это отчет о концерте в Балтиморе моей знакомой Jammie
отчет7:30AM. I blink my eyes open and take into account that I am laying on my stomach, my head buried in my pillow, and my view is marred by the sight of my bicep blocking half my face. I sigh irritably because, well, it’s 7:30AM. I’m home-schooled, damn it! I shouldn’t be up this early! This is inhumane! I grumble and roll onto my back, staring at the ceiling and noticing I left the TV on when I went to sleep at 1:20AM this morning. And then I realize why the hell I’m awake.
Beside me, Stella is rousing from her slumber as well, her blond hair straight and neat as it had been when she dozed off the night before. And then she smiles.
Today is February 5, 2007. Tonight we are going to see Dir en grey. Live, here in Baltimore, Maryland at Ram’s Head Live. I can’t believe it’s actually happening.
While we continue to lie in bed, smiles straining both our mouths, we begin to talk.
“I can’t believe it’s actually tonight!” Stella squeaks excitedly, rolling onto her back as I sit up, resting on my knees.
“Stella, it’s going to be so amazing. I can’t believe it either! The lights are going to go down…it’s going to get quiet…and then you’re going to hear it. The first beat of “G.D.S.” It’s going to start off slow, and as it progresses, the music and fans will start screaming “Kyo! Kyo! Kyo!” And then one by one they’ll walk on; Shinya, Die, Toshiya, Kaoru, Kyo. The lights will flash on as Shinya starts pounding to “G.D.S” at that drum set, and Kyo will grab his microphone and scream “Foocha!” I’m going to die.” We continued to talk about the night ahead as I turned “G.D.S” on, and not too long after, my sister woke up.
The morning flows by so fast…we make waffles for breakfast (after a night of quoting Donkey from Shrek), and all three of us manage to take showers, dress, do our hair and makeup, and make it out the door by 12:20 that afternoon. Of course, everything that morning is completed in a rush as we have six dogs to take out, and we have one case of a missing cell phone.
Nonetheless, we make it to Jess’s house by 1:00, and we’re so excited when she returns from college with Pizza. Even though I want more than anything to leave for the concert right now, we settle for watching one episode of “Law & Order SVU.”
The car ride downtown is amusing, as always when Mr. Roger (or Mr. Rogers, as we like to call him) is driving. As we near the venue, we can feel butterflies forming in our stomachs, and Stella isn’t able to hold in a squeak which causes all of us to laugh. Mr. Roger pulls the car up to the curb and lets us out. We scurry up the sidewalk and enter Ram’s Head, smiling at all the fans lining the walls waiting for the concert.
I’m on the phone with Kei, my friend from Virginia, and before I know it, we’re hugging and trembling with excitement. We’re at least 25 people behind the first door. Kei, and her best friend Nikki, have been here since 7:00AM. It’s now relatively 4:00 and fans have been selected to keep other fans in line because Ram’s Head has a lack of staff. These selected fans are mean and irritating, and it’s not fair to the fans that are waiting to have to deal with their controlling and rude personalities.
But after all is said and done with, the lines are in order and things are starting to progress. I get a call from my mother telling me to go to the box office and ask for a security guard, which I do. 15 minutes later he’s talking to me, telling me that he has a place that he can give me to sit because of my foot. With the walking boot on, I can’t stand for long periods of time because all of my weight is pressing down on the heel of my foot. So I agree to go see it with him, and he takes me into the venue…and I think my heart stops.
Loud pounding and screeching guitars are filling my ears, and there, on the stage, from left to right…are Kaoru, Toshiya, Shinya, and Die. You know that feeling of utter insatiable excitement? When you know something is happening it’s almost unreal? You want to pinch yourself, or slap yourself because it’s just so unreal. But no…this was real. I was standing there…the only fan in the entire place…staring at four of the members of my favorite band. My mouth was slightly open, my eyes were wide, and my heart was pounding relentlessly. The security guard shows me wear I’d be sitting, and I sit on the stool he gives me. Looking up, I gasped.
Die. Andou Daisuke, 32-turning-33 years old, 5 feet 10 inches, soft auburn hair, dark eyes, beautiful lips, broad shoulders, tattooed hands, shiny red guitar. Oh, my god, Die is staring at me.
I offer him a soft smile as he watches me, and he continues to play that guitar, singing into the microphone. I will never be able to tell you what song they were playing.
When I look slightly to the left, I see the object of my fan-girl dreams slamming, pounding, and slaughtering his drum set. His shoulder-length brown/blond hair swaying with every move he makes, his glove-covered hands gripping two white drumsticks tightly as they collide with the tubs.
