Concert Report: World Tour 2011, 25 March 2012, (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
Wasn't planning on doing it, but pgchan helped to hound me into writing this report. Just got back from a raging karaoke party after the concert (epic :D) so I'm just beat. I sat in a place where it was difficult to see the video screen and easier to see the band and I only bring this up because the cameras probably emphasized things that I wasn't looking at, etc (for those of you who were there). NOT SORRY for typos and tetsu/tetsuya switching, and proper song capitalization, etc., I'm beat, throat burns from screaming, my ears are blown, vision is totally blurry, I don't think it's humanly possible to catch everything AND cheer/scream a bunch. XD
But I was facking ready.
As we were being seated I noticed that the front rows seemed a substantial distance closer than what we're used to in Japanese lives so EVERYONE was, in theory, closer. XD Fans were really friendly to each other on the floor and very excited to be there, and easily jumping in and out of everyone else's conversations. What was playing before the show was acoustic reprises of some songs (Good Luck My Way) or the orchestral track that played at the start of the Ajinomoto concert (playing to the picture montage). During the announcements that recording devices were not allowed we all cheered when they said the band name.
The curtain around the stage dropped, and was carried off the stage by a procession of roadies. When the show started we got to see graphics of a butterfly flying through a post-apocalyptic city that flashed the different cities. The butterfly landed on a cube that turned and eventually flashed the band names (we cheered as each one showed), and then we saw hyde (in the video; we saw his hands first). Oh dear. XD;; He was strung up in cables, in what I assume was some manner of incubator, and then there's a zoom on his face. He opens his eyes, and breaks out of the cables that hold him. He reels his fists back and punches the camera, and then? SCREAMING. In general whenever there was a quiet moment we cheered.
We hear some interesting piano and some hints of techno that lead into the iconic beginning notes of ibara no namida, which starts a little slower than what we're used to. hyde is without the usual guitar he's playing when performing this song, (hence the extra instrumental stuff?) swaying as he sings the opening verse. Before the first chorus there's an explosion of red on the screen before going into the full fury of the rest of the song, which continues at it's normal, forceful pace. Drama? Damn right. By the time ken's solo hits the crowd screams and cheers him on as he plays, and toward the end hyde's arms are up in the air as he dances around. So we're sufficiently MIND-BLOWN at this point; a song like that is a damn strong way to greet people.
hyde begins to growl, "Callin'" so you know it's time for Chase-- the place is dark as tetsu poses for the camera. hyde spins and points at the audience, singing the English version. Tetsuya moves to the front of the stage (we greet him as he plays). At some point hyde sits at the center of the stage to lay down some serious vocals.
"Come on, New York," hyde growls, and we all scream as Good Luck My Way starts. ken moves over to tetsuya's side of the stage, and tetsuya's twisting around, while hyde moves moves over to ken's side for a bit. During yet another solo we scream at ken's solo. hyde's swaying softly on stage, but tetsu is completely rocking out, more than usual, as we see his red fret marker lights flashing around. When the song ends ken's ending riff continues (like the album version of the song) past yukkie's ending drum beats.
The place goes dark, and there's a bit of a spotlight on yukihiro after the song ends. ken's tuning his guitar and eventually hyde walks up to the microphone, now with a guitar around his waist (pretty sure what song's coming up at this point XD;; ) before we get a hyde mc. "What's up?" he says, and asks, "Where are we?" (Um? XD;; We answer things like, "New York," or "Madison Square Garden," and I don't even know, because by the third time he asks, we're just screaming at him. hyde then mentions being the first Japanese band to play and how it's an honor.
There's a short hint of a chord he strums before the song starts (which I instantly recognize as HONEY), and sure enough, that's what starts. hyde kicks, waves sharply back and forth, and sways roughly as he's strumming. It's a little more fast-paced than usual which is perfect, seeing as the audience is busy going nuts. At ken's solo hyde is being extremely animated, even more than I ever remember during this song at other concerts.
Just as soon as honey ends we get immediately hit with the open strings to Drink it Down. The lights go red, and hyde begins to swagger slowly around the stage before he stops in the center, placing a flat hand to his forehead as if "searching" through the crowd. hyde's spinning and wailing as he sings.
