L'Arc~en~Ciel live in Kyoto

The July 6th L'Arc~en~Ciel live took place at the Kyoto Kaikan Daiichi hall: not a regular live house, but a city theatre. The sort of place one would expect to see a play or ballet take place, not a rock concert by one of Japan's biggest bands.

The hall featured umbrella shaped acoustical panels suspended from the ceiling at various heights, and pointed in various directions. The stage was draped in sage green curtains, with a swag of the same color across the top. Stadium seating made every seat in the house a good one, and the 2,000 fans were excitedly awaiting their band's appearance.

The Laruku set itself was carpeted in red and black diamond print rug, amps included. The stage was thinly veiled by a sheer white drape, through which one could see two chandeliers softly glowing.

In front of the sheer hung the tour logo: a massive heart with "Are you ready?" written across it, and an arrow shot through it, surrounded by what may have been clouds or flames. The heart in the center of the logo was lit from behind, and rays of yellow light, reminiscent of sunrays, were played across the surface of the logo, making it appear to move.

Right around 6:30, the 40's style music that had been entertaining the audience stopped, the theatre went black, and the fans found their feet and their voices.

A screen dropped down in front of the sheer curtain. Animation of clouds popped up, and then dissipated, leaving a star field with "WELCOME!" displayed on it in their wake. Then the flaming arrow from the tour logo shot through the word and set it on fire, and when it burned up the word "Cast" appeared.

The arrow hit it, too, and "hyde", then "ken", "tetsu" and "yukihiro" came up. Each name met with screams from their individual fans, and each in turn was struck by the flaming arrow to make way for the next.

After "yukihiro" burned up, "IN" came up, and "L'Arc~en~Ciel" appeared. The arrow returned again to make the ' between the L and A in L'Arc. The words then curved in to a V shape and rotated and sunk to the bottom of the screen, where they ended up becoming the point of the heart in the logo. With that, the rest of the logo slid in to place, and then instantly the band appeared.

With the curtain having been pulled back, the rest of the set was revealed. Behind the drum kit was a sort of a walkway, with stairs leading down on both sides. This "Back stage", which featured lighted stairs and face, was reminiscent of the sort of stage one used to see in musical films, where the back ground dancers would perform behind the main performers. In front of the drum platform was a black crushed velvet couch, with a scrolling wooden topper. In the center of the topper was a carved version of the heart from the center of the tour logo.

The band was dressed in their typical styles. tetsu sported corn rows down both sides of his head, with sparkling red ribbons woven in to the back of his hair. He wore a red skirt and pants, and a sleeveless black and white polka dot shirt, and began the show with a dark pink 5 string bass. hyde wore black pants that laced up the crotch, a black tank top with white printing, a long black vest, and a shorter silver vest over the top of everything. ken wore a black suit and a black shirt beneath it, and began with a guitar that was black around the edges, with a center of that was shades of natural wood which gradually grew lighter. yukihiro was dressed simply in jeans and a black t-shirt, with a support on his elbow.

The band kicked off the show with SEVENTH HEAVEN, which met energetic applause and mass bouncing from the audience. The stairs on the sides of the set flashed red and blue lights in time with the music. Fans did furitsuke (synchronized hand movements done by audience members) along with the song lyrics, and seemed especially energetic during the lyrics "In a minute 31." And "Under your feet".

After Seashore, with its water ripples projected across the walls, crazy red lights, random screams by hyde, and fantastic synchronized guitar and bass riff, Lies and Truth was next, with an amazing bass line, and some help from a hidden keyboard player, which the audience seemed to love.

hyde then broke in with an MC, screaming out to the audience: "We're L'Arc~en~Ciel! Ahhhhh! KYOOTOOOOO!" He had a little banter with the audience about summer coming to Kyoto and said that "People from Kyoto have 'cute' intonation." He ended it up with "Shine. Please listen."

With that, white lights came up, so bright you could not see the band. They stayed that way for a minute, then slowly got a little dimmer, and the stairs began to glow purple. During this song, the audience was silent, as if they didn't want to miss a note.

During New World and Killing Me, the band members swapped places on stage. Accompanied by laser lights, hyde danced, and ken came to the front of the stage to play his solo.

Driver's High and MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM saw more hyde dancing, and more cool visual effects. Strobe lights flashed, ballerinas danced across the screen, and the band worked the audience up even more, possibly in preparation for the next song.

hyde came to the front of the stage and screamed "Are you $@*&ing READY???" and silver streamers shot from the ceiling, driving the fans crazy. The fans jumped, screamed, and waved their streamers, as READY STEADY GO was played, and hyde all the while continued to scream "Are you $@*&ing READY?!"

