Before I get into the actual concert and how amazing it was, I probably need to clear a few things up. A lot of people think it's weird that I listen to Japanese music, especially since I'm not Japanese. My music tastes stem from my interests in anime and manga, so it has just always felt right for me to listen to Japanese music. I don't have anything against American music; I just like to listen to a lot of weird obscure Japanese and Korean bands because their sound is so different compared to American music. Not to say that Dir en grey is obscure anymore, since they're starting to become popular over here.
This concert was the first (and hopefully not the last) time I saw Dir en grey live. They performed in a club called Sonar (smaller even than The National here in Richmond) and the show opened with a band from Toronto called The Birthday Massacre. I was very impressed with their performance because their music was good and they had great energy.
Here are some of the few decent pictures I managed to take. I had a pretty good place near the stage, but unfortunately I couldn't see their drummer or keyboardist for the most part.
The Birthday Massacre played a handful of songs (I wish I'd remembered all of the titles) before they left the stage to start preparing it for Dir en grey. It always seems to take a very long time to clear the stage of the opening band's equipment to make way for the main act. This concert was no exception, and in some ways it seemed to take even longer this time. My mind wandered, and I started to worry about things the way I always do when I have too much time to think about nothing in particular. I worried about the concert, about whether I'd be able to even see Shinya at the drums in the back, about whether I'd be able to tell Die apart from Kaoru and Toshiya because I hadn't seen many pictures of them lately (it's embarrassing but I'm still more familiar with their old visual kei looks), about whether I'd be able to hear them clearly because I was standing right next to the speakers.
Then suddenly the stage lights went out, my heart nearly stopped, and everyone in the audience screamed as the music started and Kyo walked out to the center of the stage. And as the lights came back on, all of my worries were gone because I could see Shinya through a window formed by the speakers and other stage equipment next to me, Die was standing no more than ten feet away from where I stood and I could recognize him as well as Kaoru and Toshiya, and I could hear their music playing with Kyo's vocals. And not only did I hear their music; I also felt it, in my head, in my chest, in my stomach and hips, and even through the thick soles of my boots. It was an amazing explosion of sound that vibrated and reverberated throughout my entire body for almost two hours. During that time I felt so happy and at peace with everything that it seemed almost as if the past ten years I spent listening to them were all leading me up to this one experience in which I would be able to stand in the same room as these five wonderful, talented, and beautiful individuals. And then during their encore, I think Toshiya pointed at me, and that made everything even more amazing.
I regret not taking more pictures and not getting any decent pictures of Die or Shinya, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the concert nearly as much if I had spent the entire time photographing it.
As far as the actual songs went, they played both new and old, and I didn't recognize all of the songs because I still haven't gotten the new album yet (I know, I'm a bad fan). After a while they started to blur together a bit because I was standing right next to the speaker and probably willingly suffering some permanent hearing loss. I particularly enjoyed "Rotting Root" and then "Dozing Green" in the middle of the setlist, and when they came back for the encore they started with "Kodou," which was just awesome because it was one of my favorite songs from Withering to Death. Here is the complete setlist.
In other news, I'm almost finished with my classes for the semester, and hopefully the concert will serve as a good source of inspiration for some of my future designs. Both Dir en grey and The Birthday Massacre were really well-dressed for the event and I particularly enjoyed the drippy ink-like prints on some of the t-shirts worn by the members of The Birthday Massacre and Toshiya's man-skirt. Shinya was also wearing a very nice white shirt, but unfortunately I didn't get any good photos of him during the concert.
Labels: concert, dir en grey
