Dir en grey live @ The Ram's Head - 2/5/07
I have to say that I was more excited seeing them in Baltimore than I was at the FVT, but I still didn't make a big deal.
I wanted to get to the Rams Head at about 12, but it didn't work out that way. I procrastinated and Jon and I didn't leave the house until 11. I swear it was colder than a witch's tit outside! It was NY all over again. It really didn't need to be that cold and the bus just did not want to come. Eventually, we made our way to Baltimore and I found out that our normal Otakon stop AKA Burger King was gone. That sucked balls but we defrosted and ate at the Blimpie instead. We finally made it to the club and I was a frozen ice block. I started singing "There's an icebox where my body used to be". As usual, we're never first, but we weren't too far from the beginning of the line. I'm cheap frugal, so I went to the box office to pick up my tickets Will Call. Since I ordered my tickets through Live Nation, I had to wait for their list to get there. Well, it was only around 2 or so, so I didn't have a problem. I saw nana007 and one of the sisters who I met during the MUCC Q&A. I spoke to them for a bit and moved back to my place in line. A Rams Head employee lady came out and was trying to kick us out of the venue. I was on the phone with Ike at the time, but I was happy that people were holding their ground and persuaded her to let us stay in. It was just cold as hell. I mean, I wanted a good spot on the floor, but I just didn't want to go back outside even more. She said that we could stay in on the condition that we govern ourselves with volunteers and make sure that the people who worked there can get to where they needed to be. I readily agreed since I'm one of the 'aged' members of the fandom, lol. Plus, I had been in the venue before so I had some first hand info on where stuff was. There was a good group of us. I only knew Nydia though. Jon held my spot in line and I went up and down directing people into the lines, keeping people against the wall, and answering general questions.
I'm going to state the obvious here and say that some Deg fans are some real assholes. For the most part, people were cooperative and I really appreciated that. Even the people who didn't know that the Rams Head had been kicking people out since Saturday were understanding for the most part, but there are always some people who want to just be asses. This one fat bitch was about to get it as she tried to get loud on me. If her fat ass and her fat mom who she was talking to moved out the way, I wouldn't have had to say anything. My thing was I wasn't going back in the cold. But, I digress. The lines ended up being ok (even with the linecutters) and I was happy that no one had to stand out in the cold. Also, people who weren't there for the concert got to get to their destinations. So, Mission complete. I hated that some people were so loud that we couldn't hear the guys practicing, but I did hear Kasumi. Yey! I <3 that song.
Finally, it was showtime. They opened the doors late and called out for the 21 and older people. I was all set to get a wristband, but instead it was just a small stamp. I'm so glad that I didn't get a young folks stamp. You had to get both hands stamped and it covered the entire thing. Anyway, at first I was going to do the balcony. I wasn't in the mood to fall. I didn't want my glasses broken and I needed to leave for DC before 10. But, Nana said that I could possibly get a ride to Landover. Also, she said that Toshiya was being really crunk on the shows that she went to before. So, I decided that I would finally go to the other side with Kaoru and Toshiya and leave with her. By the time I got in I was 3rd-4th row from the Kaoru-Toshiya side. I saw the usual suspects from other lives and recognized that the people on the bar were the people who did the reservation thing that I wish I knew about.
Bleed the Dream was ok. Reading some people's reports made me think they were pure shit and they really weren't. They had a 30STM feel on the first few songs. I found myself wanting to check them out on myspace or something, so that's a real good thing. I had talked to the drummer while he was passing out stickers earlier and he was pretty cool. Pretty good emoish band. Oh, and I thought the bassist (who was from B-more) was a cutie. That didn't hurt my opinion at all. ^_~ Fair to Midland...wasn't bad. They had a 10 Years feel to them. But, as I told Jon, I would listen to them, but I wouldn't ever want to see them live again. Nana tried to warn me about the "spasticness" of the lead singer. Half of the time I was like "WTF?!" with his drooling and dancing. He seemed to be channeling Hulk Hogan with some of his deep voiced growl-singing. I just needed him to say "Brother" and I would've known for certain, lol. His two bald spots were interesting too. I don't know if it was natural, a health thing, or if he pulled tufts of hair out during his dancing one night. Hmm. Anyway, I wished that Fair to Midland went on first with Bleed the Dream second because BTD did a better job of hyping us up. We had a long time to wait for the guys which sucked. People had already started the pushing and stuff. Is it me or did Shinya add more drums to his set? I swear he punks the fuck out of the other bands with his kit. When they unveiled it, in all its glory, all I could do was smile at Jon.
