I’m on my way now to tell you TIW (doesn’t) suck!
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I’m on my way there to concur.
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Well, that was fun, I knew Kyo was going to rep Adidas Kei so I repped Adidas kei 
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Why does he look like a cross between Marilyn Manson and Lime though? 
haha. Good show though to be fair, looking forward to Uroboros tomorrow. 
The vibe I’m getting from their insta posts is that only Shinya is actually enjoying this eurotour lol
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I’m enjoying Kyo’s social media banter with him. Claims he has no idea who Shinya is, then Shinya replies that he’s on the bunk above him.
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To me it looks like Toshiya and Die use it as a sightseeing trip to europe, where they have to play an instrument occasionly
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So, yeah.
Reached Islington Assembly Hall at around 3PM. Gonna say, it was a bit early (not a lot of people were there still, and most of them were VIP). Had a friendly chat with some fans, received Beer en Grey discount voucher (despite that place working till 4PM lmao), saw some of their management walking around and was helping for priority ticket owners to find ther line.
At 7PM they started letting in the regular crowd and I got afraid of the possibility of having to show every compartment of my 7 zipper bag, but got lucky in the end. Wanted to buy some postcards and lucky bag merch, but those were already sold-out, so T-shirt it is.
Grabbed 2 pints of cider to make the time past by and somehow striked a conversation with a very nice lad. Discussed older and favorite albums, chatted a bit about X-Japan and, out of morbid curiousity, asked him about The Last Rockstars. No regrets.
There was no opening act and, for some reason, they used DSS at Nippon Budokan as a BGM (I recognize those annoying drum samples from Decayed Crow everywhere). Some unknown SE later the band came on stage. Everyone except for Kyo was wearing their previous outfits while Kyo was mixing Adidas era with, if that makes sense, Yuchi’s make-up if that makes sense.
Merciless is a good opener. Headbanging right from the start and then singing along, why not?
Swapping Saku with Spilled Milk was a surprising move that I definitely liked. Ever since those DESPERATE gig footages I understand how big potential it has as an opener.
Hearing Jesus Christ R’n’R live was hilarious. Quirky and awkward, but with a lot of singalong moments. Noice.
Itoshisa wa Fuhai Nitsuki… I very appreciate this song, but, somehow, I didn’t feel it completely? Like there was something lacking in emotional department for me.
13 and Oboro. Yeah sure why not.
Higeki… now that’s the song I wasn’t expecting to hit me hard. So, let me digress a bit and talk about the sound quality and volumes. I went without eaplugs and it was very good, actually. Yes, it was loud. However, I could easily hear each instrument. Maybe Kyo was mixed quieter than everyone else, but I didn’t mind that.
So, Higeki. Die brought his acoustic guitar, obviously. But then I started feeling some vibrations with my feet and then noticed how Toshiya was playing a five string bass. Each note of his was pulsating along the floor, through feet and to my heart. Definitely a highlight of the show.
There was no Inward Scream, thankfully, so they just continued with Dead Tree. Y’know, them playing older albums just make the overall experience more accessible to peeps. So many singalongable songs.
Then we get a barrage of fun with Machiavellism, Garbage, Saku and C. Those songs are definitely made with live experience in mind. My neck started to hurt at that moment.
OG The Final. Never did I think that they will play it at all. And yeah, it is much more tight than 2013 ver. Something about those guitars, man.
A few ANN CORE EH later the band comes back with a minimal wardrobe change. Kodou, obviously, is another good singalong song for the fans. Nice stuff.
Beautitul Dirt. At this moment I decided to separate from that nice lad and went further to join some moshpit. Not big, but it was enough for some fun. I recall helping some girl to stand up (and then we chatted about it with a glass of water after the gig).
Eddie. I heard that drum roll intro and prepared for the most aggressive (by DEG standards) moshpit. This song is a pure fun and one of the best from Phalaris, so I was FUCKING GLAD they brought it overseas. 3 2 1 GO countdown to kickstart some moshing is a nice detail.
TDFF is another banger I was glad to hear live. Starting from HAI HAI HAI chanting to that doomy part that compliments slow headbanging to screaming DESTROY MR. FUCKER at the end… ah, pure perfection.
And then they ended it on a soothing note with Akuro no Oka. Honestly? It’s an awesome goodbye song after this barrage of insanity. Just standing there and soaking all the emotions to fill this emptiness caused by all the madness during the encore.
Kyo said Bye Bye, others engaged in throwing picks and drumsticks, and there was I, looking at the scene with band & tourname written on it.
After that I grabbed some water, fistbumped with Takabayashi (who was sitting next to the sound team), chatted with Saki Rose and some other peeps, took a couple of photos and, with a good mood, went to the place called The Famous Cock to enjoy some beer.
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He definitely was. I didn’t mind so much either but on certain tracks he was barely audible up on the balcony seats.
Also agree that Itoshisa wa didn’t hit as hard as I thought it would. One of my favourites on the studio recordings, but something didn’t quite translate as well in yesterday’s setting. Still enjoyable though.
C, Machiavellism, Jesus Christ R’n’R, and T.D.F.F were probably my favourites. A bit sad Kodoku ni Shisu didn’t make it, but on the whole a really enjoyable show. Looking forward to Uroboros.
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Damn you were keen! I got there about 15 mins before the show kicked off. 
