LIDL

I attended two of the shows on this old school tour in osaka and posted them on Facebook. Decides I might just as well repost them here:
 
Day 1:
"
I just attended the best show of my life, and it was a MUCC live.
 
The best way I can describe it is as if I went back in a time machine to 2001 and attended one of their oneman lives. They performed only old songs, including tracks so old several fans noticably did not recognize then, like Kranke (my favorite song!) and Koibito. The entire live felt dangerous and rough, just like one of those 90s lives where the audience are headbanging their necks off and the band is taunting them further into a frenzy. Before VK became a polished business.
 
It was super intense, during some songs the entire audience was moshing and thanks to the intense mosh I ended up in the second row in front of tatsurou during the second half of the live, where I ended up catching him as he stage dived during Orugooru. At the end, when they played Kurutta Kajitsu, we were even ordered to perform a wall of death and delivered it splendidly.
 
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/mucc/2017/esaka-muse-osaka-japan-2be5b0e2.html
 
Tomorrow is Homura Uta day... can't wait. Dir en grey, take note. This is how you do nostalgia shows."
 
Day 2:
"
So... MUCC day 2 was every bit as good as day 1. Homura Uta day, so practically the whole album was performed, along with some songs from Antique and Tsuuzetsu.

Especially the performance of Kimi ni Sachi Are and Kurayami ni Saku Hana stood out as soulcrushingly beautiful, and tracks like Kokuen made the whole audience mosh yet again while Tatsurou kept jumping into the front rows to make us work harder.
 
Before OYOGE! TAIYAKI-KUN Tatsurou addressed me directly, asking if I knew the lyrics (since I was seemingly the only foreigner at least in the front of the venue). I made an OK sign and he looked surprised and happy and made some comment about it, and then we all sang it together, the entire venue.
 
During the wall of death during Kurutta Kajitsu today, he jumped into the audience and participated for a bit before being rescued back onto the stage. 
 
To be honest, unless MUCC makes further nostalgia tours, I might not attend any more of their lives in the future. Nothing can top this tour no matter how hard they try. Sure, I'd like to see a Zekuu and Kuchiki no Tou tour as well, but until that happens I might just lay off their lives in the future.
 
Todays Setlist:
HOMURA UTA (intro)
ZETSUBOU
SHIAWASE NO SHUUCHAKU
KOKUEN
YAKEATO
KARE GA SHINDA HI
KIMI NI SACHI ARE
MAMA
SHIGATSU NO RENGESOU
BOKU GA HONTOU NO BOKU NI TAEKIREZU TSUKUTTA HONTOU NO BOKU
KURAYAMI NI SAKU HANA
USO DE YUGAMU SHINZOU
KAERANU HITO
KOKONOKA
OYOGE! TAIYAKI-KUN
SUISOU
MAE E
SUIMIN
Encore:
YUME NO MACHI
SHOUFU
DAIKIRAI
KURUTTA KAJITSU (WARAI)"
 
Hope someone here finds it interesting to read!

I didn't believe it when I hear it few hours ago when it broke the social media.
And it is still hard to believe now that I know it's real.
This is too painful because my youth pretty much filled with his bands music among others.
His music saved me from self harm and suicidal tendencies that I have got when I was a teen.
Mental health issues is no joke, I hope more and more people realize this
I survived, I only he wish he could have too.  Rest In Peace.
 

That's because nobody ever wants to see another Dir en grey. 

That is brilliant actually. Incopirating heavy theatrics into live show are always be.

That is brilliant actually. Incopirating heavy theatrics into live show are always be.

That's crazy. Are they doing DHL or Fedex with those shipping fee  like Amazon JP does? But Amazon still have lower shipping cost than that tho!

Agreed. I was thought we were gonna get a special collab song at least.
 
Interestingly enough, it seems like quite a few current indies VK dudes made it a point to be at the show.
 
Here are some pics from PIERROT's fan club:
 
 

Since the girl wrote "I don't remember" on the second day image of Kaoru...
 
He was dressed in (what appeared to be) all black and had this skull make-up going on across the mouth. Possibly the first day, as well, but I wasn't close enough to see and the screen didn't pan on him a ton.
 
THIS. I imagine it (at least the special vers) will be some honker box like the Pierrot Dictator's Circus Final one from SSA came in.
 
