dir en grey.
I'm back! Er. ...massive flight delay = too much food and reaching Singapore at 2.30am. Um. Idk, I think I rly forgot to bring my heart back with me this time -- thinking "oh sh-" as the plane touched down. Actually. Mostly, ...I don't wanna go back to work on Monday! DX
Anyway. I wanted to write my Dir en grey live report(?) before I forget!
So we packed a small luggage and left for Osaka on Friday morning. Actually, it must be kinda fun to do intra-travelling. Super easy and fuss-free, check in a nice hotel, sleep for the night and go back the next day. (Sorry, Singapore's too small to do that sort of thing, typically :X)
Namba Hatch is just a stone's throw away from my hotel. Even so, I had a lot of trouble trying to find it. D: And I was wondering why I hadn't seen any vkei-ish girls or cosplayers walking to the venue. That's because they're all already there. :X And it was barely 5.45pm or so. (It opens at 6.15pm and starts at 7pm.)
There were lines forming already, depending on your queue number. I got into line quickly. Mine was 873, and it actually wasn't too bad, considering there're more than 1,600 numbers for 1F standing.
Dir en grey fans are kinda..scary looking? XD;; No srsly, they looked like they wanted to beat people up ._. I didn't see any cosplayers at all, probably because it's a standing live. Many of them were wearing thick eyeliner and punk-ish wear/T-shirts. Mostly Dir en grey tour T-shirts. Makes me wish I'd worn mine as well!
It was very noisy, and I was trying to hear the announcer guy calling out the numbers 'cos I was afraid I'd miss it. Finally, it was time to enter the hall...
...and I got a shock because Hatch actually is a livehouse, even though they did sell tickets for 2F, and the stage was SO CLOSE. It's probably about 7 to 8 metres from where I was standing. (!!!) In fact, the livehouse's only about... say, 1.5 times the size of Shibuya O-West? And that's pretty small considering Dir is quite a big band. I chose a spot carefully to stand. It's in the centre, where Kyo would roughly be. And I wondered if I would see more of Toshiya/Kaoru or Die... (hopefully the former? XD) I was one person away from the railing in the middle of the floor space.
It was barely 5.30pm when I was in the hall, and it was pretty exciting since I'd never seen them at such close range before. D: (The first time I saw them, I was on 2F ;_; )
Time trickled by quite slowly... and finally, finally, the lights went off, and everyone got REALLY excited. Everyone had their hands in the air, screaming their lungs out, and the guys behind me barked Kyo's name? Uh. ...It's weird. XD;
And then... when Kyo finally came out, it was madness for a while. Although, quite a minor prelude to things to come. :X
Kyo came out topless, and it's pretty obvious he's been at the gym a lot because hey, muscles and six pack ftw, srsly. XD And lots of tattoos. He closed his eyes and waved his arm in the air, as if to pacify the crowd. And for a moment, I thought he resembled some kind of... idk, religious/cult leader? lols. He looked like he had that sort of power anyway. The air was electrifying, as his devotees everyone pushed forward and screamed madly. He merely looked calm -- unfazed by the chaos below stage -- a little haughty even. Omg, Kyo! How different he has become! I could see his face clearly from where I was standing. He wore a goatee and had minimal makeup, save for some eyeshadow perhaps, and looked completely masculine -- quite a far cry from his early days as an androgynous vkei vocalist.
And when they started playing, my gosh. D: I think I had a mini shock. I have been to several different lives by different bands, and I think none of them come close to the madness at Dir's live. DX Usually, there's quite a clear dividing line between those who want to mosh/headbang/etc., and the others who prefer to remain sane. But here? NO. And suddenly I find myself pushed to the railing and forced to headbang from the very start. That was not the problem, actually. Mostly, I was just a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, especially upon knowing that those behind me were ... er, not girls? >__> I mean, usually, based on past experience, guys who attend vkei lives don't seem to move much or para-para like the girls do, ... but these guys... DX
There was a mini break after about 3 or 4 songs, so I took the chance to move forward, in front of the railing 'cos the people there looked more comfortable. They had more space to headbang and nobody pushing them. So, er, ...the lesson is, stand in front of the railing if you want to headbang in peace?
