L'Arc~en~Ciel is back

[donwea 13]

LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas is Confirmed!
LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas
【Date】
December 19, 2018 (WED) OPEN 16:00 / START 18:00
December 20, 2018 (THU) OPEN 16:00 / START 18:00
【Venue】
Tokyo Dome
【Ticket Price】
All seat reserved 11,000 yen (tax in)
※L'ed band(wristband) included
※Special ticket sales will also be available to overseas customers.
Further details about purchasing from overseas will be announced later.
【Enquiry】
KYODO TOKYO 0570-550-799 (Weekdays 11:00～18:00, Weekends/Holiday 10:00～18:00)
LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas Special Site＞＞
https://www.LArc-en-Ciel.com/LArChristmas/

------------------------------

LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas 決定舉行！
LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas
【公演日期】
2018年12月19日(三)進場16:00/開演18:00
2018年12月20日(四)進場16:00/開演18:00
【會場】
東京巨蛋
【門票價格】
全席指定 11,000日幣(含稅)
※附L'ed手環
※本次預計為海外居住的歌迷開放特別售票。
關於販售方式將於日後另行公告，請稍加等候。
【詢問】
KYODO東京 0570-550-799(平日11:00～18:00 六/日/假日10:00～18:00）
LIVE 2018 L’ArChristmas特設網站請由此連結進入＞＞
https://www.LArc-en-Ciel.com/LArChristmas/

 

 

[saishuu 3220]

Surprised they're still able to play the Dome, let alone two days.

[suji 8317]

[LIDL 692]

Is this just a tour? We neeed an album tho. A good one. The last one I got was Kiss, and the other releases after that just don't interest me much 

[saishuu 3220]

Hell, the last album I actually liked was AWAKE and that was what, in 2005? At this point I have no hopes anymore lmao

[Saishu 1589]

Is Yuckyhiro back too? 

[Kiyoharu is God 283]

Time for a new album. Save us from HYDE solo

[LIDL 692]

Just now, Kiyoharu is God said:

Time for a new album. Save us from HYDE solo

 

I thought I saw Kyo DEG on his last MV, I don't remember he was doing such extreme looks ever, even during his visual days with L'arc 

 

[evenor 1655]

Wings Flap gives me hope of a new decent album.

Edited August 7, 2018 by evenor

[seikun 317]

Wings Flap is a flop.

[tetsu_sama69 1119]

I'm excited! I do hope this is a full comeback! Haters gonna hate ❤️

 

[pawzord 388]

3 hours ago, seikun said:

Wings Flap is a flop.

Wings Flop

 

jesus I can't so funny

[Masato 365]

They needed some money to sponsor hyde solo

[seikun 317]

2 hours ago, pawzord said:

Wings Flop

 

jesus I can't so funny

Basically, their latest music isn't as exciting as it was before. Wing Flap, for example, sounds sort of uninspired/boring to me.

 

[r... 720]

So they finally squashed that beef about the money split with DC/MAVERICK? Cool, though I feel the impending end is coming very soon. hyde and ken still want to go on, god knows why, but tetsuya always seems SO bored with the band. yuki probably doesn't mind if the band disbands either.

[saishuu 3220]

35 minutes ago, r... said:

So they finally squashed that beef about the money split with DC/MAVERICK? Cool, though I feel the impending end is coming very soon. hyde and ken still want to go on, god knows why, but tetsuya always seems SO bored with the band. yuki probably doesn't mind if the band disbands either.

I wouldn't be surprised if they kept this "a couple of shows every few years" thing going on for a while, to be honest. At this point that's probably all they need and doesn't seem like a lot of work.

[Kiyoharu is God 283]

I liked their last single Don't be Afraid. Not sure why people are still going on about Wings Flap. They followed that up with something better.

41 minutes ago, r... said:

hyde and ken still want to go on, god knows why

I'm assuming because they enjoy being in the band, but if not then them scheduling two shows at the TOKYO DOME explains it. HYDE is popular, but I don't think he's going to pull off any shows of that size alone. Neither is ken.

Edited August 7, 2018 by Kiyoharu is God

[r... 720]

21 minutes ago, Kiyoharu is God said:

I'm assuming because they enjoy being in the band, but if not then them scheduling two shows at the TOKYO DOME explains it. HYDE is popular, but I don't think he's going to pull off any shows of that size alone. Neither is ken.

 I think that is part of it, yes. But ken always seems to have a blast on stage no matter where or who he is playing with. Dude is mad cool. 

If they go on, great. I love L'Arc~en~Ciel a lot. If they don't, that's ok too. They had a great career so far. I also think the band ran its course, a lot of their songs since the first hiatus sound like solo careers leftovers, with a few exceptions. But that's me. I feel the same way about LUNA SEA ever since SHINE.

 

 

[carddass 273]

 

Overall, I think it's safe to say that Awake was the last time they were a band in the true l'arc sense that most of associate as being the band we love. Smile was them learning to work together again, Awake was them actually being a working band together,  and Kiss was just the honeymoon period from Awake. I can't even listen to Butterfly and don't even think of it is a real album. It's really just a collection of random singles that don't feel like they work together hence the 4 year recording time for that album. The band up to that point were very concise in the studio leading up to each album. Remember the Ark-Ray singles of 98/99 that felt cohesive but still each song had a distinctive sound of their own?

