D'ESPAIRSRAY CONCERT REVIEW & LIVE PHOTOS! TICKETS FOR JROCK VISUAL KEI CONCERTS IN USA, AMERICA.
As you know by now, Visual Kei band D’espairsRay will be taking a hiatus after their world tour, to allow Hizumi’s throat to recover. Rose and I now realize how fortunate we were to have seen the J-rockers perform on August 6th, and to have received a photo pass. At long last, here are exclusive images from the D’espairsRay Seattle concert, along with our review.
La Carmina: Rose and I loaded up the Goth-mobile and drove from Vancouver to Seattle. No drama along the way. Before the show, we wandered in Pike Place Market; I fell in love with the healthy Cinnamon Works bakery, especially the spicy soy chai with sugarfree vanilla! Back at the hotel, we ripped, pinned and pasted our outfits together. Here are photos that we took in front of the gum wall.
Rose: We arrived at the Showbox around 6pm and talked to some people in line. Then we headed over to The CanCan Cabaret and I had my first taste of absinthe — and loved it!
La Carmina: Isn’t it funny how all my buds — myself included — are obsessed with the green fairy? Here are photos from the burlesque absinthe bar. (Seattle friends, you must visit CanCan.)
Rose: We returned to the Showbox, and I started to realize how small the crowd was. I was surprised; I was expecting a huge turnout. We chatted with more fans inside, many who recognized Carmina, and I bought a Human-Clad Monsters tour poster at the merchandise table.
La Carmina: The opening band, I’m afraid, did not go over well with the audience. Beat-boxy rock, with awkward singing and dancing… it was as far from Jrock as one could imagine.
Rose: And then, it was time for D’espairsRay! We scurried in front of the barrier where La Carmina was going to be taking pictures, and I was privileged enough to be able to join her. The crowd went insane when they came on stage. If I didn’t know, I would have thought there were ten times as many fans there: so much excitement.
Rose: They opened with the song Death Point, followed by Dope, and Love is Dead. I was impressed with their energy, which they maintained for the entire live. I was so happy when they played some of my favorite songs: Redeemer, Mirror, Garnet. Everyone went crazy for the encores Reddish and Born (two of my very favorites).
I wrote down the full set list in my little notebook: 1. Death Point, 2. dope, 3. Love is Dead, 4. Going On!, 5. Redeemer, 6. 13 -Thirteen-, 7. Abel to Cain, 8. Human-clad Monster, 9. Angeldust, 10. Infection, 11. Crossed Arrows, 12. abyss, 13. SIXty NINe, 14. Devil’s Parade, 15. Mirror, 16. Hollow, 17. Garnet, 18. Reddish -DIVA version-, 19. Born
La Carmina: D’espairsRay appeared in stripped-down, deconstructed black. This isn’t a studio-only group, or one that relies on theatricality. The dark, grungy music hits harder than any gimmick in the Visual Kei repertoire. The terse guitars, thunderous drums, intense singing and headbanging: it draws you in, and holds you captive.
Rose: Throughout the whole show, Hizumi performed with much charm and his voice resounded. Karyu had his hair in little hair ties, and kept lunging and growling at the crowd, very fierce: you couldn’t help watching him. Zero is one of my favorite bassists, and he was very energetic as well, jumping around and smiling constantly at the fans — it was so cute.
Even though the crowd was smaller than I anticipated, you couldn’t tell once everyone was cheering and headbanging. The band played with so much energy and heart, it felt like they were playing to a full house.
La Carmina: After a roaring encore, the musicians left the stage. But they were soon back, and sat down at a table to sign posters. Rose put her poster down to be signed; we said “arigato” and shook hands with each member. It was very funny because she was wearing her taxidermy rat hair band, and as she approached, each J-rocker looked at her head with surprise!
Rose: All the D’espairsRay members were very sweet, and I really appreciated them doing the signing after the concert. Especially after all the energy they just put into the show… I admire when bands make gestures like this to make fans feel special.
Arigato to Sword Records for letting us review the concert. To D’espairsRay, for putting 100% into the Seattle concert. And thanks to all of you who came and cheered your hearts out in support!
Have you ever seen D’espairsRay perform live? What did you think? Tomorrow, I’ll random-select the Gloomth winners, I promise! And I’ll soon announce a scintillating pirate jewelry giveaway and my latest venture…
Japanese Word of the Day: Jishuu = Self-study (Japanese learners can do just that at Smart.fm)
Song of the Day: D’espairsRay – Reddish
SHARE & COMMENT
LA CARMINA
38 Comments
Man, that night was awesome. #$&#&^#&$( X!!!!
It was one of the best concerts I’ve attended in a while! <3 Let's hang out again soon.
Yess!! <3
*o*
I missed them when they were in the Netherlands! So bad T_T
The show sounds awesome! And their last album is really great. I gave it a very high score in my review! ^^
I loved their last album, too. I kept it in my car and played it over and over hah
lololololol
i recognize a person in this pic :3
haha who? You know everyone! :)
lol that strange little man at the merch booth!
and you of course XD <3
Ah, I’ve been waiting for this review :] Sweet memories! And I actually like that picture.