Two very iconic guitar/drum beats sound, and some of us actually know to scream and punch our fists into the air, because it's time for Revelation. Sometimes the concert seemed like a tutorial concert for L'Arc shows (you'll see why as I continue), because we got some help here from hyde screaming, "New York!" before we get louder and rowdier according to the beat. The video screens go red. There's actual FIRE in the air. At some point hyde's just talking a stroll all over the stage (and so is tetsuya), as if trying to rile us up throughout the venue as we pump our fists into the air, screaming. I noticed earlier that a lot of people in the upper seats on tetsu's side were just… seated? At some point in this song this was no longer so; everyone was up screaming. The end was extended so we got to scream some more.
Again, the stage goes black, but pink sakura petals flow down over the video screens, and we hear a familiar orchestral opening to… jojoushi! Everything goes silent as hyde begins to sing the chorus a cappella, but EVERYONE cheered when this happened. We cheered, at what it seemed, each time hyde took a breath, or if there was a pause between verses, until the rest of the song kicks in: the lights come back up to reveal the rest of L'Arc sitting on the edge of the drum stand, where they stayed the whole song. they all swayed so gently back and forth, and it was sweet and calming to watch them play, and sakura petals are superimposed over band members on the video screen. Lights changed to a warm yellow light toward the end of the song.
X X X (the English version!) had a bit of an extended opening before it started, and then it exploded into full orchestral fury. People (including myself, it seemed really cool) were cheering, but making "X" shapes with their glowsticks in the audience but hyde's voice was so amazingly clear and gorgeous here.
With no warning fate begins (woo!) and instead of green lasers we get blue beams of light, which are beautiful to look at. hyde's doing his more recent swaying/dancing (as at other shows). There are blurs on the larger video screens showing ken's guitar solo, which are reminiscent of the scopes of guns (relevant to the lyrics XD). tetsuya and yukihiro's beginning parts are always a treat to listen to when ken just taps the guitar with his pick. hyde saunters around the center of the stage and gestures to the sky when he sings, "ima, nerai wo sadamete," etc.
When that song ends yukihiro is left on the stage to do a drum solo. We move our glow sticks dutifully until he continues into the beginning of forbidden lover, and then we move them to the beat of the snare drum. While singing, hyde's face is bathed in red on the video screens against a moving, blue ocean. hyde puts on his drama face, and begins to outright howl the song, especially at the chorus. he gestures with his hands as well, covering part of his face. tetsuya's "shikisai" backup singing is gentle and elegant against hyde's vocals. When hyde "screams god's name" his arms are out at each side and he's outright wailing at this point, and then he ocassionally draws some showing . Meanwhile, tetsuya's GONE WILD. He's thrashing around like nobody's business while ken is the polar opposite and totally calm on his side of the stage.
Everything blacks out again when the song ends. We hear some low synth noise, and after a few notes of it, it's easy to realize that this is ken's solo leading up to My Heart Draws A Dream. As the song plays there are images of rolling hills and forests, along with other nature-related video. hyde sing slowly, moving his arms out for emphasis, and them moving to his heart. During the "yume wo egaku yo" part of the song, hyde prompts us to sing, while tetsu sings backup for the audience. All the video screens fill with shots of the crowd as we're all singing together, and during hyde's final breaths of the song we already start cheering as hyde kisses the microphone on the last beat of the song.
For a moment there's a red spotlight only on yukkie, and then ken comes out with a giant plastic bag, covered with "I ♥ NY." With a sheet of paper in hand ken starts his MC, where he begins with, "Welcome to Madison Square Garden! I came to New York City four days ago." He then talks about how he went to the Museum of Natural History, asking the cabbie and other people if this is where Night at the Museum took place, and more about other characters from that movie as he went through it, and also found a bunch of naked mannequins which he took tons of pictures of, got tired, and went back to the hotel. (What. XD;; ) He then presents yukihiro with a Monopoly game and mentions how the four members of L'Arc~en~Ciel will play Monopoly together in the hotel later on tonight. Then, he pulls a mug out of the bag, and presents it to yukihiro (screaming. Everywhere.) who sets it on his drum set for a bit. "My mug is very cute!" What, are you hawking mugs now, ken? XD He asks us if we're excited and enjoying the show (and "us" XD;; we cheer), messing up a bit before he collapses into laughter at his own awkward English, and then we're all laughing with him before he adds, "Sorry, I'm a stranger here! D:" (Aww. XD)
He ends with "Next song: Caress of Venus!" As the song starts some streamers fall from the ceiling onto us and pale blue, white, and metallic colors flash on the screens as we see multiple shots of the band playing. hyde's flitting around on stage and commanding everyone to jump in the audience!