Shinya. Terachi Shinya, 28-turning-29 years old, 5 feet 9 inches, soft brown/blond hair, gorgeous eyes, full, plump lips, thin shoulders and long, muscular arms, and a drum set surrounding him in his own little world. Heavens, he’s the most beautiful drummer I’ve ever seen. And I’m thankful I was able to meet him back on September 17, 2006.
Next is Toshiya; 29-turning-3—oops, 30. He’s the cutie-pie of the band, the sexy bassist who wears his guitar low just to spite us. Tall, almost six feet, with shoulder-length scrunched dusty brown hair, a goofy-crooked tooth grin and pants so tight just looking at them is enough to cause one to suffocate.
Beside Toshiya is Kaoru; 32-turning-33, all 5 feet 6 inches of nothing by A-type Leader-sama attitude and astounding guitar skills. Wearing a tan plaid jacket—what a dork—and tight black pants, his long black/brown hair sways and swings with every move he makes, and I cannot wait to watch him head bang.
The only thing missing from this masterpiece is their darling singer, Kyo. 30-turning-31, an entire 5 feet 3 inches of hard, lean abs and tight arms painted in tattoos and superficial scars from years of fan-based bloodshed, dark, unreadable eyes and lips dripping words of sorrow and pain with every verse he sings and screams.
Before I know it, I have to leave. But I’ll never forget the 5 minutes I was able to watch Dir en grey practice as the only fan in the room.
Upon returning to the line and filling my friends in on all the details, we sit and wait some more. A while passes and coat check is opened at 6:00PM. As I sit on the floor, tired and sore because I’ve been up so long and of the boot on my foot, the girl working the box office notices me and asks why the guard hasn’t taken me back yet. She goes off to find him, and a while later, nothing happens. So, wanting to know what’s going on, I proceed to ask the box office again. When the security guard returns, he tells me to “sit by the wall, I’ll come get you when it’s time, and stop bothering the box office.” Bothering the box office?! I asked them a question because she told me she’d go get him, and he didn’t come back! Jerk.
Anyway, while sitting on the floor by my sister, Elise’s friend Jillian comes running up to us. Just a while ago a woman had been handing out (for $15.00 each) preorder slips, and if you have one with a stamp on the back, you get to meet Dir en grey. Of course none of the girls in my group won, but Jillian did. And she went on to meet Dir en grey after the show. She told us that she met everyone but Kyo, who had been there for about a minute before he left because he was so exhausted. You can’t blame the poor thing. And as jealous as we are of Jillian, I’m utterly ecstatic for her. Her first concert, her favorite band from Japan in little Maryland, and she gets to meet them. I can’t tell you how happy I am for her.
6:30PM arrives quickly, and Elise and I are allowed into the room. With the guard’s permission, we take another stool and scurry over to the place he has reserved for us. Sitting down, our friends soon join us.
The concert begins at 7:00PM with a band called Bleed the Dream. They’re okay, but definitely not my thing. I don’t like American guys wearing eyeliner. No male can do it like Die, that’s for sure. The next band that plays is Fair to Midland, and a singer with two random bald spots who attempts to convulse like Kyo (which is impossible) proves not to be on my like-list.
And then we hear it…
“Get ready for Dir en grey!”
And the lights lower to a blue hue. On the screens we see;
“TOUR 2007
INWARD SCREAM”
And everyone goes wild.
Before we know it, the roadies are onstage tuning guitars for a final time, and then Kyo’s red, metal crate, which he stands on and uses to rest his leg on, is brought out. Later, we laugh at how both opening acts together didn’t receive as much applause and screams put together as Kyo’s crate did.
And then it starts to play. “G.D.S” starts to echo through the room, and fists are raised into the air. With every chant of Kyo’s name from the speakers, the fans scream right along, thrusting their hands above their heads and bouncing when the music returns to just a beat. And then the chorus begins again, and fists are up.
Screams so loud ears start ringing, applause and excitement fill the room as Shinya, who wore a tight tank top with silver wings painted on the front, steps onstage. Close behind, Die walks on wearing a red ACDC shirt, throwing his hand into the air and egging the fans on. Toshiya, in a black long-sleeved shirt with wings on the back, is right behind him. Kaoru, wearing a tight black shirt, stalks to the edge of the stage once his guitar is situated upon his hips and thrusts his arms into the air, nodding and smiling right alongside Toshiya and Die. And then on he walks; the little singer with such a powerful unspoken message. Lights are flying everywhere, fans are screaming, and Kyo, wearing a sports jacket with only one button buttoned, grabs his microphone. He thrashes once, screaming “Foocha!” and Dir en grey blows into their first song.
