Larc en Ciel Kokuritsu Live 21.3.2014
For those who follow my Facebook you'll know I went to the Larc en Ciel live at Kokuritsu Stadium last Friday! It was awesome but too cold!
So let's begin at first.
I reached Kokuritsu at about 2pm and was supposed to buy goods for a customer but the banana water gun was sold out! Apparently some fans went to queue as early as 8am and the gun was already sold out in the morning. Made the mistake of entering the stadium as soon as I reached as it was not possible to get out of the place after entering. So I had to bear with the crazy strong wind in the open arena for the next 3 hours before the live starts. Finally after about an hour, couldn't take it anymore and went to find somewhere to hide from the wind. The crowd built up without me realising it and by the time I was supposed to go back to my seat, the crowd was horrible. I could hardly move in the crazy shoving crowd. I had my hnaoto coat on, it had silver buttons and buckles and I was SO worried someone would pull something off in the craziness. Finally I managed to get out of the crowd and go downstairs to the arena entrance and walked in. It was about 95% full and my seat was at the back of the arena, so I had to walk all the way to the back, looking like a rock star. LOL Most of the fans are wearing normal clothes, some cosplaying Hyde, but the general crowd wore normal clothes. I was in full hnaoto, head to toe plus big sunnies to match. Needless to say, I was stared and pointed at from the moment I stepped into the arena till I sat down. Some people even turned their heads around to stare as I walked past. Two guys right behind me were discussing if my hair was a wig, extensions or real in loud voices. They should know I can hear them.......
Anyway, the live started about 20 to 25 minutes late. The stage was huge and there were pillars on either side with flame designs making them look very Olympic-ish.
Here is the song list.
L'Arc～en～Ciel LIVE 2014
Set list
01.get out from the shell
02.SEVENTH HEAVEN
03.REVELATION
04.GOOD LUCK MY WAY
05.BLESS
06.HONEY
07.winter fall
08.New World
09.READY STEADY GO
Mini stage
10.the Fourth Avenue Cafe
~ MC ~
11.未来世界 (miraisekkai)
12.あなた (Anata)
13.MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
14.CHASE
15.X X X
16.wild flower
17.DRINK IT DOWN
~ MC ~
18.EVERLASTING (New SONG!!!!!)
19.Blame
~ MC ~
20.Caress of Venus
21.Driver's High
22.Link
23.虹(Niji)
Found the song list here
I'm bad at remembering song titles and probably only managed to remember like 5 of them. lol
Taped on each seat is wristband light. There was instructions on the entrances to NOT move them to another seat or exchange with friends etc, and to read the instructions attached. The instructions told us to switch it on and not to worry if there is no light but to keep it on and strap it to our wrists. So I did. The wind by now was crazy and the poles and dangling bits of metal all over the stadium were rattling from the force of the wind, making some fans look back nervously.
The live started with all 4 of them arriving out of some space capsule looking thing out of the floor of the stage. One by one they stepped out of the capsule and only Hyde was left. Finally he came out and he was dressed in the THINNEST possible material. His costume was designed by hnaoto and I love it. (I want the white shirt! coughcough) Hyde had on a black lace mask and a hood, so most of his face was covered up and he didn't take off the mask till the third or fourth song. He put up the hood after that too and you can see his face. His makeup was a tad too thin, I felt. If he had the same gorgeous thick eye makeup he had in the 20th Anniversary, it would be too awesome.
In Bless, Hyde sang acapella in the beginning. It was like angels coming down from Heaven! The sky began to turn dark around this time and got completely dark around Ready Steady Go. Hyde didn't sing some parts of the chrous and I think he was feeling too cold. His voice didn't really project out as usual. There was a break and a video played. We were told to wear the poncho that was given to us when we came in. Half the fans were already wearing it to block out the cold. The rest that didn't wear it, rushed to put it on. I did too, I didn't want to put it on cos... well...it's a fashion faus fax but since we were told to wear it, there must be a reason. And reason it was! There was special effects lighting that flashed around for about 15 minutes. And a whale swam (special effects) around the stadium... this special lighting wouldn't be possible if we didn't wear the poncho cos the poncho made it seem like a sea of white and reflected the light. It was nice but...too cold for me to be really enjoying it. While the lighting show was on, a huge balloon grew in the middle of the stadium. It seemed to aborb all the "power" from the fans and grew bigger and bigger....When the lighting show ended, the balloon burst and there was a mini stage in place! When the balloon burst, our wristbands lighted up and it was so exciting! They performed the Fourth Avenue Cafe. After this song, they went back to the main stage and Hyde gave an MC. I don't remember most of what Hyde said, sorry >< I only remembered him saying "It's cold yeah?" repeat five times. Hyde asked the fans if the poncho was warm and was smiling sheepishly when we replied YES! MC was pretty short.