There are then revving noises, so everyone cheers. It's Driver's High! Some fireworks suddenly explode and we all scream. (So that's how it's gonna be, huh, guys?) Lots of us know to jump during all the important parts of the song, and people seem to have been following suit. tetsuya's now moved to the center of the stage, while hyde went over to ken's side, and ken RUNS to tetsuya's side (we scream as he blasts by). At times, with a "Come on New York" people realize that they too should have already been in mid-air by now, (why aren't you jumping?! Get your butt off the ground, NOW!), and then hyde moves over next to tetsuya, placing a hand on his shoulder as he sings.
We get a little break as tetsu's playing his bass solo before Stay Away. He holds the bass straight up, plays with a mukimpo (and tosses it into the crowd), flails around a little more than usual, and lays his face on the amps (there's a painful high-pitched screech that he's clearly doing on purpose as he's rolling around), and then we're all just shoved into the beginning of the song with nearly no warning but it's okay, everyone's busy jumping around. When we clap during the "Causes stain, stay away" parts, there are some bizarre-looking robots on the screen who try to demonstrate to us when/how you're supposed to clap (hahahaha, L'Arc Concert tutorial videos), and it took a couple of tries but turned out okay from where I was sitting. Before the solo there's an extra iteration of the "causes stain" lines, but then ken was in rare form, thrashing around as he played. The front/middle got a flash of hyde tongue, the robots on screen did the dance at the end of the song, and then hyde just roars, "NEW YORK!!!"
Oh, out of energy? Well, too bad, find some more because hyde began Ready Steady Go with a rousing, "Are you fucking ready?!" and there was no room to argue. Some lyrics in the beginning of the song flashed in green across the screens as they started singing, and after he sang, "Let's get started, ready steady, go~!" there were fireworks. Except. They kept. On. Coming. In. Short, loud explosions. It was hilarious. hyde was just running and screaming, and tetsuya/ken were just as energetic as craziness ensued on the stage. When the song ended, yukihiro kept drumming to the sound of tetsuya's bass feedback and we stood in support as he continued to kick ass before the intermission. He sped up and slowed down a bunch of times, all to us screaming and holding our glowsticks in the air while he rattled off a few mini drum solos. It's always an awesome show of skill. I was also surprised to see people still standing (besides me) and wiggling our glowsticcks until the sound was cut off.
Videos were played, not-so-subtly instructing us to do the wave, but apparently people were perpetually not ready in most cases, as most attempts were completely abysmal. What this crowd lacked in physical coordination, though, it made up for in enthusiasm. Many never sat during the break, and at many points people were yelling the band name and stomping-- it made a ridiculously thundering noise which was a lot more satisfying than doing any wave. XD At one point a cameraman just started walking down our aisle and filmed us cheering and screaming.
Eventually! Eventually a familiar bit of piano played, and you had to know anata was coming. There were also romanji lyrics up on the screen for those who didn't know the words to sing as we tipped our glowsticks back and forth to the music. When the song finally started we cheered. I watched the disco ball that came down reflect little white dots of light all over the Garden, and the video screen behind the band was also littered with tons of stars, rotating behind them. hyde's delivery was clear again and the band was pretty serious about playing this well- at one point you just see a huge smile across ken's face when he's playing. When we finally got prompted by hyde to sing, I think we did pretty well in general.
A song I didn't expect, Winter Fall was next, and the stage had some pretty whimsical blue spheres that looked like little drops splaying across the video screens. hyde was walking across the stage with a little bit of swaying, but as the song progressed he turned up the drama, eventually covering his face with his gloved hands, and there was a lot of dramatic twirls. On the video screen there were awesome shots of ken playing guitar. tetsuya was at his place on stage, being his energetic self, too. After wailing out the last verses hyde ends the song with his whispery voice and winks.
