if ur concert doesn't have goofball punters who will serenade me with half-dead flowers while HIM play soul on fire in the background then i'm not going ok
Here's the first part of my memorable week at the end of summer! Includes lots of moshing, wardrobe malfunctions, fan excitement, waiting in line, a bag thief and accidental encounters with A7X, Dillinger and Dir en Grey. Read on:
Oh man, so I saw my favourite band 4 times last week and have been living vicariously through Soundwave. Guilty of spamming the hell out of Facebook, Instagram and here about it, too. So before I get to anything on that I’ll talk about some of the other cool things that happened.
On the morning of the first day I watched some of Amon Amarth who had this awesome, massive viking boat on stage! Let’s hear it for unexpected rescheduling! My friends insisted I stay for a while and I’m really happy I did. I needed some warming up from my lingering vodka hangover but straight after that it was lining up to get to the front bar for my first Diru show. A couple of unexpected funtimes were had at 5B.
Less Than Jake literally rained men on me and I had my arm crushed/bruised all over from the human catwalk we made. Had some fun with chilled out dancing to Mutemath and getting to play with that electronic device with the weird sounds when the singer came to the front. Definitely looked forward to seeing Crosses afterward but never made it back in time. Got to see them the day after at the A.F.I. sideshow instead. They had a really intense set which sounded more like the beautiful, electronic hues of the Deftones.
I managed to catch the last 3 songs of Placebo, which really was the worst clash/regret of all this week. Every single time they played or had a side-show, it collided with my plans for Dir en Grey. I’ve found myself enthralled with their music lately and the lyrics are etched into my memory. It’s also a pity that the last time I actually *saw* Placebo, I was in the dirt at the Eastern Creek (that awful place with the River Styx of mud and dust-storm moshpits) being shielded from the sun by strangers with a piece of cardboard. My personal favourites would have been Rob The Bank, Infra-red, B3 and Begin The End, though I'm unsure if they played it.
My first Dir en Grey set honestly felt so short (admittedly, it was 40 minutes which were then overlapped into by band before) but it was tight, energetic and subtle. Not quite as powerful and raw as the Melbourne shows but more than enough to stand as a defining moment in its own light. The feeling was pretty surreal until the intro music began and the band members took to the stage for the first time in my 9 years of waiting.
I waited for about 4 hours at the centre of the front bar, so I was smack-bang in front of Kyo. When he came out, he looked to the audience and had a tiny smile for most of the set. It was a huge surprise! He had a very tentative and focused air. The setlist wasn’t as heavy as I’d anticipated, but something like Diabolos would have taken up nearly a quarter of their Soundwave set. We had:
Kyoukotsu no Nari (Opening)
Obscure
-Saku-
Kodou
Kasumi (2013)
Rinkaku
Reiketsu Nariseba The setlist also had subtle changes throughout the tour! In Brisbane they played Dead Tree and in Melbourne we got Red Soil for a gritty mosh. It was something like 2 chords into Kodou when I pretty much screamed like a maniac. Kaoru and Die’s solo rained down on us after the chorus and I just couldn’t fucking believe my luck. I have jammed out to that thing in my car like 100 times. Kyo watched us dancing and nodded in affirmation.
The whole thing was over pretty quickly but I was so disoriented afterward I remember running into several people outside and then just dancing off my remaining nerves at Placebo. Eventually I got kicked out of the pit there for having a back-pack. Cheers to the idiots last year who have implemented this rule by sneaking in and injuring people with flares.
A.F.I. were another casualty which I at least managed to make up for on Tuesday night before having to come back and pack for Melbourne. Davey Havok’s grown more rugged over the years but he’s still definitely got his shit together. A fair but certainly dedicated crowd turned out for them and we had an intense night of moshing, lifting band members and screaming the lyrics in between some actual fighting going on in the room. Overall, a extremely energetic and uplifting set.
The setlist would have been perfect with Torch Song. And probably without the actual roid-rage going on in the pit. There’s heavy pits and then there are men simply scrambling all over each other to punch each other in the face. While I see most of these douchebags at punk gigs (NOFX is a notable wanker attracter in Sydney for some reason), it was still pretty minimal. I finished my actual festival night after a nervous run-in with Kaoru and Die just before Glassjaw, sussing out Dillinger and being utterly impressed with their energy before finishing at A7X after a tribute to The Rev.
While in Sydney I got to spend the first few days with a group of awesome bay friends just across the road from Central. My morning view of the Central Station clock was pretty spectacular and every night I fell asleep, I felt more excited about the days ahead. We also had some really cool places to drink nearby but everybody was worried about over-doing it before the festival. What ended up happening was everybody going out *early* to drink and then being 500% done/tipsy/nope at just 10pm on The Cross.
