L’Arc~en~Ciel World Tour 2012 London fanreport *ラルクライブリポート*
In celebration of their 20th Anniversary, Japanese rock band L’Arc~En~Ciel is staging a world tour. They performed in London yesterday night so I went to see them. You might have heard of them through anime theme songs (‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, ‘Ruroni Kenshin’, ‘Gundam 00’) and Tegoshi mentioned the band and its lead vocalist (hyde) a couple of times in interviews. As for me, L’Arc~en~Ciel is one of the first Japanese bands that I got to know some 6, 7 years ago when a junior at school introduced the band to me. My then-junior was a big fan of L’Arc~en~Ciel and incidentally he was the lead vocalist for his band too. That said, I haven’t followed the band closely through the years though I do listen to their songs.
(btw they are in their 40s and they look amazing!)
Back to last night’s concert, the venue was more a concert hall than an arena, so it wasn’t too big and felt quite intimate. The tickets were sold out and the turnout was quite incredible. From rocker dudes and chicks(complete with studs, tattoos and mohawks) to Japanese salarymen, from Italian families to kawaii Japanese fangirls in frilly pompom skirts, from Irish grandparents to stern looking middle-aged ladies, I could have stood there and people-watch for ages…
The stage setup was quite simple and the focus was obviously on their music. It started with an up-tempo song ‘Ibara no namida’. I’ve never heard them live before and I was blown away by how good they sounded live. I’ve watched a couple of performances by other artistes/bands and while they all sounded lovely on CD recordings, they were dreadful during live performances. Hence I really appreciate good live performances, TegoMass being one of them. I must say I became even more of a fan after watching their concert last December. By the way, when hyde started dancing/hopping to the beat, I was thinking that his swaying looked oddly familiar. Then it hit me! TEGOSHI!!! I realised Tegoshi must have been inspired to sway like hyde during live performances. Hmm, not sure if that’s a good thing for Tego though... since he looks a little ridiculous at times. Lol.
If you’re interested to check out hyde’s swaying as well as this lovely song…
hyde’s swaying in the ‘GOOD LUCK MY WAY’ PV (from 1:30 onwards) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fRy346838
Oh I was also struck by hyde's prettiness. He has got ridiculously fine features and absolutely stunning. I never thought someone could look so good with dreadlocks.
I won’t list all the songs they performed, mainly because I wasn’t familiar with each and every song performed. As mentioned before, I have some favourites - ‘Hitomi no Jyuunin’ and ‘Daybreak’s bell’ - which they performed much to my delight. ‘Hitomi no Jyuunin’ was such a touching performance - the lights were dimmed and everyone was quiet. hyde’s voice was heart-wrenchingly beautiful and I absolutely love that performance to bits.
‘Hitomi no Jyuunin’ (live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEpdQzH8RfM&feature=related
Before going for the live, I’ve checked out the set-lists performed in other venues and was disappointed to see that ‘Daybreak’s bell’ was only performed in one out of the last 5,6 venues. So when the familiar intro came out, I was pleasantly surprised! It was every bit as good as it sounds on recording. The band was simply amazing.
‘Daybreak’s bell’ (PV) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlgOu3C747I&feature=related
All in all, I thought all the songs they performed were great. Some other ones I liked were ‘GOOD LUCK MY WAY’, ‘My HEART DRAWS A DREAM’, ‘ Driver’s high’, ‘Anata’ and ‘Link’. They did ‘Anata’ and ‘Link’ during the encore. While we were waiting for the encore, some of the fans broke into random singing (‘we will, we will rock you!’) and football chanting (‘ole, ole, ole….’) Which I thought was quite hilarious. ‘Anata’ was the first song for the encore and it started with the fans singing and hyde joined in after a minute. It was a really sweet performance, both fans and the band.
‘Fans singing ‘Anata’ in Madison Square during their NY live’ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohMzEFNRd70
Full set-list here - http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/larcenciel/2012/indigo2-london-england-3bde0054.html
Since it was in London, they didn’t speak too much during MC. They spoke a little about James Bond and the famous Bonds (Sean Connery, Roger Moore and the ladies’ favourite, Daniel Craig) and talked about visiting the London Dungeon and hoping to start Tokyo Dungeon at some point in the future. And Tetsu threw some bananas. Kudos to them for doing the MC in English! (^0^) (I'd love to hear their MC in Japanese...)
I had so much post-concert adrenalin that I couldn’t sleep till 3am. (@_@) While listening to their songs again this morning, I realised last night’s live was absolutely brilliant. I wished I had paid more attention to all of their songs before going to the live. (T_T) I realised they will be performing for the first time in Singapore on 28th April and I will be back in Singapore that week…. So after much deliberation (of around 10 mins ~), I’ve decided to go for their live in Singapore too! (*^0^*)
ラルクさん、ロンドン魂をお疲れさまでした。楽しくて過ごしました。じゃあ、シンガポールで会いましょう！パリのライブヲ頑張ってください。またね！
