It is becoming painfully clear that I am not going to get any work done until I debrief about the L'arc~en~Ciel show last night. I have spent the whole day wandering around in an endorphin haze. Even if nobody is reading this. Whatever.
Yes, I went up to New York to see L'arc. At the supremely expensive Madison Square Garden. At least I didn't have to fly halfway across the country this time. And I hope next time is even more convenient, though somehow I doubt it.
So. The show. I got to the venue very early as I had hoped to sneak into a seat closer ahead than the one I had bought. I was one of the first into the arena and so I got to the front of my section. As the row filled up, nobody came to claim my seat (one of the advantages of having bought a single ticket--plenty of single seats were empty in between two groups) and I thought I was doing pretty well. The agony of waiting for the clock to tick down for nearly an hour, then another half hour after that as the show was mad late starting, was awful. I kept thinking an usher would boot me out or that some other singleton would have a ticket for the seat I had "borrowed."
Ok, so finally the show started. There was a hilariously lame cinematic with Hyde hooked up to some wires (very Final Fantasy 7 esque, though half the audience was probably too young to pick up on that), and a butterfly landing on his hand, and then oh god I just hope someone has a video of this or makes a rip when the DVD comes out because Jesus. L'arc is a deeply strange band.
The band came out and played Ibara no Namida, which I don't know that well and so I felt like a poser fangirl. I spent that song mostly watching Ken, who looked, I swear, high as a kite. He just had this beyond derpy smile on his face (but played very well all night so who knows? Also, I just ASSUME these guys do weed or maybe stronger stuff as they are rock stars and have the money to do so.)
Next up was Chase, which was great, and then they kind of stumbled through Good Luck My Way. That was really the only disappointing part of the night as it seemed just really...awkward. I don't know, they weren't at their best right then.
And then they played Honey and I almost lost it. Holy crap. This was also the point that I realized that a)the uptight Japanese girls next to me did NOT appreciate my excitement and b)there were about a bazillion unfilled seats on either edge of the stage. And then I remembered that at the last L'arc show I saw, Hyde was all climbing on the speakers and shit and I was in a very bad place if I wanted to see that.
By this point they had moved on to Drink It Down, which is also an OK song. I would have tried to change seats right during that song but I wanted to check with one of the ushers, who had been making small talk with me before the show started (I had this vision of him taking pity on me and leading me to the front row, haha). So between songs I asked him what I should do and he said I should try but not count on anything.
Thankfully it was at that point that the band decided to move on to Revelation, which had a super long intro with Hyde shouting something ("blood! Blood!" I think) and besides I have seen this song live before so whatever. I hustled out like I was going to use the bathroom and ran around the stadium and walked into another entrance. Nobody stopped me and as I said there were at least 40 empty seats. And I didn't even miss much of Revelation.
I was Thus ensconced in a more enthusiastic section with a much better view. Just in time for Hyde to change costumes and come out for Jojoushi wearing what looked like a woman's pantsuit and floppy hat. WHO DRESSES THIS MAN and will someone tell them to stop?
Here is a fan video of the ensemble. I can't wait for the DVD to come out so I can share this hideousness with you in more detail. The Village Voice critic who wrote up the show said it was " a floppy, wide-brimmed hat Alicia Keys would envy, making him look like a '90s R&B diva having a rock moment." this same critic also described Hyde's dance moves as "flouncing," which I feel is fairly kind as his moves look more like a five year old trying to tell his mother that he needs a bathroom.
Did I mention I love this band? But I also admit that they are extremely strange.
At some point during all this, ken came out and read a long scripted speech about going to the museum of natural history and taking pictures of the "naked mannequins" and buying a "Monoporry" set for Yukihiro. Scripted in the sense of being read off a piece of paper, but also scripted in the sense that I'm fairly sure it was just all part of the "image." Like hell they were planning to go back to their hotel room after the show and play Monopoly together.
There was a funny moment at the end that harkened back to their Otakon show. At that one, Hyde was very concerned with finding out whether everyone in the audience had eaten blue crabs (the iconic Baltimore food, obvs) but it came out a little differently.
