Dir en grey @ H.O.B. Orlando
Ok. I'm finally ready to do my full report I think.
I actually have a lot to say, not just about the show and what not, but also about just the whole day, but that may take me the rest of tonight and into tomorrow, so I'll just start at about 3 p.m. which is when me, Lace and Nick actually got into line.
So, by the time we actually got into line, it was pretty long. I'd have to say a good 150 people were ahead of us even though we'd actually arrived at 9 a.m. when there were only about 10 people.
The waiting was soooo annoying mostly because we couldn't sit at all. It had been raining all the day before and drizzling off and on Friday morning, so it was pretty icky and grey and there was no way I was gracing the ground with my beautiful ass.
*smirk*
The House of Blues has this deal where if you spend $20 at their store or purchase a $10 entree at their restaurant you can "Pass the Line". Well, pretty much everyone who showed up decided to pass the line (which I definately wasn't expecting) so by about 5 p.m. when the security guard came around and made the non-Pass the Line people move, we were still pretty far back.
We saw some Japanese guy (and a very cute one, I might add) wandering up and down the line with a video camera taping things and interviewing people. Unfortunately he didn't ask to interview me. It seems like he went for the most obnoxious and insane fangirls he could find. =__=;; But... Whatever.
At about 6:45 p.m. I think, they started to act like they were ready to let people in. Everyone in line started to bunch up and push forward and somehow Lacey, Nick and I ended up WAAAAY closer to the door than we had been to start with. Like, a good 20 feet closer than we had been. A little later, they did start to let people in, though only in short bursts of about 25-35 people. They had 6 lines set up for searching people with metal detectors and they you were allowed into the theater.
As soon as you walked in, there was the Merch booth. I was soooo tempted to stop and buy a shirt (because in NY last year, the shirt I wanted sold out before I could get there) but I was more worried about getting a good spot for Lace since this was her first time seeing them. So, we rushed down to the pit area and ended up in about the 3rd or 4th row in front of Kaoru but a little to the right so that we could get a good look at Kyo.
I was standing right behind this REALLY big guy. Like, he HAD to be at least 5'10'' and 275 lbs. What's more, he smelled REALLY FUCKING BAD. Like, really. I gagged and dry heaved alot. But in the beginning, I didn't notice because I had plenty of room and stuff. I didn't realize how bad an idea this was until the open acts came out...
I'm not exactly sure, but it seemed to take FOREVER for the first band to come out. And of course, when they did finally appear, the pushing started almost immediately. It was like a mad surge forward and I was instantly mashed into the warm abyss of spoiled milk smelling back fat.
yay...
The first band was... Ok. Like, their first song was really awesome and stuff, but after that, every song got progressively LESS impressive. Though, I will say, they had a great vibe and were lots of fun to watch. I especially liked the guitarist because, well, he kinda looked like my old manager at Donato's. heh. Lacey really liked the drummer because he looked like he was completely psychotic.
haha
The second band was very different from the first. Fair to Midland. Their sound was very, kinda, etheral, ya know? Like... Like the Mars Volta kinda, but not really. The lead singer had a really cool voice, but I couldn't help but feel he acted like he was mentally handicapped. He was, like, slobbering and drooling all over himself and walking around in circles looking confused, but then he'd snap back and just sing again.
Weird...
Oh, and they were having some REAL bass problems. Like, their shit was really fucked up on the 3rd or 4th song. I don't know. They just has some major malfunctions and the bassist was pissed. lol
Ok, now for Diru.
Well, after Fair to Midland, they left the curtain open while they set up for Dir en grey and checked the instuments and taped down the set lists and all that jazz. I found that kinda weird, but really cool. Oh, and the lights were all up too. Whenever they tuned one of the guitars or uncovered Shinya's drum set, everyone would start to scream and stuff. haha. It was cool.
Well, at about... 9:15? All the roadies cleared the stage and a few minutes after that, the house lights went down. Naturally everyone started to scream and stuff and then...
G.D.S.!!
I must say, after getting to sing and chant "Kill! Kill! Kill!" twice at a Diru concert now, I can officially say that G.D.S. is the most fun Deg song to sing. Like, I love that song so much. And since it's so easy (what with only 1 word in the whole damn thing) you'd think that NO ONE could fuck it up. But, well, I guess not everyone brushed up on their 5 Ugly Kingdom and Code of VULGARISM before they came, because at least 3 people near me were totally fucking up the intro. It really pissed me off so bad. haha.
But I digress...
Everyone came out on stage (sorry, I can't remember the order except to say that Shinya was first and Kyo was last...) and people when APESHIT. The pushing started again times 100 and I got separated from Lacey and Nick big time. Like, during the other 2 bands, I'd gotten pushed a little in front of them, but now I couldn't see them at all and I couldn't turn around to look.