And believe it or not, as close as I was to the stage, I couldn't really see the rest of the members very much because everyone was waving madly. XD;;; That, and the light was obscuring and all of them had hair covering their face, save for Die. Whys??? It makes you wonder why they're hiding their faces!
So I thought, ...it's okay, I'd probably be able to see them more clearly at some point, maybe during the MC or something??? And guess what, there was no MC. ;_; In fact, there was minimal talking and stopping even, as they pounded song after song. Probably because it's a livehouse, they were playing their hard songs almost all the way, save for a couple of er, slightly softer songs from Withering to Death and Vulgar.
But clearly, Dir en grey is extremely good live. It was a very intense live and they managed to work the audience from the beginning right to the end. In fact, after the first set and before the encore, ...there were staff holding up torches at the audience to check if anyone's fainted. XD;
Interestingly, the religious vibes thing I felt at the beginning of the live was later played up in the middle. The light projected some random sanskrit writing on Kyo's torso, and even the banner overhead looked like it was covered in some sort of... er, I don't know, more sanskirt writing? Lol. (Plus, if you think about the phrase "Death over blindness", ...)
Anyway, Kyo looks like he has a gift for beatboxing, I thought half in jest. XD; In between songs, they did not stop to go backstage but they were making all sorts of weird noises and sound effects. And Kyo has an extremely impressive vocal range, of which he showcased as he scaled from a low note to an extremely high one all in one breath! In all, Kyo is just... too cool for words, I don't know how to describe this. Haha. (He looked like he wanted to be rly cool too, anyway. XD) Especially for someone of whom "it is rare that he read an fanmail". XD It's a wonder, but it's probably also his devil-may-care attitude that makes him so irresistable.
Toshiya. I think he moved the most on stage, apart from Kyo. Toshiya had shoulder-length black hair that looked impossibly smooth and silky. Srsly, he looked like he belonged in a shampoo ad. XD It's certainly not the best hairstyle to have, but his hair falls very beautifully into place each time (might he have been practising?), obscuring his pretty face. But the shadows on his face cast by the light actually accented his beautiful features very well. OH YES, DO NOT DOUBT AT ALL. Toshiya is still very, ...very, very good-looking (!!!). That playful smile!!! Omg. The photo they took in the US where he looked very tired and old is extremely misleading, I must say. But I might be biased. :X He just still looks..completely like the charming, androgynous and playful Toshiya he's always been, but much more manly than boyish as before. Halfway through, he took his shirt off too, even though I didn't actually see him do so (damn. :X). And clearly, he's been working out at the gym as much as Kyo has. He's very lean but extremely muscular, and he has such a tiny waist. D: Srsly, it's probably half his shoulder width or something.
Kaoru. Eh. I didn't really see much of Kaoru, unfortunately. Plus, where I was standing, it was just not a very good angle to be looking at Kaoru. =_= He was wearing a T-shirt, didn't move much, and he was looking down most of the time, hair obscuring face as usual. But at the end of the encore, where the lights were turned up a little bit more and he came over to the centre, he still does look pretty much the same, I thought. Perhaps a little more jaded.
Die's the only one who doesn't have hair covering his face 99% of the time because he tied everything to the back. :X He was wearing a frilly shirt (I think). He looks a bit older, and he's very thin. He was also pretty serious throughout, looking down and playing in concentration all the time.
Shinya... probably wins everyone else for having hair covering his face. His entire lock of fringe was over his face the entire evening. DX But I think he's really good ._. And it's really amazing watching him play because he's SO THIN (srsly, the circumference of his arms has not grown even 1mm after all these years).
At the very end, they were throwing picks and stuff at the audience. None of them came close, unfortunately, ...cept Shinya's drumstick, which was still too far to grab. Kyo did not speak, but he had the cutest expression on his face. He made everyone clap, then he took a drink and looked at everyone with half-closed eyes. His expression said, ok minions, Kyo's tired, time to fuck off now. XD
And so. Dir en grey ._. The live ended after about two hours at 9pm, with only one encore. Oh, and Kyo and Toshiya came back with shirts during the encore -- how odd. XD;
The live was quite a surreal experience, actually. I felt a bit dazed as I walked out of the hall after that. It was really, really hot and sweaty inside. DX My neck ached and my hair was a mess. XD; I went to the tour goods booth, ...almost everything was sold out D: Also, now I regret not buying more at SID's booth ._. Shall have to hunt Y!J...
