Paris!!
Went away to Paris this weekend for some romance (ahem).. and it just so happened that Dir en grey were doing a gig on the Sunday! What a coincidence!
So, I shall attempt to do a small review of the day's events considering that my memory is shit.
Scott and I decide to take a stroll down the road to the venue - Olympia Hall - to check out where it is etc. I haven't picked up our tickets at this point and am getting jittery at the thought of not knowing what I was doing. Anyways, we find the place and there's already a que! It's 11 in the morning and the gig's not til 7pm.. There's lots of cheering and shouting so obviously I have kittens thinking that something's going on which is diru related. Nope - just some of the crew taking photos. There's a sign on the door in kanji and I have no idea what it says.
So we decide not to que up as it's waaay to early and retire to the hotel. I am fretting about the tickets so ask the receptionist at the hotel (in my bestest french!!) to ring up the box office and ask for me. She does and the response is to arrive after half five and you can pick the tickets up on the door. Good, I'm happy now. Spend rest of day on edge looking around sights of Paris. We go back to the hotel room to chill - Scott has a kip and I have a beer and listen to music (Vulgar and Withering to Death on my MP3 player). I watch some of the Tour de France on the telly.
I decide to get ready to go out - start doing my makeup and hair. Jeans, kyo T-shirt & 3 belts.. Big spikey hair back combed to death.
So I also put on my jacket so as to not scare the Parisiennes and the tourists.. We wander down to the hall again, there are more and more diru fans the closer we get and the que is now HUGE!! We join it and wait. We're near a group of German girls (read fangirls) their "leader" has a Cage style jacket and a Batsu tie on... hmmm that's not fair - I like those ties. They are loud and leary to say the least. Can't hear any English voices nearby so just stand and chat together.
There's this guy (crew I think) with a video camera and he videos my ass for a bit - WOOT!! My bum might be seen by DIRU!!! Aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh.... *ahem* There's two really good cosplayers as Kyo and Shinya who I point out to Scott - I didn't get any pics but they were good.
So the que gets moving and in we go, I pick the tickets up a the box office and we go to our seats. We're right at the back, high up in the middle. Perfect view of the whole stage. Good.
So, there's no mention of a support band and when the lights go out the place just explodes.. people come onto the stage in the dark.. but it's NOT them!! It's a support band, don't have a clue who they were but they were quite good. By this time the German fangirls (who happen to be sitting infront of us and to the left) are practically foaming at the mouth.. The Mad Stalin sign is out.
So the lights go out again and we are greeted with... (if you were there, please forgive me if I get any of the songs wrong/order wrong/anything factually wrong...)
The intro to.....Merciless Cult.. heavy as hell and twice as hot.
Shinya - white shirt (don't see his bottom half as they come on stage in the dark)
Die - hoodie (he's the waru now!!)
Toshiya - something black and his hair is blonde and long!!
Kaoru - black jacket over a white shirt
Kyo - Tight tight tight jeans (could be black), sleeveless black shirt unbuttoned, he's wearing a belt with lots of metal rings on the back. His hair is blonde again too and is quite short (for him)
Merciless Cult leads into C. I sing along for all I'm worth in the chorus - the crowd is going MENTAL and the pit is on fire. Kyo's voice is good - he's loving it as much as we are. Then on to...
SAKU!!! AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! My head will fall off if I'm not careful. Scott tells me to calm down. By this time I have to take my T shirt off as I'm soaked through with sweat (it's oK folks - I wore a black bikini top underneath!!) I sing along like a total bastard and shout my lungs out with the rest of the hall. I'm bouncing all over the shop and nearly bounce out of my bikini so I have to restrain my boobage a bit!!! Kyo is going nuts at this point. Cue - a pause. The lights go down and Kyo falls in a heap infront of Shinya's drum riser. He's lying on his back for most of the pause. Stupid fangirls shout and holler all through the pause.. you know... eine zwei drei... SHIIIIIIIIINYAAAAAAAAAAAA.....
We know it's time to start again as Toshiya's bass is white and is clearly visible from back here that's the others are ready. Kyo gets up and off we go with..
Jesus Christ RnR. Love this song. Kyo does a bit of grinding of the old hip-erooos. Nice. Sing along like a twat again, grabbing my hub's arm in excitement. He now thinks I'm a total loon. I love the bass line of this song and it sounds awesome live. The baww-waa-waa bit is just too cool and the whole fuckin' room sings together with Kyo. If I remember right, he starts hitting himself on the chest with the mic at the end of this song but I'm not sure..
