TWISTED LOVE: Concert Reports

die Columbia Halle ist Scheisse

It was just too warm. I'm in doubt between "it sucked" and "a great concert gone horribly wrong".

The Columbia/NeoTokyo-staff have not seemed to have learned anything from the other concerts, it was soooo warm and they just kept everyone waiting outside, letting in 2 people in at a time, checking bags and throwing away precious drinks. Sander, spinspiderspin & I got in after 45 minutes (which was quite fast, actually) and stood about 6th row right in front of Kaoru. When it started to really fill up, people already started pushing and it got incredibly hot in the front rows, I think the security already pulled about 20 people out of the audience before they even started playing.

When they finally came out 15 minutes late (not to G.D.S, what everyone was waiting for), it got even worse. People were pushing so much and it got sooo hot, people kept on fainting and people were constantly being pulled out of the audience by the security (everytime someone was being pulled out, people already started pushing to fill in that person's spot, it was horrible). I lasted for about 4 songs (we immediately got pushed to the 2nd&3rd row): I started to feel like I had to throw up, I got dizzy, I didn't see shit, I didn't recognize the fucking songs and I bumped my head into Sander's head. So when some girl in front of me was taken away by the security I thought it was time for me to go as well & they took me out and brought me to the First Aid. I just lay on the floor outside for a while, some fresh air and water did me good. Sander came after me, he was taken to one of the 3 ambulances parked outside, because there was something wrong with his front-teeth.

We sat outside for about three of four songs and then decided to go back in to stand in the back, where we found spinspiderspin who also fainted and was taken outside (but we missed her outside because we were sitting somewhere else). She was taken out after The Final, which I obviously missed and it was the only song I really wanted to see goddammit. We were only back inside for one song or so when the band decided to have a break due to the heat (they had one or two more breaks later).

Anyway, let's talk about the band.

I must say .. I haven't really seen much. In front of the stage I could only see Kyo and Toshiya, and in the back I only paid attention to Shinya and Kaoru (sorry Die). The Colombia Hall is horrible by the way, you can't see shit from the back due to all the poles holding the fucking balcony up, I only saw Kyo's shadow once in a while. They might have changed clothes and stuff during breaks .. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention =/

They all came out right after each other, no fancy intro or something. Shinya came out first ofcourse, he looked really pretty, his hair was light-brownish (Sander says blondish, or maybe just brownish-blonde) and he was wearing some white blouse with a coat (which he took off later on). He was just doing his little-drum-thing in the back, looking amazing 8D.

I didn't really get a clear view of Daisuke when I was in front of the stage, but when I was looking from the back I saw his hair was bright red and long again and I think he was wairing the Diru tour t-shirt (I would have bought one if they weren't so fugly. They were either lightbrow/darkbrown or black/neongreen with two fugly skeletons on the front, and a tiny little Dir en grey logo on the back, ugh). I didn't really see how he played, probably just .. like .. he always does .. on the dvd's ..

Toshiya had his hair wavy and long and he was wearing something black which showed his chest, and he looked just .. good. Yeah. Kaoru, Kaoru KAORU WE LOVE KAORU. He was definately the most awesome (from what I saw >.>). Long hair, goatee (whee), and way too many layers of clothes (blouse and jacket which he kept on all the time, I think). He was great, he really knew how to work the crowd when he got to the front of the stage everytime, making people scream their lungs out. And I just love the way he headbangs, haha.
Kyo, had short hair on the one side (blonde), and a long ponytail on the other side (black) (or maybe the other way around xD), he came out with this stupid .. I dunno, mask ? bandana ? thing in front of his face with a skeleton face on it. He was wearing his leopard-skin jacket, which he took off quite soon to resume the concert bare chested. How he was on stage .. uh, sorry Kyo, but there was a pole in front of you and I was more interested in Kaoru and Shinya. [Edit]: Oh wait, I just remembered this for no reason: You could totally see Kyo's penis in his pants. Haha. Yeah >.>

I'd write more about how they play and what they did, but they didn't really do anything special, besides the way they usually play. Not much band-interaction or crowd-interaction.

Setlist .. yeah, good question. I didn't recognize most of the songs, which probably means it was mostly Withering to death. Sander says they started out with Merciless Cult, C, Saku , Jesus Christ R'n'R and Machiavellism. So then we spend some time outside, in which they at least played The Final, dunno about the other songs. Back inside I remember them playing a bunch of Withering to Death songs, Audience Killer Loop, The IIID Empire, Increase Blue, Obscure, Child Prey, Kodou, Mr. Newsman.. they played byo [] shin for the encore (which sucked because I was waiting for Jessica).

They were really, really good, but the sound in the Hall was terrible in my opinion. They had a pretty awesome video-wall-show-thing though.

They threw out loads of crap after the show, I've never seen so many picks and drumsticks flying into the audience (those suckers on the left side of the balcony dropped fucking everything Diru threw at them .. like, 3 picks and they also missed out on Shinya's drumstick and Kyo's waterbottle, haha !) Dai was throwing out used stuff as well, and when he took all of his un-used picks he put them all in his hands and threw em away all at the same time. ('twas funny >.>) Kyo also did the cutest thing, he was throwing all of his waterbottle's into the audience, and at the end he took this bucket filled with water and threw it over his head XD It looked so cute, like a little kid with his eyes closed like "aaaah water". Sander says he was also blowing kissed into the audience xD I did see Kaoru kissing all of his picks before he threw them away.

Did I enjoy the show ? I dunno ... I didn't .. feel anything when they played their first songs, I don't like Withering to death and I never will (though it sounded way better live), they didn't play any old songs and when I was watching them from the back I felt awfull. Seeing all those people going crazy in front of the stage and I just couldn't... I wasn't really into the atmosphere (like at DespairsRay), I was just staring at them like "I want to feel something ;_;". But I did get to see Dir en grey, which I never thought was possible two years ago & they were really good .. I'm glad I went.

As far as tour-goods go, I only bought a poster and Sander bought their Code of Vulgarism dvd. I thought most of the merchandise was pretty ugly =/ (those t-shirts, my god).

And it's pretty great to walk through the Berlin Zoo station on a Sunday morning, and passing so many people wearing Dir en grey t-shirts and walking around with posters and stuff .. It's pretty awesome.

Thank you shichisanshiki!

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