[...I wanted to be together with you forever]
D'ESPAIRSRAY 22.11.10 @ Tokyo International Forum Hall C
SETLIST
Human clad monster
REDEEMER
Garnet
Abel to kain
「浮遊した理想」
DEATH POINT
dope
-13-Thirteen-
GOING ON !
FALLING
Angeldust
MIRROR
PARADOX 5
abyss
Lost in re:birth
DEVIL'S PARADE
HOLLOW
LOVE IS DEAD
アンコール１
Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana
ARK IN THE STORM
Reddish
"Forbidden"
アンコール２
HORIZON
BULLET
Where to start.......seriously I am so speechless when it comes to this gig.
I waited so long for it to happen that when it did eventually happen it didn't feel real, it's hard to describe but it's almost like my brain couldn't process what was unfolding in front of me. So I spent the first two songs kind of fixed to the floor unable to move, although when the "DIVE, trust yourself" etc part came up in REDEEMER it kicked in as I headbanged too much xD
Then followed Garnet which I totally didn't expect, green and red lightining flooded the stage and smoke machines were going rabid. I was located on the 2nd floor 4 rows from the front, in the middle so my eyeline was like..BAM...HIZUMI. There was two empty seats next to my friend so we had more space to go nuts in. Next was Abel to Cain which was quite funny as just the night before I was saying how I would love to hear that live as it's only on their LIQUIDISE dvd and on no others. When it started I was totally surprised, and you'll be hearing that phrase a LOT from now onwards.........:D
Then was 「浮遊した理想」, the song I lost all control in. I cluched the chair in front of me and killed all my brain cells, stopping only for the part just before the song breaks down and pauses with Hizumi singing "I'm withstanding now.." then cue MOAR HEADBANGING. It makes me dizzy thinking back to it xD I wasn't overly surprised to hear this song so early in the gig as I had seen other gigs with similar setlists, 'cause yeah normally it's like an encore song or something.
Then into DEATH POINT DEATH POINT DEATH POOOOOINTTT. Hizumi encouraged the crowd to scream it at the top of their lungs, when I say encourage I mean he rabidly chants it and holds out his microphone to the audience and they shyly chant it back. Well the [un]Beautiful members at the front on ground floor were screaming it ....people on the 2nd floor were too reserved. I think that was my only bad point about the gig, even when everyone else on 1st floor was headbanging most of the 2nd floor weren't. But each to their own I'm sure they were still having fun.
Then follwed Dope!!! I basically just swayed, and air punched through this song, and the ocassional screaming of "TWICE DEAD".
Then came the EPIC that was -13-Thirteen, the marching sounds echoed through the speakers and into the hall, flags began to raise featuring the LOVE IS DEAD mask, and torches on stage began to light with fire, they had eight altogether and seriously it looked AMAZING. I've never been to a gig with effects and such so for me it was like "OMG AWESOME -SPAZZES-" and we were told to clap along.
Next was GOING ON! a song I didn't expect yet again, Karyu bashed into Hizumi at one point causing Hizumi to sing rather hilariously and they both had to stop themselves bursting out laughing xD Quite a fun song live, from what I remeber it was mostly air punching. Followed by FALLING, now on MONSTERS I can safely say FALLING and PROGRESS are my least favourites, but I do like FALLING more than I like PROGRESS so I was happy xD I like the chorus!!! It's catchy :D and yeah I think I like it better now I've heard it live!!
Cue ANGELDUST!!!!!! a song I like VERRY much, which was then proceeded by MIRROR!!!! I still love the way it starts live better than recorded, it just sounds so much more..incredible! I've read in an interview that it's Hizumi's favourite song to do live, and it shows xD He really gets into it and was egging the crowd on.
Then something happened which rendered me completely tongue-tied. A screen came down and covered the stage and a projecter displayed a design similar to that of the vortex and stuff which Windows media player displays when asked to. And so PARADOX 5 started, completely and utterly unexpected on all levels of unexpectedness. PARADOX 5 is a song which I completely and unconditionally love from the music itself to the lyrics and when played live Karyu's added guitar. Being so overwhelmed by PARADOX 5 meant that when Abyss started I was starting to cry, especially as Abyss is such an inspiring song. It finished with air bubbles drifting up the screen as if we were suspended underwater. I truly do not want to forget those two moments, ever.
Then Lost in re:birth started up, people were headbanging, air punching and generally going crazy.
Then the CHAOS that is Devil's Parade. I read in someone else's reviews that Japanese fans do not do this song justice, I can safely say I agree with that, Devil's parade needs the untameable force that is western fans going absolutely ape-shit. It's my favourite song on MONSTERS and it just is CHAOS.
next was..HOLLOWWWWWWW. It started slightly different to normal but even from where i was I could see Hizumi getting the audience to do the "LA LA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAA". A smile plastered across his face xD
and the last song was LOVE IS DEAD. Karyu was having a blast in this song, bouncing on the spot and generally looking really happy as the crowd jumped up and down and danced. Zero done his usual trick of spining around, leg kicking and dancing.
