Live Report! L’Arc~en~Ciel – Tour 2008 L’7~Trans ASIA via PARIS~ [6/1]

You know, I was told a while back that Japanese fans are absolutely crazy, and my time spent at the Hanshin Tigers baseball game and the ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION show last week are a really good indication of that. As expected, one of the biggest shows of the year drew one of the most out-there crowds I’ve ever gotten to see. We got there about an hour and a half before the doors were supposed to open (which was 2 hours before the show was supposed to start), and just went around taking pictures with all the crazy cosplaying fans. We saw some seriously impressive costumes actually, including a number of various girls dressed as hyde from True era (and reborn during the 15th L’Anniversary live) and two very nice chicks in the Nazi costume from the Awake tour back in 05. I basically played tour guide for my three friends by pointing out what all the different costumes and acts were, since they’re not as familiar with L’Arc as I am. There was a full troupe reminiscent of the group from the Lies and Truth PV, a number of people carrying around SMILE boxes (that would later go over their heads), and even a pair of girls dressed as tetsu from the I Wish 2007 P’UNK~EN~CIEL PV! The pictures (that I swear will make their way up eventually) will tell more than I can, so I’ll leave the job to them. A little while after the doors opened, we made our way in with the crowd and found our respectives seats. We were on the third base side, so over by tetsu, which is great since he’s my favorite in the group. I’ve breen looking forward to this for a long time.

So, L’Arc~en~Ciel. One of the most famous Japanese Pop/Rock groups of all time. They’ve been around the world more than once, especially during this tour, in which they hit a series of different venues around Asia and even one show in Paris, France. The theme of tonight’s show was “sailing home”. The opening animation featured a small boat traveling the seas with epic sailing music (think Pirates of the Caribbean). Standing majestically at four points on the deck were hyde, tetsu, ken, and yukihiro, with each being introduced in turn. As a band member was shown on screen, the crowd got steadily more insane in their jumping and screaming. Finally, the ship, which had been sailing around Europe and Asia, finally pulled into port in Japan. Dead silence. And then, a riff.

The crowd flipped shit, and the giant curtain in front of the stage dropped away to reveal a massive mock-up of the same ship from the opening animation. The band was even in very classy pirate attire to complete the look. It was pretty cool. REVELATION was the opening song, which was a bit of a surprise. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the song, but it was really cool to hear live. My first thought was this. My second thought was that this was not the song I’d expected to hear, as Dlyan had reported from Paris that the opening song would be “get out from the shell”. It was good though, and the crowd really got into it. They even had the ship’s “crew” as breakdancers throughout the deck and along the stage. It was a pretty strong opening.

Up next was Pretty Girl, which I was looking forward to getting to see live. It didn’t feature the crazy dancing chick video from the Okinawan show earlier this year, but it went over really well. The whole crowd got singing for the chrous. From the start, ken took off running (this is his song after all) a la Blurry Eyes from back in the day, to meet up with tetsu and have a guitar battle on the other side of the stage (closer to where we were, which was awesome). Everyone cried out “game over!” for the end of the song, and it sounded really good.

The keyboard started up in a classic tune that any self-respecting fan would recognize, and next thing you know, it was Caress of Venus. I probably yelled louder than most of the people sitting around me, since I absolutely love this song live. hyde kept telling the fans to “jump!” and we did. A lot. For the record, I did not sit down once for the duration of this 3 hour show. The song sounded more awesome in real life than it did in all the DVDs I’ve seen. God I love this song. After it was over, the band stepped off for a few minutes as the audience cried out their respective names until they came back on.

After hyde’s MC, the eerie opening for DRINK IT DOWN was heard throughout the arena, and the crowd was actually pretty tame. I blame the fact that it’s a brand new song and the crowd just didn’t know how to react and dance to it. Most people just danced quietly in their spots until the chorus, when everyone went nuts and had a good time. The whole stage was bathed in red light, and fans behind silvery tape created the illusion of pillars of fire on the edges of the stage. Neat song, but it needs some time to get settled with the crowd, I think.

DAYBREAK’S BELL was up next, and like before, the crowd was fairly subdued. This time, however, the song really just seemed hard to set up a dance to, unlike most of the others. Either way, it went well, and the chorus was fun to get involved in. ken’s guitar solo was beautiful, too. The whole stage was bathed in blue light for him.

Up next was a really odd piano opening that absolutely nobody in the crowd recognized, myself included. The opening lines, too, were completely over the audience’s collective heads. Like a wave, though (more like a tsunami, I’d say), everyone figured out that it was Sell my Soul, and the crowd went wild! For the record, L’Arc has not played this song live since the Grand Cross Live back in 99, as far as I know. Even if they have, it wasn’t often. It was a pretty low-key song, and once again the crowd wasn’t jumping and screaming as much as usual. ken, in particular, looked really happy during his solo, and I’m glad they were able to play this song again. I really liked it when I first heard it on the Ray album way back when, especially since it was my first L’Arc album a few years ago. The overall sound of the song was a bit different, and the closing riffs were changed from the original recording. But hell, that’s half the fun of lives!

