[034] the best night of my life.

(photos from Hannah Thomas Photography, she got some amazing shots)

So on Tuesday the 3rd of August, a month after returning from America, I'd have an experience that'd warp me even more than that trip.

Mark and I got to London about 4pm and started queueing about half an hour later after some food. Or, the only food I could really keep down (gigs make me anxious). So burgers it is. The queue wasn't very interesting. I can usually chat away to people in Jrock-gig queues, but the girls behind us were Japanese (I wasn't sure whether they could speak English very well, or generally didn't like English people, or maybe they were those kind of elitist Japanese fans, or whatever, I didn't want to risk it haha) and the girls in front of us seemed fine in their own little world. I saw Kazmin for a brief time too, which was cool, as I haven't seen her for what must be a few years. Dir en grey always seem to reunite us.

After about two hours of queueing, we were finally allowed to come into the venue. I bought two t-shirts straight away, but I was strangely disappointed they didn't have more merchandise. I got out about £80 to spend on them but only ended up spending £40. Not that I should be complaining anyway, I can't really afford even to spend that forty. But I do stupid things for this band.

The gig was held at Koko Camden, which is an amazingly elaborate but decent-sized venue. It had the bottom floor which held the stage and a very large floor to hold, well, a lot of messy pits. Then there was a first floor balcony, with stairs leading up to the second balcony. There were also some private booth balconies, which all had amazing views of the stage. I was quite jealous of these people. We stood on the stairs between the two sets of balconies. I could see the stage so very clearly, much better than last time.  I was also next to some pretty friendly people which was nice, who all seemed pretty much as excited as I was. Mark took this opportunity to stock up on beer.

There was no support band, so we had to wait an hour while background music would gradually get louder, and small sound checks would take place. I prefer this to be honest, because support bands on the whole usually annoy me. I've seen like three decent ones in my time, and I prefer just having slight noise than annoying noise.

I rarely have fangirl moments. I've seen a hell of a lot of bands in my time (this makes me sound ancient, but it's true) and I never seem to have manic moments when I will just scream and scream and bounce like a little girl for a moment. Unless of course it's Dir en grey and I just seem to forget I'm surrounded by people and screech and screech when the lights go out.

They came on one at a time as always. They played that intro track from Uroboros in the background, and then they slammed right into Red Soil. The rest of the setlist, if you know Diru, was;

SE. SABIR
Red soil
Agitated screams of maggots
THE FATAL BELIEVER
Hageshisa to kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami
Stuck man
Gaika chinmoku ga nemuru koro
Inconvenient ideal

INWARD SCREAM

Dozing green
Rotting root
Shokubeni
OBSCURE

INWARD SCREAM

Bugaboo
Reiketsu nariseba
Vinushka

ENCORE:
The Final
Zan
RASETSUKOKU

I'm not a fan of Agitated or Inconvenient Ideal, but somehow I even managed to enjoy those songs. The set list looks long when I look at it like this, but I didn't want it to end. I'd have loved it to go on for another hour, even though by the time the encore came around I was sweating and sore already. And I wasn't even in the pits.

The crowd around me changed a few times. The stairs got crowded after a few songs, but I mostly had small girls like me around me so I didn't get pushed around alot until people wanted to go up and the down stairs. People wandering around during gigs piss me off. "Oh let's go get a drink", what, fuck drinks, let's watch this amazing band instead. Some of these people were exceptionally rude as well, literally pushing us out the way instead of just nudging us and asking us to move. Especially this large scene girls and a very, very large boy who insisted on rubbing his knee across my bum for an entire song before then asking me to move. I had two girls next to me for the first half who may have been from Sweden or some part of Europe because they chanted with a slight accent, but we got moved around a bit and I ended up next to these two scene girls. I didn't like them too much to begin with because they made Mark move a little away from me and weren't very active. But when that massive guy rammed past us all, they had to squash me right into the rails of the stairs, and they got concerned and asked me if I was okay which was very nice, so I liked them after that haha. I'm easily pleased. They got into it in the later parts of the gigs, though one of them seemed quite self conscious, and seemed to only dance or wave her arms or get into it if I was doing it at the same time. But I don't really blame her, as I'm usually that way if it was any other band. 

The highlights were Hageshisha because the sing along was so fun and everyone seemed to know it. Gaika because it's one of my favourites from Uroboros, as with Reiketsu. The best however was Vinushka, which is such a powerful song, and it being live made it so much more epic and intense, it was amazing. As was The Final. I was hoping for The Final so much, and when the intro played I could've exploded. It's one of my favourite ever Dir en grey songs and to hear it being performed with such an amazing atmosphere and the band putting so much effort into every little thing was one of the best moments I've ever experienced. Also let's not forget Vulgar classics Obscure and Shokubeni. Amazing songs, and they really suit Dir en grey's heavier style right now.

Kyo had a few voice solos ('inward screams') which were very cool, but western audiences don't keep as quiet as Japanese ones so you could hear a few people chatting at the same time which was pretty annoying. Each member seemed really enthusiastic, Kyo shouting 'Roonndaaannnn' at us all the time, Toshiya, Die and Kaoru beckoning us to jump harder or shout louder. At the end they threw us water, picks and drum sticks (Shinya got such a loud cheer when he got out behind his kit). Kyo clapped us and then was off, but the rest, especially Toshiya and Die stayed for a little while to thank us some more with claps and bows, and threw more liquids and picks.

An hour and a half set later we were out, sweating like crazy but I was high as a kite haha. We still had an hour until my dad would pick us up, so Kazmin found me and we talked about our experiences, then Mark and I sat in a pub until he arrived. There were fans waiting outside the stage door waiting for Diru to come out, but I thought they'd be hours still so I never think of waiting. When we were literally getting into the car however, we heard massive screams coming from the venue. Damnit, missed them !

There's no use of me writing a critical review of the gig because to me, Dir en grey can do no wrong. I loved their latest album, and their performances seemed so much better to me than last time I saw them (2007). I've been "umm"ing and "err"ing about whether to get a Dir en grey tattoo for the past four or five years, but that night confirmed it for me that it pretty much needs to happen.