There’s only certain groups that have made it big and stay together long enough to have a 20th Anniversary, and you can count L’Arc en Ciel as one of them. The band had their 20th Anniversary concert earlier this year on May 28–29, 2011 at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo. Proceeds from that concert went to assisting with the Tohoku Earthquake.
Now the DVD has been released, and to celebrate L’Arc en Ciel’s accomplishments, a one night movie screening event presented by Live Viewing Japan happened in selected US cities. I am happy to say that New York City was one of them. Not sure how did other cities fared, in terms of attendance, but in NYC it was a small audience. Tickets were $20, but for about two-ish hours.. it was a nice event to sit and just be blasted with surround sound and behold the energy/excitement that was Laraku’s 20th Anniversary concert. Watching this concert gave me an idea just what would it be like next year for their World Tour 2012.
New York City is also their only U.S. city on their tour, and with news of their pre-sale tickets flying. Can I say that it would be nuts to just go for the tickets. I can only imagine how fast it would be selling, since the day they announce for NYC…. you get the picture.
Of course at this one night movie event, the entire Laraku concert wasn’t shown since it would run beyond the two-ish hour limit, but it was fantastic to see a stadium rock concert at its finest. I have never had the opportunity to go to such an event as a stadium packed concert, and you really can’t see the stage at all if you were in the audience, but the loyalty of fans for rock groups is note worthy.
The weather in NYC was pretty drab, since it was raining after a several days stint of really warm record hitting November weather. It matched the concert’s two day rain pour completely though, since L’Arc en Ciel still played even when it was bone soaking wet. The rain as my friend mentioned may have helped the band, since it was *ahem* wet in the rain “hair flinging” and “wet shirt” rock playing. (Did I mention that I went with fujoshi friends who literally pepper my ears with fun comments and vice versa!) Other than throwing the normal guitar picks, Hyde threw a harmonica, and the band also threw bananas at the crowd.. so you can imagine what the 18+ mind thought.
Ahahaha.. before I go off on a tangent, I am closing my post.