It's sooo different from the night before. SID = para-para in pretty rori clothes, members talking and making you laugh half the time. Dir en grey = no para-para, kthxbye. It's probably too lame for Dir. XD;; And no talking except Kyo asking you if you were still "ikeru ka!".
But also, signs that Dir en grey has grown up and changed. They were so very close, but they had become serious and a bit distant.
It was a good live, but I think I felt more overwhelmed at the SID one. Probably because this Dir live is just a regular one, not the final or something? And thusly relatively short too. Whereas the SID one was... wow, they really gave their all for it, I felt. ;_;
And that's probably saying a lot, considering I was rly far from the stage for SID, and I'd been a SID fan for a far shorter time, compared with Dir en grey. (No, I do not feel a SID high coming up at all ._. ...and it's not worrying at all because when s gets obsessed with something, she will not spend too money on it >__>)
It was the other day, when I was talking to the girl I'd met at Gazette's live that I realised what a long time it has been. We were talking about the age of Gazette's and Alice Nine's fans, when I then revealed that I was only in my teens when I first liked Dir ._. I was a bit horrified when I said it. And I realise, this is my ninth year following them...? Huh. Scary. DX
Anyway. So..yes, after the live, I took a long slow walk back to Midosuji and passed by a shop selling pretty frilly umbrellas along the way. :X So I bought a pink one. (That makes three umbrellas D: ) It was really cheap! And I was a bit annoyed I didn't get anything from the Dir en grey booth, of which I was saving my last yens for. (SID... ;__;)
(And the umbrella could not have been better timing? Or something. XD It rained this morning when I dashed back to Harajuku for some last-minute shopping. <-- ...why was I still shopping, omg. DX)
Osaka always gives me happy memories for some reason. I enjoyed the walk to Shinsaibashi after that. It was late, but it was still bustling and quite a few shops were still open. I walked past a female busker and I was so impressed by her voice I gave her a dollar from my holey wallet. I hope she makes it big some day!
Anyway. I wanted to write my Dir en grey live report(?) before I forget!
So we packed a small luggage and left for Osaka on Friday morning. Actually, it must be kinda fun to do intra-travelling. Super easy and fuss-free, check in a nice hotel, sleep for the night and go back the next day. (Sorry, Singapore's too small to do that sort of thing, typically :X)
Namba Hatch is just a stone's throw away from my hotel. Even so, I had a lot of trouble trying to find it. D: And I was wondering why I hadn't seen any vkei-ish girls or cosplayers walking to the venue. That's because they're all already there. :X And it was barely 5.45pm or so. (It opens at 6.15pm and starts at 7pm.)
There were lines forming already, depending on your queue number. I got into line quickly. Mine was 873, and it actually wasn't too bad, considering there're more than 1,600 numbers for 1F standing.
Dir en grey fans are kinda..scary looking? XD;; No srsly, they looked like they wanted to beat people up ._. I didn't see any cosplayers at all, probably because it's a standing live. Many of them were wearing thick eyeliner and punk-ish wear/T-shirts. Mostly Dir en grey tour T-shirts. Makes me wish I'd worn mine as well!
It was very noisy, and I was trying to hear the announcer guy calling out the numbers 'cos I was afraid I'd miss it. Finally, it was time to enter the hall...
...and I got a shock because Hatch actually is a livehouse, even though they did sell tickets for 2F, and the stage was SO CLOSE. It's probably about 7 to 8 metres from where I was standing. (!!!) In fact, the livehouse's only about... say, 1.5 times the size of Shibuya O-West? And that's pretty small considering Dir is quite a big band. I chose a spot carefully to stand. It's in the centre, where Kyo would roughly be. And I wondered if I would see more of Toshiya/Kaoru or Die... (hopefully the former? XD) I was one person away from the railing in the middle of the floor space.