Their second song is “Mr. Newsman,” and then “The Final.” When “The Final” begins playing, the audience’s reaction is astounding. With every word flowing from Kyo’s lips, the fans are right along, word for word. And then he lowers the microphone, his eyes scanning the crowd as he sings the lyrics, a smile upon his lips with dancing, emotional eyes, as their American fans from a small state out of so many sing every single verse right back at him in Japanese. By now, Kyo is shirtless.
One after the other, the songs continue to play. During “Saku”, the promotional video (PV) is playing on the screen, and the same for “Agitated Screams of Maggots.” When Dir en grey starts to play “Kasumi,” the fans are ecstatic yet again, and the light show is that of green and blue hues and lasers, illuminating the band in a water-like effect as the PV does.
The concert continues, and Kyo moves around stage singing his heart out, screaming when the song calls for it. During “Kodoku Ni Shisu, yue ni Kodoku,” Kyo jumps up onto his box, screaming the verses to the song. With every yell he releases, the fans reply it, loving Kyo’s antics. While on his crate, he drapes the microphone cord over his shoulders, the rounded metal end hanging by his ribcage. Arms in the air, he moves slowly, his hips swaying ever so slightly before he opens his mouth and slides his fingers inside, his nails digging into his inner cheeks and tearing the soft skin there. Blood seeps from his lips, dripping onto his chest before he smears it over his cheeks and grabs the microphone, screaming the next verses. His stage presence is enough to shock anyone, and the air Kyo has is incredibly intimidating. How can such a small body contain such a powerful spirit?
When “Obscure” starts to play, a song loved as one of Dir en grey’s best, Kyo moves in doll-like ways, his shoulders rolling and head turning as if he were a puppet on marionette strings—just as he had done in 2004 while singing “Obscure” in the “The Code of Vulgar[ISM] tour.”
Other songs are played such as “Spilled Milk,” “Grief,” “Ryoujoku No Ame,” “Dead Tree,” (to which Kyo wiggles and sends each and every girl screaming yet again), “Clever Sleazoid,” and Kyo, by himself, as the others take a minute to drink and recompose themselves, sings bits of “Conceived Sorrow.”
There are parts of the concert I’ll never forget. For instance, in the beginning, Kyo was having trouble with the microphone and had to talk to a roadie to get it to work. At another point, Kyo began convulsing and thrashing around stage, falling onto his back. I’ll never forget the way he rolled, his feet flying over his head. Elise tells me that as Kyo went down; he bumped into Die and knocked him down as well. Die continued to play from his seated position. Toshiya, during another song, tossed his guitar pick over his shoulder and proceeded to play with just his fingers. Kaoru and Die switched sides of the stage, and they yelled things at the crowd, smiling and crooking their arms toward themselves, mouthing “Come on!” and “Yeah!” When Die returned to his side of the stage, Toshiya turned to him, and they both bent their knees, playing face to face at a close proximity. You can imagine the amount of screams that received. Later on after the show, Jess told me that her father in curiosity had peeked through a window into their tour bus and saw a big box just full of white shoes. Upon hearing this, Jess and I burst into a fit of hysterics knowing that those white shoes were, in fact, Kyo’s trademark white and black creepers. One of my favorite memories, one I have material proof of, was when I purchased, along with the two shirts and the dog-tag with “Dir en grey” carved into its black metal, was when I bought the poster. With a one in every four chance of buying an autographed poster by one of the band members, I was lucky enough to buy a poster signed by Shinya—my favorite band member.
It was depressing when they walked off…but nonetheless, they were absolutely astounding. Words cannot begin to tell you how amazing such a band is, and not only was Dir en grey here for their own tour this month…but they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary as a band. 10 years old. Five men from five different parts of Japan came together in February of 1997 and formed Dir en grey. And those same five men were there on Monday, February 5, 2007, and will be the same five men in years to come as Dir en grey continues to grow, progressing musically and emotionally. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band as connected as Dir en grey is.
Dir en grey will forever be my favorite band, and I’m waiting now for the day I hear they’re returning to an area near me, so I may see them once again.
Written by: kismekilmeluvme
честно...я ей завидую...по хорошему завидую...
рада за нее, что она уже не первый раз ездила на концерт...и продолжает любить Диров...
рада за нее, что она уже не первый раз ездила на концерт...и продолжает любить Диров...