On the screen, "TOUR 07 INWARD SCREAM DIR EN GREY", was shown for awhile. Finally, G.D.S came on. Ok, people practice before the live. People were off for awhile, but they got it together. Shinya came out first as usual, I think it was Kaoru, Toshiya, Die and finally Kyo. Fookah! They looked great and just when I think that I'm giving them up to the rabid fandom, they draw me back in. Toshiya's little lopsided smile, Kaoru's slight head nod at my smile, and Kyo's lip curl as he surveyed the crowd made me fall right smack dab in love. Honestly, I suck at remembering set lists. I know they played THE FATAL BELIEVER (one of the newer songs that I like), The Final (which is pure suicidal love), Kasumi (<3), Itoshisa (ALL new words, simply beautiful), dead tree, saku, Obscure (mosh, mosh!), C, CLEVER SLEAZOID (yey!), ASOM (It doesn't annoy me as much :D), Ryojouku no Ame (dat's my JAM!), and that's all I can remember. Sad, I know. At one point, the pushing got too much for me. I was Mama bear and held and tried to protect the sisters who are smaller and shorter than me. Finally, I just let the people who were crawling on my back get in front of me and I could enjoy the show a lot better from the 6th or so row from the stage. I could see EVERYONE on stage pretty well and didn't have to worry about keeping my balance. Good shit. Jon and I got separated during the pushing and during the break before the encore I found him and he was right in front of Kyo. I've never been in the middle before so it was nice to see even more of the stage. I saw Die even better and his gorgeous smile makes me smile.
I really enjoyed the show. It really wasn't one part that really stood out, but I wasn't like, "Damn, I could've done something else with that money!" The show was a nice blend of Vulgar, Withering to death., and The Marrow of the Bone. It wasn't too many new songs because well...it was only released in Japan yesterday. But, thanks to the leak and them playing some of the songs on FV, some of us knew the new ones. But, I'm glad that it wasn't a rehash of the set list from NY. What I really liked was the video screen behind the band that showed parts of pvs or other scenes to punctuate the songs they were playing. It was a really nice touch. Toshiya was doing his thing and I enjoyed watching him. I love the way he calls attention to himself. As if he needed to, lol. Kaoru...it sounds so stupid, but he really calms me. What I mean by that is he's just so at ease and is so rhythmic and flawless in his movements. It's like he's not even trying to do anything spectacular but he just is. I don't know, but he's cool. As I said before Kyo just commands attention. As he stood on his red platform, I could see the scratches on his body. They almost looked drawn on because they were neat purplish-red lines in groups of four on his pale torso. The scratching and the blood was pretty minimal to which I was happy for. I know he's an entertainer, but I just don't like seeing it whether it hurts him or not. He looked at the crowd a lot. Sometimes having a bemused grin, othertimes with no visible emotion. I didn't get to see Shinya much at all. I could see arms and hair, lol. I also didn't see that much of Die. I saw him mostly when I moved with Jon. He got more active then, so it was worth it. The fan on the stage is a nice touch also. Since all the guys have hair, it looks nice when the wind slightly blows their hair back.
