Dir en grey live in San Fran, CA
This will be a pretty short report because I'm posting so late. I have little access to the internet until the 8th or 9th. AND this keyboard kind of sucks. :D
So seeing as they were so amazing when I got to see them in Dallas I just had to come see them again while I was visiting family for Thanksgiving!
Unfortunately because we had to drive all around the bay to pick people up and had to walk from Bart to the Fillmore we ended up a little late. However we didn't have to wait in line, which was kind of a plus.
Doors opened at 7, we got there at 7:30. It said they would begin around 8, but it didn't start till 8:30, perfect!
So I finally got a chance to get some merch, a $60 hoodie with a great design on the back (But terrible lettering in the front) and the Uroboros special CD/DVD to get signed after. They also had wrist bands, posters, and two tour shirts. The shirt with the blue looked amazing, and we didn't actually see them on it until we were on the way back looking at Megan’s. o_O It was like Where's Waldo.
I also wanna say the people working there that night were all a bunch of dickheads. It's where you work, deal with it. I had to be pleasant at my job, you don't have to be an asshole at yours, even if you do have to deal with lots of emos. )=
There was a screen up on one of the walls with a number you could text, and the texts would appear on a marquee. Someone we were with (don't remember who) saw "Miyavi is better than Dir en grey" or something like that. xD I wanted to text "KYO EAT BABY" but I didn't want to end up getting charged.
Since we got there late and the line for merch was pretty long, I couldn't get a good spot in the crowd, so I hung back with everyone else. Suddenly a little after 8:30 (pwned the two hour wait we had in Dallas) Sa Bir began to play and I went into the crowd, trying to take Mon-chan with me. )= Unfortunately I was able to get through half the crowd before they got to the stage, but she couldn't make it the whole way. I was probably about 4-6 people behind the barrier by the time they all got on stage.
About two songs in I was much closer to the stage and a little less than half way through the live I was only behind two people with an awesome view again. Before the intermission I was only behind one very short girl directly in front of Kyo's side closer to Toshiya. I was pretty thankful for her, she cushioned me pretty well and she didn't seem bothered, though I almost got hit in the nose by her fist a few times. D: In Dallas there was no barrier so I was in front pressed against the stage and my ribs hurt for a week, I could barely move, tons a bruises, this time I came out unharmed, just sore! xD
There was some tall guy with shoulder length hair in front of and beside me the entire time. He kept swinging his hair all over and hitting me in the face with it so I yanked it quite a few times.... Hah. :D Sorry, but that's gross, man.
I probably spent most of my time staring at Kyo once again. xD He's just such a powerful performer in person. He wore exactly the same thing I described in my Dallas review, only this time the jacket came off. Earlier that month he was cleanly shaved, but in San Francisco I saw some chin pubes, I guess he's growing the beard back?
He did his crazy-weird dance again. There was no fish hooking or scratching, but he came out pounding his mic against his chest like a crazy man.
I didn't get a very good look at Shinya and Die. )= I glanced over at them a few times during the show, but not much. It was actually kind of strange, this was the first time out of four lives I've been to that I haven't been on Die's side of the stage.
Kaoru started off kind of blah, but when he got into it he became more active with the fans. I didn't see him too much either. )= He was working his side whenever I did look over though.
Toshiya was the only one really working the stage, he bounced around and came up front. He was the only one other than Kyo to come up front on the center of the stage, and he was getting lots of screams. Between songs he kept getting us to cheer by doing things like holding his beer up. By the end of the last song he beat the crap out of the neck of his bass, it was cute badass. Even after he worked the crowd some more by sitting on top of a speaker as he threw out picks. He threw a couple of water bottles to the center of the audience, one of which I caught and drank in record time. It's sitting in my suit case as I type this, thanks Totchi!
Once again, this is not in order! Also, this time I'm so fuzzy I may be making some of this up. But I'll tell you which I'm unclear about, maybe someone can correct me.
Vinushka
This wasn't the first song, but it should have been imo! It's the perfect first song. )= It was actually the last song before the encore, I think.
Kodou
YES! On the way to pick people up I was even telling Mon-chan "This is the only song I really, really wanna hear live" Psychic Dir en grey is psychic.
Dozing Green (JP)
Glass Skin (JP)
It was such a beautiful song live both times, the fans sang along pretty loudly, but one girl behind me.... kept singing in English..... Which is cool, but damn she was loud and it kind of ruined it. I think it was the same girl I kept hearing talking really pissed off either about me or hair boy for a while half way through the live.
