Dir en grey performed at the Wiltern this past Saturday on November 29, 2008. This was a night after Black Friday, the day I regretted sitting in my car overnight waiting for the doors to open at Circuit City. With little sleep and the cold weather, the sickness caught up to me. Plus I had to drive to Los Angeles with my girlfriend and two other buddies. I mean, one sneeze could do me in.

Here’s a little summary about the band. Dir en grey is a Japanese rock band with an evolving visual and musical style that formed in 1997. In their early years, they would dress up in dark flamboyant costumes with abstract hair and make-up.

After we arrived on the top floor of the parking structure, we met up with our other friends. We headed for the elevator and I see two girls dressed up in black with leather boots and piercings. Yep, they’re here for the concert, and here I am with just my Dir en grey t-shirt. I looked at both of them and asked, “You excited for the concert?”

The cute one replied, “Yeah, I’m excited!”

“I know, Hanson is one of my favorite bands,” I commented back.

The cute one then goes on to tell me her story about how she met Hanson and confessed that she was a fan of theirs. Her friend lowered and nodded her head with disapproval.

Now we’re at the ticket booth to get the tickets. One of my friends didn’t get the tickets online, and we didn’t have enough cash, so we decided to go look for some scalpers. We found one and did our shady business away from security and he was like, “Here, get my number. Wherever you are, Arizona, California, Texas, give me a call and I’ll hook you up.” Wow, he’s like a traveling one-man Ticketmaster.

We go inside the packed theatre and I noticed the audience laughing. It was one of those phone texts that show up on screen. It was a good way to pass time before the show started. Here are some that I remember.

“Tall people, wanna grow shorter?”

“I see Weeaboos everywhere.”

“I just remembered…I ate beans for dinner.”

“People are supposed to smell after the concert, not before.”

“This is supposed to be a concert, not a costume party.”

Human Abstract was the opening act for tonight and all I have to say is this band is not that great to be opening for Dir en grey. I’m pretty sure they’re good musicians, but their songs were all the same and the singer’s voice was getting on my nerves. All I kept thinking was when were they going to stop so that Dir en grey can start. I even heard some boos from the crowd and “you suck” behind me.

When Dir en grey finally shows up, the whole crowd goes wild. The whole concert was a blast. My only complaint was the amount of people in front of me blocking my view of the performance. I blame it on the venue. They needed a higher stage, or smaller people. All the members were awesome and played non-stop without breaks until the encore.

I have to give props to Kyo for such an awesome performance. His vocal talent is amazing. He’s able to growl like a giant bear with intense rhythm and sing high beautiful melodies. In between songs, he would go into a strange dark chant with echoes representing his pain. This little Japanese dude is really into his performance, and I mean really into it where it sets him apart from other bands. He’s one with the stage with his eerie arm gestures and microphone wrapping around him like a snake.

After the show was done, the band would throw items for souvenirs to the fans such as bottled waters, guitar picks, and drumsticks. I almost had the drumsticks, but I didn’t want to get my clothes dirty by diving in.

Afterwards, one of my buddies wanted to get his CDs signed by the band, so we waited in line. The line was so long that we were just inside the front entrance. My girlfriend was just outside the entrance and security wouldn’t let her in, because she was already outside the Wiltern theatre. I talked to security, a big girl in her 20s, and she said that my girlfriend is already outside with a bitchy attitude.

“Come on, we’re so close to the door and she’s just right there, just let her pass,” I explained.

“Nope sorry, please talk to our manager if you have a problem,” she said.

“Well, where’s the manager?” I asked as she turned away and ignored me. This pissed me off a lot. So I tried opening the other side doors to let my girlfriend in, but the bitch sent her little scrawny henchman to keep the door shut. I got fed up with this and told my friends to just wait for me outside. As I walked outside, mad and ready to HULK-OUT at any moment, I pushed the little scrawny dude like he was a little hobbit. He got mad and tried to push me back but I was already outside. Now that I thought about it, I should have sneezed on him, since I was sick. Oh well.

To get rid of my anger, we all decided to go eat at Pink’s and relax. Overall, I had a good time at the event and I enjoyed every bit of it, including the chili-cheese hot dog that I ordered. Yum.

Check out the video below for Dir en grey’s intro at the Wiltern (The sound is inaudible because the performance is drowned out by the audience).

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