WoW, Stunning!!! I LOVE your dress!!!!!
You should come to NYC the next time D’espa tours (and there will be a next time, naysayers!!). Our venue was so small you could reach up and touch them as you tried to remain on your feet. (It was more fun than it sounds.) Btw, I stole the ZERO pics for my background… is that okay? :)
I’d love to… I’d follow them around ahha.
No problem, glad you like the photos! <3
No…I haven’t seen D’espairsRay perform live . . . -> =(
But watching videos of live performances here and there, they certainly always give it their all, they definitely give their best. It’s unbelievable.
Shocked to hear that there weren’t many people though. I always thought there was a pretty big fan base for D’espairsRay in the west coast. I’m pretty sure there is…why didn’t they go? Probably the same reason why I didn’t: Too many classes here and there.
KARYU SAMA ROCKS SO DAMN HARD!!! I freaking love that guy, what an awesome guitarist, has wonderful riffs, damn hard rhythms, and the perfect melodies. It’s just great. So great that I still can’t get over the whole hiatus thing. (sigh!)
Glad to hear Hizumi holding up during the concert. My favorite songs from D’espairsRay – oh boy now that’s tough. I LOVE…and I mean LOVE every single song from MIRROR. They’re all amazing. Redeemer was great. Monster was great. And of course it doesn’t get any crazier than Coll:set – boy was that some dark and hard collection of songs.
You can never have a band without the other member: the fans.
The concert reminded me of that… the fans make it. No matter how many are in the audience, it’s what they give that makes it a great show.
I think there probably wasn’t enough promotion for the Seattle show. They seemed to mostly sell out the other dates!
I did notice that he was singing a lot of parts he normally growls more, but didn’t think much of it at the time…
Growling… the root of all throat problems, it seems… ;__;
I went to go see them when they came to San Francisco and they were THE BEST!!! I got TSUKASA’s bottle cap, and ZERO’s pick! I loved it to the max!!
Ohh how lucky! Glad to hear they were amazing in San Fran as well.
Name kinda sounds like De Hairspray to me….. Guess if it’s Visual Kei it would make sense….
Haha, I can spot myself in some of the pictures. xD Really though, the crowd was very energetic for being so small. It made me sad to see that there was hardly anyone there, but I hope we cheered enough that they enjoyed playing here. ^^ I still can’t believe how nice they were to sign all those posters for us too! Thank you so much for the pictures!
You’re welcome! It was a really fun show!
mmmhhh nice review and photos thank you! i think it will be a great show in Strasbourg this saturday <3
Ahaha hey, I’m on there! (one holding the cure mag lol) XD
Anyways great review and photos <3 I'm glad I got to see D'espairsRay before their hiatus too :)
Especially, because I was the girl who caught Tsukasa's towel hehe ;D signing session was great too<3 I must have been lucky because he clung to my hand and stared *o*
This was an awesome show and I’m glad I got to see it before they went on hiatus. I was surprised with the turn out too. I was there by 10am and usually 10am has a line already but that time we were only 7. xD It was an amazing show inspite of the turn out but truly all the came to that show are fans.
And I got Hizumi’s water bottle! <3
Thanks for the review and pictures.
I think the fans really cheered hard and made them feel welcome. :)
I saw them in Toronto. I’m not sure what band was the opener there but ours wasn’t as bad as yours sounds, but obviously not on par with D’espairs. Also the crowd was definitely small and probably filled about one third of the medium-small size venue.
That being said, the energy was fantastic. In comparison to the other crowds at the recent Japanese/VK (Miyavi and Dir en Grey) shows this summer (there were a lot! Hurray!) this crowd was by far the most energetic. I doubt anyone stood still and I would go far as to say that as long as the band was play we were moving (which is more than I can say for some very irritating Dir en Grey fan girls I had to deal with grrrrr). Also judging by how hard the band was working it’s no wonder that Hizumi has to go on hiatus. I sing on an amateur basis and my throat was worn out by the end of the show, and I wasn’t singing all the time. All in all, although D’espairsRay are not my VK band supreme they were heads and shoulders above the rest of the shows I saw this summer. (Dir en grey holds the 2009 title FYI)
Hm, yeah… maybe it would have been better if they toured with another VK act…
Hahah sounds like Dir en Grey fangirls are vicious!
Not so much vicious as indestructible/unmovable, and we are talking about tiny girls here. Honestly, like brick walls.
haha!
lucky that you got to see them while they are still around.
se ve genial
i saw them last year in France and yesterday in Hungary, they were fantastic *__* yesterday i was in the third row, so i heard that Hizumi’s voice wasn’t in the best condition, but the whole show was awesome! and i got Tsukasa’s drumstick >w<
Lucky!! Glad to hear they’re holding up in Europe.
Saw them at AnimeNext in NJ 2006. They were amazing!! The next day they signed posters and everyone was able to take individual polaroid pic’s with the band!!! They are so tall!! I got to touch Karyu’s butt!!! They are so nice to their fans! <3
His butt!! O_O;;; haha
that was fun zero was jumping jumping jumping again and again XD
Aww, that sounds like a great concert! I’m going to see D’espairsRay tomorrow, I’m already very excited to see them :D
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