TWISTED LOVE: Concert Reports

mercilesscult's Report

It all started on Thursday morning. I had a regular schoolday and after the final lesson, my mom picked me up at school and drove me to Halmstad (I had packed all my stuff the evening before). The drive was about two hours long with a stop at McDonald's. When we arrived I met my awesome friends Mato and Tobe. We chilled around for a while, and afterwards, we were off to Berlin with Tobias' parents.

Because of GPS, the drive there was a breeze and there were no problems what-so-ever. We drove onto the ferry that would takes us to some obscure place in Germany. The ferry was going to travel during the night, so we received keycards to rooms where we would spend the night. Before we went to sleep though, we ate, played with the slot machines and much more.

Afterwards, we went to our rooms to get some sleep. We would have to wake up in 5 hours. But it didn't really work that well. We were too hyper so we just kept fooling around and thrashing the room until we were supposed to get up again. It was awesome.

After an entire night of rockstar-like behaviour. We had arrived in Germany. We were going to drive for about 3 hours before reaching Berlin and the destination marked on the GPS map, NeoTokyo. The drive was painless, because we mostly slept. When we arrived, NeoTokyo had not opened yet and wouldn't be opening for another 2 hours. So we walked around the area, and guess what we found? DUNKIN' DONUTS! OH MY GOD I LOVE DUNKIN' DONUTS! I had been in Berlin some time before this trip, and I fell in love with Dunkin' Donuts. The Double Chocolate Donut is amazing perfection.

We went back to NeoTokyo afterwards and some people were waiting for it to open too. We stood around for a while until it opened and the shop got crowded fairly quick. I was the first to claim my tickets. After nearly having walked out of the shop I noticed they were selling Tour Goods and stuff I didn't have, so I tortured my wallet by buying everything I wanted. I still managed to have a lot of money left afterwards though. We headed for the Youth Hostel and stayed there for some hours before deciding to drive around the city of Berlin in search for cool stuff to buy. We all showered and made ourselves look pretty, we slipped into the new tour gear we had bought and then, we were finally ready to rock.

We walked around Ku-Damm the most because it's a cool place, but we didn't find all that much that interested us. In the end, we found a restaurant that wasn't all that great. But it was all right.
Afterwards, we decided to try and find our way home to the Youth Hostel without the car or GPS. It took us 3 hours, we were so lost. Haha. But we found our way back finally. The excrutiatingly long day was over.

It all started about 6 in the morning. We had been lost in Berlin for about 3 hours the day before and we were so extremely tired from all the crap we went through trying to find our way back to the Youth Hostel. We prepared ourselves and had a big breakfast before we went to the ColumbiaHalle. When we arrived at about 9 o'clock in the morning there were this many people already:

We had decided to meet up with my friend George (or goey), so he arrived and we all met him for the first time in real life. He turned out to be a cool dude.

We were already shocked by how warm it was, so we went to the far right corner, gaijin-smashing our way through the crowd, to sit in the shades. We sat down by a group of 4 girls whom we started socializing with. They turned out to be really friendly. We only catched 2 of their names though. Angela, and Lara.

Through the first hours, we didn't really talk to each other or anything at all. They were all from Germany except for the girl with purple hair, who was from England. We believed them to be nothing but stupid fangirls in the beginning. So me, Mato, Goey and Tobe only spoke Swedish at first. But we finally realized that they were great, kind people, and not just good-for-nothing fangirls. Which was lucky.

The first few hours weren't that much of a pain at all. But when as time progressed, and the sun started to move, our shade disappeared and everything became hellish really quick. Tobe's parents had set out to buy us asian strawhats. They went to the venue and left them to us. Which was really nice because not only do the strawhats look cool, they help!

Bow down to the strawhat masters!


o.o

We consumed unholy amounts of water while being tortured by the sun, and Goey had left us to check into his hotel and pick up his ticket at NeoTokyo. At about midday we all wanted to die so much. We set up a blue cover to shield us from the sun, and it kind of worked. If it hadn't been for the cover and Angela's circulation medecine we would have died. Seriously.

