's going to go back to the dressing room later and put it on." Ken was spared, somehow. Hyde started on his next sentence, but stopped midway when he suddenly remembered to mention that they had invited a string ensemble to play for them today. "They're CG-ed though." The camera switched to the strings ensemble, and you could see that many of them, if not for their professionalism, would be having this -_- facial expression on their face. He then apologised. Hyde continued by saying that after today, they were going to the other parts of Japan, and even though they had wanted to do more shows, this would be the last of their shows in the Kanto region. "But we really want to do this again, after our world tour! We'll go out to do those shows, and return back here."
"Will you guys sing with me? Let's unite for this last song! Thank you so much for coming today. The last song: Anata."
Hyde said the word あなた really quickly, but my heart jumped because it was THE song I had been waiting to hear live.
The lights in the arena and stands went out, and all you could see was the sea of lightsticks, the band, and the screen showing a galaxy of stars. It was beautiful. The moment the strings started up, I got goosebumps. Hyde let us sing the second chorus, the floodgates broke, and I started crying. Perhaps it's because I really love the song, because of the whole atmosphere, because you can hear everyone singing together in one voice. That we're all in the same space, breathing the same air, sharing the same beautiful moment. Even as I'm listening to my recording as I write this live report, I'm starting to tear up a little.
The song ended, Hyde thanked his "Tama-chan"s, and said, "Till tomorrow!" Tetsu reappeared onstage, this time around wearing the wristband (haha, he really did rush to the back to put it on) and holding a basket. He then proceeded, in usual fashion, to throw three bananas into the audience, before going "See you tomorrow!!" and leaving the stage.
The lights then went off and we were treated to the entire PV of XXX. After that, the lights came on, and the announcement played to indicate that the show was over. I was really surprised that there was no encore. Perhaps the long break in the middle was supposed to be an encore after all? In which case we should have called for an encore. Oops. Confusions :/
After the live ended, we filed out and I went to try to queue for goods. But the goods line was neverending, and I figured that I would wait till Kyocera Dome to buy their goods, rather than wait 1.5 hours in a queue.
Although I didn't manage to catch a streamer, an awesome Spanish fan tore off part of hers for me, without me asking <3
Till Kyocera Dome, where I'm sure it's gonna be an awesome two days :)
Next live: 2011/09/16 - ALL TIME LOW JAPAN TOUR 2011 | duo MUSIC EXCHANGE (東京都)
I was running a little late, so I gave up on queueing to buy the goods, since I figured that the lines would be horrendously long (and I was right). Saitama Super Arena today. The last I was here was in mid-April for the SKULLSHIT festival.
Entrance to the stadium. Not too much a fan of roses and such, but I love how the ticket is customised, since it makes for awesome concert memorabilia. I guess this is what you pay for when you join the fanclub.
Flowers from Aoki (the Hyde impersonator), INORAN, Kuroyume, DAIGO... Kanou Eikou??? Did not know that they were friends! Interesting. Also, the bouquet from fans was really pretty.
Our view of the stage. Two words: AWESOME SEATS <3 I can't help but wonder what kind of seats we managed to get for Kyocera Dome now. The stadium was divided into arena, seating on the first floor, and seating on the second floor. It was pretty empty when we entered, but by the time 5pm rolled around, it was packed (it was a sold out show after all).
SETLIST
01. 虹
02. SEVENTH HEAVEN
03. GOOD LUCK MY WAY
04. the Fourth Avenue Cafe
MC
05. DRINK IT DOWN
06. Dune
07. REVELATION
08. 夏の憂鬱 [time to say good-bye]
09. forbidden lover
10. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
MC
11. HONEY
12. Caress of Venus
13. In the Air
14. Blurry Eyes
15. READY STEADY GO
ENCORE
EN01. 花葬 -L'Acoustic version-
EN02. X X X
EN03. Lies and Truth
EN04. Link
EN05. あなた
Didn't expect them to be on time (and they weren't). The show was supposed to start at 5pm, but it was only at 5.20pm that all the lights suddenly went out, and we knew that the show was finally going to start. It was then that I finally understood the rationale behind not letting fans choose the lightstick colour - when the lights went off, the randomised sea of colours was breathtaking. An introduction video started playing. They showed pictures of one eye from each band member (order: Yukihiro -> Tetsu -> Ken -> Hyde. Think Tetsu and Hyde had red contacts on), and then there was this other animation where they had a glowing ball zoom through the galaxy, breaking through shields (reminded me of the shields protecting Hogwarts in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 melting down), and finally landing on Earth.
