Bunshinsaba
先輩
- 27 Dec 2007
- 137
- 2
DIO
Live at Club AREA in Takadanobaba, Tokyo
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Live at Club AREA in Takadanobaba, Tokyo
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Few would argue that Red List Entertainment hasn't done a supreme job of putting DIO on the visual kei map. The band's music is exceptional for the indies VK scene and their CD releases (hardcover digipacks with a CD and a DVD with pro-shot PVs and more) rival most major releases. And then there is the band's tour exposure; from Japan all the way to successful concert gigs in Europe. With so much hype and glory in play, Red List Entertainment, and in fact DIO themselves, must be scratching their heads in wonder and disbelief after the band's second one-man live in Tokyo on Wednesday, 14 May at club AREA in Takadanobaba.
Dio hit the stage at a fashionably late 15 minutes past the scheduled 7:00 pm start and peppered their opening metal assault with nearly every track off their recent mini album. As expected, the band looked great in terms of hair and make-up, but their heavily used outfits are beginning to show battle scars. Mikaru's top has a huge rip to the right of his stomach where the vinyl has torn away from the spandex.
In the beginning, the entire band showed some initial rock strut moxy and enthusiasm, but that quickly died down by the third song, at which point they settled into their stage positions all too comfortably and rode out the rest of the live with their boots cemented to the stage sans much physical display. In fact, it took until the last song for Ivy, Erina and Kei to even switch sides of the stage and to come to life. Ehghad! Of course, that didn't include vocalist Mikaru, who by his constant lurching, growling, creature-esque stage portrayl all but cemented his role as the "star attraction" of this quintet.
Despite the unphysical nature of the band, the delivery of their strings and vocals was top-drawer; CD quality and few would dispute that. But I thought it would raise the adrenaline of the fans (girls) more than it did. When the boys ripped into God Foresaken, the girls stood there as if they were watching a slide show on the eating habits of the Canadian beaver. This is not to say the J-girls fans didn't go crazy at certain times, they did, especially during the encore. But before that they weren't exactly reaching for their little hand towels to wipe away streams of sweat. But then again, there was a lot of breathing room around; and that was not a good thing.
Dio's first one man last year was at the O-West in Shibuya; a live venue with a capacity bigger than AREA by 200 people or more. So right from the start, the venue for Dio's second Tokyo one-man was a step down in size. This maybe would not have been so bad had DIO sold out club AREA; but they didn't. AREA holds about 550 - 600 people packed, and for last night's one-man nearly 1/3 of the club was roped off for some reason - it couldn't have just been for their lone cameraman who was there to shoot the concert.
That left two-thirds of the club free, and even then it wasn't soldout. In fact, crowded is not even a word I would use to described the pit in front of the stage, where girls leaning on the front rails never even got close enough to rub elbows. And even when the girls began head banging, or bopping up and down and migrating from side to side in the pit, it wasn't hard to get out of their way. I mean sure, there were a lot of people in the pit, but I've been to AREA for one-mans where it's been sardine city.
Now, of course I didn't count the tickets, but if there were more than 280 people in that club, I'd be amazed.
So the big question remains... why isn't DIO catching on in Tokyo? Or worse yet, why are they loosing fans? 280 people for a one-man? If Red List Entertainment isn't worried - they damn well had better be. And after the show, I am sure the fans went red-faced with embarrassment when they got home and warmed up their DVD players.
For the concert, fans got a 27 minute DVD-R featuring new interviews, PV footage and outtakes, and best of all, some great French footage from NoLife (a TV program?) that showed French interviews (subbed in Francais!) and great live concert footage from DIO's tour in France. And I gotta tell ya... those French venues looked big, the crowds rocked, and I even saw stage diving! Wednesday's one-man in Tokyo was a bloody embarrassment compared to the reception that DIO had in France. I am not sure what direction this band can take to raise the pulse of J-VK fans, but I do have one piece of advice for Mikaru and the boys... it's not too late to start learning French!