No rest yet. Blurry Eyes just starts and you deal with it. XD;; There's split screens, and various effects with moving around stage footage on the screen behind L'Arc, as well as some whistle malfunction with hyde when trying to throw. We don't get to sing the chorus (D:), but the song comes to a screeching halt in the middle. tetsuya not only asks if we want to eat his fucking banana before chucking it out into the audience. He then adds something new when asking who wants to lick his lollipop (wow, tetsu, really? XD;; ). He's giving these things little kisses before he tosses them into the crowd, and then asks us if we want to see more. (Pff, of course we do, you fool.) There seemed to be a slipup with ken jumping the gun and playing guitar too quickly into yukihiro's drum riff (they almost lose the rhythm but not quite XD). The rest of the band finishes with some manner of reserve energy, and we move on after another extended ending/solo from yukihiro!
hyde does another MC and says, "Thank you! That was so much fun. Thank you so much, America. So excited to be here. You are the best!" (We cheered.) He says that it took twenty years to get there and asked if we'd meet again soon. He really thanked us a lot in that MC. (hyde's English seemed a lot more comfortable-- must be all of that touring here, and maybe he just practiced what he was going to say a lot too, but either way it much more substantial than last time I'd seen his MCs in the US VAMPS shows.)
He introduced the last song (Aww. .___.), niji. Each band member had a white spotlight that shone above them as they played, and I thought it was a good endpoint to the fact that each member had a chance in this show to demonstrate how strong they were at their craft (hyde's a cappella for jojoushi, tetsuya's bass solo for Stay Away, Ken's My Heart Draws A Dream, yukkie's Ready Steady Go solo). The way the crowd moved to the song was enough to make it feel like I was in a Japan concert, if only for a second. Feathers blew down over us, and rainbow graphics were on the screen as hyde sang quite dramatically. Each member stayed under their spotlight playing with a bit of seriousness (the professionalism we take for granted sometimes, I think XD). The lights were all clear white. After the band made their exit, tetsuya came out with a basket, throwing lollipops and bananas out into the crowd. With one especially hard throw, a mukimpo landed in the sound/programming/lights area, which I saw got tossed back into the crowd by an amused technician. tetsuya was also shooting mukimpo water pistols at people. When he walked back to the mic, he said (in Japanese), "Mata ne~!" and then "See you soon" in English.
It seemed like L'Arc was really happy to play MSG, and I'm glad to have been there to watch another milestone with them. It was such an awesome show where everyone was full of energy and just happy to be there. Definitely felt the love! I hope they don't wait nearly another decade to return. XD
EDIT: Oh god, I'm finding all sorts of sentences that make no sense. Will fix when I get home, I was falling asleep while typing. Pulled out what random phrases that spellcheck "corrected" that I didn't notice.
If you wanna, check out my older concert reports here.
But I was facking ready.
As we were being seated I noticed that the front rows seemed a substantial distance closer than what we're used to in Japanese lives so EVERYONE was, in theory, closer. XD Fans were really friendly to each other on the floor and very excited to be there, and easily jumping in and out of everyone else's conversations. What was playing before the show was acoustic reprises of some songs (Good Luck My Way) or the orchestral track that played at the start of the Ajinomoto concert (playing to the picture montage). During the announcements that recording devices were not allowed we all cheered when they said the band name.
The curtain around the stage dropped, and was carried off the stage by a procession of roadies. When the show started we got to see graphics of a butterfly flying through a post-apocalyptic city that flashed the different cities. The butterfly landed on a cube that turned and eventually flashed the band names (we cheered as each one showed), and then we saw hyde (in the video; we saw his hands first). Oh dear. XD;; He was strung up in cables, in what I assume was some manner of incubator, and then there's a zoom on his face. He opens his eyes, and breaks out of the cables that hold him. He reels his fists back and punches the camera, and then? SCREAMING. In general whenever there was a quiet moment we cheered.
We hear some interesting piano and some hints of techno that lead into the iconic beginning notes of ibara no namida, which starts a little slower than what we're used to. hyde is without the usual guitar he's playing when performing this song, (hence the extra instrumental stuff?) swaying as he sings the opening verse. Before the first chorus there's an explosion of red on the screen before going into the full fury of the rest of the song, which continues at it's normal, forceful pace. Drama? Damn right. By the time ken's solo hits the crowd screams and cheers him on as he plays, and toward the end hyde's arms are up in the air as he dances around. So we're sufficiently MIND-BLOWN at this point; a song like that is a damn strong way to greet people.
hyde begins to growl, "Callin'" so you know it's time for Chase-- the place is dark as tetsu poses for the camera. hyde spins and points at the audience, singing the English version. Tetsuya moves to the front of the stage (we greet him as he plays). At some point hyde sits at the center of the stage to lay down some serious vocals.