When Hyde sang Anata, during the chorus he didn't sing any of it and just left it to the fans. He probably didn't sing cos he was TOO COLD. Poor dude was shivering and he had been singing the wrong lyrics in some songs previously.
In the MC before the new song, Everlasting, Hyde said "We wanted to release a new song before this live. *everybody gasp* But as you can see, it didn't happen. *sheepish smile* BUT! We can dream! And dreams come true! So, Everlasting!" And they played the song.
I personally LOVE this new song. It's a slow ballad and reminds me of Forbidden Lover (which is my favourite song!) and really brings out Hyde's wonderful vocals. This man is like wine, he gets better with age. The single should be released sometime in summer and the live DVD will be released in Autumn.
There were columns of fire all over the stadium when it got dark and the heat was really welcoming.
Everlasting, then Blame. The fans kept really still and quiet during Everlasting. Lyrics of Everlasting were played on screen. It was pretty short. Found the lyrics to Everlasting somewhere on the net.
Everlasting
I swear to god
そう 似ていない人を 選んだのは …私
I swear to god
もう 帰らない 逢わない 私の強い …my will
止まない なぜに 止まない 君
I ask my heart
ねぇ 口づけて 気持ち 塞いでほしい
I ask my heart
そう 選んでも 私が 望んだのに… なぜ？
止まない 雨に 止まない 君
止まない 季節よ 止まない 詩よ
この 恋よ
冷たい雨 降り注げ
君を洗い流して 隠しきれない
君にまだ 恋している
After Blame, Ken gave an MC.
// R(A) warning!!! //
Ken asked about our dreams and if we remembered our dreams. Then proceeded to tell us about his wet dream...and even showed us how his hips were moving......Then he went on to say he went back to sleep and dreamt about being at Hachiko in Shibuya and suddenly their new song was playing from all the big screens and it was a CM for some product... turns out to be a gastric meds CM and there was an ugly old disgusting looking ojisan smiling with the meds in hand and their new song playing and he woke up in a sweat.
When Hyde next had a chance to speak, he apologised for whatever Ken said and said that if Larc en Ciel ever broke up, it would be because of this. XD; But Hyde kept saying during the whole live that each and every single one of the fans there that day were important and without us, this live wouldn't be possible, without us, Larc en Ciel wouldn't be possible and hoped that everybody would continue to support them for many years down the road. There were some fire stands on stage and Tetsuya was warning his hands with the fire, Ken was smoking his cig like a boss as usual and Hyde was complaining about them both, keeping themselves warm while he was freezing there and had to do all the singing and talking. Tetsuya's expression was so cute! He just shook his head and said "cold!" and continued warming his hands. Lol Yuki just sat there without any sound nor expression as usual. XD;; Ken has a warm FUR coat and he was probably the least cold among all of them. Hyde asked us again if our poncho was warm because he was freezing.
I can't remember if it was before or after Everlasting but Hyde took out a remote control that supposedly controlled the lighting on our wristbands! He switched it on and all of our wristbands glowed. Then he changed the colour and ours changed colours too! It was so lovely. Hyde said "This is awesome right? Do you like it? Yes? I like it too. It's awesome and it's also why the ticket prices are more expensive than usual." LOL Gonna love the guy when he is so honest. The wristband lights spelt out LARC EN CIEL in the audience during the live and was a show in itself. I hope they include this in the DVD because it's really quite spectacular.
I think it was around Driver's High when the confetti burst over the arena and I was lucky to be able to catch one! Some fans caught a whole bunch. I wish fans would share with one other if they caught more than one. I once went to a Gackt live and a very kind Japanese lady gave me one of her streamer cos I couldn't catch any. She was soooo kind!
Too fast, the live ended with Niji. When the intro to this song started, I knew it was the last song.
I was almost disappointed it wasn't Forbidden Lover :p But I love Niji too.
The live ended and I rushed out to buy the tour goods. The crowd to get out was crazy and I didn't know which gate to get out from to get to the goods stalls so I had to walk a huge way around the outside of the stadium and go back in again to buy the tour goods. (Just realised I didn't take any pic of the tour goods.....)
Other news,
Yasu, Daigo and GACKT went to the live! I'm assuming they went on Saturday. I heard Saturday wasn't as cold as Friday.
You can see the pictures from the live on my Facebook.
(edited for typos and to add some small details.)