I managed several vodkas, teapots filled with cocktails and a third of a bottle of soju before getting to Olympic Park in the morning. I don’t even know how I was so full of energy. Two days later I moved to a sexy loft with a top floor view of the city, packed a bottle of red and went out to conquer my first Diru sideshow with Glassjaw and Dillinger Escape Plan. Thanks to some idiots on Instagram, we actually learned pretty quickly where Dir en Grey were staying near Central but this information was a very shitty thing to divulge. I honestly thought the Metro was a really weird place to have the gig. It might have just been a throwback to the old days but I always pictured this night scrambling my way to the front of the Roundhouse with indiscriminate shoe-throwing shenanigans and hardcore music. I was also probably 15-18 back then. That being said, it was still pretty cool to head into the middle of the CBD for the show. We had some Korean BBQ and more soju for me beforehand. I had reached a point where I was literally freaking out because SUCH WOW my favourite band was in town.
My pre-show nerves actually amplified by a thousand before each show, Melbourne nearly tore me apart but I suffered for 8 hours at the front of the line with an awesome group of fans. Eventually I surrendered my soju to the pavement and found it gone by the end of the show. When Dir en Grey arrived at the Metro, Toshiya popped back out of the exit again and peered down the alley before smiling and waving at us. I don’t think security were very happy with him because they ushered him back inside quickly. (I had a really hilarious encounter with Toshiya later in Melbourne!)
The Metro set kind of crushed me because it ended up being even shorter than their Soundwave one. Toshiya also made a comment about this on cameran. If I hadn’t actually taken the time to see them in Melbourne, I would have missed out on the extended performance they later gave. For the Sydney Sidewave we had:
Kyoukotsu no Nari (Opening)
Obscure (2011)
Sustain The Untruth
Rinkaku
Different Sense
Rasetsukoku
I bet everybody who read that fasterlouder review on the gig is in denial of being that crazy weaboo/screaming asian fangirl/gothic vampire/???? That Guy cultural mess perceived by the “uninitiated” crowd members who seemingly didn't know what the fuck was going on. All I know is that I ran up the stairs, held onto that bar and then proceeded to destroy my neck for the rest of my life. We were in a similar spot directly in front of Kyo, Toshiya and Kaoru. I head-banged. Hard. A cord tied on the fence was cutting my arm the whole time. A hoard of photographers cluttered the set at times (though I later made friends with their hired media hand at Melbourne). People in the line also recognised me from the Sydney show and we soon came to the conclusion that everybody who arrived before 9:30 was only there for Dir en Grey.
Again, having their own tour and more command over the setlist would have been preferable but they were discernably eager to see what kind of reactions they would get from a country that never formally distributed their CDs. If not for cdjapan, we’d be ordering through speciality stores or trawling through the miscellaneous Japanese section of Media-Asia where you were still more likely to run into Hyde and Ayumi Hamasaki.
At the end of the set we lingered around for Glassjaw (so did Die) while Toshiya and Kaoru ran out the back, though I’m not sure why this was necessary because of the staff exit. In the last hour I watched Dillinger’s vocalist hanging from the speakers, running on top of the moshpit and then scaling the scaffolding of the lights. Their crowd was crass and concedingly, fierce as fuck.
Eventually I caved in and bought the Dir en Grey shirt with the two skeletons, which I later found a version of from the Family Values Tour. That was a pretty cool moment. I awkwardly slipped it on over my Marceline dress and red skull leggings (which Die eyed before Glassjaw yesterday! :) ). A couple of sharkies from Melbourne and (stalker) sharkies in Sydney snapped shots of my nylons on their phones. On the way back we bought an indiscriminate load of munchies, roses and pies because oh man, the cravings. I spent the rest of the night chilling to Dir en Grey from my balcony and then finally going to bed at 3 in the morning.
Can i please put soundwave on repeat? It was actually amazing! Being front and centre barrier for The Story So Far and Our Last Night were definitely highlights!
girlwiththebluelashes and i had the raddest fucking time at soundwave. we spent eleven hours straight clinging to this barrier in the mosh pit. i caught a pick from korn, rob zombie, and mot importantly AVENGED FUCKING SEVENFOLD. best day/night of my life. ugh.
If anyone has any crowd shots from The Story So Far's set in Brisbane yesterday, can you let me know.. My friend and i were on the barrier and we're trying to find some photos