An image of a row of lit candles (probably 20) appeared across the screen at the top of the stage, and a dark figure on stage sang the chorus to 虹. I thought that it wasn't Hyde, because the figure looked tall (for one), and the voice sounded not quite like Hyde, but a really good imitation of him. Thought that it might be L'Arc humour to start off the show by tricking the fans by having Aoki (the Hyde impersonator I had mentioned earlier on) stand in at the very beginning. Okay, maybe it's also a little fantasy of mine to be able to see the two of them perform on the same stage.
But anyway, at the end of the chorus, it's as if someone blew the candles, and all of them went out. Ken played the guitar intro to the song, the lights came on, and we could see the whole band already onstage: Yukihiro at the back, Tetsu on the left, Ken on the right, and Hyde in the center. I guess... it really -was- the real Hyde after all D: Apart from the band, there was also a string ensemble behind them in a long, cube-like structure.
Hyde had his hair in cornrows, which were long, dreadlock-y, and black and blonde. He was in a black bowler hat with black feathers, wore a black dinner jacket (is that what it's called?), with everything else inside a myriad of colours. Ken was in a suit, black vest, with a pink collared shirt unbuttoned till about mid-torso (extra: his guitar strap was the same shade of pink). Tetsu had on a black vest and white shirt (and that's all I remember of him, sorry :/ Oh, he had a large "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" sticker pasted in the middle of his bass). I don't really remember Yukihiro's outfit either, but I do know that it was some jacket thing, with a grey tank top underneath (because he stripped halfway into the set). There were four rectangular screens at the side, and each one was focused on one member. Ken and Yukihiro looked exactly the same as the last time I saw their faces (I think it's because they do look... somewhat older in the first place). Hyde is a total vampire. He looked like photoshop come alive (i.e. so perfect that it's... just wrong). On the other hand, it looked like Tetsu aged in the place of the other three members. His eyebags had become more sunken and defined, and he had a really tired look on his face :(
No sooner had the last note died away did the band launch into the introduction for SEVENTH HEAVEN. The screens at the side which were previously showing closeups of each individual member now showed a black figure of a woman dancing against a hot pink background, similar to the women dancing in thisiPod advertisement here. There was a very poppy, light-hearted, disco feel to it, which is really what SEVENTH HEAVEN is anyway. The closeups of the members were shown in the large screen in the center now, and apart from Hyde who kept walking the breadth of the stage, no one else shifted from their positions.
The next song, GOOD LUCK MY WAY was the first in the list of "songs I do not know because I'm a fail fan". But all was well when Yukihiro immediately played the drum introduction to the Fourth Avenue Cafe after GOOD LUCK MY WAY ended, and that got the audience clapping along. They pulled the structure housing the strings ensemble to the side, probably so that everyone could really focus on the band without being distracted by moving things in the ackground. There's some parts in the song where a trumpet plays, and during those moments the screen would show black figures playing the trumpet against a yellow background, in the same iPod advertisement style that they did the visuals I mentioned earlier.
There was an MC break after this, and fangirls around me started calling the band members' names (okay, 90% Hyde and 10% Ken) like they actually thought that they'd be able to hear them from the stage. Hyde talked about how he left his hair long for this tour and kinda liked how it turned out. Asked the fans if they would allow him to keep it, to obviously a resounding "kakkoii~~". He called us 'Saitama-chan', which was apparently something he had thought up on the spur of the moment. The camera suddenly focused on Ken, and you could see that he had already started smoking onstage hahaha.
L'Arc has the best use of visuals I've ever seen for a live (so far). I was going to describe all of them, but my brain is leaky and can only remember so many :/ DRINK IT DOWN left the strongest impact though. The intro was in a minor key, played by the strings, and that caught my attention instantly. A search on Youtube tells me that this is the theme for Devil May Cry 4. Anyway, I say the visuals of this song left the greatest impact because they were of intense red flames spreading out, and licking the screen. It's the kind you see in blockbuster films when things explode underground and the fire whooshes through a tunnel. Maybe I'm an arsonist like that, because I do think that fire is beautiful.
