Saturday, June 23, 2007

   I totally lost my concert virginity to Dir en grey
Post time: 11:44a.m. CT
Music: "The Deeper Vileness" by Dir en grey from a handy playlist made of the DIRU songs from the concert =D

This post will get extremely long (approx. 7 paragraphs, plus a few pictures)! I get into lots of detail and have random fangirlie moments. This post is pretty much my little experience at my very first concert ever, so I was more than excited when I got to go. Just a forewarning to those who don’t have a lot of time! Oh! I forgot to mention that that survey thing was for MySpace, so that should explain the “Who’s in your top 8" question. ^^;

Okay, in my last post, Yumi had just gotten over to my house. We hung out for a bit while my dad slept (he had to work late the night before and didn’t get home until around seven in the morning because things didn’t go so great with inventory). My dad got up and we (my little brother, Devon, was coming to Omaha with us) gathered our things up and put them in the trunk and left for Omaha. On the way, we watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on Yumi’s portable DVD player. It was funny, because the music on the radio (rock, thank you very much) went very well with certain scenes. Like when everyone is fighting Bahamut-Sin, Linkin Park’s new song, “What I’ve Done” came on and went PERFECTLY. We got to my aunt’s house before she got home from work, but luckily she had told us where the key to the house was hidden. We brought our things inside and dad left. Not long after, my Aunt Cindy and my little cousins got there. Cindy put pizzas in the oven for supper and Yumi and I got ready. I changed into my concert gear and adjusted my hair (styled it sort of like Miku’s! ^o^) and put on my make-up. I ended up wearing my Dir en grey shirt from the Code to Vulgar[ism] tour I got at the Hot Topic in Michigan, and a comfortable pair of cargos with a strip of the same fabric tied at the waist for a belt, plus my ever so awesome penguin shoes. Yumi wore a pair of jeans and her zombie Dier en grey shirt, plus her octopi shoes. After that, we piled into the Ford Escape and she dropped us off at the venue. We got there around 6:30-ish, so we waited in line for a bit, and talked to the girls in front of us. A few people ahead of them moved, and I saw my MySpace buddy, Katie. She also saw me and motioned for us to go up there with her. So Yumi and I cheated and got to go ahead in line. Hey, we had planned to meet up anyway...

She was with her best friend and their boyfriend. They were all there for DIRU! ^^ We talked for a while, waiting for the doors to finally open. Might I add that is was freaking hot and humid, not to mention that the sun was shining directly on all of the line. Over half of the people (including us) were wearing dark clothes, so it definitely wasn’t fun waiting for so long. Finally, one of the security guys walked down the line with safety precautions. “If you are caught smoking in the building, it’s a $100 fine. Also, no guns, knives, razors, or weapons of mass destruction are allowed” A lot of people in line sarcastically said “Aw, man! I guess I gotta’ go home!” XD Then we had to split into a line for boys and one for girls so they could frisk us, just in case. We got inside, then gave the person at the door our tickets. The Sokol Auditorium (the venue for the concert of course) is one of the most awesome places to hold a concert...There’s a main floor area, plus two staircases on either side that lead to the balcony. There was also an area off to the side by the bar where the merchandise was sold. It was mostly standing-room only, except for some bleachers at the back of the balcony. We had to sit down at first, and we got a place more to the left side of the stage. They played some random beats and music while we waited for the show to start, so we talked some more. Yumi and I figured out that Katie and her friends were just like ours, so we all got a long well and quoted The Whitest Kids U Know (a really funny show on FUSE similar to Mad TV for those unfamiliar with it) a lot of the time. Finally, 8:00 rolled around and everyone was allowed to stand up for the show to start.

The first band to play was called Fall of Troy. I had heard they were pretty good from some of my friends at school. I think they said they were based out of Seattle...It consisted of three members, the drummer, guitarist/lead vocalist, and the bassist/backup vocalist. I kind of felt sorry for them because not very many people were really getting into them, or were unfamiliar with them, but Yumi and I thought they were pretty good and nodded our heads and clapped for them after each song. A few times the guitarist struck up a conversation with the crowd. First, he asked us how we could stand such heat and humidity. XD I’m guessing Seattle is a little cooler than Nebraska/Iowa! He then really got us going when he asked if we were excited about Dir en grey and Deftones coming up next. Right after he mentioned Dir en grey, the whole auditorium exploded with cheers and screams. As you can guess, a lot of people came for Dir en grey more-so than the other two bands. Deftones didn’t get much of a response, but that might be because those fans didn’t come until later on. Then somebody (Yumi and I sadly suspect it was a DIRU fan...) screamed out that they sucked between songs. We got really pissed off...Why the hell would you say something like that?! At least show some courtesy to the band for even showing up! I’m sure they didn’t come all the way here just to get told that they suck. *shakes head* Fall of Troy got done, then more people crowded in behind us in anticipation for Dir en grey.