Under the shade... RAAAAAH

Me doing the Toshiya pose. This wasn't my idea. Angela insisted that I look like Toshiya on that pic. O.o

Suddenly, we heard lots of screams and by instinct, I jumped up and ran through the crowd that had been formed. Witnesses said that I hit a poor girl in the head with my knee while running through the crowd. When I arrived to the place where there was a lot of screaming, I saw that a van had gone through the fence into a parking lot by the venue. I suddenly understood what was happening. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and climbed to the top of the fence and I was right.

Out of the van, jumped 5 japanese guys looking like ordinary guys. But they weren't just any ordinary guys. Dir en grey had just jumped out of the van and they walked really quick into a door that lead them into the venue. I didn't see any of them for more than 3 seconds each. I finally realized how short Kyo really is though. Because of my state of stress, the picture didn't come out any better than this: (go to his journal)

But at least I know what I saw, and it's up to you if you believe me or not.

After Diru had entered the venue, it took about an hour until we started hearing soundchecks. We were at the right side too, it didn't seem like anyone else was hearing it. The girls had left us too, so they missed out. We heard the following songs during soundcheck:
C, OBSCURE, CHILD PREY, Itoshisa Ha Fuhai Nitsuki, Higeki Ha Mabuta Wo Oroshita Yasashiki Utsu, Saku, THE FINAL, dead tree and THE IIID EMPIRE
So we had an idea of what they definately would play before the show.

When there was just an hour left to wait before we were going to be let in, we were counting down the time like madmen.

Patrik: "How much time left?"
Goey: "57 minutes..."
Patrik: "OMGOMG 57 MINUTES LEFT =O!"
-
Patrik: "How much time left?"
Goey: "I just told you, 57 minutes."
Patrik: "OMGOMG 57 MINUTES LEFT!! =O =O!"
-
Patrik: "How much time left?"
Goey: "...For fuck's sake. 56 minutes."
Patrik: "OMGOMGOMG WE'VE ADVANCED AN ENTIRE MINUTE OMG =O =O!!!"
Yeah, I was pretty pumped.

When the doors finally opened we were some of the first people to get in, and I got lucky, I managed to get into the middle of the second row. And I was far taller than the two size XL++ german fat chicks in front of me. After a while we were ordered by the security guards to... SIT DOWN?! The bastards wanted us all to sit down while we waited for the band, which was far more consuming of one's powers than standing up. We had 1 and a half hour to wait until the show started. So we sat down in agony for some time.
When this german guy presented Dir en grey everyone flew up, only to notice that they wouldn't come on for another 20 minutes. Lots of girls were being fished up from the audience at this moment. I was really happy when I saw all the obnoxious fat girls getting pulled out. Goddamnit I hate fat fangirls.

But suddenly, the lights went out... Everyone was in shock. "Is it time?! Finally!?"
Yes, it was.

Merciless Cult

The intro for the song kicks in, it has been edited to be longer. All of the members walk out one by one on stage. Shinya was first, and I couldn't believe it was Shinya. I thought it was some random staff member until I noticed that everyone was screaming "SHINYA!! SHINYA!!"
I, of course, joined in. He gave a quick stare down my direction before concentrating on the drums.

Kaoru did his regular "RAWR! I shake my fists and do the bull horn! RARRRRR!!"

Toshiya just walked onto the stage and stared at us. It didn't feel like I was seeing Toshiya somehow, it didn't look like he does on the pictures.

Die walked ut grinning sublimely.

The band started playing the song until the part where Kyo is supposed to sing. He ran onto the stage just before his part came up. He was wearing some kind of awesome skullformed cloth over his mouth. He took it off, the music stopped for a few seconds as he grinned, showing off his bling-bling silver teeth (His look was a clash between Withering to death. and Saku), and then he started to sing.

This song is so much better live. Seriously, it was god like to headbang to it. Throughout the time that I was at the front, I had lots of eye contact with Kyo, he stared me down lots and lots. When they come to the chorus, the band doesn't sing along. Only Kaoru did. Like this:

Kaoru: HUAH!
Kyo: RARARARARGH!
Kaoru: HUAH!
Kyo: RARARARGH!
Kaoru: HUAH!
Kyo: RARARARGH! AI SHITE KUDASAI!