On to - Machiavellism.. ooooo lordy - Kaoru's guitar is MEAN. Really good. Kyo's up on the Mad Stalin bit for lot's of this song. I'm singing like a crazy girl again to the Wrist Cut Show bits.. I think it's around this song that Kyo scratches his mouth and spits a ton of blood all over his chest..
Hot sweaty bloody Kyo..... ....... (insert favourite adjective here!)...
Garbage is next - once again heavy as hell. Great song live - especially the growly bits.
They then play The Final which is possibly one of my favourite songs. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it now!! It's excellent, really moving and gentle (if that's possible considering what it's about). I, again, (you get the picture by now) am singing along like a nutter and bouncing around in the heavy bridge parts. Kyo is losing it by the end and throws his mic down and collapses.
There's another pause -
Then it's Kodoku ni shisu....(I think) Kyo was dancing quite a bit to this one - which is always nice to look at! Then it's time for Dead Tree (another of my favourite songs) Well, Kyo got his groove on for the intro at the start of this one..I'm glad it was dark in that hall - I'm a married laayyydeeeeeeee! Let's just say it was a good 5 minutes or so.
Another pause - Then they played a couple of slow songs - I think it was Itoshisa ha.. something or other (not going to look it up at the moment) and higeki wa me futa wo oroshita. Tears fell down my face - Kyo is amazing - he was close (if not actually) crying at the end. He did a solo bit at the end some of it without the mic which was cool - very moving - stupid fangirls were shhhshing everyone which was good of them!
Another pause - a bit longer this time. Back with Audience Killer Loop. This just about rocked my socks off - so so very very good. Then IIID empire - sang like a nob again during the chorus - my voice is knackered by now - how does Kyo do it????
I think there was another pause round about here or something. Beautiful dirt was cool - they showed pictures of WW2 on the video screen - lot's of Hiroshima etc.. OH! forgot to mention that - they had a big video screen going on behind them. I remember now it had Dir en grey come up on it in the middle of Merciless Cult at the start!!
Pause was here because they came back with Mr Newsman - the guys move round alot more from this point - Kaoru and Die flipping off the crowd and Toshiya comes to the front quite a bit, then Spilled Milk then Kodou I think... all VERY good - by this point I'm floating on a cloud somewhere and lost the plot slightly hence the vagueness!! Shokubeni is in there somewhere too.. the intro riff and the ensuing heaviness is awesome. The chorus comes and I sing like a nob again - oooo!! It was this song wich Kyo did the solo bit at the end! I'm sure it was - never mind.
I dooooooo remember that there was an extra long pause (20 minutes or so) before they're back! They've got changed (well, everyone is wearing less except Kyo who's got a Mad Stalin green text on black T shirt on - he's got the sleeves rolled up and they keep falling down).. No no! I'm wrong - he must have changed into that earlier because he's got a long sleeved shirt on now - they play Obscure and he takes it half off and wraps it around his face. Obscure fucking rocks. I love that song and it is so fucking cool. Fuck off Santa - it's Christmas already!!!
Onto Increase Blue - sooo fast and good - guess what... I sing like a wanker again getting very excited and flailing around quite a bit.
Then the cries of "last song last song" and it's Child Prey. My second favourite Diru song EVER. It is awsome. Kyo is a psycho and throws himself all over the stage, he's on the Mad Stalin and off it again.. he's everywhere... The WHOLE room sings the wooooooooooaaaaahhhhhhhhhh wooooooaaaaahhhhhhh bits - Kaoru Die and Toshiya are all at the front of the stage - they don't need to sing!!! WE're doing it for them!!
Unfortunately the end comes. Die and Kao throw handfuls of plectrums into the crowd. Die throws one water bottle right up onto the balcony with such force that it nearly takes a fangirl's head off (I see this from my high up vantage point). They throw lot's of water bottles into the crowd and Kyo fills a bucket with water and stands in the middle of the stage and drenches himself with it. You can almost see the steam coming off him! He leaves the stage. The lights come up. We exit.
I buy a Withers & Withers T shirt and a bag.
The end. It was sooooo good. Here's my rubbish piccies.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0340.jpg
Me at Disneyland!! What are they all looking at????? Never seen someone in black?
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0363.jpg
Before the gig
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0366.jpg
In the Q
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0374.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0373.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0371.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0368.jpg
VERY shaky photos - sorry! - my word they're rubbish!! I was bouncing alot though..
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0375.jpg
Me after
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0376.jpg
Slight fangirl moment when I found a road called Place de Kyoto. Note insane smile and concert goodies (bag & T shirt) Ahem.
