Dir en Grey Live Report - Night 1

Date: November 20, 2009
Location: House of Blues of Sunset Strip, Hollywood, California
Concert: Dir en Grey, Night 1

Dir en Grey returns to Los Angeles for their fourth tour in North America. However, instead of taking place in the usual The Wiltern venue, they arrived to the House of Blues at the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Although the House of Blues seems to be a smaller venue compared to The Wiltern, the explosive atmophere remains the same. This year, Dir en Grey tours North America for the fans instead of the usual promotion of a new album or single, which is a great change of pace, but what would we expect?

Last year, at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, Dir en Grey played during Thanksgiving weekend (November 29, 2008) and fans of Dir en Grey lined up immediately, regardless of the holiday weekend, some as early as the day before Thanksgiving! Even though the current show is at a new venue this year, the aspect of arriving early holds true. I am quite amazed that there are still so many loyal fans that continue to show up so early to be at the front of the line, just to be as close as possible to the band members.

The doors opened at 8:00 p.m. followed by Dir en Grey’s performance at 9:30 p.m, giving time for the fans to purchace their merchandise, which were the usual CDs, DVDs, hoodies, T-shirts, wristbands, etc. This time around, a purchace of a CD or DVD would get you to the autograph signing, but it seemed to be only three out members of the whole band for Friday night’s show. If you wanted to get an autograph and meet the whole band, you would have needed to show up for Sunday's concert.

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Anticipation continued to build as time seemed to tick away slowly, counting up to the start of the show. Whenever Dir en Grey showed up on the projection screen above the stage, fans would scream wildly, cheering and chanting “Dir en Grey!” 10 minutes before the band was to come on stage, sound checks were made and the fan’s reception continued to grow! It was like being in a room with a time bomb; you know when it is going to go off, but you still linger to see the explosion The atmophere felt from the previous Dir en Grey shows was multiplied by just mere minutes before the show. By 9:30 p.m, the curtains fell and following Dir en Grey finally took the stage, immediately flowing into their first song of the night, Vinushka. As if on cue, the fans exploded in excitement.

Their first move was a great selection to start off with. Very little had changed with Kyo's voice after the edema larynx problem last summer and was still as lively as ever. Fans whipped out their cameras and video recorders, capturing the event as it unfolded. The next song was Gaika Chinmoku ga Nemuru Koro and Kyo continued to be very captivating on his vocals; fans within the mosh pit stayed in sync with Kyo’s movement and the music, flowing as if it was planned ahead with everyone on the floor. They continued on during the next song, keeping in rhythm with Repetition of Hatred, when Toshiya, also joined in the vocal action with the assistance of Die. Fans within the mosh pit were headbanging their hearts out, yelling and fist puching the air until the song finished, then there was a very short break for the band to change out their instruments. The break lasted about five minutes, but the little breather was hugely welcomed from the strong warm-up.

During the next song, Disabled Complexes, Die decided to strip off his top shirt, leaving him in only in his tank top. Kyo danced during the intro of the song, moving his body like an exotic dancer. After which, the lights suddenly went down and only a single spot light was left on Kyo. He started growling, mumbling incoherent words, and unmasking his range of vocal talent as his harmonies went up and down radically. His so called “schitzo” side was revealed through this powerful accapella solo. Fans reacted with great respect, simply watching his movements and cheering him.

From then on, it was non-stop music. Drums from Shinya were on par with the fantastic riff by Kaoru during Glass Skin. They slowed it down yet again for Dozing Green, and then kick it back up with Greif, which was by far the longest song (other than Vinushka of course) that Dir en grey played that night. Reiketsu Nariseba was the last song played before hitting the intermission. By 10:41 p.m. intermission, the fans wanted more. You would think that after all that headbanding that they would of had sore necks and wanted to relax for a bit, but that was not the case.

Dir en Grey came back to the stage with The Final and it certainly was a blast. It seems that almost everyone within the House of Blues joined in singing along with Kyo, grooving with Totchi’s bass, glaring riffs by Die and Kaoru and the wonderful poundings of Shinya on the drums. It was a magical sight! After all that, this certainly was not “The Final” song. Amber kicked it back up with its vulgar rage and vibrant riffs. It was an awesome transition! Kyo decided to have fun by spitting water at the fans as the melodic verses of Amber continued on. Eventually, it was time for the last song. The last song was Saku.

Really, the band together brought their best game and pulled it off. A fanstastic ending to a fantastic night. I cannot imagin a better preformace than what they did that night. Checking on how much music they played, I was quite amazed that they were able to pull off 18 songs within what I felt like a short amount of time. Out of all the times I’ve watched Dir en Grey live, this by far ranks up to be one of the best. They played a whole range of songs, from the older to the most recent, and I was highly impressed and I cannot wait to see more of them on Sunday night.