The next song (Dune, apparently) was really old song that I didn't know. Am assuming that it's old because the melody and feel felt visual-kei-ish. Was half expecting Hyde to turn out in some black feathered cloak and sway from side to side while singing, actually. The fans sang parts of the chorus automatically, but I was fail and didn't know the lyrics. It amazes me that they know exactly when to sing and all. I mean, sometimes Hyde doesn't give cues, but they manage to continue from where he left off without skipping a beat.
REVELATION (finally something I knew!) started off with a black screen with a grey head mesh in the center, giving an announcement in a tone of voice similar to what you hear in those propaganda speeches. I think it was in English, but really couldn't make out what was being said. I guess only I would care about it because I'm guailan like that (also curious to hear what engrish it was). The stage was dark, but the lights suddenly turned on, the band played two notes and stopped, and the lights switched off again. That was a giveaway though, because the two notes were really low and heavy, and there's only one L'Arc song that starts off like that. This was repeated for 4 more times before the band kicked in, and Hyde led us in pumping our fists in the air and going "HEY!" (which was good since that was the natural action I would do, but I wasn't sure what to do with this crowd as I've been doing different stuff from them since the start). The crowd sang the world "revelation", jumped at the "HEY!" parts in the chorus, and there was another part in the middle where Hyde led us in another bout of fistpumping.
The visuals for 夏の憂鬱 [time to say good-bye] were pretty as well. The stage went dark and the audience was treated to the sound of dripping water before the song began. If I'm not wrong, they showed visuals of water droplets on a deep blue background. They did not just show the visuals, but overlayed it with a live video feed of the band, so (okay I can't describe it well) it made the stage feel like it had infinite depth. A nice way to make the stage feel larger than it actually is.
For forbidden lover, the background changed into a gold-orangey sunset, with the sea and an island in the middle of it. This time, it was without the overlay of the live video feed of the band, but it felt like we were watching a PV. On another note, it was then that I was feeling a little meh, because I suck since I don't know -that- many of L'Arc's older songs :(
The strings started up, and Ken played a guitar solo. I loved the tuning - it had a soft, rounded feel, but really made an impact. It's the kind of sound that really tugs on your heart, especially when it hits the high notes, and the last note lingers in a slightly heartwrenching manner. After a minute or so, Ken melded the solo into the introductory guitar phrase for MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM, and the band kicked in. I think the visuals were of clouds (there were 3? or so cloud visuals). In the middle of the song, all the instruments except the drums and (maybe) the bass stopped, and Hyde let the crowd sing the "夢を描くよ" parts, completing it with "my heart draws a dream". There was a low voice singing together with the crowd, and I kept looking to see who was singing it. Thought it was Tetsu, but it didn't look like his mouth was moving (I had to STARE at the stage because the band wasn't shown on the screens then). Was afraid that Hyde would screw the high notes because it's really obvious when the whole arena is silent.
The band took a break, and (I think) Hyde and Tetsu left the stage. Yukihiro is a drum machine, and so that left Ken to do the MC. That might or might not have been a good thing haha. Ken went "うぃぃぃん", and held out both his hands, to which the crowd laughed and imitated him. He then did the same thing, but in a higher pitch and held both his hands over his head, both with the \m/ handsign, to which the crowd copied as well. Ken then asked the audience who was the person who came up with the second "うぃぃぃん", and there were very audible "え？？？"s heard around me. Apparently the first one's by this dude called Chou-san, and the second's by Stan Hansen. Ken then did the two "うぃぃぃん"s in quick alternation, did another version that went "wee! woo!" and asked us who came up with it. Obviously, silence in the crowd, and people around me were going "知らないよ" ("I DON'T KNOW") and "YOU???" hahaha. Ken wondered aloud if the Stan Hansen joke wasn't well-received in the Saitama area, and commented that "all of you have blank faces". He then proceeded to say that today was the first day of the tour and (I think) asked what we had done to prepare for this. No response from the crowd and he went (in mock anger), "You guys didn't do anything?!" He said he had his hair cut, and talked about something that looked like coffee that stank (was it the mousse?) and people around me went "ahhh" and nodded like they knew exactly what he was talking about (except me). So he shook the coffee-looking thing and pressed it thinking that it'd smell like coffee, but obviously it did not ("やっぱ臭いねん！！" - Kansai-ben ftw <3). There was appreciative laughter in the crowd, and Ken wondered aloud, "Hmm okay I guess you guys don't find this too funny either."