"Come on, New York," hyde growls, and we all scream as Good Luck My Way starts. ken moves over to tetsuya's side of the stage, and tetsuya's twisting around, while hyde moves moves over to ken's side for a bit. During yet another solo we scream at ken's solo. hyde's swaying softly on stage, but tetsu is completely rocking out, more than usual, as we see his red fret marker lights flashing around. When the song ends ken's ending riff continues (like the album version of the song) past yukkie's ending drum beats.
The place goes dark, and there's a bit of a spotlight on yukihiro after the song ends. ken's tuning his guitar and eventually hyde walks up to the microphone, now with a guitar around his waist (pretty sure what song's coming up at this point XD;; ) before we get a hyde mc. "What's up?" he says, and asks, "Where are we?" (Um? XD;; We answer things like, "New York," or "Madison Square Garden," and I don't even know, because by the third time he asks, we're just screaming at him. hyde then mentions being the first Japanese band to play and how it's an honor.
There's a short hint of a chord he strums before the song starts (which I instantly recognize as HONEY), and sure enough, that's what starts. hyde kicks, waves sharply back and forth, and sways roughly as he's strumming. It's a little more fast-paced than usual which is perfect, seeing as the audience is busy going nuts. At ken's solo hyde is being extremely animated, even more than I ever remember during this song at other concerts.
Just as soon as honey ends we get immediately hit with the open strings to Drink it Down. The lights go red, and hyde begins to swagger slowly around the stage before he stops in the center, placing a flat hand to his forehead as if "searching" through the crowd. hyde's spinning and wailing as he sings.
Two very iconic guitar/drum beats sound, and some of us actually know to scream and punch our fists into the air, because it's time for Revelation. Sometimes the concert seemed like a tutorial concert for L'Arc shows (you'll see why as I continue), because we got some help here from hyde screaming, "New York!" before we get louder and rowdier according to the beat. The video screens go red. There's actual FIRE in the air. At some point hyde's just talking a stroll all over the stage (and so is tetsuya), as if trying to rile us up throughout the venue as we pump our fists into the air, screaming. I noticed earlier that a lot of people in the upper seats on tetsu's side were just… seated? At some point in this song this was no longer so; everyone was up screaming. The end was extended so we got to scream some more.
Again, the stage goes black, but pink sakura petals flow down over the video screens, and we hear a familiar orchestral opening to… jojoushi! Everything goes silent as hyde begins to sing the chorus a cappella, but EVERYONE cheered when this happened. We cheered, at what it seemed, each time hyde took a breath, or if there was a pause between verses, until the rest of the song kicks in: the lights come back up to reveal the rest of L'Arc sitting on the edge of the drum stand, where they stayed the whole song. they all swayed so gently back and forth, and it was sweet and calming to watch them play, and sakura petals are superimposed over band members on the video screen. Lights changed to a warm yellow light toward the end of the song.
X X X (the English version!) had a bit of an extended opening before it started, and then it exploded into full orchestral fury. People (including myself, it seemed really cool) were cheering, but making "X" shapes with their glowsticks in the audience but hyde's voice was so amazingly clear and gorgeous here.
With no warning fate begins (woo!) and instead of green lasers we get blue beams of light, which are beautiful to look at. hyde's doing his more recent swaying/dancing (as at other shows). There are blurs on the larger video screens showing ken's guitar solo, which are reminiscent of the scopes of guns (relevant to the lyrics XD). tetsuya and yukihiro's beginning parts are always a treat to listen to when ken just taps the guitar with his pick. hyde saunters around the center of the stage and gestures to the sky when he sings, "ima, nerai wo sadamete," etc.
When that song ends yukihiro is left on the stage to do a drum solo. We move our glow sticks dutifully until he continues into the beginning of forbidden lover, and then we move them to the beat of the snare drum. While singing, hyde's face is bathed in red on the video screens against a moving, blue ocean. hyde puts on his drama face, and begins to outright howl the song, especially at the chorus. he gestures with his hands as well, covering part of his face. tetsuya's "shikisai" backup singing is gentle and elegant against hyde's vocals. When hyde "screams god's name" his arms are out at each side and he's outright wailing at this point, and then he ocassionally draws some showing . Meanwhile, tetsuya's GONE WILD. He's thrashing around like nobody's business while ken is the polar opposite and totally calm on his side of the stage.