Then they left the stage, and we all started chanting for them to come back!!!!
"D'ESPAIRSRAY -clap- D'ESPAIRSRAY -clap- D'ESPAIRSRAY"
and then they appeared again!!!!!!!!!
All with massive grins on their faces, and tour T-shirts.
There was a short MC, which I think Hizumi was talking about how crazy the 2nd or 3rd floor went to LOVE IS DEAD. When everyone was jumping the whole floor was moving, cause I could feel it, so I'm assuming D'espairsRay could see this and were amazed yet worried by it xD After all if the 2nd or 3rd floor fell a whole load of Mania would be injured O__O
EDIT: Apparently he was saying it looked like the 3rd floor people were going to fall so he said "We will catch you! -makes catching gestures-"
-wishes she went to 3rd floor and fell off-
Then they begun the 1st encore with Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana, another song which was totally unexpected xD (maybe I just didn't expect any slow songs or older songs, who knows LOL) but it made me teary eyed again...(although at this point I had taken out the contact lenses I had in so it meant my vision wasn't so blurred)
Then came ARK IN THE STORM a song I didn't overly like until I watched it on their Closer to Ideal DVD, and once again now love and welcomed hearing it for real live.
Then...BOOM... REDDISH :DDDDDDDDDD
Cue over excitedness and crazyness!!!!
proceeded by Forbidden, a song which likes to attack my brain regulary and get stuck in my head so much that it has truly become a forbidden song xD It's the beeping in the song it gets wedged in my head and eats away at my brain xDD
Then D'espa left the stage again, and thus we chanted them back on stage 8D
Bring on the feel good song HORIZON, this song brings back memories of the 2009 London live as when beckoned by Hizumi to chant "whoah~whoah!" we as a crowd were so flat it was unbelieveable xDDDDD but none the less he was Dead chuffed and said "I'm so proud of you London!" So I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when the Japanese fans done it SOOO much better xDD
They then done something I truly wished they wouldn't, having seen other setlist as mentioned earlier I was hoping they wouldn't BUT they did......
BULLET.
The one song it's IMPOSSIBLE to come down from, and they ended the gig with it xD
SO DAMN YOU D'ESPA DAMN YOU ..
..in the nicest way possible LOL
My neck did not thank them for that song.
They left the stage smiling and waving, and Hizumi done his usual of screaming either "ARIGATO" or "AISHITERU" without the help of his microphone. Zero started his usual trick of watering the crowd via his mouth LOL which caused Tsukasa to start spraying water over himself behind his drum kit. He then threw the bottle and hit the photographer who was trying to take pictures of Karyu!! when he eventually came out from his drums he took a drink from his other water bottle and managed to spit it down himself xDDD Karyu started throwing his picks and gave one to Hizumi to throw, and they each threw their water bottles, Karyu tried to throw one up to the 2nd floor but as you can imagine it failed LOL Then only Zero was left and when he saw the bottle Tsukasa has tried to throw earlier he kicked it, only to re-hit the photographer, but it when rebounded into the first row.xDD
Poor poor Photographer xDDDDD
and as I did not mention it earlier..
what they were wearing! (well what I can remeber)
Tsukasa has an outfit pretty similar to his MONSTERS outfit, but his hair has been given somewhat of a partial bowlcut xD
Zero also had something similar to his MONSTERS outfit.
Karyu had white trousers, possibly a black shirt and a sleeveless white bomber jacket type thing over the top, he also didn't have his weird braided/cleopatra type hair LOL so he looked like normal!
Hizumi wore black harem style trousers, a black cardigan thing, a black shirt, fingerless gloves and black boots. His hair was STYLED!!!!!! with a few braids on the side of his head so some of his hair was off his face, with a sweeping fringe. I liked this very much XD
Nothing was mentioned about their Hiatus, but I didn't expect them to say anything, Hizumi's voice was a bit off at times, which made me feel a bit bad but he wanted to complete the gigs so it was his desicion. I am so glad I was able to see them before they hiatus, words cannot describe my happiness, I just wish I could go back and experience it all again.
Merch-wise I brought the Tour shirt, Towel and a photoset.
and they has CHEKI 8DDD At first I thought there was a limit on how many you could buy, and seeing as they were 1,000 yen each it seemed logical. But no xD You could purchase as many as you wanted and I ended up buying .....seven.
bagging myself two Hizumi, three Zero, one Karyu, and one Tsukasa cheki 8D
My friend also got a Hizumi, he looks so sweet in hers xD he's smiling slightly and made me like "AWWWW" :3
.....I now want moar Hizumi cheki xD