If you look at their touring schedule post the world tour of 2012, you will just see short and calculated concerts to celebrate the 20th or 25th or whatever. 
https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/larcenciel-43d62367.html
They can easily sell out Tokyo Dome easily and I'm sure the labels and management companies for each member are the ones pushing the idea forth more than the members themselves. Those yearly two day back-to-back concerts literally backroll each member's solo career, or in the case of tetsuya and ken, allow them to relatively do nothing in the studio compared to what they used to do in the mid to late 90s.

So while I want the band to be the band that can work together and produce consistent work like they did early on 1993-2000, those days are long gone and these upcoming concerts are probably just a cashgrab or conscious effort to keep the l'ard brand alive before another long hibernation as they've been doing for years. I actually quite enjoyed Wing Flaps and thought it was great in a 'True' sense but that too was probably some other behind the scenes management thing which we'll find out years later "My management spoke with their management and we decided to meet in the studio to see if we could work things out...." type motivating factor behind the single and the other recent ones.

 

23 minutes ago, r... said:

So they finally squashed that beef about the money split with DC/MAVERICK? Cool, though I feel the impending end is coming very soon. hyde and ken still want to go on, god knows why, but tetsuya always seems SO bored with the band. yuki probably doesn't mind if the band disbands either.

 

While the money split might be the real reason, I took public Japanese way of saying that the members can't work with each other anymore. Are there any interviews from hyde and ken where they state they want L'arc to go on? I actually always thought the opposite, that Hyde would rather go solo/Vamps and ken would rather do nothing. Yukihiro probably has it best of all of them as he doesn't need any band for the Depeche Mode like music he makes. He's equally sufficient being a part of a band or a mad scientist in the computer/studio.

Based on tetsuya's autobiography, tetsugaku (https://mei-24.livejournal.com/14719.html), - he always had to deal with the difficult parts of being the band leader. He was the one who kept the band together and kept pushing it forward. Regarding Sakura's departure / being kick out of the band. You can very clearly deduce that Hyde and ken were against the idea of so quickly moving forward with the Reincarnation live and held a grudge against tetsu at the time. Ken would later team up with Sakura in SOAP, so there definitely was no ill-will there.

Some quotes from the translations. Tetsuya's words in bold:
===================================================================================================
I want to add that I am also proud that I have been able to make my band move further as a leader. As for the results, of course it’s not all due to me, but I believe that I have been able to choose the right path. Because I am sure that each time I’m doing the best choice. For example, when sakura quitted, there were many ideas, as you may expect. The same happened when we did the Reincarnation live at Tokyo Dome. There were several opinions, so, in the end, if I had chosen a different path, how it would be today?


-At the time of your return with “L’Arc-en-Ciel 1997 Reincarnation” live, you were convinced that “if it’s not Tokyo Dome, it doesn’t have any meaning”, so you didn’t give in.

The manager we had at that time was against the idea. He said it was unreasonable, but as a result we sold out all the tickets in 4 minutes, the fastest selling in history. To tell the truth after sakura left, to my shock I was accused of having kicked sakura without mercy. In the end, even members thought that.
===================================================================================================

 

Following that incident there is bound to be friction and this led to that period of l'arc's history right after that whole burn-out inducing rollercoaster of heart-ark-ray-real that led into a hiatus.  You can surmise that Tetsu and Hyde started doing solo activities after that tme to find their own ways and that turned into Hyde wanting to leave the band outright during or after Roentgen's release.

===================================================================================================
- You said you’ve thought of quitting L’Arc-en-Ciel several times. But your band had a big crisis, too. Would you like to tell us the details?

It was in 2002 maybe. hyde’s manager came to my office and handed me an envelope, saying that he had received it directly from hyde. Inside there were the CDs I had lent him and a letter. In that letter he apologized for having kept those CDs for more than 10 years, and announced he wanted to quit the band.

-Honestly, what did you think about it at that moment?

I thought that once hyde decided it, nothing could be done. He wrote me a letter, so he had surely spent a lot of time reflecting upon this thing. Well…more than “nothing could be done”, I thought that, despite every effort to stop him, he wouldn’t change his mind. "
===================================================================================================

 

[r... 720]

I remember reading somewhere that hyde and ken had sided with DC/MAVERICK and wanted to keep doing stuff as L'Arc~en~Ciel, but I can't remember an exact source. I do think they are closer to the management office than tetsu and yuki, especially if you look at their other activities.

 

I guess they don't mind doing one or two singles every two years and playing a concert every now and then. You could also interpret that as "I'll do it, as long as it doesn't interfere with my solo career/VAMPS/producer duties." 

[tetsu_sama69 1119]

wow this went wayyyy off topic. y'all got some serious issues you need to sort out...

Edited August 7, 2018 by tetsu_sama69

[saishuu 3220]

9 minutes ago, tetsu_sama69 said:

wow this went wayyyy off topic. y'all got some serious issues you need to sort out...

How is this off-topic and an indicative of serious issues?

[tetsu_sama69 1119]

announces show at tokyo dome for the holidays
throws around record label issues and how they dislike songs, solo projects, members, etc

I mean really, if you don't like something just move on. You can just look at news topics and I get people are allowed be upset because artist choices and whatnot but really. Don't like it, just walk by. I've been a long time fan of the group and they're not perfect, no band is honestly. They've done a lot of things I don't like but it doesn't derail me from enjoying aspects of the group.

It's just a show at tokyo dome. That's all. If it's a come back then it's a come back.

Like it, stay for info.

Dislike it, move on.

 

That's all I'll say about it.

[suji 8317]

i've never listened to this band, but...did we really need that long ass essay about other shit that has absolutely NOTHING to do with this topic? this is only a christmas concert, lmao

[saishuu 3220]

jesus fucking christ