Vinushka

The night before we left was Halloween. That was eventful since I'm virtually broke and only had enough for two bags of candy for the kids. We ran out around eight thirty pm. I guess I should have seen what happened coming from a mile away, but I'm apparently ignorant to wankery. So when I woke up at six the next morning and came out carrying all my stuff for the trip to Dallas, I was greeted by the fact that my car had been egged. Wonderful way to start the morning, scraping raw egg off the red paint. At least they didn't hit my Dir en grey bumper sticker or I'd have been furious. So I cleaned the car off and went on with packing up the car. Of course, this made me late to go pick up Elya since I hadn't planned on doing that.

Oh well, such is life. So I got to her place a bit after seven and we got her all packed up and left around eight. Not bad, all things considered. The trip to Dallas was, for the most part, like any other road trip with me and her in the car. We bantered on and on about Dir en grey and Jrock in general, with the occasional old fandom jumping in for kicks. Turned the air on and off because of skunk or cow dropping smells, laughed until we cried, and admitted how little sleep we'd actually had the night before. So after quite a few stops and starts - gas, food, potty breaks - we finally get into Ft. Worth. Somewhere between navigating Ft. Worth and Dallas, the battery light on my car starts flickering. I end up calling my dad to find out if it's what I have the sinking feeling it is. He only confirms my worst fears, that it's probably the alternator and not just the battery.

Now, I'd been really wary of taking my car out all that way anyway. It's old and has other problems, namely the transmission, that I was worried about. I guess I'm just lucky we didn't kill the transmission and it was instead just the alternator. We find that we're out late enough on a Sunday that everything's shut up tight as a drum. That means we're waiting until the next morning to fix it... the morning of the Houston show. I spent the night with my heart in my throat, glad at least that the hotel courtesy shuttle took us to go get some barbecue. Had a Heineken at the restaurant, which frankly is the best Heineken I've ever tasted, and only one thing could ever change that (and that's a far fetched dream).

I didn't sleep all that well, but at least I did some. My stomach hurt so bad in the morning because I just knew something would go wrong to make us miss the show. We go to where a PepBoys is supposed to be only to find a CarMax instead. Had to turn around and go back to the hotel to get the wireless internet in order to find the next closest location. We were literally within seeing range of the place when the car just died. So we start pushing the car toward the PepBoys. Anyone who knows me knows where this is going. You see, I have two types of asthma. Regular old everyday asthma and exercise induced asthma. I manage to push for a little while, then some guy comes and starts helping, so we're going faster than before and I finally just can't anymore. My lungs were bursting, I had the bloody taste in my mouth, and I got real dizzy while I gasped for air. It's hard to describe the actual pain of an attack unless you yourself have asthma. They push the car into the gas station parking lot and I make it up to them to get my emergency inhaler. It takes a bit for it to kick in, two puffs later and a bottle of water to clean my mouth so I don't get thrush. Eventually we get the car jumped enough to come over to PepBoys with it, just barely. I got it to the bay doors and it died. So they run a diagnostic while I try to pray for it to be just the battery since I'm pretty much dead broke and I don't want a huge bill or a lot of time spent in the shop while we're supposed to be driving to Houston.

It comes back that battery is dead, I pay for a new battery and get it installed. New diagnostic is run and the alternator is dead. Great, lovely, bloody wonderful! Can you sense the sarcasm? So four hundred dollars later, I get that fixed. Not at all pleasant, but I just write it off as having been going to happen anyway. We start trying to figure out time versus the guy's estimate on fixing the car up. From what he tells me, we'd hit Houston around six pm if we wait for the car to get fixed. So I go about trying to get a rental car and then tell the guy that we'll be doing that and picking up the car in the morning. And the guy tells me that he's given the car to someone else to work on so it'll get done faster. Basically, we have time to go get something to eat and then it'll be ready. I've never been so incredibly thankful in my entire life. We went to eat at Applebee's and he called partway through the meal to tell us the car was ready. When we got back, we paid and promised the guy that we'd give him a real good review on the PepBoys website, which we did.