Hyde had come out with his guitar, and stood at the side chatting to Yukihiro at the drums. In addition to the haircut and having to endure smelly stuff, Ken also said that in preparation for today, he watched all 5 Rocky movies. He said "Rocky" to which there was an "aahhhh" of understanding from the crowd, and "Rocky Balboa" to which the crowd kept silent, and he wondered why we wouldn't respond to his full name. "Perhaps because there aren't many people who like fighting movies here? This is strange...", he said, and continued by giving a summary of ALL FIVE MOVIES: Rocky 1 was when he had no money and had to use meat as punching bags, and he became the champion. Rocky 2 was when (okay I couldn't hear this part), and he became the champion. Rocky 3 was when he won against some Mr T. The moment Ken said "Rocky 3", Hyde who had been standing at the side with his guitar went and sat down against the amplifiers XD So just when Ken thought the match in Rocky 3 was the final retirement match, out came Rocky 4. There was some really strong guy called Drago(?) from the Soviet Union, and after a really difficult match, Rocky won (Ken said something about some Italian something, but I couldn't catch it). In Rocky 5, some guy called Tommy(?) came up to Rocky and wanted to learn boxing from him. Rocky agreed, and they managed to find a good management team. Ken said something else, and something about Tommy fighting Rocky on the streets with Rocky emerging victorious. It looked like Ken was going to end there, but he suddenly started up again by going "but you know in Rocky 5..." and the cameras panned to the faces of the other members and you could see them smiling awkwardly (苦笑い). I'm sure they would have facepalmed if they could. Ken rambled on about how Rocky became the world champion or something, his young son becoming all grown up and watching his father at his peak, and finally concluded that after watching all 5 in one sitting, he received a lot of energy, and here he was standing in front of us on the stage. It sounded like Ken had finally finished his whole monologue about Rocky, but he suddenly went "but you know..." and at this point, Tetsu gave up and started walking to the side of the stage to hand his bass over to the roadie. By the time Tetsu reached the side of the stage and was just in the act of handing over his bass however, Ken decided to FINALLY conclude by going, "With all this long talk about Rocky, I'm sure you guys really want to hear our songs now right?" and Tetsu changed his mind and took his bass back. "What do you guys want to hear?" Ken asked the crowd, and everyone went "EH????" He asked the crowd the same question again, and went, "On the count of 3! One, two..." and obviously he got a whole myriad of answers which no one could make out -_- But of course those weren't the answers he was hoping for. Apparently the answer he was looking for was "Rocky" -_- Everyone loled, the band did facepalms in their hearts, and Ken went, "Okay Hyde, bring on 'Rocky'!" Hyde, who was walking up to the microphone, understandably had a WTF???? look on his face.
Obviously, Hyde completely ignored Ken and went straight into HONEY. I LOVE this song. I think it's one of the first songs (this and Blurry Eyes) that I first heard from L'Arc. Caress of Venus was a dancey song, and they shot streamers into the crowd right at the beginning. I was worried that we were too far back to get any streamers, but saw that there were a few strands floating above us. It was ETERNITY waiting for them to reach us, but while one fell to the front and one to the right, NONE reached us. The girls right in front of us were lucky because the guys right in front picked the streamer up and passed it to them T_T I was quite upset, because the streamers were customised (i.e they had the event name printed on them and all, not just plain coloured streamers which I wouldn't care so much about). It was funny though, because you see people in the arena running to the back just to grab bunches of the streamers (okay, I would do that too if I were them). Unfortunately we were stopped by the gate and couldn't.
