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Author Topic: L'arc~en~Ciel rocks the Madison Square Garden stage at NYC!  (Read 14112 times)

Offline Rei-chan

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L'arc~en~Ciel rocks the Madison Square Garden stage at NYC!
« on: April 06, 2012, 07:52:05 AM »
As I’ve said a million times since the magical night of March 25, 2012, the L'arc~en~Ciel concert at Madison Square Garden, NY, was FREAKING EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It started with beautiful images on the giant screens, first displaying the band name, followed by the band members’ names. Finally a gorgeous, android-like Hyde appears on the screen, acting like he’s escaping from these tubes holding him, and he breaks free and punches the screen breaking into a million pieces that fly in all directions. Looked SO cool…

         

         

Then the band appears! I could not believe that after 15 years of admiring them and dreaming of this moment, L’arc-en-Ciel was finally standing in front of me. I screamed my lungs out lol They kicked off the concert with Ibara no Namida, my favorite Laruku song! They sounded SO FREAKING GREAT!  I recall people in the past saying that Hyde’s voice has gotten bad due to his smoking, but whether that’s true or not, it absolutely did NOT show in this concert. He was flawless. They all were. One amazing performance after the next.

            

They went all out with special effects. During one song, they had fire rocketing up from the floor of the back of the stage. I felt the strong heat from it, so I wonder how Yukihiro felt, since he was right in front of the fire! They also shot fireworks (super loud but awesome), and during one song they shot streamers into the audience and I caught one! It’s a long silver ribbon that says “L’arc~en~Ciel”, “L’Anniversary 20” and has the logo of the tour. I think I’m gonna hang it in my room XD  At one point they had sparks shooting down like  a curtain behind Yukihiro. Poor guy must’ve been HOT between the sparks and the fire!

          

Their performances were really filled with energy. Hyde jumped and danced all around the stage, mostly showing off his classic hip-swaying dance.  I felt SO blessed to see them up close. L'arc~en~Ciel, to me, is one of the greatest bands in the world. Their creativity is impressive.

         


         

      

         

            

The break before the encore was painful. After singing Ready Steady Go, they left without saying anything, so I thought ‘there’s no way this is the end of the concert’. But then time passed… and time passed… and more time passed. The audience screamed and applauded calling for them to come back out. They chanted “L’arc~en~Ciel!” and later “アンコール!“, and Laruku was nowhere to be seen. Staff was going around the stage, so I started wondering, ‘could they be cleaning up coz the concert did end?’. Seriously, it was a ridiculously long wait. Felt like 30 min, don’t know how long it actually was. Eventually the giant screens went on, showing a cartoon representation of an audience doing a wave. So people started to do the wave. All of the audience did the wave together, it was pretty awesome. After about 10 waves and many more chants, the music started! It was the instrumental for one of my favorite songs, Anata, and the lyrics for the chorus appeared on the screens. Everyone sang along, and then finally Hyde appeared and sang with everyone. It was AMAZING. Such a beautiful moment~ *_* <3

         

The encore songs were a GREAT selection, some of their best in my opinion. I absolutely love that they sang songs as old as Caress of Venus (released in 1996), and not just new ones. It was just beautiful to see them sing songs that I’ve loved for 15 years.  I almost cried when Hyde said the last song would be Niji. That’s the song that made me really fall in love with L’arc~en~Ciel  in 1997, and it STILL makes gives me butterflies in the stomach when I watch the PV. So imagine the feeling I had seeing them sing this beautiful and powerful song right in front of me as white feathers floated all around us. I cannot find words to express just how magical it was. I kept one of the feathers too~ <3 *_*

It amazes me how after 20 years they are still writing great songs and music. Friends of mine who weren't familiar with their songs were so impressed by the concert that they were talking about getting their CD's! Everyone agreed, it was a beautiful, amazing concert.

The whole thing was recorded for DVD, so I highly recommend everyone to check it out.

Here is the amazing setlist:

Ibara no Namida
CHASE -English version-
GOOD LUCK MY WAY
HONEY
DRINK IT DOWN
REVELATION
Jojoushi
X X X -English version-
fate
forbidden lover
MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
Caress of Venus
Driver's High
STAY AWAY
READY STEADY GO

Encore:
Anata
winter fall
Blurry Eyes
Niji

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