Then the stage went dark, and a screen lit up on the back wall of the set. A cottage scene with a little girl and a bear appeared on the screen. They sat at a long table, where the girl was watering a "Magic Bean" (one of the goods available for this tour). The girl poured water on to the bean, pleading "Come on, work!". She pulled out her Frisk tin (another tour good) and ate a mint, which gave her an idea. She ran across the room and put Ready Steady Go on an old fashioned record player, and the bean began to grow!

Next you see the girl with her head down on the table: the whole thing had been a dream. She was still sound asleep, with the bean can on the table in front of her, and the bear at the other end of the table. The bear reached over, grabbed the can, and with a "CRUNCH", ate it. Then the screen went black, the girl yelled "WHY DID YOU EAT MY BEAN???" and sounds of a serious beating filled the air.

In the next scene, the bear sat bloody and bruised with his back to the window. A cut-out of yukihiro from the Seventh Heaven promo picture slid in to the window. The bear sat up, as though he knew he was being watched, and he spun around, but the yukihiro cut-out was gone. The bear turned back around and the pattern repeated with pictures of ken and tetsu, with the bear missing them each time. Then the bear popped out his Frisk tin and ate one.

A hyde cut-out appeared in the window. The bear spun around and saw the hyde picture just before it scooted away, and the words "Frisk, it sharpens you up!" popped up on the screen as the next song began.

As the band played Bye Bye, ken moved to the stage behind the drum kit, so that he could interact with a video of the bear (in silhouette) on the screen. Ken stomped on the bear, danced with it, and generally amused the audience by shaking his booty along with the animated bear.

More fun was had with the bear during Caress of Venus, during which a video of him dancing (in front of "Caress of Venus" wallpaper) was played. The whole band seemed to have fun with this one, including hyde, who alternately stood on the couch to sing, and jumped up and down on it.

Next up was THE BLACK ROSE, which announced itself with bullet holes shot through the screen to spell out the title. The screen showed images of each member with a rifle site over their faces, then ended with the screen shattering and filling with blood, after hyde pointing at the camera with "gun" fingers.

At this point, hyde sat down on the couch and ken and tetsu left the stage. As it turns out, ken was only dropping off his guitar, and he returned shortly to have a brief chat with the audience. He asked if everyone liked to do karaoke, and said that he and the rest of the band recently had a karaoke competition. After a little back and forth with the audience, and playing a little air guitar riff (complete with sound effects), his MC was done.

REVELATION was next, and had the fans screaming and on their feet, pumping their arms in time with the music, and screaming out "Hey!" The whole band enjoyed this song, with ken lost in his guitar work, and hyde and tetsu standing astride their amps to dance.

While the band played, the screen featured a tagger, spray painting "L'Arc~en~Ciel" on a wall. At the end of the song, the artwork spun up off the "wall" and settled on to the hip of a scantily clad girl, who was joined on the screen by others, marking the introduction to Pretty Girl.

The performance of Link for that evening had to be the song that got the crowd the most worked up. hyde came to the front of the stage and got the crowd clapping in unison with him while he sang.

About halfway through the song, hyde walked up behind tetsu and lifted the back of his skirt up. The fan screams at this point were deafening, and tetsu turned, looked at hyde and side stepped his feet further apart. Then hyde hiked tetsu's skirt up a little higher, got down on his hands and knees and climbed between tetsu's legs. After clearing his face of skirt, hyde peeked out at the audience as if to say "Am I not cute?" and the screams nearly took the roof off the building.

Later during the same song, tetsu and ken swapped places on stage, and tetsu and hyde ended up dancing back to back, which made the fans lose it once again.

The final straw for many fans' sanity during this song was when hyde flopped down on the floor in front of the camera man, and actually stopped singing so he could flick his tongue at the camera and make kissy faces to the fans. Several fans went completely hoarse at that point, and no doubt a few hearts stopped beating in that moment.

Afterward, hyde and ken walked off the stage, leaving yuki and tetsu still playing. Then tetsu got his bass making one long, loud note, set it down on the couch, and left. yukihiro and the bass played together for 3 or 4 minutes, with yuki drumming like mad, and the bass providing a constant hum to accompany him. The audience was driven mad by the drumming, and everyone was on their feet, screaming "YUKI!" at the top of their lungs. Eventually, yukihiro threw his sticks in the air and walked off, leaving the bass to play by itself until the power was cut.

The stage went dark, and the crowd sat down and began to randomly scream their favorite member's names. The chandeliers lit up, and the lights inside of them glowed a soft blue. Some fans started to chant "En Ko Ray" (encore) and clap in anticipation of the band's return.

After a few minutes with no activity, the screen lit up with a 60 second countdown in green numbers, and the crowd jumped up and began to scream again. Roadies ran out and set up KEN P'UNK's mini drum kit.

At 30 seconds, the countdown turned Orange, then red at 10 seconds. Everyone counted down, and then at 0 the band were back, and a red and white striped P'UNK~EN~CIEL logo took up the screen.