Why do people feel the need to scream while Kyo is singing? I'm not saying that it should be absolutely quiet like an opera. I'm not saying that we should act Japanese or anything, but just be respectful. I don't even care if you sing along as long as you know the words. Hell I sure do. But, don't just randomly scream at the top of your lungs while the man is doing his job. Kyo did some acapella parts and some people felt like "Hey! It's quiet. Kyo will be able to hear me! Whooolajfiwapor!" -_-* Oh, well. Another thing that annoyed the living fuck out of me was the cell phones. If venues start making me check my cell at coat check or forbid them, I'm going to be beyond upset. I saw so many people taping and snapping pictures. One person in front of me took a pic of Kyo. He just looked with his lips pursed together. I don't know what he was thinking but again, it's the respect thing. It's like I understand where the other fans are coming from because at the vantage point I was most of the time, I could get some kick ass pictures. It's a rare opportunity. You want to share and preserve memories, but, there were to be no pics. No videorecordings. At least do it where no one can see you, but whatever folks. I heard that some girl got concussed and trampled while people were trying to get Shinya's drumstick. That really sucks. The mosh pit during Obscure was really random. I thought everyone had calmed down and then the first strands of the song came on. I backed up and some chick tried to push me. I calmly turned around, looked her in the eye and said, "Don't do that." and went back to watching the vid and dancing along, lol.
Near the end (I think during CLEVER SLEAZOID), a guy ran into me from a mosh pit. It knocked my clothes off, literally. My jacket and hoodie was knocked of my body, lol. I wasn't mad, I just wanted to find my hoodie because I had stuff in almost all of my pockets. He was cool and helped me find it. The band started throwing stuff and as usual, I got bumpkus. Die's pick came close to me and Toshiya threw one in my general direction, but oh well. The dude was cool though. He said that if he got anything, he'd give it to me because I was such a good sport. Ok, I'll take it then. But, he didn't get anything. Come to find out, I met him last February at Katsucon. He mentioned that he liked my PLC bag back then. How he remembered me from a year ago, I don't know, but I didn't realize that he was a lil' cutie, lol.
I try to buy souvenirs at concerts I go to, but nothing was speaking to me and I wanted to make sure that I found Nana. I chilled with some of the Fair to Midland people and took a pic to get a poster. I found out if you were 21 and older, you could go back into the concert area, so I did to find Nana. I saw her chillin' with the manager of Fair to Midland. He seemed nice and gave me a sticker. We waited outside for Nana's aunt and we went back to the DC Metro Area.
I wanted to get to the Rams Head at about 12, but it didn't work out that way. I procrastinated and Jon and I didn't leave the house until 11. I swear it was colder than a witch's tit outside! It was NY all over again. It really didn't need to be that cold and the bus just did not want to come. Eventually, we made our way to Baltimore and I found out that our normal Otakon stop AKA Burger King was gone. That sucked balls but we defrosted and ate at the Blimpie instead. We finally made it to the club and I was a frozen ice block. I started singing "There's an icebox where my body used to be". As usual, we're never first, but we weren't too far from the beginning of the line. I'm cheap frugal, so I went to the box office to pick up my tickets Will Call. Since I ordered my tickets through Live Nation, I had to wait for their list to get there. Well, it was only around 2 or so, so I didn't have a problem. I saw nana007 and one of the sisters who I met during the MUCC Q&A. I spoke to them for a bit and moved back to my place in line. A Rams Head employee lady came out and was trying to kick us out of the venue. I was on the phone with Ike at the time, but I was happy that people were holding their ground and persuaded her to let us stay in. It was just cold as hell. I mean, I wanted a good spot on the floor, but I just didn't want to go back outside even more. She said that we could stay in on the condition that we govern ourselves with volunteers and make sure that the people who worked there can get to where they needed to be. I readily agreed since I'm one of the 'aged' members of the fandom, lol. Plus, I had been in the venue before so I had some first hand info on where stuff was. There was a good group of us. I only knew Nydia though. Jon held my spot in line and I went up and down directing people into the lines, keeping people against the wall, and answering general questions.