Warning lights started up on both ends of the “deck” on stage, and random breakdancing “crewmates” were hanging upside down on ropes from ceiling. The sail was raised, and get out from the shell was the song to be heard. To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the song, and I know any L’Arc fan would agree with me that it’s a bit… different for them. Not bad, but just a bit weird. About halfway through the song, these guys in silver pirate costumes on stilts made their way across in front of the stage, periodically stopping to project stage lasers from their hats. Talone was pretty sure that they were supposed to be Davey Jones with laser vision. Considering that this would not be the weirdest thing L’Arc has done, I’m inclined to agree.

The next song had a really weird keyboard opening that I didn’t recognize. I remembered the title later, and understood why. I was never a huge fan of MY DEAR as a song from the AWAKE album, but it actually wasn’t too bad live. The random girl sitting next to me was trying for like half an hour after the song to remember what it was called, and was very ashamed of herself that a gaijin like me remembered before her. She apologized profusely for the comment though, and assured me she meant nothing by it. Oh well. The next song was much more important.

It started with a saxophone. hyde was playing sax. Why? I’ll tell you why. HOLY SHIT IT’S LORELY! I love this song! It was the first track on the HEART album from back in 98, my favorite album. It was so beautiful to hear live, especially when the whole audience could be heard singing along with the chorus.

Up next was ｢永遠｣ (Eien), which wasn’t too big a deal to me. There was, however, a fair amount of fire coming out from spouts in front of the sage and ken was heavily rocking out throughout the song.

The drum into to forbidden lover was also a bit odd at first, so we finally caught on that the theme of tonight’s show was “songs we haven’t played in a while but are really fucking good”, which was fine by me. During the chorus, there was a lot of animated fire a la ｢いばらの涙｣ (Ibara no Namida) from just about any previous show with that song. There was also a closeup of hyde’s face towards the end to show him crying, and ken put his own spin on the song towards the end, which wound up sounding really neat.

ken’s MC followed, which was as hilarious as expected, as he proceeded to poke fun at the other members of the group, and then the electronic opening for SEVENTH HEAVEN started up. The crowd finally went wild again, after having been pretty sendentary since Caress of Venus. Absolutely EVERYONE sang along! For those of you who are familiar with the song’s style, it’s very dance-y. The group’s “ship” was appropriately decked out until it looked like a disco dance pirate ship.

Killing Me was up next, and it was a lot of fun to dance and sing along with. hyde even backed off during the chorus and let the crowd take over. It was honestly just as clear as when he did it on the mike, which was really cool to hear. You always think that they crank up the audio for it on the DVDs, but they really don’t have to. It’s pretty cool.

And then the banana came out. L’Arc fans, you know what I’m talking about. It was tetsu’s time to shine, as he wailed on his bass with a mysteriously-produced banana before whipping it out into the crowd to start STAY AWAY! Great song and a consistent fan favorite, there were even people doing the dance from the PV in the aisles! I, of course, joined them to the best of my ability, but I just don’t know the dance all that well. The audience really knew how to handle this song, which was so cool to get involved in. I’d seen it on the DVDs before, and I finally got to be a part of it!

Immediately following, hyde’s cry of “ARE YOU FUCKING READY!” hailed the introduction to what is probably the crowd favorite since it’s release. READY STEADY GO got everyone up and dancing. I’m glad I was paying attention to the sides of the stage, since I was priveledged to be able to see the “crewmates” preparing the cannons during the end of STAY AWAY. They kept firing off during READY STEADY GO, though what they were shooting into the crowd is a mystery to me right now. The crazy lights were back on, and it looked like a rave on the pirate ship. As usual, hyde let the audience take over with tetsu for the second round of “ready steady…”, and yukihiro essentially flipped shit and flailed wildly at the end of the song, as he’s prone to doing.

The intermission followed, featuring the Wave around the stadium on multiple laps. Finally, a “landing boat” which was actually a moving stage made to look like smaller ship started making its round to the other side of the arena. We all saw it coming, but when tetsu pulled out the banana water gun and ken sat down at the drums, the fans went absolutely WILD! I was among them. Because all of these things together hailed the arrival of the rarely-seen P’UNK~EN~CIEL!

Feeling Fine 2007 was up first, and the entire audience clapped along for the entire duration of the song. It was so awesome to hear! tetsu messed up the lyrics at the start of the second chorus and wound up acting really cute to cover up for it. We love him anyway, so rock on tet-san!