Gaika, chinmoku ga nemuru koro
I was unsure about this one, but Megan either told me this was the first or last song they played, I don't remember which.
Shokubeni
Awesome, as usual. But seriously, is it necessary to scream when they aren't playing and Kyo's singing...? Same with the a cappella's... I remember during an a cappella someone shouted "STFU" when people were screaming.
Obscure
Merciless Cult
Stuck Man
Toguro
*insert sexy Kyo dance*
Agitated Screams of Maggots
I love this song live, but this is the second time they've played it without playing Clever Sleazoid. That feels strange to me, I don't like having one without the other!
Inconvenient Ideals
Bugaboo
This was the other song I really wanted to hear live. Thumbs up to whoever the psychic one is.
The Final
Kyo didn't really seem to care if we sang with him or not this time. xD Maybe he got really into it this time? He always wanted us to sing before when I went.
The songs I'm not sure about are:
Red Soil
Reiketsu nariseba
Repetition of Hatred
They seemed really familiar when I was writing out the setlist two days later, but I think that might have been because they played both in Dallas, and it seems like I ended up with too many songs...
Anyway, they played with everything they had like usual, seeing as it was their last performance in America this tour they really urged us on to scream more and made it amazing. Kyo told us their last song was the "last song" probably about 7 times and actually stayed a few second throwing his hands up after it was over instead of rushing off like I usually see.
And then it was autograph time! We got our bags from coat check, whipped our CDs out and waited in a long ass line. We had no idea if we could only get our CDs signed or what, I really wanted to get my bottle signed, but it was only CDs. )= Not even posters.
As we got closer we saw it was Die an Toshiya. Once we got to the front the asshole who worked there said "Only one signature" like he wanted us to choose between the two I think? All of us got both anyway I think.
Toshiya's soul patch! It's so funny up close, but it suits him in a cute "Oh I can't take him seriously" kind of way. He was also so sweet, say "Hi" and "Thank you" to everybody and smiling. Die kind of looked like he just wanted to go home, but I don't blame him. Apparently one of the guys with us made him laugh when he went "YAY" after getting his signed.
After that we went outside to molest their bus a little bit before we walked back to Bart and had terrible service at Denny's.
In all the performance was great, but I think the one in Dallas was a little more fun. That may have been because I was against the stage the entire time. Either way, I'll never forget them both, and let's try to get them back here asap.
DALLAS REPORT
So seeing as they were so amazing when I got to see them in Dallas I just had to come see them again while I was visiting family for Thanksgiving!
Unfortunately because we had to drive all around the bay to pick people up and had to walk from Bart to the Fillmore we ended up a little late. However we didn't have to wait in line, which was kind of a plus.
Doors opened at 7, we got there at 7:30. It said they would begin around 8, but it didn't start till 8:30, perfect!
So I finally got a chance to get some merch, a $60 hoodie with a great design on the back (But terrible lettering in the front) and the Uroboros special CD/DVD to get signed after. They also had wrist bands, posters, and two tour shirts. The shirt with the blue looked amazing, and we didn't actually see them on it until we were on the way back looking at Megan’s. o_O It was like Where's Waldo.
I also wanna say the people working there that night were all a bunch of dickheads. It's where you work, deal with it. I had to be pleasant at my job, you don't have to be an asshole at yours, even if you do have to deal with lots of emos. )=
There was a screen up on one of the walls with a number you could text, and the texts would appear on a marquee. Someone we were with (don't remember who) saw "Miyavi is better than Dir en grey" or something like that. xD I wanted to text "KYO EAT BABY" but I didn't want to end up getting charged.
Since we got there late and the line for merch was pretty long, I couldn't get a good spot in the crowd, so I hung back with everyone else. Suddenly a little after 8:30 (pwned the two hour wait we had in Dallas) Sa Bir began to play and I went into the crowd, trying to take Mon-chan with me. )= Unfortunately I was able to get through half the crowd before they got to the stage, but she couldn't make it the whole way. I was probably about 4-6 people behind the barrier by the time they all got on stage.
About two songs in I was much closer to the stage and a little less than half way through the live I was only behind two people with an awesome view again. Before the intermission I was only behind one very short girl directly in front of Kyo's side closer to Toshiya. I was pretty thankful for her, she cushioned me pretty well and she didn't seem bothered, though I almost got hit in the nose by her fist a few times. D: In Dallas there was no barrier so I was in front pressed against the stage and my ribs hurt for a week, I could barely move, tons a bruises, this time I came out unharmed, just sore! xD
There was some tall guy with shoulder length hair in front of and beside me the entire time. He kept swinging his hair all over and hitting me in the face with it so I yanked it quite a few times.... Hah. :D Sorry, but that's gross, man.