There was a really long solo before In the Air, but I didn't know the song. After the song ended, they played a bagpipe ditty, and Yukihiro kicked off by playing 2 bars of rhythm and stopped. I should have recognised this as the starting to Blurry Eyes, but of course I was fail and didn't. Anyway this happened a couple more times before they went into the intro of the song. As usual, like I see happen in all their other lives, Hyde blows a whistle, holds it by the string and swings it over his head like a lasso, and flings it into the crowd (it was white). The whistle went to the people on the right. The crowd sang the chorus with Hyde finishing up the last sentence.
After the end of the guitar solo where Hyde sings "why do you stare at the sky with your blurry eyes", the band stopped playing. Hyde growled/made moaning noises into the microphone and called us "Tama-chan" (shortened from "Saitama-chan". So the man's calling us "balls". Okay, I get it). Everyone seemed to love being called Tama-chan though. He continued with the whole seductive act and went suggestively, "I want to see tama-chan's awesome parts (たまちゃんの凄いところが見たいな)" and "You guys can do it if you want it, right?". Hyde continued on with this suggestive play thing for awhile... which all came undone when the camera panned to Ken who was lolzing away at a corner, lit cigarette in his hand as usual. Hyde looked confused for a second as to why everyone was laughing, then turned back to look at the screen. By that time, the camera had switched back to Hyde, and the moment Hyde turned away, it went back to lolzing Ken again. Hyde turned back and saw lolzing Ken on the screen, and the camera then panned over to Tetsu and Yukihiro (YUKIHIRO FINALLY GETS MAIN SCREEN TIME <3) who were both smiling and trying to control their laughter. "Nonono that's not Tama-chan," went Hyde to laughter from the audience. Going back to suggestive play again, Hyde said, "Will you let me see it? L'Arc en Ciel's fans are more than this, right? I can't hear you, Tama-chan!!" The MC was of course longer than this (with repeated "TAMA-CHAN!!!" growls) but it's annoying to type. Aaanyway Hyde finally shouted, "BLURRY EYES!!!" and the song continued. The fans sang the chorus, with Hyde singing the last line, and we also did the "your blurry eyes" parts.
Without skipping a beat after "Blurry Eyes" (and after some shouting of "TAMA-CHAN!!!" - I cringed everytime he did that :/) Hyde growled, "ARE YOU FUCKING READY???" and they launched into READY STEADY GO. There was a explosion of yellow... stuff on stage. I think the visuals were the top view(?) of some white bird against a sky blue... sky hahaha. At the chorus, Hyde would go "READY" and the crowd would finish it with "STEADY GO!!!". He let us do the "PLEASE TRUST ME" part as well.
The song ended, and the members all went backstage. At this point, 1.5 hours had passed. When the lights came on, there was an exodus out of the hall, probably heading to the washrooms. As there were seats, we decided to sit down for a bit. Like what had happened during last year's The GazettE concert, I thought that this was an intermission thing, so there was no need to call for an encore. In fact, almost no one was doing it. The crowd amused themselves by doing stadium waves. Once in awhile, there'd be some encore chants, but those never lasted long. After about 10 to 15 minutes of waiting and self-amusement with more stadium waves, the lights went out, and the strings started up. They showed a 4 minute photo slide of the band members from the different eras. You really feel how far they've come, after seeing some shots and feeling "Omg they look so young! Were they doing this already back then??"
After the photo slide, the lights came on, and you could see that they had shifted the strings section back to the center of the stage. The members (except Yukihiro of course) were all sitting on the frame of the structure housing the strings section, which was really nice because they were silouhetted on the screen behind. The version of 花葬 they played was a slower acoustic version, and as usual Ken made the guitar notes ring out with a tinge of melancholy, like in those sad Spanish songs, the way only he can.
The introduction to the next song played after "花葬" had ended, and I thought that it was another random song which I didn't know because I was a fail fan. But then the letters "X X X" in white suddenly showed up on the black screen, and everyone went "WHOAAAA" because it was L'Arc's new single, and I hadn't expected to be able to hear them play it. It was another bassy song, and when they were playing it, the visuals were of blonde girls looking seductive and sprawled all over the place like in those glamour fashion magazines. I figured that it was part of their PV (I was, for the most part, right), but wondered where the other members were (although I did catch a glimpse of Tetsu playing the upright bass). Fireballs as stage effects for this song, and it added a nice touch to the whole atmosphere.