Yumi and I were able to get a little closer to the stage, and ended up standing by a large, tall black man. O.o As soon as they uncovered Shinya’s drum-set, several screams and cheers were heard. The people beside/behind us were definitely impressed by it.

*SQUEE!* Shinya has the coolest and biggest drum set I’ve ever seen anybody play!
Hell, even when the roadies were just checking the instruments, cheers were shouted out! Holy crap...everyone’s guitars were so pretty! Kaoru’s was so shiny, as was Toshiya’s bass! And Die’s guitar...OMG, I die a little inside every time I see it, but there was a larger chunk that died when I actually got to see it in real life. The red paint had a really awesome metallic shimmer to it, plus it was shiny from being polished...and what’s more, it’s an ESP model! I love ESP guitars! *SQUEE*

Die and his freaking awesome guitar.
The backdrop had a little trouble unfurling...it started off well at the right end, but it slowly got all the way down, causing another shockwave of cheering. Someone tapped on my shoulder a little after that, and I turned to see an older woman (maybe mid to late 30's early 40's). She asked me if I was a fan of the band up next. I shook my head vigorously, then she asked me if they were really Japanese. XD I told her yes, and when she asked if they sang in Japanese, Yumi and I said that they did with a little bit of English here and there. We told her that they rocked and that she would probably like them. XD They had started playing a beat that sounded really awesome...it had this voice that made a sound beginning with a “k” sound, and everyone turned it into chanting “Kyo, Kyo, Kyo, Kyo!” As soon as Shinya walked out (in a white wife-beater, no less =3), the room exploded even louder than before, followed by more cheering (and the continued “Kyo” chant) for Die, Kaoru, and Toshiya. Kyo walked out last (of course ^^), and the chanting was still going on. You could sort of tell he was enjoying the attention. =D Where we were standing, we were right in front of Kaoru and Toshiya (the stage was pretty small, but it was still awesome). From where I was, I could see everyone on stage; Shinya (looking as yummy as ever) at his drums, Kaoru looked freaking awesome and him and Toshiya (who didn’t look so bad himself...) kept making us cheer. XD Kyo had a new hairstyle than what he had in the Inward Scream tour (I’m pretty sure at least). His bangs were longer on one side than on the other (like he’s sort of had it before):

This is the best I could find...it was like this...only...he wasn’t having a sezure...O.o Also, I guess people who took pictures aren't really allowed to post them by demand of Free Will Records (DIRU's record company)
I was relieved to see that Die had his red hair again. ^^ For a while, I believe he had black hair, and I was starting to miss his redness. He was looking awesome, too! Hell, who am I kidding? They all looked freaking hot! And it pissed me off that we could bring in cameras and such! I figured they probably wouldn’t let us, but tons of people were taking pictures with cameras and phones! Godammit! >_< If I would have known we could bring those in, I would have brought my digital camera along! Yumi had her phone, and she took a few pictures, but they didn’t turn out very well. D= The set list consisted of the following songs (Yumi and I double checked today), but not necessarily in the given order:
Disabled Complexes
Agitated Screams of Maggots
The Deeper Vileness
Repetition of Hatred
Namamekashiki Ansoku, Tomadoi Ni Hohoemi
Rotting Root
THE FINAL
Kyo's acapella
dead tree
Merciless Cult
THE IIID EMPIRE
Yes, ten songs in all.

Kyo’s shirt only lasted one song. XD His body is still in awesome shape (yummy abs! @///@). When he tossed his shirt out into the crowd, I got his with a droplet of his sweat! =D He also didn’t have a crate/box thing to lean on, so he danced around a lot more. At one point it looked like he was doing the matrix or something...his dances were really flow-like and seductive. X3 I believe that it was during “Namamekashiki” that he had a blade of some sort and made a slight cut across the left side of his ribs. I don’t think it was very deep, because he didn’t bleed very much. He did take his hand and smear some on his face, though. I’m just sort of glad that he didn’t fish hook...I didn’t get the chance to look at Die a whole lot during the show, but he looked like he was having fun. Once in a while I glanced back at Shinya (while on my tip-toes -_-;). But for most of it, I watched the two right in front of me: Kaoru and Toshiya. They really fed off of our responses. I know I caught their eye at least two or three times each. Whenever Kaoru would see us holding up the devil horns (you know, “Rock on!”), when he had the chance, he would do the same to us. Toshiya kept motioning for us to get louder, though I think we might have drowned out Kyo if we would have screamed any louder. Every now and then between songs, I would shout out “Shinya!” and “Kyo!” in true fangirl fashion. XD Yumi and I sang along to all the songs. Some of the songs other people sang along to, as well, but not very many. I was especially happy when they played "The Deeper Vileness". When they played “THE FINAL”, I started crying. That is probably my most favorite song aside from “KODOU”. I’m pretty sure Kaoru saw me crying and singing along at the same time. Neither Yumi or I caught any guitar picks or anything, though Kaoru’s water bottle slipped out of her hands. I could barely hear Kyo scream “Last song” before they started to play “THE IIID EMPIRE”. I definitely tried to see Shinya during the slightly quiet part, but Toshiya happened to hop in front of my line of vision of him. D= And Kyo sang during that part as well, something I haven’t seen him do very often in any of the lives I’ve watched. Overall, Dir en grey could have made the roof cave in with the noise we were all making. By the time they were done, Yumi and I were drenched with sweat (probably not a very good idea to have worn pants...) and staggered to the side to get out of the crowd.