Less fancy boxes, more DVD/photo extras. D:
 
The latter, except the fan club is paid yearly instead of by month, and it will end at the end of January 2018. Basically they only re-open to offer ticket and other pre-orders, special events (like fan viewing parties or something), and news/fan club e-zine. Or in other words, it's all to get that coin. TBH there's no real point in joining it unless you want better/good tix that come printed on fancy paper.
 
Ah, but VK girls in Japan will spend an endless amount of money on their honmei. I saw multiple girls dropping 20,000 - 50,000 yen on these Pierrot lottery stickers in hopes of getting the random, special signed ones. They sold out both days.
 
Hell, Pierrot was selling a diamond necklace as tour goods for 50,000 yen and I imagine quite a few girls bought one, or begged their b/fs or husbands to.

Zin...I mean ZAKK...has confirmed that the other two guys are from CROSS VEIN.
 
serving guns 'n roses cover band realness
 

I don't own any Diru CDs so I might buy this one

That is counter weeabo right there lmao
Inb4 Confederate flag as their first single cover art.
 

That is counter weeabo right there lmao
Inb4 Confederate flag as their first single cover art.
 

Japanese jazz band 8-eit has resurfaced with a new line-up and their new album 「yellow」 is scheduled for a 2017/10/4 Release. In addition,
IDA TOMOTAKA【Upright Bass】, SAKURAI KIYOTAKA【Drums】, and MATSUBARA HIROSHI【Piano】 have left the band and have been replaced by YUJIROU WANTANABE【Upright Bass】 and MASANORI OYAMA【Drums】.
 

 
8-eit is now:

shinichi tsubaki【Vocal】
daisuke aradate【Guitar】
yujirou watanabe【Upright Bass】
masanori oyama【Drums】
 
https://www.the8-eit.com/news/
 
They will also hold a one-man live at club asia on 2017/10/7.

Y'all I was 3-4th row center for yesterday's show I don't even know what I did to be blessed by the VK gods like that.
 
Too much to quote on my phone but!
 
- Pierrot just got back together for the live like last time. Unlike Dir, they weren't recruiting for their fan club and all the freebies they gave out were for their solo bands. I agree with you @chemicalpicturesabout Angelo/LM.C D:
 
- No CD probably, but there will be DVDs/Blu-ray of both days and each day.
 
- @emmny I mean you're free to flaunt how wrong you are but... As much as I love Kirito, Yasu has def aged better and the proof is in the HD filming. Sorry gurl.
 
I'll post a few pics later but my general thoughts were:
 
- Dir should have played more older stuff. Most of the Dir fans were familiar with Pierrot's set (they didn't play anything off ID Attack besides their Psychadelic Lover single) while most Pierrot fans knew nothing past Macabre/Kisou/Vulgar and were just patiently waiting for Dir to be over while trying not to get knocked in the head by their more aggressive fans.
 
I know Dir hates their VK past and Kyo gonna do what he wants so whatev but it would have made for a much less disjointed show imho.
 
- Everyone looked so good both days. Personal fave was Kirito's second day outfit and Die's long hair D: Even Toshiya managed to look slightly less homeless. Like he found some rich dude's clothes his wife threw out in the dumpster after discovering he was cheating on her.
 
- Androgynos seemed to just be a visual theme, as Dir didn't do any old visual stuff besides Akuro no Oka and Zan, and none of the bands did any session music together at the end.
 
- Before the live they really harped on the Megiddo vs. Acro hill war and even renamed the stadium areas into diff zones making it hard to figure out how good your tix were until the day of lol but then at the live both Kirito and Kyo were just like wtf is this hill war anyway? I dunno guys just become one and shit lol It was cute tho
 
- The band themed food was a nice touch, and the goods were nice as well. Also the goods line was waaaay more efficient than Pierrot's reunion three years ago at SSA. Thankful for that cuz GD it was so hot and humid outside.

Schwarz Stein best album will be released at 2017/11
 
they will hold their oneman live "Schwarz Stein -15th Anniversary-" at 2017/11/12 at Shibuya REX
 

I imagine you'll be right, although in my case, utafumi will probably feel like just another album track instead of a recycled single. I can only remember the chorus, since I watched the preview vid several times, but I've only listened to the full song once. It's about as memorable as IMMORTALIS. DEG singles just aren't that interesting to me by themselves.
 
I'm also hoping the best-of album is re-recordings. Kind of ridiculous to announce something like this an entire year and a half in advance. I kind of just assumed that they abandoned this project after the "Twitter project" thing from last September.
 