So we finally get on our way to Houston and my stomach finally calms down because calculating it out, we'd arrive at the venue around five thirty. Sure, we'd be back of the line, but at least we'd make it to the show! That was the entire point, so I resigned myself to being far back in the pit and just enjoying myself, period. We blathered about my past and lots of other stuff on the way there and somehow navigated our way through the back-ass-wards streets that are native to Texas. At some point, my ears poped again, just like they did before Denver last year and the volume of everything goes up by about fifty percent. Scared the hell out of me, but again it seems the musical gods were on my side. When we got there, we parked, paid our fee, and then went to get in line. From that perspective, I've never been that far back in a line at a Dir en grey show in my life. It was... odd. But nice, actually. The people back there are more relaxed and willing to include you in their conversation. We ended up next to the wall just beside the fence to the alleyway that led into the venue's back doors. I figured the guys were already inside or would come in later, so I was just on the watch for Nora. I had a mission with her and it was important, so I just kept my eyes peeled.

Eventually, John - Die's roadie - comes out and goes to the bus. I was like... meh, not Nora, so not who I needed to ask a question to. After a bit, he comes back through with Kaoru and Toshiya. They had to pass within three feet of us in order to get into the alleyway. I was flat out amazed. There was no screaming, no yelling, no nothing. It was all very nice and orderly and professional. Granted, I poked at Elya and murmured for her to look, but that was the most that happened. It was so much different than I was used to. Usually there's utter chaos around me and I'm like wide-eyed over it. But that was very nice. So we go back to talking, happy that it was so nice and orderly and pleasant, in general.

Nora eventually comes out of the venue and I go to have a word with her, like I had needed to. I gave her the street team info and everything else and she was very nice and sweet, as she always is. I came back to stand in line and felt a lot less nervous since I'd managed to get up the guts I needed to ask what I wanted to. So I pretty much was like 'yeah, okay, I'm good' and then relaxed. And wouldn't you know it, that's when Nora came back out... with Kyo following her. See, last time I saw Kyo that close and not on stage, I made a fool of myself. I squeed and cried and had an actual panic attack. Not cool, not cool at all. I was pretty much humiliated over having done that. So on the way to Houston, I'd set up prayer to the musical gods and asked for the chance to see Kyo again and not make a fool out of myself. He walked within three feet of me and I didn't even breathe. I'm not kidding, I held my breath so I didn't even say a word.

I breathed again and ended up crying and sitting on the ground after he was inside. But hey, that was not making an ass out of myself IN FRONT of him, now was it? Good! Mind you, it was the good kind of crying, not the terrible kind. So the line starts moving around after that, back and forth, toward the front, back from the front. Security comes out and tells us no chains, no pens, no lighters, please show us your tickets. We ended up putting my wallet chain and my pen back in the car. Too bad, oh well. Elya had to hold my wallet after that though, because the pants I was in had very shallow pockets and my wallet tends to fall out of them a lot. Kinda sucked. Finally, after we got moved around a lot and we learned the glory of metal doors plus sound check, it's time to go inside. I really liked how smoothly the line moved at Warehouse. It was nice. They checked us with metal detection wands, searched purses, patted us down, and then sent us further on to check the tickets. Simple scan of the ticket and we were in the doors.

Much to my surprise, the stage was huge. I ended up in the second row in front of Die... after arriving at five thirty. That amazed me a lot. Because of the size, they were really spread out on stage, not that I minded, since for once I could actually see poor Shinya. So the same loop of songs plays over and over for the next two and a half hours. That was kind of miserable, given that the people around us seemed highly uninterested in talking to us. I think Elya ended up playing Tetris on her phone and I just stood there, staring at the lighting, knowing that at least was going to be phenomenal. I honestly was amazed. Usually it's kind of crappy lighting, not entirely so, but not like this was. So I spent a good chunk of time realizing how much my feet were hurting while I stared up at the ceiling like a weirdo.

Eventually, we start chanting. Member's names, Dir en grey, whatever we can get in a chant. Bored crowd was bored. But it was fun. It got me thinking less about my feet and more on the coming concert.

Finally, at long last Sa Bir comes on and there's much screaming involved, as well there always shall be. The boys come out one at a time and my heart is in my throat, the excitement clear in the air. Just hearing that song is like an instant high. You know what's coming, you can feel it all the way to your bones and nothing else matters except the stage in front of you. Toshiya was wearing leggings and his kilt, which was awesome. Die was wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans. And then there was Kyo... in the exact shirt I wanted him to be in. Hnn... such a lovely shirt, really. I kind of wonder what the material is, but I suppose I'll never know!