I probably spent most of my time staring at Kyo once again. xD He's just such a powerful performer in person. He wore exactly the same thing I described in my Dallas review, only this time the jacket came off. Earlier that month he was cleanly shaved, but in San Francisco I saw some chin pubes, I guess he's growing the beard back?
He did his crazy-weird dance again. There was no fish hooking or scratching, but he came out pounding his mic against his chest like a crazy man.
I didn't get a very good look at Shinya and Die. )= I glanced over at them a few times during the show, but not much. It was actually kind of strange, this was the first time out of four lives I've been to that I haven't been on Die's side of the stage.
Kaoru started off kind of blah, but when he got into it he became more active with the fans. I didn't see him too much either. )= He was working his side whenever I did look over though.
Toshiya was the only one really working the stage, he bounced around and came up front. He was the only one other than Kyo to come up front on the center of the stage, and he was getting lots of screams. Between songs he kept getting us to cheer by doing things like holding his beer up. By the end of the last song he beat the crap out of the neck of his bass, it was cute badass. Even after he worked the crowd some more by sitting on top of a speaker as he threw out picks. He threw a couple of water bottles to the center of the audience, one of which I caught and drank in record time. It's sitting in my suit case as I type this, thanks Totchi!
Once again, this is not in order! Also, this time I'm so fuzzy I may be making some of this up. But I'll tell you which I'm unclear about, maybe someone can correct me.
Vinushka
This wasn't the first song, but it should have been imo! It's the perfect first song. )= It was actually the last song before the encore, I think.
Kodou
YES! On the way to pick people up I was even telling Mon-chan "This is the only song I really, really wanna hear live" Psychic Dir en grey is psychic.
Dozing Green (JP)
Glass Skin (JP)
It was such a beautiful song live both times, the fans sang along pretty loudly, but one girl behind me.... kept singing in English..... Which is cool, but damn she was loud and it kind of ruined it. I think it was the same girl I kept hearing talking really pissed off either about me or hair boy for a while half way through the live.
Gaika, chinmoku ga nemuru koro
I was unsure about this one, but Megan either told me this was the first or last song they played, I don't remember which.
Shokubeni
Awesome, as usual. But seriously, is it necessary to scream when they aren't playing and Kyo's singing...? Same with the a cappella's... I remember during an a cappella someone shouted "STFU" when people were screaming.
Obscure
Merciless Cult
Stuck Man
Toguro
*insert sexy Kyo dance*
Agitated Screams of Maggots
I love this song live, but this is the second time they've played it without playing Clever Sleazoid. That feels strange to me, I don't like having one without the other!
Inconvenient Ideals
Bugaboo
This was the other song I really wanted to hear live. Thumbs up to whoever the psychic one is.
The Final
Kyo didn't really seem to care if we sang with him or not this time. xD Maybe he got really into it this time? He always wanted us to sing before when I went.
The songs I'm not sure about are:
Red Soil
Reiketsu nariseba
Repetition of Hatred
They seemed really familiar when I was writing out the setlist two days later, but I think that might have been because they played both in Dallas, and it seems like I ended up with too many songs...
Anyway, they played with everything they had like usual, seeing as it was their last performance in America this tour they really urged us on to scream more and made it amazing. Kyo told us their last song was the "last song" probably about 7 times and actually stayed a few second throwing his hands up after it was over instead of rushing off like I usually see.
And then it was autograph time! We got our bags from coat check, whipped our CDs out and waited in a long ass line. We had no idea if we could only get our CDs signed or what, I really wanted to get my bottle signed, but it was only CDs. )= Not even posters.
As we got closer we saw it was Die an Toshiya. Once we got to the front the asshole who worked there said "Only one signature" like he wanted us to choose between the two I think? All of us got both anyway I think.
Toshiya's soul patch! It's so funny up close, but it suits him in a cute "Oh I can't take him seriously" kind of way. He was also so sweet, say "Hi" and "Thank you" to everybody and smiling. Die kind of looked like he just wanted to go home, but I don't blame him. Apparently one of the guys with us made him laugh when he went "YAY" after getting his signed.
After that we went outside to molest their bus a little bit before we walked back to Bart and had terrible service at Denny's.
In all the performance was great, but I think the one in Dallas was a little more fun. That may have been because I was against the stage the entire time. Either way, I'll never forget them both, and let's try to get them back here asap.
DALLAS REPORT