Everything blacks out again when the song ends. We hear some low synth noise, and after a few notes of it, it's easy to realize that this is ken's solo leading up to My Heart Draws A Dream. As the song plays there are images of rolling hills and forests, along with other nature-related video. hyde sing slowly, moving his arms out for emphasis, and them moving to his heart. During the "yume wo egaku yo" part of the song, hyde prompts us to sing, while tetsu sings backup for the audience. All the video screens fill with shots of the crowd as we're all singing together, and during hyde's final breaths of the song we already start cheering as hyde kisses the microphone on the last beat of the song.
For a moment there's a red spotlight only on yukkie, and then ken comes out with a giant plastic bag, covered with "I ♥ NY." With a sheet of paper in hand ken starts his MC, where he begins with, "Welcome to Madison Square Garden! I came to New York City four days ago." He then talks about how he went to the Museum of Natural History, asking the cabbie and other people if this is where Night at the Museum took place, and more about other characters from that movie as he went through it, and also found a bunch of naked mannequins which he took tons of pictures of, got tired, and went back to the hotel. (What. XD;; ) He then presents yukihiro with a Monopoly game and mentions how the four members of L'Arc~en~Ciel will play Monopoly together in the hotel later on tonight. Then, he pulls a mug out of the bag, and presents it to yukihiro (screaming. Everywhere.) who sets it on his drum set for a bit. "My mug is very cute!" What, are you hawking mugs now, ken? XD He asks us if we're excited and enjoying the show (and "us" XD;; we cheer), messing up a bit before he collapses into laughter at his own awkward English, and then we're all laughing with him before he adds, "Sorry, I'm a stranger here! D:" (Aww. XD)
He ends with "Next song: Caress of Venus!" As the song starts some streamers fall from the ceiling onto us and pale blue, white, and metallic colors flash on the screens as we see multiple shots of the band playing. hyde's flitting around on stage and commanding everyone to jump in the audience!
There are then revving noises, so everyone cheers. It's Driver's High! Some fireworks suddenly explode and we all scream. (So that's how it's gonna be, huh, guys?) Lots of us know to jump during all the important parts of the song, and people seem to have been following suit. tetsuya's now moved to the center of the stage, while hyde went over to ken's side, and ken RUNS to tetsuya's side (we scream as he blasts by). At times, with a "Come on New York" people realize that they too should have already been in mid-air by now, (why aren't you jumping?! Get your butt off the ground, NOW!), and then hyde moves over next to tetsuya, placing a hand on his shoulder as he sings.
We get a little break as tetsu's playing his bass solo before Stay Away. He holds the bass straight up, plays with a mukimpo (and tosses it into the crowd), flails around a little more than usual, and lays his face on the amps (there's a painful high-pitched screech that he's clearly doing on purpose as he's rolling around), and then we're all just shoved into the beginning of the song with nearly no warning but it's okay, everyone's busy jumping around. When we clap during the "Causes stain, stay away" parts, there are some bizarre-looking robots on the screen who try to demonstrate to us when/how you're supposed to clap (hahahaha, L'Arc Concert tutorial videos), and it took a couple of tries but turned out okay from where I was sitting. Before the solo there's an extra iteration of the "causes stain" lines, but then ken was in rare form, thrashing around as he played. The front/middle got a flash of hyde tongue, the robots on screen did the dance at the end of the song, and then hyde just roars, "NEW YORK!!!"
Oh, out of energy? Well, too bad, find some more because hyde began Ready Steady Go with a rousing, "Are you fucking ready?!" and there was no room to argue. Some lyrics in the beginning of the song flashed in green across the screens as they started singing, and after he sang, "Let's get started, ready steady, go~!" there were fireworks. Except. They kept. On. Coming. In. Short, loud explosions. It was hilarious. hyde was just running and screaming, and tetsuya/ken were just as energetic as craziness ensued on the stage. When the song ended, yukihiro kept drumming to the sound of tetsuya's bass feedback and we stood in support as he continued to kick ass before the intermission. He sped up and slowed down a bunch of times, all to us screaming and holding our glowsticks in the air while he rattled off a few mini drum solos. It's always an awesome show of skill. I was also surprised to see people still standing (besides me) and wiggling our glowsticcks until the sound was cut off.