Skipped the t shirts as well, £40… hahaha. Show was good though and crowd seemed pretty chill, didnt see anyone being dickheads or anything so yeah looking forward to tonight, travel there and back aside… haha.
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I guess, I had nothing to do that day 
Going to the hall atm, btw.
Yeah, I had zero complains about the show or the crowd. It was peachy
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That`s was just amaising show in Paris!!!
Who Shinya? Dir en grey is releasing a new album? Dir en grey is going on tour??? I have to get on a plane for 12 hours and sit next to whoever Shinya is??-probably Kyo
Uroboros night was awesome. Great setlist with a hyped, yet respectful crowd. Considerably less screeching going on from the fangirls too, bonus!
They played everything from the album except Ware, Yami Tote…, and added Otogi and Oboro. The encore was the same as yesterday but with Stuck Man in place of the WTD songs. They played everything really well and Kyo’s mixing seemed a bit better. He seemed on much better form than yesterday, belting out all those highs in Inconvenient Ideal with ease. Not sure what was going with Shinya’s snare though; it gave a horrible, loud slappy sound on both nights. Everything else was ace. Lots of crowd interaction from Toshiya and Die.
Kyo had the same mad hair and makeup today but wore something that wouldn’t go amiss in Kamijo’s wardrobe. Everyone else looked fabulous. Props to Toshiya’s sparkly one-armed number.
Highlights include hearing Vinushka live, the amazing visuals being played during Otogi, and Kyo instigating a fucking Wall of Death during the end of Reiketu Nariseba.
Easily my favourite Dir En Grey gig to date (minus the terrifyingly expensive merch). I really need a better camera phone though as my pictures are mostly garbage!
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Please don’t get my hopes up like this. Was there actually a wall of death?
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During the build up, Kyo indicated that everyone at the front should part. I was a bit further back so I couldn’t see if it had the full effect but the crowd went nuts when shit got loud again. The atmosphere was unreal!
@EvilHippy might he able to verify as it sounds like they were probably leading the charge?
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Yes, this happened. During the instrumental break in Reiketsu, Kyo pointed to everyone and gestured to direct everyone to get away from the centre of the venue. People complied, and on the “DESTROY!” lyric, everyone crashed together and started moshing like crazy.
I actually got a video of that moment, too… as a luddite moron, I have no idea how to upload it.
Freed from spoiler jail now. Here are some thoughts from the London shows.
I thought maybe these shows would be flavoured with their respective albums but would mostly consist of PHALARIS material, as they never toured that here. Was I glad to be wrong.
Never did I expect to hear so much deep cut material. Jesus Christ R ‘n’ R was absolutely amazing. So fun! What the hell was that video with the giant boobs/butt?
The UROBOROS material was all incredible. At these shows, Kyo’s voice wasn’t the best I’ve heard from him over the years. However, he was solid, and overall this was a much better showcase of the songs than the first time I saw them (2008? I forget). Highlights were VINUSHKA, BUGABOO, Reiketsu, and STUCK MAN. The latter was crazy; I always felt this was a lesser-known song but the entire floor was jumping to the beat screaming “BUT THIS IS THE FACT!”.
Otogi had an AI video consisting of women being built up, bleeding from the eyes, pregnant women’s bellies turning into skulls… that sort of thing. I like this song quite a lot, so it was good to see it here.
My only complaint is the repeated songs over both days. These were Oboro, Eddie, TDFF, and Akuro no Oka. Personally, I’d have liked to hear the other PHALARIS single Ochita, maybe Utsutsu or Mouai instead of Eddie, another recent remake, and Ware, Yami Tote instead of Akuro no Oka. No Yurameki was sad.
Here’s the thing: I can’t complain. Oboro is great (performance was better on Day 2 as well) and Eddie is really fun. Hearing anything from my favourite album Kisou is a mindblow, so TDFF can stay. And Akuro no Oka is by far my favourite from GAUZE.
Speaking of Akuro, it struck me during the UROBOROS show that the song is a perfect display of all four members. Die has his acoustic solo at the beginning, Kaoru has a solo, Toshiya has a solo, Shinya is present throughout, and it really showcases Kyo’s range (for the time).
Seeing this song live not once but twice is a bucket list wish for me. Insane that this actually happened.
Perhaps another slight downer is how these shows hammered home how much I am not into the newer material. I’ve listened to it enough for sure, but yeah, it doesn’t do it for me quite like the older stuff. This is probably controversial. Sorry.
But I digress. These were fantastic shows. Once in a lifetime experiences that I hope my brain won’t forget for a long time. Had a great time!
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Totally agree with this feeling like a once in a lifetime thing. When is the UK audience ever going to get a treat like this again?! I also wish the encore was a bit different but I didn’t dislike hearing the same songs.
The boobs/butt video was…something.
Don’t suppose you know if that AI video for Otogi is available anywhere? Absolutely loved the visuals and desperately want a GIF!
Be still, my heart.
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During that calm interlude Kyo was drawing circles in the air to indicate that we must empty space in the middle. Meanwhile, from what I saw a friend of mine, @kris was also instructing people to step back, so kudos to her as well. And, as @NowhereGirl already mentioned, on the “DESTROY!” we slammed into each other. And, since I was in front, I felt it Probably the most aggressive moshing during that gig (and MILES better than whatever was during yesterday’s gig).
Also, Kyo was telling us to jump during every STUCK MAN’s chorus, that was fun as well.
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