It was barely 5.30pm when I was in the hall, and it was pretty exciting since I'd never seen them at such close range before. D: (The first time I saw them, I was on 2F ;_; )
Time trickled by quite slowly... and finally, finally, the lights went off, and everyone got REALLY excited. Everyone had their hands in the air, screaming their lungs out, and the guys behind me barked Kyo's name? Uh. ...It's weird. XD;
And then... when Kyo finally came out, it was madness for a while. Although, quite a minor prelude to things to come. :X
Kyo came out topless, and it's pretty obvious he's been at the gym a lot because hey, muscles and six pack ftw, srsly. XD And lots of tattoos. He closed his eyes and waved his arm in the air, as if to pacify the crowd. And for a moment, I thought he resembled some kind of... idk, religious/cult leader? lols. He looked like he had that sort of power anyway. The air was electrifying, as his devotees everyone pushed forward and screamed madly. He merely looked calm -- unfazed by the chaos below stage -- a little haughty even. Omg, Kyo! How different he has become! I could see his face clearly from where I was standing. He wore a goatee and had minimal makeup, save for some eyeshadow perhaps, and looked completely masculine -- quite a far cry from his early days as an androgynous vkei vocalist.
And when they started playing, my gosh. D: I think I had a mini shock. I have been to several different lives by different bands, and I think none of them come close to the madness at Dir's live. DX Usually, there's quite a clear dividing line between those who want to mosh/headbang/etc., and the others who prefer to remain sane. But here? NO. And suddenly I find myself pushed to the railing and forced to headbang from the very start. That was not the problem, actually. Mostly, I was just a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, especially upon knowing that those behind me were ... er, not girls? >__> I mean, usually, based on past experience, guys who attend vkei lives don't seem to move much or para-para like the girls do, ... but these guys... DX
There was a mini break after about 3 or 4 songs, so I took the chance to move forward, in front of the railing 'cos the people there looked more comfortable. They had more space to headbang and nobody pushing them. So, er, ...the lesson is, stand in front of the railing if you want to headbang in peace?
And believe it or not, as close as I was to the stage, I couldn't really see the rest of the members very much because everyone was waving madly. XD;;; That, and the light was obscuring and all of them had hair covering their face, save for Die. Whys??? It makes you wonder why they're hiding their faces!
So I thought, ...it's okay, I'd probably be able to see them more clearly at some point, maybe during the MC or something??? And guess what, there was no MC. ;_; In fact, there was minimal talking and stopping even, as they pounded song after song. Probably because it's a livehouse, they were playing their hard songs almost all the way, save for a couple of er, slightly softer songs from Withering to Death and Vulgar.
But clearly, Dir en grey is extremely good live. It was a very intense live and they managed to work the audience from the beginning right to the end. In fact, after the first set and before the encore, ...there were staff holding up torches at the audience to check if anyone's fainted. XD;
Interestingly, the religious vibes thing I felt at the beginning of the live was later played up in the middle. The light projected some random sanskrit writing on Kyo's torso, and even the banner overhead looked like it was covered in some sort of... er, I don't know, more sanskirt writing? Lol. (Plus, if you think about the phrase "Death over blindness", ...)
Anyway, Kyo looks like he has a gift for beatboxing, I thought half in jest. XD; In between songs, they did not stop to go backstage but they were making all sorts of weird noises and sound effects. And Kyo has an extremely impressive vocal range, of which he showcased as he scaled from a low note to an extremely high one all in one breath! In all, Kyo is just... too cool for words, I don't know how to describe this. Haha. (He looked like he wanted to be rly cool too, anyway. XD) Especially for someone of whom "it is rare that he read an fanmail". XD It's a wonder, but it's probably also his devil-may-care attitude that makes him so irresistable.
Toshiya. I think he moved the most on stage, apart from Kyo. Toshiya had shoulder-length black hair that looked impossibly smooth and silky. Srsly, he looked like he belonged in a shampoo ad. XD It's certainly not the best hairstyle to have, but his hair falls very beautifully into place each time (might he have been practising?), obscuring his pretty face. But the shadows on his face cast by the light actually accented his beautiful features very well. OH YES, DO NOT DOUBT AT ALL. Toshiya is still very, ...very, very good-looking (!!!). That playful smile!!! Omg. The photo they took in the US where he looked very tired and old is extremely misleading, I must say. But I might be biased. :X He just still looks..completely like the charming, androgynous and playful Toshiya he's always been, but much more manly than boyish as before. Halfway through, he took his shirt off too, even though I didn't actually see him do so (damn. :X). And clearly, he's been working out at the gym as much as Kyo has. He's very lean but extremely muscular, and he has such a tiny waist. D: Srsly, it's probably half his shoulder width or something.
