Dir en Grey At  Download Festival 2009

At 10 am, I began waiting at the arena entrance. That’s dedication. I didn’t even know when it opened but I only had to wait 15 minutes before I was allowed in. After this I went straight to the second stage and got front row in my usual space in front of die.

After four bands that I’d never listened to and a 6 hour wait on the front of the barrier which caused my ribs to be horrifically bruised, the Dir en grey team started preparing.

It was seriously exciting just watching people come out and checking everything. I always get so mega excited when they take out die’s D-DR-300 and sound check it. It was the same case for shinya’s drum kit in which they just wheeled out on stage which was nifty and time saving. Soon after, the stage guy came out holding up 3 minutes to everything signaling 3 minutes until show time.

The longest 3 minutes of my life passed and ‘SA BIR’ blasted out of the sound system, the bass shaking the ground. Chants from a very select few fans completed the Dir en grey waiting experience as I’ve never seen the band without ‘DIR EN GREY, DIR EN GREY’ being screamed.

Soon after the beginning of ‘SA BIR’, the band walked out to cheers. I was extremely surprised firstly by kyo. His hair was absolutely fantastic. I was just in awe of him for a while. The way I couldn’t see his eyes was scary for some reason as he just looked completely blank and lifeless. Anyway, the whole band got their instruments and rapidly the intro to ‘OBSCURE’ began.

‘OBSCURE’ is a song that I’m very used to seeing live and it always has this thing about it which I find hard to explain. It’s violent but but in a way it’s a song that I find the band must love to play. Their body actions really make this obvious. I suck at explaining this actually. As per usual anyway, they played it exceptionally well and heart felt leaving me desperate for more. I rocked the place down to this song and the entire front row just stared at me as if to say ‘What the hell is he on?’.

When ‘OBSCURE’ finished, shinya began his drum intro to ‘GRIEF’ that I knew instantly. This was such a great song for Download and it set the mood very well. I was talking to people after this that had never listened to the band before and they were all taken by kyo repeatedly shouting ‘FUCK YOU.’ Strange fetish if you ask me.

After ‘GRIEF’, following the mood, they played ‘AGITATED SCREAMS OF MAGGOTS’. I don’t really have much to say about this song other than ‘wow’. Die kept staring at me with a big smile because of my liveliness. It was just insane to watch again. Must have seen this song so many times live now.

‘DOZING GREEN’ was the next song to be played which made me extremely happy. Before they band had came on. They played the kerrang radio through the speakers in which die was being interviewed. After his interview, they played DOZING GREEN. Unfortunately it was the English version which I dislike. So I was expecting them to play the English version. They didn’t. When I heard kyo’s Japanese lyrics, I started singing along to every word and this again caused die to smile at me a lot. Die aways seems to have a problem with his guitar for this song as at ‘FUSE 07′, it was just far far too loud. Again he pointed to the sound technician to turn it down. Apart from this, it was fantastic live again.

Now, the song that just took me by complete surprise. As I noticed no acoustic guitars on stage and the bands short stage time, I thought ‘VINUSHKA’ would be the last thing I would hear. But after the insane songs, kaoru played the intro on his electric. I just went absolutely mental and screamed “VINUUUSHKA!”. The people stared. I really didn’t care though. ‘VINUSHKA’ was absolutely brilliant life. Again die was quite surprised that I knew every single lyric to a 10 minute Japanese song. It was just, incredible. I mean, really incredible. It was quite possibly the best 10 minutes of my life. Yes, I’m that sad. ‘VINUSHKA’ was the highlight of my time at Download and I really don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Kyo’s voice was just so perfect.

When ‘REIKETSU NARISEBA’ abruptly started, I started going insaaaaane again. This song it absolutely incredible live. Toshiya did his thing and came over to the left hand side of the stage and played his funky bass part. The quiet instrumental part after the main body of the song gave me a chance to just breathe and relax for a few seconds. Didn’t last long though with ‘DESTROY’ being violently screamed at the crowd to which I think I permanently damaged my neck from rocking out. Fantastic.

The band finished the setlist off with ‘Saku.’ which was a bit of a waste I think. It’s one of my favourites from DIR EN GREY but it’s just not what I wanted for a finale. I know their setlist was short but they really needed one more song in there to finish off with. ‘Saku.’ was still fantastic and it really got me going but after it, when they took their instruments off, I was just like, “What? It’s over?”.
Well you know, time flies when you’re having fun. I could honestly sit and watch the boys play for 48 hours straight ignoring any basic bodily need.

I feel that DIR EN GREY left a lasting impression on the non fans and especially the very select few fans that were there. ‘VINUSHKA’ was just the icing on the cake for me but would probably have served better as the last song instead of ‘Saku.’. Maybe it’s just me.

After the gig, I noticed the management standing behind the crowd and I was still a little drunk. xD So I tried to make conversation. Worst thing I ever did.
Me “DIR EN GREY!”
Guy “YEAH!”
Me “Are they selling t shirts anywhere?
Guy “Uuuuuh…*looks at translator who is busy* *shrugs*
Me “Umm…VINUSHKA!”
Guy “VINUSHKA!”
Me “It was amazing, I wanted toguro though.”
Guy “TOKYO, YEAH!”
Me “No, toguro”
Guy “OOOH, TOGURO”

A few hours after, Korn were taking the main stage which was good because I actually do like them. However, as they played, shinya walked by. Abi, who I was sitting with actually noticed him but I was the only one man enough to approach him. Manly Kai. He was squatting down with a pint from the ‘Tuborg’ bar. I went over and said, “Shinya, great job today, how are you?” and shook his hand. He replied extremely shyly, “Thanks” with a big smile on his face. After this I left him to watch Korn but stood behind him, just watching him in awe thinking. “This is one of my heroes.” It was crazy.

DIR EN GREY was what brought me to Download 09 and they did not disappoint.

I cannot wait for their return.