A very good song live. Too bad I missed some of it because of all the fangirls getting pulled out. But the heat was very unbearable, so I don't blame them. 3/5

C

Oh my god. This song was awesome. The most memorable parts were during the "dead freedom oh dead freedom!"-chorus and the part shortly after where Kaoru and Die blast the strings. Awesome. Awesome. I was headbanging so much I made maybe 2 or 3 fangirls around me faint. 4/5

Saku

One of my favourite songs made even better live. Shinya pummeled those bass pedals like a man. What amazed me the most with Kyo is that he didn't fuck up the growl parts like he does sometimes. For example: On the Code Of Vulgar[ism], Child Prey, instead of doing those long snarly growls he just does a "Urgh." and headbangs. He never did that on this show.
I really inflicted a huge deal of pain on one of the girls in front of me. During the final "FUCK OFF FUCK OFF AND WIPE!"-part Kyo stared me down and headbanged with me. 5/5

Pause 1

The band just stood around, Kyo was turned away from the crowd sitting down, as dramatic words and phrases popped up on screen. I like how they do this. Gives you time to catch your breath.

Jesus Christ R'N R

Kaoru used a different kind of effect than on the album for this song. Something really touching happened somewhere during the first verse. Shinya stared at me. He - STARED - at me for like... The entire song. Seriously. He just kept staring at me. It felt so awkward, I focused on Kyo for a while, but when I looked back at Shinya, he was still staring at me. Seriously cool. The Waowaowao-part by Kyo was cool too, he kind of sang it and pranced around on the stage while doing this. 3/5

Machiavellism

I was really losing my breath and the heat was unbearable at this moment. I don't remember much of this, except for singing along to the chorus of wrist-cut shows. 1/5

GARBAGE

Holy shit. I love this song. After having catched my breath during Machiavellism I gave it my everything during this song. Knocking out both fat chicks in front of me. Because I was jumping on top of them and headbanging wildly. This song was awesome, with lots of group shouts and Kyos awesome "RARARARARARRRGHHHH"-ing. I love his RARARARARGHHH-ing. It's awesome. Especially while moshing. 5/5

THE FINAL

I was so spent after GARBAGE, there was no good air to breathe, everyone was sweaty, the heat was unbearable. I noticed this song has a guitar solo by Die live. Really cool. Unfortunately though, I was suddenly outside of the venue, and people told me that I had fainted while headbanging. So I was very pissed off because I missed:
Kodoku Ni Shisu, Yueni Kodoku (OH FUCK NO, WHY DID I HAVE TO MISS THIS!?)
dead tree (DOUBLE OH FUCK NO! ;O;)
2/5

After this, there was another short pause. During this pause I bought my merchandise and refreshments so I could recover. I already knew what the next two songs of the setlist would be, so I could chill out.

Itoshisa Ha Fuhai Nitsuki

Didn't see that much of this, because I was trying to find the stairs up to the second floor. I came in at Kaorus mini-solo-esque thingie. Was very nicely performed live. 3/5

Higeki Ha Mabuta Wo Oroshita Yasashiki Utsu

Wow, just, wow. I was so moved by this. I don't care how people say that Kyo is "emo" or shit like that. It was awesome and it moved me. Kyo doesn't whisper-sing all the time like he does on the album. He stood up on his MAD STALIN-podium and screamed the end of the song. I loved it. A lot of us, even the low concentration of men, were on the borderline of crying, and many of the girls did. 5/5

Pause 3

This pause was pretty long. And the phrases "Average Song" and "Average Voice" showed up. People cooled down. At this point, we got some more refreshments, and went down to the pit floor. Awaiting Diru's return. During this pause I met up with Kevin, and suddenly...

audience KILLER LOOP

Oh my god. When we heard the opening of the song we freaked out, and we all growled together with Kyo in the intro. This song was serious headbang business in the middle of the pit. We ran over to the pit and started moshing the fuck out, Mato had taken our hands and just rushed through the wall of fangirls. Now, you might think that I'm fucking crazy to headbang and shit after having passed out a few songs before this. But I am fucking crazy for Diru. 5/5

THE IIID EMPIRE

Another session of headbanginess in the pit. Wasn't as awesome as audience KILLER LOOP but still very extremely good. I retreated from the pit after this song to catch my breath. 4/5

Beautiful Dirt

While not in the pit, I just had to headbang to this. I just had to. This song was killer live. A lot better than on the album. I did some serious headbanging together with Kevin as footage from World War 2 was being shown on the screen behind the band. 5/5

Might have been a pause here....Don't remember.