Kaoru. Eh. I didn't really see much of Kaoru, unfortunately. Plus, where I was standing, it was just not a very good angle to be looking at Kaoru. =_= He was wearing a T-shirt, didn't move much, and he was looking down most of the time, hair obscuring face as usual. But at the end of the encore, where the lights were turned up a little bit more and he came over to the centre, he still does look pretty much the same, I thought. Perhaps a little more jaded.
Die's the only one who doesn't have hair covering his face 99% of the time because he tied everything to the back. :X He was wearing a frilly shirt (I think). He looks a bit older, and he's very thin. He was also pretty serious throughout, looking down and playing in concentration all the time.
Shinya... probably wins everyone else for having hair covering his face. His entire lock of fringe was over his face the entire evening. DX But I think he's really good ._. And it's really amazing watching him play because he's SO THIN (srsly, the circumference of his arms has not grown even 1mm after all these years).
At the very end, they were throwing picks and stuff at the audience. None of them came close, unfortunately, ...cept Shinya's drumstick, which was still too far to grab. Kyo did not speak, but he had the cutest expression on his face. He made everyone clap, then he took a drink and looked at everyone with half-closed eyes. His expression said, ok minions, Kyo's tired, time to fuck off now. XD
And so. Dir en grey ._. The live ended after about two hours at 9pm, with only one encore. Oh, and Kyo and Toshiya came back with shirts during the encore -- how odd. XD;
The live was quite a surreal experience, actually. I felt a bit dazed as I walked out of the hall after that. It was really, really hot and sweaty inside. DX My neck ached and my hair was a mess. XD; I went to the tour goods booth, ...almost everything was sold out D: Also, now I regret not buying more at SID's booth ._. Shall have to hunt Y!J...
It's sooo different from the night before. SID = para-para in pretty rori clothes, members talking and making you laugh half the time. Dir en grey = no para-para, kthxbye. It's probably too lame for Dir. XD;; And no talking except Kyo asking you if you were still "ikeru ka!".
But also, signs that Dir en grey has grown up and changed. They were so very close, but they had become serious and a bit distant.
It was a good live, but I think I felt more overwhelmed at the SID one. Probably because this Dir live is just a regular one, not the final or something? And thusly relatively short too. Whereas the SID one was... wow, they really gave their all for it, I felt. ;_;
And that's probably saying a lot, considering I was rly far from the stage for SID, and I'd been a SID fan for a far shorter time, compared with Dir en grey. (No, I do not feel a SID high coming up at all ._. ...and it's not worrying at all because when s gets obsessed with something, she will not spend too money on it >__>)
It was the other day, when I was talking to the girl I'd met at Gazette's live that I realised what a long time it has been. We were talking about the age of Gazette's and Alice Nine's fans, when I then revealed that I was only in my teens when I first liked Dir ._. I was a bit horrified when I said it. And I realise, this is my ninth year following them...? Huh. Scary. DX
Anyway. So..yes, after the live, I took a long slow walk back to Midosuji and passed by a shop selling pretty frilly umbrellas along the way. :X So I bought a pink one. (That makes three umbrellas D: ) It was really cheap! And I was a bit annoyed I didn't get anything from the Dir en grey booth, of which I was saving my last yens for. (SID... ;__;)
(And the umbrella could not have been better timing? Or something. XD It rained this morning when I dashed back to Harajuku for some last-minute shopping. <-- ...why was I still shopping, omg. DX)
Osaka always gives me happy memories for some reason. I enjoyed the walk to Shinsaibashi after that. It was late, but it was still bustling and quite a few shops were still open. I walked past a female busker and I was so impressed by her voice I gave her a dollar from my holey wallet. I hope she makes it big some day!