While I don't listen much sung songs in general (as I am more into original soundtracks, especially those of video games) these days, I actually listen a fair amount of songs from J-Rock band L'arc~en~Ciel (with it being the first artist I listen to), hence my blog's title is actually named after one of their songs.
L'arc~en~Ciel is now doing a world tour (20th L'Anniverary L'Arc~en~Ciel WORLD TOUR 2012) to celebrate the band's 20th anniversary as well as to promote its latest album "Butterfly". With the first stop of the world tour being Hong Kong, I am lucky enough to attend the concert.
Clockwise from top left:
hyde (vocalist), tetsuya (bassist), ken (guitarist), yukihiro (drummer)
The band also came to Hong Kong in 2008 for an Asia tour (TOUR 2008 L'7: Trans Asia via Paris), which was the first concert I have ever been back then. Both of the concerts took place in AsiaWorld-Expo.
L'arc~en~Ciel's music has a pretty wide variety of styles, but I am not well knowledged to describe the genres. In general they can go hard rock to pop to even slow ballade. In the recent years, they are more involved in composing songs for anime and other media, with very recent examples being GOOD LUCK MY WAY for Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos and CHASE for a live action movie adaptation of Wild 7.
As for the concert itself that night, they performed a total of 19 songs, and 4 of them are from the latest album Butterfly which was released last month. While I don't listen to their songs because of their involvement in anime theme songs, they do perform quite a few that do appear in anime (especially towards the end of the concert), such as Driver's High (Great Teacher Onizuka 1st opening), READY STEADY GO (Fullmetal Alchemist 2nd opening), the Fourth Avenue Café (Rurouni Kenshin 4th ending), Link (Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa opening), and Niji (Rurouni Kenshin movie opening).
Wished the sound effects from the audio equipments were better, but overall it was good. There was a slight hiccup at the song HONEY (possibly due to equipment-related problem) and it had to be restarted, but this doesn't hamper the fans' mood. It's funny listening to them speaking Cantonese to the fans, with the exception of drummer yukihiro, who tends to be quite shy as far as I know.
It's been a pleasure getting to see and listen to L'arc~en~Ciel in person. Looking back I really should have bought some merchandise such as a t-shirt as a memorandum of some sort (though my sister did manage to buy some for herself). I really do hope that they will get to come again in the future!
Pictures from natalie
I like L'arc~en~Ciel, they are one of the awesome group.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a year or so since my last concert which was of old 70 - 80's rock bands. It was cool watching some of them, but due to age, most of the original artist were gone.
ReplyDeleteI have been listing to more OST's than anything now a days anyway
It's amazing how successful L'arc~en~Ciel is, they were popular when I started watching anime and they're still doing well for themselves. It's too bad they never visit my part of the world :(
ReplyDeleteJudging from your pictures it appears that JPOP/JROCK are popular in HK. Contrary to the Philippines most if not many have transitioned to KPOP. I guess the anime community in HK is more developed compared to my country.
ReplyDeleteThey're coming to london soon as well. I saw advertisements for their concert at the O2 but I just simply don't know enough of their discograpy to take the plunge.
ReplyDeletethey will also come to Indonesia very soon. The ticket has already been sold out and I'm one of those unlucky one who didn't manage to get one :(
ReplyDelete@ Henry:
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to their music for a little more than 12 years. I'm glad to see that they're still performing great after all these years!
@ bluedrakon:
Everything goes away with time, which is a sad truth.
I too mainly listen to video game music these days, even though I don't do much gaming. It's a little more niche compared to other music genre, but one I can definitely enjoy no matter how old they are!
@ Nopy:
It's amazing to see how they are still keeping up well all these years. Looking back I'm surprised how many songs that are actually tied into anime as well, which dates way back to mid-90s! A pity that they don't come over to Canada, but let's hope that they will in the future!
@ Anime Reviews:
Hong Kong has been hit by K-Pop as well. I remember there was a period where I heard Wonder Girls' Nobody in all sorts of places for several weeks that even my father can hum the song in his head (that is no joke).
On the other hand, I do think that Hong Kong does have a pretty large anime community, and one that has been around for a long time together with influence of manga and tokusatsu. A big craze or new wave won't completely topple the foundation that easily (IMHO).
@ gundamjehutykai:
I heard that last time they went to Paris quite a few people actually crossed the Dover Strait from the UK to watch them in person. Remember the guy we met in London last time? He knows a few songs too but he couldn't find other friends to go to the concert as they don't know the band or their songs.
@ h4mster:
The tickets do get sold out fast! I had to get through a lot of troubles to get mine. Hope you'll get another chance some day!