EDIT - I'm moving this to the top as it makes me fucking laugh to read it again!! Fucking nerd that I am.
So, I shall attempt to do a small review of the day's events considering that my memory is shit.
Scott and I decide to take a stroll down the road to the venue - Olympia Hall - to check out where it is etc. I haven't picked up our tickets at this point and am getting jittery at the thought of not knowing what I was doing. Anyways, we find the place and there's already a que! It's 11 in the morning and the gig's not til 7pm.. There's lots of cheering and shouting so obviously I have kittens thinking that something's going on which is diru related. Nope - just some of the crew taking photos. There's a sign on the door in kanji and I have no idea what it says.
So we decide not to que up as it's waaay to early and retire to the hotel. I am fretting about the tickets so ask the receptionist at the hotel (in my bestest french!!) to ring up the box office and ask for me. She does and the response is to arrive after half five and you can pick the tickets up on the door. Good, I'm happy now. Spend rest of day on edge looking around sights of Paris. We go back to the hotel room to chill - Scott has a kip and I have a beer and listen to music (Vulgar and Withering to Death on my MP3 player). I watch some of the Tour de France on the telly.
I decide to get ready to go out - start doing my makeup and hair. Jeans, kyo T-shirt & 3 belts.. Big spikey hair back combed to death.
So I also put on my jacket so as to not scare the Parisiennes and the tourists.. We wander down to the hall again, there are more and more diru fans the closer we get and the que is now HUGE!! We join it and wait. We're near a group of German girls (read fangirls) their "leader" has a Cage style jacket and a Batsu tie on... hmmm that's not fair - I like those ties. They are loud and leary to say the least. Can't hear any English voices nearby so just stand and chat together.
There's this guy (crew I think) with a video camera and he videos my ass for a bit - WOOT!! My bum might be seen by DIRU!!! Aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh.... *ahem* There's two really good cosplayers as Kyo and Shinya who I point out to Scott - I didn't get any pics but they were good.
So the que gets moving and in we go, I pick the tickets up a the box office and we go to our seats. We're right at the back, high up in the middle. Perfect view of the whole stage. Good.
So, there's no mention of a support band and when the lights go out the place just explodes.. people come onto the stage in the dark.. but it's NOT them!! It's a support band, don't have a clue who they were but they were quite good. By this time the German fangirls (who happen to be sitting infront of us and to the left) are practically foaming at the mouth.. The Mad Stalin sign is out.
So the lights go out again and we are greeted with... (if you were there, please forgive me if I get any of the songs wrong/order wrong/anything factually wrong...)
The intro to.....Merciless Cult.. heavy as hell and twice as hot.
Shinya - white shirt (don't see his bottom half as they come on stage in the dark)
Die - hoodie (he's the waru now!!)
Toshiya - something black and his hair is blonde and long!!
Kaoru - black jacket over a white shirt
Kyo - Tight tight tight jeans (could be black), sleeveless black shirt unbuttoned, he's wearing a belt with lots of metal rings on the back. His hair is blonde again too and is quite short (for him)
Merciless Cult leads into C. I sing along for all I'm worth in the chorus - the crowd is going MENTAL and the pit is on fire. Kyo's voice is good - he's loving it as much as we are. Then on to...
SAKU!!! AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! My head will fall off if I'm not careful. Scott tells me to calm down. By this time I have to take my T shirt off as I'm soaked through with sweat (it's oK folks - I wore a black bikini top underneath!!) I sing along like a total bastard and shout my lungs out with the rest of the hall. I'm bouncing all over the shop and nearly bounce out of my bikini so I have to restrain my boobage a bit!!! Kyo is going nuts at this point. Cue - a pause. The lights go down and Kyo falls in a heap infront of Shinya's drum riser. He's lying on his back for most of the pause. Stupid fangirls shout and holler all through the pause.. you know... eine zwei drei... SHIIIIIIIIINYAAAAAAAAAAAA.....
We know it's time to start again as Toshiya's bass is white and is clearly visible from back here that's the others are ready. Kyo gets up and off we go with..
Jesus Christ RnR. Love this song. Kyo does a bit of grinding of the old hip-erooos. Nice. Sing along like a twat again, grabbing my hub's arm in excitement. He now thinks I'm a total loon. I love the bass line of this song and it sounds awesome live. The baww-waa-waa bit is just too cool and the whole fuckin' room sings together with Kyo. If I remember right, he starts hitting himself on the chest with the mic at the end of this song but I'm not sure..