But I wasn't really paying much attention to them anyway. I was too busy looking at the band.
Die was wearing a very sexy "BURY YOUR FUCKING DEAD!" shirt with 2 skulls on the front and a pair of jeans with the knees ripped out. Kaoru and Toshiya both had on plain black t-shirts with kinda longish almost 3/4 sleeves. Shinya had on his A-typical black tee with no sleeves at all, and Kyo the Prophet strutted out with a very shmexy black leather jacket, jeans, and a fucking kick ass belt.
After they came out, Kaoru kinda pointed at his chest and raised his arms. So, naturally, all of us when crazy and started screaming our fucking heads off. Then Toshiya came up and did pretty much the same thing while we screamed and graced them all with the horns. Kyo stood dead center with one leg proped up on his little stand and gave us the evil eye. haha. Not that we were scared or anything... ^_~
So, they played around with us a little more, then Shinya counted it off and it was ON!!
Now, don't ask me for a verbatum playlist, mostly because I was having so much trouble in the pit trying to NOT die that I was having some trouble concentrating but also because they played at least 4 or 5 songs from the new album that I didn't know. The only one that I'm FOR SURE about now is GRIEF because I remember thinking "Hm. This kinda reminds me of Dead Tree, but it's not..."
I know for sure that they played Kodou, C, OBSCURE, The Final? I think... Oh, fuck it. I don't know. It was just awesome, ok? And they ended it with Clever Sleazoid. But, um... Yeah. The crowd was really ridiculous this time around. I personally saw 5 people get hurt so badly that they had to be pulled out by security. So, I moved back to about the 8th row just because I felt like I was getting faint and ended up meeting Lacey and Nick.
The guys all seemed to have alot more fun this time around than they did during the showcase tour. Kaoru and Toshiya were really cool, throwing up the horns and taunting us. And KYO! Ah, he took off that leather jacket to reveal a nicely toned chest and a six pack. But the best part came when he sorta pulled down on his pants and exposed his, um, "hip cuts"? Yeah. I can't explain it, but they were godly. And then, right after that, he turned his back on us, walked toward Shinya, and promptly felt on his own ass.
Lacey and I joked afterward that he must have had a wedgie from those tight ass pants.
haha
Toward the end Kyo picked up his signature bucket o' water and dumped it on himself, only THIS time he put the bucket on his HEAD and, turning to us, showed us that it said "RAPE ME" in nice big bold letters.
Of course, everyone fucking loved that.
They also threw alot of stuff at us during the show. Picks were literally flying left and right. haha. Kaoru even threw a water bottle at us after taking a drink from it and it came RIGHT AT ME!! But, well, I guess I've been away from softball for too long because I missed it and the girl standing directly next to me got it. But, like, when he threw it, EVERYONE around us sorta fell. haha. Like, it was going over their heads, so they all leaned back and BAM! It was like dominos. Everyone was down.
haha
Well, everyone but me... I was fine. I was so fine, in fact, that I could clearly see the girl lying on the ground next to me clutching Kaoru's ice cold water bottle.
I was so tempted to just snatch it and walk away, you have no idea. But there were tons of drunk guys around us moshing and no one was helping the poor kid up, so instead of taking the bottle and leaving her to get trampled, I pulled her up and shoved her in front of me so that she wouldn't get hurt/robbed/fucked up.
Ah, I'm too nice, aren't I?
Anyway, it all seemed like it was over much too soon. When Kyo said "Rasuto Songu!" I wanted to punch him in the gut. haha. What do you mean "Last Song"?! But, well, it was ok. I felt better about it this time around. Not so sad and depressed afterward.
So, they all threw their stuff and Shinya came down and threw his stuff and there was much waving and yelling and cheering and "You guys fucking rock!"'s and then they dissappeared.
I immediately grabbed Lace and ran the the merch booth and muscled us right up to the front. I got 1 poster (because 1 out of every 4 was autographed? Mine was not... ;_;) a dog tag necklace, a concert t-shirt, and I had bought the paper for the new cd pre-order while I was in line.
Annnnnd, that's about it.
I only missed a few things, like how during the first two bands we could see Diru peeking out from this window above the stage to check everything out or Toshiya looks exactly like Bi:Rain from Korea if you catch him in the right light, but you get the idea, right?
Yeah, it was cool. Everyone should definately go see them live at least once. It's really quite an amazing experience every time.
-Edit-
Here's the full setlist. Someone else posted it online for those who really want to know...
G.D.S.
The Fatal Believer
Agitated Screams of Maggots
Mr.NEWSMAN
The Deeper Vileness
Grief
-saku-
Itoshisa...
Kodoku...
Ryoujoku no Ame
THE FINAL
Shokubeni
Merciless Cult
dead tree
Obscure
-Encore Break-
C
The IIID Empire
Beautiful Dirt
Clever Sleazoid