author: Andrea

© © D'espairsRay- Andrea

D’espairsRay jump-started their North American Tour on August 3, 2010 with a high-energy rock show at the Roxy in Hollywood. The intimate rock venue is famous for being a place where big name musicians started out playing. The venue slowly filled up with excited fans, and the show started a little bit late, but he fans didn’t seem to mind as they waited in line.

There was an opening band, Opus Dai, which was a talented local metal band. Although, as an opening band, they weren’t what most people were there for, everyone seemed interested anyway. They played for half an hour, working some MCs in to heat up the crowd for D’espairsRay. After their set, the lights dimmed, and then there was a fifteen minute intermission.

When the lights went out again, high pitched screams rocked the venue, despite the large percentage of men in the crowd. The curtains opened and one by one the members of D'espairsRay stepped onto the stage, looking just as excited as the fans. As they settled into their positions, the band started with DEATH POINT, a harder new song of theirs that set the hard rock mood for the night. Hizumi jumped right into headbanging with this song, even though many fans couldn’t headbang with him as it seemed they were afraid there wasn't enough space to do so.

After the song, Hizumi started his first MC. Although short, he spoke in English, saying, “Welcome to Human-clad Monsters North American Tour!” As he spoke, Zero came closer to the crowd, playing with the fans reaching out to him. After this short MC, they immediately start the next song, REDEEMER. Hizumi started off REDEEMER with a deep scream, putting everything he had into the opening. Karyu showed non-stop energy, bouncing around and flicking his hair around while Zero focused on the fans smiling at them.

The next song was the catchy newer single LOVE IS DEAD. Although the audience didn’t seem to be as interested in this song as the band’s other songs, the members themselves seemed to have the most fun during this song. Behind his huge drum set, Tsukasa looked up more often during the song and smiled. Soon after the song ended, it was time for another short extremely short MC. By the next song, 13 –Thirteen-, Hizumi was shirtless and getting the audience to clap their hands. The fans followed along right into PROGRESS.

For the next MC, with his limited English, Hizumi asked the fans "How are you?" and got an earful in response. The band seemed happy with the reply and Hizumi shouted, "We are so happy!" He eventually screamed Human-clad Monsters, introducing the new song. The next song, MIЯROR, had everyone singing along and bouncing around. The members of the band were bouncing everywhere on stage, moving from their usual spots. Twirling in circles, Hizumi and Zero ran into each other, only to look at each other and laugh.

D’espairsRay then surprised everyone with an older song, Infection. When the intro to the song was played, the mood of the crowd mellowed out somewhat. A green spotlight centered on Hizumi, creating an eerie atmosphere. The next MC consisted of barely a sentence from Hizumi as he introduced the next song. The following three songs really exhibited their range of work. The first was abyss,which stood out as it was a lot more pop sounding and the theme of the night was hardcore rock. The next was FALLING. It got the crowd thrashing to Hizumi’s screams. The last was definitely a crowd favorite, getting even those who were standing still the whole time to sing, dance and headbang.

After another short break and a few more of D’espairsRay’s harder rock songs, the band played Hollow. They opened this older song slightly differently from the studio version. The song began slowly and gradually build up to its usual speed. By the end, it sounded like a lot of their songs; a perfect studio rendition. The last song they played before the encore was Garnet, a song that was brought back from the depths of their past for this show. Everyone cheered and a most pit started. After the first fan crowd surfed to the stage however, it was quickly halted.

This didn’t stop the fans and the band members from having fun. Karyu and Zero switched sides, playing around and smiling to the fans. Hizumi went crazy, moving to every part of the stage he could. He even reached far out into the audience and then went to the far corners of each side of the stage. The music slowly died, and each of the members, including Tsukasa, said their goodbyes to the fans before walking off stage. The curtains closed and fans immediately started to chant for the band to return.

After fifteen minutes of on and off chanting, the band returned to the stage once more, wearing tour shirts. They ended up playing three songs for the encore, each song more enthusiastic than the last. By the time KAMIKAZE was played, Karyu and Zero seemed to be having a lot more fun running around and showing off to their fans than concentrating on playing the music. When the show eventually ended, the fans were still excited - the band had announced a surprise autograph session after the show. Though the energy-filled show ended extremely late at night, many fans quickly lined up to meet the band, sacrificing sleep for the chance to remain close to D'espairsRay a little longer.

Set list:

01. DEATH POINT
02. dope
-MC-
03. REDEEMER
04. GOING ON!
05. LOVE IS DEAD
-MC-
06. 13 -Thirteen-
07. PROGRESS
-MC-
08. Human-clad Monsters
09. MIЯROR
10. Infection
11. CROSSED ARROWS
-MC-
12. abyss
13. FALLING
14. SIXty∞NINe
-MC-
15. DEVIL'S PARADE
16. angeldust
17. HOLLOW
18. garnet

ENCORE
01. TRICKSTER
02. bullet
03. KAMIKAZE