Videos were played, not-so-subtly instructing us to do the wave, but apparently people were perpetually not ready in most cases, as most attempts were completely abysmal. What this crowd lacked in physical coordination, though, it made up for in enthusiasm. Many never sat during the break, and at many points people were yelling the band name and stomping-- it made a ridiculously thundering noise which was a lot more satisfying than doing any wave. XD At one point a cameraman just started walking down our aisle and filmed us cheering and screaming.
Eventually! Eventually a familiar bit of piano played, and you had to know anata was coming. There were also romanji lyrics up on the screen for those who didn't know the words to sing as we tipped our glowsticks back and forth to the music. When the song finally started we cheered. I watched the disco ball that came down reflect little white dots of light all over the Garden, and the video screen behind the band was also littered with tons of stars, rotating behind them. hyde's delivery was clear again and the band was pretty serious about playing this well- at one point you just see a huge smile across ken's face when he's playing. When we finally got prompted by hyde to sing, I think we did pretty well in general.
A song I didn't expect, Winter Fall was next, and the stage had some pretty whimsical blue spheres that looked like little drops splaying across the video screens. hyde was walking across the stage with a little bit of swaying, but as the song progressed he turned up the drama, eventually covering his face with his gloved hands, and there was a lot of dramatic twirls. On the video screen there were awesome shots of ken playing guitar. tetsuya was at his place on stage, being his energetic self, too. After wailing out the last verses hyde ends the song with his whispery voice and winks.
No rest yet. Blurry Eyes just starts and you deal with it. XD;; There's split screens, and various effects with moving around stage footage on the screen behind L'Arc, as well as some whistle malfunction with hyde when trying to throw. We don't get to sing the chorus (D:), but the song comes to a screeching halt in the middle. tetsuya not only asks if we want to eat his fucking banana before chucking it out into the audience. He then adds something new when asking who wants to lick his lollipop (wow, tetsu, really? XD;; ). He's giving these things little kisses before he tosses them into the crowd, and then asks us if we want to see more. (Pff, of course we do, you fool.) There seemed to be a slipup with ken jumping the gun and playing guitar too quickly into yukihiro's drum riff (they almost lose the rhythm but not quite XD). The rest of the band finishes with some manner of reserve energy, and we move on after another extended ending/solo from yukihiro!
hyde does another MC and says, "Thank you! That was so much fun. Thank you so much, America. So excited to be here. You are the best!" (We cheered.) He says that it took twenty years to get there and asked if we'd meet again soon. He really thanked us a lot in that MC. (hyde's English seemed a lot more comfortable-- must be all of that touring here, and maybe he just practiced what he was going to say a lot too, but either way it much more substantial than last time I'd seen his MCs in the US VAMPS shows.)
He introduced the last song (Aww. .___.), niji. Each band member had a white spotlight that shone above them as they played, and I thought it was a good endpoint to the fact that each member had a chance in this show to demonstrate how strong they were at their craft (hyde's a cappella for jojoushi, tetsuya's bass solo for Stay Away, Ken's My Heart Draws A Dream, yukkie's Ready Steady Go solo). The way the crowd moved to the song was enough to make it feel like I was in a Japan concert, if only for a second. Feathers blew down over us, and rainbow graphics were on the screen as hyde sang quite dramatically. Each member stayed under their spotlight playing with a bit of seriousness (the professionalism we take for granted sometimes, I think XD). The lights were all clear white. After the band made their exit, tetsuya came out with a basket, throwing lollipops and bananas out into the crowd. With one especially hard throw, a mukimpo landed in the sound/programming/lights area, which I saw got tossed back into the crowd by an amused technician. tetsuya was also shooting mukimpo water pistols at people. When he walked back to the mic, he said (in Japanese), "Mata ne~!" and then "See you soon" in English.
It seemed like L'Arc was really happy to play MSG, and I'm glad to have been there to watch another milestone with them. It was such an awesome show where everyone was full of energy and just happy to be there. Definitely felt the love! I hope they don't wait nearly another decade to return. XD
EDIT: Oh god, I'm finding all sorts of sentences that make no sense. Will fix when I get home, I was falling asleep while typing. Pulled out what random phrases that spellcheck "corrected" that I didn't notice.
If you wanna, check out my older concert reports here.