Dir En Grey took over Helsinki on 10 October 2018 by stopping during their tour at The Circus, Helsinki. We enjoyed every minute of the show and let that middle of the week-Wednesday vibe from with a performance from titans such as Dir En Grey.
There was no support act to start the night, but plenty of fans were gathered already quite early on and queueing to get a chance to get in front of the stage. The experimentalists from Japan have a phenomenal success even outside their home country, and the band does not even string a lot of sentences in English together in their music.
Because Dir En Grey threaded their music with a lot of avant-garde elements, it can often sound a bit odd to the ear, but perhaps that’s exactly why this band is so successful. The consistent element that runs through their music is the amount of energy that is both present in their studio albums, as well as their live shows.
It was my first time seeing Dir En Grey live, and have heard quite many stories of frontman Kyocutting himself on stage, so I have to say I was quite curious as to what the show was going to be like and how everything would turn out. The energy already picked up with the first song of the evening “UTAFUMI”, I’m immediately surprised by the lighting show on stage. Seldom, I have seen such coordinated lighting that’s beautiful and actually adding something to the show.
The band takes us through a lot of tracks with an updated version such as “FUKAI”, “Ash”, “Wake”, but my personal highlight of the evening was “Beautiful Dirt”, my favorite song. We were demonstrated of the multi-talent of singer Kyo as he shows the versatility of his voice with ease. The show in itself is quite minimalistic, no chit-chat, no talking, just playing music straight and perhaps not entirely what I had in mind of a Dir En Grey show, but overall I enjoyed quite much.
Considering the number of people shouting along with the Japanese songs, and the overall great and energetic atmosphere of the audience, I think it’s safe to say that it was a very successful evening. I’ll definitely be there again when Dir En Grey comes to Helsinki again.
Setlist
- UTAFUMI
- FUKAI(2018 version)
- Ash(2018 version)
- WAKE(2018 version)
- RINKAKU
- Devote My Life
- KEIBETSU TO HAJIMARI
- Phenomenon
- THE BLOSSOMING BEELZEBUB
- Ranunculus
- NINGEN WO KABURU
- Values of Madness
- THE IIID EMPIRE(2018 version)
- Beautiful Dirt(2018 version)Encore
- THE FINAL(2013 version)
- Revelation of mankind
- RASETSUKOKU(2011 version)
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