Mr. NEWSMAN

Just stood around digging the song. It was nice. Around this time of the show I wasn't feeling too well. 3/5

Spilled Milk

Slightly less standing around, slightly more headbanging and singing along. 3/5

Kodou

I love this song, live and on the album. This was soooo great. You just have no idea. I sang along in the chorus and I loved every second of this. Kyo even pulled through the "I am, addicted to the perceived fate"-part. Hats off to you Kyo. The wah-wah part was great as always. Just... Simply loved this song so much. 5/5

Pause 4 or 5

This one was 20 minutes long. Had a lot of time to catch my breath, drink some water and catch up with Mato, Tobe and Goey again.

ENCORE 1
Kaoru fooled us. Shokubeni.

Actually, at first he played the intro riffs to HADES, but quickly changed into the dun-dun-dun intro of Shokubeni. This was a headbangfest, even though I was feeling mighty sick at this point of the show. We were all headbanging and moshing great. During the a capella part of the song. Kyo did it WITH the mic, and lots of people started cheering during it. Which I really did not like. I was quiet as a mouse though... It was awesome. Really awesome. I just wish they all had shut up. 4/5

OBSCURE

I headbanged through half of this awesome song, but suddenly, the gag reflex came on. During my headbanging, I turned my head to the right, puked on some dudes shoes and kept headbanging, the true metal way. It was just water vomit though. There was nothing but water so he probably won't notice anything until his shoes start smelling like bile acid. Muahah. Awesome song. 5/5

INCREASE BLUE

JELY INSPIRE! JELY INSPIRE! JELY INSPIRE! BAI BAI MISS JELY! *mosh* So cool. I though they were gonna end the show with this. Luckily they didn't. Another session of headbanging in the pit. 4/5

CHILD PREY

Kyo screamed "LAST SONG! LAST SONG!" So me and Mato just Gaijin-smashed our way through every single fangirl until we were at the front. We were relentless and I probably hurt some of the girls really bad. But come on, you have to understand that they were playing CHILD PREY of all songs. So we headbanged, and we jumped, we sang along to the "Oooooh woooo ooooh ooooh wooooo ooooh" and we screamed to the "RAAAH! CHILDO PREY!"s and during the kind of calm part before the riffage of guitars, Die stuck out his tongue at me. That was very cool. But the best part of the entire show happened directly afterwards. Kyo had his little stare-down contest with me again. His first expression looked like "Oh, there you are again!".
We stared at each other during the song, and then, Kyo took up a water bottle, filled his mouth with water, gave me a psycho stare and nodded while having his mouth full, then he sprayed me and the people around me with lots of water. I got blessed by Kyo! Yay! The band threw the regular amount of picks and Shinya threw lots of drumsticks. They all showered us with water from bottles, Tobe caught a straw that had been in one of Kaoru's water bottles. We all got to taste it afterwards. (Haha.)
At the end, Kyo took a bucket of water and poured everything onto himself and everyone cheered. It was so awesome. I didn't catch anything, sadly. But the image of Kyo nodding and unleashing the saliva fury on me is more than I need. The band walked off, and people started going for the exits. Because many thought it was over.
6/5

ENCORE II
BYO [ ] SHIN

The band came out a good 5 minutes later and just kicked into Byo [ ] Shin. Kyo with a towel on his head. They made it a bit longer and during the song I could hear Kyo singing a bit from the MISSA version. Which was really cool. Sadly, I had been shoved so far to Die's side that I didn't see when he supposedly fell down on his ass. But I liked how he was freestyling a lot with tremolo solos and stuff. Awesome.
After the song, Die threw out all of his picks into the crowd. Had he aimed just a bit to his right, I would have gotten one. Seriously. Kyo also threw out the towel he had on his head. It got ripped into pieces. Shinya threw like 8 drumsticks. It was awesome. Because it felt like BYO [ ] SHIN wasn't on the set list. It was like, directly after Child Prey, they decided "Hey, let's play BYO [ ] SHIN! Okay. :D"

After that, it was over. We walked outside slowly into the fresh air. I puked a few good times from all the moshing and afterwards, we set out straight for the Youth Hostel.

This is us: Post-show.

Until the show in Paris, then?

Thank you mercilesscult!

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