(Photos: Hideaki Imamoto, Takayuki Okada, Toshikazu Oguruma, Chie Kato, Kazuko Tanaka)

 

In April, Japanese rock legends L'Arc-en-Ciel celebrated 25 years in the business with two shows at Tokyo Dome,  25th L’Anniversary.  Kawaii Kakkoi Sugoi writer Emily Ishii was present in the packed audience for both shows.  This is her report from the second night.

 

Like the previous day, the concert began with 'Niji', followed by 'Caress of Venus' and 'the Fourth Avenue Café', two popular tracks from L'Arc-en-Ciel’s  first million-selling album 'True'.

 

 

hyde shouted to the audience, “Welcome to the 25th L’Anniversary! We are L’Arc-en-Ciel! Hello world! Hello everyone! We’re finally all together. We’re as rare as the Japanese serow.”  Indeed, it has been over a year and a half since the band last performed together. “It makes us very happy to know that we’ve become 25 years old thanks to all of you.”.

'Vivid Colors', with its memorable chorus, and 'Lies and Truth' continued the tone of the night. These were followed by 'Shinjitsu to Gensou to' and 'forbidden lover', two tracks that express the depth and darkness of the album 'ark'.

 

 

After playing 'Shout at the Devil', the ‘L’Arc’ members appeared on the moving stage once again to move to the back of the dome, uniting with fans for a spirited rendition of 'REVELATION'.  yukihiro switched to guitars for this song, giving fans a better view as he rocked his new look of long blonde hair.

 

 

During the following MC, ken intriguingly asked fans about ‘L’ed’ lights and fluorescent lamps. (‘L’ed’ light bands were distributed to the fans for the concert). "It’s been a year and a half! I have lots of things I want to ask you guys! Who has LED lights? Who uses fluorescent lamps? When are you going to change those? Before our 30th anniversary?”. Contrary to the all-black fashion, ken's innocent smile brought laughter to fans throughout the venue.

hyde continued MC duties to introduce the next song, “We’ll be performing ‘Kaze no Yukue’ next. I went overseas for the first time to shoot the music video for this song!”. tetsuya joined in as the pair talked about their memories of visiting Morocco for two weeks. The acoustic intro to 'Kaze no Yukue' brought tears to fans who had been waiting for years to hear the song played live.

 

 

The following song began with hyde guiding fans to clap along with the rhythm. Meanwhile those ‘L’ed’ lights lit up to show the letters “X X X” in the audience. With his police hat designed by the avant-gard fashion designer h.NAOTO, hyde seemed to have stepped out of an 80s rock video.

After 'Kasou', 'Shinshoku ~lose control~', and 'HONEY',  ken continued with a grand guitar solo. Fans sang along in unity during 'MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM', and ken’s guitar and tetsuya’s bass beautifully intertwined in 'NEO UNIVERSE'.

 

 

Live classics 'STAY AWAY', 'Driver’s High', and 'READY STEADY GO' allowed fans to let out all their energy.

The encore began with the band’s latest single 'Don’t be Afraid',  which showed the audience just how powerful L’Arc-en-Ciel sound after 25 years.

“How are you guys doing?”, tetsuya asked the fans. “It’s our 25th anniversary, and our two-day show is on April 8 and April 9. A staff member told me today that 4+8+4+9=25. What a coincidence, right? But four and nine are unlucky numbers in Japan…, Do you guys not mind?".  "Well, I totally don’t mind either!”, hyde quickly responded.  “No, you’re really sensitive about this stuff.”, he said laughing, and drawing a similar reaction from the audience.  “Nope! I’m super laid back! I don’t care about this stuff!”.   

After 'Blurry Eyes' and 'Link', hyde looked back on the past 25 years. In the audience, the ‘L’ed’ bands lit up to show the words '25th L’Anniversary'.

 

 

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I was thinking about what changed in the past 25 years. Before, we used to chase after certain ideals, whether it be an ideal type of music or an ideal musician we looked up to. But now, there are many musicians that look up to us. We meet people that tell us, “One day, we’ll reach where you are.”. Meeting these musicians has made me realize that what we have done as L’Arc-en-Ciel was not a mistake. But we can’t let these younger musicians pass us, so we’ll keep going!”.

“I’ve spent more than half of my life in L’Arc-en-Ciel. I hope that these days continue for many more years. It was a very long road. We took some shortcuts, but we also took many detours. But we were able to make it here today, thanks to your support and love. There were happy moments, but there were painful moments as well. Your smiles are our biggest reward. If this long journey is what brought us to these smiles today, then I believe that the journey was not a bad one. Again, thank you very much for today.”.

The concert ended with the beautiful ballad “Hitomi no Juunin.” Surrounded with warm applause, the 25th L’Anniversary came to an end.

 

 

2017.04.09 SETLIST

1. Niji

2. Caress of Venus

3. the Fourth Avenue Café

4. Vivid Colors

5. Lies and Truth

6. Shinjitsu to Gensou to

7. forbidden lover

8. Shout at the Devil

9. REVELATION

10. Kaze no Yukue

11. X X X

12. Kasou

13. Shinshoku ~lose control~

14. HONEY

15. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM

16. NEO UNIVERSE

17. STAY AWAY

18. Driver’s High

19. READY STEADY GO

20. Don’t be Afraid

21. Blurry Eyes

22. Link

23. Hitomi no Juuin

 

 

L'Arc-en-Ciel: Official site

L’Arc~en~Ciel 25th L’Anniversary LIVE: Anniversary site