On to - Machiavellism.. ooooo lordy - Kaoru's guitar is MEAN. Really good. Kyo's up on the Mad Stalin bit for lot's of this song. I'm singing like a crazy girl again to the Wrist Cut Show bits.. I think it's around this song that Kyo scratches his mouth and spits a ton of blood all over his chest..
Hot sweaty bloody Kyo..... ....... (insert favourite adjective here!)...
Garbage is next - once again heavy as hell. Great song live - especially the growly bits.
They then play The Final which is possibly one of my favourite songs. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it now!! It's excellent, really moving and gentle (if that's possible considering what it's about). I, again, (you get the picture by now) am singing along like a nutter and bouncing around in the heavy bridge parts. Kyo is losing it by the end and throws his mic down and collapses.
There's another pause -
Then it's Kodoku ni shisu....(I think) Kyo was dancing quite a bit to this one - which is always nice to look at! Then it's time for Dead Tree (another of my favourite songs) Well, Kyo got his groove on for the intro at the start of this one..I'm glad it was dark in that hall - I'm a married laayyydeeeeeeee! Let's just say it was a good 5 minutes or so.
Another pause - Then they played a couple of slow songs - I think it was Itoshisa ha.. something or other (not going to look it up at the moment) and higeki wa me futa wo oroshita. Tears fell down my face - Kyo is amazing - he was close (if not actually) crying at the end. He did a solo bit at the end some of it without the mic which was cool - very moving - stupid fangirls were shhhshing everyone which was good of them!
Another pause - a bit longer this time. Back with Audience Killer Loop. This just about rocked my socks off - so so very very good. Then IIID empire - sang like a nob again during the chorus - my voice is knackered by now - how does Kyo do it????
I think there was another pause round about here or something. Beautiful dirt was cool - they showed pictures of WW2 on the video screen - lot's of Hiroshima etc.. OH! forgot to mention that - they had a big video screen going on behind them. I remember now it had Dir en grey come up on it in the middle of Merciless Cult at the start!!
Pause was here because they came back with Mr Newsman - the guys move round alot more from this point - Kaoru and Die flipping off the crowd and Toshiya comes to the front quite a bit, then Spilled Milk then Kodou I think... all VERY good - by this point I'm floating on a cloud somewhere and lost the plot slightly hence the vagueness!! Shokubeni is in there somewhere too.. the intro riff and the ensuing heaviness is awesome. The chorus comes and I sing like a nob again - oooo!! It was this song wich Kyo did the solo bit at the end! I'm sure it was - never mind.
I dooooooo remember that there was an extra long pause (20 minutes or so) before they're back! They've got changed (well, everyone is wearing less except Kyo who's got a Mad Stalin green text on black T shirt on - he's got the sleeves rolled up and they keep falling down).. No no! I'm wrong - he must have changed into that earlier because he's got a long sleeved shirt on now - they play Obscure and he takes it half off and wraps it around his face. Obscure fucking rocks. I love that song and it is so fucking cool. Fuck off Santa - it's Christmas already!!!
Onto Increase Blue - sooo fast and good - guess what... I sing like a wanker again getting very excited and flailing around quite a bit.
Then the cries of "last song last song" and it's Child Prey. My second favourite Diru song EVER. It is awsome. Kyo is a psycho and throws himself all over the stage, he's on the Mad Stalin and off it again.. he's everywhere... The WHOLE room sings the wooooooooooaaaaahhhhhhhhhh wooooooaaaaahhhhhhh bits - Kaoru Die and Toshiya are all at the front of the stage - they don't need to sing!!! WE're doing it for them!!
Unfortunately the end comes. Die and Kao throw handfuls of plectrums into the crowd. Die throws one water bottle right up onto the balcony with such force that it nearly takes a fangirl's head off (I see this from my high up vantage point). They throw lot's of water bottles into the crowd and Kyo fills a bucket with water and stands in the middle of the stage and drenches himself with it. You can almost see the steam coming off him! He leaves the stage. The lights come up. We exit.
I buy a Withers & Withers T shirt and a bag.
The end. It was sooooo good. Here's my rubbish piccies.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0340.jpg
Me at Disneyland!! What are they all looking at????? Never seen someone in black?
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0363.jpg
Before the gig
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0366.jpg
In the Q
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0374.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0373.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0371.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0368.jpg
VERY shaky photos - sorry! - my word they're rubbish!! I was bouncing alot though..
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0375.jpg
Me after
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/tightlacegirl/DSCF0376.jpg
Slight fangirl moment when I found a road called Place de Kyoto. Note insane smile and concert goodies (bag & T shirt) Ahem.
EDIT - I'm moving this to the top as it makes me fucking laugh to read it again!! Fucking nerd that I am.