L'Arc~en~Ciel World Tour 2012 (Singapore)

 I think the above video is the tv spot for the recently concluded L'Arc en Ciel concert in Singapore. I'm going to write what I hope will be a quick and short post about my experience. I'm still hoping that I can somehow get to the other posts I would like to make and get to a bunch of things I really would like to do tonight but we'll see. I wasn't suppose to work tomorrow, it's a public holiday in Singapore but, unfortunately, I have to go back yet again. :( So one again, other things will have to take a back seat till I am able to deal with them. Anywayz... here goes... :)

I have to confess that I was not a fan of L'Arc en Ciel's music before I went to the concert.  I was only familiar with the Full Metal Alchemist songs.  Actually, unless it's somewhat anime or dorama related, I'm often not that familiar with Japanese music.  In the past, I would probably not even have gone to this concert because before Kajiura Yuki's music, I had very little real interest in Japanese music.  When I lived in the States, I was only interested in English songs and Chinese music.  So while Kajiura's music isn't anything like L'Arc en Ciel's, I must once again thank her.  Although it's through a very indirect fashion, the biggest reason why I decided to attend the L'Arc en Ciel concert was because I had fallen so much in love with Kajiura's music that I attended a Kalafina live in Japan in 2010 which led me to exploring anisong and now J-Rock as well.



I bought one of the concert t-shirts. :)

My original intention before the L'Arc en Ciel concert on Saturday was to watch / listen to their music online before the day of the concert.  I wasn't really worried about the genre of music since I have a pretty eclectic taste in music and like many types of music, even vastly different types of music.  What I was worried though was that I may not enjoy the concert if I didn't know the songs.  But I didn't have to worry about much because as it turns out, it is true, music has no boundaries.  I didn't know almost all the songs that were performed that night.  I didn't understand most of the Japanese being sung that night.  I didn't even know the names of all the band members before the concert that night.  By the end of the night, I not only knew the names of all the band members, I had also become quite enamoured by L'Arc en Ciel.

Initially, E and I were a little inhibited.  E, like me, knew very little about the band.  I'm not sure why she wanted to come along with me but I was happy she did.  This is the kind of concert where you really want to attend with a friend.  We were both a little inhibited at first and sat and clapped politely.  But as the band performed, we started to tap our feet and I was at the end of my seat bouncing to the beat of the music.  I really wanted to stand but didn't want to block the view of the couple behind me.  But mid-way through the concert, I turned to E and said, "I really want to stand."  E looked at me and said, "Then, stand lah."  And so I did and so did she and because we did, so did the folks in front of us.  Soon, almost everyone around me were standing.  We all threw our inhibitions to the wind and we were clapping, screaming, cheering, dancing and jumping.  It was GREAT!!!!

I really can't give a very good review of this concert since I still don't know the titles of the song sung that night but I really wanted to write a fuller post on the concert itself because I believe that it deserves more then just what I had previously written. 

I really don't know if the band sang as good as they sound on their cds.  But what I can say is that they sounded really good live, in spite of the less than great acoustics in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.  Hyde looked "oh so sexy" with his very mesmerizing eyes.  Yes, we weren't close to the stage at all but the video screens did a very good job of giving us a variety of close-ups, mid close-ups and mid-shots of Hyde and he is very good looking.  I was swooning. :p  He also really knows how to play it up as he dazzled the crowd with his smothering eyes and pouting lips.  Aside from looking very good, Hyde is also a really good live singer.  His powerful voice easily filled the hall and even when he dips it or switches key or sings in falsetto, his voice would also sound as though it was more than capable of ripping the roof off our heads.  It was really that powerful not just in strength but in emotion.

And it was not just Hyde who was able to convey his emotions to us through his voice.  The other band members, Ken, Tetsuya or Yukihiro were all able to play with so much emotion that somehow you were able to feel the strength of that emotion and the passion for their music just by them playing their instruments alone.  I had many friends in the audience that night and one of them told me that he shed tears as they played at one point.  I didn't shed any tears but I've never behaved with this freely at a rock concert before either.  I think E too felt the same because she was cheering as much as I was. :)

The band was really funny too at times.  While Hyde liked to play up his sex appeal.  Ken's deadpan delivery is simply hilarious too.  At one point in the concert, Ken talked about the band's visit to Mustapha.  Mustapha is a large shop in Little India which sells virtually everything.  Ken talked about Tiger Balm and being dumbfounded by what it was made of.  Then he talked about getting Tetsuya a gift.  That was when Tetsuya appeared on stage and Ken continued by saying that he bought Tetsuya one pink Merlion from Mustapha.  Then Ken continued by saying that he also bought Tetsuya, "pink Merlion 2' and then "pink Merlion 3".... till we had 7 pink Merlions.  It was pretty funny.

Tetsuya was also hilarious.  He brought out some bananas and lollipops and asked the audience if we wanted to "eat his banana" and "lick his lollipop".  We all played a long and roared "YES!!!!".  At the end of the concert, Tetsuya came out and threw bananas and lollipops to the audience.  The only one who didn't say anything was Yukihiro but boy did he use his drum solo to do all the talking.  His drum solo was very cool and the crowd was cheering in unison with the beat of the drum at points.

It was truly a really fun concert and the audience was really into it.  Lots of cheering, singing, jumping and dancing all around.  I LOVED IT and now I've become quite interested in L'Arc en Ciel.  Am thinking of buying maybe a dvd of one of their live performances because I really loved seeing them live.  CD Japan is currently running a up-to-30% sale of some of L'Arc en Ciel's products, here is the link.  Hmm.... I am really tempted. :)

Okay... I need to try and end this post now.  It's a little rambling but this post and it's rambling style kind of captured how E and I felt after the concert.  We were just so high and we just kept talking about it.  We were so excited, we just said whatever came into out heads.  Hahaha... we were like excited schoolgirls.  It was kind of funny. :)  K... I better stop rambling now.  Later... :)