They launched into Shokubeni and immediately, I stared singing, so happy with the fact that I could sing the very first song right off the bat. There are a few songs I can't sing all that well and so I just shut up for them, but ahhh, of the things I hadn't been expecting, it was that! I think I scared the mother in front of us simply by being so enthusiastic, judging by the somewhat horrified look I received. I suspect her daughter did not brief her on the level of activity in the crowd.

It honestly was all a blur, one big happy blur. I sang everything I could, gave all I could back to the guys, including screaming until I shook when Kyo screamed. I always try to be more reserved, to not be that weirdo, but this time, I could have cared less. I let go and had a blast. I was honestly impressed during Kyo's acapellas. The crowd was silent, which is an oddity given usual Dir en grey crowds. But that entire crowd was... odd. They were mostly stationary in my area. I assume all the mothers had something to do with that.

Out of the set list, I was honestly happy to hear a few things more than I thought I would be. Stuck Man, Bugaboo, and Gaika. All of those were pretty much rock out songs and I enjoyed it a lot. Toguro is the one song that Kyo does his hips dance to. It's quite sexy.

Glass Skin... woah. I mean I've always liked the song, but I never expected to be hit so hard with it. I ended up crying with my hand up in the air, singing with Kyo. The power from it was honestly amazing. I had expected to cry during Vinushka, but I didn't. Instead, I was so caught by the song and by the mood of it all that I just ended up completely giving myself over to it. A good chunk of my time was spent without my camera, with my hands in the air, just watching and listening.

At some point Die used some kind of implement on his guitar. I think it was a slider, but I'm not sure. It had a light on one end and he barely moved it at all over the strings. It fit in the palm of his hand. Not sure what it was or which song it was on, but I was so fascinated I didn't even get a picture of it. Plus I was too distracted by Die holding the pick in his mouth.

Reiketsu Nariseba is an awesome way to get the crowd pumped to the point of demanding an encore very soon after they went off stage. It was thrilling, screaming Encore with the crowd, though I felt odd not saying en-cor-re, but hey, what can I expect? When they came back on, I was just so incredibly happy. And then they played Kigan! Wow... I'd for sure not expected that one. Then, of course, The Final. I sang every single word of it, I always get this amazing feeling in my body when they play it. It's our song... the US's song. We know the words, we sing it TO the band and I can always tell they enjoy it. Some people complain about it, are unhappy that they always play it. But personally, I would be sad without it. It's a song that represents our attachment to the band and our ability to give that portion of ourselves in return. I'm really happy it was during the encore and I sang my heart out.

They closed with Gaika... and I literally put my camera away and gave them all the rest of what I had left in me. I screamed and head banged, and cheered and sang the song at the top of my lungs. Lungs, what lungs? I still had lungs then?

Outside of all of that, here's a few spare things I remember that I don't quite remember the order of. I tend to kind of let everything mix during the concert, so... it happens. Toshiya was doing his Toshiya-copter thing where he spins around and around and around... and for once had enough room to not be in Kyo's way. Happy! He was also inciting the audience a lot, riling them up with his hands and even coming to Die's side of the stage for a bit. On a side note, I love his hair right now! It's very attractive on him.

Die was all smiles and hair flips and his usual Pantine commercial self. He kept licking his lips the entire time and his hair kept getting stuck in his mouth. Bet I know who won't get a fringe cut next time! I spent a good portion of the show wondering what on earth his shirt said (MotorCult). Die sang quite a few of the songs with us, which I found to be very fun and amusing. It actually was easier to figure out what I was supposed to be singing on some things because he was so animated about it. Ahh, Die... we love you. He kept holding his guitar up like it was a trophy and giving us his usual sexually charged movements.

And Kyo's hair! It's so long and beautiful. Hnn... gorgeous.

Set List:

SaBir
Shokubeni
Red Soil
ASOM
Acapella
Grief
Stuck Man
Obscure
Acapella
Hydra -666-
Bugaboo
Toguro
Glass Skin
Acapella (Sounded like he was singing some lyrics from Glass Skin)
Inconvenient Ideal
Vinushka
Dozing Green
Reiketsu Nariseba

Encore:
Kigan
The Final
Gaika

After the concert, I was literally heading toward delirious. We stumbled to the bathroom and then looked around to make sure merch hadn't somehow appeared. No such luck. We departed to the car after that, deliberated staying to say bye to the guys, then decided we had a long drive back to Dallas in front of us, so we'd just leave.

Overall, an amazing experience, as usual. I expect nothing less from Dir en grey and I'm never disappointed.

And last, but not least, here are the photos from this concert.