Dir en grey Live in Warsaw, Poland

This summer a dream of many Polish (and not only Polish) J-rock fans was fulfilled. On June 24th Dir en grey came to Poland for a second time, but this time they weren't here to take part in a festival, but played a solo concert in club Stodoła in Warsaw.

On the day of the concert the first group of waiting fans began huddling in front of Stodoła several hours before the club gate was opened. The colourful crowd aroused the curiosity of passers-by, interested in their particular fashion, make-up and hairstyles. Also noticeable was the male presence among the fans – not quite half, but quite a considerable proportion. Regrettably, as the club gate opened, rather than an orderly queue, a hysterical flocking crowd surged towards the opening in a frightening way.

After entering the club, some fans checked out the merchandise stands or stopped by the bars for beer. But most of them ran to the venue immediately to get a place as close to the stage as possible. Throughout the whole live there was an incredible throng near the rails, and even before the show started so many crowded forward that a few people collapsed and had to be removed from the crowd. To prevent further injury, water was passed around to the rest of the crowd occasionally. But the majority of the audience was calmly waiting for the live to start, moving back as needed. Fortunately, the stage was quite high, so even from the back of the venue the view was good. Many were just happy to be there, hardly believing they had a chance to be at a Dir en grey concert.

As the mysterious sounds of SA BIR were heard, the band was called out by shouts from the fans, and they went out on stage several minutes after eight. The musicians briefly greeted the audience and then immediately went to their instruments, Kyo appearing last of all. At first, the members didn’t show a lot of enthusiasm, maybe because of fatigue – their concert in Poland came at the end of their tightly packed European tour.

The band played songs from their last four albums, mostly from UROBOROS. Some of the fans were disappointed about the lack of older compositions in the set list, but the existing songs seemed to be winning them over. The audience enjoyed themselves throughout, and everyone jumped with the music (especially during STUCK MAN), head banged, and pumped their fists. From all songs presented during that evening some of the most memorable sounded better than on the albums. One of them was VINUSHKA, in which Toshiya’s excellent bass motifs emphasized Kyo’s voice. Fans also went crazy immediately after hearing the first notes of OBSCURE and audience KILLER LOOP; in the latter, the impressive drums really stood out as they accompanied the vocalist and the rest of the instruments.

Songs like DOZING GREEN and Merciless Cult were very powerful and made people behave wildly. TOGURO was also played in a very interesting way, giving Kyo the chance to show off his singing skills. When it was time for GLASS SKIN the audience sang the whole song along with Kyo, one of the more impactful moments of the live.

Pouring all of his energy into his singing, the vocalist stayed at his podium for most of the show, making himself easily visible form every part of the venue. To the delight of the crowd, he shouted in Polish a few times: "Polska" (Poland) and "Warszawa" (Warsaw), earning him roars of enthusiasm in response. He also presented his solos but this time – unlike two years ago in Katowice – fans weren’t so surprised by them and listened in silence, at times cheering for him and shouting. The second one was especially spectacular and then fluidly turned into BUGABOO.

Bassist Toshiya also encouraged the audience to have fun, often coming to the edge of the stage, pretending the screams weren't loud enough for him to hear them. For most of the time Shinya was hidden behind the smoke, but he compensated with his impressive drum play. However, both guitarists were a bit static. Kaoru concentrated mostly on playing and was the least conspicuous Dir en grey member. But the fan in front of Die made history, blowing his hair back for the fans who were photographing him.

After the main part of the show the band left the scene and fans had to wait a long while for their return. The audience stamped as they shouted "Dir en grey” and "encore.” Gratifying the crowd, the musicians returned to the stage and played another three songs, perhaps the best moments of their performance. The first of these was a moving fan favorite, THE FINAL, and the audience responded with unbridled energy. Once again the whole venue - holding over 1,000 people - resumed jumping and singing together with Kyo, who also seemed to enjoy the moment as he allowed the fans to sing one verse of the familiar song by themselves. The live version of this song also sounded even more expressive than on an album, mostly due to the full emotion in Kyo’s voice.

Like the audience, the rest of Dir en grey’s members also seemed to have a lot of fun. The guitarists moved from their places and walked along the stage, and Toshiya, like before, was everywhere. After finishing the last song, the powerful, chaotic CLEVER SLEAZOID, the band didn’t leave the stage immediately, instead playing around and dousing fans with water. When Kyo spat water over the audience it seemed that he reached almost the half of the venue. The guitarists celebrated giving away picks, not only throwing them at different parts of the venue but even putting them directly into the hands of the fans. Toshiya kissed every pick before throwing them, and Shinya was less emotional but threw his drumsticks with enormous energy, so not just those at the front were able to catch them.

Dir en grey’s concert lasted about two hours, but the time passed very quickly. Many in the audience couldn’t accept that it was over, instead taking a seat on the floor and crying. Others rallied near one of the club’s exits hoping to see the musicians one more time or even get an autograph. Unfortunately, the band used the second exit and their bus drove away honking in farewell.

While there were some problems with the sound quality (mainly where vocals were concerned) and many wished for more contact with the band and words from the musicians, the shortcomings paled in comparison to the positive impression left by the band. Dir en grey’s performance in Warsaw was an excellent show and even better than their performance two years earlier, and every person in attendance will be reminiscing about it with a lot of sentiment. We look forward to our next chance to see them.


Set list:

01. SA BIR
02. INCONVENIENT IDEAL
03. VINUSHKA
04. OBSCURE
05. STUCK MAN
06. GRIEF
07. audience KILLER LOOP
08. DOZING GREEN

(voice DELAY)

09. TOGURO
10. GLASS SKIN

(voice DELAY)

11. BUGABOO
12. REIKETSU NARISEBA
13. Merciless Cult
14. Agitated Screams of Maggots
15. GAIKA, CHINMOKU GA NEMURU KORO

Encore:
01. THE FINAL
02. -saku-
03. CLEVER SLEAZOID