L’7 ~Trans ASIA via PARIS~ is the name of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s 2008 tour, spanning China, Taiwan, Korea, France and Japan. It’s also Laruku’s last tour for at least another 3 years (after dishing out one tour per year for the past several years, I don’t blame them).
I was able to go to the June 1st live at the Tokyo Dome with my mom this past summer, so this post will be about everything that I can remember from it. ^^;
After getting off of the train there was absolutely no need to ask for directions. I first noticed a girl wearing a P’Unk~en~Ciel t-shirt and started following her. Then we noticed that pretty much everyone around us was wearing some kind of Laruku or HYDE shirt. It wasn’t until we actually got outside that we saw normally-clothed people all walking in the same direction.
After crossing the threshold into “Tokyo Dome City,” we started seeing little kiosks selling glow sticks (called Hoshizo-lights, a play off of the song title, “Hoshizora”) and girls with white tote bags that had the giant “L’7” logo embossed in them.
Along the Dome was an extremely long tent that was selling concert goods. The line went around several partitions and it took us around 10-15 minutes to get to the front. To my mom’s dismay, the wristbands were sold out and I got the very last towel.
Catalogue of goods that were offered at the venue.
The Tokyo Dome is normally a baseball stadium, so the seats were all divided into areas. The arena area was the ground floor all across the baseball field (standing tickets) and divided into sections A-E depending on how close to the stage it is. Around the perimeter are 3 seated floors divided into numbered gates. We were on the first floor in area 20, which was at stage left (ken’s area). I was extremely happy that we had seats not only because jumping up and down waving a glowstick around all night can get tiring, but because it was ridiculously humid inside. The fact that there was a giant screen in the middle made the seats even better. There was also a camera rigged above the arena that went back and forth every so often, so if you buy the DVD and see a yellow glowstick seated behind 2 green glowsticks on the first floor’s left side, that’s me. =D
When the concert started and the curtains raised after the video presentation intro (Laruku sailing around the world Columbus-style, to finally arrive in Tokyo), the stage was set up so that it looked like a ship and Laruku was decked out in pirate garb (think Jack Sparrow, not Captain Hook) and was looking quite awesome. The opening song was “REVELATION.” Time to kick the glowsticks into high gear.
Since this was 4 months ago, I don’t remember the exact track listing, but I do remember “Pretty girl” and “DRINK IT DOWN” came afterwards. “DRINK IT DOWN”‘s performance was the first time I was able to scream-sing the chorus like Haido, although I couldn’t hear myself. Lol who cares?
Laruku also performed “NEXUS 4”, which no one had ever heard prior to that day (the single was released last month). I was really impressed that the entire audience was able to synchronize their glowstick-waving, to a song that they had never heard before, so well.
In the row behind us, there were 2 women who were most likely around my mom’s age. The main difference was that they kind of looked it. I’m trying not to be mean, but their clothes and glasses frames looked like relics that the 80s left behind. One of them was also using binoculars… to look at the gigantic screen. See what a widespread demographic this band has! *shameless plug*
At the halfway point, Laruku rode around the arena’s perimeter on this little boat thing while throwing water at the crowd (tetsu had this “King of the World” thing going on). There was a smaller stage set up and P’Unk~en~Ciel performed a few songs. If only I can remember which…
Also, during the short intermissions there were skits shown on the gigantic screen (similar to L’arctchi and L’Arcan from 1997’s REINCARNATION). I didn’t really understand them at all, but I think it was a romance story between some guy (apparently some famous Japanese actor) and a woman who meet at the concert, after their respective “partners” aren’t able to go with them. I think I remember a ton of puns and references to Laruku song titles in the dialogue. Yeah, I think that was it. I remember laughing at it and my mom didn’t have a clue, so it probably puns and references. God, my memory sucks. Hopefully it’ll be on the DVD.
I kept trying to scan pages from the pamphlet, but my scanner is horrible for anything that isn’t a sketch drawing, so I had to resort to using my digicam… which is why I was only ably to share one image with you. =(
Anyway, I don’t really remember anything else, so enjoy a couple of photos that I took. =3
Tokyo Dome City gate
It looks less crowded than it really was.
In front of one of the gates.
You can't see it, but there's a huge mob of people in front of us.
I love this photo. =3
My favorite group image from the pamphlet. =3
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