I'm going to state the obvious here and say that some Deg fans are some real assholes. For the most part, people were cooperative and I really appreciated that. Even the people who didn't know that the Rams Head had been kicking people out since Saturday were understanding for the most part, but there are always some people who want to just be asses. This one fat bitch was about to get it as she tried to get loud on me. If her fat ass and her fat mom who she was talking to moved out the way, I wouldn't have had to say anything. My thing was I wasn't going back in the cold. But, I digress. The lines ended up being ok (even with the linecutters) and I was happy that no one had to stand out in the cold. Also, people who weren't there for the concert got to get to their destinations. So, Mission complete. I hated that some people were so loud that we couldn't hear the guys practicing, but I did hear Kasumi. Yey! I <3 that song.
Finally, it was showtime. They opened the doors late and called out for the 21 and older people. I was all set to get a wristband, but instead it was just a small stamp. I'm so glad that I didn't get a young folks stamp. You had to get both hands stamped and it covered the entire thing. Anyway, at first I was going to do the balcony. I wasn't in the mood to fall. I didn't want my glasses broken and I needed to leave for DC before 10. But, Nana said that I could possibly get a ride to Landover. Also, she said that Toshiya was being really crunk on the shows that she went to before. So, I decided that I would finally go to the other side with Kaoru and Toshiya and leave with her. By the time I got in I was 3rd-4th row from the Kaoru-Toshiya side. I saw the usual suspects from other lives and recognized that the people on the bar were the people who did the reservation thing that I wish I knew about.
Bleed the Dream was ok. Reading some people's reports made me think they were pure shit and they really weren't. They had a 30STM feel on the first few songs. I found myself wanting to check them out on myspace or something, so that's a real good thing. I had talked to the drummer while he was passing out stickers earlier and he was pretty cool. Pretty good emoish band. Oh, and I thought the bassist (who was from B-more) was a cutie. That didn't hurt my opinion at all. ^_~ Fair to Midland...wasn't bad. They had a 10 Years feel to them. But, as I told Jon, I would listen to them, but I wouldn't ever want to see them live again. Nana tried to warn me about the "spasticness" of the lead singer. Half of the time I was like "WTF?!" with his drooling and dancing. He seemed to be channeling Hulk Hogan with some of his deep voiced growl-singing. I just needed him to say "Brother" and I would've known for certain, lol. His two bald spots were interesting too. I don't know if it was natural, a health thing, or if he pulled tufts of hair out during his dancing one night. Hmm. Anyway, I wished that Fair to Midland went on first with Bleed the Dream second because BTD did a better job of hyping us up. We had a long time to wait for the guys which sucked. People had already started the pushing and stuff. Is it me or did Shinya add more drums to his set? I swear he punks the fuck out of the other bands with his kit. When they unveiled it, in all its glory, all I could do was smile at Jon.
On the screen, "TOUR 07 INWARD SCREAM DIR EN GREY", was shown for awhile. Finally, G.D.S came on. Ok, people practice before the live. People were off for awhile, but they got it together. Shinya came out first as usual, I think it was Kaoru, Toshiya, Die and finally Kyo. Fookah! They looked great and just when I think that I'm giving them up to the rabid fandom, they draw me back in. Toshiya's little lopsided smile, Kaoru's slight head nod at my smile, and Kyo's lip curl as he surveyed the crowd made me fall right smack dab in love. Honestly, I suck at remembering set lists. I know they played THE FATAL BELIEVER (one of the newer songs that I like), The Final (which is pure suicidal love), Kasumi (<3), Itoshisa (ALL new words, simply beautiful), dead tree, saku, Obscure (mosh, mosh!), C, CLEVER SLEAZOID (yey!), ASOM (It doesn't annoy me as much :D), Ryojouku no Ame (dat's my JAM!), and that's all I can remember. Sad, I know. At one point, the pushing got too much for me. I was Mama bear and held and tried to protect the sisters who are smaller and shorter than me. Finally, I just let the people who were crawling on my back get in front of me and I could enjoy the show a lot better from the 6th or so row from the stage. I could see EVERYONE on stage pretty well and didn't have to worry about keeping my balance. Good shit. Jon and I got separated during the pushing and during the break before the encore I found him and he was right in front of Kyo. I've never been in the middle before so it was nice to see even more of the stage. I saw Die even better and his gorgeous smile makes me smile.