The shows look cool. I'd love to have the entire [mode of x] series, but I'm not a member of the fan club and they're disgustingly expensive. £15-20 each would be okay. £70 per Blu-Ray is an outrage.
 
Really hoping the Best Of won't include one token exclusive song to force fans to buy it. However, if it's completely re-recorded material, that would be sex. If it's not a re-recording, it's kinda redundant, as DECADE already exists. Unless of course it's just stuff from UROBOROS, DSS, and ARCHE, with Unraveling and Utafumi chucked on the end for good measure.
 
Unfortunately, all this news means that it's doubtful that we'll get any new material this year. So it'll probably be two years between singles. It's just been a relentless string of pricey fan club-only live blu-rays. I get that this series of tours is celebrating each album, but it's getting kinda tedious at this point.
 
I remember when DSS came out and Hageshisa to... was just sort of plastered on the album. It felt so out of place because of the sheer length of time between releases. I imagine the same thing will happen with the next DEG album (at least, for me).

In September, DIR EN GREY will release 2 DVDs/Blu-Rays. These two releases are only for the fan-club. They will cost 7000 yen + taxes (Blu-ray) and 6000 yen + taxes (DVD)
 
The first one : 『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of UROBOROS]』 will include their live at 2017.02.10 + one song from their live on 2017.01.28.
Tracklist :
我、闇とて･･･
BUGABOO
慟哭と去りぬ
RED SOIL
蜷局
咀嚼
DOZING GREEN
VINUSHKA
INCONVENIENT IDEAL
凱歌、沈黙が眠る頃
冷血なりせば
空谷の跫音
STUCK MAN
+
GLASS SKIN 
 
The second one 『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of THE MARROW OF A BONE]』 will include their live on 2017.04.18.
Tracklist :
CONCEIVED SORROW
LIE BURIED WITH A VENGEANCE
AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS
THE PLEDGE
ROTTING ROOT
Phenomenon
凌辱の雨
艶かしき安息、躊躇いに微笑み
DISABLED COMPLEXES
THE FATAL BELIEVER
REPETITION OF HATRED
THE DEEPER VILENESS
CLEVER SLEAZOID
GRIEF
詩踏み
Sustain the untruth
 
http://direngrey.co.jp/news/3004/
 
A best album will also be released this winter ! 
 
http://direngrey.co.jp/news/3009/
 
 

ジャックケイパー (Jack Caper) will release their new single "カニカニカーニバル" (Kani Kani Carnival) at 2017.08.02. Details tba.
 
http://jackcaper.com/discography/776/

・R指定 - Sink
・相川七瀬 - サイレントノイズ
・a crowd of rebellion - 梟
・LM.C - ツメタイヒカリ
・緒方恵美 - みらいいろ
・氣志團 - プラットホーム
・清春 - メランコリック
・GOOD ON THE REEL - 空白の日
・THE NOVEMBERS - アンドロメタモルフォーゼ
・People In The Box - エンジェルダスト
・PELICAN FANCLUB - 水色ガールフレンド
・MUCC - 3月5日。
・Plastic Tree - ゼロ (re-recording)
 
Source: https://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000144244#utm_source=tw_BARKS_VISUAL&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tw_auto
 
None of the bands are covering Sabbath, so I'm gonna rampage and riot in the streets. Also, disappointed that Sink is appearing on this release. But I'm cool with a crowd of rebellion covering 梟 (can't wait to hear their vocalist actually sing in actual Japanese), THE NOVEMBERS covering Andrometamorphosis, and Plastic Tree themselves re-recording ZERO. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/génesi/id1253860177?i=1253860482

SERAPH (Shinya (Dir en grey) solo project) will release their 1st single "Génesi" (CD&DVD, 2400 yen) on August 18. The song will also be used as the theme song for the movie, "霊眼探偵カルテット" (Rei me tantei karutetto). The song is also currently available on iTunes.
 
[tracklist]
[DISC 1 : CD]
01. Génesi
02. Génesi {Instrumental Version}
03. Génesi {Orchestra Version}

[DISC 2 : DVD]
01. Génesi {Lyric Video}
02. Special Clip
 

 

 
For song samples:
 

Apparently Yoshikitty made it to Top 10 on final result for Sanrio characters fan voting. Yoshiki's career is flourishing!