Did you eat crabs by mimily-chanKent's speech this time around included the line "do you like us?" which, if you can imagine that in a Japanese accent, you can figure out how that went. (if not, skip to the last 30 seconds or so of
this video.)
The delivery was so similar to Hyde's earlier performance that it had to be intentional, but now I am not sure whether the crap/crab thing was also not an accident. Maybe they have been messing with us this whole time
I am not even sure what to think anymore you guise
At any rate. More songs. XXX is way better live than recorded, and I think I am coming around to appreciating this song quite a bit. It may even be one of my new favorites. Fate and Forbidden Lover, I didn't even recognize, but man those are old songs. Same with my heart draws a dream. Oh well. I enjoyed watching Hyde "dance" and ken and tetsuya do their things. They are really so talented.
Caress of Venus was a pleasant surprise and then they rolled right into Driver's High. This may have been the highlight. Ken came all the way over to our side of the stage and I watched him play the chords to the only L'arc song I (more or less) know the chords for.
Next: Stay Away. Holy cow. The background during this song was these weird dancing robots. I swear I have seen them, or at least the dance moves, before. The music video? The official dance moves? Stay Away was like the third L'arc song I heard, ever, when they played it for the official new year's concert, so I have no idea where I saw this but I am going to find out.
Somewhere around here I had a scare. An usher came in with tickets for about 5 people who were incredibly late and had just arrived. Their tickets were for our row! The usher started kicking out seat moochers (apparently the whole row was moochers) and stopped at the seat JUST to my left. Phew.
Ready Steady Go. Yeah. They played it. Everybody was jumping, even me in my heels. I had this strange cognitive dissonance between what my brain wanted to sing and what the lyrics (projected on the big screens) said. Yes, the words are "Ready Steady give me good luck," but anyone who has heard the song knows that what Hyde is saying is "ready steady give me goo rack." Luck doesn't rhyme with "back" unless you pronounce it the Japanese way, i guess.
Loooooong intermission in which not much happened. The robots came back on screen and tried to get everyone to do the wave, at which we all failed miserably. The latecomers to my left decided to leave (whaaaat? You saw like three songs) so I got to move even closer, but then I was sitting next to a middle-aged japanese man wearing a face mask and who did not look happy to be so near to another human being. Whatever.
Last four songs: Anata, Winter Fall, blurry eyes...during the middle of this one, tetsu brought out a fruit basket and tossed bananas to the audience,just as he'd done during the Otakon show...i guess this is a thing? While he was amusing the center part of the audience with bananas and lollipops, Hyde was clearly enjoying being on our side of the stage throwing bits of trash at fans. Like, he opened two water bottles and then "casually" flung the caps toward people, and they went apeshit for the cap. I loved watching it even though Hyde is clearly a ham.
Final song: I was hoping for Pieces, but we got Niji. Not expecting that, loved it.
And that was it. Tetsu flung a few more bananas at the audience. The very last one (I think) he hurled as far as he could toward the back, and it landed behind the first section of seats right next to a security guard. The guard grabbed it and chucked it backward,where it AGAIN landed behind a section of seats next to ANOTHER guard, which I thought was hilarious. That guard tossed the banana a third time and a girl finally grabbed it and she was SO EXCITED. I was thrilled for her, actually, even if that fruit was probably bruised to hell by that point.
Tetsu's last words were "mata me, America" (or maybe new York, I already forget) and that was it. I wished they'd played Pieces. I wished they'd played Lover Boy. Etc. but honestly I could have sat through a five-hour concert and would still have wanted to hear more, so it's not too fair of me to be dissatisfied. Playing that hard for two hours is exhausting.
In conclusion, this is what I have learned:
-Every successive costume/hairstyle of Hyde's serves to make the previous one look good by comparison,but I'm not sure how he will top the braids and floppy hat combo.
-tetsu really likes bananas.
-it is apparently possible to play great guitar while seriously stoned.
-they have learned from previous mistakes--the pyrotechnics belong AWAY from the audience.
-if they never come back to the US, my wallet will be thrilled. Because if they do come back, I'm gonna be hard-pressed not to go. A 25th anniversary tour, maybe?
And seriously? Niji? Amazing choice to close it out. Man.
And now, hopefully, I can return to my normal life.