Wake up my dear…

AWWWW~

Yeah, you guessed it right; here comes the review of D’espairsRay’s gig, as requested by Zara. ^^

Yesterday was… Awesome, to say the least. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel like I was going to a gig. It hadn’t really sank in, though I was having a hard time waiting at home until it was time to go. Had my make-up and outfit ready at around four o’clock, which was about two hours too early. Well, at least I wasn’t late, for once.

I met Taitti at a bus stop at 18:35 and then we traveled to Helsinki. We arrived at Nosturi at around 8 p.m. and joined the queue after a few minutes of waiting. We got in faster than we did in Moi Dix Moi’s gig a few years back. ^^ Once inside, we waited for a peaceful moment and then went to buy our T-shirts. Taitti payed and I did the talking. x) My English totally failed me, as it always does. Since we were the only people around the table at the time, I asked how big the S-sized girlie was. The seller started to joke about a huge line of people waiting behind us and my brain decided to freeze, leaving me without a clever reply. So I just shrugged and smiled politely. The other seller gave me the shirt, telling me to take my time. I took the shirt he had give me, said I’d like to take that and an M-sized one and then Taitti gave him the money. We put the shirts in my shoulder bag and left our belongings to the cloakroom. Next we headed for the (gaah, I’m lagging big time here, sorry if my writing sucks) crowd. There seemed to be surprisingly much space quite near the stage, but we wanted to be somewhere a bit more close to the middle where we would be able to see every member of the band. In the end we were probably around the lines 10-15, roughly speaking. (At that point you can’t really tell how many people are in front of you or where the lines are.) I think we were pretty close to the stage, actually. In MDM’s gig we were stnding in the back near the bar counter. We could see the whole stage alright, but this time… Everyone seemed to be so close. And really, the first thing I thought when, after one and a half hours of waiting, D’espairsRay entered the stage was Wow, they are huge! That might seem like a stupid thing, describing four slim Japanese men as huge, but it really felt like that, seeing them live instead of in small photos. I couldn’t help staring Zero’s and Karyu’s hair. So big. *__* and everyone’s biceps… :3 We were standing on Zero’s side, but I could see all four members quite well. When the people in front of me first raised their hands I thought I wouldn’t be able to see about anything, but I was proven wrong after about thirty seconds. I didn’t pay too much attention to any single member of the band, but my eyes were mostly glued on Hizumi, the singer. When it comes to D’espairsRay, I’m mostly a fan of their music rather than the members themselves.

They started off with Lizard, which seemed like an appropriate choise. I felt a bit awkward at first, so I wasn’t throwing my fist up to the air and was just kind of glancing around to see what everyone else was doing. (I should go to gigs more often, don’t you think?) The second song was REDEEMER, though, and my brains were probably flying out of the window at that point. I thought this gig would be awesome, starting with two the songs I really like. Then I remembered that I kind of love almost every single one of D’espairsRay’s songs. :P The third song was TRICKSTəR, one of the not-my-absolute-favourite songs, but it too sounded very good played live. I wish I’d have remembered my earplugs, maybe then my ears would have ringed a bit less and Hizumi’s voice might have sounded better… Or then again, maybe those cheap foam earplugs would only have made it harder to hear…

Anyway, after TRICKSTəR the lights turned red and Hizumi pulled on his black hood. Marry of the blood started and I was in Heaven, for sure. After that they played Grudge (♥______♥) and 琥珀 (kohaku, should learn to remember that >___>). I had a really hard time to keep from singing aloud to the songs, since I know them almost by heart. Then… The ultimate my-head-is-going-to-explode-any-second-now …SIXty∞NINe started. Gaaaaaah, was that even ecstasy or what? ♥______♥ Then Infection. At this point almost all of the songs had been ones that I really love. Next one was MASQUERADE, during which I had time to breath and give my right hand a rest. Then PARADOX 5 started. ♥______♥ Euphoria, that’s what it was like. Hizumis voice broke at some points but it didn’t matter. Next song was Garnet, during which everyone had to scream. Hizumi was on fire (figuratively spaeking) during HORIZON, but I started to get tired already. >.<’’ My back hurt and my legs felt numb. Then they played Lost in re:birth, Screen and …Scissors or Bullet? (don’t know which, I hadn’t heard that one before), so I had time to “rest”. Basically I was just staring and enjoying the music. HOLLOW woke me up from my trance, for sure, and I sang with everyone else when Hizumi handed the microphone towards the audience. Laa-laa-la-laa-la-la etc.~ Then Hizumi spoke something about some kind of spirit (I didn’t quite hear/understand, lol) and said that this would be the last song… KAMIKAZE. ♥______♥ If I wouldn’t have been so hot and sweaty, I surely would have had the shivers running down my spine when Hizumi sang Wake up my dear… because that’s got to be my favourite part of any D’espairsray song at the moment. *__* Don’t know why, it just sounds cool. The band left the stage and the crowd started to shout for encore.

The encore started with Tsukasa playing the flute. *__________* So cute! I read somewhere that the song he played was from Spirited away, but I didn’t recognize it. It did sound familiar, though. He played for a very short while at first, then apologized in Japanese and tried again, this time playing a little bit longer. *__* After that, they only played one song, MIЯROR, which was a dissapointing in a way. First off, I would have loved to hear more. I read that they had had an about four-songs-long encore in Paris, they had even played BORN. But MIЯROR was great, of course, I sang along and enjoyed it with all my heart. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get any plectras or drumsticks. But the gig was awesome.

At some point (my head seems to be full of sawdust so I can’t remember too well… Someone was kind enough to publish the setlist, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to write a review this “accurate”) Hizumi introduced the members of the band. People didn’t understand what he was doing, at first, when he said to the mic; “On the drums…” Everyone was just screaming, so he had to repeat it three times and then announce Tsukasa by himself. When he moved on to Zero and Karyu people seemed to be more aware of the situation. x)

Everyone sang happy birthday for Zero at one point, in Finnish and in English, and a few people screamed omedetou. I wasn’t paying that much attention, but someone said Zero had to turn his back to the audience to wipe tears away. ;__; :’3

Probably the cutest part was when Hizumi came to the front of the stage with a folded A4-sized paper in his hands. Once the crowd had quieted down, he started speaking in Finnish. “Onko teillä hauskaa?” (Are you having fun?) *the crowd yelling “yeeeeeah!!” or something* “Minä myös.” (Me too.) *more yelling* “Helsinki on paras.” (Helsinki is the best.) *even more yelling* Then, a slight pause. “Karyu, sano jotain.” (Karyu, say something.) *screaming continues* Karyu thinks for a moment, then says “Minä rakastan teitä.” (I love you.) At this point, te crowd went wild. ♥______♥ So cute, they had gone through the trouble of learning a few phrases in Finnish.

Hey, wait a minute! I’m sure they played in vain at some point? Yes, they did, because I remember the “Sex might be the only thing I can dominate with” part. x) Well, this description really isn’t the most accurate…

I wish they had played Reddish and DAMNED… And LOST SCENE… And アベルとカイン. But they played so much already, so I shouldn’t complain. It was great~!

My outfit for the evening (sorry for the silly pose xD):

Black, black and more black. How typical. And I didn’t wear those shoes, after all.

Not so fresh me after the gig in my room, wearing the brand new T-shirt. I lolled at the spelling mistake on the back; it should say Nosturi but instead it says Nasturi. xDD

That’s all for now. Sorry for the bad quality… ^^’’