I really enjoyed the show. It really wasn't one part that really stood out, but I wasn't like, "Damn, I could've done something else with that money!" The show was a nice blend of Vulgar, Withering to death., and The Marrow of the Bone. It wasn't too many new songs because well...it was only released in Japan yesterday. But, thanks to the leak and them playing some of the songs on FV, some of us knew the new ones. But, I'm glad that it wasn't a rehash of the set list from NY. What I really liked was the video screen behind the band that showed parts of pvs or other scenes to punctuate the songs they were playing. It was a really nice touch. Toshiya was doing his thing and I enjoyed watching him. I love the way he calls attention to himself. As if he needed to, lol. Kaoru...it sounds so stupid, but he really calms me. What I mean by that is he's just so at ease and is so rhythmic and flawless in his movements. It's like he's not even trying to do anything spectacular but he just is. I don't know, but he's cool. As I said before Kyo just commands attention. As he stood on his red platform, I could see the scratches on his body. They almost looked drawn on because they were neat purplish-red lines in groups of four on his pale torso. The scratching and the blood was pretty minimal to which I was happy for. I know he's an entertainer, but I just don't like seeing it whether it hurts him or not. He looked at the crowd a lot. Sometimes having a bemused grin, othertimes with no visible emotion. I didn't get to see Shinya much at all. I could see arms and hair, lol. I also didn't see that much of Die. I saw him mostly when I moved with Jon. He got more active then, so it was worth it. The fan on the stage is a nice touch also. Since all the guys have hair, it looks nice when the wind slightly blows their hair back.
Why do people feel the need to scream while Kyo is singing? I'm not saying that it should be absolutely quiet like an opera. I'm not saying that we should act Japanese or anything, but just be respectful. I don't even care if you sing along as long as you know the words. Hell I sure do. But, don't just randomly scream at the top of your lungs while the man is doing his job. Kyo did some acapella parts and some people felt like "Hey! It's quiet. Kyo will be able to hear me! Whooolajfiwapor!" -_-* Oh, well. Another thing that annoyed the living fuck out of me was the cell phones. If venues start making me check my cell at coat check or forbid them, I'm going to be beyond upset. I saw so many people taping and snapping pictures. One person in front of me took a pic of Kyo. He just looked with his lips pursed together. I don't know what he was thinking but again, it's the respect thing. It's like I understand where the other fans are coming from because at the vantage point I was most of the time, I could get some kick ass pictures. It's a rare opportunity. You want to share and preserve memories, but, there were to be no pics. No videorecordings. At least do it where no one can see you, but whatever folks. I heard that some girl got concussed and trampled while people were trying to get Shinya's drumstick. That really sucks. The mosh pit during Obscure was really random. I thought everyone had calmed down and then the first strands of the song came on. I backed up and some chick tried to push me. I calmly turned around, looked her in the eye and said, "Don't do that." and went back to watching the vid and dancing along, lol.
Near the end (I think during CLEVER SLEAZOID), a guy ran into me from a mosh pit. It knocked my clothes off, literally. My jacket and hoodie was knocked of my body, lol. I wasn't mad, I just wanted to find my hoodie because I had stuff in almost all of my pockets. He was cool and helped me find it. The band started throwing stuff and as usual, I got bumpkus. Die's pick came close to me and Toshiya threw one in my general direction, but oh well. The dude was cool though. He said that if he got anything, he'd give it to me because I was such a good sport. Ok, I'll take it then. But, he didn't get anything. Come to find out, I met him last February at Katsucon. He mentioned that he liked my PLC bag back then. How he remembered me from a year ago, I don't know, but I didn't realize that he was a lil' cutie, lol.
I try to buy souvenirs at concerts I go to, but nothing was speaking to me and I wanted to make sure that I found Nana. I chilled with some of the Fair to Midland people and took a pic to get a poster. I found out if you were 21 and older, you could go back into the concert area, so I did to find Nana. I saw her chillin' with the manager of Fair to Midland. He seemed nice and gave me a sticker. We waited outside for Nana's aunt and we went back to the DC Metro Area.