I literally mean staggered...my legs felt like jelly. We made our way to the back and around to where the bar and merchandise was. When we tried to get through, I accidentally put my hand on a (really cute...) Japanese guy. He just sort of smiled after I said “Hi.” XD We got to the DIRU merch., and the shirts were $30. Yeah...I saw that they had TmoaB there, too, but we both ended up getting the wrist bands and went to get something to drink before going up to the balcony to try and cool down. That didn’t help very much, because it was even hotter up there than on the floor. We eventually headed back down and went into the rest room. I attempted to make myself a little more presentable hair-wise, but I was too sweaty to even try. XD We stood outside of the bathroom by the stairs going up to the balcony on the left side of the auditorium. We were between a fan and an open door, so it worked to cool us down. We could also see the stage really well, so we just sort of vaguely listened/watched Deftones start to play. I looked out the door and saw Katie and her friends walk by. They had obviously left right after DIRU got done. That’s also when I realized that Dir en grey’s tour bus was right out there, too. The blinds on the window were slightly raised two or three inches, and you could make out somebody’s shadow. I poked Yumi and showed her, and we both waved every now and then. I know that they would look out at us, because you could see their head turn. We suspected that it was Kyo (we could sort of make out chin hair), and we knew that he was notorious for spying on fans. After a few more waves, the blinds were raised a little bit more, and we knew that is was Kyo because of the blonde hair. We waved even more crazily than before while grinning, and I think that he might have smiled back or something.

A little bit later, after the blinds were lowered a little, and more random waves when nobody was in the way, one of the roadies (hot and Japanese, or course ^^) that was helping to set up their part of the show slunk onto the landing by where we were standing. We both saw him and smiled at him and waved. He smiled and mouthed “Hi”. A few seconds later he held out his hand to me, and in it were two guitar picks. I knew my eyes got huge as soon as I saw them, then I took them and gave one to Yumi. We turned and said thank you about a dozen times. All he did was nod and put his index finger to his lips to tell us to keep it hush-hush. A few seconds later, he snuck back out all ninja-like and we didn’t see him again. Yumi and I looked at each other after he left and squealed and stared at our new presents from Dir en grey with teary eyes. They had obviously seen us, and sent the guy out to give the picks to us. Why else would he have come and gone so quickly, and on top of that, told us to keep it a secret? And it was then, too late, that I remembered my necklace I wanted to give to Shinya. I could have asked the roadie to give it to him! I wanted to kick myself! Then an Asian looking young woman (I know I’ve seen her somewhere before) walked past us and Yumi poked me, saying that she was Dir en grey’s translator! She recognized her from when Kaoru and Toshiya were on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show back in February, and she translated the questions and answers. We got excited; there was still time! When the young woman walked back, we stopped her, and as I struggled to get the necklace off (damn you sweaty hands/neck!!), Yumi asked her if she could give it to Shinya for me. She nodded, and when I finally got it off and handed it to her, she asked “Shinya?” I nodded and thanked her profusely as she walked out the door and onto the bus. I squealed again and stood in teary-eyed shock. I had totally just accomplished my goal for the concert! I saw her walk back in and stand to watch the show, and resisted the urge to become and annoying fangirl and ask her if he liked it or what he said. Yumi and I waved some more whenever there was an opening, and I swear to Pink God(hide-sama, of course! ^o^) I saw Shinya looking out at one point before they left. A few drunk people stumbling by and Deftones songs later, Yumi and I decided to leave. We sat outside under the building (thank Pink God it was cool outside!), and waited for Cindy to come and pick us up. After Deftones finished, and people walked out, someone screamed out “Deftones!” and a few people cheered. A guy that was with his friends a little in front of us screamed out “Dir en grey!” in response, and Yumi and I, the guys friends, and a bunch of people on the side cheered, getting a louder response than the Deftones.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading that...I guess? And we screamed extra loud for those of you who weren’t able to go to any of the concerts, don’t worry! Ugh...my arms and legs are only now starting to hurt from jumping and waving them around madly...~Ja ne!
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