Someone on reddit posted their experience and it pretty much sums up what I heard until now:
"I did the VIP in 2013 (Tabula Rasa tour), I had never seen the band before, I used to barely attend show at that time and I took the VIP pass a little blindly without really knowing what it was or what I was going to get.
There was no Meet and Greet ( and people who attended the one that took place with the VIP from 2011 said it was a disaster so I guess that’s why ) but the atmosphere was just, heavy, unsettling and totally fake on Dir en grey’s side and it was impossible to blame them.
The fans just didn’t gave a damn about the band for the most part, they were rushing like crazy to go and stick to the barrier front row and get on the side where their favorite member was going to appear, some didn’t even bother to say Hello / Thank you / Goodbye during the photo (we had a picture with the band, part of the benefits), the photo session was terribly akward at best, it was 100% the same feeling as having your photo taken in front of an animal in a zoo, the band was literally behind a construction site barrer with two chairs in the front where I had to sit with them standing behind the barrer, so yeah, animal in a zoo, it was grotesque and the fact I participated in this process (70€ if I remember correctly ? At least it was 2x cheaper) really pissed me off, I wasn’t proud at all, and I felt bad for the band, I could tell by looking at them that their brain was shutted off for the whole duration of the photoshot, I also remember they posted ALL the photoshot in their facebook for us to download them, and they had the same exact pose, I also felt really bad the whole time I wait inside the venue before the people with “classic” tickets enter. Just a bad and anxious atmosphere.
As for the Dir en Grey staff, I don’t throw them any stone, they just do their job, but same bad memories, as a person who paid a certain amount, you don’t really feel respected either, feels like you’re into a factory, on the moving conveyor belt, everything goes VERY QUICKLY, they give you your gift (pre-signed Unraveling at the time) and you leave just as quick as you arrived.
In short, the experience left me a bitter taste on both sides, fans and organization, since then I try to explain, sometimes I admit, with a little animosity, that VIPs are really not a practice that should be encouraged, that we vote above all with our wallets and that we must stop this nonsense, that it does not even please the group and that there is other way to support them financially if that’s the question (Albums, Live DVD, Merch…) but there’s always fans who take it as personal attacks and start to throw a bunch of insult at you.
The band is obviously not held hostage when it comes to doing VIPs, and this is also the number 1 argument of VIP defenders (along with the classic "you’re angry because you don’t have ‘money’ lol), but that doesn’t mean they do it with a smile on their face, it’s simply a practice that (unfortunately) has become a big trend in the music industries, even for overseas band and DEG has to follow the trend like the others, in fact, they’re so not held hostage that Kyô used to just not show up during some meet and greet, and I guess this means more than any words about what they think about it right ? From this simple observation I don’t even see why people continue to buy vip tickets. Some DEG fans have this habit of seeing the members as divinities, and behind that treats them like animals from a Zoo, I’m not trying to act as the “better fan” but I will just never get used to it. Everyone has aspects of their job that they don’t enjoy to varying degrees but that they do anyway, and that goes for musicians, and for Dir en grey, VIP is a part of it.
ALL my friends who attended VIPs for Dir en grey share a similar bittersweet experience, and never tried it again.
Anyway, in the end, it’s your money, and your choice, that’s just my personal opinion about it."
Searching for “Dir en grey meet and greet” will give you pics like these and if that’s your vibe, go for it (even though it’s not even included to take pictures with them this time):
