HYDE Acoustic Concert Birthday Live KUROMISA in Tokyo Live Report

HYDE Acoustic Concert Birthday Live KUROMISA in Tokyo 2019.01.24

Entering the concert hall felt like entering a cathedral of the Church of Satan. The arena was lined with red chairs facing a beautifully decorate stage with candles and heavy black curtains. Hanging above is an elaborate picture frame with Hyde’s logo in bright red. Eery church choir music plays in the background as beautifully dressed fans walk in and find their seats. The concert starts at exactly 19:06 (6:66) and Unexpected plays in the background as the orchestra takes their seats. Hyde comes in and sits on a tall stool. They officially start the concert with Jesus Christ. Very fitting considering the aesthetics of the venue.

The audience sits quietly and waits for the song to end before clapping gently. The atmosphere in the venue is of revered respect and awe. 

Every three songs or so, HYDE stopped and talked to the audience, occasionally talking about the meaning of the songs, how much he likes or dislikes certain ones as well as the general feeling of having these kinds of all seated “acoustic” concerts (personally I find it hard to call them acoustic as there were an electric guitar and bass).

Performing evergreen and SHALLOW SLEEP back to back was probably too overwhelmingly beautiful for most of the audience as the cold sniffles quickly turned into crying sniffles. Lots of tissues and handkerchiefs could be seen. 

While every song performed that night was absolutely beautiful, certain songs caught more of my attention. Jojoushi and LORELEY were definite stand outs with HYDE busting out the saxophone for the latter. He did it so well one could almost forget how silly it is to have a song start with a beautiful saxophone solo only to have the first lyrics being “And so I play my guitar, I always play my guitar”. Nevertheless, he played the sax beautifully and managed to go back and forth between playing the instrument and singing. 

About halfway through the concert, a beautiful cake was brought to the stage and everyone sang Happy Birthday. The cake was decorated with VAMPS’ Chupacabra mascot. It was very cute and HYDE decided the best way to eat the cake was to violently stab the poor creature in the crotch and eat that part. It was quite a sight. However, I was personally more shocked when he introduced the song flower by saying that he personally didn’t like the song until recently. Flower is one of my personal favourites so I felt somewhat hurt. Having said that, he did say he likes it now AND he performed it flawlessly so I couldn’t stay angry for too long.

On the opposite of that, before performing HONEY, he mentioned how much he loved that song from the beginning. That would explain why they always sing it. The acoustic version of the song though sounds like a Bosa Nova cover and was not my favourite of the night.

Probably the biggest surprise of the evening for me was after XXX when the screens showed a stormy ocean. My mind immediately went to THE CAPE OF STORM which would have been very dramatic yet fitting, but then the iconic drum beat for Forbidden Lover came on and my mouth dropped. It was perfect and beautiful and a complete surprise. I have never heard that song live before and it was just stunning.

Emotions ran high when HYDE performed MEMORIES and started crying. It’s not every day that you see that man break down and cry (unless you went to the concert the night before as well where the same thing happened…). 

He ended the concert with Hoshizora which was so stunning, so perfect, so immaculate that I left the venue at a loss of words and existential crisis. What do I do with my life now that this concert is over? What is there left to live for? That’s quite the impact to leave on someone.

I have seen HYDE in concert several times in 2018. He is always a great performer and his voice is always good, but this show was head and shoulders above the rest. The concert had such a great mix of solo, L’Arc~en~Ciel and VAMPS songs. The arrangements of the songs were unique. The orchestra, piano and guitar blended so beautifully. The addition of backup singers! it really felt like a privilege to be there.

I hope he will continue to have these yearly concerts and I hope to be there every time.

Setlist:

00 Unexpected
01 JESUS CHRIST 
02 A DROP OF COLOUR 
03 evergreen 
04 SHALLOW SLEEP 
05 DEPARTURES (Globe cover) 
06 ZIPANG 
07 叙情詩 (Jojoushi) 
08 LORELEY 
09  In the Air 
10 flower  11 Red Swan  12 VAMPIRE’S LOVE  13 HONEY  14 XXX  15 Forbidden Lover  16 永遠 (Eien)  17 MEMORIES  18 星空 (Hoshizora)