Dir en grey @ Zepp Sapporo 31.3.2019
I still remember when in Nagoya they announced this tour. The Sapporo date came to the screen where they were displaying the dates and the audience went “ohhhh” (mostly Toshiya’s side lol). Fukuoka live is closer to my birthday but as I already had a birthday live in 2015, this time I chose to celebrate Toshiya’s with a live in northern Japan.
I arrived to Sapporo the day before and I slept that night like 12 hours. I say it with no shame at all. I was kind of scared as being Toshiya’s bd would mean his zone would be extra packed and as my ticket was 170s, I was mentally preparing myself for that. i went to the venue earlier to get the sticker (it was blue, as expected lol) and I could see that the present box was already flooded with bags and letters mostly for Toshiya. They made us line in order by number, one by one until 200s something. They also closed the locker room at 16:45 to avoid trouble so I had to enter to the locker room once I got into the venue. Once I was inside, I made my way up to the first block and I got a good spot between Kaoru and Toshiya’s side. As first it didn’t feel any different than any other show. Once the big push came, we were squeezed and I felt a bit like in Citta’s live, barely space but it was ok. Then, another push, then another push....and here it comes. As a random note, I could smell Kaoru’s candles scent for the first time and with the choir version of “Nothing else matters” as BGM felt so relaxing. The lights went off and the intro started playing people started to push even more, Shinya entereted the stage, then Die....and when Toshiya appeared another sudden big push with tons of screaming. I always wear hearing protection and I checked that I had it on because it felt like if I wasnt wearing it at all. So loud. Toshiya looked unaffected; he went to his spot, got the bass from the staff, thanked them, sprayed the bass....it felt like his usual ritual before starting a show. People went on screaming and at some point after drinking from his beer, he put the bottle up without turning back to the audience. He was wearing the suit with a black shirt and a tie. He had a heart-shaped badget on his jacket. The setlist structure changed so much compared with Citta and Zepp Tokyo. The first batch of songs went on so fast and most of them have some background vocals by Toshiya. When they started playing “Dozing Green” it felt like at some point they had some trouble with sound. They played “Undecided” this time before the Encore and at this point Toshiya had already taken his jacket off and before starting playing the acoustic bass, he got rid of the tie. Then “Ranunculus” came and this time I don’t know why, I felt it less emotional than other times. They didn’t display the lyrics on the screen I think? or at least not as much as before. The break for the encore arrived after Values of Madness ( go mad <3) and Utafumi and I couldn’t be more thankful for a short break. Again random note: I like transition sound they put between songs. It sounds like a tiger roaring with a bit of distortion and lights go between light blue/purple creating a nice atmosphere. So, encore time. Toshiya went out wearing the white tour shirt. “Kigan” was the first song and the mood and the atmosphere felt soooo good. With each “Victimization” from Toshiya, he smiled happily when the crowd chanted back. It’s always pretty cool.
Now going to the very end, after Kaoru, Die and Shinya did their water splashing thing, threw picks and drumsticks (I remember Kyo said “bye bye” but I think he left after that), they left Toshiya alone to enjoy his moment. It was nice cause kaoru splashed water on him naughtly and when they were leaving finally Toshiya was kind of wandering shyly around the stage. He was like testing his mic looking at the floor, looking kind of shy. Die passed by him and did like “go, go,go” kind of gesture and he smiled at him. He went to the center and people cheered him more if it was possible, screaming his name and “happy birthday”, he took off his earbuds to hear it better, smiling. The crowd felt like a wave, we were moving towards to where Toshiya was moving lol. He was wearing the jacket from the goods ( he just had it on for like 10 min? lol) and he threw it to the right side of the stage. I can’t remember when he threw the towel but it was kind of at the center, and he left his tshirt for our side lol I think like 6-7 people grabbed it. Then, he went to Kaoru’s mic, tested it and made the sign to tell us to shut up. We went silent and he said “thank you” and people starting screaming again than when he said “oyasumi” it was hard to hear it. At some point he just was looking into the audience with a huge smile in his face, seeming so touched by the overwhelming response. When he was about to leave, he stopped on his spot at the stage and lifted one finger like “just one more thing” and before I could react he was doing a backflip lol. I just remember seeing his legs in the air with the black jeans and I was totally caught off guard. He landed ok and laughed, he finally left saying goodbye to the audience. It took me a couple of minutes to recover and be able to make my way out of the room. So this was it.