With Lies and Truth, I was back on familiar grounds. The next song was Link, but only the introduction sounded vaguely familiar to me. Hyde made random groaning noises (probably to kill time/not know what to say) and was like, "I can't seem to do anything other than this." He introduced the song, called "kiss kiss kiss" (rather than the "XXX" that I thought was how it was supposed to be read). "It's cool, isn't it?", he asked the audience, and continued by saying that it was 20 years' worth of kisses the band wanted to give everyone. I thought he was bullshitting, but everyone around me was squealing away. Then he said, "Okay that was a lie", everyone around me went "EHHHH????" and a little part of me was vindicated. "But anyway it's filled with erotic feelings. I wrote it when I was in an excited state. So please read the lyrics when you're lying on your bed." -_- O...kay. Hyde then announced that the next song would be their final one. "It's the first day, and I'm feeling pretty nervous, not knowing what's going to happen next." He commented about how he didn't expect to be sweating like that (well, you aren't getting any younger...). "With regards to something interesting that happened, this (he pointed to his wristband) was left in the dressing room. So I thought maybe I should try wearing it. I wore it, and at that moment, I felt something that I had never felt before. Like "Hey, I'm L'Arc en Ciel!" I don't get this feeling often... I mean, it's not like I've NEVER felt it, but... hmm have I? Wait I'm not trying to pimp this, you don't have to buy it. But it's like "ah, this is MY band". Don't buy it, you hear me? I think the members standing behind me are wearing it as well..." The camera turned to Yukihiro and Hyde went, "Wait... is that a wristband belonging to another band??" But Yukihiro held it up for all to see (it was the L'Arc one) and everyone cheered. The attention then turned to Tetsu, the camera focused on him, and... he wasn't wearing any wristband at all. "Ohhhh..." went Hyde in disappointment, and said, "Okay, I guess he's a slow starter. I think... No, I know that he's going to go back to the dressing room later and put it on." Ken was spared, somehow. Hyde started on his next sentence, but stopped midway when he suddenly remembered to mention that they had invited a string ensemble to play for them today. "They're CG-ed though." The camera switched to the strings ensemble, and you could see that many of them, if not for their professionalism, would be having this -_- facial expression on their face. He then apologised. Hyde continued by saying that after today, they were going to the other parts of Japan, and even though they had wanted to do more shows, this would be the last of their shows in the Kanto region. "But we really want to do this again, after our world tour! We'll go out to do those shows, and return back here."
"Will you guys sing with me? Let's unite for this last song! Thank you so much for coming today. The last song: Anata."
Hyde said the word あなた really quickly, but my heart jumped because it was THE song I had been waiting to hear live.
The lights in the arena and stands went out, and all you could see was the sea of lightsticks, the band, and the screen showing a galaxy of stars. It was beautiful. The moment the strings started up, I got goosebumps. Hyde let us sing the second chorus, the floodgates broke, and I started crying. Perhaps it's because I really love the song, because of the whole atmosphere, because you can hear everyone singing together in one voice. That we're all in the same space, breathing the same air, sharing the same beautiful moment. Even as I'm listening to my recording as I write this live report, I'm starting to tear up a little.
The song ended, Hyde thanked his "Tama-chan"s, and said, "Till tomorrow!" Tetsu reappeared onstage, this time around wearing the wristband (haha, he really did rush to the back to put it on) and holding a basket. He then proceeded, in usual fashion, to throw three bananas into the audience, before going "See you tomorrow!!" and leaving the stage.
The lights then went off and we were treated to the entire PV of XXX. After that, the lights came on, and the announcement played to indicate that the show was over. I was really surprised that there was no encore. Perhaps the long break in the middle was supposed to be an encore after all? In which case we should have called for an encore. Oops. Confusions :/
After the live ended, we filed out and I went to try to queue for goods. But the goods line was neverending, and I figured that I would wait till Kyocera Dome to buy their goods, rather than wait 1.5 hours in a queue.
Although I didn't manage to catch a streamer, an awesome Spanish fan tore off part of hers for me, without me asking <3
Till Kyocera Dome, where I'm sure it's gonna be an awesome two days :)
Next live: 2011/09/16 - ALL TIME LOW JAPAN TOUR 2011 | duo MUSIC EXCHANGE (東京都)