Next was the P’UNK of what is widely considered the best L’Arc song of all time, HONEY 2007. It was fantastic. yukihiro’s “1 2 3 4″ was hilarious, and tetsu kept fucking with the audience by waiting an absurd amount of time before going into the fast-paced part of the chorus, and on the last round he would pretend to start and then stop abruptly. After cries of “stop teasing us” and the like, he just EXPLODED into the chours and the crowd went nuts. So ended the brief appearance from P’UNK~EN~CIEL.

After the landing ship returned to the main boat of the stage, the words NEXUS4 were projected onto the main sail, and the crowd was absolutely floored. We’ve had no exposure to this song at all, and here they’re doing it live for us! It was really good, though a bit electronic, along the same lines as SEVENTH HEAVEN. It had a really beautiful bass solo though, and I am in great support of any song that puts tetsu in the spotlight. The audience was pretty low-key during the song now, since it’s new, but I can see it becoming a new fan favorite, even more than SEVENTH HEAVEN or READY STEADY GO.

But speaking of crowd pleasers, Driver’s High was up next. God that’s a great song. There was more fire like in forbidden lover, and the fans were so well-coordinated. But then, that’s what happens when you play the same song at every live show since the song came out (almost 9 years in this case!), y’know?

Link was up next, and it went a lot like the 15th L’Anniversary show, with the break in the middle to introduce the members and have them do something stupid. yuki was asked to give them a beat to go on; tetsu whistled like a bird; ken made fun of tetsu whistling like a bird; and hyde made out with himself. Back to Link with hyde screaming out to “get the guitar going again!” Always fun.

It seemed a bit rushed at the start, but ken’s solo guitar opening, with all of the pretty blue lights on him, was really beautiful to listen to. Over before it started, he by himself quickly became the whole band rocking out to my current favorite song MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM!  For the record,
I
FUCKING
LOVE
THIS
SONG
I really do. I screamed along with everyone else for the entire duration of the song, and when they cut out into the closing “yume wo e gaku yo”, I was almost in tears; it was so amazing to hear and to finally be a part of. And what’s worse, hyde kept us going too! The bastard had what must have been half a dozen rounds of that line, instead of the usual two at the end. It just kept going. The band completely cut out too, to let us all sing our hearts out. And we did. Loudly.

And all too soon, it was over. Hyde’s MC led into a live acoustic set of ｢星空｣ (Hoshizora). I’m not gonna lie, I’m not that big on this song. From the Awake album, it’s a really sad song which has a chorus that goes “Nobody knows; nobody cares…” The whole of the audience was in tears; it was actually really moving.

And that was it. Concert over; everyone move on with your lives. It ended about as abrubtly as the AJIKAN concert last week, and it was kinda nice. Final thoughts: I’m really glad I got to go.

Setlist:

1. REVELATION
2. Pretty girl
3. Caress of Venus
4. hyde MC
5. DRINK IT DOWN
6. DAYBREAK’S BELL
7. Sell My Soul
8. get out from the shell
9. MY DEAR
10. LORELY
11. 永遠
12. forbidden lover
13. ken MC
14. SEVENTH HEAVEN
15. Killing Me
16. STAY AWAY
17. READY STEADY GO
18. Intermission
19. Feeling Fine 2007
20. HONEY 2007
21. NEXUS 4
22. Driver’s High
23. Link ~Break Version~
24. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
25. 星空

Songs I really wanted to hear (organized by album, since there are a lot):

• DUNE
  • Shutting from the sky? Maybe?  I dunno; I wasn’t a big fan of this album
• Tierra
  • Blurry Eyes
  • White Feathers
• Heavenly
  • Vivid Colors
  • 夏の憂鬱 (Natsu no Yuutsu)
• True
  • Flower
  • The Fourth Avenue Café
  • Lies and Truth
  • 風にきえないで (Kaze ni Kienaide)
• Heart – um… All of them.  We got LORELY, but there are so many good songs on this album:
  • Winter Fall
  • Shout at the Devil
  • 虹 (Niji)
  • birth!
  • Promised Land
  • fate
  • milky way
  • あなた (anata)
• ark
  • Heaven’s Drive
  • DIVE TO BLUE
  • Pieces
• ray
  • Trick
  • いばらの涙 (Ibara no Namida)
• REAL
  • NEO UNIVERSE
• SMILE
  • 瞳の住人 (Hitomi no Jyuunin)
• Awake
  • New World
  • LOST HEAVEN
  • 自由への招待 (Jiyuu e no Shoutai)
  • twinkle, twinkle
• KISS
  • 砂時計 (Sunadokei)
  • Spiral
• P’UNK~EN~CIEL!
  • milky way
  • I Wish 2007
  • Dune 2008
• Unreleased
  • SHINE

So really, if you combine every major L’Arc show from over the years, you’d get my ideal setlist.  Damn, these guys really do have so many good songs.

*UPDATE* You can read a decent translation of the various MC’s and that weird drama interlude on Dylan’s report from the second night.

The four of us with some cosplayers before the show