Having taken the stage as P'UNK~EN~CIEL, KEN P'UNK, jacketless, took his spot at the drum kit. HYDE P'UNK, sporting an eye patch, played guitar, and a shirtless YUKIHIRO P'UNK took up the bass position. TETSU P'UNK, having unbuttoned his black shirt to reveal a pink shirt beneath, took his spot in the center as P'UNK~EN~CIEL's vocalist.

Amidst TETSU P'UNK's random screams of "Genki??" to the audience, and squirting them with a banana shaped squirt gun, the band managed to play Honey 2007 and Feeling Fine 2007.

At one point during the P'UNK set, YUKIHIRO P'UNK began to swing the bass all around, even attempting to kick it while it was still strapped to him. He wiped out the mic stand with his bass, which sent a frantic tech scrambling on stage to try and right it, with TETSU P'UNK all the while squirting the audience and making random TETSU P'UNK noises.

At the end of the P'UNK set, YUKIHIRO P'UNK beat on his bass some more as the others left the stage, then TETSU P'UNK sang a last few notes and cleared the stage as well.

The stage went dark once again, and while the techs cleared KEN P'UNK's drum kit, the screen lit up with images of a truck with "P'UNK~EN~CIEL"painted on the side. The truck honked and pulled away, heading up a road. It entered a P'UNK~EN~CIEL tunnel, then the camera panned to the other side of the tunnel which said L'arc~en~Ciel, and when the truck pulled out the far side of the tunnel, it also said L'Arc~en~Ciel.

It headed up a freeway, then on to a bridge, where it revved up a ramp and made a jump (aided by rocket boosters). Once it landed on the other side of the bridge, it passed a sign that said "Kyoto", and the crowd screamed in response. Then it drove by silhouettes of various things significant to Kyoto, like temples, castles, ladies in kimono, etc, and slid to a stop. Then the band was back.

ALONE EN LA VIDA began with church bells ringing, and view of a sunrise through a window appeared on the screen behind yukihiro. Red lights shone on the band. ken's awe inspiring guitar part in this song had the audience in stunned silence.

During an amazing performance of The Fourth Avenue Café, hyde screamed "KYOTO!!" and received return screams of "HAIDO!!" from the audience. The calls of "Haido!" continued during spiral, and blue and red lights met mid-stage, where they strobed together and purple light emerged in their place.

Again, it was time for a very brief interjection from hyde: "Kyoto was cool & fun! With love, Jojoushi."

With that, disco balls reflecting golden lights were lowered from the stage ceiling, and the mood of the audience was immediately calmer. hyde's voice was right on during this one, and the song sounded just as beautiful live as it ever did recorded. You could tell the band loves this song, as their performance of it was amazing.

The last notes died away, and while the audience was still enraptured, ken threw out his guitar picks and walked off stage. yuki and hyde were next to leave the stage, followed by tetsu. He was gone only briefly, then returned holding two bananas up to his head like bunny ears (or devil horns). He threw them out to the audience, without his usual "Ore no banana tabetai ka?", then went back to get two more.

First he pointed to the balcony, ken side, and made a perfect banana pitch. With the second, he pointed to the balcony on his side and threw, only to miss by bare inches. He ran back to the roadie with the fruit basket, grabbed one more, held up one finger to the audience (who was by this time cheering him on loudly) to indicate another try, wound up for the pitch…annnnnd….with a hop and a skip, made it! You'd think from the audience reaction that they had been waiting to see the winning pitch in a World Series game.

With that, tetsu hopped over the amp to reach his mic, said "Mata, ne?" ("Again/later, right?") to the audience, and was gone.

The audience sat still for a moment, not quite wanting their evening with this band to end, but as the house lights came up, it was evident that the night was indeed over. There was no mad rush for the door however, and the crowd slowly and calmly made their way out to the goods lines, seeming to be in a daze, or perhaps reflecting on the evening's events.

This night in Kyoto, with their band, is surely not one that will be forgotten soon by fans old or new. L'Arc~en~Ciel was ON in Kyoto, and there's no denying that they gave their fans their best during this show. Whether this was a fan's first show, or one hundred and first, this one will be one to remember for a long time.
Arigatou, Laruku. Mata, ne!

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Set List in Alphabetical Order:
ALONE EN LA VIDA
Bye Bye
Caress of Venus
Driver's High
Feeling Fine 2007
HONEY 2007
Killing Me
Lies and Truth
Link
MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
New World
Pretty Girl
READY STEADY GO
REVELATION
Seashore
SEVENTH HEAVEN
SHINE
spiral
THE BLACK ROSE
The Fourth Avenue Café


JaME would like to thank MAVERICK DC GROUP for their cooperation and assistance in making this live report possible.